Visiting or living in another country is always a difficult experience. From greetings to where to put the toilet paper (or even where to get the toilet paper), food shopping to apartment hunting there’s a wealth of information that we’d like to know NOW.

Now there’s a way. Send us an email with your question and if we choose your question our resident experts will answer it for you. Drop us a line at cs@eChinacities.com. Don’t worry, help is on the way.

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Questions:

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11. My friend loves ‘yu xiang rou si’ which means fish flavored meat strips right? Is it actually made with fish?
12. What requirements must you meet to be a taxi driver in China?
13. When you buy a Beijing transit card for 100 kuai why does it only have 80 yuan on it?
14. When is Spring Festival?
15. I heard you can’t buy or use wi-fi phones in China, is that true?

My friend loves ‘yu xiang rou si’ which means fish flavored meat strips right? Is it actually made with fish?

This answer comes from eChincities powerhouse and secret weapon Lili: “鱼香Yuxiang” is a kind of flavor in Sichuan Cuisine, So “鱼香肉丝” is actually “鱼香味肉丝” which means “肉丝”of “鱼香” flavor. “鱼香” flavor in “鱼香肉丝” comes from “鱼香” sauce which is made of several seasonings including pickled pepper 泡辣椒, Sichuan salt川盐, soy sauce 酱油, sugar白糖, chopped ginger姜末, chopped garlic蒜末and scallion 葱. People called it “鱼香” because the flavor originated from a distinctive method of cooking fish in Sichuan folk before. So in fact “鱼香肉丝” has nothing to do with fish.

What requirements must you meet to be a taxi driver in China?

Once again Lili comes to the rescue:
Some basic conditions for being a taxi driver:
Education: at least middle school
Age: under 60
Must be of good health
Must have held a drivers license for at least three years
Besides a drivers license taxi drivers must obtain business certificates, vehicle operating permits, and a driver service qualification. To get the three credentials, people can take training classes in an authorized training school and of course, they need to pass the exams.

When you buy a Beijing transit card for 100 kuai why does it only have 80 yuan on it?

The 20 kuai is a deposit on the card. When you leave Beijing or quite the public transit system you can return the card and get your 20 kuai back, at least in theory. Every time you recharge after that first payment the full amount goes on the card. To get a card in the first place you’ll need at least 40 yuan. In addition to the 20 deposit you must start with at least 20 kuai.

When is Spring Festival?

Spring Festival, or Chun Jie, or Chinese New Year will start this year on the 26th of January. It is different every year because it follows a unique lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one. There will be more on the site about this but you can expect things to be closed for a couple of days – more and more stores are opening back up a day or two after but just in case you might want to stock up. The holiday lasts 10 or so days but most things reopen after 3 or 4.

I heard you can’t buy or use wi-fi phones in China, is that true?

It’s half true. For reasons no one seems 100% sure on – apparently it has something to do with somehow protecting China Mobile – wi-fi phones are not legal for sale or use on the mainland. However any phone with wi-fi capabilities works just fine anywhere there’s wi-fi. I don’t think anyone has ever arrested for using wi-fi so I think you’re safe.

It’s completely true you can’t legally buy a phone with wi-fi on the mainland. I use a Dopod S1 which is a mainland version of the HTC Touch – meaning it’s a HTC Touch without the wireless. Many people are buying iPhones from Hong Kong (which you can do on the mainland) because they have wi-fi and Hong Kong does not allow for phones to be locked to a carrier – meaning you can buy a wi-fi that’s perfectly legal and can be updated legally without paying for an AT&T service plan.

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