China- what should I be doing differently?

Buddy, sounds like you got culture shock and the fact that you are checking out throntree forums for advice is a bit baffling as well-why are not you connected on expat forums like expat.com?

Look man, the metro is crowded but that is China. Taxi's are a bugger unless you know where you are going. If you are going to China and you have been here 20 times already...you should have learned SOME Chinese buddy. Its like anywhere in the world, fit in or f... off :p Not trying to be harsh but at some point you need to realize you need to change it up if you are not happy.

Crowds suck-its China
Things don't work-its China
bro-its life, keep your chin up, laugh at the setbacks and just be happy to be on earth and capable of making this awesome routine trip.

Life is good bud.

use the Metro, its the way to go, and it can be faster.

Have hotel write address of where you want to go. Always have a card of the hotel to show taxi where you are staying.

I was just in Beijing and never had issue getting a taxi, almost all the popular plaza and buildings have a drop off and pick up area anyway to control the mayhem.

I lived in China, both Shanghai and Beijing, and traveled all over, never learned a lick of Mandarin.

Hang in there...and remember, most younger college age people speak english. Its not easy all the time, but doable.

Your App problems are Odd - I've just had 3 friends who signed up to MoBike using foreign cards and it was really simple What is it telling you the problem is?

See, this is useful info.

I had done some research and the only info I could find is that it's not possible to use the bikes without a Chinese bank card.

In spit of that I tried the Ofo app myself because Ofo is present in the US as well so I thought they would think internationally... even though the app took a ¥299 deposit from my card, it kept on telling me the service was down.

But thanks to your suggestion I went ahead and downloaded Mobike as well... and hey presto! I did my first bike ride tonight!

Thanks so much for that tip!

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