My flight to Shanghai
was very pleasant. I flew with China Southern Airlines from Incheon Airport to
Pudong Airport and it cost only about 400 US dollars including tax. It was a
student ticket so I got to check three 25kg bags. Most wonderfully, I had three
seats to myself because the plane was half empty. They also provided a good
lunch even though the flight was only for two hours. I would definitely say it
was the best flight experience in my life.
Pudong International
Airport was surprisingly very big and very clean. At the airport, I ran into a
Korean girl who was going near Fudan University. We decided to take a taxi
together and got in the line where several taxies were lined up to pick
customers up. I was glad she spoke good Chinese and knew exactly where to find
a taxi, because apparently some bad taxi drivers wait outside the airport for
foreign customers and rip them off.
Tip 1: If you ever
take a taxi from Pudong to Fudan University, make sure it’s a legit one with a
machine that calculates your cost by traveling distance and time. The ride should cost you about 200RMB
and you don’t need to tip the driver. To get to the foreign student dormitory,
tell the driver “Fudan Daxue, Wudonglu Wuchuanlu,” or have the address written
in Chinese (复旦大学、武东路、武川路).
Tip 2: Don’t panic if
you can’t understand a word Chinese people are saying even though you have
studied Chinese at USC for some time. Just expect that not many taxi drivers can
speak English and they usually won’t talk slowly for you. Same goes for the
people working at the front desk downstairs at the main dorm. It’s stressful at
first, but you’ll learn the language more quickly.
I arrived safely at
the main dorm building where I would be staying at for the semester. I paid
200RMB for deposit and 100RMB for electricity at the front desk, although I had
already paid 800RMB online for dormitory deposit when I was booking my room
before I got to China. Then I got my room card and my electricity card. If you
live in the main building, you don’t need to pay for water but you do need to
pay for electricity separately using the prepaid card and keep reloading it
when the money runs out.
Exchange students
needed to go through some processes of registering, paying the dorm fee in
full, buying insurance, and changing your visa status if needed. They were all
done on the first floor of the main dorm building. Although USC made me pay for
study abroad insurance, Fudan had its own policy for insurance, so I had to pay
another 300RMB for the one it required.
Tip 3: When choosing
your room, always try to pick one facing the south(南向) because its much warmer and quieter than a north facing one. Some people
have told me that choosing an upper floor is a good idea because there’s less
pollution. I chose the 5th floor just because I didn’t want to be in
the elevator for too long.
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| My room before I put the two beds together because my roommate never arrived. (Excuse the mess. I was still moving in.) |
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| The rest of my room. There is a bathroom facing the closet. |
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| The view from my room. Every room has a balcony. |
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| The view of the city from an upper floor in the main dorm. |
After moving in, I went downstairs to the shop on the first floor to get internet connection and wireless router. The shop was like a convenient store with almost all things necessary for living at the dorm. There I paid 80RMB (per month) for the faster internet and bought an ethernet cord and a wireless router. You can ask them to set the router up for you if you can’t do it yourself, but the Chinese instruction manual is pretty easy to follow.
Tip 4: Don’t throw away the receipt that they give you for the internet connection. When you tear the side and see the second page, it has the password for internet on it.
Next step was getting
a prepaid SIM card for my phone. Most smartphones work with Chinese SIM cards,
which are easy to buy on streets. You first need to contact your service provider
at home to unlock the phone for international use. The SIM card sellers can try
to rip you off too, so be aware. I’m not sure how much I paid for mine, but I
think the cheapest ones start from 50RMB. The plan I got was one with 500MB 3G
a month, which cost 36RMB per month, plus .15RMB every minute for calling within
Shanghai and .1RMB for every text message. They would all be taken out from my
100RMB deposit on my prepaid SIM card, which I will have to reload when it runs
out of money.
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| The package of the SIM card I bought |
Tip 5: If your phone
wouldn’t send texts when you put in the Chinese SIM card, try logging on their
website and registering. I had to get a help from someone who can understand
Chinese for this one.
Tip 6: If your phone
doesn’t connect to 3G, try setting your APN. (I only know the details for
Android phones)
Go to Settings ->
System -> Wireless & Networks -> Mobile Networks -> Access Point
Names.Press the menu button then press “New APN.”
Use one of the
following that works for your phone.
1)
Name: Type
anything you want
APN:
uninet
Save
2)
Name: Type
anything you want
APN:
cmnet
Save
3)
Name: Type
anything you want
APN:
cmnet (or cmwap)
MMSC:
mmsc.monternet.com
MMS
Proxy: 10.0.0.172
Save
4)
Name: Type
anything you want
APN:
3gnet
MCC:
460
MNC:
01
Save
I hope my stories and
tips helped getting the basic things set up for life in China. One more thing,
try to arrive in Shanghai a few days before school starts to give yourself some
time to figure things out. Knowing that you have enough time to solve your
problems and get things set up really helps you not to freak out or make bad
decisions such as buying low quality high price goods.
