Memoirs of Beijing

Starbucks opened its first door in mainland China in January 1999.  Since then, the company has been expanding aggressively in different tier 1 and 2 cities across China.  Ten years after their opening, they followed their US branches’ bandwagon and introduced Starbucks cards to their loyal customers.

Starbucks card introduced in China are different from other countries.  They can’t be given as gift cards as they don’t hold any value.  Cards are purchased and comes with a matching sleeve.

Here’s a look of the different cards which were issued and how it evolved since they were introduced:

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In July 1, 2011, the Mainland Chinese government introduced a new Social Insurance Law which includes participation of all foreigners working in China.  For Beijing employees, this law has been implemented since October 15, 2011 and all payments are made retroactively.

The Chinese social insurance system is consists of five insurance payment:  retirement, medical, work-related injury, unemployment and maternity.  Both employees and employers must pay the contributions.  The employers will deduct the employees share from their salary and will pay both contributions to the local bureau.

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Living in Beijing for more than 5 years, I’ve heard and lived through my fair share of new changes implemented by the municipal and national government and establishments.  Some are acceptable and fair while some are stupid and ridiculous.

Here are some new rules or laws implemented in China which I’ll live it up to you to interpret if it’s stupid or good:

-  Internet Security  -

To individuals who like to use free wi-fi in public places, you might as well just leave your gadgets at home as the government ordered your friendly places to install an expensive software to monitor internet usage.  This monitoring software costs RMB 20,000 and the establishments has to foot the bill.  Those who refuse and continues to offer this service will be fined RMB 5,000.

I don’t mind them monitoring our internet usage but if they want to install a software, they should offer it for free.  Moreover, they should at least upgrade their mobile network service as even though it’s supposed to be 3G, the only thing I’m picking up from China Mobile is 2G.  Last week, our engineering team was saying that the telecommunications bureau would like to conduct a survey in our building if the people would like to upgrade from 2G to 4G.  I’m just like, they can’t even make their 3G network run smoothly, now they’re upgrading to 4G?  Geez!  Talk about priorities. 

Also, when will they bring back the sites which they’ve blocked because they want to protect children from pornographic and violent web content?  They have a Chinese version of twitter, youtube and Facebook which practically offers the same thing.  Maybe I should pursue my Chinese studies further to use those sites.

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Circulars are being sent out in the past couple of days to company’s HR as the amendment to China’s individual income tax law was released and will take into effect on 1 September 2011.  Does that mean that I will be paying more taxes?  I hope not.

Key Changes

The key changes for individuals on the IIT law are as follows:

• The monthly standard deduction for Chinese individuals’ income from salaries and wages will increase from RMB 2,000 to RMB 3,500.  Monthly standard deduction for expatriates remains at RMB 4,800.
• Income tax rates applicable to individuals will change from the nine bracket progressive rates to seven bracket progressive rates.  They removed the 15% and 40% rates.

New Tax Bracket

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To all my female readers, Happy International Women’s Day!  If you’re working in China, you get half-day off.  Go out and shop as there are lots of sales for women shoppers.

Not only is it women’s day today but also Starbucks’ 40th birthday.  Starbucks @ 40 meant a different logo for the company.  They removed the words “Starbucks Coffee” from the logo and featured prominently the Siren. 

Starbucks Coffee Blend

To celebrate it’s 40 years in the business, Starbucks released their Tribute coffee.  The coffee is a blend of four Starbucks’ highest quality coffee beans – Aged Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Sun dried Ethiopia and Colombia. 

It has a bold flavor with spicy and full bodied, with berry and dark cherry taste.  In Beijing, they offered free taste of this coffee from 10am to 2pm today.  I missed it but would probably ask for a free taste in the future. 

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November 11 is dubbed as Singles Day in China.  I’ve been here in China for 6 years but I’ve never experienced this day before or maybe I’m not just aware of it.  My colleague received a Chinese message from the telecom company advertising all the events that’s connected to this day.

Apparently they all moved the events in the weekend as nobody usually goes out in the cold and in the middle of the week.  Well.. being single is good and bad.  Good in the sense that you don’t have to answer to anyone except yourself and you can do whatever you want within reason.  Bad in the sense that there are times wherein you feel lonely.

So, what’s significant with Singles Day?  I don’t really know.  I just know it’s one of the numerous working holidays that China has.    

Happy Singles Day everyone!  Oh yeah!  Happy Veteran’s Day as well in the US.

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My sisters and mom just left from their vacation two weeks ago and life is back to normal.  Hahahaha!  If you want my sister’s account of her travels in the city, check her commentary on her blog site.  As for myself, I did all that I can do in Beijing on my first year here with Marco.

So.. before we take into consideration as to how many days.. we must consider what kind of trip would you like to have.   Do you want an amazing race adventure or a light and easy trip?   When you’ve decided if you want to kill or relax yourself, decide how many days would you like to stay in the city.  3, 4 or 5 days?

In any case, here’s a 3 day itinerary for you.  When I say 3 days, that’s 3 whole days so make the necessary adjustments.

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Late October last year, I posted a dummies guide to banking in China.  To start the Chinese New Year, I’m posting part 2 on my dummies guide.  Of the banks in China, I’ve banked with Bank of China, Bank of Communications, ICBC, China Construction Bank and China Postal Bank.  Among the services that these banks offered, I’ve only used online banking, credit card, savings account, time deposit account, salary account and bills payment.

Between October and the present, here are some stuff I missed in my previous note:

• ICBC can only provide either a passbook or an ATM account.  Bank of China on the other hand can provide you both passbook and ATM when you open an account.
• You can use your ATM card to withdraw in other countries as long as the ATM machine has the Unionpay logo.  Make sure it’s Unionpay as it also look similar to the JCB logo.  Maximum withdrawal per day is RMB 5,000 worth of whatever currency you’re in and RMB 15 for each withdrawal.  RMB 4 will be charged for balance inquiry.  This is a cheaper alternative than Western Union or Moneygram.          Read the rest of this entry »

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Starbucks lovers are in for a treat as Starbucks China turns 10.  To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Starbucks rolled out their 10th anniversary tumbler, mugs and gift box.  Also, Starbucks lovers in Beijing and Tianjin will get 20% off this Friday, January 16 and Saturday, January 17 on their merchandise excluding hand crafted beverages, coffee beans and coffee passports.

So that means.. the Starbucks tumbler group lovers on multiply, should tell me to buy your faves this weekend to get 20% off.   Hahahaha!  Hey!  Any discount is always welcome!  Grab your favorite merchandise while it last!

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Banking in China is a daunting and painful process for foreigners. In this post, I will be writing 5 years worth of experience in doing business with the local banks. The top 4 banks in China who also has branches in the hinterlands are Bank of China (BOC), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and China Construction Bank (CCB). There are other banks which are branching out to more provinces such as Bank of Communication, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Bank, CITIC Bank and China Post Savings Bank.

Here are some tips and trivia about banks in China:

• Most Chinese Banks are open 7 days a week from 9am to 5pm. Banks in office buildings are usually closed on the weekends.
• Queues are sometimes short but are usually long. Upon entering the bank, make a beeline right away at the number issuer machine. If they call your number and you aren’t there, you will need to take another number.      Read the rest of this entry »

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