Job Discussion Forums

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

Beijing is a polluted dump anyway with extreme xenophobia anyway. Groups of Chinese actively hunting late night foreigners especially in parts of Beijing known to be popular with expats. Can't be much worse can it?

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

I remember they were trying to sell some apartments in wudaokou for high prices, all the expats were thinking HOW much, for days and days of just a view of grey haze......worse, I know one guy who has nothing going for him in the UK, who is in a really shitty area of Beijing, because he prefers it over Hong Kong or going back home. The mind boggles!!!

twowheel · Joined: 03 Jul 2015 Posts: 753

LarssonCrew,

Condolences on the Chinese visa not working out. May it all work out for you in Vietnam, the land of milk and honey and roses where everything will be hunky-dory and everyone, both Vietnamese and foreign together, holds hands and sings and lives happily ever...a real Xanadu! You will have no problems there and live a blissfully charmed life for ever and ever!

twowheel

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

Re: teaching online, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the power cuts in VN. Although, seemingly less frequent than in the past, they still sometimes occur.

It will be difficult to teach online with no electricity.

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

The power cuts are scheduled. Just find the website where theyre listed, look up your area, and plan to be at a cafe in another area if they willl effect your working time.

The undersea cable ruptures are a bigger problem in my mind. They can slow the Internet to a crawl for weeks.

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

True on the cable and power cuts. The power cuts are far less an issue than they used to be but seem to impact certain districts far more than others...can't imagine how this is decided.

If you live in a poorer [cheaper] district without many VIPs you will have more outages. These used to last for several days in the first house we had [8 years ago so maybe better now]. Water gets cut off [and with no power you can't pump it to your rooftop tank so it amounts to the same].

We have a generator for back up but only use it a few times a year. We don't get many power cuts in this area and they are usually quite short.

The cable is a major issue cos when it goes you cannot use skype or any other high bandwidth programme. Sometimes you can't even get your emails!

They are supposed to be laying a new back up cable - but not sure when it will be in service.

I've contemplated online teaching but for now I think I am better as I am. Maybe in the future.

LarssonCrew · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 1308

What about in the bigger cities?

Teaching online pays well and I really enjoy the convenience. Although I will add some 'real' hours teaching to get outside.

I would have thought the three biggest cities wouldn't have electricity cuts or internet cuts so much. If the cable goes does that mean the 3G goes too?

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

I honestly think the Internet is stable enough in Vietnam to run a business online. The power-cuts are things that just happen from time to time. But like I said, they're easy to get around. It's not like it's a city-wide power outage. It's just for certain districts for a few hours. Lately, in my city and district they've been occurring less that once a month. And usually during times when I'm not using the net.

The undersea cable is something which would effect every country in SE Asia. When it goes, internet is slooooooowwwwwww. It's a bit of an embarrassment for Vietnam, so they're doing a lot more to be on top of it than they have in the past. No breaks yet this year, and they're in the process of installing some back-ups.

But compared to the Philippines, Vietnam's internet is blazing fast.

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

I recall when some undersea cable between China and Taiwan, or Taiwan and the US was damaged, it seemed to be a major repair, and MSN wouldn't work for ages. Wot in this age of smartphones and smartwatchs we still rely on bulky cables under the sea? In rural spain where my parents live, donkeys can outnumber people in some parts and there are plenty of bulls that need fighting....and there is still the option of 100mbps fibre, or wimax, which is slower....but no phone line needed....and really with skype phones and whatsapp calling, who needs a phone line these days? I would have though Vietnam would have some big futuristic socialist satellite in the sky beaming down lightning fast internet to all?

skarper · Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 477

Now I know you're just taking the mickey Spelunker...

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

Deadly serious.

Even the rainy old UK, with no third runway, and HS2 seeming very optimistic to me at least, has 200mbps fibre with Virgin. Anyway, wimax is good as a last mile solution.

ExpatLuke · Joined: 11 Feb 2012 Posts: 744

All the Internet in the world is connected by cables.... They're connected to servers placed all over the world. Satellites and telephone lines? What?

Spelunker · Joined: 03 Nov 2013 Posts: 392

Because a lot of Africa does not use land lines, Zuckerberg of facebook fame is planning to deliver the internet via satellite:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/05/technology/facebook-africa-satellites/

Granted it might well depend on the cables on earth....but tis still pretty ambitious.