Category: Life Tips

Cost of eating out via food ordering apps

Post author By stlplace
Post date September 25, 2025
No Comments on Cost of eating out via food ordering apps

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Came across this article “The insane amount of money people are spending on McDonald’s, according to new study” from NY Post yesterday. Some thoughts:

I have a friend who is by no means rich, but I saw the friend orders food delivery often. For me personally I usually order the store app and pick up food myself, and occasionally I order via Uber Eats or Grub Hub (also self-pickup). My Amex Gold card has some benefits for both apps: $10 cash back for each app each month, note the card has an annual fee that kind pays itself. For Uber Eats I bought discounted gift card at Costco. I just noticed today that Grub Hub price is slightly cheaper than Uber Eats, which the article also confirmed.

One thing though: when scrape the Uber Eats physical gift card, always do it via a coin, and do it gently. Don’t make the mistake I made on the bottom card: initially I though I can peel and see the code. I was wrong and almost lost $50 due to my stupid mistake 🙂

My uber gift cards: already redeemed. Make sure you don’t make mistakes that I made on the bottom gift card

I didn’t realized I am privileged

I just realized that when I made comments above, I didn’t realize that I am somewhat “privileged” in terms of I have the flexibility of working from home and can pick up food myself if/when needed. Not every job offers this kind of flexibility. But at the same time though, I still need to make up the lost time in the evenings or weekends when it’s applicable. Also, I actually helped that particular friend quite a bit whenever I was called and when I can.

Re: the “when I can” part, more recently I also realized that I need to make sure that I take care of myself: including my family and my work first. This is a bit touchy topic and I will talk more about it when it’s the time.

Quitting alcohol

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I think it’s time. Right now I am only drinking the non-alcoholic beer. I may quit that too. I never tried non-alcoholic wine, but may taste it once later on.

I think my main motivation factor is better sleep, as I talked a bit here. But there are other concerns: mainly around driving as I got my Uber duty for my kids. Also eating, which is related to sleep too.

It looks like I tried quitting about 3 years ago. I have since quit whiskey. Btw, I never drunk whiskey before I watch the Netflix show the Ranch.

Note in last 20 years or so, I don’t recall I ever got drunk once. But I do recall once, more than 20 years ago, I did had too much alcohol at my home, probably my house warming party or something, and I ended up calling up other friends and talked too much… 🙂

Note DUI (driving under influence) is a big problem in the USA. And it’s something one should never do. Because I have Uber duty (mentioned above), I think quitting drinking completely also removes one factor when I am on the duty.

Somewhat related to this: I recall a few years ago, when our older daughter was with the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, the artistic director who is a bit older than me, told the parents of the Concert Choir kids, that we write down her cell phone number and give the number to our kids. The reason is she cares deeply about the kids, and she want the kids to know, they can text or call her anytime, even when the kids are drunk or something. I think I am at this stage of my life too, if any of my family members or friends truly needs urgent help, I can be there.

When I was much younger, note I grew up in China and there was no legal drinking age. I remember a few incidents such as this one (in Chinese), I drunk some wine trying to help me fall into asleep – the results was not very good, I think. Before I was 10, I recall two incidents in which I drunk too much alcohol, and I just went to bed and slept. The other notable drinking time was around time I graduated from college.

I will update this post as time goes. Action is louder than words.

(Update 09-25-2025) I came across this tweet (a very short video) about addiction, and I found it’s helpful. There is a longer both English and Chinese versions here. The talk is actually a Ted Talk – Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari | TED (YT link here).

If I can extrapolate a bit, I think a lot of times we put too many “artificial” (self-made) constraints around us and thus limiting us to achieve our full potential. I was thinking I did this to myself many times in my life, and probably many friends suffered from similar syndrome too.

Tags alcohol

401k and Personal Finance advice and tips Life Life Tips Software development

When should I retire

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The best time is now; the second-best time is tomorrow. –anonymous

After 25 years career I finally got an office with windows

Career

Per my age and typical stereotype, I think I am expected to wind down my career in the software field now (my LinkedIn profile here). I understand career is more than a LinkedIn profile or a resume, but here in the USA IT IS one of those things that MATTER, in addition to title, experience and compensation history. Useless or but fun fact: I started my LinkedIn profile in 2008, about 17 years ago.

US companies are mostly snobs, in my not too humble opinions. I mean CEOs or the higher ups, not the average Jane and Joe. Doesn’t matter whatever they say publicly – their mission is making money for the owners, not for employees. This is quite obvious from the recent high-profile layoffs such as Amazon laying off 14,000 back-office people/white collar workers last week.

And I have my favorite quote related to that topic too. When questions by reporters why he took $55 million exit package in 2002, when he was forced out, former CEO of EDS, Electronic Data Systems, Dick Brown famously said: I have an expensive wife. I know I know, I don’t have expensive wife. But I also have two daughters who like to buy things. Or should I ass that they have good taste? 🙂

Sorry a bit off topic 🙂 Last month (Oct 2025) I passed 25 years’ work anniversary in the USA. I started working here on Oct 2nd, 2000. A lot has changed since I started working here. I have seen quite a bit of industry underwent paradigm shift. From the Internet bubble (web 1.0) burst to web 2.0 (remember delicious, Flickr and digg.com?). And now we have web 3.0 and more. My career wise, I changed from working in the CAD software to mostly enterprise web applications, with a bit of consulting and iOS dev in between.

I don’t want to be forced out

I have seen coworkers who are about 50 years old, being laid off, at multiple places. Some of them were caught off guard. I was much younger or a bit younger then. Now I am at that age. And I don’t want to be in their shoes. I have literally seen grownups crying when they got laid off.

Also, right now I felt I can still do some meaningful work. If the time comes that I feel I cannot contribute in a meaningful way, I will just quit.

Re: AI, we all know the AI is causing a lot of disruptions and anxiety among IT/software workers nowadays. But I also believe at least for now, my job is not impacted. And if I can learn those AI tools and they can actually help me doing my job.

How much money is enough

One problem is most of us don’t know the answer to “how much money is enough?”. Or my favorite answer is “a little bit more” (it’s both a joke and also has some truth to it).

But seriously I need to think about this question as the date of retirement is approaching, either I want to face it or not. Some of the things I am thinking about regarding this topic.

1. My retirement is probably going to be different from my parents’ retirement. They have a more traditional retirement. My dad has a pension, and I don’t. And they stopped working completely when they retire. I think I will likely do some work (not too strenuous), for example, I will manage my 401k and IRAs, as well as doing other things I like to do (music, walking outside, does that include swimming??? 🙂 And some social life too (not drinking at the bar, I mean probably I am good enough, I can play music at the bar, again just for fun, not for money 🙂

Do I continue to mow my lawns? If I am health enough and feel like it. If not, I can either outsource it or sell the house and move to a townhouse or condo. Note selling the house will be a joint decision not solely mine.

2. I will probably have some hobbies and some travel. But probably equally important, I need to manage my 401k and IRAs, making sure they have decent return and will last. This is also something my parents don’t do. Sorry I am getting repetitive here – signs of my age and the need to retire 🙂

Still TBD as of 11-03-2025 (JIRA board doesn’t look good in terms of velocity 🙂

I need to calculate how much my 401k and IRAs were earning in last 3 5 or 10 years or so. If the total earnings (capital gain + dividend) are approaching my take home pay of my day job, that will be a good sign. Obviously, I need to fact into my financial obligations: the big-ticket item will be my kid’s college costs, and it will also be a big unknown because the US higher education industry is very similar to the US healthcare industry in terms of price transparency 🙂 You may read more about the college cost here as I learned last year. Note that’s applicable for the American students only (I assume US citizens and permanent residents, not sure about the children of visa holders), and not for the international students. Consult an expert on this topic, if applicable.

3. When applicable, I am thinking some side hustles including but not limiting to Uber or eBay to make some money and have something to do.

Cannot counting on that for meaningful amount of money though – ideally main income stream should come from investments, as said in this old saying “if you don’t make money when you sleep, you will work until you die.” I for one definitely don’t want to work until I die.

PS:

(YT 油管）75-Year-Olds Share Their Biggest Regret at 55

(YT 油管）Ayen何璟昕 – 時間不等你【粵語新歌】 [Official Music Video]

(Old blog post from yours truly, originally written about 20 years ago) Monday is not my favorite day

YT Shorts: Early retirees shares truth about early retirement

Tags retirement, retirement-planning

kids Life Life Tips

离别开出花：送给我的孩子们

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Update 09-26-2025: she is back safe and sound and we asked her this boring question: did you miss us? …… based on the feedback, we think she is ready for some sleep away summer camp next summer 🙂

(Original 09-10-2025) 再过一个礼拜，下礼拜三我们家小宝（潇宝）就要第一次离开爸爸妈妈，和她的六年级小朋友们，老师们，以及Ladue 高中的大哥哥大姐姐counselor 们去大概80公里以外的 Camp Mihaska 宿营两个晚上。The 6th graders camp has been a Ladue Middle School tradition since year 1977 – when I was 6 years old. I believe not many this school year’s LMS 6th graders parents were born yet, my wife included 🙂

我想到我们大女儿在比她妹妹大一岁的时候去100英哩以外的罗拉 Cub Creek Animal Science Camp 住了六个晚上。那一年2022年夏天她的camp 的dorm room 好像都是以前不认识的新朋友。我记得我那几天天天等她的email: 她礼拜三终于轮到了用电脑的机会给我们报了平安。

大女儿现在已经是高二。大概一年前，有一次我开车接她回家的路上说起读大学的事。她很严肃地跟我说：爸爸，我读大学的事我自己来做主。她说这句话时的成熟度让我有点吃惊。其实我知道有一段时间她心里已经蛮想自己一个人出去闯荡了。当然那时她还不到十五岁，读高一，真的准备好没有我是有疑惑的或不确定的。

我又想到老爸我自己18岁高中毕业去武汉上大学：一个人背着行李从上海的十六铺码头走上长江轮，跟我的爸爸和姑父挥手告别。后来又在大学毕业四年以后从上海独自来美留学。我记得来美之前的那个晚上没睡着：因为我不确定美国到底是个怎么样的地方？|| 从父母的角度我常听说”儿（女）行千里母担忧”。我想做父亲也一样：只是我们中国的传统文化里还有”男儿有泪不轻弹”。那父亲也就最好不要表现会外露自己的真实感情了。我自己的经验和观察是有不少父亲也是担忧的或弹眼泪的（或者把眼泪留在眼眶里？）。可怜天下父母心：虽然我现在已年过半百，在我的老母亲那里，我可能还是那个12岁就去镇海中学读书的小孩。比如说她会担心我下午两三点到上海，有地方吃饭吗？找的到旅馆吗？等等。昨天我小女儿就跟我说接送她去学校的事，我跟她开玩笑说：I want to hold you (我要把你抱起来）。她说No, but we can hug. Best of the luck in the road ahead, my baby girl. Dad always loves you.

这里有离别开出花完整的歌词。

PS: if you are looking for summer camp information in the St. Louis area, I have maintained a blog post.

advice and tips gadgets Life Tips

Computer setup for family including teens, preteens

Post author By stlplace
Post date July 2, 2025
No Comments on Computer setup for family including teens, preteens

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I have a Mac Mini, and I owned it for quite a few years now. I bought it at Costco St. Peters store, at around Christmas 2021. I used to use it to get to Citrix via Citrix Workspace, the remote desktop software that I used for work. The main reason I prefer this over the company provided IGEL product is I like the keyboard and touchPad for my Mac Mini better than the IGEL’s. I no longer uses Citrix as my employer switched to another software for remote work, also they provided a company laptop for work.

But I still have the Mac Mini, and sometimes I like to see my kids use the Mac Mini, instead of the laptop. Because the Mac Mini (the desktop) is in a public location, and I know what they are doing there. My older daughter (15) has the MacBook Air too: and not surprisingly she would goof around much more – aka doing TikTok etc. compared to do real things at the desktop.

Other benefits of a desktop computer is a larger display or screen, and family members can work on something together, if/when applicable. This is similar to the good old days, when we work in office, we have desktop or large screen, we can do pair programming or debugging together.

If you have limited budget, and don’t have extra money for Mac Mini or something similar, I fully understand. And if you have an extra display, you can still connect the laptop to the external display, to take advantage of the real estate. In fact, I think I have one or two extra external displays, if you are in STL area and are interested, shoot me an email at minjie dot xu at gmail dot com, and you can pick it up at my home at Olivette (aka 橄榄村)。

Also, you may be interested in the computers I used for work.

Separately, I just bought a new iPad for myself. I hope to use iPad more often (instead of iPhone). This has been my goal, but previous effort (a Samsung Android tablet) has been fallen short.

Tags colaboration, desktop, home-computer, laptop, large-display, mac-mini

advice and tips Life Tips

Don’t talk behind other people’s back

Post author By stlplace
Post date June 24, 2025
No Comments on Don’t talk behind other people’s back

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Be kind.

We cannot always be more talented than others – assume the nature born talent is “born”.

But we can always be more kind than others.

Example 1:

A rival tennis club owner trash talks about CCRC (Creve Coeur Racquet Club), ironically this owner is a fellow parent of kid in my younger daughter’s grade. Initially I thought about moving my daughter from CCRC (now Lifetime Fitness Creve Coeur) to that rival tennis club. Now I have some doubts whether I should move her. I do understand quite a few people moved before of the CCRC to Lifetime Fitness CC transition, including the coaches (the pros in the tennis world).

Example 2:

An internet singer I recently wrote, trash talks Coco Lee 李玟 ‘s perceived lack of mainland culture awareness in her mandarin education: 说她中文不正宗. This is totally unnecessary as Coco grew up mostly in the west. Quote a bit from her Wikipedia page below:

Ferren Lee was born on 17 January 1975^[19][20] in Hong Kong^[6][16] or Wuhan.^[21][22] She was a posthumous child, as her father had died earlier of an illness. She had physical defects in her left leg, which affected her throughout her life and contributed to her later challenges.^[23] After her father’s death, Lee’s mother moved the family to Hong Kong to seek support from relatives. They faced difficult times there before emigrating to the US when Lee was nine years old.^[24][25] She had two elder sisters, Carol and Nancy, the latter of whom would become Lee’s manager early in her career.^[26] Growing up in San Francisco, Lee attended Redding Elementary School, Presidio Middle School, and Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.^[27] She won the title of Miss Teen Chinatown San Francisco in 1991 at age 16.

Buffett and Munger

Now I recall Warren Buffett famously said “critique by category, not by name”. Charlie Munger may be a bit more critical on people in certain industry, e.g., cryptos.

In many ways we can out-work or work harder than others too. That’s topic for another day. But work smarter is equally important if not more.

Fun Life Tips Saint Louis

The swimming pools size at the JCC St. Louis

Post author By stlplace
Post date June 23, 2025
No Comments on The swimming pools size at the JCC St. Louis

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I am mostly talking about the length for lap swimming

Creve Coeur

Indoor

Recreational pool (warm water, temp probably slightly above 84F): 20 yards

Lap pool (warm water, temperature is probably at 80F): 25 yards

Outdoor

They have two kinds of setups for the lap swimming

Shorter: about 25 yards

Longer: about 25 meters (about 27.43 yards)

~~Those numbers are a bit trickier because they are not standard. And I got it from my own try and error, via my Apple watch. I assume Apple watch is measuring the pool length correctly.~~

Refer to the official length

Chesterfield

Indoor

Warm water, temp 84F, 25 yards

Outdoor

Need some confirmation as I haven’t been there for a long time.

(Update 06-24-2025)

Today (this evening) it was a bit usual because a boy approached me and asked whether I speak English. I said yes, and he asked if I could teach him to swim. It looks like he can swim to some extent. I showed him and his friend how to breeze via mouth above the water. Also, the very basics of breaststroke. The boy is 11, his friend is 9 and the boy’s big sister is 12. They all know some swimming or can swim some: but they seem have not taken formal swimming lessons at the J or somewhere equivalent.

I never in my life would think I would teach kids swimming. I never taught my own kids. I did teach my wife a bit re: breathing or blow the water (suck in air and leave the water out via mouth). I don’t mind teaching kids one a while, but if every time I go to lap swimming, and I could not find an empty or semi-empty lap, I may have 2nd thoughts on this.

(Update 06-25-2025)

I am continuing adjusting the length of the pool on my Apple Watch. Today I set it to 31 yards. This thing puzzles me a bit: if the Apple watch can measure my swimming distance, why it needs the pool length. It seems it’s using the pool length to do some kind of calibration, so that it could come up a nice round number for the total swimming distance.

advice and tips Life Life Tips

China trip: quick recap and some thoughts

Post author By stlplace
Post date June 15, 2025
No Comments on China trip: quick recap and some thoughts

Reading Time: 6 minutes

这里有一个谷歌翻译的中文版。请注意，在国内有可能访问不了这个网站。

Boeing 787

I took a quick trip to China in last 2 weeks and just got back. I left STL on early morning of 05/31 and came back late last night 6/14. The flight route is STL => DFW => PVG: one stop at DFW. I booked the flight back in January 2025. The DFW to PVG flights (both ways) were full. A side note is on the June 12/13 night (post mid-night) the Air India 787 news came. That was unsettling to say the least. Note Air India 171 used 787-8, while AA 127/128 used 787-9 (which is slightly bigger than 787-9).

DFW

I have been to DFW in the past (a while ago), it seems the terminal E is new addition since I was there last time. If my memory is correct, they used to have a rectangular kind of arrangement with terminals A, B, C and D. I did notice DFW has quite some eateries and stores, it could also be because last time I was there, I was in a hurry and didn’t have much time too look or check out. This is actually a valid point I like to emphasize – don’t forget the sceneries on the road, when we were buried in our daily grind. Sometimes I intentionally take a local route instead of highway when I was not in a hurry, so that I can slow down, and look at the two sides of the road.

The re-entry into the USA was pretty easy. There is a line for US and Canada permanent residents, and it was a short line. The immigration office took a quick look at Green Card and let me in.

Uber rides

I took Uber to airport and back to home. The 1st driver (I reserved the ride because it was early morning), is a part-time driver, his day job is a medical translator. But he works extra shift driving for Uber because he has a 17 month old and a new baby on the way. The 2nd driver is a young immigrant from Philippine, he came to the US in year 1995 (when he was 5), so he is about 35 years old: he drives for Uber full time (as much as Uber allows in terms of hour, and at his own choice as well). He did mention he makes good money on New Year’s Day and Mardi Gras.

Phone

A phone number is handy for 网约车 (Didi, Gaode or WeChat 微信出行服务), because you cannot always find Taxi in some places. I got my phone SIM card at Amazon. I activated the SIM before the trip, and insert it to my old iPhone 12 (for iPhone, only iPhone 13 and earlier has the physical SIM card slot).

I used Uber, 网约车 and Taxi 出租车 for the most of my trip: with one exception. I used an “unauthorized” vehicle for my trip from my hotel in Beilun to Ningbo railway station. You may call it 黑车，but it’s a nice Camry (probably SE and XLE with leather interior/seat). And the driver told me he used to drive for 外企，got laid off, and started driving for guests in the hotel, because some guests prefer something nicer than a taxi or a 网约车. There are always opportunities in today’s world – even in China which is considered much more competitive than in the USA. He told me his car is only about 140,000 Yuan which is about $ 20,000 (USD) – I told him his car would cost more than $30,000 in the USA (now I think it could be about $ 40k). Car industry in China is ultra competitive nowadays.

For the record, I paid about $28,000 for a certified preowned Camry LE in year 2022 (my tweet here).

trip.com

I booked the air ticket via expedia.com (I did this for last year’ trip too). I used trip.com for the HKG to NGB air tickets last year. This year I used trip.com for my Beilun hotel and Gao’tie (high speed train). I compared the trip.com with the HHonors.com (Hilton family hotels reward website) price, it seems trip.com is slightly cheaper. For the Gao’tie, it charges a few dollars of fees, but I felt it’s worth it because the ticket is tied to my CHN passport and it allows me to check in manually and board the train before the general boarding – which comes handy as I have two luggages, I mentioned the luggages and elevator below in Odds and Ends). Also: I 1st heard trip.com from an old friend last year.

Stay

I stayed at the same hotels: they are the Doubletree Beilun (as I talked about it here), and Hyatt Place Shanghai Hongqiao CBD. I noticed some small changes at both: at Doubletree Beilun, it appears they didn’t keep up the maintenance as I saw two things – one is the card reader in the elevators are not very reliable; another one is the chair in the room is worn out, and the small refrigerator is broken. At Hyatt Place Shanghai Hongqiao, they no longer offer the breakfast for free to rooms/guests redeemed via points or free night awards.

Both obviously are in cost cutting mode: but I felt the former’s action (lack of maintenance and upkeep) seems jeopardized guest experience. I understand the hotels are having a hard time nowadays due to the economy and the competition, but at the same time, I still feel there are something in hotel that had to be maintained or kept, and unfortunately the card reader and the chairs are in that category. And the refrigerator too.

Now I am thinking about switching my hotel in Beilun next time: DoubleTree Beilun does have 2 features I like – they have an indoor warm water swimming pool, and the room is very spacious. I will keep both in mind. Talking about swimming pool, I just learned Hyatt Place Hongqiao CBD has swimming pool too – “Take a break from the Shanghai sun and make a splash in our rooftop pool, located on the 11th floor, adjacent to the 24/7 fitness center.” – I will check it out next time.

VPN

Please refer to my blog post here – update 06-18-2025: this post is password protected now. Email me at minjie dot xu at gmail dot com for password, no spams please 🙂

Tattoo

I maybe a bit slow, but this time around I noticed many younger people in China now have tattoos, on their arms. My quick thought is the younger generation want to express themselves 🙂

A side point I want to make is: even amid China/US tensions, the top country many Chinese students/youth want to visit or study at is the the USA.

Douyin

I explored Douyin 抖音 a bit. Please note Douyin is the No. 1 video (short video, and live broadcasting) platform in China – as I just realized recently – I talked a bit about the video platforms here.

第19集｜任素汐《亲爱的你啊》完整版 #无尽的尽头主题曲 # 任素汐 # 治愈歌曲推荐有人22岁结婚生子，有人40岁读研，有人追求稳定，有人拥抱冒险；可以允许自己偶尔”掉队”，但要永远保持重新出发的勇气；在不确定的世界上，做一个温和而坚定的行动者。 “我们不需要完美，但需要完整”

If you read Chinese above, this also sort of echoes my earlier point of “slow down, enjoy the sceneries on the road while you can”.

Common question from my friends

I saw quite a few friends this time as I was going solo and have a bit more free time.

When do American people typically retire? I think I just saw a flight attendant a gentleman at the returning AA flight, and he is likely in his 60s.

Have prices gone up in America due to tariffs? ……

How do you think about the LA protests? ……

I have my own political opinion and belief – but I am going to keep them mostly to myself and my family for now.

Odds and Ends

Because I carry large luggages sometimes, I prefer elevators. But sometimes finding elevator (instead of escalator) is not easy. And once, I almost fell because a young guy tried to pass me on the escalator, and I think he pushed me a bit. I am almost 54 and was holding my two bags. This made me to think – maybe if I am 65 I would ride the elevator. I am not saying Chinese people are rude. I think there are nice and rude people everywhere (China and US). But at the same time, there are likely more nice people on both sides too. Look at the brighter side.

This can probably apply to the two questions above too: both the tariffs (trade) and the immigration too? I would look at win-win instead of win-lose in both cases.

A second point is: treat others like how you like to be treated.

PS:

eSIM app for travel

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I am aware of two right now. They provide cellular data for travel. I haven’t personally used them yet, but may try out later on as I see fit.

MobiMatter (official website; reddit)

Sally (Reddit; heard it from Teacher Mike YT video 1st)

And one to avoid: I bumped into this junk 易博通 eSender last summer, when we were traveling in China mainland and HK. We were hoping to get a mainland mobile phone number for 网约车 rider share car services. After spending some money and back and forth with the customer service, we realized it’s a scam. We found it because they advertised heavily on WeChat.

Other choices:

International roaming

T-Mobile roaming: heard good things about them. Quite a few friends used their international roaming in CHN.

MintMobile International Roaming (minternational pass): their price is quite competitive. Last year I used their pass for my summer trip. This year I may not need it as I am not going to Canada and HK this time. (Update 06/02/25) I still bought the 10 day pass with data due to technical difficulties of connecting to gmail via other means. One thing to note: it cannot be used as hotspot for the MacBook. So in other words, I still need to find other ways if I need to use Gmail on my MacBook (not super critical if I have Gmail on my iPhone).

And I already got a China SIM card. Btw, MintMobile made Canada roaming free since summer/fall of last year.

Side note: from iPhone 14 on, the iPhones sold in the USA no longer have physical SIM card slot (they have eSIM instead). Meanwhile in CHN, a physical SIM card is still needed for a mobile phone – that’s one reason you may consider bring an iPhone 13 or older if you travel to CHN. The reason you may need a mobile phone number is it’s required if you plan to get a Uber 网约车 in CHN. Taxis sometimes are not available and many taxi drivers drive for 网约车平台 too. In that case the two eSIM apps may not be sufficient for you. Because all you have is a mobile phone number outside of CHN which will not work for 网约车。

Note: I still receive spam calls on mint mobile when I travel – and they call during the night, the carrier could not mark them as “spam likely”. This is true for China Unicom SIM card too (the spammers call during the day).

Verizon TravelPass: much more expensive than MintMobile

Note for all the options above, you can get to Google etc. without doing anything special, just like you are in HK.

VPN: obviously you still need your own internet, usually it means Wi-Fi. This may be handy if you need to get to YT or Netflix, because you would likely burn through whatever your data plan fairly quickly if you stream.

Tags China, data-plan, eSender, eSIM, international-roaming, iPhone, mobile-data, mobile-phone, scam, SIM, travel, wechat, 易博通

advice and tips Life Life Tips

Getting old

Reading Time: < 1 minute

sucks 🙁

I wrote on this topic from time to time: and I found a few below. May not be a complete list.

01-21-2006: Senior moment (I think I was wú bìng shēn yín 无病呻吟 here)

04-24-2023: Getting older

05-19-2025: Food, sleep and health

Also, probably something I didn’t write, but I vividly remember, in year 2011, sometime in the summer/fall, when I was working as contractor for the UniGroup, and I happened to know a friend from China. We hiked at the Power Valley trail one afternoon after work. During the walk, I suddenly realized my body shape is typically middle-aged man, with the “inflated belly” and so on. I was 40 then.

But looking at the glass half full angle, I am getting wiser. And from the swimming point of view, there is a lot of room for improvement for me 🙂

I swam 800 yards at the J Chesterfield yesterday. It’s probably a record for me, at least my Apple watch says so 🙂

PS:

A tweet thread re: side effects of GLP-1.

Btw, I googled “berberine” and found this article interesting – “When it comes to science, don’t look for expertise from graduates of the University of TikTok.“