Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Morning random thoughts: job switching and 401k vesting

Reading Time: < 1 minute

(Update 06-19-2024 note today is Juneteeth Day) In last year or so I noticed my current employer also switched to the 4 year vesting schedule. That also means in theory I can retire from my current place if I only care about the 401k matching money vesting 🙂

(Original) First thoughts: regarding the recent #layoff news from #Meta (#Facebook, my wife has a former colleague being impacted yesterday). This remind me one thing from my own experience, for those folks who are on #OPT or #H1B, compensation/money is not as important as the #greenCard (GC) (#permanentResidency). Once you have the GC, sky is your limit 🙂 #majorsCareerTip #immigrants

401k Employer Match Vesting

Just did a #401k #employermatch #vesting schedule #spreadsheet and the “employer match” number below is “made up”. Personally I think both are okay, better than the companies that have a number of years for all or nothing, e.g., 3 years. || Of course another scenario is #jumpShip (aka switching jobs) to get a #raise. This may or may not work due to the economy (tech layoffs) and age (age discrimination is illegal in this country, but in reality it’s rampant. Just like #payInEquity or gender #payGap) #personalfinancetips Below is two scenarios of vesting schedules, for the two places I work (or worked). From the employee point of view, the earlier vest schedules give more flexibility.

Refer to my Google sheet here

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Some potential lunch money

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 07-28-2023) Perry v. Schnuck Markets, Inc.

(Original) It seems soooooooo hard for me to earn the $100 check from google Adsense nowadays. A lot people said blogs are dead nowadays. That’s probably true, as I learn from homejianshuo (noticed his blog starting date of Sept 2002, now I recall I was probably influenced by him when I start blogging :-), and likely some other famous bloggers too. The blogging world has moved beyond, into medium.com, and now into substack?

I don’t know for sure. I think I still need to figure that one out. My general assessment is the world has moved into newer platforms, from podcast, to social media, and so on. Two people I am aware of: Daniel Vassallo (he quit Amazon/AWS job and went solo), and Ruan Yifeng (he has a popular wechat 公众号 and a good weekly journal).

Okay, back to lunch money. Here they are:

IKEA: background, file claim website, Chinese

Meta/Facebook: background, and file claim website

Now I suspect my lunch money from the above may come earlier than the $100 check from Google Adsense 🙂

PS:

Now I gave it more thought, I think Amex Gold (official link, no kickback for me here. I do have a referral link if you are interested. Please let me know via email: minjie dot xu at gmail dot com ) can give a lot more free lunch money too. With $250 annual fees, it gives $10 per month Uber Cash (can be used for car ride as well as Uber Eats), as well as $10 from GrubHub (seamless.com, I use the latter as I pick up my own food), and a few other restaurants such as Cheese Cake Factory and Shake Shack. It has many other benefits too: I usually converts the Amex membership rewards points to the HHonors points when there is a favorite conversion term. Below is copied from Amex website.

“$120 Uber Cash on Gold

Enjoy up to $120 in Uber Cash annually with your Gold Card. Just add your Card to your Uber account and you’ll automatically get $10 in Uber Cash each month for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S.‡ Plus, you’ll earn 4X Membership Rewards® points for each Uber Eats purchase on your Card.‡

$120 Dining Credit

Satisfy your cravings, sweet or savory, with the $120 Dining Credit. Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations. Enrollment required.‡”

PS 2:

From time to time, Panera Bread will send me emails re: $30 Gift Card (GC) for tasting test, this is the most recent one. I think you can try it. I have done that in the past, for a few times, and they always honor the GC. It will take some time to get there (their Fenton, MO tasting room).

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Tax day and turbo tax software

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Tomorrow 04/18/2023 is the tax day in the US, the usual deadline for filing federal income and state income taxes. Note in some states there is no income tax. In the old days, I mean the real good old days, the tax day is usually April 15, and the Post Office will be like the last few days approaching Christmas, because the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the state authority that collects state income taxes usually go by the post mark.

But I have done tax using Turbo Tax since year 2001, to be more specific I used Turbo Tax online version from 2001 to 2021 (for tax year 2000 to 2020), and I used the Turbo Tax desktop for tax year 2021 and 2022 (the one that’s due tomorrow April 18). If you search this blog website, you may notice that I talked quite a bit about Turbo Tax, most talk was before 2012 or so though.

Turbo Tax Online

I still remember the 1st time I used Turbo Tax online, I was on the phone modem, not the cable or AT&T broadband. And I remember the modem dial-in noise. I think I shared quite a bit coupons, tips and tricks using the Turbo Tax online versions, and sometimes I even got some sort of query from the authority. I think since that time, I don’t always use the Turbo Tax online version for state taxes filing. In terms of discount, in recent years, I sometimes using the offers from credit card. This is applicable to the Desktop tax filing as well. The online version has one advantage compared to the desktop: there will be a copy stored at Turbo Tax website. For desktop, we need to be mindful of backup, as I made a bad mistake last year.

Turbo Tax Desktop

I usually buy the desktop software from Amazon (here is my Amazon Associate link): note I usually buy the premier version (same for the online version).

For tax filing, I usually made 2 purchases: one is the audit defense ($45) and another is the state e-filing ($20 last year, $25 this year). And I used the Chase credit card $10 off offer for both.

Again, last year I forgot to make a backup copy, and this year I made a conscious effort to make backups in a safe place. Last but not least, if one does not have the copy for tax filing, IRS does have a copy and we can get to it after doing some verifications. Note the Adjusted Gross Income is needed for e-filing, and here is how to get it How do I find last year’s AGI?

Last but not least, I know some people like to push the can down the road, personally I am thinking it’s best to get it done by deadline. Regardless, we need to make approximate payment to avoid the penalty from IRS and the state revenue department.

IRA

I mean traditional IRA. The IRS website: 50 and above catchup, and Fidelity Q&A have some good information (…..however there are income limits for tax deductible contributions……).

One tip and one story

Make sure you pay the approximate tax before tax day (or better yet, anytime before tax day) to avoid any penalty or interest charges.

I used to have a coworker, and he said he got tax refund every year. And I commented why let Uncle Sam use your money for free for a year? He said: if he got all this money over the year, his wife would spend it. With Uncle Sam saves the money for him for a year, now that he can family for the summer vacation 🙂

PS: (update 04-25-2023) I received the refund from Uncle Sam. And I just realized the show me state withdraw from my provided bank account (again) for the owed tax one more time after I paid it on 04/18/2023. I assume they will send me a check or something down the road. Note I paid online earlier for the fear of any potential penalty etc. 🙂 A side note is I received a mail from Uncle Sam for creating the online account I mentioned above.

(Update 05-16-2023) NPR: The IRS is building its own online tax filing system. Tax-prep companies aren’t happy || I agree if IRS has a program that works out, it’s a win for the US tax payers 🙂

(Update 06-09-2023) It looks like the Show Me State is refunding me the tax over-payment. I paid it twice towards the tax deadline in April: I was doing it out of caution to avoid any potential penalty. I paid online before the deadline, and they (MO Dept of Revenue0 withdrew a similar amount based on my #turbotax filing. One nice thing, they even refunded with interest 🙂

Categories
401k and Personal Finance Edu-and-Ladue-School Life Life Tips Saint Louis

How to buy a single family house in the Ladue School District – our own experiences

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“No short cut; and I wish I could get those sleepless night back but I do understand no pain no gain in life sometimes.” -MXU April 2023

Everyone knows the prices for single-family houses (SFHs) in the US went up since the pandemic, and this is applicable to the SFHs in the Ladue School District (LSD) too. It may go up more than the national average. Luckily for us, we bought our starter home, a nice little ranch house, about 9 months before the pandemic shut down in March 2020, and we were grateful that we have the room to spread out, both for virtual school and our Work From Home (WFH) jobs. It’s not perfect, but it put us in a better position than the 2 bedroom condo we had earlier.

I lived in the LSD since the year 2005: I bought a condo across the street from the Schnucks/Monsanto in April 2005, at a price which is the market top at the time. Note that condo prices topped before the actual housing/financial crisis in 2007/2008. At the time I have basically two choices, and I think I still made the right choice looking back. The other choice was a 1st-floor condo near Creve Coeur Mills Road and Olive Road (Parkway School District, PSD): the condo was facing north which is not the best direction in terms of facing (it will be cold in winter and hot in summer). Plus the LSD is considered a notch above PSD (this is probably subjective opinion).

Since our 2nd daughter was born in the Summer of 2014, our 2 bedroom condo basically needs one more room, not in a hurry but in a time ticker bomb – as we believe eventually our younger daughter needs her own room. We didn’t put her in a separate room when she was an infant (same for our old daughter). When we hired a nanny when Sophia was a newborn, note it was customary to have some external helper in Chinese culture when there is a newborn in a family, the nanny had to sleep in the living room. My wife, myself, and Sophia were in one bedroom, Serenity the big sister took the other bedroom.

Fast forward a few years, I changed jobs in June 2015 and started working for the credit card co., hoping to make a few more bucks for the new house down payment. I recall probably in the summer of 2017 I joked with a few friends that the SFH is out of reach. Also, I don’t miss the sleep deprived nights and on calls while I worked for the credit card co: it’s basically a “sweatshop” that pays better than a normal sweatshop 🙁

In the Summer of 2018, we almost bought an SFH (Zillow link), and my wife had a second thoughts after realizing the house didn’t have a dishwasher. So we backed out after inspection while it was still in the cooling period. I really liked the backyard, but over the years I learned to listen to my wife. East or west, listening to the boss is the most important 🙂

Fast forward one more year, Sophia is also about to start attending Kindergarten at Spoede Elementary, and we were looking at houses more seriously: we even got a buyer agent who is grew up in/familiar with the area, and has a good supporting team. For us, Luckily everything worked out for our current house in June 2019. We saw the house listed, and my wife liked it, we did not really negotiate the price – we paid the asking price. Another small break for us is we had built a bit more savings in one year for down payment etc, since the summer of 2018. Now I think about it, we made decision pretty quick, I did not even do my neighborhood check: basically come at one morning, and come at one afternoon to make sure the neighbors are nice 🙂

I understand with the Pandemic and the SFHs price went up a lot. But we have zero control over things such as the pandemic, the economy, interest rates, mortgage rates, and so on. We do have control over ourselves, in terms of saving money, and being proactive. I heard a friend bought the house directly from a lady by knocking on the door, I have not confirmed but seems like a variable approach to me, as long as he/she asked it nicely. In another case, I heard friends did the SFH transaction privately. Both were done before pandemic, and the houses are not brand new. In recent years I did see more new houses come to market, after the investor buy/tear down/build much bigger 2 stories home etc. Another trend is the developers’ activities, such as I wrote it here earlier. Overall though, the supply is not catching up with the demand. One reason is sometimes the seller can afford to hold on to it, e.g., this century old house at the entrance of our neighborhood. I did a little research on the St. Louis county real estate website, and found out the owner likely lives in a mansion in Florida. The reason for my research was: I was thinking about investment property, and this one is close to where we live, and I walk by that house every day.

Last but not least, I want to add merely complaining (or self-pity) is not useful, and here is Charlie Munger’s quick talk on the topic.

Categories
Business Politics Technology Web

I am leaving Twitter

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update 11-20-2024) Here is my Bluesky social profile. || I think I may need to go back to Twitter to back up some data, from time to time. I did a backup in last year but I think it was a big json file. Two things I may miss: one is health/fitness tips; another one is stock related (which I think as a more serious investor, I should try to ignore it so called #finTwit.

(Original) After 15 years, I mean the social media, not a job or something. I never worked for them. Although looking back I should have joined them back in 2008, or at least trying to apply for a job there, and get some stocks.

Why I am leaving:

In two words: Elon Musk. Elon created a lot of controversies during his about one year long ownership saga, from his public proposal to buy the company, after secretly building up a stake, to fire lots of people (which he may have a valid point, note a few big tech companies followed too, such Meta), to not paying bills for the Twitter SF office.

But the latest one: labelling NPR as “Government-funded Media” is the last straw for me. I googled “how much government fund npr is receiving”, and here is the answer: “NPR gets roughly 1-2% of its funding from the federal government, while the majority of its funding comes from corporate sponsorships and fees charged to local radio stations, according to the New York Times.” (source: NYTimes via Forbes). This is a cheap shot from Elon in my opinion.

Note NPR is one of my favorite news source, and I remember the days (more than 20 years ago), I listened to “Morning edition” from KWMU (now STL Public radio) on my morning commute. In addition to getting news, I improved my English listening comprehension greatly from listening to them. Other programs I listened frequently over the years: The Diane Rehm Show; MarketPlace; All Things Considered etc. In recent years, Some nights when I could not fall into sleep, I also listened to the BBC World Service via STL Public radio: it has a variety of topics. In the US, NPR may be considered a bit liberal or progressive (as opposed to the Fox News), but it’s mostly politically neural (similar to PBS). A fun fact, while a lot of western media are blocked in China, NPR is not (at least not now as of April 2023).

On the social media front, I will continue to be on FB (Instagram), LinkedIn, and YouTube. On blogging side, I have this stlplace.com blog website as well as medium, and substack. Btw, I posted some of the blog post here to the medium and substack.

Just notied that I have a post on Twitter about 6 months ago.

PS: as of 04-22-2023, it appears Twitter removed the “government-funded” label for NPR on Twitter. But it seems a bit late, at least for now, to get NPR back on Twitter, per this thread. Meanwhile, I am thinking back to Twitter for my own benefit. Consume or tweet in moderation.

PS 2: 06-05-2023, I bought the Twitter Blue today.

Categories
Career Edu-and-Ladue-School

College admissions

Reading Time: 6 minutes

The past weekend (04/01/23) was also the deadline for the US college admissions. I think some refer that as Regular Decision or RD, which is corresponding to the regular application/admission time and I assume most kids get admission via the regular admission (not Early Action or Early Decision, EA or ED, scroll all the way down to see their definition). I knew because my niece is senior this year. I am not going to disclose which college(s) she got admissions obviously: the only thing I may add is I would be dying happily if I got admitted to any of those colleges when I came to the USA for graduate school in 1997.

The other thing I may add is, speaking from my own college admission back in year 1989, I was not admitted to my 1st choice Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU). And I was not happy. I remember I cried in the day I got the admission letter from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) at Wuhan, Hubei Province. Besides the disappointment not being able to get the admission from the dream school, another factor is the unfamiliar of Wuhan: it’s a long trip from my hometown Ningbo, either by train or boat; spicy food; and different dialect which I quickly realized. Remember at the time the train is usually slow: I recall a 特快 from Shanghai to Ningbo was about 8.5 hours, and the travel distance is about 300 km. Now Gao’Tie top speed can reach 300 km per hour. Re: the dialect, I recall my Hubei roommate said: my shoe dropped from the window. In his dialect, it sounds like my baby (鞋子 => 孩子) dropped from the window 🙂 I picked up my Wuhan/Hubei dialect listening skills quickly though I cannot talk in Wuhan dialect. It’s a bit different from the Ningbo dialect to say the least. Another side note I like to add is there are meaningful number of migrants from 江浙沪(Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai) in Wuhan. Some of the teachers are originally from 江浙沪, and we can tell from their mandarin. In rare cases, on the campus I would heard Shanghai dialect, 上海话，which is almost like Ningbo dialect. And there was also this saying: 老乡见老乡，两眼泪汪汪 (google translate:When fellow villagers see fellow villagers, their eyes are full of tears)。I remember in the fall semester of 1989, the students from Zhejiang province had a gathering, and I met a few elder students from Zhenhai Middle School (my earlier blog post, I still need to clean up the Chinese translation).

Things worked out for me eventually. I was upset for a bit at the beginning when I attended there, and I even told my classmate that I prefer SJTU over HUST. But my resentment or bitterness did not last long (this is in contrast to a friend years later attended WUSTL here in St. Louis). I quickly got into learning mode and focus on two things my cousin’s husband told me: computer programming and English. Note he was an engineer and a graduate from SJTU too.

Also everyone has to be herself/himself eventually: being far away from home, while hard at times, did provide that opportunity for me to grow. My dad did not visit me in the college. He dropped me off at Shanghai in August 1989, and I took the Yangzi River boat from Shanghai to Hankou (the port and the main downtown in Wuhan). From there I looked for the “HUST new students welcome center” at the port, and took the popular truck (yes we all stand at the back of the trunk), and it took probably 1.5 hours for us to enter into the tree covered campus in a hot summer day. Oh, the boat trip was about 60 hours upstream (about 48 hours downstream, from Hankou to Shanghai).

One winter I told my parents that I wanted to stay at HUST for winter break, meaning I would not go back home in the Chinese new year. I really didn’t want to take the train as I went through very crowded train from school to home and vice versa. I wrote some of it here: and quote myself

“Once in college at Wuhan, it was probably my sophomore or junior year, I told my parents that I am not going home for Spring Festival (Chinese new year). My reason is the crowdedness in the train, as explained here. My mom, who usually does not write to me, wrote a letter and urged me to return home. So I obligated. Note the train is still crowded, once I stood about 15 hours in the train on the way returning school from home, during the Spring Festival travel. I recall the train was so crowded, and there were 7 people in one bathroom (the toilet room). And once a girl walked to the bathroom, asked guys turn around so that she could use the restroom. They wouldn’t oblige. So she has to walk or to be precise squeeze through one more train cabin. I do recall one girl (she is from Wuhan university and Dongyang, one year senior than me), gave me a peeled apple when I stood next to her.”

Also, if I can quote a word from the sister-in-law of my “from Shandong province” roommate (you/we know who are you :-): 学好，玩好。Translate in English: work hard, play hard. This reminds me of a slogan that was popular in Wuhan colleges in my time: 玩在武大，吃在水利（电力学院），爱❤️在华（中）师（大），学在华（中理）工。In English: play at Wuhan University; eat at Hydraulic Electric University; love at Huazhong Normal University; study at HUST. So there you do, I only have one thing to do while I was attending HUST, and that is to study. PS: on the grand scheme of things, I think many married couples will agree, that marriage (choosing the right spouse) is as important as choosing the right college, if not more. There is another Chinese saying on this: 男怕入错行，女怕嫁错郎 – Google Translate (I modified slightly): Men are afraid of entering the wrong industry/job, women are afraid of marrying the wrong man. I say vice versa: women are afraid of entering the wrong industry/job, men are afraid of marrying the wrong woman.

Now if I could reflect, I also met quite a few interesting friends while I am at HUST, including my 1st girl friend (there are both heart warming and heart breaking moments, that I can promise). And I also learned my English including practicing verbally mostly with my girl friend. Coding wise, I learned mostly on my own, a few years down the road, both my English skills and coding helped me in the US. Believe it or not, for graduate school entrance exam, ironically or not, I tried SJTU again, and I failed again as well (due to my lack of study/practice on math, and also a bit sub-par performance during the test). But that’s okay. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. My main focus over those years increasingly shifted to “let me go to the USA and take a look”: instead of just watch it from movie such as the movie “True Lies”.

Long story short, after graduating from HUST in 1993, in summer 1997 when I was in 20s, I came to the US for graduate school at University of Missouri at Rolla, now Missouri University of Science and Technology (or Missouri S&T). Applying to the graduate schools in the US in fall/winter 1996, and spring 2017 was not easy, as I like to start graduate study in fall 2017 (I think the application process is worthy another blog post). I still remember the excitement(and nervousness) I had when I was taking a phone call from a professor (he was originally from Taiwan) at my cousin’s apartment in Shanghai. I am glad things worked out and I was able to come to the US on end of July in 1997. I could not fall asleep the night before. Thanks to my families and my friends. To this day, I still remember my arrival, the pickup at airport, stop by at the McDonald’s, and move into the tiny apartment, and I slept through to 2 pm the following day 🙂

I don’t know what my life trajectory will be if I attended SJTU as my 1st choice. I have been working in this country for a while (20+ years since graduate school).

So where am I, to all the high school senior, class of 2023, remember the Nike motto: just do it and the best of luck…

Appendix I: some abbreviations for college admissions

ED: early decision. I believe one can only apply for one college, and if accepted, one has to attend. This happens before regular admission.

RD: regular decision. The most common scenario of college admission. One can apply for many, potentially receive more than one offer, and one can make decision regarding which one to attend then.

EA: early action. One can apply for a few. This is different from ED as one does not have to choose a college if there is an offer. Here is how collegeboard explains the EA and ED.

College Savings Calculator found this Charles Schwab one to be relatively straightforward. 

 

Categories
China Life Tips

China Trip Spring 2023 – observations and thoughts

Reading Time: 6 minutes

At the Detriot airport #DTW Delta Airlines international departing gates, I waited for about 12 hours before boarding the PVG bounding flight. I walked inside the terminal from one end to the other a couple of times. I passed by the London bounded gate, and compared to the PVG bounded flight, I can sense the different atmosphere, on a few different levels. I had to admit I like the London bounded gate atmosphere better, it’s more festive. In contrast, the PVG-bounded flight has more stress, mostly related to the paperwork for the Covid PCR test. We know it’s not rock science per see, but because of recent memory, and I think in one incident Delta airline has to turn around the airplane mid-air (over the pacific), all this added to stress during travel. For practical purposes, the “Mandatory paperwork to enter China” in my earlier blog post should work for everyone.

Aging Parents

My main mission for this trip is to see my parents. When I was new to the US, a professor at Rolla complimented on the “respect elders” culture in China. To be more specific, it’s “Filial Piety“: Filial piety is a Confucian concept derived from Chinese culture, which advocates a set of moral norms, values, and practices of respect and caring for one’s parents. According to the dual-factor model of filial piety, reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety are two dimensions of filial piety. I heard this English word from a Chinese professor (Liu Ming) in 2020, the Chinese word for it is 孝顺. Along those lines, there is this line: 父母在，不远游，游必有方: 父母在世，不出远门，如果要出远门，必须告知自己所去的地方。 “方”指”一定的去处、方向，更重要的是指“方法”。 意思是父母身体健康时外出，要让父母知道你的去处是安全的。 如果父母的身体需要照顾，而自己又需要外出就“必须”安排好照顾好父母的“方法”，以尽孝道，即游“必”有“方”。What does that mean? Basically it says one doesn’t travel far if one has parents (to take care of). And if one has to travel, he/she must tell where he/she is going, make sure the place he/she is traveling to is safe. And last but not least, if the parents (are old/sick and) need care, he/she must make arrangement regarding take care of the parents.

Many years ago, my father was not happy that I decided to come to the US for graduate school. He used his own example of not taking he Gao’kao 高考 (China’s college entrance exam) when he was high school senior, because he wanted to take care of this parents, at home. They were about 40 years apart. And I think in those days the average life span for Chinese people may be 70 years old. But I didn’t listen and I came to the US, did graduate school, started working and have my own family here.

In recent years I tried to see my parents about once every two years, but the routine was interrupted by the pandemic and the control measures. Thus I didn’t see my parents in person for over 3 years, and as the border opened in Jan 8, and no more quarantine measures. I took the bait and booked the air ticket on Jan 29. The pandemic in past 3 years was not kind to my parents, and I can see they are aging. My mom who was outgoing, and likes to interact with her friend in Lao’nian Da Xue 老年大学 (elders’ university), as well as serve in the community, before pandemic. This social content of her daily life was cut, and I can see it had impact on her. My father who is more introvert, doesn’t have a healthy daily routine. I assume he looked at computer and phone for quite some time everyday, or watching TV. And he complains about his son going to America, consistently before my mom. I don’t think mom likes to hear that, plus I don’t know whether I should say it’s a blessing or a curse, but my mom lost some hearings in last few years as well. Her health was not the greatest before pandemic, and it got worse during pandemic. She was hospitalized a few times in last 12 month or so. She was happy to see me back for a week, after the 3+ years gap. And we are planning to get her and my dad some more help in their daily lives.

I visited my in-laws too: they are in the same province. They live in a senior living apartment, and they can pretty much sustain on their own so far, including cooking etc. But they can buy food if they don’t want to cook, and the medical staff is nearby if medical care is needed. So their living condition eased our worry to some extent.

Technology

I have a twitter thread related to this. The technology in China has improved tremendously in last 20 years. One can see it from the high speed rail (gao’tie 高铁 🚄）, the popularity of EVs: there are many brands in addition to the well known ones such as BYD and Tesla. Mobile apps including 12306 (train ticket app), Alipay, WeChat (pay), and Gao’de Map are both popular and helpful for the most part. I am sharing some of the hands on experience below. Please note some of the issues around high speed rail as well (see this tweet).

Facial recognization

Boarding DL 389 (DTW to PVG), they scan the face instead of scan the boarding pass. Again one Chinese gentleman was wondering how they do that. Facial recognization is widely used actually, in the mobile apps too, in addition to the Apple build in FaceID. I saw the bank apps and Shanghai health QR code mini program (随申码小程序）are using the homegrown facial recognization technology. (Update 04-16-2023) Interestingly enough, today when I was trying to log into IRS website and get some tax for myself, and I found out the scanning of driver license and my face is also used. Basically what I did here is very similar to some of the mobile apps used in China. So we have some sort of technology convergence here. Similar for robots below. For example, today I saw the Schnucks robot “tally” charing by itself, which is similar to the food delivery robots in China hotel.

Robots

I saw robots for food delivery in hotels (Shanghai Hongqiao, and Ningbo Beilun), and robots for cleaning at Hongqiao hub (underground leve).

Out of gate, I went to the Yong’he Da Wang （永和大王）, the popular Taiwanese place, and tried to use WeChat pay. It failed because I did not update my ID’s issuance date and expiration date. I was able to update later on.

On the other hand though, I do recognize a lot of practice or technology are learned from the west. For example, when the nurse give new medicine and in-fusion, they would ask the patients name, DoB, the only thing I didn’t hear is the last 4 of the social.

12306 App (Apple, Google Play): again this is the train ticket app. So upon arrival at the Hongqiao hub (from PVG), I decided to buy the train ticket, at the ticket counter. Note the human service counter is rare nowadays, a lot of purchase are done via app, website and the kiosk. So I bought the ticket, paid the cash, got the change, and got an idea of the approx. departing time. No paper ticket. The ID is the ticket (self scan the ID at the train station for checkin). Later I realized I don’t even know the train number. So I downloaded the app (I used it before), logged in, and saw my e-ticket there 🙂 Btw, noticed the score (rating) for the app are 3.0 (out of 5.0) at Apple iOS App store, and 3.4 at Google Play store. Not bad for a large app like this.

At Beilun KFC, the cashier suggested I use the app to order. I gave her my phone, tried to download the app, it went to the US App store 🙂 So eventually they manually process for me every morning, and I pay via the WeChat pay.

Human factor

Again I don’t like the cigarette smoking, which is still popular in China: from the platform on Gao’tie (inside Gao’tie train is not allowed; regular train has a designated smoking place), to the street, and other indoor places (which in my opinion, it’s quite nasty).

Yield to pedestrians at cross walk. Is crosswalk another thing China learned from the west? I can see the cars (the drivers) in Shanghai did a much better job yields to pedestrians, say compared to Ningbo Beilun (2nd or 3rd tier city).

Drivers

I like to chat with people, especially open-minded people.

网约车司机的故事：郑州来的女生，去年十月因郑州疫情来上海(trying to make a living, as Zhengzhou was shutdown and she could not drive for a living). I notice that her mobile phone has a privacy guard screen 手机有防偷窥保护屏. She asked if there are Alipay and WeChat pay in the US, and I said they are rare. 她问我美国有没有支付宝，微信支付，我说没有或较少。She also asked the things that corresponding to Alipay and WeChat pay, I said credit card and Apple Pay 相应的应该是信用卡和apple pay。

Back to STL, the Lyft driver is an immigrant from Hondulas || 圣村：31/2岁左右洪都拉斯🇭🇳来的小伙，感觉搞硬件比搞软件牛，因为他说是个人都可以学着学程序，而他现在还不认识一个可以把电脑组装起来的人：我说best buy 的geek squad, 和micro center 应该有人会装。他同时感觉中国比美国牛。我们讲到2001年9月11日，他讲到他大概十岁左右，他妈妈送他到私立学校有美国老师教英文。那天有人告诉美国老师纽约世贸中心被炸的事，老师当场痛哭。我告诉他那天早上我在电视上看到世贸中心有幢楼在冒烟，直升机🚁在傍边转，后来发生的事情对美国产生深远的影响。

Categories
China Life Tips Travel

China Trip Spring 2023 – logistics

Reading Time: 6 minutes

(Update 04-08-2025) After 2 years, the sim card I mentioned below no longer works. After the painful steps of taking pictures and so on, it gave an error message saying that “the number is already being used”. So, I no longer recommend it. We bought another sim card after return the not working one. Will post an update once we get the new one working.

(Update 04-28-2023) Please note the airlines no longer ask/need #COVID #testing from April 29: 4月29日起飞往中国不再需要核酸检测，自测抗原即可。登机前航空公司不再查验检测证明，只需海关健康申报二维码。source: #flychina https://flychina.com/update.asp || This is good news 🙂

(Original) I have a twitter thread here, and quite a few YouTube shorts or videos on this trip (hashtag: #ChinaTrip2023).

But I think it’s probably worth an article or two for me to put down the life cycle of the trip, from planning, buying the tickets, to execution (the trip itself, flights, transfers, and entering/leaving borders etc.), as those tips may be helpful for overseas Chinese or some other international friends to visit China. I think it maybe helpful for me to refresh my memory too, for example, today at #STL I forgot where should I wait for #Lyft or Uber: the Lyft app itself says where, btw. I had to admit that I haven’t flew for a while: I believe my last trip via STL is the PVG trip before pandemic (Nov/Dec 2019). Another example, related matter, I forgot the allowance of luggage is one, and I have to pay either 10,000 miles (Delta Skymiles) or $100 (United Airlines) for the 2nd luggage.

Air Tickets

I bought mine at Expedia.com on Jan 29, 2023. Other good place to buy/check ticket is flychina.com. I flew from my city to DTW, waited for 12+ hours, and from there flew to PVG (direct, no more stop at Korea/Seoul Incheon (ICN) ). On the way back, I took UA 858 that’s PVG to SFO, and later transferred at ORD(a redeye flight from SFO to ORD), before coming home. There was some hiccup in terms of changes and posting the miles to the frequent flyer miles. I believe after I booked the United Airlines Mar 29 flight from PVG to SFO, United likely added number of flight per week, thus making the Mar 29 departure flight no longer available. That’s why I moved to Mar 30 departure date, and have the SFO to ORD redeye flight. The change process in the United Airlines website was relatively smooth. Another small issue was it was long time ago that I bought air ticket on Expedia.com, and unfortunately I still had the old United frequent flyer number on Expedia, as you may know United adopted the Continental frequent flyer number post merger (which I have in my United account). Long story short, as of now, we can claim the miles via this web page. The miles were posted for me immediately after I submit the form 🙂 Update 04-10-2023 NYTimes has an article explains the air ticket shortage situation – China Has Reopened to Tourists. The Hard Part Is Getting There.

Get a China SIM card

(04-04-2023) I am reporting back: this card is decent. It worked on my iPhone 5 (initially I put the new sim card in this old phone), after I turned it off and back on when the airplane just landed. I quickly swap it into my iPhone 12 on the subway (Metro line 2 from PVG to SHA, and I stayed at hotel near SHA, Hongqiao Hub). A student with Tufts U was able to make call to her dad as her sim card was expired. This card is called 蜗牛移动 4G in China (a resller of China Unicom 中国联通）. I am guessing it’s small reseller: the idea here is similar to MintMobile vs T-Mobile in the US (mintMobile is a reseller of T-mobile). There was one glitch when I was trying to get 随申码（英语：Shanghai QR Code) at SJTU Minghang campus. The guard said probably my internet on the phone was too slow. It took me quote a few tries to get it work. There are one glitch: no caller ID (and I don’t know how to fix it). Another tip is don’t worry about the “warning message” in Chinese regarding data usage. It will ask one to 充值，I did not read the descriptions on Amazon. But I just trust the title or subject that says 30 days 3G data. So I just ignore the periodically message asking me to refill. As I don’t see the internet stop working after the “data used up” message.

Amazon associate link for the China Unicom 中国联通 sim 30 day card

Mandatory paperwork to enter China

Mainly we need the PCR test and also the health code (2D or QR code, commonly called 海关指尖码 in Chinese) via WeChat mini-program called “Customs Pocket Declaration“ or in Chinese: 海关旅客指尖服务. In order to fill out the form, one will need the flight number and seat number. This code has a an expiration time, but can be updated. Again make sure you have a smart phone and ideally the phone can get to Internet via cellular data, because WiFi sometimes is not very reliable at airports, and you don’t have to make this your weakest link for your carefully planned trip to see “long time no see” family and friends.  

Check in at my local airport and get boarding pass at DTW

My local airport agent asked for all the paperwork, but she still has trouble check in my luggages all the way to PVG. Her senior colleague (who looks like a Japanese descent) was able to fix. I also tried to get boarding pass for DL389 at the Delta Helpdesk: it was a fun experience for the two agents there as they don’t usually do that job. It’s usually the DTW DL389 (DTW to PVG) gate agent’s job. The latter gate agent talks a lot about the PCR tests and the health code before departure. They actually check all the relevant documents including the PCR test, before put a “checked” sticker on the passport. The boarding identity verification is done by facial recognition, btw, which surprised a senior Chinese citizen a bit. More on facial recognization latter.

Entering China

Show the QR code the 海关指尖码, then proceed to border agent. After that it seems pretty smooth, and I only saw the customs people check a (I assume) service dog.

Leaving China

Boarding pass plane open at 4:30 pm for UA 858 for 9:05 pm departing time. An older gentleman asked my help (borrow my Visa credit card) to pay the $100 extra bag fee (they don’t take cash or Chinese credit card). Note one still need to do a new health code (2D or QR code, aka 海关指尖码) and scan the code when entering the international boarding gate. The United gate agents checked in some carryons free of charge as they worry the overhead bin space is not enough for all the carryons. Similar thing happened to me (my carryon) for my SFO to ORD flight (in my case, once checked in, it goes to final destination without my intervention). So make sure you take out essentials (paperwork, phone, battery park, water bottle etc.) as you will need them for the remaining of the flights/journey.

Re-entering the US

One only need to show green card (for permanent resident), and their camera look at the face, as well as some finger printing scan. The agent who serviced me was not nice though. Note for those hold B and F visa, they will need to show the vaccination records when getting the boarding pass. This is not required for US citizens and GC holders.

Tips for travel in China

Mobile phone with data plan, here is one possibility to get a local number (Amazon Associate Link).

Apps nice to have: WeChat (and WeChat Pay 微信支付) or Alipay 支付宝。#高德地图 (GaoDe Map) for navigation and get #网约车which is similar to Uber/Lyft in the states. I know WeChat and Alipay can get the 网约车too, similar for #滴滴出行。All those apps will need a mobile phone (likely with a Chinese cell phone number) as well as identity verification (not sure how it works for a US passport holder).

Useful links and resources

回国机票价格表和检测规定: https://www.flychina.com/update.asp (in Chinese).

Also look at 美国-中国 直飞航班专区 section: right now there are direct flights between 6 US cities and mainland China (note the flights are not daily, the most frequent one seems to be the SFO to PVG flights, 5 times a week). The 6 US cities are: LAX (Los Angles), JFK (New York), SEA (Seattle-Tacoma), DTW (Detroit), DFW (Dallas Forworth), and SFO (San Francisco).

If you live in or near those 6 cities, consider yourself lucky. Because the connection time for people from other cities can be long, and number of connections are usually more than compared to 2019: e.g., I usually transfer at ORD Chicago O’here before pandemic because both AA and UA offered daily flights to PVG. In fact, now I recall I took the United Airlines flight last minute in Mar 2007 to see my then girlfriend (now my wife, I have an old blog post dedicated to this). Did you notice anything interesting regarding the blog post’s published date 🙂

What’s next and upcoming

I think I will write up some of my observations and thoughts for my trip as well, e.g., the emergence of EV which is much more than just Tesla here. Or to be more precise, I understand it’s Tesla plus a few more here, such as Polestar, Ford Mach E, Lucid, Rivian and Ford F-150 lightning, but in China, it’s BYD (Build Your Dream) in the leading position, with Tesla following, and followed by Nio/Xiao Peng/Li Xiang (all 3 companies stocks listed in the US, they are $NIO, $XPEV and $LI), as well as many players such as 零跑汽车(Leap Motor, it’s traded in HKSE as HKEX: 09863): their C11 is very impressive, btw, I would trade my Sienna with it in a second. Too bad I live in a country there is really two choices: model 3 and model Y (I hate model X’s funky doors). What I really want is something like Leap Motor’s C11 (small SUV with 600 km which is about 400 miles range 🙂 || Incidentally I came across this article abut China EV industry – China auto show highlights intense electric car competition.

Categories
Saint Louis

Authentic asian food in the STL area

Reading Time: 4 minutes

(Update 09-23-2025) Golden Apple Buffet in St. Charles reopens after immigration raids (Fox2News). Earlier KDSK: FBI raids St. Charles County, home, restaurant. From what I heard, though I haven’t visited and have no plan to visit in the near term, this is probably the biggest Chinese buffet place in the area. This is their web page at the restaurant review site Yelp.

(Update 01-15-2024) I just realized I have another earlier blog post – Asian Restaurant Near O-Fallon MO Area.

(Original) You got to eat. I mean we can eat at the Panda Express for Chinese food once a while, but not everyday. Here is some of the places we go these days and I will put a quick one line or 2 comments. In Alphabetical order.

Cate Zone: I like their 地三鲜 (this is a very traditional northeastern China dish, made of potato etc)

CM Chicken & Ssong’s Hotdogs: 12927 Olive Blvd, Creve Coeur, MO 63141 (by fee fee road).

Corner 17: probably the most popular place in St. Louis in terms of Chinese food. The waiting time is too long. My girls will order bubba tea here (and I don’t like their boba tea btw, it has too much/strong edible essence). I did quite a bit takeout during pandemic, and sometimes the kids eat at the parking lot near that place.

Drunken Fish: they have been in the STL area for a while. They have two locations: central west end and the west port. It’s a bit interesting I only visited there today Mother’s Day 2023 (05-14-2023) at the west port location (which is closer to where we live). Their portion is generous and I suggest don’t order too much 🙂

Dumplings and Tea: my wife went there the other day with her boss. She said it’s pretty good. I still need to check it out. At Chesterfield.

Fire Chicken (Seamless, Facebook): fairly new Korean food place. Near where I live.

The Foundry Bakery: I just heard from an Indian friend that their Naisu Milk Bun 奶酥面包 is fantastic.

Joo Joo Korean Restaurant and Karaoke: I like their food a lot, from the seafood pancake to the soups (beef, rib etc.). Visited them twice recently (July 2023). Note there are a few nearby places of interest: Spoonful (don’t bring their drinks into Joo Joo), CM Wing and hotdogs (I heard they are Korean style food from Chicago). I am interested in the latter (the wing and hotdog).

Midtown Sushi and Ramen: my girls are ramen fans. They have the best ramen in St. Louis, I think. Please note the hour (they close between 3 and 5 pm, and also they close on Monday).

Nudo: I am okay with their noodle. But my wife doesn’t 🙁

SenThaiBistro: downtown STL, a friend went there, and the ramen looks good on the WeChat photo.

Sharesweet (GrubHub): this is my wife’s favorite place. Note they only do boba tea and desserts on regular days/time, and they take orders for specials (food) and one can pick up on Saturday (the preferred payment is cash for that).

*Sides of Seoul: my favorite Korea food place now 🙂 Note they only take phone calls. I go there and pickup because I live nearby.

St. Louis bubble tea (Olive road): we all like their pork chop rice and noodles. We have been to this place since Serenity was very little.

STL Soup Dumplings (and its sister store Tiger Soup Dumplings at South County): both are good. New places, and the soup dumplings are tasty. Note don’t burn your tongue with the soup 🙂

ThaiSawadee: at Chesterfield, been there quite a few times over the years. Yummy noodle soup but be careful don’t burn your tongue.

Tai’ke: again my wife doesn’t like them very much probably because some of their food is too greasy or spicy. But I still like them (I eat Panda Express once a while too :-). Kids have their favorites there too. We still need to try their Shabu Shabu in the restaurant.

Urban Kitchen by ShareSweet: we went there the 1st time yesterday on 04-20-2024. My wife and kids liked it. We ordered the chicken hotpot, the pork rib (a touch of spiciness), the pork/Chinese veggie stir-fried noodles, and cucumber. My kids finished off the leftovers during today’s lunch. Will definitely go back 🙂

Wonton King (Google, Yelp, Website): Cantonese food. Been there for a while: probably 20 years. Address: 8116 Olive Blvd, Saint Louis, MO 63130-2023 || I decided to go back recently for 皮蛋瘦肉粥 Century Egg and Pork Congee.

WuDon BBQ: Korean BBQ restaurant at Fee Fee and Olive. Address: 1261 Castillons Arcade Plz, Saint Louis, MO 63141. Here is the introduction on YouTube. Facebook page. Yelp page. We went there today 04-30-2023 (2 adults, 2 kids). We ordered Beef Bulgogi and Chicken Bulgogi, as well as boneless rib beef. They serve small side Korean dishes, such as broccoli, kimchi and fish cake. They also served soup and pancake. The bill is about $90 before tips.

Please note: Corner 17, Wonton King and Cate Zone are also the No 1, 2 and 3 on the best Chinese restaurant per tripAdvisor (this is the complete list).

Last but not least, regarding rating, here is some truth that went viral last year – Use the ‘3.5-star rule’ to find the most ‘authentic’ Chinese food, says viral TikTok

*I am not taking any kickbacks from the mentioned restaurant, other than once the Sides of Seoul did give me a Korea snacks/deserts on Thanksgiving. 🙂

Btw, found my 18 year old post here: Major’s list in 2005 🙂

Categories
gadgets

Lost my AirPods Pro

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Note: the Amazon links are my Amazon Associate Link. I don’t think you will pay extra buying from Amazon through this link, but I will get a small commission from it.

I paid $159.87 for Apple AirPods Pro (series number: SH36DK17G0C6L) at Amazon on November 25, 2020, and I just saw it’s $219.99 on Amazon now.

I am not sad. The AirPods pro is about 2 years old. Typical life span for AirPods is about 2 to 3 years. The pro has two advantage that my AirPods 3 doesn’t have: 1) It can connect to my old MacBook Pro (late 2012 model); 2) It has noise cancellation. For the latter I have this Anker SoundCore headset.

I also looked at “AirPods loss insurance“, and it’s quite obvious that Apple and others don’t offer it.

(Update 02-21-2023: I found it in my backpack just now, after about 24 hours 🙂

(Update 08-04-2024): it looks like this AirPods Pro die, it worked for about 3 and half years and I am happy 🙂

(Update 04-06-2025): I listed the case on eBay. Also, from Apple, Before you sell, give away, return, or recycle your AirPods