recharging and Checking minutes on china mobile
Posted on | June 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Omegadelta.net has a comprehensive post on navigating China Mobile’s automated service number, including plans, rates for voice, texts, data, international calling, and other information. Quite a good guide. If you just want some easy ways to recharge or check your balance on China Mobile, though, read on.
To get started, call 13800138000 to talk to a female robot (in Chinese) or a male robot (English). To navigate through the menus:
- enter 2 for English
- enter 2 to recharge (the guy says something like “to make an advance payment”but it means recharge)
- enter 1# to recharge the cell phone you’re calling from
- enter your PIN
- enter # to end
You should hear a message confirming your recharge. After you hang up, you can text YE to 10086 to get a text message indicating your balance. The text will be in Chinese but you should be able to see numbers reflecting your recharge.
You can also save the number string 13800138000p2p2p1# on your phone, and set the number as a quick-dial number. Then all you’d have to do is call that phone number, then wait for it to enter digits for you automatically. Enter your PIN. Then, enter # to finish.
Alternatively, Omegadelta.net also says here that you can recharge your account by texting CZ [PIN number] to 10086.
A high-quality Chinese video website
Posted on | April 27, 2010 | 1 Comment
Today, we are introducing to you a high-quality Chinese video site: 奇艺(qí yì). It’s like Hulu.com in China. Their video quality is quite good, and stands out from other video sites in China. What’s more, they have many legal copies and full length movies, TV dramas and documentary films you can watch online for free. Please check it out at Qiyi video – www.qiyi.com.
We have a post about other Chinese video websites here, covering Youku.com, 56.com and Ku6.com. Among those four video sites, we would recommend Youku.com and Qiyi.com (they’re just like the Chinese version of Youtube and Hulu).
Mostly importantly, you can get access to tons of video resources to help you practice your Chinese listening and speaking. Hope this post is helpful and let us know if you find anything interesting.
Tomb Sweeping Day – 清明节 (Qīng Míng Jiē)
Posted on | March 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Tomb Sweeping Day’s Chinese name, 清明节 (Qīng Míng Jiē), literally means “clear bright festival”. Clear and bright refer to the arrival of spring. However, Tomb Sweeping Day is also known as Cold Food Day 寒食节 (hán shí jiē). Why? Read on to find out.
清明节 (Qīng Míng Jiē) is celebrated on April 5th, 2010 . It is a time to honor ancestors who’ve passed on by visiting their graves, clearing off debris or weeds, and offering flowers, food and incense at the grave site and the ancestral altar at home. 清明节 (Qīng Míng Jiē) is also a time for flying kites of all sizes, shapes, and colors. Many Chinese also burn paper money 烧纸钱 (shāo zhǐ qián) in order to send money that the deceased can use in the underworld. Some also burn cars, houses, and other useful objects to send them to the other side. (By the way, note that 烧纸钱 (shāo zhǐ qián) is not the same thing as 烧钱 (shāo qián), which means to spend money rashly. Don’t get it mixed up!)
But what’s the deal with the cold food?
According to English Bus Club’s blog post on 清明节,
“Qing Ming is popularly associated with Jie Zi Zhui, who lived in Shanxi province in 600 B.C. Legend has it that Jie saved his starving lord’s life by serving a piece of his own leg. When the lord succeeded in becoming the ruler of a small principality, he invited his faithful follower to join him. However, Jie declined his invitation, preferring to lead a hermit’s life with his mother in the mountains.
Believing that he could force Jie out by burning the mountain, the lord ordered his men to set the forest on fire. To his consternation, Jie chose to remain where he was and was burnt to death. To commemorate Jie, the lord ordered all fires in every home to be put out on the anniversary of Jie’s death. Thus began the “cold food feast”, a day when no food could be cooked since no fire could be lit. 
The “cold food” festival occurs on the eve of Qing Ming and is often considered as part of the Qing Ming festival. As time passes, the Qing Ming festival replaced the “cold food” festival.”
Information for this post was compiled from whatsonxiamen.com, traditions.cultural-china.com and the English Bus Club.
Learn Chinese cooking terms
Posted on | March 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Francisco was planning to cook a great meal for his Chinese friends in his apartment. They arrived early to help him cook. He wanted to have Bavarian stir-fried vegetables with Russian borscht, which his friends had absolutely no experience with. So, he had to give them directions, but oh, no! When he wanted to ask someone to use the spatula to stir the vegetables, or to use the ladle to serve the soup, all he could say was “把那个。。。那个东西。。。那个，快点拿那个把它那个那个,快!”(bǎ nà gè 。。。nà gè dōng xī 。。。nà gè ，kuài diǎn ná nà gè bǎ tā nà gè nà gè ,kuài!) His poor friends didn’t know which kitchen utensil he wanted. It was like that all night.
So, they ordered KFC. Hope this post will help you avoid those situations.
In Chinese, 勺 (sháo) refers to spoon or a round utensil for eating/cooking, but can also refer to something that does what a spatula does – stirring or turning over food in a wok – 锅 (guō). 锅 (guō) is the generic name for most pots, but if you’re looking for a specific utensil or pot, see below. Cookware in general is called 烹调用具 (pēng diào yòng jù).
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