An acquaintance of mine, a recent college grad, is moving to China very soon to do the whole teach students English thing.
I’d like to get this person a gift before they leave, but my old standby, a gift card, seems like it won’t work here. I also can’t get anything they’d have to pack in their suitcase or eat quickly before they leave.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
A good VPN?
A Kindle loaded with lots of books in English.
New Balance sneakers.
Food … something to represent your country.
A Kindle or a tablet with a Kindle app is a good idea. English language books are hard to find, but the Amazon Kindle store works great. It was my main source of books. Amazon can also ship to China for a steep but not absolutely crazy fee. Maybe pre-load it with a copy of “River Town,” a classic teaching in China memoir.
Tuttle’s Learning Chinese Characters book was the only Hanzi (Chinese characters) book that worked for me, and isn’t easy to get in China.
Large clothing and shoe sizes may be difficult to get, especially outside of major cities. If he is going any place that gets cold, silk long underwear will be valuable. This is especially true below the Yellow River where homes and workplaces are not heated. It’s not unusual in some areas to sleep in hats and gloves because it’s freezing inside. Also, dryers aren’t really a thing, so easy dry fabrics are a plus.
A photo book of home is fun for the students- just lots of family and hometown pictures. Even everyday streetscapes will be fascinating.
Other that that, China is full of WalMarts and Carrefours, and there are few things that can’t be found with some effort.
Feel free to give him my contact info if he wants more personal advice.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. (Special thanks to you, Sven, I was hoping you might check in.) Unfortunately, I don’t know this guy quite well enough to buy him long underwear (!) but those are the kind of suggestions I was looking for. These are much better ideas than mine, which was just to get him a wad of yuan.
Oh yeah- if he has a bank account at home, suggest he move it to Bank of America. They have an agreement with China Construction Bank (which is huge and everywhere) that will allow him to pull out his money with no transaction charges.