How To Find The Basics (Housing/Internet/Transportation/Etc.) In Harbin From The U.S.

[ripburntgucci]

I've been offered employment in Harbin, China to begin in July 2019. I wanted to get some insight on obtaining the basic necessities. I'm sure some factors are only available upon my landing in Harbin. But I do want to be well prepared prior to moving as much as I can. Please if you have any advise on obtaining the following, I'm all ears!

 

1. Finding an apartment & average monthly expenses including water and electricity

2. Obtaining/keeping work visa current

3. Paying bills back in the States / Transferring money to U.S. banks to pay bills

4. Getting Phone service and home internet in China

5. Obtaining public transportation (subway, bus, train, etc.) passes

6. Getting an international license / Buying a motorcycle in China

 

[abcdefg]

Read this thread. It addresses the housing part of your question. 

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/58244-renting-an-apartment-in-changsha-advice/?tab=comments#comment-452421 

 

9 hours ago, ripburntgucci said:

6. Getting an international license / Buying a motorcycle in China

 

You will need a Chinese driving license. International driving license is not valid here (not accepted.)

 

Do a search for your other questions. Use the search box, top right of the internet version of the forum. It's the one with the magnifying glass. All these things have been discussed a lot. 

[889]

More and more banks are using SMS for banking and credit card verifications, and if there's a problem of some sort, they want to be able to contact you. All this means that in addition to getting a Chinese number, you should make sure you have a US mobile number that can reach you in China.

 

As well, international bank transfers can be slow and cumbersome and expensive. And due to money laundering concerns, some US banks are particularly difficult about them. All this means that you should play it safe and have a decent sum in your US accounts before you leave for paying bills and such. Don't rely on your Chinese income to fund your US expenses, at least initially.

[Flickserve]

As an extension of the above by @889

 

I heard US phones are locked into the carrier which might cause some issues.

 

Consider getting a China phone with China sim and China apps and keeping your American phone separate for two factor verification.

[abcdefg]

2 hours ago, Flickserve said:

Consider getting a China phone with China sim and China apps and keeping your American phone separate for two factor verification.

 

That's what I do.

[DavyJonesLocker]

As @abcdefg suggested do a search first and come back with more specific queries. That's not intending to be unhelpful but sometimes these questions are too broad and may not suit a particular individual, e.g housing. People told me that I can easily live in central Beijing for 4000k . I had to pay 8k as anything less was just hideous.

 

As for the motorbike one. I'd recommend doing the test in the USA first and then you can apply for a Chinese one . It's just a pretty simple computer test in English. As for buying one. Imports are stupidly expensive. Harley will be 140,000  to 600,000 rmb but there are foreign companies in China like Suzuki Honda that make bikes to exact same spec as overseas (I phoned them) and can be cheaper than equivalent overseas model. Some Chinese bikes are pretty decent now like chunfeng .

I personally wouldn't buy a 2nd hand one as there is no annual safety check so god knows what your buying and driving a bike in China carries a lot more risk that USA.  

You need a licence to buy an ebike in Beijing now. Not sure about Harbin

[ChTTay]

You don’t need a license to buy an eBike. You do need to register your eBike with authorities and then put your  license plate on it. 

 

Motorbike license in China. As above, if you have a motorbike license in the US then you can “transfer it” (sort of) and that’s a lot easier than doing it here. From what I’ve read, you need excellent Chinese to get one here as the instruction and test is only in Chinese. It seems there was  an English test for a while but they got rid of that. 

 

Questions 1 , 2 , 4 and 5. If you’re a new hire to China your employer should definitely take care of these for you OR at the very least assist in doing all of them when you arrive. Ask them directly to make sure. 

[eliaso]

I'm a foreign student, have lived in Harbin for several years. Here is my advice.

 

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1. Finding an apartment & average monthly expenses including water and electricity

 

You pretty much have to be present here yourself to find an apartment. A very typical minimally furnished (usually with bed, sofa, some sort of a table, washing machine) apartment in Harbin that has one or two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room rents at around 1400 RMB a month. Not too pretty from the outside and the corridors can be a bit of a shock to a newcomer, but are completely livable when you rent one where the apartment itself has been renovated during the last 10 or so years. If you want to live in one of the newer tall buildings then you're looking for a rent of 2000+ RMB. For water and electricity budget around 100 RMB a month (you might end up paying less).

 

I assume you'd be coming for an English teaching gig. Your employer should give or rent a place for you to live, or compensate you an equivalent amount each month it takes to rent a typical apartment for one person. Note that when renting in Harbin, it is normal to pay 6 to 12 months of rent in advance and getting any of that money back if something goes wrong could be very hard.

 

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2. Obtaining/keeping work visa current

 

Your future employer should really tell you all about this and take care of their part in it. Simplified, it goes something like this: you send them all the paperwork they ask you to send them, later they'll send you paperwork that you need when you go to a consulate to apply for a visa, then when you arrive in China you have more paperwork to handle and offices to go to,  but your employer should really take care of all this.

 

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3. Paying bills back in the States / Transferring money to U.S. banks to pay bills

 

 

If you are working in China legally then you can go to bank with some more paperwork (pay slips, tax info) and do international transfers. Might be a hassle and take some time, but should work eventually. Banks in China, especially the smaller branches, are known for telling thing x isn't possible when they just don't know how to do something and don't want to bother. Any bigger branch of a major bank (ICBC, Bank of China etc.) should be better with this kind of stuff. Banks inside one of the bigger universities campuses are also good as they often are used to dealing with foreign students.

 

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4. Getting Phone service and home internet in China

 

You go to a representative shop of a carrier and ISP with your passport. You walk out with a working SIM card and a Chinese phone number, and somebody should come to your place in a day or two and open you a broadband connection. Note that depending where you live, you might only have one option when choosing ISP. Ask which ones work in your building / area. Mobiles plans depend on what you want, let's say around 30-130 RMB a month. Broadband probably around 100 RMB a month.

 

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5. Obtaining public transportation (subway, bus, train, etc.) passes

 

Public transportation (bus and metro) accepts cash and mobile payments. You will figure out mobile payments very quickly if you move here. You can also buy a public transit pass from a public transportation service center or certain kiosks for what I remember was 15 RMB, and then load money into it at the said service station, certain metro stations or post offices. Instead of paying 1 RMB for a bus, now you'll be paying 0.9 RMB, but it's worth it for not having to worry about carrying 1 RMB notes or coins in your wallet.

 

Trains operate separately and aren't really useful for moving inside the city. Tickets are bought seperately for every leg you do, no passes.

 

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6. Getting an international license / Buying a motorcycle in China

 

You cannot drive with an international license if you live in China. You can get a local license easily here if you already have a foreign one. Motorcycles are illegal in Harbin. I wouldn't recommend driving one inside the city as you risk fines / losing your bike. Also, you'd have to get one that's completely illegal, or one that is registered in some smaller rural city, as most big cities these days ban motorcycles.

 

It's pretty cold for 6-7 months every year and everything is mostly flat a few hundred of kilometers into any direction. Not really an ideal place if motorcycles are close to your heart.

[Lu]

I split off a bunch of posts on e-bike licences in Beijing, those can be found here.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Just now, Lu said:

I split off a bunch of posts on e-bike licences in Beijing, those can be found here.

 

thanks Lu, just might to note for the OP that the link I posted seems to refer to all of China, if I have read the site correctly