Random Thread #1

[Zingy]

From my experience and friends, who are importers, who regularly travel to China, you will want to take: toilet paper, hand sanitizer, hand wipes, a perscription for jet lag, some of the foreign currency, (the airlines tend to make your arrival in the very early morning hours, before the foreign currency exchanges open, at the airports). also instant coffee, if you like coffee. I also like to have a couple of "Canadian Hockey" t-shirts with me, just in case your in an area where Americans are not too welcomed.

 

I would use credit cards, to limit theft liability. Visa seems more accepted. American Express has assistance centers, in the larger foreign cities.

 

Finally, read the ingredients, of what you plan to consume. I forget where exactly purchased, but I almost consumed cough drops, that contained codine, purchased overseas, from a petroleum station. No one wants issues with customs.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Zingy

[Bobosan]

I would use credit cards, to limit theft liability. Visa seems more accepted. American Express has assistance centers, in the larger foreign cities.

 

 

 

I've not been to mainland China, however, in HK there are plenty of ATM's to withdraw funds directly converted to honkydollars at the current exchange rate. Major inland Chinese cities may also have ATM's that would do this for Yuan. In any case and as Zingy pointed out, it's a good idea to convert some currency to your destination currency before you board that long ass flight. Don't forget to notify your credit card company and bank that you are going out of country lest their security departments freeze your card/account.

 

I had no problems eating traditional Cantonese/Mandarin treats and dishes, even from the street corner vendors. Ya just don't always want to know what your eating though. Those thoughts might just make you sick!

 

Drink bottled water only or boil your water thoroughly for coffee and tea. I always used bottled water in the hotel provided coffee pot.

Edited December 8, 2013 by Bobosan

[Zingy]

In the more economically distressed areas of China, toilet paper is not always provided, in restroom facilities, because of theft, or the presumption of theft. You definitely want to have some with you, regardless of a possible case of "Montezuma's Revenge'.

 

Some of the more disgusting, but amusing, experiences of importers, have been their reviews, or experiences in questionable restrooms, or areas used as restrooms.

 

One friend told me of his unpleasent experience, of having to use a curtained area, in back of a restaurant, that had a pole, (like a strpper pole), next to a hole in the ground. You held onto the pole, while stooping over the hole, to relieve yourself. I would also take some disposible medical gloves.

 

A particular item that caught my attention, in a depressed area, was a open air Dental Office, were any passing observer could see a patient, in a dental chair, like a open air fruit market. The hygienic standards seemed questionable. I would take care of any medical, or dental issues before leaving the States, (or Colonies).

Edited December 9, 2013 by Zingy

[TheEskimo]

Thanks for helpful replies, folks. I'll be staying in Beijing with a college friend, so I'm not too worried about personal care. I am thinking about getting a decent face mask; do you think the kind of particle respirator we use when mixing chemicals would be fine? After the recent inversion over Shanghai, there's no way I'm using just a medical mask to keep my lungs happy.

Also, does anyone live in Denmark? I'll be attending DTU, Lyngby campus, right outside Copenhagen.

[Mumbles]

Thought this may of interest to some of you.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PYROTECHNICS-BOOK-FIREWORKS-HARDT-/131284441812?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item1e91299ad4

 

 

I'm also incredibly interested in this item, but probably lack the funds currently.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pyrotechnics-and-Solid-State-Chemistry-Lot-of-7-J-H-McLain-Lecturer-Franklin-/251471607018?pt=US_Texbook_Education&hash=item3a8ce034ea

[Bobosan]

When I first looked at the McLain notes, I wondered how electronics and pyro would go together in the late 60's. Then I realized it was solid chemical states and not silicon chips.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Bobosan

[AzoMittle]

Want. Want. Want.

 

Bid placed on Hardt, that's one I haven't been able to find anywhere and VERY much want.

edit: It seems it won't be possible to get this item. Every time I place a bid it tells me I've been outbid, before I can even confirm it..... I will be winning this book

Mumble grumble -censored speech- I go away for 5 minutes before it ends and I lose....

 

I have never heard of McLain before, does anyone know anything about the contents? (Not that I have $200 laying around to drop on something like this....)

Edited September 7, 2014 by AzoMittle

[optimus]

Check this out : )

[MrB]

Mumble grumble -censored speech- I go away for 5 minutes before it ends and I lose....

 

Never, ever put your bid in "ahead of time" on eBay. If your bid shows up with more then 5 seconds left on the clock, i will outbid you. Manually. The right way to do it is wait for the last 5 seconds, and drop your absolute maximum bid. No if's or but's. What ever you actually want to buy, figure out what it's really worth to you, and then bid that, in the last seconds. The bidding war bounces up as far as it has to, to let you win, or be outbid. It prevents people that hasn't made up their mind from entering a 2 bucks higher sum, over and over.

 

edit: It seems it won't be possible to get this item. Every time I place a bid it tells me I've been outbid, before I can even confirm it..... I will be winning this book

 

Actually, you seam to be one of "those" people. Stop placing multiple bids. You don't ever up your bid a few bucks at the time. You can drop a low bid early in the game, just to let everyone know there is someone bidding. And then you don't raise that bid until your ready to put down your maximum bid. It doesn't matter if the item is currently listed at 5 bucks. If your willing to pay 5 grand, then 5 grand should be your only bid after the initial one. If the second highest bidder is willing to pay 6 bucks, then you get it for 7 bucks, if he's willing to pay 4999, then you get it for 5000:-

Never play around with those lowball small incremental bids. Your just hurting your self. Your triggering "other bidders" with the same mentality to bid another 2 bucks, to outbid you, and since every one of you is upping it 1-2 bucks at the time, everyone else keeps thinking your almost done, and that the bidding war will end soon. I've seen people bid hundreds of bucks in that way, for items that when they finally got it ended up being 3-4 times more expensive then what i bought the next auctioned one for. Ideally, every auction has only 1 bid from you.

 

Back before eBay started to not show the buyers names in the listings, you could click a bid, and see who made it, and check how they had been bidding on the same / similar items before. Back then i had the habit of placing 1 lowball bid, letting people know i was interested, and then i simply waited for the end of the auction, and swooped in buying it for what ever people managed to push it to in the last seconds. I saw people who had started bidding on the things i wanted, that saw my bid, simply drop that auction, and go on to the next one for the same item. If i needed more then one, i simply let them have the next one, and then snagged the next again. Now-days thats not possible, so a low bid now just means "someone" is interested. It says nothing about who, and their buying history.

 

Anyway, became a lot of text about a none pyro subject... Short story, save your self some disappointment, and expenses. Don't bid until the last seconds, and make sure what ever your bid is at that point is something that wont later make you regret that you didn't bid more. If you lose, it's always going to be by a buck or so, but that has no meaning, it isn't indicative of what ever the winner actually put in as his maximum bid.

B!

[Mumbles]

This is an old thread, but figured it might be best for this.

 

Does anyone remember an older website devoted to black powder history. As I recall, it was perhaps mostly pdf files. I may have them on my computer, but it's out of service at the moment. This website explored the charcoal used in gun powder that I'm interest in. There was specifcally some extractions done and subject to crude chromatography up coffee filter paper.

 

This website may have had a .ch domain, but that is just a vague recollection. I think it may have focused more extensively on european gun powders like KiK and Schuetzen.

[SeaMonkey]

The Swiss Black Powder Booklet shows such an extraction using

Acetone. It's a very thorough documentation of how they make

Charcoal for their Black Powder.

 

The Booklet is available here.

 

Ulrich Bretscher's Black Powder pages

Edited April 28, 2020 by SeaMonkey