u/AngryBuddist

Taobao and Alibaba sites like 1688.com has been restricting me for a while, and my current restriction is supposed to end tomorrow.

In the past I just get restricted again. How can I make sure I'm good and keep it good?

I am from the northern US where weather is cool year round, except for a few weeks of heat in the summer. Dry heat to be exact. I thought I knew the performance of my fragrance through repeated use over time.

Not until I landed in the subtropics on this trip, where it's really hot and humid. Everything I brought seems to last half as long and much less powerful. Maybe because it's a bustling city with pollution, smog, and just lots of smells all around, I can hardly pick out my own scent.

Until that is, I walked into an Amouge store today. Sprayed with just a tiny amount of Outlands and Sequence. (They spray pretty light here.) For one, these are known to be beast mode to begin with. For another, their spicy nature and strong performance seem to fit so much better in this climate/environment!

Is this how the ME fragrance style came to be? Feels like if I wear a subtle Guerlain's like Herbes Troublantes it will flash off in a sec and its subtlety will be lost in the heat. Though to be fair, with Herbes Troublantes that's probably anywhere in the world.

I have to say, for my use back home, I do enjoy the French style much more. But maybe elegance and smoothness is harder to appreciate here with this environment. Crazy theory?

Is there a way to do it with at least texting at a low cost? Just need it for 2FA purposes. Thanks.

Bought too much haul and need a package sent home. Anyone has a reference you can give me? They are all over Kinbo but would prefer to know it’s a good shop. Thanks!

Also is the Trump tariffs going to kill my wallet?

I only got into fragrances not too long ago, but I’ve gone pretty deep in a very short time. My instinct so far has been to smell as many different fragrances and scents as possible, so I can get a feel for the full range of notes and styles in the hobby. It honestly feels like rediscovering a fifth sense.

That approach has made me the kind of person who reacts to every post or video praising a fragrance’s smell or performance. There’s probably a fair amount of FOMO in that. I started with a sample kit from a beauty store, then quickly moved on to buying a lot of more affordable fragrances, especially Middle Eastern ones, as well as a few decants. It’s not a bad way to learn and explore, but I’m starting to wonder whether this is the direction I want to keep going in.

More recently, I’ve had the chance to travel internationally, and that has opened up access to stores, boutiques, and duty-free counters where I can sample a much wider range of fragrances, mostly designers and big niche names. Beyond just having more access, I’ve also started to realize that quality and elegance are qualities I really enjoy, and I’m not sure I was getting that as consistently from the cheaper Middle Eastern fragrances.

That said, I may also be falling for the spell of luxury branding. For example, I’ve started paying closer attention to YSL offerings, and I found Tuxedo, Babycat, and the trio of black bottles — 6, 24, and 37 — to be very smooth and well blended. They have a quality to them that I wasn't aware of earlier: subtler, rounder, and more polished. For instance, I had and really enjoyed Riffaqat at home, and I liked the contrast between the smoky spice and the sweet vanilla, but Babycat felt more enjoyable to me because of its blending and overall quality.

I’m starting to wonder whether it’s time to step back from the FOMO and the endless chasing, and instead put my budget toward a few well-made bottles that I can really live with and appreciate more deeply.

Did you go through a similar shift in your own journey? Did your approach change over time, and how did that happen?

I'd like to get a pair of glasses made while I'm here (progressive lenses, I'm old 😄). I've heard SZ does a lot of lenses anyway.

Does anyone have a good shop to recommend for me? I'll want to get a new frame as well, so some place that has some stylish choices would be great. Thanks!

Hi there, can anyone recommend me a tailor in GZ that can help me altering a suit that is too big? Reasonable in price would be good. I speak ok Chinese, if that helps.

My hotel is in Tianhe but I don't mind going to wherever they are. Thanks!

I'm not sure what this phrase means to be honest. Easier, how?

Do people actually consider changing their outfit to match their SOTD? Or they won't put on a fragrance they like just because they already have the wrong outfit on?

That just doesn't make sense to me. If I want to wear LNDL or Black Orchid I don't think I'll stop just because I'm in tees and shorts. And if you judge me as "unsophisticated," well, that's really on you.

Now, if it's high heat and humidity, I probably would hesitate to wear heavy or cloy fragrances. Is that what this means?

I've been in the US tech industry for decades, seen all the major industry transformations from both big tech companies as well as founders of startups. I am here in Shenzhen to check out the tech scene and also the Chinese techno future.

I'm staying in Futian, would love to meet folks to explore together and share notes. English is my best language, passable Mandarin, fluent Cantonese. Pretty chill.

DM me and hangout!

So based on the reco on this sub I ordered Holafly eSim for HK/Macau/China for my iPhone. Before take off from US Iinstalled and tried to activate it before boarding. 14 hours later landed at HKG, turned the line on, got 5 bars, but no internet.

Found a seat at the airport and took out my laptop and did chat support. As usual, tier 1 support had me do everything: including manual network selection, reset the ios network settings back to factory, After 35 mins, they then said, oh, let me have you talk to technical support....

So tech support doubled check everything once again, no dice. Finally he said "I'm going to issue you a different eSIM. That one installed fine too, activated, and still no worky.!

THEN he said, wait, you need to submit your passport to the government, and so I had to do that. Finally after 1.5 hrs on top of an 14 hour flight, that worked.

But he couldn't explain to me: Why did this new eSIM requires China Mobile to verify my identity, when the first one didn't? It wasn't in the instruction they emailed at order time, it wasn't part of the debugging process for 1.4 hr. How is this eSIM different??

He couldn't answer, and it wasn't like this one with voice #. He just said it's part of the government requirement. And assured me that it works for HK/Macau/China just like the one I ordered.

Now I'm paranoid: Will I have a problem inside China? Does this new one still has VPN built-in?

Has anyone run into this before?