@Xiefei: Actually only your "foreign earned income" counts toward the "foreign earned income exclusion." Also, if you are provided housing, you need to declare the value of the housing as income. CUFE in Beijing claimed the rooms we lived in were worth 900 kuai a night ;-).
FICA is optional. Unless there has been a change, you need only 40 credits to get Social Security benefits. Credits are earned at 4 per year. Your benefit is based on your highest 10 earnings years. I figured out I would never earn as much as already had. I never paid FICA tax while in China. I get the maximum. In fact I applied for SS benefits at at the US Embassy in Beijing.
You are right about state taxes. Some states require you pay but California is not one of them. I do know Hawaii and Massachusetts do have the never return rule.
Putting a US address on your tax returns may cost you the $99,200 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. One of the requirements is that your "tax home" is in a foreign country.
In interview, Yunnan Party chief stresses ending poverty
发布者34 years ago, when entered China, China was a poor country with most people living under the $1.00 per day poverty line. The 100's of millions of people raised out of poverty in China reflect improvement to above that line. I leave it to you as to how realistic $1 per day is.
Since 2008, $1.25 has been used as the global line. As of October 2015, the global poverty line was updated to $1.90. It seems China is holding the long outdated $1 which is a lower hurdle.
I cringe when I hear of relocation schemes that move poor uneducated unskilled people, living at a centuries old subsistence level, being uprooted and forced into a cash economy. Incomes may rise a few yuan per day so fewer are "counted as poor" while the now "not poor" work at low wages. Real poverty exists in urban areas too.
Forgotten Flying Tigers headquarters and barracks found in Kunming
发布者@bilingualexpat Thanks. There is a memorial to the lady on the Beijing Normal University campus. General Chennault was 30 years her senior.
Ancient terraforming: Yunnan's 1,000 year-old Hani Rice Terraces
发布者Yuanyang needs more than one day for sure.
Best time of year is around Spring Festival after the terraces are flooded and before they are planted. You also need a car/van and driver.
Best times of day is dawn and sunset to get light reflecting off the paddies. You only have about 15 minutes with the best light. My experience was mixed. At sunset there was a lot of haze and smoke from farmers burning whatever they had cleaned out of the terraces. The driver showed up late in the morning then insisted on breakfast.
I got my best shots at Dou Yi Cun and Bada at sunrise and the morning.
I was there in 2010 as the lookout platforms were being built. It does get crowded with Chinese tourists who tend to bump and push. I was using two cameras on tripods. People had no problems touching, looking through and moving the camera I wasn't looking through. I was disappointed with my terrace photos.
I spent the daytime hours wandering in markets, streets and alleys. Got many great shot of minzu ladies in their finest 'go to market' dress, kids and some cool old faces. I was pretty much ignored taking people photos. I took over 2500 photos in three days.
@nnoble is right to get off the photo platforms and into the villages and markets. There many minorities, Yi, Hani, Eastern Dai, and others I could not recognize at Sheng Cun.Xiang,
Visa-less elephant flaunts Yunnan's international border protocols
发布者Customs didn't even look at his trunk.
Counting down Kunming's Top Ten Smells
发布者The trick in enjoying hotpot and not smelling like boiled mutton is to change your clothes within a day or two. Me, I would never go much longer than a week wearing the same clothes. Showering at least once a month will also help the stinky foreigner problem.