How many English lads had tears with their muffins this morning? Too soon?

Yours might be different to nnobles though. Nnoble said there was no difference when they were ascending/descending in a plane, which has severe air pressure changes, even worse than when a storm hits (generally). If you get it in a plane, then it is probably air pressure, if not, then I would suggest its something else. As each person is different and there are likely different causes. The atmosphere changes in many ways when a storm hits meaning there could be many factors at play.

I had a friend who would experience severe headaches when descending especially in planes. They never had problems in storms though...

There is a Thai place with an A rating in the Wang fu jing mall, 5th floor (take elevator), north end. The prices are pretty high but the environment is pretty nice. It has a huge stone wall with water running down it and the "A" guanxi level sign is nearby the counter just past the toilets. Oh its called Bamboo Leaf.

Couldn't you argue that the Chinese are colonising themselves with their desire of and acceptance of all things Western? Maybe mm you should turn your attention to Chinese people and demand they deny western culture and embrace and enhance their own. Everywhere I look Chinese people either want to leave or live like Americans!

I think you could live off 2k a month... Cheap shared apt about 900... Baozi for breakfast, 3 kuai, dinner (2 meals worth, cooking at home, leftovers for lunch every day) 20 kuai. That's 700 kuai for food a month. Total 1600 so far. Say 200 for phone/internet/water/power=1800. So 200 left over for clothes and any outings. You could do it, but it probably wouldn't be that enjoyable! I would call that "basic living" or "barely living"!

Add on another 500 for activities and the occasional western indulgence and you will get to the amount most foreigners could live on here if they were living frugally in shared cheap accommodation.

Add on another 500 and you would get to the amount you could live on by living frugally and travelling a little. Or nicer accommodation but still shared.

You would go up to 3500-4000 by living alone or shared in really nice accommodation plus western indulgence, travel and going out a bit.

4000 plus if you eat out all the time and spend a lot on clothes etc. This would be an amount I would call "living well" with an active social life and spending on luxuries plus travelling a bit.

More than this is easily done too, depends on how much partying, travel and luxuries.

It depends on your circumstances too though. If you live with a partner and share an apartment still, your rent costs halve. This is what I do and live off 2000-3000 a month easy with some travel, she probably spends not much over 1500. But my partner always cooks local food for us and is good at it too :-). I still have a western breakfast (oats, banana, western milk) and half the time have western lunch (sandwich, bread from wicker basket, tomato, bacon, cucumber, cheese from Metro). Occasionally go out to dinner, hardly ever go to the movies (just wait a bit and pay 5 kuai on youku!), once a month go out to a pub, lots of free fun like hiking and walking around parks etc. Throw in the occasional travel and it's pretty easy for us as a couple to live off 4k to 4.5k a month.