Writing down what can be checked, from inside China.
I test AI tooling for a living. The rest of this site is the part of China that is hard to see from outside: what a factory quote actually contains, what freight costs this month, what a market stall charges, and where the number in a headline came from. Five sections, one rule — if a number appears here, it came out of a script or a dataset that can be re-run.
Latest
1688 vs Alibaba prices: what each number includes
One part, two quotes, line by line: the buyer each price is built for, the tax line, the freight leg, the MOQ unit, and how to put both on one basis.
- Getting a phone number in China: channels and prices 2026-10-11
Where a visitor can buy a SIM, what real-name registration asks for, the filed prices by carrier, and when a mainland number is actually needed.
- Choosing a freight forwarder: reading the quote 2026-10-11
A forwarder quote is a stack of other people's rate cards: which lines are published, which are private price, and how to check the two credentials.
- Customs clearance documents, and what has to match 2026-10-11
A per-document pass over a China export: what each paper must carry, which origin proof applies in which case, and what a mismatch costs.
- How to buy a China high-speed rail ticket on a passport 2026-10-11
Passport verification, the staffed boarding lane, the refund and change fee tiers, and why two trains on one section can differ by 249 yuan.
Notes
Sections
- AI and engineering main line 9 posts
Evaluations, task books and pipelines — plus the numbers worth keeping, from model prices to page weight.
- Supply chain 8 posts
What things cost to make and move: factory quotes, sourcing, freight rates, month by month.
- Life in China 10 posts
Everyday life here, sorted into what has been measured and what is only habit.
- Data and the world 4 posts
Open datasets, charted — global flows, and what they look like up close in one place.
- 海外华人 3 posts · 中文
中文栏目：生活成本、跨境比价、出入境流程，按年更新。