A few random questions!

[frobbit]

Ok, rather than create a thread for each, I thought I'd conserve space and bung them all in one place!

1. Can you buy Marlboro lights in China (more specifically Harbin), looked for ages and just find the 'red' packs. If these aren't redily available, can someone recommend a local brand which isn't as strong as smoking an entire plantation?!

2. In my quest to find a cheap laptop, I've been led to believe that I may get the best deal from ebay. 9,800 for a 17" widescreen sony vaio, 100gb hd and 1gb of ram dvdrw, etc. Seems like a good price to me.

I have used ebay with no troubles in England, but does anybody have any experience using it in China? Pros cons? Or is there somewhere else I should look?

3. I was trying to find a nice mp3 jukebox for the days I will spend travelling. However all that is sold are these diddy 256/512 models, which look kinda cool, but are completly impractical for the ammount of music I want to carry.

Ideally I'd like to get a 20 or 40 gb machine.

[frobbit]

I hate being the kind of loser that has to reply to their own post FIRST, but surely someone must have some advice for me!

I've already asked the Chinese staff at my school, and as I'm the only foreign teacher there, you guys are my bastion of knowledge...so c'mon! Help a brother out!

[geraldc]

Well most of those questions are hard to answer, as they're all regarding taste.

If you can't find Marlboro lights in Harbin, then they obviously don't sell them there.

If you want a cheap laptop, 1, don't buy a Vaio. 2, if you want piece of mind and aftersales service, stay away from ebay. What OS do you want? Chinese or English etc.

MP3 Jukeboxes, iPod or Creative lab muvos are the popular ones, again we don't know what your budget is or what the local stores stock...if you want mail order, it's worth checking out www.yesasia.com for mp3 players

Go read the reviews on cnet.com or cnet asia they have pretty good reviews of laptops and mp3 players.

[frobbit]

Thanks for the reply Geraldc,

I understand that maybe I was being a little too vague!

I've actually found a ok alternative to Marlboro Lights, so thats not a problem any more.

On the laptop side of things, I would rather go for a decent quality machine (which is why I specified the Sony Vaio) as I don't want it breaking in 6 months!

I don't mind getting a Chinese OS as I can easily get an English version to replace it with.

I was just hoping that I'd maybe spend less on it than I woud've in England. My budget is around 8,500 rmb (600 pounds). All that is really important is good screen size (ideally widescreen) big ram (512 min), large hd (60gb min) and a dvd rom / dvd(or cd) rw.

And finally the mp3 model I'd prefer is iRiver, with at least 20gb storage. I'd really like to keep this under 2,000 rmb!

All the local stores, as I said, only carry the small mp3/4 machines.

I'll check out the links you suggested!