A Tech Entrepreneur's Guide To Visiting Shenzhen 49
Freetronics is Australia's answer to a lot of electronic tinkerers' needs, selling items like Arduino compatible boards, cables, and specialized tools. Founder Jonathan Oxer is a (serious) electronics hobbyist himself; he talked with Slashdot last year about making ArduSats, which were then launched to the International Space Station. Now, Oxer has written an excellent guide for hobbyists who might get the chance to travel to Shenzhen, where so many of the world's electronic bits and bobs are made. As travel writing goes, it's fascinating for the sheer novelty of the place. If you actually have the chance to go, some of the advice here might save you money and time. For those of you who have been to Shenzhen, what else should visitors know?
Unit conversions? (Score:5, Funny)
Because the RMB is currently at about AU$1 = 5.5 RMB (give or take) you'll see prices that at first make you go "what the hell?". Everything looks ridiculously expensive ("that can of drink is $2.50?!!") until you do the arithmetic and realise that the $2.50 can of drink is actually about AU$0.44c, and you can afford to drink it after all.
Wow. It must feel incredibly condescending for a techie to be taught how to do unit conversions and that different countries have different currencies. Or perhaps that's just some Australian quirk I'm not familiar with.
Re:No need for sunglasses (Score:4, Funny)
The continual gray haze gets to after a few days, beats you down, and holds you there.
Sounds like Seattle...