Living in China is a different experience altogether. This is my fourth month working in China, and I’m still learning to deal with so many basic tenets of a modern lifestyle. One such learning experience came from the online shopping in China when I bought a new Dell laptop in Suzhou. In fact, online shopping is quite popular in China, and in this post I’ll tell you about a popular online Chinese buying website. Let me share with you details about JingDong– the best Chinese online store for electronic gadgets. I think as a foreigner there are certain things you should keep in mind if you plan to buy a laptop or desktop computer in the mainland China.
Here goes my story!
Online laptop Shopping In China
I bought a Dell laptop in February, 2018 (Windows 10 Home edition, 8GB RAM, 1TB HD) on JingDong. It was delivered very fast. I ordered at around 12.30pm and the laptop was delivered the very next morning. Everything looked fine. I was excited to buy a personal computer after nearly 7 years.
The first Boot
When I switched the laptop’s power on, I had to setup my computer immediately after the very first boot. Soon I realized that everything that appeared on the laptop’s screen was in Mandarin Chinese language. There were too many textboxes and I was supposed to write something in them. Since I couldn’t read most of those characters, I didn’t know what exactly to write into them. I just filled a few words (in those textboxes) that I could easily remember. As such, I didn’t realize when I entered the password and username. I was of the mind that later I’d change the language (I have a PhD in computer science and I was confident dealing with a new computer 🙂 ).
Anyways, my computer was finally up.
Now my next goal was to change the laptop’s language. Since I didn’t know Chinese, I asked my native Chinese colleagues to help me. However, after spending a considerable amount of time, it seemed that if you buy a laptop in China, it would come with preinstalled Chinese language. Moreover, the Windows 10 Home edition has issues about supporting two languages on a laptop. We do have an option to buy an extra language pack (price around US $100). However, and since I’m learning Chinese, I somehow convinced myself that it was okay to deal with this language issue.
How about Chrome?
I also had Wi-Fi in my room. So the next task was to surf internet. Soon I realized that the Google chrome was not preinstalled. I started figuring out how to install Google chrome in China on a laptop. Since most of the installation links were directed to/from Google (which is comprehensively blocked in China), I struggled to install my favorite chrome browser. Moreover, since the laptop’s language was Chinese, I faced unnecessary troubles to find the chrome’s installation setup. For example, CNET download linked didn’t work (not sure if CNET is partly blocked in China).
Eventually, I found the chrome setup and managed to install it on my new laptop. Life looked easier.
How can you change a computer’s language for free?
In order to change the computer language to English, one of the options suggested by my colleagues was to use official Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise edition provided by my university (I work for a university and a variety of software are made available for free to the university’s students and employees). My colleagues agreed to help me with installing the free version. But I didn’t install the Enterprise edition. Guess why? Because to update the Windows 10 operating system online from time to time in future, I’d always need to bring my laptop and connect it with the university’s Wi-Fi. I can’t get updates otherwise.
Microsoft office Key from Chinese Buying Website
Another big issue was the inactivated Microsoft Office. The Office was preinstalled on the laptop, but I was expected to activate it using a serial key. However, I didn’t know the key as the Chinese buying website JingDong never sent out any email about the purchase (key is supposed to be communicated by email). Since I didn’t get the serial key from JingDong, I asked my colleagues to talk to the JingDong customer helpline. I had earlier set up my outlook account with my China’s phone number. JingDong added serial key to my online outlook account associated with my phone number. Finally, the Microsoft Office was activated on my laptop.
As of now my computer is fine. It’s just that the main language is Chinese. Sure, I can create folders in English as well. It also gets updated on its own when I connect my computer with the internet.
However, there are still myriads of issues. For example, I have a preinstalled McAfee antivirus and its language is Chinese. I wish to change McAfee’s language to English. But I don’t know how! Most of the tutorial in Bing search results are explained in English and it’s difficult to follow those advices on the Chinese version of the software.
Tips for shopping at Chinese Buying Website JingDong
If you are a foreigner, here are some tips to do online shopping in China at JingDong -best Chinese online store:
- Translate the page to English using chrome
- Choose JingDong logistic – these products are more reliable and trustworthy
- Ask your Chinese colleagues to help you to fill your address in Mandarin
- The customer representatives only speak Chinese, and again, you’d need a local’s help
- JingDong does have the online customer service chat support, and there are English speaking representatives to assist you.
In summary, if you are coming to China and intend to stay here for a long time (e.g. job or study), I’d recommend you to bring a laptop in your language of preference. I ended up wasting a couple of days just trying to find how to change the language. Since language cannot be changed for free, I even thought of returning back the laptop to JingDong. However, only to realize that it’s difficult to buy a laptop in China with preinstalled English language. And finally, now I’ve no other option than to improve my Chinese skills with a laptop. 🙂
That’s all in this post.
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Happy online laptop shopping in China.
Cheers!
Last updated: Tuesday, February 27, 2018
I want to buy a cheap laptop to be delivered asap.
I can only read English since am new in China
You can use Google Chrome browser, and use the translation function to translate the pages to English. Best.