This Week: Lost and Found, Food and Paper Trails

Visa renewed, riding around Changping, questioning the value of the university degree, and back to livestreaming!

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🎥 This Week’s Videos

1. 🚲 Lost and Found, Food and Bike - Skewers, cycling, and a post-visa pit stop in Beijing’s northern Changping District. 👉 Watch here
2. 🎓 Is the University Degree Still Worth It?! - A look back at university life, and a question: does the “paper” still matter in the age of AI? 👉 Watch here
3. 🛂 To the PSB! - A quick glimpse into visa renewal day at the Public Security Bureau. 👉 Watch here
4. 👋 Checking In and Saying Hello - First livestream in a while. 👉 Watch here

🚲 Lost and Found, Food and Bike

After dropping off my passport and visa docs, I wanted to take a different route back to the hotel and, as per usual, I'd get a little lost along the way. Took a bit of a detour but managed to find one of the subway stations to reorient myself - and grab a snack. Six yuan for a meat and veggie skewer, enough to make it back to the hotel.

👉 Watch the full video

🎓 Is the University Degree Still Worth It?!

Back in the day, you went to university to “get the paper”—not always for the knowledge, but for the credential. With AI tools like ChatGPT, is that piece of paper still necessary? Or are we shifting to a more skill-based, merit-driven world? I’ve noticed differences between degree and non-degree holders, but is it just about the money? Or the way you think? More importantly, does the university still teach you to think critically or has it been overriden by the ubiquity of the internet and the advent of "AI" such as ChatGPT?

What do you think?

👉 Watch the full video

🛂 To the PSB!

It’s that time again—renewing my work residence permit. Off to the Public Security Bureau! Always a little unpredictable, but it’s all part of the expat adventure.

This is a longer video, topping out at around 12 minutes. My video editor likes to keep things tight and to the point but I like to meander a little more. The result is this video that is both informational about the visa and residence permit renewal process and a bit of a look around the Changping district in Northern Beijing.

👉 Watch the full video

👋 Checking In and Saying Hello

And we're back to livestreaming once again!

Although I was livestreaming on Instagram throughout the week while I was writing out my Chinese characters, I only did one YouTube livestream. But I hope to change that this summer.

I won't say to follow along on all the socials as I think it would be overwhelming. However, I like the idea of doing a few more broadcasts across the different channels covering a variety of topics. In an ideal world, these livestreams could then be cut up into watchable chunks but, in my experience, that hasn't been the case.

Instead, these livestreams might be a good place to answer questions and to discuss some things about living overseas, language learning, and even the technology. I'd avoid sensitive topics as I don't want to get into debates, and, as I've seen first hand, living overseas is very different from reading about it in the news. So let's keep it real, as much as it can be kept real. :)

👉 Watch here

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Steve

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