SSAB - April 9, 2026

Cold and rainy, but back at it and into the gym! Light workout to get back into the swing of things.
Spent the day troubleshooting VPNs! The life in China! Do all those people on the socials proclaiming the advancements of China (especially on Threads) actually live in China? Or do they only post about it? Cause I tried ShadowRocket, LetsVPN, Mullvad, and ended up going back to Astrill. Also looked at SurfShark and TotalVPN.
Don’t forget to register!
Don’t forget to eat your noodles! (出门的饺子 进门的面)
Taking photos with the locals (already!)
And time to start cleaning.
Donate to the show! PayPal link below!
https://www.paypal.me/stevensirski?locale.x=en_CA
***Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com
And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4
Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com
Language vlog on http://www.youtube.com/@stevenslanguagevlog
Don’t forget to do your accommodation registration!
00:00 Back in Beijing01:01 Jet Lag and Gym Plans03:41 Bare Bones Gym Reality04:35 Apartment Shock and Visa Free Return07:26 Workout Gear and Reset Day10:20 Gym Pricing Math13:01 Breakfast Stop and Photo Requests14:57 Foreigner Spotlight Rant18:07 China Registration and WeChat Woes20:19 WeChat Registration Hassles20:53 Gmail and VPN Catch-2223:31 iOS App Reset Frustrations24:11 VPN Shopping Spiral25:36 Why LetsVPN Gets Blocked27:14 Testing Mullvad and Others28:18 Shadowrocket Setup Headache30:20 Privacy Red Flags and Payments32:25 China Tech Hype Reality Check33:24 Expat Life and Work Limits40:01 Noodles Tradition and Resetting41:02 Wrap Up and Support Links