NoDisplayName

How did I make your case? You stated "For those wondering, the poverty threshold in China is about 9 yuan ($1.25) a day." The World Bank uses "equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day" for the poverty line. China's measure is "more stringent than that of the World Bank: earning less than $2.30 a day". So you're saying "try to live on 16 RMB/day?" It's possible, otherwise there would be no surviving Chinese living below the extreme poverty line. That doesn't mean comfortable, just possible. Subsistence farmers in poor villages in Outer Nowhereia can do just that, raise a poor family on 500 RMB/month. Or their kids can migrate to Shenzhen and work in FoxConn factories making 5000-7000 RMB/month "slave wages" for a few years, return home and live like kings. In 1990 there were more than 750 million people in China living below the international poverty line - about two-thirds of the population. By 2012, that had fallen to fewer than 90 million, and by 2016 - the most recent year for which World Bank figures are available - it had fallen to 7.2 million people (0.5% of the population). https://www.bbc.com/news/56213271

That can't be it. I've been reliably informed that most Chinese arrive on zero-dollar tours, paying all expenses in China in RMB, and no money ever reaches Thailand.

No thank you. An explanation of why Ofilli's poop-smeared Virgin Mary is important art wouldn't help me appreciate that either.

Of course! Wouldn't, couldn't comment otherwise. Located it on YouTube and listened to as much as I could stomach before first comment.

It's just music. We have different tastes. You are alive and vital and loving life to me.

Exactly. Wild Honey Pie is the worst Beatles song I could recall. That Ellish dreck might conceivably compare to that.

Nah. I'd feel guilty each time I read about yet another motorcyclist dying from head injuries or suffering permanent brain damage, wondering if........

Beatles song that compares to that mehness? Honey Pie? Ooops! Wrong song. This is Honey Pie. I meant this one - WILD Honey Pie!

Garbage. Pre-school melody. Electronic drum machine. Autotuned voice. Don't compare her to Beatles. Maybe Yoko...........

As bad as it may seem, at least you don't have to renew your passport in China! No mail/delivery service. You must physically appear twice at the consulate, after crossing perhaps half a continent. And when you arrive, can't bring a cell phone (essential for travel in China) inside, nor can you store it at security. I'll take the DHL!

How many locals were celebrating with him beside the canal?

Google is a thing (except in China). In China today, poverty refers mainly to the rural poor. Decades of economic development has reduced urban extreme poverty.[1][2][3] According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms,[4][5] which still stands in 2022.[6][7][8] The Chinese definition of extreme poverty is more stringent than that of the World Bank: earning less than $2.30 a day at purchasing power parity (PPP).[9] Growth has fuelled a substantial increase in per-capita income lifting people out of extreme poverty. China's per capita income has increased fivefold between 1990 and 2000, from $200 to $1,000. Between 2000 and 2010, per capita income also rose at the same rate, from $1,000 to $5,000, moving China into the ranks of middle-income countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China

Well, first they have to replace my keyboard.

Shirley, you're misteaken. The Thai authorities do regular inspections of Pattaya and always declare their jurisdiction to be free of prostitution. And gambling. And drugs. And corruption. And........

Pot, kettle.

Eggzackly! Accountant ≠ Attorney Different skill set.

That's the thing. Closing it down seems to be ueber-complicated. Selling the entire business to a new party, other family shareholders would sell out as well, must happen all the time, with no potential liabilities for former officers of the company. Find a zero-dollar budget tour operator that wants to get into the great Thailand experience and sell the whole thing - name, websites, assets, everything. Would be much simpler for them to buy an operational tour business than starting from scratch.

Why not sell it? Let the lawyers handle it, you just sign a few papers.

Not desperate.........stupid, and infected with gimmenows disease. The money ain't gonna run out, the ATM's will be refilled. If you don't get it today, tomorrow will do just as well. Reminds me of the western drivers during the gas crunch the day before prices went up. The folks that lined up for hours, burning gallons of gas, waiting in line with motor running and AC blowing, all to save 10 cents a gallon for their 15-gallon tank.

Does OP have a TM-30, or the necessary documents to apply?

That's convenient.

Hub of schemes.

Simple explanation. She was part of a large zero-dollar tour group, with hundreds of tourists traveling via bus convoy. Tour guides hold on to passports to keep the tourists from leaving before visiting the selected factories. Obviously the tour guide mixed up the passports when handing them back. Easy to do with 1.45 million citizens and only 100 common family names.

You blame a cheap car? Really? Any excuse to China Bad© eh? When a Toyota Hilux driver falls asleep and drives off an overpass killing a dozen Burmese workers unsecured in the cargo bed as they fall to their deaths into the traffic below, do you blame Japan?

They obviously don't read their book. In one of the first fairy tales, it was the serpent that told the truth. Adam and Eve did NOT die on the very day they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And they fail to even think about what their preachers have told them. Like, why were they punished for sinning BEFORE they had the knowledge of good and evil?