It really is so much cheaper. After dropping S3/RDS/ECS for OVH bare metal running Proxmox, my costs decreased significantly. I still use Route 53 and back up to S3, though.
Please don't compare Hetzner to the abomination that is OVH. OVH is more or less ok for non-critical fun projects, but Hetzner is often cheaper and always more reliable.
Hetzner used to be only significantly better than OVH. Now they are in a different league.
My "one weird trick" for spotting this behavior is using my middle initial on LinkedIn. LinkedIn stores it as a part of my first name, so their spam always starts off with "Hey Mark P.!"
Those emails get ignored. I ignore most automated agency emails as well.
I will always reply to personal emails from in-house recruiters or employees, however. I am starting a new job soon, though, so it's only to thank them for writing.
Before purchasing and installing your own server, I would try out a bare metal server from a company like OVH for a couple months. You'll get a better sense of the additional setup steps necessary (as compared with a VPS) without buying hardware or committing to a collocation contract.
I've learned a ton (and saved a bunch of money) transitioning from EC2, RDS, and Elastic Cloud to a single OVH dedicated server running Proxmox to host multiple VMs.
This reminds me a lot of PARKROYAL on Pickering[0], a very cool-looking hotel in Singapore. It's probably much easier to pull off this look in a tropical rainforest climate, though.
I'm also reminded of the Oasia Downtown hotel in Singapore, which, like Park Royal, is designed by WOHA. It's a fairly recently completed skyscraper, and the plant scaffolding hasn't fully been overgrown yet: https://archello.com/project/oasia-hotel-downtown
The PRC's pressure on Muslims is hardly limited to Uyghurs. Please consider this recent NPR report ("'Afraid We Will Become The Next Xinjiang': China's Hui Muslims Face Crackdown") in Gansu and Henan: https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/763356996/afraid-we-will-beco...
Can you set up Alipay with a non-Chinese bank account or card?
It works great for Chinese people and foreign residents of the PRC who have a bank account. However, my experience as a tourist was that it was impossible to link my US credit card using the PRC version of the app downloaded while in China.
You cannot link foreign cards to Alipay account. Best way is to ask Chinese colleagues to transfer you Yuan and you pay them via cash. You can then use the wallet amount in shops.
Yes I tried recently and it seemed impossible without a bank account. You can link a foreign card but not actually use it for normal payments. You may be able to use it only on tabao or something. WeChat pay is not usable at all without a Chinese bank card.
