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| 27 |
Power Plugs on Train? may I know how to buy the train ticket from Shanghai to Yiwu? and what is the timetable? Do you have any Express Train to Yiwu? Can you let me know and kindly explain to me how to buy ticket and how to go to yiwu? Thank you and hope to hear from you soon. |
| 26 |
Power Plugs on Train? may I know how to buy the train ticket from Shanghai to Yiwu? and what is the timetable? Do you have any Express Train to Yiwu? Can you let me know and kindly explain to me how to buy ticket and how to go to yiwu? Thank you and hope to hear from you soon. |
| 25 |
What's Wrong with China? "People spit on the street do not spit in their home or on their bed. Why?" That simple statement is very revealing of the mentality of the people in China. If that way of thinking does not change, it will lead to an absolute environmental catastrophe, not to mention other economic and social problems. With its incredible recent growth, China has already headed down this dangerous path. Nobody owns the air or the rivers, so let's just dump our garbage there. I'm not saying individuals and corporations of developed nations are immuned to this type of action, but certainly as a whole, they have a much greater sense of responsibility toward "public goods". Sure, the government can introduce laws to control such behavior - and it may or may not be effective. But until the people understand why it is wrong and can change their way of thinking, the associated problems will continue to worsen. I hear people say that this new up and coming generation will be the catalyst for change, but unfortunately from what I've seen, I don't see it happening soon. This is from the perspective of a Chinese-Canadian who has lived in and traveled throughout China in the past 5 years. |
| 24 |
China Eastern Airlines I flew China Eastern across the Pacific for the first time on my recent trip to Shanghai. Maybe I've been spoiled because I've mainly flown internationally with JAL in the past, but Chinese airlines have a long way to go before they catch up to industry standard. The flight attendants' main goal is to speed through the meal service as quickly as humanly possible. You can compare this directly to any typical Chinese restaurant - get the customers in and out as fast as you can. Except in this case, they just want feed you, then turn down the lights to subdue the crowd. You won't see or hear from them again until breakfast. As you're eating your greasy noodles or rice, someone comes around and throws a bun down on your plate. I get the feeling that they are minimally trained, and have a bad overall attitude. Example - I asked for milk with my coffee. The flight attendant points to my packet of moist towellete and says: "that's milk"! If you've never flown domestic within China before, you get to witness a crazy phenomenon. Immediately after touching down, half the people on the plane try to get up and get to their luggage. The flight attendants must be so used to this that they don't even bother anymore. I have to wonder where people are going in such a hurry. They all end up at the conveyor belt anyways. At the conveyor belt, I witnessed someone literally crawling behind the hole where the luggage comes out - and not just once but several times. Something about Chinese culture I simply fail to understand. During the movie "lights-down" period, people would leave their windows shades open and the flight attendants won't do anything about it. Very inconsiderate. To sum up my China Eastern experience: Check-in/Line-ups: Okay abroad. Horrible at Hongqiao in Shanghai. Not so much because of the airlines, but you have to deal with the typical hoards of crowds who have no concept of a line-up. In-flight service: bare minimum - don't expect anything more. Entertainment: don't count on it. I'm glad I had my iPod filled with TV shows. Food: Greasy, no matter which option you choose. Reward program: English version of the website is a total joke. Best chance to get a reward ticket is to go into a CEA office. Price: cheaper than anyone else by a significant margin. Now I know why. I have to wonder about the safety standards with CEA, especially after reading some of the comments above. That tailstrike incident is quite telling of the mentality of this airline. Will never fly with them again no matter how cheap it is. |
| 23 |
Mac Cannot Access Internet in China i am connected by a LAN line. i work for a school teaching english and it's all run throught the same network, specifically the "local area connection." adress type is manualy configured and i al the rest of the Ips, subnet mask, etc. at my disposal. |
| 22 |
Mac Cannot Access Internet in China i may sound as foolish as i sound but it isnt working on my G4. then there is the fact that i recieved my mac as a gift before i came here to china and am not too familiar with the OS. all i've done is go to system preferences and went to networks. there i found DNS servers and tpyed in the given numbers. if i've done something wrong please let me know, i'd really like to have a personal computer at home. otherwise, above mac solution does not work everywhere |
| 21 |
MSN.COM Offers 2G Storage? do you have to pay for @msn.com account? |
| 19 |
Donghai Bridge what is the point to build a huge bridge only to a small island? |
| 18 |
When the House Prices Goes Down too much politics, isn't it? |
| 17 |
Hotmail Backlogs I am Johnny from NanJing. Love to help prople coming to my city. My email is: johnnynj2005@gmail.com (better not give you hotmail one). Mobile: 13003422308. I can speak fluent English. |
| 16 |
Back from Beijing Trip You will notice either Elong or Ctrip declear that they can save "UP TO 50%". I only consider this is a nonsense AD. I booked many times through Ctrip and Elong for hotels in Shanghai. They always tell me there are meetings in SH and rooms are difficult. So that I have to pay more than they advertised. Not every hotels have their own web booking service and Ctrip/Elong do bring some convenience. |
| 15 |
When the House Prices Goes Down Dear SayNo2BlackCabs/Brad and tamew: Thanks for your reply to my comments. I have been living in Europe for the last three years. I know the house price doubled in this three years in the UK, which made a lot of young people have to struggle for many more years to get their own property. The same thing happened in China also made me uncomfortable. Since Chinese people could not have the ownership for their land, how could the property price went up so fast? What will after 70 years when their land-rental from Chinese government run out? I don't know the answer. I don't Chinese government know the answer either. Government officers in China only aim short-term goals. because they will move to other positon after 3-5 years. of course they still will be officers. well, this will be a long story... come back to why I am so angry for some of the comments. As I have living exprience in Europe, I notice a lot of people don't other countries much. Most news for abroad are bad news, like killing in mid-east/ train crushing in India/ flooding in China/ government cruption in China and so on. All this news made people only see the negtive part of other countries. Or people just like bad news? When you come to CHina you will find a lot of positive things happen as well. You will know why we could not follow USA's "demacrocy". Iraq and Afganistan are enjoying it now and price is their oil. As CHinese I could dislike my government, which I don't have the right to choose. But I love my country! Love to discuss with you more. You can reach me by email: yzhang@ezfor.com, johnnynj2005@gmail.com Cheers! |
| 14 |
Back from Beijing Trip In the Nederland, sometimes you can get a half-liter package of Haagan Dazs for only one Euro. Most of the time the price is 5 Euro. I can ensure you that Haagen Dazs is not the best ice-cream. I tried some organic ice-cream before. I am sure you will love it. And luckly, my wife is a expert for ice-cream. her MBA desertation is about the brand of ice-cream :-) |
| 13 |
When the House Prices Goes Down You guys seem know a lot about my country, mostly negtive things. this is interesting. I know that CHinese gov. is not as good as we wish. but on the other hand, China like a monster in your foreigners' eyes. Try to understand us would be more appropriate. |
| 12 |
U.S. Paused All Visa Application in China Well said people. It appears that Frank takes a more extreme view on this. He doesn't differentiate two very distinct things: studying aboard, and staying in the US illegally afterwards. He also equates post-graduate opportunities to high salary jobs but fails to mention the incredible research opportunites in academia that are only available in some of the world class universities in the US. Let's face it, China has some of the best and brightest students in the world, and it would be a shame if there were no Chinese representation working in academia, in an environment where they can interact with, teach, and learn from the other top brass of students and faculty in their field of studies. |
| 11 |
Discrimination Against Foreigners in Shanghai? Hi, Thanks for bring up this interesting and touchy subject. I just love visiting your site because I never know what to expect in the journals that you post. My personal experience in Shanghai the few times I visited is similar to what you described, which is most people don't have much different behavior towards foreigners. They are certainly curious. When I visited Shanghai back in March, the taxi drivers always asked about my opinion about the Iraqi war. It's nice to know that people are trying to be informed about the current events. But speaking on that topic, I do feel a certain level of anti-American sentiment in China. It's definitely not a strong one, like the one against Japanese, but it's there nonetheless. It's hard for me to say whether that sentiment is warranted, because the news I get is different from the news people in China gets, so depending on which side of the Pacific you're on, will determine which version of the same story you'll hear. In a recent article in NYT (free regstration required), http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/20/opinion/20KRIS.html , the columnist writes his personal view of the nationalistic views within China. I've read many of his articles in the past, including many about China, and I think he tries to represent his personal views based on what he sees and learns. I'm not endorsing his views or anything, but I found them thought provoking, if you're interested in the topic. |
| 10 |
PVG: Location of Maglev Station Any ideas about carrying luggage on the Maglev? Are there any limitations? I second William's comments, great directions and explanations! Thanks. |
| 9 |
Out of Blogging for Wedding Congratulations!!! I'm sure it went beautifully. Wish you both a wonderful marriage. |
| 8 |
Thunderstorms Week Hi Jian Shuo, Just wanted to take out the chance to thank you for your frequent updates and encourage you to keep going. I find it very nice to read your daily perspectives about random things in your life. Speaking of the weather, isn't this normally the season when certain types of food become available in Shanghai? I keep reading and hearing about the special crab ("da zha xie") but unfortunately I seem to keep missing this season. Ah, what I would do to be able to taste some, haha. Thanks again and keep up the good work! ;) Johnny |
| 7 |
Secret Wealth Spam Hi, What they want to do is either get your bank account number or other personal information so they can steal your money, or do some kind of credit fraud. These emails are quite common and unfortunately many people have fallen for them in the past. Just ignore these criminals. Johnny |
| 6 |
Lost My Passport of P. R. China Wow, what an incredible story about bureacracy and red tape. I got frustrated just reading your story. I can't imagine having to go through it. Nick has some good advice. I will remember that next time I come across this kind of garbage. |
| 5 |
Pudong Airport Maglev in Depth When is the Maglev scheduled to operate for the public? I also heard someone tell me that you cannot bring luggage on the train. Is that true? If so, how do people traveling bring their stuff home? |
| 4 |
Shanghai is Hot - Part II Nice pictures, thanks for posting them! ;) |
| 3 |
Typical Rush Hours in Shanghai - Part II Ha, I just love reading about these little tidbids of life in Shanghai. I often wondered about how people bought expensive items in China, especially when most places took cash only. In the US, they take credit cards pretty much anywhere. When I buy a $3 coffee from Starbucks (FYI, Shanghai Starbucks take credit card too), I use my credit card. But I often wondered how people feel safe carrying around so much cash when they go buy something. The fact that the largest denomination in RMB is 100 makes it even worse, because you would have to carry even more, and spend tons of time counting the bills. For example, when you buy a car, do you carry loads of cash bundled in a bag? Do these car dealerships have money counting machines too? It would be great if there were a larger denomination of RMB, but I hear counterfeiting is a big issue in China. I later discovered that more and more people are able to use bank cards (we call them ATM cards in the US) and more places are gradually accepting credit cards. ;) |
| 2 |
Reversationless Conference Call Hi, What an interesting subject you decided to write about. I happen to work in the IP-telephony space, so it's refreshing to see the perspective on this subject from the user's standpoint. We do alot of voice conferencing at work for our meetings, so I have experience with the different areas you described. Using the conference button on the phone is definitely the most convenient when you just want to bring in another party into your conversation, but it's not as convenient when you want to setup a meeting for numerous parties. First you have to get all their phone numbers, and then you have to call them when they are available. Like you said, most PBX's support transfer and conference on their phones. The different companies and PBX's you mentioned, are any of them IP based? I'm curious to hear what PBX's are used by large companies in China. Which brings us to meeting place. Meeting place uses the paradigm of real meetings, which is participants can join whenever they feel like it. So you publish the meeting ID, much like you tell everybody the meeting room, and then people can join at their own leisure. You mentioned that there is a set time and duration. Similar to conference rooms, there is a limit of the resources on the system. Without reserving a set time and duration, it would be impossible for the system to know if it has enough resources to handle all the participants. Another thing to mention, is that many systems charge corporations by the time they spend. So companies really just pay for whatever time they use on the system. And logically this leads to the reservationless conferences. This is analogous to having your own private chat room, where people can just join whenever they want, always going to the same location. The only limitation of this is the server has less control over resource usage. So it might be possible that when the server's limit is reached, additional participants cannot join. This might not be a problem for regular chat rooms, but for important meetings, this can be a huge problem. So to avoid this, you would need additional resources on the server side to handle extra load. |
| 1 |
Websites About Shanghai Hi Jian Shuo, You are right, I completely agree with you that you are lucky to live in Shanghai. While it is not perfect, the last two times I visited the city has made me long to live there. Hopefully that will come true some day! ;) Johnny |