| 20 |
Helping by Hiring What you are dealing with is the reality in a society like China today. Services like express man and ayi are things that people consider necessary and are willing to pay for, but because of the huge amount of people fulfilling these jobs, the salaries received are cheap. The same can be said about massage places staffed by blind people. The prices offered are very cheap and often there will be many of these places located within a small area. The jobs these people may be doing aren't quite as "dignified" as white collar jobs to some, but they are hard workers and just trying to make a living. As you said, it is a "win-win" situation because they earn a salary which can benefit them while you get a service that you need. |
| 19 |
My Favorites in Shanghai a very interesting list, extremely detailed! So how does the wireless at Starbucks work? It took me well over a day to finally figure out the process in BJ but by the time I did and realized the costs, I just gave up... |
| 18 |
Is This London Undergrand? I think its important to travel and see as much as you can of the world and for everyone there is one (or a few) unique places of which they love. Having spent the past few years in a very small university town in the US, I constantly hear my fellow students complain of the boredom of our daily life in this small place as most of us are from major cities. In reality, this place has as much to offer as any of those places and it is our own, no crowds or anything. Its also strange to feel like I just want to finish up and graduate while my friends out of school keep telling me how much they miss school...I know the thing I will miss the most is the opportunity to travel once I graduate, that is why I really am hoping to work in Shanghai (or at least in China) where I will have many destinations convenient for weekend getaways or even a chance to discover or rediscover parts of a city that aren't that familiar to me to begin with... |
| 17 |
Grassroot Art in Shanghai I love to go to 798 in BJ, but was unaware that Shanghai had something similar. I had seen a number of addresses for "galleries" around Moganshan and I think Taikang roads...Next time in Shanghai I will have to check it out. The whole 3 on the Bund experience sort of disappointed me, then again, when compared to Lee's Courtyard in BJ, you can't get any better... |
| 16 |
Passion for Life all of these goals are very noble and wish you good luck in achieving each one of them!!! I'm especially interested in your arts project, I think it would be great to set something up like this and perhaps Shanghai can have something that rivals Beijing's "798 Arts District" as I don't think Shanghai has anything that developed yet... |
| 15 |
Happy Valentine's Day so can you share with us your lovely Valentine's card? I think that Valentine's Day may actually be taken more seriously in China these days than it is in the US... |
| 14 |
Happy New Year! happy new year to you, I hope you have a great time during the holiday and the new year. |
| 13 |
Don't Let Social Software Become Spam Ware i'm getting a ton of things from that site, too, its very annoying. What is even more annoying are the people who send out the emails about keeping their phone books up to date so you need to go to a website and enter in so they have your phone number and stuff. If these people were really friends then they wouldn't need me to go to a website and fill out this data for them, ugh! |
| 12 |
Do Chinese Move to Small Cities haha, a point off of hukou system and everything else, there are definite problems to the system and things need to be changed, but I am not at the point where I want to use the radical names that others use to call it by. I like Tristan's point about the national anthem in the US, because I attend a lot of events where it is sung, but its typically just procedure. However at Asian Cup this year, especially as China was advancing closer and closer to the title, it was amazing feeling to sit in Gongti and hear everyone sing as one, flags waving everywhere. That was true patriotism and true glory of China. Okay, there are the bad points of China and I readily admit to them, but it was great to sit back and remember the glory of our nation. |
| 11 |
Starbucks Tour in Beijing It would take about an hour and a half minimum to get to a starbucks and back in Beijing. There isn't one at the airport, only insanely expensive bad coffee. Wang JianShuo, 13 Starbucks in 5 hours, but did you get them all? There are some hidden away. Wangfujing has 3 (though the best one in China, across from the church on Wangfujing is now closed and now there are 2 in Dongfang Plaza), there is one at Friendship Store, but also near Yonganli Subway stop (easy to find, I'm sure you got it), and one tucked into the Scitech office building behind the store (sort of difficult to find). If you could have gotten to all of these, its a true feat! |
| 10 |
Night with Smiling Library This is a constant problem, one that I've run into, and I can emphathize with you on it. There are a lot of people who are trying to do good in China, doing things that the government should encourage or be doing itself. But because the system is top down in nature, the government tells the charitable organizations what to do and those organizations have little power to lobby the government. As I talked about in a previous comment, it takes individuals willing to do things on their own, but then they run into potential illegality issues. Its constant problem to consider bringing a group to the attention to the government, because you don't know whether you can find a bureaucrat who will look upon you kindly or one that will frown on what you're doing and stop you completely. What your friends are doing is great and I am certainly willing to do what I can to help out a good cause like this. |
| 9 |
Do Chinese Move to Small Cities I disagree that hukou is an "invisible border" that segregates people, generally. I think Stephen is attempting to argue something else. Sure there is damage it causes those in the countryside as opposed to the city, but there are ways to get around the hukou system if so desired. Further, think of some major Chinese companies like Tsingtao Beer and Haier, both come from Qingdao and Dalian has its Shide Group, Harbin has pharmaceuticals. These other cities have something to offer in specific industries and are constantly growing. What has amazed me in my travels around China is how the "second tier" cities like Shenyang and Nanjing are experiencing amazing growth. Salaries may not be quite as high as in the "first tier" cities, but cost of living is also lower. I think the "choice" of living in the suburbs is quickly not becoming a choice. I can imagine a day when greater Shanghai extends even to Suzhou. As the older areas in the city center are "chai'ed" these people have no choice but to move outside of the city center. |
| 8 |
Do Chinese Move to Small Cities I think James brought up a good point and one that I'd expand upon. In the US, most "white collar" workers move outside of the city and live in suburbs, commuting to work, but this has yet to happen in China. We are slowly seeing a change, I'm not sure how much its happening in Shanghai, though the city is expanding further and further on Pudong. In Beijing, it is very apparent as now there is the new addition of the "cheng tie" for those who are living outside of the city center. It is getting to the point where Beijing, out in areas like Shunyi and Fatou, is developing suburbs. The people who live in this area are an interesting mix, you have the very rich with large apartments or even houses who are looking for more space, cleaner air and who don't mind the commute because they have a car. You also have younger professionals who may not be able to afford an apartment inside the city yet (ie within 2nd or 3rd ring rd) and you have poorer people who just can't afford those places, period. Beyond the points that Wang JianShuo brought up in the original post, Chinese have too strong a belief in regionalism and sense of pride. It would be hard for a person from Shanghai to move to a smaller city in the West for example, unless there really was a great opportunity there. |
| 7 |
Picture News of Shanghai 2005 There are certain classes in China today that are almost universally forgotten about, the plight of workers is at least occassionally picked up as something that needs to be improved upon and gets coverage in foreign media a lot. However an issue that is very dear to me that never gets very little coverage is the problems for the disabled in China. They are given very little opportunity and the organization and structure that is supposed to be protecting them (the city or provincial, national organizations for the disabled with Deng Pufeng at the head) is only holding them back, not attempting to push for real changes, it is very sad. |
| 6 |
Picture News of Shanghai 2005 Its interesting to see Shanghai's "Chai" as compared to Beijings...The character can be found around Beijing, I didn't realize that now it is also common to see it in Shanghai. It is true that the contribution to the major cities of China could not be made without those workers, but its mostly a fact that gets passed over by most people. The second statute especially that seems to have no eyes is very spooky...Its interesting to see the English translation used is "Season's Greetings" which is typically used around the Christmas/Hannukah holiday. |
| 5 |
Kung Fu Hustle is Great I have heard a lot about this movie but haven't seen it yet. I have a "dao ban" copy that I'm hoping to find some time to watch, hope it is as good as you say! :) |
| 4 |
Maglev Extends 2 Hours? The maglev is great, but the times are really terrible and make no sense. God forbid you fly into Shanghai after around 9 pm or early morning or else you'll probably pay over 100 RMB to get to near points in Puxi. |
| 3 |
On Ethic I think what you are doing is good, but if you ask me, its impossible to do in Shanghai. Shanghai has long been a city worse than NYC in terms of rudeness, where a smile on your face will only elicit a smile on another's face if you are about to give them some money. Like a lot of things, the tide is against you and it sort of just beats you down and causes you to lose hope...Try to ignore it and promote ethics in those among you, maybe it can start to cause a change in how things go in the city... |
| 2 |
Seoul Changes Chinese Name I have thought about it and I think that there is a similarity with China after the switch from Wade-Giles to Pinyin the english spelling of cities changed (ie Peking to Beijing, Nanking to Nanjing, etc.). People in the west would see Peking and not think to say Beijing, but after the change, people slowly adopted the "new" pronounciations and spellings. While there are still people who use the old names, for the most part people have adopted the new version. Nobody is aware of the exact reasons why Korea decided on the name change or if it has anything to do with confusion, I think it does make it easier using a phonetic version of the name as I have a hard time connecting the Chinese and English names to Japanese cities. Hmm...then again, why don't they just change the name from ?? to ???Whatever! I don't think this needs to be treated as a major event or is worth arguing about... |
| 1 |
Seoul Changes Chinese Name it is interesting that they will change their name, I didn't hear this before...hmm, I guess I really don't have an opinion about it, as it is not really all that important, I think most people will still call it "Han Cheng..." Anyways, with the announcement in the summer that they wanted to move the capital entirely, I think this is a far less important decision. |