<- Click to filter by commenter
| 36 |
Visiting US in July Last time I went to Shanghai, I took United, because of nonstop. But on the way back the flight was cancelled. Flew ANA to NRT then UAL the rest of the way. I think there will be more flight cancellations now since the airline business is not good - flying a half empty plane is not good business. So that's something to consider. ANA and Korean are so much better than UAL, except for UAL's non stop. Better seats, screens at every seat even in coach, more legroom, better food, nicer staff. The other nice thing about UAL is Economy Plus, a few more inches of legroom for $100 or $150 each way. That's nice for tall folks. Thrifty or Dollar often has cheaper car rentals than Avis. Enterprise usually doesn't have on-airport but I'm not sure about SFO. good luck on your trip! |
| 35 |
Manhole Covers in Shanghai and Beijing Wang Jian Shuo, may I ask - I can see the Shan and Shui characters. But the middle one does not look like Hai to me. What is it? |
| 34 |
Gaokao Day 2009 Lucy, MSN and hotmail usually work in Shanghai. They were recently blocked but I don't know if access was turned back on. Youtube has been blocked for most of this year. There's some alternatives like tudou.com. |
| 33 |
Photos of Wujiang Road That's one hell of an intolerant comment. Typical of people who hide behind the anonymity of the internet and flame others' work. Ever occured to you that some of Jian Shuo's readers are not locals and appreciate the little touches of local context he puts in? If you a local and can't stand his occasional eccentricities, then move along. The porn site is just one mouseclick away away. Suffice it to say, for every naysayer, there's others who appreciate him. Keep up the good work, Jian Shuo! |
| 32 |
Worry about Yifan's Education - Part II It's easy to say "let the child be a child and play more", but if all of your friends are pushing their children and you don't, the odds are not in that child's favor. It's like saying "Bill Gates didn't graduate college and he did well, therefore college is not important." Sure, it's possible, but it's not likely. And sometimes I wonder, do the same people who say "don't spend too much time studying" also then complain when companies do work in China? Of course studying is not everything, one needs to be creative and interact with others to be successful. But there's a certain base of knowledge needed to be successful in technical fields too. |
| 31 |
Worry about Yifan's Education You have to move 3 years before entering school? So if you move just before school starts, then Yifan would go to the old school? What if you moved to Shanghai from elsewhere in China? In the US, you can move to the district 1 day before school starts, or even during the school year. However it is true that you might not get to your local school, but elsewhere in that same district. I guess the districting is probably different though - is it one school district for Shanghai? In the US, the school district and the city and towns often do not overlap. For example, San Jose is served by many districts depending on where you live - Cupertino, Union, Moreland, Campbell, East Side, Evergreen, Oak Grove, San Jose, and others I'm sure. Good luck with your choice. I have some friends in China who face similar questions. Are there Chinese-style private schools, so it would be like going to the best public school and give Yifan the best chance for the university entrance exams, without having to move? |
| 30 |
Why Use the Pedstrain Crossing? There are some Europeans who have this kind of idea too. It can work in Europe where the drivers are careful. In US and China... the problem is that the right of way then belongs to the bigger vehicle. Buses have right of way over cars. Cars over motorcycles. Motorcycles over bicycles. Bicycles over pedestrians. That's why we need to have some rules to enable the smaller vehicle or ped to get somewhere without getting run over. But in these small "water town" type places, then it's not so necessary since there's few or no cars. |
| 29 |
Why People Don't Use Voice Mail in China I just called someone's mobile in China, and got the message that they were not available. Fortunately in English as well as Chinese! But it is funny to hear, since in the US you would get the voicemail. I've heard that one reason for lack of voicemail is related to the fact that landlines never really took off. For example, in an office, 20 people may have shared one phone. So having a voicemail on that phone doesn't necessarily make sense. |
| 28 |
Favorite Road: Fuxing West Road Wang Jian Shuo, thank you for the list of favorite roads. Shanghai is very interesting, because you can see the modern skyscrapers in Lujiazui and the older buildings in Puxi. Like time travel! I will visit Shanghai soon so I will take a look at your list and check out some of these. |
| 27 |
My First Camping with New Tent Hi, that's very interesting, to go camping in Shanghai. I never would think of that! Is this a campground (like a special place for camping) or just a field where you set up the tent? Glad you can enjoy the spring time weather, it's very nice between the cold winter and the hot and humid summer. |
| 26 |
Trans-Bank System Finally Available A friend of mine just transferred money from Shanghai to her cousin in Guangxi through the ATM... looks like this process has improved a lot since Jianshuo's post. She also signed up for a 金卡 that she says will allow her to withdraw money outside Shanghai, where she lives, without any processing fees. I don't think it's a credit card, more like some kind of bank ATM card. Do you know of it? |
| 25 |
10 Years from 32151, Automation, SJTU Thanks Jian Shuo. My PDA isn't a phone, no GPRS. If you get a China Mobile SIM with a phone-PDA, can you use GPRS? Do you have to sign up for a monthly data plan, or is it like the voice/sms where you pay per minute or per SMS? In the US you typically have to sign up for a 1-2 year contract and pay per month for data, but then it's generally unlimited data. xiexie! Greg |
| 24 |
10 Years from 32151, Automation, SJTU Hello, may I ask an unrelated question? I'll visit Shanghai soon and thought I might use Twitter to communicate. I have a basic GSM phone and a China Mobile SIM. With this, is it possible to sent tweets? Like to an SMS number or an email? Alternatively, I could do it from a Windows Mobile PDA. (Not a PDA phone). Is free wifi common in Shanghai nowadays? Maybe with so many apartments, people set up the router and forget the security. Even in the US it's not unusual to find a free wifi with the SSID of "linksys" or "dlink". xie xie! |
| 23 |
Photos of Shanghai in Spring 2009 Nice photos. Even some blue sky! Is the pollution less than before? I will soon visit Shanghai again, looking forward to it. |
| 22 |
Shanghai 2010 Expo Site I'm going for sure! It's like Las Vegas, you can go around the world in a day. (Of course in Las Vegas you can time travel too, and go to ancient Egypt!) |
| 21 |
Financial Crisis and Shanghai Hi, how is the apartment price nowadays? When I was in Shanghai last summer, it looked like a newer 100 m2 apartment in a close in location (around Minsheng Lu on line 6, the Hello Kitty line!) was about 1,700,000 yuan. ($250k). How about now? I heard that the price in Shenzhen fell a lot, but that Shanghai did not fall so much. Of course my Shanghai sources could be biased! Good luck to all. Greg |
| 20 |
Daily Cost of a Tourist in Shanghai Ni hao, Jian Shuo, do you have a post about your 4 hr walk through Shanghai? That sounds very interesting. Coming from the US, it is surprising that Shanghai is not really physically that big. But the travel time is still the same. Meaning, in a US city it usually takes 30 minutes to go somewhere, and the same in Shanghai. But in the US that's 25 km, in Shanghai only 10 km. |
| 19 |
GPRS Package from China Mobile Hey ZL, How well does your iphone work in China? How is the speed of the internet? Do you have the first gen iphone or the new 3G? Have you found the 100RMB package to be enough for frequent use? Thanks. |
| 18 |
Bus from Beijing Airport to Tianjin I'll be visiting Asia for a couple weeks for work. The work ends on August 22 in Shanghai. I'd like to take a train to Beijing to see the Olympics and return to the US the following day. How would you schedule this trip? How hard is it to get a hotel stay for 1 day? How hard is it to schedule the train back to Shanghai to catch my flight back to the US? You may contact me at gregoryeallen@msn.com or gallen@prologis.com. Greg |
| 17 |
10 RMB for Genuine DVD er...... you dont happen to live on jinxao road do you? cause i've had the exact experience. |
| 16 |
Life in New York is Tough for Me yeah don't eat out. that's one way to cut costs. seriously, eating out every meal is pretty stupid. also, if you live new jersey, it's cheaper that new york, and takes just about as much time to get into the city. buy a subway pass. instead of spending 2 bucks a pop on a ticket, buy a monthly pass for 76.. you ticket is paid for after 36 rides...if you depend on the subway, that's the only thing that would make sense to do... i mean two rides each time you go out, theoretically.. one there and one back.. 18 trips out. and that's just straight there and back, that doesn't include connecting. think before you spend. a buddy and i went to new york and lived there for two days, not knowing anyone, seeing all the sites and everything.. for $80... $40 per person. that's 20 a day. not bad. all we did was a little homework and ate food we brought ourselves. the price for the food we brought is included. so don't complain when you can't manage your spending. just live smart. |
| 15 |
Accessibility of Public Transportation to get to the elevator in Zhongshan I think you have to go inside the mall (cloud nine) and somewhere down there there is an elevator that works. For taxis usually the exit 7 at Zhongshan is a very good option. |
| 14 |
May be Inaccessible for Several Hours Hi Andy, You should not worry about those places as every metro station in shanghai has elevator and both have plenty of taxis (maybe a little bit more in Jin'an temple?) so it's up to you. I'll just get the one which is the colsest from your final destination. Enjoy Shanghai |
| 13 |
Went to Shanghai Community Church hello.... im looking for a christian church, ill be in Shanghai for a few months and would love to find a good place to tie into. Im 23, just got here a few days ago and i dont know anyone, so if you can chat or point me in the right direction it would be a big help :) thanks Greg gjohnsonmodel@gmail.com |
| 12 |
Went to Shanghai Community Church hello.... im looking for a christian church, ill be in Shanghai for a few months and would love to find a good place to tie into. Im 23, just got here a few days ago and i dont know anyone, so if you can chat or point me in the right direction it would be a bit help :) thanks Greg gjohnsonmodel@gmail.com |
| 11 |
MagLev May Extend to Hangzhou - Confirmed Dear Jian Shuo, I am going to china for my wedding next Febuary. As many of my family members and friends will come from Europe, and many of them have a technical background (kind of crazy scientists, you know...), they would be interrested in a technical visit of the Transrapid train (very unique in the world). Do you know wheater this kind of thing is possible, or how I can contact the Transrapid company? (I could not find their website). By the way your blog is a great source of information: Thanks. Greg |
| 10 |
Xiangyang Market - the Shopping Paradise hey Giuliano, If you want to buy a watch, i'll advice you to go to n.588 nanjing lu. It is a shopping mall, if you ask around they all have a "smaller shop" behind their main shop with all kind of stuff. If you go there by metro, you've got to take line two and stop either at People's Square or at Shimen N.1 (I think it is Nanjing W. Rd now). Have fun and don't forget to bargain a lot you could get a good quality one for 100 kuai if you're good. greg |
| 9 |
China Eastern Airlines What are China Eastern's terms & conditions if I have to cancel my flight? I have paid for a flight from Tokyo to Shanghai which departs 11 days from now but may have to cancel if another appointment can't be rescheduled. I am wondering about how much refund, how much penalty, how much notice etc. I can't get their web page to show up either and there is no information about cancellation written on the ticket itself. I plan to ask my travel agent but she has proved quite unreliable regarding information. Any help will be appreciated! |
| 8 |
Online Map in Shanghai (and China) Stephen, I have seen some replica map from the '20 and '30 in the old town. it was on fangbangshong lu very near the entrance gate. Over there you should be able to find some but don't forget to negotiate as much as possible as they will ask you for some crazy price at the beginning. Otherwise you should be able to find some on Dongtai lu ("antique" market). |
| 7 |
Chivas' Mermaid by Sarah Khider Hey, Good song indeed...It is supposed Chivas will enhance your nights... In fact, I live in France and drinks or tobacco companies are forbidden to use TV to advertise their products, it would be so nice if one of you give any link to enjoy the commercial. Thks in advance. A très vite à Paris. |
| 6 |
Going to Movie (Cinema) in Shanghai Hi, I will visit Shanghai in October. I am American with a Shanghai wife, living in the US, and we will visit her family. Shanghai is a great place, I have been there several times. Anyhow, my Chinese is bu hao! So, if they are showing an American film, do the movies have English soundtrack with Chinese subtitles? Thanks Greg |
| 5 |
Xiang Yang Market is Closed on June 30 so, is there THE definitive place to go for watches ( high quality fakes ), purses, etc? |
| 4 |
Got Fever - 38.4 C Get well soon, pengyou. I had a fever when one of my "wisdom teeth" was taken out, wasn't an infection-- just a "stress response" to the surgery. Oddly enough, when I was in Beijing recently, I also got a nasty fever, 38.6 degrees, after a long day at work and a brutal ride home. Wo xia ban shihou, I swear-- where I was walking and when I got on the train, ALMOST EVERYBODY was smoking like crazy, and they were smoking those awful cigarettes you often find in China with that rotten odor. I hate cigarette smoke in general, and now I was surrounded by people smoking like crazy. When I got home, I vomited, and then at night the fever came-- the doctor said it was probably extreme stress and, frankly, the inability to even breathe. I always thought a fever was due to infection, but apparently not. If I could make one request before I return to China (and I may not return, considering how unpleasant that experience was)-- please, please start up a serious anti-smoking campaign the way we have in California. Even if you don't do it for your own health in China, please do it for us expatriates, because you're making us sick in China with all that awful secondhand smoke!!! We don't want to come back because the air is too unpleasant to breathe, and you're losing business. Why do you all smoke so much? Don't you know how dangerous and unhealthy it is? Why don't you mount a serious anti-smoking campaign? Besides being healthier, anti-smoking is a big, profitable industry-- in the US, people make billions from nicotine gum and patches, and therapeutic techniques to stop smoking, so you in China could get incredibly rich from helping people to stop smoking. Just, however you do it-- don't smoke so much! It makes the air extremely unpleasant and hard to breathe! |
| 3 |
Watch Out Bad Taxi Drivers in Beijing Love your blog. I'm moving from New Zealand to Beijing in January, and love the photos lots. In Christchurch (where I've been living), taxi drivers will sometimes rip off foreigners too, it happens everywhere in the world. Awareness is the best asset. Thanks for the read, it's been very enjoyable. |
| 2 |
MSN Messenger Spam hey baby whats been crackin cutie me nothin much well peace |
| 1 |
MSN Messenger Spam hey baby whats been crackin cutie me nothin much well peace |