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| 600 |
Train Ticket Office at Maglev Station From Shanghai to Beijing, you'd better take filght, and there are more than enough sites to help you book airline tickets, with the leading one as CTRIP.com in China. For train, there is no easy online way to book it. You may ask your local friends, or staff to help on it. From Shanghai to Kunshan, you can just arrange a taxi to go there (if budget allows), or hire a car there. You may also go to classified site to hire a car. |
| 599 |
Day 1 of YLF 2009 Seaview Resort Hotel, Xiamen. |
| 598 |
Maglev Extended Time It seems possible, but very risky - the counter of International Flight closes 45 minutes before the departure time. Do consult your airline. One thing for sure is, if you CAN take the train leaving Long Yang Road at 7:00 AM, it is for sure that you will arrive at airport at 7:08 AM, and it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the counter. |
| 597 |
Milk Tea Business It is franchised business - pretty easy to get started. |
| 596 |
Closer Look of the Moon To answer the other question about the yellowish moon - it is because I changed the exposure (not white balance) to show more details of the Moon. |
| 595 |
Closer Look of the Moon The answer is simple - it is just the zoom in feature with no add-on. The camera comes with 12X optical zooming, and 150X digital zooming. What impressed me a lot was the 3D Stabilizer. Even with 150X digital zooming, the image is still very stable. You can even use the camera to shoot the moon on the moving car without too much problem. The stabilizer is just like the lens floating in oil. You shave it heavily but it makes the move very soft and smooth. |
| 594 |
Wendy Opened a Milk Tea Shop I am thinking about what I can ask Wendy to help to do if my readers arrive her shop. A special discount? obviously she has the say on this. |
| 593 |
Wendy Opened a Milk Tea Shop Hi Michelle, around 6:00 PM, I happened to be in the shop also - I just visited there for 1 hour from 5:00 PM. It was a pity that I was not there. I tried to help Wendy when I can but meanwhile, keep a far distance from the shop - I was also attracted to be involved - it was such an interesting business. You see people's smile. I believe icecream shop and milk tea shop, just like Disney, is manufacturing happiness. It is a much happier business than hospital (I don't want to be a doctor because he has to face suffered people everyday). It is a new shop, and the service needs improvement, and they are lack of hands now. |
| 592 |
Wendy Opened a Milk Tea Shop The price ranges from 5 RMB to 8 RMB. Now they are offering "Buy 1 and get one for free" promotion. So the price is half of the listed price. |
| 591 |
Wendy Opened a Milk Tea Shop @STLPlace, thanks a lot. Next time you are in Shanghai, you can easily find the shop. @RC, yes, to follow one's passion is a great thing. She recruited all her staff within three days on Baixing - interviewed about 10 persons Baixing. Now, many shop in that chain hire staff on Baixing. They got excited to know I am in Baixing, because they were banned on Baixing for repeated posting before. :-) @Adam, the rental is pretty high (no disclosure), but I think it is a great location. Time will tell if it is true. @DC, what a crazy life, and world - Both Wendy and I were exteremely busy working on our own staff. I did pay a visit at night, and had nice milk tea there. Again, thanks all for your warm congratulations. Do drop by. You may not see Wendy there, but she is thinking about having a drawing notebook there, so you can leave a message. |
| 590 |
My Identity in Community Thanks again for everyone's feedback. Let me further explain the situation. Unlike most business, classified itself is a strong community business. Community business is, at its core, all about people. It is not like CEO of a manufacturing company joining into customer forum. Community itself is built around personal connection. It is all about a group of people and their interaction. If it was not a community business, it actually does not matter too much, but in a community, that is crucial. You cannot imagine a community without some identifiable key person, just like a Craigslist without craig, an eBay without Pierre (or later Griff)... |
| 589 |
My Identity in Community @Adam, it is nothing to do with ME. It is about the personal voice of a website, no matter who is running it. I am just thinking about it from a community building perspective. It does not matter what the ID is. You can call it "SmallCat", but still, when everyone recognize it as someone who can make decisions, care about their issues, and hear what they have to say, and response to them within 30 minutes everyday, the community is very different, I GUESS. |
| 588 |
My Identity in Community Thanks for the feedback, from both sides. Let me share some more background to this discussion. Currently, I am identified as a Baixing employee. I reply about 100 post everyday, basically doing customer service work, like help people to recover password, explain why their account was suspended, handle reports about bad ads, and response to suggestions. That is very tough job to do. But I believe that is one of the most important thing a CEO can do - to be as intimate to their users as possible - you get the use need and pulse of the community by first hand interaction, not just by numbers, and reports. Involving in a community also helps to form opinions that is aligned with what the community want, not the company want. There are decision for me to make is whether I should actively identify myself as CEO of the company, or I just keep the current situation, when users think I am a customer service guy. The problem with customer service identity is, there is lack of personality, and lack of personal connection, which is very key to a community. Calling a friend of a company, and calling a call center is completely two different feeling - when everyone in a call center is identified by a staff number, they are treated as a smart robot. I hear the message many times: "I want to talk to your manager..." About "customer service mentality" @one mentioned, it is actually the CURRENT problem. They take it for granted that they deserve customer service, but a community is all about a lot of people gathering around a site for mutual benefit. No one asked for "customer service" on this blog, right? I want to turn the customer vs customer service mentality, to community member vs community member type of feeling. @Graham, I am not hiding my identity, and I feel comfortable for people to know it. It is just about whether to let people know pro-actively or not. Think about this blog. If it is named Shanghaiblog.com, and you never know who is behind it, what type of community will it be? I actually already tend to be part of this community with my name (jianshuo), and title (when it is needed and if appropriate). It is a huge personal commitment to the community - you always need to be accessible, but I think it is good for that community. |
| 587 |
My Identity in Community @shan, don't worry. Comments with links will be reviewed before it is published. It is not live on this blog. |
| 586 |
Failed to Bid for Shanghai Plate In the car category (click car at the top navigation of this page), I explained the difference. The key difference is, you cannot access the elevated highway and middle ring at rush hours (7:30 to 9:30 and 16:30 to 18:30). I have used a Hangzhou plate for five years, and feel it is the time to pay more and buy more freedom for myself. |
| 584 |
Is there Monthly Ticket for Expo? I have no idea about whether they will have one - there is not big enough venue on the Expo site for a large opening at least. |
| 583 |
Sony CX500E is Wonderful Yes. In US, it is HDR-CX500V - V means GPS, and E means Europe version. |
| 582 |
Shanghai View from Shangri-la @Ray, no. My office is not there, obviously. Just a meeting there. |
| 581 |
China Telecom is ADSL Spammer @one, I am not optimistic about "satellite broadband". Even things like prostitution - something that not any other equipment is needed (no ADSL, no receiver), just a man (with money), and a woman (with body). If the government wants, they can crack it down. The issues is not the technology requirements, it is legal framework. The current system already effectively ban people to say the two number ending with 4 and starting with 6, why they cannot ban anything physical? |
| 580 |
Recording of Memories Some online forum said E in CX500E means European version. |
| 579 |
Finally Bought Sony CX500E @Molly, yes and no. I don't think there is equivalent player of Buy Now in US - it is just like a big computer super store. Every counter is leased to different small retailer. There are 50+ people selling exactly the same model with different prices. It is chaos, but effective. @Leo, sounds interesting, but Kindle seems to be the one to try first. |
| 578 |
Safe Travel in China for 1 Year Kid @asdf, when Yifan was an infant, we used child seat in car. Now, he is bigger, and we just put him at the back row with me or other adult. We are going to use car seat for longer trip like on expressway. At the 3km road from home to where I live, and it is always traffic jam, we don't use one. |
| 577 |
Finally Bought Sony CX500E @Mike, thought about it, but now think a Kindle seems to be better. |
| 576 |
Recording of Memories @jqian, CX500E is basically the same as CX500V. I learned that models of Sony ending with V means it has a GPS receiver embedded in it, but I have no idea what E stand for. I agree with you that the still image camera of CX500E is not bad at all - better than most cameras I had. |
| 575 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? @JC, exactly the same point - being educated has nothing to do with great leaders. Hitler is well educated too. You seems to provide to confusing conflicting point-of-view yourself. Many of the Chinese leaders are educated (in poem and literature, for example), but that does not help to run the country. Education is not the problem. |
| 574 |
China Telecom is ADSL Spammer @ecodelta, there is nothing we can do on the firefox side. China Telecom, as ISP, can do anything they want. Many ISP do illegal stuff, but since they are backed by the government, there is no way to sue them. For example, they can give you web page of Baidu when you type in Google, or change whatever content of a web site on the fly, or more commonly, block sites so you cannot access it. |
| 573 |
Nice Weather this Holiday I am also expecting the opening of line #7, but the date is not finalized. |
| 572 |
I got my Expo 2010 Ticket @Greg, 160 rmb is for ONE day! |
| 571 |
Surface of Roads in Shanghai Recovers The stuff people show off most is the stuff people lack of. It is quite understandable that many people, especially the non-elected officials, want to take the opportunity to show off prosperity and stability of the city during Expo. I would say, it is a natural cause to be a stronger (both economically, and politically, and culturally) country. |
| 570 |
Bye Bye, GeoCities.com Maybe to celebrate its shutdown, geocities.com is not accessible in China. |
| 569 |
Bye Bye, GeoCities.com It is a natural process to fade out the old and useless stuff. |
| 568 |
Get to Top of SWFC within 100 RMB @Anna, that is right. :) |
| 567 |
Kongming Lamp - Hundreds of Them @stephen, there ARE risks, just like people ban fireworks, and they ban many things - that is the easiest way to manage things. |
| 566 |
Installing Windows XP on Dell @Seemon, you reminded me of another great project I am involved - once I created the plan to install 100,000 PC with Windows XP for China Mobile across 31 provinces of China. That was a bigger project than installing machines at office. |
| 565 |
Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future @Adam, it takes some time for people in my country to get used to the reality that we already lived in the world with many cars. 20 years ago, there are not many cars in the cities. It takes a generation or two to get used to the new world. |
| 564 |
Get to Top of SWFC within 100 RMB It seems we need to assembly a guide for top attractions around the world to avoid observation deck with alternative. |
| 563 |
Watching the Military Parade @carrie, it is for sure an honor to attend - with about 1 billion people watching, and once in a life time. it is very understandable. But the interesting thing for the people's parade is, most of the square is made up of students, no matter what labor they put it there - farmers were "represented" by students, and just as in Olympics, 56 different ethnicities were also "represented" by students whose majority is Han Chinese... In the current Chinese politics, everyone is represented, in a way without the people being represented unaware of. |
| 562 |
Full Content on Home Page of my Blog? Allen, I do have a date based archive - one page for every month, just not as easily accessible as the content archive. I will add it to the homepage. |
| 561 |
Foot Starts to Recover @zjemi, thanks. I will take care. The additional 4 days in the national holiday will provide additional time for me to stay in bed for the foot to heal. @GN, and @Carroll, thanks! |
| 560 |
Train from Shanghai to Nanjing - CRH (D) Please don't ask me for price - check with a travel agent, since I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the result - it changes every few months. |
| 559 |
Useless Time One of the core value of Buddish is to reduce the desire. Take everything outside the mental world as nothing, and that way, the body and the soul is free. |
| 558 |
Faster Bullet Trains in China Please don't ask me for price, and time table. I cannot make sure I give accurate answers. |
| 556 |
60 Anniversary of ... Motherland? I will only say it is the 60 anniversary of the regime of the People's Republic of China. It is not a true Republic though. Motherland typically refers to the land and the people (current, and in the history), not a regime, or government. My ancestors lived on this land, and they have went through the governance of Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasty, and they were citizen of the Republic of China, and now I am a citizen of PRC, but we share the same motherland. |
| 555 |
2009 National Holiday Schedule @Dezza, because everything changes so far, no one days what is going to happen the next year. People (including those who make decisions) are not sure whether we will have 3 days of National holiday the next year. The May holiday, for example, was shrink to one day this year, but who knows the next year. |
| 554 |
2009 National Holiday Schedule Years ago, the Office of the State Department will announce the holiday schedule few weeks before the holiday, and everyone is pending their plan according to their schedule. Now, they fixed the holiday date, and change the surrounding days... Anyway, they can just make an announcement, and 1.3 billion people just follow. |
| 553 |
Photo of Rush Hours @Nick, I read about the book "Mao" - very different from the traditional text book. I was amazed that the same fact (same dates of events) can be told two very different version of stories. I will try to read the Chiang Kai-shek story. |
| 552 |
Meaning of 886 in Chinese The same thing. I got a number xxx388 in a bank. What a great number. My friend got xxx188, and another xxx288 - they have all the numbers ending at 88, and exclude 4 from the numbers. |
| 551 |
Overestimation of Bad Things Thanks, guys! :-) I borrowed the idea from Dr. Gilbert's book. |
| 550 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? @JC, education is not a factor in the war age. In Olympic field, education in science actually does not help as much as in professional world. In wars, who will win when a university student encountered a guy who have been fighting on the street since year of 5? Mao is talented in literature, and art, but I do agree that the several decade of running a big country is not his strength. |
| 549 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood Room mate are very different from group rental. |
| 548 |
Dos and Don'ts For Foriengers in China @Das, with 1000 people coming to Shanghai, there will be 2000 different opinions (with everyone has at least two opinions depending on how long he/she stays). Regarding the claim that it is hardly possible to make friends with the locals, I believe it depends on the person, not the environment. People tend to stay in their comfort zones. Chinese people migrating to US tend to stay in China town for their whole lives. It is the same to expats in Shanghai - they stay in international communities like Gubei or Biyun. Fortunately, there are great places designed to expats, so they can be very comfortable living in the similar world, but... losing a chance to mix into the local community. Regarding the behavior of Shanghainese, well, you can get some first hand experience from your first few weeks in Shanghai and please share with us later. |
| 547 |
Overestimation of Bad Things @MW, congratulations! It does open up new possibilities, and give you a chance to re-think about what is important - keeping employed by the same employer looks like stable, and the life is as peaceful as an object sliding on the surface of ice - with predictable route, but not necessarily the best thing for life. |
| 546 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Shepherd, I heard the story of US health care many times, especially when I participated a family party in silicon valley and everyone I talked with complained about the system, including doctors. I hope it is getting better with the new administration to help the American. For the China story, until this year, 800 million people are not covered by health care. The difference is, they don't need to pay a penny but in return, they pay for themselves when they got sick. That is another system. It is more like a pure capitalism society in China than in US. |
| 545 |
Recovered Old Files on Wangjianshuo.com It is still far below the threshold. Should be OK for most blogger - I built everything into HTML so that consumes very little system resources. |
| 544 |
Overestimation of Bad Things I will watch it - it is famous in China, and Wendy once watched it, but I was busy doing something else. Let me comment about it after I watch it. - I have an Internet TV that I can just turn on and watch it, as long as I have the name of the title. |
| 543 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, I saw you don't like Greenspan, and you don't like the current and/or past US administration. Shall I ask you one question: Do you like the way the US federation is established? Do you trust in the constitution? You can complaining about a certain specific person (Greenspan), or administration (with 4-8 years of term, like Bush), but do you like that way that they are selected, and can alternate? No matter how people hate the current administration, there are ways to change it without violent revolution, but in China, we are still seeking for a way to change it without violence. Think about it this way: Shall I suggest American to abandon the constitution, and choose the best party possible to lead US for the next 60 years? No matter how good the part is today, bad things can happen along the road. Apple to apple comparison, communist party is better organized, better self-improved, and with more talented people than many party (that cannot be too wrong if you look at the resources to support it). It can make great decisions, and can conquer tough problems that many parties cannot handle (including feeding 1.3 billion people, and draw vast land united). Having said that, I don't think an environment without check and balance can do anything good to the party itself, no to mention to the country. Just as the recent discussion with people in Taiwan. There are many people pointing to the nose of MA, but they complain with hope - their faith in the way the government is established. |
| 542 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @GN, good point, and I tend to agree. To have a good and working law system is the foundation of modern society. We often pay very high attention to the political side of laws, actually, the economy and micro-stuff in the laws are also important. That needs years of fine-tuning by legal practices, and millions of cases. I had the impression that Chinese law is also very like the continental law system, like UK. At least many lawyers I know went back from law schools in UK. |
| 541 |
Nice Discussion on Politics @Adam, no one will doubt the necessity of security for any big event in today's world. But if using that name to do something else is not that widely accepted. |
| 540 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @me, I admire your positive thinking, and I am happy that I am with you on that. Two often, we mix many things together. Like Olympic Games, and a rush holiday, there must be some organization work, and some regulations to make it happen. When we are talking about this part of the story, I believe most people would agree that we should do something to make the 8 days peaceful and secure. I don't think anyway would say: "Hey. The government should just let it be, and do nothing!" That is exactly what people complained about government when their engagement is critical. There are many other factors mixed into the preparation for the anniversary, and that is much beyond the line of "approperiate". That is something we are discussing about more. I saw a swift of topic being discussed among @Mary, @me, and other people. The things include massive shut down of Internet sites, ban of any negative comments online, or setup checkstations at every road entering Beijing and according to Southern Weekend, engage 1/30 of population in counties around Beijing to verify ID of everyone approaching Beijing. The list is very long. I think it is more productive to discuss what measures slips from the range of "proper preparation" for the sake of good of the People (like the volunteer work) to the range of "supression, and abuse of countries money". It seems to be more productive to draw conclusion, either "the government is the best" or "the gov doesn't care about its people". |
| 539 |
Recovered Old Files on Wangjianshuo.com @Kai, I am using the basic plan - the (gs) Grid Server. I think it is OK for most of the blogger's need. |
| 538 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, you are talking about an economy problem. There are so many different sides of the same society. A good political system does not guarantee advancement in science - you still don't have medicines to cure cancer. A good political system does not guarantee that you become rich - it depends on your skills. A good political system does not guarantee that there is no recession, as in your example. Financial crisis is due to an error in the economy system in US, just like in China, or Russia, or US, there can be car accidents - nothing to do with political systems. |
| 537 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @xge, exactly right on the point of the difficulties of local grassroot democracy, but I still see hope there. Residential committee is a starting point. Although we face the challenge that the local selected residential committee is not recognized by the government, and they will appoint someone to take the role, to have some way to reach internal consensus of the residents are still very good practice. It is JUST practice, but without practice, even when given a chance, the people still don't know how to exercise the rights. |
| 536 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? The current system is, the local government head is appointed by the central government and is responsible for the central government. They don't really care about the local interest. I read an interesting blog when the Shenzhen Major was put into jail and a new one was appointed: "Who is this guy? Have he lived in Shenzhen before? Does he love Shenzhen?" In Shanghai, the same thing. If the leader really care about local interest, it is very likely to be put into jail, like in Shanghai, under the name of corruption. |
| 535 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting The society follows certain laws of nature. Just as the law of forces: If there is no supporting force, any object will fall to the ground by the gravity. Without a balancing force, the human nature will tend to maximum their interest, and greedy will drive it to an extreme, until violently stopped (by the ground). US demoed it in the financial sector, and China is demoing it in the political sector. It is not about what people WISH. It is the nature of law that without the right check and balance, problem happens. |
| 534 |
Bribe for Driver's License? @Harry, I have no idea what to do in this situation. This is the typically way they do it. The same for "Hong Kong Permit". It takes 7 days, but if you visit the office next to the visa center and pay enough money, they give it back to you the second day. |
| 533 |
Recovered Old Files on Wangjianshuo.com @paranonia, yes. I know. But when I was in troubleshooting mood, I just want to give the relaxed permission so it can work for sure, then tighten it up a little bit later. |
| 532 |
Nice Discussion on Politics @stephen, very good question. Why a holiday can be so dangerous? I actually don't know what the guys are worried about. My guess: 1) domestic conflicts and tension which may breakout. 2) instability in Xinjiang and many other Chinese provinces 3) The anniversary, especially 60th, is the time for people to think about the history of the regime. They only want people to think about the good things, and forget/not to mention the bad things... Any other thoughts? |
| 531 |
Nice Discussion on Politics @sak, did you mean Puff? There are many other solutions, but need some effort to search and setup. Let me share some keywords so you can start your search: tor, myentunnel... |
| 530 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, thanks for your comments and I am very happy to exchange ideas with you on this forum. I have to say, what you observed from a foreigner's point of view is very true to me, and I am just trying very hard to help to explain the story behind the scene. I am not very sure what impact I will bring to China. Actually I am very cautious when giving suggestions. China has suffered a lot and the last thing I want for her is to have an immature idea and push for it. The event 20 years ago was a scar on the face of China. It is not just for the government, but for the people. Just as @me (another commenter) who participated in the event and many of my other friends involved reflected, passion and dream are not that useful, even harmful for this country. We need deep thoughts, and wisdom to connect the dots. I am actually worried a lot, since I am not confident to give an answer yet. That is the reason I started the discussion. I learnt a lot, and verified a lot of my assumptions. Although I am not sure what I believed was right or wrong, I am very sure that more people in China should be aware of politics (while the government tried every thing to forbid the thoughts and exchange) and to have a more mature answer when an answer is needed. There are not too many places other than this blog that I can seek to people who are even interested to talk about it - my friends are generally not interested in this. I am very lucky to have a group of sensitive and knowledgable readers to help me here. P.S. From time to time, I saw DNS error for my blog. Every time, my heart stopped beating. I thought the day finally came, but the previous few times turned out to be just false alarm. That was exactly the moment I see the fear in my soul. |
| 529 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @me, I agree with you on the point that talking is not very helpful. I typically avoid big topics like this one and the recent Taiwan, and Singapore discussion on this blog, and focus more on residential area committee level and company level. No matter what the upper system changes, we still need to find out a way to reach concensus of 1000 households livign in one residential area, and this basic question has not been answered. Without a clear process, and well educated people to participate and solve smaller issues like when to turn on the public lights collectively, there is no way for much more complicated issues like tax policy or foriegn policies. Democracy needs to built bottom up, not top down. This is what I am convinced to work in China. |
| 528 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @Adam, I got your points, and thanks for sharing the two novels. I am not a big fan of novels, but I will try to read it. The challenge China is facing today is not just the current system, but a tendency formed by much longer history (1000 years?). It is not as simple as the Party won the war and got the power. It seems more like the Chinese people choosed the current system. The long tradition and tendency of Chinese history may natually lead the People in China to have an empiror, just like the people selected Napline in France, and Hilter in Germany. It is too quick to put all the blame to Hilter without checking the status of Germeny before Hilter. If a bad guy is the root cause, we fooled ourselve again, and the history will definitely repeat itself because we didn't catch the root cause. I completely agree with the point you brought here. |
| 527 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @Shelly, I would rather not to say the *government* helped 250 million people out of proverty. Government matters, but in a way like this: "If the government (or more exactly, the Party) continued to use the policy they were using in the first 30 years of governence, the 250 million people cannot leave proverty". Let me share a little bit about the recent Chinese history (please provide other facts if you think I just get part of the story). China was for long time an agriculture country, with agriculture as the key economy activities. For one thousand years, the farmers have their land (private property), and product food. 60 years ago, lands were taken away from farmers, and they are forced to join the union. That proved not working, and cauesd tens of million of people starved to death. Check my previous blog entry about my mother-in-law's story about how many of her neighbors died in those years - so rare in the recent human history, and a well-kept secret in the newer generations in China. Then comes the open up and reform policy. The key to open up is to allow communicate and trading with outside China. That is a good policy, but the question is, who closed the door? The text books said China was forced to close door. Hm... Regarding the reform policy, it is a good one. The new policy allows people to trade, to legally own something (like a table), to own their own land to farm, and decide by themselves, not the party leader what to growth on the land. They also gave people's right to education (after all schools closed for decades), to enjoy themselves (it is OK to sing a song not endorsed by Chairman mao).... When all these things happens, China started to recover and become what it is today. But before we show too much appreciation of what got today, let us examin the rights people got: most of the rights were taken away by someone (who is that guy taking away people's right?), and then granted back to the people. We are celebrating getting out of a big well, but no one ever mentioned why we dropped into that well. Regarding the history, it is too simple to state that the government is good, or bad - how can we describe a 30-60 long history with 1 billion people with simply good or bad? I just want to discuss one question at a time. Regarding the human rights, current China still have a long way to go. Regarding the recent archivement (if you call it archive, without look at the environmental cost, and other long term cost), I won't simply say government don't play a role. It is archived by the people on this land, including the hard work within the government, and outside, party member or not. I am not anti-party. I just believe any system without the check and balance is dangerous. To put any possible party to the same position may not make any difference, whether it is nationalism, or communism. Regarding legal system, I believe among the people leaving comments, we have concensus that legal system is the foundation of any other system. Can we archive independant legal system under one party? It is not likely to me, but I am not sure. How about Singapore? |
| 526 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @wonton, please pay attention to your word to others. It is OK to debate and argue on opinions, but it is NOT OK for any type of personal attack. wonton, your words have clearly get into the personal attack range. I would ask you NOT to do it again. I hope I am not forced to use my moderation right (which I always "threat" to use, but never used in the last 7 years). To make the rule here clear: It is OK to say, this is the most stupid IDEA I saw. It is NOT OK to say: you are the most stupid PERSON I saw. |
| 525 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? Very well said, Soon. There are deep culture roots in Chinese history. If you ask me what is the best political system for China? My honest answer is, I am not sure. I never believed in US way, the European way, or any other countries way, since their way is deep rooted into their culture. Look at what American were doing in 1700 before independence you see how nature they flow to the current system. China's future must be (slightly or hugely) different. But what is it? Without many people thinking, discussing, and bounce ideas, and do some controlled experiment, or follow the co-incidents of history, there will be no idea. China need a way out, but where are the way? I also don't really take it serious about "crooks are full of other parliaments". They are called crooks just either A) They ARE crooks, or B) Calling them crooks won't bring you trouble. That cannot imply that the system in China is full of elite. They seems elite because A) They ARE elite, or B) people don't dare to say they are not, or (more likely) C) People don't know what they do and how they make decisions at all. |
| 524 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, what you described is very true. Yes. You saw a great Shanghai. I love Shanghai. It is safe (as you said), its street food is cheap (as you said), and there are less homeless (as you said, since it is now allowed to be homeless)... Yes. I agree Shanghai is a great city, and it is in its economy upward trends. But unfortunately, we are talking about China, not Shanghai. China is a beautiful country. It is a charming country - as one of the richest country and most powerful country for several centuries, it has to have something good to offer - from culture to food. What I am seeking an answer is, what prevent it to be a better country? I don't think the problem is one way - political system is simply one factor of the story. A good political system cannot solve all problems: economy issues, educational issues, social issues (safety issues, as you said). It all needs people's effort and wisdom to build it, and improve it. Again, Mary, when I see these problems, I never compare it to US. To have a better things than US is not a compliment, and not surprising. The important thing for either US, or China is, there are group of people thinking about how to improve it and make it a better place. |
| 523 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? @one, exactly. What if there is another culture revolution in China? I see the possibility is so high and some times I just believe we are already at the early years of another one. There are ways to stop it - violent ways - only violence. There are ten to twenty big circles in the history of China - setup a new regime -> good and happy years -> corruption and suppression -> Rebellion and fight -> Overthrow the old regime and setup a new one -> circle begins until it is overthrown again. The history is like a big arrow pointing to a loop, not the future. Do the current Chinese people have the wisdom and the fortune to turn this history arrow to the future? The last thing I want to see is any violence revolution to the current China, since it is just the starting point of another 60 years or 100 years of "dynasty". I would rather it to be like Taiwan - we have a Republic and governing constitution. Leaders can change, governing parties can change, and it evolves along with time but there is one stable thing that is consistent on this land: the Republic political system. This is the only way, at least from what I know, for the Republic to celebrate 100 or 200 years of its anniversary, or longer. I won't say no to wonton's comment about crooks, and bad politician in Taiwan (I won't say Yes either, since I don't personally know them), but that does not matter. The Republic in Taiwan has been there for 98 years, and I can still see a reasonable chance for the Republic to stay for another 98 years, because it is a system for evolve, for peaceful power transition. If you take the 200 years of history in American, the country has shift their path from semi-capitalism to semi-socialism for many times, without violence, and even without people noticing the big change. Isn't it interesting? I won't necessarily need to agree what the parties in Taiwan says, because only people in Taiwan can decide whether it is the right choice for them or not. It is the same in China. The content can be completely different, but I feel the process - the container - is pretty good, at least to the current collective wisdom, I cannot find a better one. |
| 522 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting Hmm.. I believe what you said: for many people, it is just inconvenience; for many people, that is so exciting ("Hey! Half day off! Shopping!"), and for many others, they don't care ("What happened? Who cares?"), and for some, it is annoying ("Hmm... I hope it would have not happened") and there are must be some one who think it is not bearable ("Hey! I have so important meeting to be held and all the guests have fly in to Beijing yesterday!"). But the last think I believe is, everyone feel it is just inconvenience - I happen to know two who are really angry. |
| 521 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? I would tend to agree that it is not the current status that matters most for a government to work. It is about whether the system can evolve, and adjust itself along with the internal and external environment. Capitalism, or communism or whatever -ism, it may be correct at certain point of time in the long history; high tax and good health care, or social insurance, or low tax with many things decided by market? All these questions should be adjusted along the time. If the political system can adjust itself, by having the right party, or the right group within the same party (not likely to work) to make the changes, that is a pretty promising system. |
| 520 |
Does Policital System in Taiwan Work? I agree with @taiwanews. There are fools everywhere, and there are crooks in politics everywhere. The key point is, whether the system can help to keep the standard higher and higher, or lower it along the time. As long as a system can make relatively better solutions each time, there is hope. |
| 519 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, yes. the fact that this blog is still live is because it is in English, and it is hosted outside China, and they public security just don't have enough time and effort to crack down every single blog - a mission impossible, but they are working hard on it. A visit to google.com/?twitter.com in China will disconnect you from Internet at any computer. It is just a starting point. Compare the freedom we had when Internet just emerges few years ago. The trend is, in the last few years, people are enjoying less and less freedom (while more and more people like me to struggle to get more). You cannot argue that "Hey, you are still allowed to think that way, although you are not allowed to express it. You have freedom." Yes. I think many people like me is greedy. I didn't appreciate the freedom granted as much as I should have, did I? We have certain freedom, and we want more, and more! Call it greedy if you want. But society is driven by greediness (or dream) of a better world, no matter how good it appears to be. |
| 518 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? Regarding Taiwan, as my disclaimer goes, I don't know too much details, but I want to share my thoughts based on the limited information I got from news (NOT CCTV news). Re: fight in parliament. Fight is not a problem. If people don't fight in parliament, they either fight on the street (violence!) or the rights of certain people are suppressed. I don't believe it will be physical fighting for too long - it is just starting point. Re: selection of CHEN Shui-Bian as president. The fake bulletin worked, and many fake promise worked to get him the way to power, but can we have a better way to educate the mass people about how vote works? People need education to excise the power in their hands. The education is not a easy to do - it takes centuries, and many generations. When history story like "President Chen" appear in the text book, people will learn how to vote. I don't believe that people including myself will know how to do it without excises it many times, and make some mistakes. Re: sentence of CHEN. The court only proved guilty for one former president, and people point fingers to them (especially CCTV and all media agencies in China by the order of central propaganda department): Hey! Look at what type of president democracy brought to Taiwan. The recent MA got very embarrassed because of the late response to earth quake. Shall we complain that Taiwan don't have a "God" like Chairman Mao, or Chiang Kai-shek or Chiang Ching-kuo. Well. That is because they have put everyone who think they are bad into jail, and then they naturally became God. To have a graceful president means the president is above the Republic, and to have an embarrassed president like CHEN and MA, or Nixon, Clinton in US is no embarrassing, it is the hard fact that the Republic is above the individual, which is the goal of the founding fathers of the Republic of China. Re: politics has degenerated into a bad soap opera, yes. It appears so in the last 8 years. But it is just like seeing a new born baby - you see it is on the track to be better - I am sure a second guy shoot is counter-productive for the next president candidate. There will always be new ways to fool the public beside what CHEN did, but people will be educated. I cannot imagine a way for people to progress without real practices like this. Between a dead-end road system that appears to be strong, and a promising system just like a new-born baby, I would like to generally classified Taiwan to the later. Did I see progress from LI, to CHEN, to MA? I think so. Re: When you have the lives of one billion people at stake, the last thing you want to do is "experiment". Yes and No. The hope of China lies in many people at least think about it and understand what the arrow of history is pointing to. Unfortunately, no one can possibly know the result of any change (or as you call it, experiment), including His Majority Chairman MAO, but I believe in natural evolve of human society. A little bit long, but I'd be happy if someone educate me about a real Taiwan if what I am having is just an illusion. I never been to Taiwan or lived there, anyway. |
| 517 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Shelly, we form our opinions because of what we see. I understand what you see is truth, just as I understand that the fact I never lived in the States causes me to think differently than people living there (again, I never thing US is a perfect place to live in. I appreciate a lot for what China has to offer). Please don't compare China to American. The problem China has now has nothing to do with any other country, and it is not a contrast that makes the problem. It is the problems it selves. We believed the 60s are history and it is the past. But what happened 20 years ago made us believe it is not that far away. The reality that most people (I admit including myself) don't dare to mention that event by name is the reality in China. When that is over, recently the event to another religious group of people (don't mention the name in comment, please. or this blog may be blocked from China) tells us the history is not far away. We are celebrating the anniversary of the regime (I don't want to say it is anniversary of this *country* since it is there for a long long time), and see what is happening? I am more optimistic to the future than most of people (I believe even more optimistic than most of my readers, including you, Mary), because I believe this country will be better, and it just a matter of time. We saw so many bad things like corruption, moral problems, and injustice. I am firmly sure that it is not the nature of the Chinese people. |
| 516 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood @Xiao nin, I do agree that a metropolis requires accommodating to everyone. I am totally fine with shared room, or shared apartment, as long as it does not bring damage to the house, and brings security concerns for the people living in the room or their neighbors. If the massive "group rental" can prove that by alternate the house (including those walls providing supporting to the building) is safe, I am probably OK with it. If they don't always keep all the security doors wide open 24 hours, using ways to disable the security check equipments so they and their friends don't need to get the security cards to get in, I am possibly OK. My point is, a decent shared apartment (two or three friends living together) may only cost 1000 RMB or lower, but they turned a decent neighborhood to the lowest level of apartment and putting huge number of people into it, I think it is an abuse of their rights. Yes. People has rights, but don't abuse the rights. In China, I just found people often about confused by the right right to piss, or the right to piss in public places. |
| 515 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? @Soon, Taiwan style? I actually love the Taiwan style. I need to be very cautious to say that since I admit that I have never set foot to Taiwan, and I am not good at politics. However, after the two presidents were selected and alternated, and with one of them put into jail for life time, it is pretty solid proof that ever several decades of chaos, and test, and set back, the republic system finally set up in Taiwan. The Republic finally gets the right higher than a party, or a president. That is a dream for the Chinese people in the last few centuries. I saw great hope from Taiwan's experiment. I have to say, Singapore is far behind Taiwan in terms of political processes, since Singapore is still like a one man / one party show. That actually works very well for Singapore - so far so good, but for a bigger country like China, that does not work. Well. You can use China as an example to prove whether it works - look at the GDP!! or prove that it does not work (look at the lives of the people!) |
| 514 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, I appreciate your thought about freedom, and I agree with your point about unlimited freedom. I also would argue that the current US system is not a perfect system, and there are many problems. I never think or suggest China should use the similar system of America. That is another topic. Regarding the trends of China, I am not as optimistic as you are. Why do you think there will be no political disaster happening to China? I only see the history will repeat itself if most of the things won't change. Look at what is happening today, exactly at the same moment, you see the elements of the culture revolution. There is still no freedom of speech at the media level. If anything like in Xinjiang happens, the whole Internet will be shut down (illegally by the government). Why do you think there is no turning point in the future? The army is still swear to be responsible for the Party, not the country, and the people still don't have protection. Who knows what will happen? If we don't actively think about the future of China, when that happens, we only need to hope that there will be a correction of the "bad deed" at the mercy of the central after 30 years. |
| 513 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting To add one point, we don't want to build a society where only foreigners (or people who don't need to live within the same system as the local people) don't want to go back home, while many local citizens try everyway to immigrate to other countries if given a chance. |
| 512 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Shelly, I know many people love Shanghai. I do. And I love my country, China, and that is the reason we want it to be better. From the surface of everything you see, yes. It is a paradise. Many foreigners get more than they got in their home town, and the expense is about 10% or less. Everything changes, and it IS a paradise. However, if everyone is as happy as the foreigners in Shanghai, China is already a paradise. The reality is not that way. Again, let me say it again, IF everyone feels the same type of freedom and happiness as foreigners in Shanghai, China is really a great country. If everyone in the country live the same life as the empiror, who has the motivation to change the system? For the same society, there are always some people who like it and others don't like it. Back to "Am I rich or poor" question, I should among the people who should be happy, but witness so much injustice, and proverty, I don't think the way I thought before. "Indivivual has a lot of right in places like Shanghai, Beijing or other large cities. " That is partly right, at least for the recent ten to twenty years. However, who knows what will happen in the next 10 years? That is the key. |
| 511 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting @Mary, you are talking about a better society, but democracy is the least bad society. When you are talking about the "good" side of China to have a unified government to make some decisions to push things forward (which maybe good or bad), the side effect is, it is for sure will put people to jail, and when it makes mistakes, tens of millions of people dies because of the mistake, just like in China in 1966 - 1976. Maybe we are attracted to the efficiency gain, you have to accept the massacres as side effect. What is your choice? |
| 510 |
Flight from Shanghai to Beijing It is about 2 hours trip between it by bus (taking the bus waiting time into consideration. The actual ride is 1 hour). You may want to choose flight from Pudong. To transit at Hongqiao is not fun. There is a very good search engine called Google, and I believe it can help you to find the website of the airlines. |
| 509 |
Dishui Lake Satellite Pictures No idea. Really depends on how large the house is. But I don't have a good sense of real estate market. |
| 508 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? @Michael, that is right. In a bigger scope, the money (what they call it hot money) really have the option to go either Singapore, Hong Kong or mainland China (the most troublesome place for money to get in and out). But the bottom line is, people ARE comparing the different places to settle their investment. |
| 507 |
A Car Plate = 27200 RMB in Sept 2009 Yes. It did go down from the highest 40-50K to the current 27.2K. Who knows the trend of the next few months. The real estate market is still going up - 20-50% increase this year. |
| 506 |
Where to Buy Tea in Shanghai I am sorry that Ryan and Isabelle experienced this. I feel bad about this type of scam happening everyday in Shanghai. Hm... Sorry for that. |
| 505 |
A Car Plate = 27200 RMB in Sept 2009 It is just a quota to get a plate. No number is involved. After you get the quota, you can go to get a number. The number is random, and now they are very nice to avoid 4s in the plate in the programs already. |
| 504 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood @sudhir, good insight about this industry. I realized that it is an alternative to leverage the "grey house". Never thought about it that way. However, I don't agree with you about the "complaining" part. Why I should "stop being a Shanghainese"? If Shanghainese means the tendency of keeping orders of this society, I AM culturally Shanghainese. No one bothers if it does not impact others, but if does seriously, everyone has concerns. It is OK to adjust when it is the right thing to do, and clearly NO when you have the right to say no. Regarding whether group rental is legal or illegal, that is relatively complicated - no clear lines, but this is what I learnt. Correct me if I am wrong. - no matter what the house is used for, it cannot change the internal structure of the house. Putting bathroom somewhere outside where it is designed to be cause serious problem for the building since other part of the floor is not as water proofed as the original place. The cost to do good water proof is so high that not many people do it. That will cause the leak to apartment downstairs. This is against the construction laws. - Renting to people other than a family and on daily or weekly basis changed the nature of the residential area. It needs special approval to turn a resident house to a business - which is almost impossible for an apartment in a building. - Finally, whether it is legal or illegal, you need to check the charter of the residential committee. As most of the owners of our building is concerned, we can change the charter to forbidden this behavior, and then it is illegal. It takes time, but we will do it. |
| 503 |
Millionaire Country Singapore. China? @DC, you gave a very interesting topic: Shanghai cannot set their own personal income tax rate. That is true, but why we should do it that way? Shanghai has different personal income tax structure than many other provinces/cities, and why to follow the standard? The better way is to set different personal income tax rate for different regions (the starting point is a very important parameter), but it is not realistic to have someone in Beijing set that. The only way I can think of is to let the Shanghai Local People's Congress set it, just as it is best to let each household to be able to decide which TV set they want / afford to buy. Unification is not the key symbol of a unified country. |
| 502 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood The shared rest room may be the reason for the 1000RMB rental - that is in 2005, and I don't know the current price (that was 1100 RMB actually). |
| 501 |
I am Dreaming about Visiting India One thing I want to clarify for the third time is, I am NOT the person to think China is superior over India, or even worse, to think the political system in China is the root cause. Read the blog article again or the comments, or other articles I wrote recently if you didn't get it. @wudhir, welcome to join the discussion. I am actually very happy to have someone from India to join. I actually have little idea about what India is. That is the reason I said on this blog that I want to visit India one day. To discuss about a country without actually set foot there sounds ridiculous. I have many India friends, whom I treasure a lot. India is very like China - the huge population makes the two countries too big elephants (in the story of Blind men and the Elephants). I am happy that more people joined the discussion to share their view of these two big elephants. |
| 500 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood Unfortunately, according to the law, you have to establish a Residential Committee first, and change the charter of the residential area, and then use that charter to sue them. We are still about one year away from setting up the Residential Committee. The good news is, no one really cares about the legal procedure. Just like what I wrote in the "cut tree" story. You always can cut your neighbor's tree if they cut your tree. I am confident that this problem will settle using some strange ways. Please stay tuned and I will report the process and result. |
| 499 |
Life in Beijing Must be Interesting Democracy and legal system are two different dimension, just as democracy and science are very different, and democracy and economy growth are also separate issues. They influence each other, but not necessarily the same thing. I don't think China's population is an excuse of dictatorship. |
| 498 |
Group Rental Appeared in my Neighborhood It is about 3 RMB / sq. meter. The property management company is bad. I had many conflicts with them. http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20090729_my_conflict_with_safe_guards.htm I think what I am going to do is to start to participate in the residential committee, and finally replace the management company. |
| 497 |
CMB, HSBC, CITI Swift Code DC, that is definitely something I am very interested. I will do. |
| 496 |
Stay at Home During Oct Holiday Thanks Carroll. It was not as a small problem as I thought, but I am still OK, especially when I take better care of my foot. Yes. Some bed time does a lot of good for me. I slept on the bed for one day, and the pain on the legs faded out. I will take care. Thanks a lot. |
| 495 |
No Taxi at Huaihai Road Their judgement was, if money is involved, no matter it is 5 RMB or 10 RMB, it is illegal taxi operation. Most of the car pooling in Shanghai share gas, which is forbidden. |
| 494 |
Visa Card on ATM in China You should be OK, @jyoti. You can use your visa card in most ATM - do pay attention to the fee. |
| 493 |
Shanghai South Railway Statoin - Part II Haven't heard about the news yet, stephen. Where did you hear it? Will post about it if it IS true. |
| 492 |
I Need Some Change Adam, I read the article. You are right - a very insightful and deep article. The interesting thing is, I just feel it is describing Shanghai - everything - the dictatorship, the scared people when they are interviewed, the environment problems, and the fast economy.... |
| 491 |
Shanghai South Railway Statoin - Part II 1. It is equally comfortable to use train and bus for most travelers. My personal preference is train, but others say bus is better. 2. Typically train tickets will be fully sold out. If you are luck, you will get into an empty cart. Yes. You have to sit according to the seat number. 3. If you only plan one trip, if I were you, I will plan bus back, since bus is more flexible. 4. I would suggest CTIS (China International Tour Service), and Youth Tour Service. They may have routes. You can book it when you are in Shanghai. |
| 490 |
Small Cartoon Policeman at Each Website The icons are not mandatory for all websites. They will hand-pick the bigger sites and ask them to install it. |
| 489 |
Life, An Accumulation of Mileage 1,023,549.12 |
| 488 |
I Need Some Change Yes. It is very likely that Wendy and I will appear at Cairo and then Dubai. |
| 487 |
My Own Cartoon Picture with Home Style+ Sorry. Please don't ask me about how to create the cartoon. I have stated in the blog post: It is a plugin just in Japan. I cannot help you to get it, just like I cannot give you a free copy of Microsoft Windows. |
| 486 |
7 Years of Blogging Thanks. Time is the most effective medicine for most things. |
| 485 |
A Good Video Camcorder After checking out Sony HDR-CX500 at BestBuy, I realized how silly the question of "flip or sony" is. The 12x optical zoom, and quality of the video is obviously the biggest difference of a professional video camera than flip. Although some people don't care, I care. I am more leaning toward buying a SONY now. |
| 484 |
A Good Video Camcorder I am still thinking about the difference from the dedicated video camera, like Flip or Sony Video Camera, and the camera feature of most digital still image camera. I had Sony P8 before - very nice, and T10 later, not as good, and Nikon Coolpix - a disaster - broken the second month. I think I want some more "professional" stuff to take video now. |
| 483 |
Train from Beijing to Shanghai Hi all, I saw many people ask about train tickets and train schedule. Unfortunately, there is no good English train schedule so far. I had created a train schedule page at http://home.wangjianshuo.com/train, but it is not up to date and I worry so much to mislead people by providing not-accurate information. The best Chinese one I found so far is at http://qq.ip138.com/train/. But it is not in English. Anyone know really good resources about this information? |
| 482 |
7 Years of Blogging Thanks. :-) I am feeling much better today. I went to hospital to change the medicine put on the wound. The wound looks much better today - not as scary as the previous two days. Just as scar, my sadness will cure when it is getting better. |
| 481 |
Yifan's Head was Hurt Thanks everyone, especially Carroll for sharing your thoughts about things like this. I feel much better after reading the comment. Yes. It is the nature of life, and most parents will go through this. It seems the best thing to do is carefully child proof the house, and environment - to provide safety while don't constrain child's need to explore and try. |
| 480 |
I am Dreaming about Visiting India Hi guys, please show your respect when discuss about a topic. I have to say the flaming thread I saw in this topic is very rare in 7 years of blogging. Yes. There are personally attack from time to time, but I myself was surprised to see how few it happens in a comment system with no registration, and pure annonymous way. Thanks for keeping the comment section of this blog so unique in the last few years, and please, express what you think without attacking others. |
| 479 |
Technology and Fairness Well. We love competition in most cases, but there are few cases where it makes more sense to have a controlled market. "Essential resources" like salt, water, food are very sensitive. In an area with earthquake, does it make sense to sell a bowl of instant noodle at 500 RMB? Even if you sell it to that high, it still cannot solve the resource problem - only allow certain people to take advantage of others. So basic healthcare is such resources - when someone is dying, how much money he would pay for it? But to allow price to go as high as people willing to pay is not fair. |
| 478 |
Technology and Fairness Well. I forgot to point out that all the line and ticket stuff is about "expert treatment", not common daily treatment. It is pretty straight forward for you to go to hospital and see a doctor, but it is not as good. |
| 477 |
Living Cost in Shanghai (2009 Edition) Go to Craigslist Shanghai to get some idea about the apartment listing, or if you can read Chinese, go to my site baixing.com |
| 476 |
I am Dreaming about Visiting India To make my point in the original post more clear: the perception of my Indian friends is that China is "and sacrificing individual rights for growth, and in India to sacrifice development for democracy". I made it very clear in the post that I do NOT agree with this argument. China's growth was not driven by "non-democracy", it is driven by the fact that people are given back their basic rights of trading, private property, and entrepreneurship - the right revoked 60 years ago. Although we don't have a way back machine to test the result if otherwise, I suspect that with more democracy PLUS the opening up and reform policy, China can be much stronger than today. |
| 475 |
MP4 is Cheap Wendy bought it as BestBuy in Shanghai |
| 474 |
Hospital is Badly Needed There must be many private clinic, but it is very hard to distinguish the good one from the bad one. I never used it before. |
| 473 |
Hospital is Badly Needed To add what Adam pointed it out: a typical cough can cost more than one month's salary for many people, and there is no medical insurance to pay for that. |
| 472 |
IBM vs Dell Laptop Well. To add something about my assessment of IBM quality - the heating system started to have problems so the whole machine is as hot as burning rocket - I cannot even type on it. It happens to my new X60, not the previous one. It hangs much more frequently then before. My Microsoft experience helped me to identify it is a hardware incomparability problem. I saw few bluescreen - again, hard ware problems. |
| 471 |
Full Content on Home Page of my Blog? @GN, not interested in changing color and format. It was not changed in the last few years. The longer the blog last, the fewer reason to change it, because it is already part of the blog identity. |
| 470 |
Yifan and Cars Thanks Sufeng for your kindness. This little boy has already gotten way enough cars - It is interesting boys always get mad for cars. |
| 469 |
Public Transportation in Shanghai @Lycia, all by train is the best choice. |
| 468 |
Craziness of Real Estate Market In China, it is not as bad as US - at least from current people's optimistic assessment. People at least have to pay 20% down payment. In Beijing, and Shanghai, and other similar cities, bank is highly leveraged, but in most of other cities, like in my hometown and in Xi'an, not few people buy house using loan, they pay the house in full. |
| 467 |
Full Content on Home Page of my Blog? Thanks GN! Although it is my blog, it is a community and any change to it impact my readers. :-) Keep the feedback coming. Now I turn to keep the current format - well. It is an example to demonstrate that when people are free, they may do something unnecessary, not the core. It is the same as a company has more money than they need - may do some stupid things. |
| 466 |
Full Content on Home Page of my Blog? Thanks Carroll. Useful comment. As the writer, I already cannot see the way people read it, that is the reason I asked. That makes sense. Maybe I need to increase the recent entry list a little bit so people won't miss it if they didn't come for some time. |
| 465 |
Full Content on Home Page of my Blog? hmm.... no comment about this? |
| 464 |
"The Right to Refuse Service to Anyone" So Sarah, your lawyer did think putting the sign up makes a difference in legal perspective? |
| 463 |
Update about my Foot Thanks Wendy for the comment on Baixing. For the wheelchair, I bought a very nice wheelchair with many functions - HBG19. The cheapest price on taobao is 668, and many with good reputation sell it above 800 RMB. I feel I just need a nice wheelchair instead of a toy. On Baixing, there are many other wheelchair selling at 50 - 60 RMB (Taobao sell the same at the price you mentioned: 250), but I don't feel that is good enough. The interesting thing is, when you want to get it, you get it from the neighborhood - practically after 1 hour. Then you use it. After you finish using it, you sell it back to people who need it, still at 300 RMB price - the next unlucky guy who just need it for one month or two. See, that is the value of Baixing. I am so happy with the wheelchair since it is almost brand new. Buying a new one and sell it later cost me 350 RMB in difference in price, but for second hand, the difference is 0. If we don't have a website like Baixing, you sell the wheelchair to second hand dealers, the possible price they gave is likely to be 50 RMB. |
| 462 |
B for Parking Garage @yeeshian, do they provide additional accommodation? If so, 500 RMB + saving is possible, but it is the lowest possible amount I can think of - that is only 20 RMB per day - that only covers food. As DC pointed out, it is OK if you cook yourself. |
| 461 |
Risk Assessment of My Zhiyong Series Interestingly, I cannot read Google Reader this morning. I don't think it is related to this post though. |
| 460 |
Risk Assessment of My Zhiyong Series No no no. I am definitely fine today, and nothing happened. I don't think a physical contact very likely to happen. Don't worry. |
| 459 |
Life, An Accumulation of Mileage ad65030188jQcMSw7v |
| 458 |
The Significance of Xu Zhiyong @Puzzled foreigner, and @Adam, thanks for sharing your thought here. I believe it is pretty common in China that people think like Adam. Unfortunately, that is what the propaganda is talking about, and widely accepted. That gives the authority the freedom to do whatever they want. People like Xu Zhiyong don't believe in it, and he was put into jail. The act of detain Zhiyong was to frighten others thinking the same way, and gives people like Adam more assurance that what the thought is grounded in fact - “Look at what Zhiyong get by not following the rules." |
| 457 |
Gypsum is a Life Changer I saw that picture - it is really nice! However, I don't try to get one since it can be complicated. I have a nice IKEA rolling chair that I can sit down it and move around. Wendy gets it several days before I broke my foot, and I joked that it is like she knows what is going to happen. :-) |
| 456 |
Zhiyong and People's Congress I don't think China is unique regarding this. People in every country struggled for their rights in the history. China is just a little bit later mover. |
| 455 |
The City of Tongchuan Right. I agree Baoji is the second largest city. |
| 454 |
My Passion for Humanity Well. I never put an equal sign between "humanity" and "mercy". Mercy, or remove/soften punishment is the worst thing. I will object if anyone wants to give additional mercy beyond what is allowed by the law. To put someone into jail, to give fine are just medicine and injection, and operation in hospital. Without all these strong methods, people cannot cure. Just talking cannot cure anyone, just like talking cannot cure in hospital. My point is, along with all the punishment, we need to keep humanity, and understand that why we do it. We punish, not to end up with punishment. We punish to cure the disease of the criminal, and to prevent other future crime. If we don't have that in mind, punish can be a very dangerous tool to cause much more problems. Punishment needs to cure, not to spread hate. |
| 453 |
Broke the Bone of my Foot I don't have any confident that the road can be fixed at all. But inspired by Xu Zhiyong, I kept doing a lot of things like this in the last few years. Martin Luther said: "Even if tomorrow is the end of the universe, I will still water my apple tree today". - never give up hope even though hope is not feasible at all. Lu Xun of China said: "In sealed room with no fresh air, and a lot of people are still sleeping in it. Even if you wake them up, they cannot do anything with the room, why bring the pain to them. However, if you wake up all the people, maybe there is a chance to break the room". |
| 452 |
Life, An Accumulation of Mileage ad66071009mJdnffT8 |
| 451 |
The City of Tongchuan I am back to Shanghai. Still waiting for the arrival of Typhoon. |
| 450 |
My Passion for Humanity @Run, I agree that not all crime is forced, but I still insist that crime is infected, by others. Look at our own history. Communism is a virus. Look at what people did to this country. Today, consumerism is another virus that push everyone to believe that to buy more is to do the society a favor... We are all influenced by others, and those opinions helped to form our own opinions. That is the reasons I believe every crime (not matter forced or attracted) has a traceable infectious root that we need to get rid of, not just the criminal. We need to get rid of crime, not criminal, just because criminals are patient infected by crime. War is another infectious crime. Ask around and see how many people want to go to war for their country (proudly!). That is infectious. People repeatedly say they are willing to die. They are willing to devote their lives to the Party. Hmm... They are willing to die for love, and they are willing to die for freedom. That is infectious, but also crime to themselves. |
| 449 |
Daily Cost of a Tourist in Shanghai @Izce, thanks for your comment, but I cannot help anyone to plan the trip individually - I am not a tourist agent or tour guide. |
| 448 |
Right Lane - Most Important Road in City @ddjiii, yes. In countries like US, you need to yield or full stop before turning right. And before that, I always cannot remember whether right lane traffic should yield to left turn or U-turn or the other way. Now I understand why they make that rule (this rule is there because of a reason). Just because right lane has 100% of the time, but forward, left turn or U-turn just have 1/4 of the time share, reducing the right lane actually balance the traffic, because the scarce resource in a road system is the time available for forward, and left turn traffic, and right lane traffic is always proportionally more than others. My belief is, not just follow the rule like "full stop before turning right", think about what is the reason behind it. |
| 447 |
Hukou System in China Betsy, you have my permission, and my contact is on the homepage (right side) |
| 446 |
Only J (Not P) Survives in US Yes, Amber, I feel happy that you also feel the same way. The modern society is constructed around the ideal type of ESTJ, and other types feel pressed by this standard. Did you know that ENFP is just 3% of the total population? |
| 445 |
Channel 9 of Flight Control Center It is recorded by Sony T-10 camera. The sound comes from air-phone jacket at the seat. |
| 444 |
Back to Shanghai Obviously I still need more time to adjust - I wake up 4:00 AM here, and cannot sleep any more. But I am sure I will be sleepy in the day time. |
| 443 |
Drawing of Stanfod Jennifer, I am still in town. Have time to meet? |
| 442 |
Why Car Lights in US are Always On @GN, my car actually turns off the light when the engine goes off, so I typically don't bother to turn it off. But the second morning, when I start the engine, it is on, and I need to mannually turn it off. In Shanghai, I would say, NO car turn the head lights on in the day time - well, there may be one or two of this car I see once in a month, but it is really rare. I don't know if there is any law to require it to be off, but I remember I saw a TV drama which the driver was stopped by policeman just because he had his car light on in day time. |
| 441 |
Inspiration is the Key in Silicon Valley In Costco? Just the Cal tablet, Fish Oil - many bottles. |
| 440 |
Hello from Palo Alto Not completely left. :-) Baixing was rebranded from Kijiji, and we remains as eBay family company. |
| 439 |
Beijing Airport Express Train This is the best map I can find http://www.explorebj.com/subway/ Airport line transfers to #10 at Sanyuanqiao. There is no such a metro station called Maizizhuangxilu. |
| 438 |
Hello from Palo Alto Hi Nina, nice to hear from you again. This time, I will spend my one week trip only in Palo Alto, with a side trip to Mount View, and San Jose for two meetings. That's it. So there is no meetup this time. Hope the next time. |
| 437 |
Hello from Palo Alto I am here for business trip. Will be back on July 9th. Carroll, I started to enjoy seafood here, but lunch was still PHO noodle. |
| 436 |
I am Moving Back to Puxi It is definitely one factor, but the key factor is to move closer to where I work - now it is about 30 minutes walking distance (1.8 km) away, and I can either drive (which I think I won't do very often), or take public transportation (two stops away). |
| 435 |
Google.com Blocked, Again @kbguy, as always, thanks for sharing your thought, although other readers and me don't agree on what you said. It is not about control itself. It is all about who do it. Is it a government reflecting the will of the people, or someone who got the power because of historical reasons. I also suspect that conscious people collectively won't lean to the control part - freedom is part of human right that everyone has. |
| 434 |
Shanghai to Jinshanwei It is one hour flight. Here is the flight connecting Guangzhou and Xiamen: 南航 CZ3723 新白云机场 高崎机场 07:50 08:55 321 50/0 660 所有舱位 5.2折340 退改签 － 海航 HU7787 新白云机场 高崎机场 08:00 09:00 738 50/0 660 所有舱位 5.2折340 退改签 － 厦航 MF8306 新白云机场 高崎机场 09:05 10:15 738 50/0 660 所有舱位 8.4折550 退改签 － 上航 FM9348 新白云机场 高崎机场 13:35 14:45 757 50/0 660 所有舱位 9.2折610 退改签票量紧张 － 南航 CZ3807 新白云机场 高崎机场 14:35 15:45 319 50/0 660 所有舱位 8折530 退改签 － 厦航 MF8334 新白云机场 高崎机场 14:35 15:40 737 50/0 660 所有舱位 － － 南航 CZ3805 新白云机场 高崎机场 19:50 21:05 319 50/0 660 所有舱位 － － 厦航 MF8302 新白云机场 高崎机场 21:55 23:00 738 50/0 660 所有舱位 － － Don't try to use train - it is very far. |
| 433 |
Dogs Unprotected. How about Human? I don't think there is any law. Just an idea and it turned to an order. |
| 432 |
PVG: From Pudong Airport to Hangzhou 1. Yes. 2. Yes. Actually, they do not accept reservation. 3. Without any stop - based on what I heard. I didn't check myself. 4. No idea, but I guess it won't be far away - Hangzhou is small, and it should be within 40 RMB (6 USD) range. Well. I mean a very wide range - I don't know where is the hotel, but just to let you know that if a taxi driver charges you more than 10 USD, there should be a problem. |
| 431 |
My Mood These Days Dezza, you are partly right. Influence of western world definitely plays a role in forming my current point of views, but there are many other things that people in China without any western influence will get to the similar conclusion. |
| 430 |
Gulangyu Photos by Wendy Most hostel on Gulangyu of Xiamen are very good - the whole area is wonderful. I don't remember the name of the hostel Wendy stayed. it should be on the Quanzhou Road. |
| 429 |
ENFP is Incompatible with GTD It has been banned in the last few weeks already, if not two months. Youtube.com is also blocked... |
| 428 |
Bribe for Driver's License? Actually, the comments I got so far was very surprising for me - I thought sensitive topics like bribe in this article may cause some strong reaction, but it seems people CAN accept it. Well. It is ME this time who feel upset - it is NOT normal. People should not do it. It is a driver's license exam anyway, and it is connected to people's live and death. Even if I am OK when I fail because I don't pay, I don't feel OK to see someone (well, most of them) passes just because of the 200 RMB if he/she is not qualified to get a drivers' license. |
| 427 |
Pudong House Price Rise Sharply The average salary in Shanghai can be very low. The average annual salary is 17764 RMB in 2001 [1], which is just 1480 RMB/month. I guess these days, it is higher, and should be something around 2000-3000 RMB per month. Using the same calculation, a 100 sqm apartment costing 2 million is 1000 times of average monthly salary in Shanghai. [1] http://www.smhb.gov.cn/website/b/32051.shtml |
| 426 |
Chinese or International Eduction? my twitter account: jianshuo |
| 425 |
University Education = Hukou in China If there is one person of the parents have the Hukou of a city, the child can have Hukou of the city. Marriage cannot change Hukou of spouse. |
| 424 |
Worry about Yifan's Education I will continue the discussion in another thread very soon. |
| 423 |
Pudong House Price Rise Sharply Right. That is very like that. However, this is the "over-reaction" of the dry-up of credit, and they used the policy to encourage people to buy now, to avoid current problem, although this is just to defer the problem to the future. |
| 422 |
Worry about Yifan's Education Hmmm... Who said I am an elite? I never self-claim to be one - any one give me any reference in this blog in which case I said I am an elite? I am be perceived as one, although I would try all my effort to refuse to be labeled as an elite. Yes. I got a decent job after graduate. Yes. I am very happy about my current business. If you mention that I got the #1 position of half million people in one course of that graduate entrance exam in 1995, yes. But I never think I am an elite - to me, that is a pretty negative term that often used to describe people who have no common sense of comment people, and who have money but don't know how to spend, and those who are greedy but empty in brain... |
| 421 |
Second Impression of Shanghai Expo Site My guess the reason for the expo is, it is an expo at the end of the day, and it should be only an expo. If the building can be left there, there must be many legal, and economical problems in the future related to it. For example, it may be the easiest way for a country to invest in another country, even though there are laws prohibit it (or make it impossible for the country to participate). The expo may be leveraged as a way to by pass many checks. So if the expo is designed as a pure expo, which means nothing is left on the ground, the expo can be made possible. |
| 420 |
May 12, 2009 Dihua, what is the audio book? What it is about? |
| 419 |
Second Impression of Shanghai Expo Site Most building you see on this photo is permanent, and all other country pavilions are temporary, and need to be destoried after the expo. |
| 418 |
Two Nice Photos from Xiaoliang @Michelle, it is confirmed that you are right. it is just an interesting mixture of its background and the image. |
| 417 |
Two Nice Photos from Xiaoliang Hehe. That is exactly what is in my mind when I see the picture. I will ask Xiaoliang for it. |
| 416 |
Why Use the Pedstrain Crossing? I believe pedestrian cities are not built on purpose. The local citizens are smart enough to choose the best way to live, as long as they don't follow the model of other cities. |
| 415 |
China and US is Opposite on North and South Exactly, elliottng. This is also a result of history: Shanghai used to the media center, and art center, and when the new China was established, the ecosystem of Shanghai was completely destroyed, and was not recovered till today. |
| 414 |
Rent an Apartment in Shanghai Nice usage of this page, Yvonne. I feel much better when I see people seeking for shared apartment on this long page than real estate agents. |
| 413 |
Enjoy the Beauty of Life These days, the sunshine is great, and you feel spring is coming, and even feeling that summer comes fast. |
| 412 |
Make My Blog Faster On the Google AdSense part, it IS slow, and I am trying something to make it faster. |
| 411 |
Shanghai Maglev Timetable Maglev to Metro transition is still not as good as it could be yet. Hope there are better way to use the same ticket system in the future. |
| 410 |
Learning Swimming As you can see, Sanaya, all people on this forum is still learning.... |
| 409 |
Backup of Individual Entry Archive Template Just after the May 6, 2009 simplication, I cut almost all the javascript and other slow downloading things, and now it is very fast. |
| 408 |
Enjoy the Beauty of Life Transportation can also means something else if used wisely - I just figured it out. |
| 407 |
Why Use the Pedstrain Crossing? Hmmm... Jaywalking is certainly something my friends complain, they are saying that it seems like it is illegal to use pedestrian in Shanghai. |
| 406 |
Facebook Connect with MovableType Finally I removed Facebook connect since it added no value (well, not much value for the reader community of this blog), and it make the system too complicated. |
| 405 |
Maglev Schedule Yes. Maglev arrives just in the middle of T1 and T2 - it is equal far from the both terminal. It is in the same building, no other transportation is needed. |
| 404 |
Jinji Lake - Rebuild Another West Lake Surely it takes time for Jinji Lake to be another West Lake - I just don't know whether it is 10 years or 100 years. |
| 403 |
Three Interesting Photos Well. Don't get me wrong. It is just a joke, not real boarding pass at all. Of cause there is no way for machine to understand the hand-written bar code. |
| 402 |
Back from BossTown I don't know when it is on air, maybe in one month or so? |
| 401 |
Clear Shanghai Night it is at Haoran Hi-Tech Building in Shanghai Jiaotong University. It is very near Ganghui. I use Nikon D50 |
| 400 |
eBay China Job Opening @Anna, it is no longer valid posting. |
| 399 |
Two Things Other Tourist Don't Do in Shanghai I am using a HP Desktop Computer at home. They have very nice sleep button that you can put the computer into sleep mood when you finish using it, and it resumes in 30 seconds. |
| 398 |
How my Fake Boarding Pass was Made Hehe. It is that type. There are this type of joke all the way to Xiamen. |
| 397 |
Donghai Bridge Four years ago, it was completed. |
| 396 |
Another Drawing - Zhangsanfeng's Milk Tea Shop I still prefer ball-pen - the type of sketch is more interesting than pencil and last longer. |
| 395 |
Traveler Tide in Spring Festival No idea how to suggest if you don't tell us the price range. |
| 394 |
Virtual Physical Name Card Interesting question, Wei. It turned out that it worked out very well. I did receive phone calls, but most of them are friendly people seeking for help - I tried to answer if I can. There are no spam so far. We may think we are too important, but the world does not think so. |
| 393 |
How my Fake Boarding Pass was Made I should have added a comment on the blog: It is just for fun, and there is no way to use it, especially the bar code - no way for computer to recognize the code. |
| 392 |
Three Interesting Photos The boarding pass is not real. Just a friendly joke. i will post more photos to show you how it was created. |
| 391 |
Back from Xiamen (and Why OOB) DC, this is an interesting question. You may check Wikipedia to get more information about the history. The short answer is, it was international from the mainland side - to keep a small island under control of Taiwan will keep the Taiwan strait open, instead of 100% separation. |
| 390 |
Cycling to Pudong Airport Hmmm. Great journey and I am happy that you are cycling with your son. Let me answer the easiest question: you can cross the river at any ferry station. Just get to the Huangpu river, and find a ferry. The last time I used the ferry station under Lupu Bridge, but it turned out that it is not the most effective way. Maybe you can try the one under Nanpu Bridge. Then, when you are in Pudong, just find any road leading east. There are nice roads along the Long Yang Road - but smaller than the Long Yang road. It is not easy to tell the exact name. Just try your luck! Jian Shuo |
| 389 |
Back from Xiamen (and Why OOB) It is free to access the beach - is there any paid beach area in Xiamen? |
| 388 |
Train is Better than Car to Hangzhou Well. I don't have specific answers to your question. There are bus to Hangzhou, but Hangzhou is still far away from Xiaoshan. There are train, of cause, but it takes too much burden to travel to both train stations. Maybe taxi works - 500-700 RMB? |
| 387 |
Train is Better than Car to Hangzhou Well. I don't have specific answers to your question. There are bus to Hangzhou, but Hangzhou is still far away from Xiaoshan. There are train, of cause, but it takes too much burden to travel to both train stations. Maybe taxi works - 500-700 RMB? |
| 386 |
Yifan can Count from 1 to 9 Well. He is not good at numbers. He just started to pronounce. Now, Yifan enters a stage to be noisy and speak a language from Mars. We never speak English to him. Don't have any intention to do that in the future, even in far future. |
| 385 |
Beijing to Shanghai via Nanjing It is your belief, not necessarily the belief of everyone. |
| 384 |
Fly to Beijing Again via CA933 again The meetup is this afternoon. |
| 382 |
I Bought a Moleskine In Shanghai, you can get it at Design Republic at No. 5 on the Bund - just one street away from 3 on the Bund. |
| 381 |
Love Camping Yes. Qing Ming is not only for people to do tomb cleaning, it is also the traditional day for people to go out to experience Spring - to get to the green world. |
| 380 |
Shouning Road for Crayfish I didn't take photo of Crayfish - everyone is in a hurry to eat it and no time to take photo. |
| 379 |
I will be in Beijing on April 9 Chinese or English, depending on people coming. Sometimes, foreigners can speak good Chinese, and most of the time, we use English. |
| 378 |
Photos of Carrefour after Boycott They did ask me not to take photos with rude words. But, I don't boyscott Carrefour. |
| 377 |
10 Years from 32151, Automation, SJTU Yes. They have many plans, including monthly or by bytes. Search GPRS on this blog to learn more. |
| 376 |
Transportation Options in Shanghai Google Map provides some help. Here is the link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Grand+Metro+Park+Jiayou+Hotel&daddr=Shanghai+Hongqiao+International+Airport,+China&geocode=FajV3AEdCVo_ByFnOjlodLD_DA%3B&hl=en&mra=pe&mrcr=0&dirflg=r&noexp=0&noal=0&sort=time&tline=&sll=31.221864,121.469338&sspn=0.311215,0.436707&ie=UTF8&ll=31.222197,121.520119&spn=0.155606,0.218353&z=12&start=0 There are three route - but the route is in Chinese. |
| 375 |
Photos of Shanghai in Spring 2009 Pollution is the same, if not worse than before. |
| 374 |
10 Years from 32151, Automation, SJTU I don't think you can use SMS or email (I believe there must be many add-on, but I am not a deep user of twitter's addons). Free wifi is not common, although they have paid Wifi. If you use Windows Mobile PDA, you can access Internet via GPRS network - always on, no matter where you go. |
| 373 |
I Bought a Moleskine It is a notebook - paper notebook with many fans around the world. |
| 372 |
I will be in Beijing on April 9 Seems we are not in the same city when you visit China. |
| 371 |
Third Day in Nanyuan Hot Spring Chay, here is their website: http://www.nyhotspring.com/en/ Hope you find out the information you needed. |
| 370 |
Shall I Open a Shanghai BBS The time to moderate is not too much, but the key is to be consistent. Be aware that to have a new BBS is just to have a new baby - once it is live, you have to take care of it every day. Three days without moderation is like don't feed your baby for three days - the BBS may be full of spam, and when you have attention again, the BBS is already dead, and all your friends, and visitors are gone. Congratulations! |
| 369 |
Back to Office with Full Energy Next time, don't use program to crawl the site too frequently otherwise it will be banned again. |
| 368 |
Back to Office with Full Energy iworm, noticed. Thanks. |
| 367 |
Back to Office with Full Energy Hmmm... Interesting topic suggestion about Qing Ming. I will think about although it was not in my plan, since I don't do anything here in Shanghai normally. |
| 366 |
Back to Office with Full Energy Good combination, pıʌɐp, and that makes a lot of sense... |
| 365 |
Back to Office with Full Energy Yes. I think we need to develop a diversified preference. I am flexible enough to stay in 5 RMB per night rooms, as I did in my 30N 119E trip, or places at 1000 RMB per night. I am fine with both. Some people hate to stay in cheap places, while others think all those guys living in 5-star hotels don't know how to enjoy life. I think both are partly wrong. |
| 364 |
Photos of Yangshuo, Guilin - Part II Hmmm... I am not sure. I never saw a tourist place with a cave without the artificial colored lighting. I would say, I still prefer it, since it is just like many of the things people make out of stones - stone itself is just stone, but people carve different shapes out of it, so we do with the tree roots - to create some nice thing and place it into the room. The stone will look very differently without the color. I also like a quiet stone without any light - that is even better, but it is the beautify of mysteriousness. |
| 363 |
Green Lotus Hotel of Yangshuo Yes. Yifan loves to run on the floor, and we are not worried about him - even he falls, he gets up happily and continue to run. |
| 362 |
Wrapping Up my Guilin Trip No plan to visit Malaysia, Singapore yet. We are waiting for Yifan to grow a little bit older so we can travel to farther places. |
| 361 |
Why People Travel Well. There are many different reasons, like to see other part of the world, different things, new things. But what is the fundamental reasons behind all these reasons? Why we NEED to see new things? Why we want to learn the other part of the world? Why travel can help de-stressing? Why people just take all the trouble to leave where he/she leaves? Is that so important? What is the root cause that drives people see new things? |
| 360 |
PVG: From Pudong Airport to Hangzhou Hangzhou has some nice towns, and along the Qiangtang River (also called Fuchun River at the upstream areas) there are many very nice places. There are bus to those locations daily (if not hourly). But I am afraid I don't have more details about the fast changing bus schedule. Check out the local tourism booklet. |
| 359 |
"The Right to Refuse Service to Anyone" Thanks Angelica for the explanation as a business owner. It is just like the capitain of an airplane, or a boat has the top authority to refuse to serve anyone, or make decisions to stop the journey if there is security concerns, isn't it? |
| 358 |
Green Lotus Hotel of Yangshuo What is a Jave restaurant? They do have a swimming pool, according to the manual but I didn't see it myself. It is 480 RMB per night for normal rooms, and 580 RMB per night for river view rooms. If it were a real 5-star hotel, the rate is very reasonably, maybe the cheapest one, but considering it is located in a county (smaller than a city), and all their competitors offers 60 RMB per room per night, it is very expensive. |
| 357 |
Mountains of Guilin DC, you mean the nine horse mountain? I didn't bother to try - actually, at my first, second and many glance, I didn't find any horse. |
| 356 |
Photos of Yangshuo, Guilin I don't think there is boat traveling upstream from Yangshuo to Guilin - all the boats only from Guilin to Yangshuo. You have to take bus. |
| 355 |
Yifan on the Road Yifan's car is called "Little Red" :-) |
| 354 |
Bad Tourism: Killing Goose for Eggs kbguy, yes, that happens all the time. That is especially true to a place where the only industry is tourism, and most of the visitors just go there once in their life time. So they cheat people, and don't worry to have any bad reputation. |
| 353 |
Bad Tourism: Killing Goose for Eggs Corrected. Thanks. |
| 352 |
Metro Between Hongqiao and Pudong Airport The Metro Line under construction in Pudong IS the extension of Metro Line #2. They also moved the current Zhangjiang Station to underground, so big portion of the Metro in Pudong are also underground metro... I also thought about the possibility of just skipping metro and use Maglev, just improve the transition, but when I drive to that area, I found out that Metro is needed anyway - there are vast area with heavy population like Chuansha along the line. |
| 351 |
Metro Between Hongqiao and Pudong Airport The Maglev project is reported to get back to life again. The protest of residents in Meilong area (where I lived for 3 years) gets some return. The latest version of the plan was to move the Maglev into underground. This significantly increase cost, and decrease possible speed, but it is better than nothing, from the government perspective. For Maglev, I always think to improve a little bit of the platform and train station/Metro transition system makes bigger difference at lower cost. Now most of the time was spent on waiting instead of on the road. NIMBY type of thought is rare - actually I applaud to people who did protest since it is the only very few cases when people do fight for damage of their "back yard". In most cases, people just have the mentality that my home is the government's backyard, and they can do anything, including drive me away, since it is THEIR property anyway. Now, this is changed, although it is just the beginning of the change. @stephen, it is not 30 km tube in one year, it is more than 100 km tube, and more than 100 metro stations in one year... That is huge project. This year is also the most terrible year in road system in Shanghai - there are metro station construction site almost everywhere you go. |
| 350 |
Metro Between Hongqiao and Pudong Airport Exactly. To take Metro Line #2 from Zhong Shan Park, to Long Yang Road Station, and transit to Maglev is very fast, as you said, 45 to 55 minutes, for people who are familiar with the system. For international travelers, maybe convenience and simplicity is another thing that they care. Get on board this line, and just wait - don't worry about transition, and don't worry about signs... Just sit there, until you arrive. This kind of convenience is also important, besides the value of speed. Maglev IS a problem now. With the current short distance Maglev, it is loosing several hundred million RMB per year, with no hope to break even. Even though the Maglev may be wasteful to extend to Hong Qiao Airport, or to Hangzhou, it seems to be the only way to go, besides abandon the current Maglev project (which is a disaster for the decision makes in Shanghai) |
| 349 |
Train from Beijing to Shanghai Z7 just arrives at Shanghai Railway Station 上海火车站, and you need to transit to the Pudong Airport via Metro. Take Metro Line #1 toward People's Square, and transit to Metro Line #2. Transit to Maglev via Long Yang Road Station. |
| 348 |
7 Office Design Ideas Hanging a clock just gives some hint, and has influence of people's behavior, but never guaranteed. |
| 347 |
AdSense Color Schema Change 728x90 before header 0.62% |
| 346 |
16300 Dialup Internet Access If spending the few minutes can cause it more inconvenient to access Internet, thus reduce hours of time wasted on Internet surfing aimlessly, that worth it. |
| 345 |
More AdSense Code on Site I just added these sites to the Competitive filter. I just get tired of seeing these arbitrage site appearing on my site. Hope this works. 10-bestsites.com 10-top.com 101soho.com 1st-4-shops.com 1st-bikini.com 1st-home-business.net 1st-portal.net 247-shopping.co.uk 24hourbookings.com 24hourbookings.net 24hourbookings.org 4allyourinfo.com 8topsites.com 9topsites.com accommodationitaly.info ad-writing-here.com adsensemadeeasy.com advancedwebsearch.info africasafarilistings.info aktuelles-lexikon.de alibaba.com all-free-info.com all-lasvegas-hotels.com allstores.co.uk allthebrands.co.uk alltheindustrials.com allthevacations.com aprido.com aria-sharingplace.blogspot.com articlescafe.com ask-guru-of.net asynloving.blogspot.com atdmt.com bargaintravellerstips.com bellaisa.org berlincitytourist.com berlinhotelinfo.com best3websites.com best4solutions.com besthomegardensites.net bestlocalsites.net bestrelationshipsites.com bestreview.co.uk besttravelsites.org bestwebdiscounts.com betaseek.com betterdeals.com bloghog.biz blogspot.com bnccpa.com bo7.co.uk bolognahotelandtravel.com bolognahoteldirectory.info boxeo-boxing.com canadianrockiestour.info capetownhotelandtravel.com cheapmexicotravel.info cheaptravelnetwork.com choose-uk.co.uk ciscoknowledge.net clear0.com click4free.co.uk click4savings.co.uk clobo.com compare-to-choose.com compendianet.com consultantsbusiness.info cosyproperty.com dailyseek.net dateentrypro.com dbmoz.biz dbmoz.com dbmoz.net dbmoz.org dealtime.com definitionzone.com discoverees.net dldemon.com downtown-internet.com drea-aliveandthinking.blogpsot.com easy-bali.com ebay.com ebay.de ebosa.com eclinicalresearchjobs.com educational-online.com eengineeringjob.info efraudinvestigation.info egadis.com egivs.com egraduatescholarship.info eholeinone.net electrical-engineering.info eluxuryhomeplans.com eperformanceappraisal.net eroyaltyfree.info eroyaltyfreeimages.net eroyaltyfreephoto.info eroyaltyfreephotos.com eroyaltyfreestockphotos.com estockimages.net estudentgrant.info ethioclips.com everythinglisted.com factguide.org familytravelfun.com fastcashgrants.com fasterinfo.com fideladeloopiedoo.org financial--aid.com finditonline.ws fish4less.net forsalein.org foxydeals.com freelance411.com girlmoney.net globalinfoexchange.com globaljobsadministration.com go-2-shop.co.uk go-22.com gooyeep.com gr8info.net grand-canyon-tour-advice.info grandcanyonhelicoptertours.net guide2biz.com guidetocheaptravel.com guidetolasvegashotels.com helsinkicitytourist.com helsinkihotelandtravel.com ierpsoftware.info imastersdegree.info immigrationfreedom.com indeed.com indonesiajobs.net infidelitytips.com infoscouts.com infosearch123.net international-scholarship.net ivoip.info jamaicahousing.com jamaicansociety.com javainterview.com jobcart.net keepmedia.com links-4-you.com linxbest.com listofjobs.com litten.com malaysiajobs.net market-term.com masterprogram.info medical-schools.net mesotheliomaasbestoslungcancer.com mondoproperty.com mozsite.com mycalculations.com mywebgold.com mywiseowl.com nursingdegreecenter.org oninformation.com online-degree.net onlinedoctoratedegree.net professionaladvices.com proj-man.com purebusiness.com quotematch.com richesse-succes-sante.com savvygate.com scholarship1.net scholarshipoffers.com scholarships-info.com sciencegig.com searchaxe.com searchinfo123.com searchinfo401.com searchscribe.com searchtopresults.com searchtorpedo.com shoutfind.net smart2binsured.com starware.com teachandtravel.net theairline-tickets.com thextremehosting.com tipace.com top-3-sites.com top10websites.net topicarticles.com travel-nurse-job.info u-51.com uaeclassifieds.net uklastminutedeals.com usefulfaqs.com veliko.info web-shoppingguide.com webzsearch.com wise-mind.com womantalk.tv work-and-live-overseas.com www-cheap-airlinetickets.net |
| 344 |
Guangzhou Baiyun Airport is Beautiful I believe in the future, Airport operators will spend more time on the software - the warm and welcoming feeling, instead of the hardware. |
| 343 |
Microsoft Shanghai Zizhu Campus It is said that it is confirmed that Microsoft is moving to Zizhu this June (2009). Not a very good news for people who once worked in the downtown of Shanghai. |
| 342 |
Hotmail Opens POP3 BTW, I tried the same thing several weeks ago (February 2009), and it didn't work at that time. |
| 341 |
Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future I agree that to break law or not has little to do with bad behavior. I mentioned it only to prove that the single action of "enforcing law" may not be the answer of the problem, when the majority of the people still are not aware of them. If you enforce a law that 80% of people don't agree, that is more like dictatorship or theorist, instead of practical laws. "DO NOT ENTER" sign at parking lot is a very good example. It shows several characters of good laws. 1) Most people in that residential area see the importance of it (to be more exactly, only people who drive understand the importance, and people never have a car don't care at all. But they are not impacted by this sign, so we can ignore). 2) To put up a sign is typically reflection of the will of the community. So, that is often obeyed by the community members (although many strangers who don't care about the community at all may break it). But for bigger scope laws, especially national wide laws, since there is no such process, it is often against people's will, and such to break it is a hero action. |
| 340 |
Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future Well. I don't want to put everything from legalization, to slow moving of habits, from variety of development stage to enforcement of laws into the same topic, but my point is, the bad habits and how to change is are a complicated problem. There is not simple answer or cure to deal with it. |
| 339 |
More Cats in My Garden Actually, if I were you, I won't be too concerned. Just accompany your cat at all time when you go out, and don't like your cat wandering by itself unattended (you don't do it anyway). That should be OK. There is no (at least never heard of) cat robbery. It is as children theft. Although there are such a thing of parents losing their children, if the parents really take care of the children by accompany them all the time, that won't happen. |
| 338 |
More Cats in My Garden Nicky, what you heard is, sadly, true. So be careful. Although it is not as dangerous as it sounds - since there are 16 million people in this city, and imagine how many cats - so the chance is not that big, but no one will know your cat is an expat cats or not. I don't tend to scare you, but read this post: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20061230_friends_dog_killed.htm |
| 337 |
Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future Thanks for your comment, AussiePB. As I always believed, we are just the blind men seeing the world of elephant. Most people see clean Singapore (oh, elephant is like a rope), and other see it the imperfect side (a pole?). We obviously won't say Singapore is not a clean country because of the existence of bad behavior, just as we cannot claim that everyone is perfect in a clean country. Regarding the strict law of Singapore, I also have some concerns. Sure. Enforce law strictly by theory is a good thing, but it really depends how the law is passed, and whether the law represent the interest of the majority. People in US, for example, complained that China do not enforce laws, with the assumption that laws in China were past the same way as in US, and represent what people want as in US (even in US, you can easily argue that this is not always true). Actually, it is not. I would say, the law enforcement has to have a strong foundation to support that. That is, the law has too be made by the people, passed by the people, and works for the people (pretty familiar terms, right?) If this foundation is not solid, enforcing laws can be a terrible thing. Or to put it the other way, if the all Chinese laws are really enforced, this blog may have already been shutdown, and I have already been put into jail. If laws in China are really enforce, there will be no space for "open and reform" policy, since everything Deng Xiaoping did was explicitly forbidden by the Constitution of this country. If all the laws were enforced, this will be the heaven of dictators, because people in charge can easily pass any law in several weeks. There are many cases like this recently. The national wide law reacts to international events as quick as CNN - when people in Taiwan vote for their president, the Anti-Secession Law came out of no-where, and was passed. So, before we figure out a way to make the law making process right, we need at least tolerate some significant problems there. Having said that, I am not saying that we should NOT follow the laws and enforce the laws, we should. But the right law, and the right enforcement is more complicated than chicken and egg problem. It is hard to say whether we should have which one first. They develops in parallel, and one tiny step on one side causes a tiny step on the other side. They constrain each other, and prevent the other pace to move faster. That is why change takes time. |
| 336 |
Beer Can by the Highway vs Spitting Yes. I do think the army of traffic assistance helped a lot, but considering the quick change of people in the city (there are more people coming to this city than any previous year ever), the task is a long-lasting task. Shanghai is not isolated. This is all I want to say. You cannot just improve the level of people's behavior within just one city. With the massive urbanization in China, the generation of Chinese people need to face the challenge of living in a city, which is never been faced before. Living in a city not only means the density of people is high, the requirement for public service is higher, it also means people need to get used to live with strangers (city is all about strangers, especially larger cities). So new norms need to be setup v.s the lives in villages. US has spent the last century changing the norms, so this is what you see what it looks like today. China need to do the transform, but it is a much bigger topic than deploying traffic assistant. The change is deep, and it takes time. China has already been forced to complete part of the change in 30 years, instead of several centuries. The quick change obviously resulted in some chaos, in the economy orders, and more obviously, in the disorder of social norms. Spitting, pushing, yelling in public, and traffic rules are just some of the more obvious sample of the disorder. The root cause and symptoms are far beyond that. Read the BBS post in major portals, can you can get some idea. Again, having said that, I am still more optimistic about China's future than anybody else. By understand how the current situation came into being, we understand that time will cure this. "Installation of contemporary norm and moral standard in China is a daunting task." I completely agree, but I won't be surprised or disappointed, if this process lasts for more than two generations. If that happens within the next generations, it is already be faster than I expected. |
| 335 |
Beer Can by the Highway vs Spitting As I always insist, to compare China and Singapore is always the easiest mistake to make. Singapore's total population (4.6 million as of July 2008) is just like a district of a city like Shanghai. A pretty small city is bigger than Singapore. If there were only 4.6 million people in a city, and there is a immigration system to choose who can come into the city, that is much easier job to do. (Imagine twice as many migrate workers rushing into Singapore in one day) China is a very diverse country. You can see the span of very uncivilized behavior mixed with very nice people - that is all about the different stages. The more people you are, the more diverse they are, the more time people need to move forward. Having said that, I am not saying that everything is exactly right, or the government shouldn't play a better role to speed up the civilization process. Yes. I do believe one of the root cause of some of the bad behavior comes from the bad government, not working education system, and many other things. However, I am optimistic about positive changes in the future. To understand that everything needs time to change, instead of cannot change is a big step. When I do some study about what China looks like before 1940's, and talk with some very old people who were educated before 1940's, I was shocked to see how good their behavior are. The current behavior of people were made by poverty, wars, culture revolution, broken communist dream, and the dramatic society change after opening up again... There is a history behind everything. You can never talk about something without looking at its history, especially when you are talking about 1/4 of the earth's population. |
| 334 |
Train from Beijing to Shanghai It is at least very challenging to visit the Great Wall from Shanghai in one day, if not impossible. You can take the night train to Beijing, and take bus to the Great Wall - several hours, and get back to take night train back to Shanghai - that costs 1000RMB or more, and .... Well. I just think the idea is too crazy. I never heard of a plan like this. |
| 333 |
Beer Can by the Highway vs Spitting Yes, pushing is another thing that we should avoid. Maybe it is because of the limited transportation resources of 10 years ago - yes. at that time, your only choice is to push, or to give up the idea to take bus. Situation has changed a lot, but it is hard, if not impossible, to change people's habit. Habit always change slower than reality. For the enforcement of policy, like seat belt by policemen, you have to get society consensus first. If any policy results in 99% of people fined, it is hard to move on. If there is a way to enforce such a policy, the policy or the enforcer is written in history book as dictator. |
| 332 |
Thoughts After Seeing Dubai Tower Well. The negative feeling just comes out of the big jump of building heights. It is just like many altheths are competiting for years for decease 100 meter running by 0.01 second. All of a sudden, someone comes in and decrease the 100 meter record by 2 seconds.... It is not a good thing for people love watching race... It is the same for building. The other reason is about cost. Mountain is tall - OK. Yaoming is tall - OK. It does not comes at cost. But when you see the existance of really tall thing at huge cost, you started to think again, and say "Wait a minute. What is the point of building such a tall buiding?" That is all I felt. |
| 331 |
Train from Beijing to Shanghai @David, I think your conclusion is always right: "experience varies" from person to person. Good luck! |
| 330 |
Shanghai Maglev Timetable @holly smith, the information is right. It stops at 9:00 PM, and your client needs to take taxi, or airport bus, both are running till the last flight of the airport. |
| 329 |
Living Cost in Shanghai - Medicine @Rita, sorry to hear that your son-in-law's parent needs to do the surgery. It may cost 30K - 50K RMB. Well, you know this is just a random number - to give you the concept of how much it may cost - I mean just the base line. Always check with the hospital. I think Zhongshan Hospital is very good, go and check with them. |
| 328 |
Living Cost in Shanghai (2009 Edition) @kbguy, to live in Shanghai is not easy. The rate I quoted are pretty near the city center. However, if you don't mind spending one hour or more on the road, you can always find some pretty good places outside the Inner Ring, or even Outer Ring. On the salary side, it seems to be running to another extreme - with so many people without a job, the salary level is getting flat (if not negative) this year. |
| 327 |
Exchange RMB to/from Foreign Currencies @mei, I think you can, if you are here in China. @olusola, almost all banks do the exchange. |
| 326 |
Dell Optiplex 755 I agree that after IBM is taken by Lenovo, the quality is significantly lower than before. I used three IBM Laptop. One from IBM, and two from Lenovo. The two Lenovo laptops always breaks. |
| 325 |
Expo China Pavilion - Oriental Crown "Skewed"? Maybe because I took the photo from car window. |
| 324 |
"We Thought..." @Carroll, really look forward to your visit to Shanghai - you should definitely come, and I will be very happy to show you around. @rwm, exactly. Whatever we see, it is just our perception of the small part of the whole world. |
| 323 |
What is Happening in Shanghai Hangzhou is definitely a better city for "Life", and Shanghai is more focused on work - people easily get tired in Shanghai, and in Hangzhou, it is much better. |
| 322 |
Train is Better than Car to Hangzhou @kbguy, not too much information for Beijing. I believe there are many Beijing bloggers doing the same thing for Beijing as I did for Shanghai. Enjoy your stay. |
| 321 |
Meeting Place: Starbucks at Jinyan Road, Pudong @elliottng, good point! I will update this page when you post your photos and I will be very happy to use it. |
| 320 |
"We Thought..." @elliottng, looking forward to your post - that must be very interesting. It is always nice to meet you, and good luck with your new seed investment! |
| 319 |
PVG: Location of Maglev Station @edward, I am very sure there is no train from Maglev station at Long Yang road to Changshu. |
| 318 |
Pudong Airport Maglev in Depth You can carry very big luggage on the train - they have big space for you. |
| 317 |
"We Thought..." @Tony, I am very sure that I won't be a lawyer. I was so frustrated with piles of legal documents, and I admire people who can do it well. |
| 316 |
Meeting Place: Starbucks at Jinyan Road, Pudong Elliot provided me feedback that the direction is not as clear as it should be. I should some time revise this page to help my friends to get here more easier. |
| 315 |
Can you Understand Dish Names in China? Crystal Shrimp can be translated as "Shui Jing Xia Qiu" 水晶虾球 |
| 314 |
Follow Me on Twitter Well. On this blog, we don't encourage any comment that is not with real content. Sofa, shafa, or things like this are strongly discouraged. |
| 313 |
Train is Better than Car to Hangzhou It seems the maglev to Hangzhou has been suspended - didn't hear any further news of it. |
| 312 |
Meaning of 886 in Chinese 8 also has the same sound as bye, and 6 has the sound of le... |
| 311 |
Eighth YLF Meeting in November @TY, ops, I should have added a link under YLF. I have just did it. |
| 310 |
Microsoft Shanghai Zizhu Campus @STLPlace, yes, the campus was first used in 1987 but the construction took place in 1984 (three years earlier), so they always use 1984 as the year the campus started. |
| 309 |
Salary for Foreign Engineers @Alex, the question is hard to answer for me, to be honest. The salary range in Shanghai is very big - it is mainly by the factor that to find people combining the financial experience and English is hard - high pay, and people with just financial experience is easy - low pay. In the current market (at the time of this comment, we are in the middle of financial crisis), I am further not sure of what to expect. The only way to find out is to send out resume and start to talk. |
| 308 |
PVG: Transition to Hong Qiao (SHA) @Jude, it starts operation when you arrive. 4 hour is enough, as you can see from the article you posted comment, 3 hour is also OK. Taxi fare should be around 150-200 RMB (I didn't try it recently). More information is on this website. Just take some time to read it. |
| 307 |
Buy Train Ticket After On Board All, Please be aware that this is just an informational website without no booking services, and there will be no guarantee to answer any questions you posted here. If you need to plan a trip, please contact your travel agent, or follow the information listed on this website. I just don't want to leave you waiting for an answer that may never appear here. Jian Shuo |
| 306 |
Buy Train Ticket After On Board @Ivy, you may trip ctrip.com. They provide pretty good service on ticket booking. |
| 305 |
Meaning of 886 in Chinese @kbquy, not everything has an meaning. I couldn't figure out anything from your mobile phone number. |
| 304 |
Who is Chris Devonshire Ellis - Part II @Johnny, this was really surprising news. |
| 303 |
Microsoft Shanghai Zizhu Campus @DC, they have shuttle bus, but it also easily takes you 3 hours everyday on commute. |
| 302 |
Financial Crisis and Shanghai @Herbert, it is all about sentiment - people naturally tend to be conservative when the climate changes, although it is not directly impacted yet. It is all about expectation about the future. |
| 301 |
A15 Expressway Shanghai @Anna, take any bus that goes to Wujing 吴泾. There are many of them in Xujiahui. It is very far from Gubei. It should be about 30-40 kms, and can easily takes you 100 RMB to get there. |
| 300 |
Microsoft Shanghai Zizhu Campus @cookie, Wow, seems we share pretty similar experience: SJTU then Microsoft? |
| 299 |
A15 Expressway Shanghai @kukoo, corrected. Thanks. |
| 298 |
Microsoft Shanghai Zizhu Campus @Rhodo, it WAS in 1984 that Minhang Campus was built. It is not a typo. I remember it clearly that when I moved into the campus in 1995, it was already the 11th year of the campus. |
| 297 |
Who is Chris Devonshire Ellis - Part II @The Truth, yes, you have my permission to re-publish content from this site to yours. Thanks for asking. Actually, as I stated in my Terms and Conditions, quote from this site, or copy few pages is OK. @warped0ne, don't worry - the only reason I really delete spam without any explanation is because of spam. Meanwhile, I would want to keep a clear line between stating the truth, or opinion, and personal attack. My way to judge is simple: To say: "This is the stupidest idea I have ever seen" is OK, or "this behavior is naive" is also OK, but "this person is bad" slips to the area of personal attack. :-) So based on this, your comment is, well, hmmmm, ops!,.... in the area of personal attack. I would ask everyone to be polite and constructive - to beat someone in the face after he beats us does not make ourselves more right than he is. This is always what I personally believe. But, again, I won't delete this little-bit-cross-the-line comment. Thanks for your consideration, warped0ne. |
| 296 |
Thanks to the Crisis @melody, it is OK for me. My rule for comment is, as long as it is not spam in nature, everyone deserves some place on this blog to talk about his/her ideas. :-) |
| 295 |
The Help of a To-Do-List @wantfee, thanks for the pointer, and I may take a look. |
| 294 |
Car Towing Services in Shanghai @DC, I never thought about changing a car seriously until I got my car towed - I thought: hmmm, maybe I should at least start looking. Now, as long as my car is fixed and everything is fine, I just feel I can stay with the car for much longer time than I expected. maybe another year or two? |
| 293 |
Daily Cost of a Tourist in Shanghai @ling, the problem is, who does clean everything properly in China? Give me a list? |
| 292 |
Happy New Year 2009 BG77 DP69 GQ90 IJ60JI03 RF18 RR54 XB12 YX97 |
| 291 |
Who is Chris Devonshire Ellis OK. For others, I would disscuss about when it is appropiate to remove a comment and when it is not. Of cause I don't want to talk about another person (with all my full respect to him, as to anybody). I don't want to check about the facts side some of my readers post - am I suppose to do it? So if there is arguement around a statement, and a complain I would treat it as "off topic" discussion... |
| 290 |
Who is Chris Devonshire Ellis @StefanEdbergian, I welcome all comments on most of the matters, but just as I suggested, please don't talk about this person on my blog, since I have been enough to talk with him or his lawyers. |
| 289 |
Daily Cost of a Tourist in Shanghai @light487 (Luke), you are generally right about the statement of Shanghai is one of the most expensive cities in China, or even world. However, there are always cheap stuff. The really high cost of cars, and real estate pulled all the numbers up, not food. In my calculation, I obviously put most of the money (200 out of 265) to tickets. If you don't pay ticket, or very little, 65 RMB is good enough, although I didn't count a Starbucks coffee (22 to 38 RMB), or a cup of beer (some foreign friends that there are beer discrimination here, because they are always sold of super expensive beer - i know why. It is because the places they hang over). |
| 288 |
Why Chinese Prefer Mobile to Access Internet @Genn, no, we don't provide WAP interface. Since more and more mobile are using full web browser, they can just browse the same site as computer user. |
| 287 |
Hello! Hello! I am Back Livid, didn't work on user part yet. May takes some time. |
| 286 |
Hello! Hello! I am Back Comment should also work. |
| 285 |
How Cold is Shanghai Today @stephen, I don't think they have any permit. Actually, this is very common practices to build "illegal" rooms no matter it is permitted or even safe to do so. It is within the same residential area where I live, another building. |
| 284 |
All Maps in China are Transformed @Dagobert, if you just need to get directions, the transformed map is OK since the relative locations of the map is workable for you. However, if you use GPS, that can bring a big problem. |
| 283 |
How Cold is Shanghai Today @Tobi, it is about -9 C that night, the coldest New Year Eve every, accoridng to local newspaper. @loertta, it is not normal at all. Typically, it is cold in Shanghai, but not very often for the temperature to drop below 0. @ecodelta, in northern part of China, it is very common practice to create special dishes using the cold weather. @Michelle, have a wonderful Spring Festival back home. You must miss your hometown a lot after being in Shanghai for just few years. :-) @stephen, after closely observe the situation, I realized that it is tnot the problem of the draining pipe - it is the problem of the resident on the top floor. They changed the structure of the building, and built a new room on the top. It seems they also installed drain in the new room. The drain should use the inside draining pipe which goes within the building, but the worker just put the drain pipe to the outside one. Ypically, the drain pipe is only for rains, so it won't be a problem, but when it is for household water, under really cold weather, it is something like this. - I even suspect it is bath water, which is hot, and which is easier to get freeze. @Shane, you are right. Shanghai is not always as cold as this. |
| 282 |
Photos of Donghai Bridge @Martin, the speed limit is 80 km/hour, and there is no single place along the way for cars to stop - there are emergency lane and parking area, but not for "tourist" use. |
| 281 |
Watching US President Inauguration @chavista, I don't think BBC is anti-China or pro-China - they are pretty neuatual, but I just feel that to fit the complicated issue into 1 minutes or 20 seconds may even cause more problems than solving it. |
| 280 |
Frequently Used Phone Numbers in Shanghai @Bob, I have no idea about the Icecream factory and search on the web didn't bring any result to me. |
| 279 |
Short Pause of Comment System Hmmm.... Thanks Carroll! Yifan will be happy if he sees you. |
| 278 |
Metro Lines are the Bones of the City http://www.explorershanghai.com is a great site with interactive Metro map. |
| 277 |
Watching US President Inauguration @Neil Gallagher, as I stated in my previous post, I am not interested in any BBC interview. I refuse any BBC interview in the future. |
| 276 |
Yifan Attacks Me :-) @Carroll, good topic suggestion, and I will write about it. :-) @Clara, 3500 seems pretty high. Maybe it is for very good Ayi? I will explain more in my article. |
| 275 |
Finally Get into Buck's Restaurant @Ann, good point. I didn't see anything very special there. Maybe it is because what you said: location, and maybe one of the only choices. |
| 274 |
Why Chinese Prefer Mobile to Access Internet @Fyre Vortex, it can be a point, but I would argue that the majority of people using mobile to access Internet are those using the simplist phone - not smart phone or phone with hand-writing recognization. Buying a phone, and click a key on the phone, and see the outside world is a great experience for people in rural area or in mountains - the only good way to access the outside world. |
| 273 |
Which Train Station to Use in Shanghai? @j, hehe. In the email, I responded already. Yes. It should be at the Shanghai Railway Station. |
| 272 |
Who is Chris Devonshire Ellis @AussiePB, Yes. I am looking forward to find time to gether together in Shanghai. We are planning to bring Yifan out of town in 3-6th of the Lunar new year. So if you are in Shanghai in the first or second day, let's figure out something. :-) Safe trip to Shanghai! |
| 271 |
Visited Police Station Today It is OK, just some chat (not related to this blog). Don't worry, but I would rather not to disclose too much. |
| 270 |
Watching US President Inauguration @solopolo, it is at http://hulu.com. Although many video is just for United States, the real time broadcast is available any where. @Carroll, I can imagine. In the YLF email list, there are many people travelling there. They even have a party there. |
| 269 |
Cheap Budget Hotel in Shanghai Thanks, David! |
| 267 |
Happy New Year 2009 CY19 Spring Airlines 40 FA91 Pumpers 20 JU83 VIP Spring Airlines 100 |
| 266 |
Happy New Year 2009 January: CY19 FA91 JU83 PD00 RH96 XX04 XX04 |
| 265 |
Happy New Year 2009 Elliottng, do you have plan to visit Shanghai this year? Hope to see you. Shane, I believe religious people are easier to get happy, and have strong sense of guidance. I visit church from time to time to get inspiration too. |
| 264 |
Hangzhou Photos at the End of 2008 Carroll, Happy New Year! Wish you and the entire family a Happy New Year in 2009! I told Wendy that I always wanted to bring Yifan to California to see Carroll, who cares and loves him so much. He is really a lucky boy to have many people looking at him when he grows up. |
| 263 |
Happy New Year 2009 Thanks Tin Chew, and happy new year too! |
| 262 |
The Journey Starts Well. The Journey refers to the Journey of Baixing, the new company (it was announced internally in Feb 1, 2008). |
| 261 |
Drive on Nanpu Bridge for 3000 Times Hi Carsten, I do work in Haoran Building at SJTU. Where are you? Let's gather to have a cup of coffee.. That is nice. |
| 260 |
Merry Christmas 2008 Hi, Merry Christmas, everyone, again. |
| 259 |
Bomb Threats in Shanghai DC, I also was there yesterday, and didn't see as many people, but I have no idea about what's the relationship between closure of garage and people in the mall - not many people drive there. Another thing I observed: there are still cars coming out of it, but the entrance was closed. Are they trying to evacuate all the cars, and inspect those left? |
| 258 |
Going to Attend Shanghaiist Party I went to the party and left around 9:00 PM. |
| 257 |
Drive on Nanpu Bridge for 3000 Times Yes. I think I will post more information about the Expo when it is getting closer and spend some time in the expo site. I will report from there. |
| 256 |
Where is This Tunnel It is a tunnel that very rare place for people to visit - it connects a two remote terminal. I am adding more photos to this blog now. |
| 255 |
Where is This Tunnel DKwan, you got it exactly right - it is Narita International Airport - the long tunnel that very few people use. I think it is very nice . |
| 254 |
Shangri-La vs Four Seasons Hotel @Shockr, maybe you are right. I just try to find out reasons why I love Renaissance, Shangri-la, and Ritz Carlton so much, but really have no idea why people think Grand Hyatt, and Four Seasons are good. I know it is purely personally preference. At least I don't like the lobby of Four Seasons where so many people smoke. |
| 253 |
Dell Optiplex 755 @song, although many of the bluescreen comes from software error, there are many coming from hardware. Believe me, I was a support engineer for Microsoft and debugging bluescreen was our daily job. So I am pretty confident about the cause of a blue screen error - at least when I see the "Memory Parity Error"... @LC, it is snowing there? Weird! |
| 252 |
Going to Attend Shanghaiist Party @Michelle, I think so, but you need to pay the 50 RMB entrance fee, as everybody else. You can check with them to confirm (I am not an organizer). |
| 251 |
Faster Bullet Trains in China If you can read Chinese, huochepiao.com is a nice site to get that information. |
| 250 |
Yifan in 2008 Christmas @Michelle, he cannot yet. I am thinking about bring him to swinging pool later. He did swim well several days after he was born - in hospital with the help of the swimming ring around his neck. |
| 249 |
Vanke is a Good Real Estate Company @Sabine, how easy to sell an apartment really depends on two factor: 1) The overall market, and 2) the price you set. If you set it a little bit below market price, you always get your house sold out quickly. Generally, at the same condition, Vanke house sells better, based on my experience. They are a good developer and really spent time and effort to make the house valuable. Most agents will charge you 1% of the total amount of the sales. You can also use local classified site, like my site: http://shanghai.baixing.com/root/W0QQqZ%E7%99%BD%E9%A9%AC%E8%8A%B1%E5%9B%AD (Disclaimer: I am the CEO of this website). |
| 248 |
Yifan in 2008 Christmas Yes. Yifan is generally happy, and generally feel bad and cries when he was taken away from his favorite toys, like water - he loves water so much. He refuses to leave bath tube after bath - always very challenging for us to bring him out. |
| 247 |
Temporarily Removed Facebook Connect Forgot to mention that I may consider to keep the current avatar if you have already posted. |
| 246 |
China's Social Resources Yes. There are some private access hospital, and they are good, AND expensive. |
| 245 |
FBML Sandbox of Facebook @Carroll, although you are extremely non-technical, you are extremely caring and sweet. I just posted some new pictures of Yifan, thinking that you will like it. |
| 244 |
Shanghai is Freezing @Joe, maybe I used the wrong term - it is not exactly hot spot - that is some kind of heating equipment with fire burning under the bed. |
| 243 |
Beijing Airport Express Train Hi Jahabar, I may not be the right person to answer this question since I have never did the transition before, but I believe there must be bus connecting the two city - I saw buses to Tianjin from Beijing airport, but I suspect that it only goes to Tianjin city, not the airport. I also head of the train connection, but may not be a feasible approach for you since it has fixed schedule. You are welcome to share with others on this blog about your findings. |
| 242 |
Reading/Writing Chinese in Windows XP Xiao Jian, if you don't have the CD, no one can help you on that. |
| 241 |
Where is This Tunnel Fabrizio and Aussie Pete, it is not in Beijing... |
| 240 |
Christmas Tree in Shanghai & Hong Kong This is a test. |
| 239 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Supports Facebook Now @Jackie, I already have Google Friend Connect on my homepage, but very disappointed about it. |
| 238 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Supports Facebook Now This is a response test. |
| 237 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Supports Facebook Now It should be fine quickly. |
| 236 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Supports Facebook Now There are still some small errors that I need to correct later. Don't worry, Michelle, it will get back soon. Aussie Pete, yes, we should do it. Ping me when you are in Shanghai. |
| 235 |
Facebook Connect with MovableType Wow. This works. Did you see the small photo along each of the comment I made? That is how it was supposed to work. Congratulations! Good Job! Jian Shuo. |
| 234 |
Facebook Connect with MovableType It seems it didn't work. Let me try the third time. Hopefule, it works this time. |
| 233 |
Facebook Connect with MovableType This is the second one and hopefully, I get my photo displayed along with my comment. |
| 232 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Supports Facebook Now Welcome, Zhutengg. No worries. I didn't change the function in any way, so if you don't have Facebook account, you can still use this site, and very easily leave a comment |
| 231 |
Facebook Connect with MovableType This is my first comment on this blog using Facebook Connect. |
| 230 |
Shanghai is Freezing I am very happy about my implementation of Facebook. |
| 228 |
Photos of Hong Kong in December 2008 Carroll, I do have some tricks to share about night scene taking. The basic one is, Turn on Timer, and put the camera onto a solid surface, then let the camera take the shoot by itself, and last for long enough. I will explain more very quickly in another post. |
| 227 |
Shanghai is Freezing Carroll, by "there is no heating equipment", I didn't mean there is no ANY heating equipment. We have air condition, and hot water - don't worry, Yifan is fine, but it is not like in northern part of China. In north China, even unlike California, every house has the water based heating system, and there are central heat station, which pumps hot water into the system so every room is warm. In some area, they have the special bed with a hot pot under it, so it is also very warm. When I am in Luoyang, in winter, I always wear T-Shirt, and running around between rooms, and sometimes still feel too hot so we have to keep the window open a little bit so it balances. In Shanghai, there are no such city wide large scale heating equipment. |
| 226 |
National Flag of China in Airport - Part II Hello |
| 225 |
National Flag of China in Airport - Part II This is a test. |
| 224 |
Island Pacific Hotel is Pretty Nice Not sure. Just booked the hotel on CTRIP, and they gave me this price. |
| 223 |
Reached Sea and Saw Faye Wang It is at the Chuanshan川沙 area - just go directly from the Long Yang Road, and the continue at Long Dong Road 龙东路 to the east, and you will get there. |
| 222 |
Red Herring Asia in Hong Kong Hi, Thomas, I am back to Shanghai already. Sorry that we missed each other this time - I know it was really last-minute notification. I am reading your blog, and hope to see you the next time I am in Hong Kong. |
| 221 |
I Love JSON I run into the term JQuery more and more often these days, and really feel that it is something worth exploring. |
| 220 |
Summary of First Half of November Ops. Typo, Caroll. He is REALY cute! |
| 219 |
Thanks Matt Isler! @Carroll, I am so blessed to have you and Jim as my friends, and you also play such an important role in my life, and is the closest "American family" for me. You helped me to understand a lot about America... Looking forward to seeing you in the bay area soon... |
| 218 |
Indian English Oh. Chinese? That is even harder. I can understand 0% of what other people speak in most of places in China. |
| 217 |
Shanghai Population It is a know issue. I just don't bother to correct the bug. |
| 214 |
Shanghai Population I started to see people searching for Shanghai Population to get to this page. Isn't Google act on blog entries so fast? |
| 213 |
Bus Seems Better than Taxi Google's new mobile map is wonderful. It is very handy to find out the right bus route to take. |
| 212 |
Shanghai to Beijing? Train is Better than Air @AussiePB, yes, I can access it in Beijing now. |
| 211 |
Chinese Government is Like a Company @George, Everything in this article is oversimiplied of the world - every single article can only tell one thing... |
| 210 |
Shanghai to Beijing? Train is Better than Air All, I am in Beijing now. The train is great. My only concern is, "can I sleep a little bit longer?" The train stops at 7:12 AM and you have to get off. Unlike home or hotel, there is no room to negociate with to postpone wake up. |
| 209 |
Eatery is Really Small Business @Carroll, yes, the Buck's is very special, although I got starving the last time. There are many interesting things in it. Yifan started to walk around in the room one months ago. Really cute.... |
| 208 |
Xishan, an Island in Taihu @DC, i do have some photos. Will post later. |
| 207 |
Happy Birthday to Me Thanks so much for your warm greetings! I know I am very lucky with a group of readers who I may expect a birthday greeting. I have much more than many people. That is so wonderful. I am very happy, everyday. |
| 206 |
PVG: From Pudong Airport to Nanjing I think they are still there. |
| 205 |
Bus is Faster than Car @martin, I agree. There are many places that has presented big challenges for the bus drivers. They have no other choices than - either give up or violate the traffic rules. |
| 204 |
Back from Jiangyin :-) Yes. It is him - very nice guy.... |
| 203 |
SVB Bank is like a Family @Michelle, don't worry. I will be happy to help you to do the change. |
| 202 |
Visited Two Companies Michelle, you are right for the name of the building - they were named after the Wang Wang group from Taiwan. |
| 201 |
Software List for Newly Installed PC Shen Xin, it is pretty straight forward. Right click on any open space of Desktop. Choose Properities... on the pop up menu. You can change the fonts at Appearence tab. Click Effect... button on the appearence tab, and you can choose ClearType from the second drop down box. One thing to note is, Chinese fonts does not support ClearType, so it has no effects for Simplified Chinese Windows XP, but after you change the Windows font to English font, it will show the difference. |
| 200 |
Bus from Beijing Airport to Tianjin Hmmm.... I remember there are shuttle bus between the T3 terminal and Tianjin, but not very sure. |
| 199 |
Last Day of National Holiday Carroll, I will. He is very cute, and everyone enjoys holding him in arm - while, sometimes he does not enjoy it as much as we do when he is busy working on some toys. He just just a little cute angel. |
| 198 |
Snowing Huangshan I won't say it is the best season to visit Huangshan, but there is no reason to postpone or change the time to visit - Huangshan is completely different in many seasons, and you always have to visit the mountain for many times to see them all. I went there for three times, and each time, I was not lucky enough to see the mountain - it was always froggy or raining. |
| 197 |
From Pu Dong Airport to People's Park Hi, just call a taxi on the street or ask the hotel to do it for you. Both are fine. There are taxi everywhere running on the street, unless it is raining or rush hours. Pay whatever shown on the meter, nothing more than that. You even don't need to pay tip (if you want to , that will be appreciated, but rare). |
| 196 |
Rob's Skateboard Journey Haha. Yes. Matt went to almost every place in the world, and do the dance - what he called "bad dance"... |
| 195 |
Different Ways to Waste Energy Rob, the journey is amazing. I just dropped an email to you. Do you have time to meet in Shanghai? |
| 194 |
Prepaid Gas and Electricity in Beijing Maybe one of the side effect of the prepaid thing is to help people to raise awareness of natural resources, and maybe someone will think of environment protection. You always need to worry that turning on the light meaning that you need to go out and buy the electricity quicker.... |
| 193 |
Adidas in Sanlitun Beijing Hehe. It is. I just added a note to this page. |
| 192 |
Jian Shuo Wang Becomes Wang Jian Shuo @anna, I will definitely write about it these days. Sometimes, news comes and I just need some time to understand what is going on and form some thoughts around it. I think I am pretty close to that point. |
| 191 |
Dinner with Friends in Microsoft in Redmond Joshua, I hope I have gotten your advice before the trip. I am in Snoqualmie, WA now, and will catch very early flight in Seattle to SFO and directly transit to Shanghai. Hope the next time we can get some together. |
| 190 |
Photos from YLF Snoqualmie, WA Hehe. She is my idol too. |
| 189 |
Top Commenter of 6 Years It seems that I should post my schedule on to the website so we can find time to meet with other somewhere, even at the airport. BTW, I am flying back from Seattle to San Francisco on Sept 22, via UA1203, and getting back to China via UA857 the same day. |
| 188 |
Dinner with Friends in Microsoft in Redmond Yes. Shanghai Shanghai was closed. I know there is a DL (distribution list, like mail list) in Microsoft in Redmond, with the name after the restaurant, with all the people who relocate from Microsoft Shanghai to Redmond. I heard the stories that they have closed the business. |
| 187 |
How to Read Shanghai Bus Stop Plate For questions about buses outside Shanghai, please check out the bus section in the Pudong Airport section of this blog. I have information about it. |
| 186 |
Top Commenter of 6 Years Also, for the icon, I designed it 5 years ago in May of 2003 using Microsoft Word. |
| 185 |
Avoid Taxi with BX in Plate Number @richard, I don't have more information about your background, like nationality, where you are, what type of taxi company you want to join. But my first reaction to the question is, it is not easy to do it with your own car. They have the BX type of plate, but it is highly restricted. It seems the only way to get into the taxi business is to get hired by a big company and drive their cars, and of cause, you may need to pay most of what you get back to the companies. This is what I heard. |
| 184 |
Top Commenter of 6 Years Thanks everyone for your comments, and AussiePB, you are definitely in the top 5, and you just joined the community in the later half of the journey, which makes the number even more impressive. |
| 183 |
I Decided to Learn to Read Menus Oh. That is a very good tip, George. |
| 182 |
Dinner in Downtown Mount View Hi Jeff, it is so nice to hear from you, and know that you are just near where I have visited. It is a nice area, and I post where I am from time to time, but often after I left. I visit the bay area pretty frequently, and would love to see people. Maybe the next time. I am thinking about putting my next meetup in Mount View. |
| 181 |
Finally Get into Buck's Restaurant @jpatokal, very like this one for the last two lines, but it didn't start with Spinach salad... |
| 180 |
Finally Get into Buck's Restaurant @GN, among all the words in English vocabulary, the name of food and fruit are the less used words if you are not living in a country. I can write a blog like this, but I don't have the vocabulary to read menu. I cannot 80% of the words in a menu. I only can read very limited words like "fish", but most of the time, fish is written in its name, not a general word "fish". |
| 179 |
Finally Get into Buck's Restaurant GN, I hope I can get help from the waiter or waitress, but the problem is, I cannot even read the menu, so their explanation is even harder to understand. For example, if I don't know the word apple, how can a waiter explain it to me: "The red, or sometime green fruit that is sweet, and tasty...."? On Starbucks.... It is all about corporate culture vs. small business culture, the same thing like Craigslist vs eBay, or Microsoft vs Google... |
| 178 |
Don't Force Me to Write on Topics Well. It should be OK to talk about it on this blog. I don't think (at least what I think) that they really care about English content on the Internet. There are enough "harmful" content everywhere in English. My perception is, they don't really care about what people outside China thinks about China (they care but not as care), but really care about what people in China thinks about China. |
| 177 |
Finally Get into Buck's Restaurant For dessert, I ordered "Lemon Ladies Meyer Lemon Cheese Pie". I didn't see what I ordered today. There are all sort of words that I don't understand. |
| 175 |
Dinner in Downtown Mount View Hi Teresa, nice to meet you. If you are in Shanghai, or the next time I am in bay area, do spend more time together. Take care.. |
| 174 |
Life, An Accumulation of Mileage AVIS Worldwide Discount AWD: B7710000 |
| 173 |
Nanluoguxiang Is Special @Michelle, the reason is, my server is in US, and they change day-light-saving back and forth. I don't want to change it according to their time saving because at the end of the day, it will be accurate. So the short answer is, the time will be correct again in winter. |
| 172 |
Must See - Coffee Facing the Bund The area changed a lot after I posted this article - now the whole bund area is under construction. |
| 171 |
Salary for Foreign Engineers @Bianca, it is really a question that don't have an answer. It really depends, but I think DB was very right to divide jobs into the four categories. |
| 170 |
3 Days to 6th Anniversary of Blogging @iworm, I didn't notice the WordCamp is coming to China. For schedule reason, I will not be in the WordCamp this time. As you know, I am a firm MovableType fan, and around the time, I may be in the Six Apart office in San Francisco. I think they may want to host similar events... |
| 169 |
Faster Bullet Trains in China @Arnold D., I don't think there are direct train from Shanghai to Baoding - I didn't get any information from a simple search. It is near Beijng, and maybe you want to fly to Beijing and then go to Baoding, or take a train, and transit somewhere in the middle. Good luck. |
| 168 |
Foreign Banks in Shanghai @James, as far as I know, the bank account you create in CitiBank or Bank of America are seperate from your accounts in US. Your accounts here are subject to all the limitions in China. For example, I was not able to check balance of my Bank of America bank card in US in Shanghai. I hope this has been changed. Better to check with your bank first. |
| 167 |
Campus Tour of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Maybe they have that information on their website: http://www.sjtu.edu.cn |
| 166 |
Yilin Blindman Massage @linux, corrected. Thanks. |
| 165 |
The Meetup on ICS Tonight Ops. How embarrassing. I made a mistake of names and photos again. Corrected, Michelle. |
| 164 |
The Meetup on ICS Tonight It came out tonight. Wonderful shooting and editing. Tang was so kind that he said he will send the video to us, and I will share. |
| 163 |
Salary for Foreign Engineers @DB and @Ginger, you mentioned a very good point. Foreign job-seeker do have some advantage for certain jobs, but the opportunity is not as big as before. If a foreign job seeker wants to compete for a local job, to be honest with you, I don't think there is a match between the company and the job seeker. The gap between salary expectation can easily reach 5x, or higher. But for jobs that needs international experience, or solid business experience, maybe the foreign job seeker can still get a pretty high salary for it. |
| 162 |
Table Tennis is the National Sports of China @DB and Rimbaud, I just created a new blog entry on this topic, and welcome to extend our discussion on this topic there. |
| 161 |
Xiang Yang Market Again @Ismail, Xiangyang Market has been closed for many years, and you will find the whole story under the Xiang Yang Market section of this blog. |
| 160 |
Shanghai is Cooling Down @Linda, Oct is very nice month to visit. It is no longer hot, and it is warm enough. You don't need to get thick warm clothing - at that time, summer just past. I don't know any hotel named Yuan Dong, but by direct translation, it means fareast. |
| 159 |
KFC Dropped Potato Wedge in Shanghai I GUESS it is just random store specific shortage. They have fries in other places, at least for yesterday, and I don't they will remove it quietly... |
| 158 |
The Wonderful 2008 Meetup Hi Chris... Thanks for adding the name. I remember nit now. Hope to see you comment more often on this blog in the future. |
| 157 |
Shanghai Pudong Airport Terminal 2 (T2) @Hazel, you may try Motel 168 - a motel in the same building as the airport. I am not sure whether they offer hourly room, but even the whole night rate is just 200-300 RMB, and not a big number for business travelers. |
| 156 |
Salary for Foreign Engineers @Grace, very true. I will do another blog article to talk about the increase of living cost, but unfortunately the salary level didn't change too much for engineers in the last two years... @Shen, you are absolutely right. Salary is a very complicated thing, and there is no way to cover all possible aspects of it. Maybe the only correct but useless answer is, the salary range is from 1 RMB per year to billions of RMB... |
| 155 |
The Wonderful 2008 Meetup @Tang, I have made modification to the article. Sorry for being to quick to type without checking the details - you know, it is written with your camera pointing me... |
| 154 |
The Wonderful 2008 Meetup @Kate, qunar.com is very good. I can confirm, but I need to put a disclaimer here, that the CEO of qunar is a very good friend of mine, and we are meeting each other in Beijing or Shanghai frequently. They did wonderful job in this space. |
| 153 |
Dos and Don'ts For Foriengers in China @Smith, where do you come from? I am just curious. Jaywalking has been a topic we discuss a lot of time on this blog. It is not something very special - it is just one of the typical examples (out of thousands of other examples) to illustrate the conflict of rules in this world. You are right. In some cities, or countries, traffic light is not that important. It is not completely a western vs eastern matter. It is more a big city vs small city, or city vs rural area problem. With so many cars in the city, they need to have traffic lights. For me, I think Shanghai needs to enforce traffic rules, and many of my friends from US think so, although I do have friends with different opinions. My way of thinking about it is, it is fine to believe in whatever you believe, but give other people a break and give them time to change (or for yourself to change) to get a common practices. |
| 152 |
GPRS Package from China Mobile @Patrick, I don't have iPhone, or BlackBerry, so don't have idea about how to configure it. But I am sure someone in the readers' community may have the experience. Anyone can point to any direction? |
| 151 |
The Wonderful 2008 Meetup @Kate, thanks for coming. Embarrassingly, I cannot tell you from the picture. Would you please let me know which is you. (Please forgive me since it is not easy to remember everyone, and I am honest enough to admit it.) :-) |
| 150 |
Blog Meetup on August 30, 2008 @Jeremy, are you serious? I didn't expect that many. :-) |
| 149 |
How to Get to Xiamen @Levy, the normal way should be by air, but I am sure there will be train connecting the two cities. However, the problem is, Xiamen is at the coastal line with mountains surrounding it. Also, Xiamen itself is an island, that you need to find other ways to get to it, not train. I suggest you to use airlines, although it is not cheap. |
| 148 |
Buy Train Ticket After On Board OK. Corrected. It is 2 RMB. Thanks iworm. |
| 147 |
CRH Train from Shanghai to Hangzhou @milliegan, I don't think you can purchase the D train ticket on board. You have to get it at the railway station first, and use the ticket to pass many check points before you get on board. Fortunately, Hangzhou ticket is not very hard to buy unless you are traveling in weekends. |
| 146 |
Where to Study Chinese, Beijing or Shanghai? Thanks Jane to offer the information. It seems you have experienced all of them. I am working on the SJTU campus, and I meet many students in the education program here, but I know none of them yet. Hopefully, one day I will talk with them to learn more about the program, so help my readers to find more accurate information in choosing schools. |
| 145 |
Wangjianshuo's Blog Meetup @heinie, @Grace, @Coco, welcome! I will be more than happy to have as many as 3 guests in the meetup. See you tomorrow. |
| 144 |
Foreign Job Seekers Move to Shanghai @Pedro Godoi, don't worry, just enjoy your trip and don't care too much about the dos and don'ts. Just follow the common sense in America. Typically, people in China, and in Shanghai of cause, are very nice to foreigners, and they tolerate a lot if you cannot use chopstick, or don't understand many local things. It is OK to be nature as in every where in the world. Most dos and don'ts here are the same as most places in the world. If you do ask me for one don'ts, that is, don't always think there is only one correct way to do things. Be open in mind and don't be too quick to judge the country. |
| 143 |
Relocating to Shanghai @Jessylol, don't worry. Just share what you know about Shanghai. No one knows the "whole Shanghai", and no one is absolutely right to this big city. That is the reason we have this blog. Just join the discussion and share... |
| 142 |
GPRS Package from China Mobile @shannon, just call 10086 using your mobile and ask for the operator to do it for you. The China Mobile operators are very kind and helpful, in my personal experience. |
| 141 |
Update about Yifan @AussiePB, congratulations! One day we really need to have the kids gather together and meet each other. They are similar in age, and will love to play together. In the future, when they grow up, we will still have this blog recording what their parents are doing and talking, in the early years of the 21st century. |
| 140 |
Update about Yifan Hi JJ, thanks a lot for sharing the tips with me. Parents are parents - we always care about our kids so sincerely that we want to try to be a better father/mother... To talk more with my son is a good idea - I will try to improve in the future. It seems important to keep talking with the little boy although he does not understand everything, I believe he will understand more percentage of our words. For the head banging, I didn't have him really hit the ground - not even once. It may be a problem actually, because he never felt the pain of doing it and may try harder the next time, which is even more dangerous than just hitting the ground for the first time, and then learn not to do it. Keep sharing more tips with Wendy and me. I'd love to learn more... Again, JJ, welcome to this blog. BTW, do you know we have a meetup tomorrow in Pudong? |
| 138 |
Update about Yifan @zjmei, good point. Kids are doing many things like being a performer, and they need audience. This is what I think (maybe completely wrong, since I am just a new father): When they did something really good, we need to be the audience and tell him we love it and he is doing great. When he does something unreasonable, we need to tell them also. When he cries just to get what he wants, to disappear (with the right safety protection) may be the best solution. |
| 137 |
Day Like This - Another Day Hi Mark, I don't know exactly what visa is required, but I don't think train travel requires anything different from normal travel (say air travel). For travel, it should require a L visa, but I am be completely wrong. I think many readers here have the experience (obviously, I don't need a visa to travel in China). |
| 136 |
Day Like This - Another Day Hi Carroll, it is nice to have a vacation in Europe. I believe you will enjoy your trip there. I will be in the Bay area this Sept (13 - 16), not sure if you are there or on your trip already. :-) |
| 135 |
Olympic is about Competition and Happiness @Andrew, I would request you to post your ticket selling comment for only once in this forum. If I see the third one, I have to delete all your comments. |
| 134 |
Lang Ping's American Volleyball Team Beat China @stephen, you are right. That was a very sad story, and it happened many time in China in the 1980s and 1990. I hope in the future when China's society develops, it can avoid such thing. |
| 133 |
Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Hi Carroll, Yes. I heard that in US, you have to see the delayed broadcast. I love the ceremony very much, although I have very high expectation for it. The ceremony just ends 40 minutes ago. Hope you enjoy it. |
| 132 |
Beijing Apartment for Olympic Yes. It drops very quickly. People always want to compare the game with the one in Greek, but the situation is different. The strong messures to keep domestic travelers outside the city and restriction on visa greatly reduced the possible visitors to the Game. |
| 131 |
Shanghai Pudong Airport Terminal 2 (T2) @adrian, the airport bus is available until the last flight arrives, so you still can take the airport bus. The taxi is also 24 hours - you cannot imagine how many taxis are waiting at the airport all day long. It may take you less than 200 RMB (or 30 USD) considering you will take taxi after 11 PM, when the fee increases. |
| 130 |
Swim in River in Shanghai Hmmm... The good thing is, at lease, the river I saw LOOKS like pure. For most of other rivers, it looks so bad, and people even don't want to watch it. |
| 129 |
How A Young Couple and a Kid Live in Shanghai Not public schools - public schools are just admitted by school district. But really good private schools have the exam. One of the question I read on the Internet (CAUTION: I didn't personally experience it and don't know whether it is just rumor): What does Panda eat? The poster's child was rejected because he answered "cake" instead o the right answer: bamboo. |
| 128 |
Mid-Autumn Festival Comes The photo was taken in 2007. |
| 127 |
Seek for Some Guidance hi all, Thanks a lot for your comments. Very helpful. Thanks Rob and Carroll for encouraging me to spend more time with Yifan and Wendy, and the family, and others who suggested. That is helpful. Peter, you gave a very good way to relax and I will stick to it - just to relax... |
| 126 |
Do Chinese Move to Small Cities Yes. I believe it is the time for people to considering moving to smaller cities - this happen only when the real estate price gap has been big enough to give people incentive to develop the smaller cities. |
| 125 |
Continue to be OOB Thanks. I think I gradually get back. |
| 124 |
Continue to be OOB hiclara, it means April, May and June - the three months. Jian Shuo |
| 123 |
Traveled to Beijing with China Eastern Airlines Martin, this is not an official China Eastern Airlines website, so take my advise just as it is, and try to confirm with them finally. I don't think you need to reconfirm your flight though. |
| 122 |
CRH Train from Shanghai to Hangzhou The ticket I bought was 54 RMB single trip. |
| 121 |
Gas Price and Plastic Bags @Benny, they are charging 5 RMB for the pretty durable and nice bag - not plastic. It has nice color and design, and is very cute, the bag you may think of when you are in a fashion store. So I think it is reasonable. |
| 120 |
Gas Price and Plastic Bags Today, news reports that there is no #90 gas in gas stations in Shanghai. They are forced to use #93. |
| 119 |
Gas Price and Plastic Bags I agree that waste is a product of wealth. Many of my western friends criticized Chinese for eating some parts of the animal that they don't eat. Well. If people get hungry long enough, and they are forced to be more clever to cook almost all part of a cow, or chicken. Throwing it away is not an option for many of us. |
| 118 |
Gas Price and Plastic Bags On return of waste, China did much better before, but just because of poverty. Beer bottles are always recycled, since by selling beer bottles to waste collection station, it can generate significant amount of income for house hold. Just because people now afford to throw away many "waste", people consume more. |
| 117 |
NBC Interview at my Home Thanks! Yes, Yifan is pretty cool when he meets strangers - very serious, at most time. :-) |
| 116 |
Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Hmmm... Yes. I also encounter a bad Dazhong taxi or two in the last half year, but overall, their quality are among the most reliable in Shanghai. I will talk about Qiangsheng shortly. |
| 115 |
Avoid Blog Blocked in China @Meg, if your own .com is blocked, there is not too many things you can do, if there is any. There is no way to find it out because the existence of this block itself is pretend to be a secret, and no way to find out how long it will be blocked, if there is any chance for it to be unblocked. |
| 114 |
MovableType 4.2 is Disappointing @Susan, I believe I will be with MovableType no matter what. I have many great and close friends in MovableType team, and I started to use it since 2002. I will continue to provide feedback but I don't think there is a reason to switch. Above all, blog is all about the content, instead of tools. Even notepad can make a good blogger. |
| 113 |
I Got my Nikon 50mm 1.8D It is 760 RMB. I just want to be conservative in selecting lens. I know there is no end for any lens. |
| 112 |
The World is Not Created by Genius - Part II Hmm... Dingli, the average may be smaller a little bit, but don't change too much. We played the same game again during the same group of people, again, it is still around 22. |
| 111 |
Life, An Accumulation of Mileage Net.cn User ID: 10279619 |
| 110 |
I Hope We can Start to Talk about History Just want to clarify my points. It is absolutely not the right thing to claim that the two sides are equally wrong. It is just one side say something to one person, but the other beat or kill as a response. So there is not doubt about it. However, there are so many things that we need to learn from that event that we need to avoid in the future. I do hope we can really engage many people, scholars, normal people to think about it and propose something for the benefit of future China. |
| 109 |
Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Just a Bridge @Gman, yes. It is now the longest cross sea bridge in the world. |
| 108 |
Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Just a Bridge I agree with you on the point that it is more significant to Ningbo. However, the connection of two powerful cities can hardly be beneficial for only one side. By combining the power of Yangshan Port and Beilun Port in Ningbo, I believe the whole Yangtze Delta area is more competitive in the international trade environment, although it introduces more competition between the two ports. |
| 107 |
Happy Birthday to Yifan @derek, you are very true, and it was exactly what Wendy complained for. Finally, we moved the "colorful paper" to more obvious location, and Yifan did spent several seconds with it. |
| 106 |
I May Not Attend the CNBloggerCon 2008 in Guangzhou Well, I want to add, that it is just my personal experience, and my personal expectation to the conference. For me, I just turned from "definitely" attend to "maybe". For the first conference, my rating is, the only conference I would choose in China, and now, it is just one of many, although it is still relatively more interesting than others. |
| 105 |
Zhuazhou - Gift Picking at 1 Year Old Mmm.... It is completely up to Yifan to pick his career or life when he grows up, just like he picks the thing that seems most interesting to him. I think we have completely let him go, to lead his life, not continuation of mine, or Wendy's. |
| 104 |
Nice Shanghai Blogger Meetup They are still holding the meetup, but I didn't participate any more. If you want to find out more, search for "Maria Trombly". She is the organizer. |
| 103 |
I Felt Afraid of Public Opinions Now @STLPlace, if there is any comment that does not show up, don't worry. I check the "pending" queue frequently (once every two days at least), and will release comments like yours. There are also many spam comments in it as well. So don't worry. |
| 102 |
Hard to Use Metro Instead of a Car @ILH, I don't think moving company location is a good choice. The current location is considered convenient for most of people, although it is really tough for some who lived very far - they have to wake up at 6:00 AM to use public transportation - I mean metro - to get to work. Also, it is near Metro Station - 2 metro lines are nearby and will be 5 different metro lines go around the same building. So I don't think I can move it to a better location. The problem for this city is, not only me, many many people face the transportation problem. The only way to live close to company is to always rent, and change house when you change job or your company change location. If you really want to buy a house, you give 10%+ to the government as tax, and pay something about 5% (not exactly but in this range) to the government when you buy one. 15% of house price (in million RMB) may well justify to keep longer commute hour. |
| 101 |
Hard to Use Metro Instead of a Car @sjtu20, thanks for letting me know. I even didn't know that. I talked with Margaret, the anchor woman of PBS' NewsHour, but don't know where the program may turned out to be. |
| 100 |
I Felt Afraid of Public Opinions Now @Diedier, I don't know about boycotting French product after the boycott of Carrefour. I may be the extension of it, instead of a new one. Anyone knows it? |
| 99 |
Hard to Use Metro Instead of a Car @DC, is there parking on the Meihua Road? I didn't see it at least one month ago. If it is the case, that is great. Before, I only see policeman putting fine ticket on the window there. I don't trust the guarded bicycle parking, since the person will leave after working hours - some at 8:00 PM, or 9:00 PM latest. If he is gone, my bike is gone, not an option. I have friends who got the bike stolen at guarded parking, and they can compensate you 50 RMB - 50 times of the fee you paid at most. Sometimes they only give you 10 RMB as compensation, depends on where you parked. @ldskaie, you are so kind to provide the tip, but that does not work any more. Based on the situation I described, if it is still the case, it is the best free park and go facility in Shanghai. However, they are not stupid. Now in the morning, if you drive to Metro, or B&Q or Decathlon, there is security guards at the gate. Their opening hour is 9:00 AM. You cannot enter the parking area unless you show them something to prove that you are doing business with them. Hmmm... Not working. |
| 98 |
Hard to Use Metro Instead of a Car Xujiahui is definitely downtown, and the concept of downtown is expanding and expanding. Xujiahui is the downtown of downtown now. @Давид, bike is not an option for me, because of the same parking issue and thief issue. Unless you are very confident that your bike is extremely bad, you don't want to park it near a Metro station. It will be gone within a week. |
| 97 |
I Felt Afraid of Public Opinions Now @siefried, I don't accept the fact that people "cannot analyze an issue from multiple perspectives". No matter I like it or not, my opinion is just one of the many opinions people may have (and the very rare one considering the large population). I don't think I am titled to position myself higher than anyone - I am not. That is the reason I feel afraid, and lonely, instead of happy - I am trying very hard to grand my reasoning to solid facts, so at least I know what my opinion is, despite of what others say. |
| 96 |
Leave Home Early to Avoid Traffic Jam Hi Thalia, nice to meet you and happy to know that you are in Shanghai. I should be blogging about it when it comes. Jian Shuo |
| 95 |
Avoid Maglev for Hongqiao to Pudong Transition @Gandhi, let me help you to draw this time table: 1. Arrive at 8:40 AM 2. Get out of the Hongqiao Airport at 9:00 AM after claiming baggage. 3. Wait for a Shuttle Bus up to 20 minutes. Adding buffer, so it is 9:30 4. From Hongqiao to Pudong takes 40 minutes. Adding another 20 minutes buffer, so it is 10:30 5. Check in at 11:00 6. It is still one hour left. So, I think you can catch the flight. |
| 94 |
Hello from Nanjing The youth hotel in the Zhongshan Ling area is very good. |
| 93 |
Avoid Maglev for Hongqiao to Pudong Transition :-) You are both right - to give people the directions is one of the reason I started this blog. |
| 92 |
Meeting Place: Starbucks at Jinyan Road, Pudong @Joyce, my meeting place in Raffles Area is Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf - better than Starbucks with less people AND internet access. |
| 91 |
Introduce Yourself @all, thanks all for your self introduction. It helps other readers to know who are reading and commenting on this blog - and give people (including me) some idea about the distribution of reader across the world - I have more diversed readership than I thought. |
| 90 |
Avoid Maglev for Hongqiao to Pudong Transition @DKWan, bingo! Thanks for the update. |
| 89 |
Meeting Place: Starbucks at Jinyan Road, Pudong Yes. I think i tis Lemon Lamington - I remember I saw the name like this on the badge. But, what is a Laminton? |
| 88 |
More Accidents in 2008 Terror does not mean terrorism. It means the lack of security - no matter it is because of natural disaster, or operation mistake. When we see too many bad things, especially to something very close to you, you feel that bad things may happen to you at any time. That is the sense of insecure. |
| 87 |
Photos of Carrefour after Boycott @solopolo, what happened? I didn't notice anything... |
| 86 |
Slow Internet Connection in Early May @Shrek7..... There are so many things in China that "should" be like this, but it works that way. I hope we can "let the blocking stop". |
| 85 |
At Harvard More photos can be found at http://wangjianshuo.com/photo/ |
| 84 |
Photos of Carrefour after Boycott Thanks for RWM and xge - different time may show different view. To take their observation, you get get a more complete view. |
| 83 |
Shanghai Pudong Airport to Suzhou Em... A taxi seems a reasonable solution for you, and Suzhou is just one hour's trip. So you can take a taxi there. Talk to the guy at the international arrival hall, and ask him to arrange one for you. They are reliable - be sure to find the guy with uniform and badge. |
| 82 |
From Pu Dong Airport to People's Park Yes. There are buses to Wuxi. Check out the Pudong Airport category of this blog, and I have photos of the bus. |
| 81 |
Slow Internet Connection in Early May @AussiePB, congratulations! I will check out the site later (yes, it is blocked in China) - the whole blogspot.com site. |
| 80 |
Photos of Carrefour after Boycott 1:00 PM, today, in Xinlicheng Store in Pudong. |
| 79 |
Automatic Door in Metro It is interesting that this page became a marketplace for automatic doors. Often, it happens without my noticing it. |
| 78 |
PVG: Car Rental Service @Dutchinshanghai, Since the Shanghai-Ningbo cross sea bridge just opened today, it should be within 200km to get there. If you take a taxi, that is about 600 RMB single trip (but think about the guy need to get back with empty car). But if you hire a car, that is not a taxi rate. I assume less than 1000 RMB is what I expect. Please note: I didn't try it and may over-priced the trip... |
| 77 |
Decathlon Store Locations in Shanghai @alexander Song, Most of the tennis shops are hidden in large shopping malls - like Grand Gateway in Xujiahui, or Raffles in People's square. I don't remember any specialized shop for tennis for now. |
| 76 |
Generalization Plays the Trick @Tony, those two are more like "Mixing" trick - mixing too not so related things together, so when you say A, they say you are saying B... |
| 75 |
Your Opinion about French Revolution @Alex Dong, I am reading the book by Lin Da. It is the pretty calmed and "negative" reflection of the event. I love it a lot. That is the starting point of my research about the French Revolution. |
| 74 |
Metro Line M8 in Shanghai Under Construction @chee8218, I didn't know that. Let me find out what is the Singapore Metro Logo... |
| 73 |
Death and Religion in Tibet @stephen, Thanks for the reminder. There are two issues. 1. The comment index page had some problem and now it is fixed - and even better. You can always check the last 100 comments. 2. The comments are always attached to the daily blog. I just implemented a cache on client side. You didn't see update just because it is cached. Press F5 to refresh the page will show the latest version. |
| 72 |
Mixing, Muddling, and Confusing @PeDu, it is the same for me to read the history of China itself. You get many versions of the same history. My struggle results in the thoughts that all the versions are correct versions. We have to accept the fact that there are many true version of the same fact in this world. It is just from different part or from different perspective. |
| 71 |
Four Types of Consciousness @TibetanLady, Thanks for your comment. Labeling and using the label as a way to fight between people is bad, but classification is the only way we can understand the world. We can try to classified things better, but we need to do it for discuss. |
| 70 |
Grace Wang Called a Traitor @nyy, Regarding "Would you please consider deleting messages calling people "idiot"?" I won't do it immediately when I see personal attack. I made it clear that attacking an opinion is absolutely OK, but attacking a person, like calling "idiot" for a named person is not acceptable. If there is a tendency that the flaming keep on, I typically will jump in and ask people to stick to the basic rule. I do reserve the right of deleting a comment if it breaks this rule, but in the last 5 years, I almost haven't exercised this right. |
| 69 |
Grace Wang Called a Traitor @nyy, Regarding "Would you please consider deleting messages calling people "idiot"?" I won't do it immediately when I see personal attack. I made it clear that attacking an opinion is absolutely OK, but attacking a person, like calling "idiot" for a named person is not acceptable. If there is a tendency that the flaming keep on, I typically will jump in and ask people to stick to the basic rule. I do reserve the right of deleting a comment if it breaks this rule, but in the last 5 years, I almost haven't exercised this right. |
| 68 |
Mixing, Muddling, and Confusing @mac, "God-like" is always what my wife, Wendy, complaining about me. She said, "Everytime, you tried to think as a God as though you are not involved in the whole thing". or "Why you are so arrogant to think as a God?" Remember my personality type in MBTI? I am ENFP. That is because of personality. There are many types of people, and people find other guys with different personality hard to understand, or even claim people with different thinking pattern are crazy. I love the saying: "I am not crazy. We are just different". For the statement about whether I am with the side of Grace Wang or not, I want to clarify - in case there are misunderstanding for this post, that I try to avoid simply saying: "I am on this side or the other side". I want to make it clear, just as I am not on the side who claim Grace is a traitor, I am not on the side of Grace either. What I can say is, I agree with Grace on this, and disagree with her on that. I think I have past the age to claim whatever some person said (Grace or whoever) is what I believe in... In this sense, I am not on her side. |
| 67 |
Four Types of Consciousness @dalas, (please allow me to use English to response to your comment for the sake of many readers on this blog who dont read Chinese) I agree with you on these points: 1. I am 12 in 1989, and I only got some limited "facts" during that time. I didn't know what was going on behind the fact that my favorite cartoon program was paused and replaced with burned bodies all the time on TV. I still don't think I know what happened - I don't pretend to know. 2. There are big interest conflict between US and China, and it is so between any country, and there are conspiracy group behind man political events. I am aware of this. However, I don't agree on some of your argument. What I am doing is to seek the truth - what is happening in this country. In the last few years, I talked with many people (I recorded some of the conversation and my thoughts on this blog during the last 5 years) just want to know more. I am trying very hard to understand different perspectives - what are those guys protesting for? What can be wrong in China, and what can be wrong in the western countries, just because I love this land. I often question people's confidence of knowing exactly the truth, since the more I learnt, the more I know the importance to be humble to history, and don't be too easy to say: "You are wrong. This is what right looks like!". Sorry if I sound like arrogant - but I am often misunderstood when I say: what you heard from this source may not be the truth (in Tony and the student case, I am very sure what the students said (overthrow the government thing) is not the complete story). People may perceive that I imply I know more than them - I don't. On the conflicts between US and China, it is more of the two governments. I am more concerned in the people to people field. These are completely two different fields. I don't want to mix to two. Let the politician and conspiricist in both side do their job to protect the interest of the two countries, and I do my job to increase communication between the people. I don't know how you feel after reading the 100 to 200 long comments (like yours) on this issue, at least I personally learnt so much during the direct conversation on this blog in the last few weeks. Imagine how big the influence it will be on me after reading 26,000 of them? I admit that I may also be mislead by my comm enters, which I don't can be avoided. As I always believe, the world is much more complicated than we can imagine. For your final comment about patriotism, do you agree that just as you have your right to use your way to help this country pass this difficult time, I also have the right to use my way to help. We can discuss about what is the best way to help (is it boycotting, or protesting, or something else, please give me suggestions), but up to now, I still believe that I am doing something to help this country. If you think otherwise, please share your thoughts, as many others have done on this blog, instead of just ask me to stop doing what I am doing. I accept any accuse that what I am doing is not helping this country, or helping keep the world away from World War III, but I don't accept any claim that my intend is not helping. |
| 66 |
"Love China" Blooms on MSN Messenger @rat in hat, it is sad to see the change of religion, like Buddhism, and the damage to the temples and religions are exactly something western world attacking China for "lack of religious freedom". It is partly true because Christine and Buddhism in church and in temple are now with strange flavor, because monks and pastor are under the leadership of the Party who is Atheist. When I recite my politics book in middle school, I was so naive to ask: "The textbook is telling us religions are some the ruling class to fool its people, why we still keep those bad places like churches or temples?" I don't know whether that is still in today's textbook, but I guess that is why people's perception of religion is not that positive. Regarding which religion is good or bad, we are not in a position to make that judgment. |
| 65 |
Grace Wang Called a Traitor @lin, thanks for posting the popular (if not the most popular) article about Grace's article. However, after reading the analysis, I just feel sad. The tone of the critizing article is familar to me, and the logic is very familiar to me, with those back in 1920, back in 1960s. I would say, I completely disagree with what is stated in the article you quoted. I will talk more about it in the coming blog. |
| 64 |
Street Scenes of Nayang - Part II Thanks. I am changing the wrong term I used to call the jam. |
| 63 |
Four Types of Consciousness @Tony, there is no surprise that the 20s student you met talk about the event that way. If he is 20 years old, at that time, he is only 1 year old. In China, after that date, it is not a topic people can discuss, or mention. Even something align with the CCTV statement is discouraged. They just want people to forget... However, there are many people who won't forget. |
| 62 |
Grace Wang Called a Traitor @GN, thanks for the link. I laughed when I read about what Luxun said in 1918 - Angry Youth is not new, and it is like today in his time, even before CCP was formed. |
| 61 |
Friends Started to Boycott French Products @Jana, this is to answer your question posted in this thread on April 22 - I almost ignored the question -- about what does it mean by "unify the thinking... of officials and the masses" "unify thinking" is a very frequently used term by governments and the Party in China. It is considered to be the most important thing to get everyone to think exactly the same, with no other "noises", before people do something. The whole sentence that appeared on Tibetan Daily implies that "officials and the masses" are thinking different things, which is not good. The education campaign's goal is to "unify thinking" of everyone, and people can think completely the same - according to what the Central Party Committee want them to think. My thoughts have been unified for many times when I was a student, and now, I obviously need some education to get "re-unfied". :-) |
| 60 |
Grace Wang Called a Traitor @TibetanLady, please keep on to share your thoughts about Tibet, since obviously, not many people who talk about the topic, including myself have been to Tibet or understand the culture and history enough. To have Tibetan to tell people their perspective on this blog can bring a lot of value to everyone. Thanks for the two comments you made. We are listening. |
| 59 |
Four Types of Consciousness @Allen, I mentioned about my type in the article (and I know people may see me completely different from what I see myself). @CRM, don't worry. Not everyone is involved in this. My guess is your friends are polite to you before you and behind you. No matter how tough the international relationships between countries are, the friendship of people are seldom affected. |
| 58 |
Street Scenes of Nayang - Part II @ZL, any scene can be found similiar in almost any other city or country, especially "not so developed" scene. The difference, whether the scene is the main stream in one city or it is the "backstreet" scene in another city. There are also scenes like what I posted in Shanghai, but pretty rare, but in Nanyang, it is the main stream. Meixi Road is one of the best roads in the city in old times, and still keep the prosperity of shops and eateries. To be honest, i enjoy the scene a lot. |
| 57 |
"Love China" Blooms on MSN Messenger Hi guys, I have to say, please keep discussing and stop personal attack here. The rule for this blog is, we welcome the strongest attack to an opinion, but we cannot tolerate even the slightest attack to a person, because this lead to no where, and we don't need to waste energy on it. Some examples: "This is the worst idea I heard of, because..." I am pretty fine with it, and it is attacking the idea. "You are the worst person I have ever met" is not OK on this blog, since it is attacking to a person. This is the rule. I do appreciate people who shared so much about what they think, and helped each other (inside or outside China) to understand important international stuff around us. It is a miracle that it happened even without a user registration system on this blog in the last 5 years. During the recent unpleasant days, there are too much conflicts and angry in the Internet space, and I am so impressed by people (both sides of the protester camps) to really TALK here. It's not easy to archive, and we should be happy that we finally did it. So keep the conversation going. To be specific, I saw some comments regarding GN's comment. I don't agree with what GN said, but I do want to defense his right to express himself on this blog. For my friend who are new to this blog, history like this on this blog may help: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20070923_dont_leave_aussiepb.htm Finally, just a reminder, I reserve the right to stop flaming discussion thread, although in the past 2000 discussion threads, in the last 5 years, I never exercised this right yet. Happy debating! |
| 56 |
Not Just Identify Problems for China - Solve Them! @Disagree, thanks for clarification. I understand your point more clearly and that is also what I think. To future the thinking, even if we think some mentality is childish, we can contribute to a better world by thinking of way to live with "different" mentalities. Taking the example of you and your cousin, if your cousin thinks that way, there must be some way to help him understand the real situation instead of simply holding a sign with "Your Fault, Not Mine!", or "STOP Falling!". The kid won't understand. Sometimes, tolerate is a better option. I am not implying people in China is childish. It is the same to people in western world, that people in China also need to tolerate the different. I will always call it different, because each party translate may the word "different" to "childish". |
| 55 |
Yifan in His 9th Month Ha, Carroll. When I posted Yifan's photo, I know a comment from you is always guaranteed. :-) Thanks a lot. |
| 54 |
Friends Started to Boycott French Products The other reason why people boycotting French product is, since it is not allowed to protest (well. Legally speaking, it is allowed, with a permit, but no one can get the permit), boycotting is the only left way to show anger. If people do not boycott, what can people do? |
| 53 |
More Discussion on Tibet @PeDu, you have provided very good comments (this one and the last one). I do appreciate your true wish and your effort to turn China into a better country. Your explanation about how protest works in US, British and France helped a lot. I know something, but not to such degree. Thanks for that. For your question about "How people in the United States best support positive change in China?" Well..... It is a very tough question to answer. To be honest, I don't know exactly how. Because for the same question, "How people in China can make a positive change in China?" I also don't have a clear answer. Pretty sad, isn't it? If protest, writing to a congressman, or vote for a new mayor, governor, president is a way to make positive change in US, there is no similar way to make the change in China yet. The frustrating for me is, there is not so many ways for people to make a positive change in the current system, and that is, maybe, the fatal problem in current China. However, if there is something for sure that we need to do, it is economic improvement. It changes people's mind dramatically. If I review my change in my political view (in other word, to form a political view), I will give credit to my economic change, or in simple word, get richer. Then I may worry about something I don't care at all. Being able to travel (even within China) make a big difference for people. More trade, more economic cooperation will finally pay off. For human rights issues, keep pushing using protest may make a difference, but not sure whether it is positive or negative, depending on how skillful people make it. The case in Pairs definitely will push majority of people in China to the government side, and may last so in the next few years. |
| 52 |
Not Just Identify Problems for China - Solve Them! @Disagree, regarding your comments about people in other country's thinking is "plain childish", I do have a different idea. I agree there are different mentality in this world, but don't simply say it is childish or not. Although I do agree with you that for people need to take protest fairly and don't put an equal sign to protest again a government to protest against a country, it IS the current mentality, and people need to respect it. If you think the western world has formed a mature way of thinking for this world, it is just from the western point of view. If so, you may feel people with some religions (especially those religions you are not familiar with) even more childish, since they believe in something you don't believe in. Maybe to die for something just spiritual is not mature, from your perspective. If the mentality of a country is "Olympic = Wedding", and not knowing it IS a big problem for the rest of the world, although it is ALSO a problem for people in China. That is the reason I am trying to stand in the middle to help people in China (me included) to understand how it works by sharing the great comments (including yours), and help others to understand how people in China thinks. Any communication problem is a two-sided problem. Just my 2 cents. |
| 51 |
More Discussion on Tibet @Peter, thanks for sharing your point-of-view from "protester" side. Exactly as what you experiened, by reading what you shared here changed the image of protesters for me as well. When we (me as an example) focus too much on what is right (Olympic game as a celebration event, anti-violence....), we ignore what is wrong. It will not be any surprise for me and many people in China to understand that what you saw is true - and what the refugee said is true. We know that. Just like myself, I clearly know that if I cross the line further, I will be one of the refugee who need your help (if I am lucky to be able to get any help when it happens). I don't think people in China are denying that fact. However, it is just like the blind man and the elephant story (my favorite), that everyone just see part of the whole situation. Me the same. It is also very hard to focus on both part at the same time. That is the reason I have many articles on this blog talking about the positive side of China, where there are many negative comments complaining I am talking the dark side. I also have many articles talking about the dark side. It is the same: I also receive attack that I didn't mention the bright side. So the recent articles about such a big and controversary subject of "CHINA" all have a disclaimer linking to the page: Blind Men and the Elephant page. To be rational, I want to tell my fellow Chinese that don't take the protest too personal. They are also protesting back in 1989, and they are always protesting for something that people in China should also protest if they are allowed. Even in the protester group, there are different opinions. Those who want to improve the living condition for Tibetan may also want to protest against other protesters who want it to be independant. I also want to say to protesters (for whatever reason), that China has improved a lot (although far from perfect), and the government needs to have some credit about the basic human right: food and shelter. Everyone hope that everyone has all human rights, but during my understanding, it is already hard enough to ensure food for many places in China. We may argue that free of speech is ensential in this process, but we also need to agree that if there is a conflict (I did see conflicting situations which many of my western friend cannot imagine and don't agree), I would say food is more important. Keep on protest, and make it clear about your opinions, instead of do it in a destruction way that lead the country to nowhere. Peter, if you know more protesters, I'd love to hear what they have to say. They are welcome to this blog as long as everyone is seeking to understand, instead of attack. |