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| 20 |
Pudong Airport Maglev in Depth Now it is clear why China invested in the Maglev train in Shanghai. The latest news in Malaysia is that the city of Johore Bahru(next to Singapore) has signed up with Beijing Enterprise Holding to install a 12km maglev train system initially at a cost of approximately USD30 million for each km. The technology(permanent magnet levitation) developed by China's National Defence University is different from that used on the Shanghai line. Asked why this system was choosen, the promoter replied that price is a major issue, and they are confidnet that with several years of running such a system in China the manufacturer will be able to solve any technical problem that may arise. So, it seems that Maglev train system is here to stay. |
| 19 |
Transferred to Microsoft Consulting Service Hi WJS, I think you made a smart move by transfering to Consulting group. I believe this position will give you a great exposure to real life project design and trouble shooting. A medical school student/researcher can not become a great doctor (MD) until he really practices it. Shen |
| 18 |
Five Years in Microsoft Microsoft is hated and loved. But still, it is one of the most successful company in the world. Congratulations! Shen |
| 17 |
Traffic Rules in Shanghai - Part II To WJS and Carsten, I am not comfortable when i read Carsten's recent articles. I am a Chinese American. I still deeply love China although i saw sooo many things can be improved to make it a better country. But when i read Carsten's comments like "...people of China cannot educate themselves...", "...well worthy dignity of China is completely lost when we talk traffic...", "...you Chinese don't even know what happened in Tibet...", I am pissed off. Carsten labels himself as a civilized westerner here to help/teach China. But the westener world does not only include Carsten's hometown(i don't even know where is he from and whether it is as civilized as he thought anyway). Traffic is a major problem in most of metro areas around the world. In CA and New York, you will see much more aggressive drivers driving much bigger fatal cars. Local newspaper and media address the traffic problem everyday. But i never saw any Carsten-like comments such as " .. well worthy dignity of New York is completely lost when talking traffic .." Recently, US justice department launched an investigation on New Jersey State Police since it seems the NJ police stopped more cars with black drivers than other race. We take racial profiling seriously. Painting certain race driver are more aggressive is not only wrong, but also a crime here in US. Carsten, when we address proplem, we adrress it as a problem of its own. We don't address it as a problem for a certain race or origin. Carsten, we all welcome your constructive comments here. Countries around world all have problems: drug problem in America, racilism in some EU countries, etc. Labeling yourself a westerner does not make yourself a civilized person, the ways you talk, deal with things, and contribute back to the community do. Shen |
| 16 |
Yisou, Google, Baidu and Yipai Carsten, It seems like you are from Europe. Which country are you from? Shen |
| 15 |
A Car Plate = 21001 RMB Now Shanghai Guy, In US, government taxes car usage by adding all the fees, surcharge to the gas price. The more gas you buy, the tax you pay. Shen |
| 14 |
10 Things You Love/Hate About Shanghai When I label people, i label them as good/bad, smart/stupid, considerate/rude,etc rather than white/black, Chinese/UK, Christian/Muslin. Yes, Jeoy, there are a lot of white red-neck trashs around in Shanghai. But this does not mean all expats are bad. Sputnik, i think you also need to travel more since many oversea Chinese are doing terrific jobs in those most reputable companies in the world. Here in US, we also have St. Patrick day to honor Irish American's contribution to US, Colombus day for Italian American, and Porte Rico day, Jewish Holliday, Chinese New year parade, etc. We Ameican don't think this is a "terrible" thing. 30 years ago when Japanese companies exported their "better and cheaper" products to US, it did irritated some union workers here. They called Japanese "stealers". But no matter what kind of noise they made, the world ended up getting better products from both Japanese companies as well as improved US manufactures. Today US and EU companies are thifting their manufacturing sector to China. They also want a piece of chinese consumer market. This allows China to learn from the outside world(both success and mistakes) as well as contribute to it by lowering Consumer Price Index of most western countries. (This also forced Carsten's hometown neigbours to seek other opportunites to suit themselves into this fast changing global labor market. I believe most of them will do well.) The new trend of globalization is making the whole world more and more like one family. Find a positon in our big family and contribute to it. Racialism is a disease of human being. It costed lives in our history. Let us work together to cure this. Shen |
| 13 |
How about Starting an Online TV Station? In human's history, control the media and filter/twist information available to the crowd used to be an effective way for the rulers. Many people died for their belief that people have right to know and have the right to say. Now technologies are changing our lives. Internet unites people with the same interests, hobbies, and belief all over the world, even some from most remote area. JianShuo, i think it is just a matter of time we hear your voice via WJS Sleepness Shanghai Radio Station. Shen |
| 12 |
Shanghai is Experiencing Energy Crisis Carsten, It sounds like you know a lot of insolation. But the methods you suggest are mainly for cold weather, which may not suitable for Shanghai. In China and also in most of countries, construction/design are governed by building code. I remember in Northern China, the external wall should be at least 370 mm, and in Shanghai should be at least 240 mm. But I do agree with you that the craftmanship in China has room to improve. When i studied in Beijing, we did exactly the same thing you suggested to our dorm in winter -- seal your apartment unit. But in Shanghai, this may not be a good solution. In southern China, people open up their doors and windows whenever they got a chance. If you seal everything, you won't be able to survive the humid weather. The energy problem in China, i think, is a growing pain. You guys will all survive this and move on. Shen PS: JianShuo, the causes of California energy crisis are interesting. It is due to 1) California government had implemented some energy efficiency programs so successfully that utility companies slashed energy conservation budget; 2) deregualtion allow California utility companies to sell their extra capacity to other states. CA's energy problem is not a capacity problem. When CA needed energy most, the power plants inside CA could not sell electricity to it since they already had the contracts with other states. Other states don't have those successful stories of energy efficiency program, they were more conservative and ordered more energy conserve. When those states saw the high energy price in CA, they resold the capacity contract back and made a big profit. A CA's successful energy efficiency story ends up with a crisis. It remimds me an old Chinese saying, an old man lost his horse, but who knows what kind of fate it is... |
| 11 |
A Car Plate = 21001 RMB Now I do not 100% understand original intention of Shanghai Municipal government for this CAR PLATE BIDDING thing. Do they want to use this policy to control the inflated number of personal car ownership in Shanghai? And where are they going to spend this bidding money they collected? Say i want to own a car in Shanghai. I guess I have to bid for a plate and spend 21k RMB. But my neighbour Mr. Little Wang paid only a minimal fee since he got his car before this "bidding policy" took effective. I may only use my car once a month and he is using his everyday! Question here is: why I pay more than he did. Maybe he bought his car at the "Right Time" and i do not. Let people bidding for a plate certainly is a big leap for Shanghai government since this could eliminate the need of sending my classmate's father's friend's neighbour two cartons of cigrate and treat him a fancy seafood dinner. But is there a better way to control the overwhelming traffic problem in Shanghai? I think maybe Shanghai should tax the usage of car instead of taxing the ownership of a car. Auto industry is playing a much bigger role in today's economic life in China. We don't want to kill it. Put the tax/surcharge in gas price could be a good idea since the more you use your gas-burning car the more you pay. Unfortunately, in past 100 years or so, Chinese have been dealing with the "At the Right Time" phenomenon all the time. Laws, policies, and even beliefs are changing every few years. A big chance is they were not changed based on the principal of fairness. There are cut-off time, cut-off age, cut-off wealth (to determine who is counter-revolution), etc. I think Law is about fairness, not "At Right Time", although sometimes we do need cut-off time/age to do the math to implement the laws. I applaud the reform and progress Shanghai government made on itself. And i certainly wish Shanghai keep reforming itself by creating more innovative policies and laws, with fairness to all her residents in mind. (Maybe refund some of the money collected if this Plate-Bidding policy gets canceled) Shen |
| 10 |
Volunteers Wanted WJS, I think you write great English articles, even better than a lot of native English speakers. You shouldn't worry too much about your grammer. Occationally, you did have some mis-translation issues. Something like you use oil for gasoline. Or you call Bill Gates "BILL" which is not very common even here in NYC microsoft office. (I don't know how they call him in Seattle) Or you call RMB is not freely trade, which i think you should say not on floating rate, or free-exchange currency. Well, all these things are just minors. My opinion is don't let other people to change the style of your articles. We will post/email you if we think some terms may be better translated. Good job on this site, and keep going! Shen |
| 9 |
Eddie's Blog Hi Jian Shuo, I just installed the MovableType 3.0 on my local machine with Apache Web Server. It seems working well, unless ... the page is very ugly. Or in another word, the template is ugly. How did you create your blog site? Did you modify the template? Using what kind of tool? How do I add the category and pictures? Shen |
| 8 |
Blogging in Microsoft Hi Jianshuo, Do you mind showing us how to do blogging? Or in another word, if i want to set up a site like yours, what is the step 1,2,3. I assume you need your hosting service, but where did you get this application? Are you using a database of some kind? Is this application portable for both microsoft and linux/unix environment? - Shen |
| 7 |
Salary in Shanghai - Part II David, First of all, is this position a local hire or expat? Secondly, what kind of company is it? General speaking, big international firms pay good money to their foreign expats. For middle level management, US salary + housing + some allowrance is pretty normal package. For lower level employee, the package is not that juicy or they prefer local hire. Reason? It is hard to persuade a US based manager to move his family to China, especially when he/she is in his/her 30s or 40s, has kids, and already takes a lot of responsibilities in the company. However, on the other hand, those big companies also realize that hire local well educated people are their great bargains. In your situation, I think you should know what this company really needs from you? Your IT experience? Your communication skills? Your bilingual skills? They come back so quickly is both a good sign and bad sign. The good part is they are hiring and looking for a good fit. The bad part this could be a sign they won't pay big money for this position, so they ask first. The following is some numbers i know my friend make in Beijing and Shanghai. Just for your reference. Local hire manager with a big accounting firm: 30000 - 40000 RMB/month. Expat manager: 80k - 100k USD plus benefit(paid in HKD) A shanghai local hire manager with big consultanting firm: 30000RMB/month. Hope this will help. |
| 6 |
Digitally and Physically Move Congratulations, WJS. Own a property is another milestone of life. By the way, did you buy a house or an apartment(flat)? --Shen |
| 5 |
Back to Shanghai via Train 1660 How much did you pay for the fare, i mean from Shanghai to Luoyang? The last time i took train trip in China is about 10 years ago. I remember at that time, the train number 1 -100 are the most experss ones. For example, 13/14 and 21/22 were running between shanghai to Beijing. Train 100 - 199 are direct express and 200-399 are express trains. Train with number 400+ are local ones. There were some premium compartment, called Ruan-Wo, reserved for ranking communist cardres. It means you had to be certain level official to ride a train in those compartments. In 1994, i managed to buy a premium Ruan-Wo ticket with help of a friend in Chengdu. I was successful sneaked on the express train to Beijing with some other two unqualified panssengers. We were OK for the first 6-8 hours then suddenly the crew started to check IDs. My two unfortunate trip mates had been kicked out to regular Ying-Wo compartment. Showing my Chinese passport, I told them i was sent to Sichuan by central government and was approved to ride premium compartment. Since at that time, i guess passport is not as normal as nowadays, the crew trusted me and let me stay. I am sure many things of Chinese railway system changed since then, but that trip was still a fresh memory until today. Maybe it is because I think it is a steal for unqualified me to successfully ride that "premium" compartment. |
| 4 |
Salary in Shanghai WJS, I have been reading your blog for a while. Very good job, especially for you who is living in a non-English-speaking place. Pls keep going... Shen from New York |
| 3 |
Learn Shanghainese Like Li Jingyi said, every province has a PERMANENT modern dialect broadcasting program except Shanghai. Two years ago, there was a commercial in Shanghainese (advertising a local cough drop brand), and within 2-3 days, the Shanghainese was replaced with Mandarin because of "complaints." For a city with 14 million native Shanghainese speakers, there's not a single "in modern times" (and not 19th century story telling) radio station dedicated to Shanghainese (not even a 30 minute program). Not one weather report or local news program is in Shanghainese. AND THIS ISN'T because the Shanghainese don't like their dialect. They are really fond of their dialect, and really identify themselves with it. The reason there's no Shanghainese program in Shanghai is all political (Beijing), and is part of a campaign since the 1970's to eradicate the dialect through silence, and the denial of Shanghainese education. There is no exposure of its modern form through public broadcasting, or any form of mass media. Many youths today think Shanghainese cannot be written using Chinese characters (because "it is so different from Mandarin pronunciation"; most have ridiculously been made to believe that Shanghainese is an uncultured, bastardized, and unorthodox dialect of holy Mandarin). Mandarin in Shanghai has entirely been an act of UNNATURAL cultural imperialism (imposed by law and discriminate regulation). Shanghainese (and its Wu cousin dialects) has been treated differently from every other southern dialect. What these regulators are saying is that Shanghainese has no future in Shanghai (as the "financial capital of China"), and that NOT EVEN A SINGLE opportunity may be allowed for the dialect to develop its future. I'm not against cultural imperialism if it comes in an unmanipulated environment that provides choices for the residents. The case for Shanghai, however, is designed and decreed cultural imperialism. |
| 2 |
My Dream Travel Destination Spring is right. I think the only country excluded from the schengen visa is Iceland and Ireland, England. No visa required while traveling inside EU nations. |
| 1 |
SARS Concerns Spread in Shanghai Believe or not, somehow I bumpped into your site :) and You did A KILLER JOB on the site. This is one of the best site I have ever been to. I am from Shanghai also, even though I have been in U.S.A since I was really young. But I have to say Shanghai is becoming one of the best cities in the world. ( I visited Shanghai twice last year :)) Even though, some problems still exist in Shanghai, but It's getting better and better day by day. Regarding the SARS issue, I truely hope It will get under control sooon. So we can all go to Hong Kong and China without the fear of getting infected.:) My prayers go with all the people who has SARS. |