xge's Comments

There are 4 different readers (identified by email address) with the same nickname xge. They are represented by different colors.

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66 Customers Wants Service to be Bad

Very interesting observation. Business people are smart. They provide products and services that the customers want and willing to pay for. Most of the case, cost and quality are in tight correlation. Maybe we should think twice before demanding lower medical expanses, public transportation fares, train tickets, utility bills, food price, … and lots of other things that we want the government to reduce price with regulation.
Posted by xge at 2009-03-24 11:47:51. More

65 Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future

Last week when I was in Beijing, we encountered a motorcade of some government officials driving on the shoulder of the highway. When hearing the siren, I see a lot of drivers intentionally move to the shoulder just enough to block them. Would you say people are rude or heroic.
Posted by xge at 2009-03-17 11:12:03. More

64 Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future

The whole opening up and reform of China started with breaking the laws that are not just and are blocking economic development of China. Not by changing those laws first and then tell people to follow. A lot of people had been executed or put to jail for doing things that are absolutely normal by today's standards. Some of the law breaking Chinese should be considered heros.
This seems irrelevant to the rude behaviors of Chinese people, but it is not always easy to tell which laws are there to be broken and which laws are to be followed. Take traffic laws for example, they are to be followed absolutely right? But what if there is a do not enter sign at the only exit of a parking lot, what would you do?
Posted by xge at 2009-03-15 10:19:20. More

63 Visited Police Station Today

This post sounds scary especially for the lacking of information in it. Are you in trouble?
Posted by xge at 2009-01-21 13:23:56. More

62 How's China in Global Financial Crisis?

I'd recommand Michael Pettis' blog too. But in my opinion, he should be on the pessimism side too. At least his pessimism on inflation control a few month ago proved overly pessimistic.
Posted by xge at 2008-10-27 10:34:26. More

61 Killed 6 Policemen and Became Hero

The sad thing is, nobody wins in this case. Yang Jia will lose his life. The six police man and their families suffered for nothing they are responsible for. And the worst part, justice is not served.
For us onlookers, everybody knows what's wrong but nobody can do anything about it.
Posted by xge at 2008-07-20 20:05:29. More

60 Hard to Use Metro Instead of a Car

Another suggestion: move your company to a place that is easy to get to
Posted by xge at 2008-05-30 14:33:18. More

59 I Felt Afraid of Public Opinions Now

Don't feel helpless. A healthy society needs rational and courageous people to speak up. Sometime against the government, but most of the time against the popular public. You are a lot more influential than most people. Maybe even more influential than you think yourself. I envy Wang Shi’s courage and fell sorry he has to pull back what he said because he has a public company in his hand.
Posted by xge at 2008-05-30 10:54:51. More

58 Requirements for Websites Related to Earthquake

Thanks for posting the original email. It takes courage to do that.
Posted by xge at 2008-05-21 22:46:38. More

57 Thoughts after One Week of Earthquake

Unity and patriotism are the two most widely accepted and lest thought about concepts that almost everyone of us in China consider good. They deserve serious debate. A lot of bad things happened under the name of unity and patriotism already in the history. The U.S. attack of Iraq, the start of WWII, the Japanese invasion of China, the Chinese culture revolution, and the recent attacks on citizens that refuse to donate money or donated too little according to a ‘standard’. The wrong concept is most easily preached during the difficult times.

It may not be a good time to write these words. But please be vigilant when everybody is talking about unity and patriotism and be courageous enough to say something different.
Posted by xge at 2008-05-21 10:40:20. More

56 Photos of Carrefour after Boycott

I want to the same Carrefour at about 8pm in May 1th, it was packed.
Posted by xge at 2008-05-04 10:17:32. More

55 Mixing, Muddling, and Confusing

@Jian Shuo
You should translate this article into Chinese. Today's "南方周末" have several pages on this issue(lacking of rational and free thinking in China) by many famous scholars, but none has expressed it in a way so bluntant as you did here.
Posted by xge at 2008-04-25 10:17:54. More

54 Error in Western Media Report about Tibet

@Dunk, do you think it is justified to kill Tibetans just because Americans did the same thing to Indians. If I have done something really bad, does it make me unqualified to criticize the bad things you are doing.
Posted by xge at 2008-04-09 16:03:08. More

53 Error in Western Media Report about Tibet

There is a difference between free media and unbiased media. It is OK for a media to have an opinion and be biased. As long as it is free and the readers are free to chose from different sources, truth should be able to prevail(in most cases maybe). But the same can NOT be said for medias that are controlled by a central authority.
Posted by xge at 2008-04-09 14:37:02. More

52 Mega-Projects and Raising Power of China

There is an old Chinese saying: Always pick the non boiling pot. It seems that we got a lot of this type here. Readers who don’t understand what this phase means should learn more about China and Chinese culture.
Posted by xge at 2008-04-01 18:25:53. More

51 A New Financial Street in Lujiazui

Is it just me? In the last two pictures, there may be beauty, but the most I see is polluted hazy air. Am I being too picky?
Posted by xge at 2008-03-19 10:19:32. More

50 Jeff Immelt on Business

He listed "too process based" as the first thing as a mistake. That should trigger some thinking. Currently it seems all people in China think that "process" equals "morden management" equals "management style that brings you success".
This can't be true.
Posted by xge at 2008-03-06 13:49:46. More

49 Traveler Tide in Spring Festival

Train tickets have been in short supply for more than 20 years now. And the problem does not look like going away any time soon. In a marcket economy, it is hard to image anything whose supply and demand would take more than 20 years to banlance each other. I think we all have to think and discuss what is preventing the marcket from working.
Posted by xge at 2008-01-28 13:11:57. More

48 Current University Students are Different

The Ministry of Education sounds exactly like Ministry of Magic if you are a Harry Potter fan
Posted by xge at 2007-12-19 09:35:38. More

47 Hospital in Shanghai

I'd like to recommend "Sicko", a movie by Michel Moore. Americans are comlaining about their healthcare system, they won't be compaining if they've experienced what kind of system we are in.
China's health care system is both privatised government controlled, it lacks the benefits but has problems from both systems.
Posted by xge at 2007-11-12 09:42:02. More

46 Foreign Job Seekers Move to Shanghai

University students. They are the ones that want to start wars with Taiwan, Japan, Indian, Vietnam, or even Russia. That probably consist松 half of China's neighboring countries. Maybe it is true across the whole world, university students are all full of hearts but no brains. In Chinese we have a specific word for them: "愤青"

Posted by xge at 2007-11-02 11:22:31. More

45 Why Maps in Shanghai are Upside Down?

The problem with Shanghai's metro map is not that it is upside down or down side up. It is just not consistent. Sometimes it is north side up, sometimes it is east or south side up. I have made some serious mistakes reading the metro map.

This could be unique to Shanghai. I couldn't imaging it happen in Beijing or Xi'an, where when talking about directions, people always use north, south, east or west. But here in Shanghai, people use left and right. N/S/E/W is just not important to people here and they can be put any direction that’s convenient. This may also explain why Shanghai’s highway entrance sign always only show the highway number but with no direction. It is very easy for a driver to entry the correct highway but in a wrong direction. Maybe N/S/E/W just make not sense to local Shanghainess.
Posted by xge at 2007-10-23 10:17:58. More

44 Some Thoughts about War and History

I am against war. But I am also the kind of a person who likes to argue. So for the sake of argument: are all wars bad in the world history? Isn’t there always something worth fighting for? Worth giving up your life for? If there are wars int the history that can be justified, then there have to be reasons to justify starting a new war in modern time. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year.

If “In a war, no one is a winner” is true, then what the U.S. would be without the independence/civil war?
Posted by xge at 2007-09-28 11:05:33. More

43 Shanghai Looks Like a Modern City

@Ling
That proves how limited the power of the media is. Nothing can replace the first hand experience. I believe that when JianShuo wote about Shanghai, he was sincere and honest and tried his best to give a true image of real Shanghai. And when you read Jianshuo's blog, you understood that he is only writing his experience at that particular time on that particular train. But, still the image about Shanghai you perceive is so different from what you see when you visit.
Posted by xge at 2007-09-21 18:01:15. More

42 That is Easy - Easy Solution to Complicated Problems

A Government should not represent anybody. It is only a tool with which people fight for their interests. If a government claims it represents certain people, it is doomed to be over throughn by the other people it does not represent.
And people should not be devided as majority and minority and the minority is destiened to suffer. If what the government do is to benefit the majority then it shoudl kill 49% of the population and let the 51% enjoy all the resources left. It should then do it again and again until there is only 3 people left in the world and you can all guess what would happen to these 3 people.
Posted by xge at 2007-09-10 14:13:17. More

41 That is Easy - Easy Solution to Complicated Problems

@ericNo1
Yes, it is a must, but for whom. Nothing is a must without the subject. It may be a must for you, me, and many other people. It can't be a must for everybody. Have you asked the peasant workers? Do they think it a must? These kind of policies are always hurting the interests of certain people and benefiting the others, But in China they are all advertised as for the overall good of Chinese People. But there isn’t a thing called Chinese People. People have differences, conflicts. Policies always hurt SOME people.

And yes again "People often have a lot of desires" and "It is definitely tough for the GVM to balance all of them". Government should let people fight for their desires and government policies should be the result of the fighting. Chinese government is not balancing people’s desires, it is dictating them. It is dictating whose desire is good and therefore a MUST and should be satisfied, and whose desire is bad and is a MUST NOT and should be suppressed.
Posted by xge at 2007-09-10 10:59:51. More

40 Yes. I am Very Frustrated

Let's try to view it as a good thing. These could be what happens:
More blogs are moved to abroad.
The writters will be more open about what they write
They will attract more readers
The blogs will be blocked
People will try to use proxies, some of them like tor is unblockable in theory
And finally, with the G F W is rendered useless.
Posted by xge at 2007-09-05 10:09:53. More

39 What you Miss in Shanghai?

"It takes time for people to recover the long-stand moral standard, and being polite again - it just takes time." That is very true. But we are not recovering, we are degenerating. If nothing changes, it will only get worse over time.
Posted by xge at 2007-08-21 09:57:39. More

38 Shanghai Also has Blue Sky - for One Day

@iWorm
It is not in their interest to realize the importance of mother nature. The economy benefits is that they can have a good GDP figure when they write their annual report to their boss, and maybe in the process of opening more factories there is more chance to take bribe. China is operating like a big cooperation instead of a country and government officials are like managers, all the citizens are just like workers. It is a lot easier to understand things in China if you think of it this way.
It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it.

Posted by xge at 2007-08-17 10:39:45. More

37 Pictures of Xujiahui Area in 2007 - Difficulties

I wrote this for some of my friends today. Maybe it is also useful to you or your readers. From my experience, tor is very fast.

to install the tor proxy:
Tor is a p2p socket proxy. It opens a port at localhost: 9050 and all traffic go through this port will be anonymous and encrypted and unstoppable by The Firewall. It will work with any network programs like IE, Firefox, outlook, QQ, ... with the right configuration.

1. Install Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Firefox is not a must but is the easiest to config

To config it with IE instead of firefox
Tools->Options->Connections->Lan Settings->Advanced and the specify 127.0.0.1 : 9050 as a socket proxy

2 install tor + Viadalia http://tor.eff.org/download.html.en
tor is the back end program to provide the proxy,
viadalia is the GUI for tor and is optional.

3. optionally install FoxyProxy https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US ... policy/0/2464/14508
FoxyProxy is a Firefox plugin and is optional. It is nice to have if you want to specify which website you want to visit with tor and which one you dont. There are many similar plugins, but this is the only one I have experience with.
Posted by xge at 2007-08-11 00:45:16. More

36 One Year to Beijing Olympics

Olympic Games are suppose to be purely about sports, but almost every Country ever hosted the eventhas turned it into a showcase fair for varies purposes. China politicized the 2008 Olympic Game by casting it as a show of rising of power in the first place, but are now seeing it back firing. The are hosts of foreign organizations are now trying to exploit the 2008 Games over political issues like, human rights, environment protection, media freedom, Tibet and even food safty. It might be too late and a little awkward now to pitch the game for pure sportsmanship instead of politics.
Posted by xge at 2007-08-10 10:29:54. More

35 Strengthen the Control of Speech

in the rural area, satellite dishes not only are allowed(there is almost no government there), it is also cheap(it can go as low as 200 rmb). This gives you one more reason to leave the big cities.
Posted by xge at 2007-08-01 10:00:54. More

34 Long Detour by Road Construction

A lot of the traffic rules in China are setup for the pure purpose of setting up rules. They are not for people to follow. If real people try to really follow it, they will be in big trouble.
There are many examples for rules like this. Stop signs setup in a place where there is no way to see the crossing traffic. Two lanes merge seamlessly that it is impossible to know which lane should yield.
Posted by xge at 2007-07-25 10:57:53. More

33 Business is Really Business

To do or not to do. It seems everyone has this confusion. There is one thing that you are good at and enjoy doing. There is another that you think will make a bigger impact, glorious, and make you more successful but you dislike it from the deepest reach of your heart. It takes courage to decide either way.
It's nice to have you share it with us.
Posted by xge at 2007-07-20 10:20:46. More

32 Accident in Shanghai Metro

This is not a simple accident. there are some system risks with the current design/implementation. The same accident almost happen to me a few month ago and as I talked it with my colleagues this morning, many of them almost had the same accident before too.
I think this risky design can pass all reviews and inspections only because the Shanghai Metro Corp. knew even if accidents happened, there won't be much loss to them. Unfortunately, it looks like they are right.
Posted by xge at 2007-07-18 16:42:49. More

31 Foreign Language Only Signs?

It is not a big deal. To make a big deal out of it shows the insecurity, unconfidence and sometimes arrogance someone feels towards his/her own culture and identity.
Posted by xge at 2007-07-16 10:39:46. More

30 The Name of Chinese People

It should be relatively easier to build a family tree in rural provinces, because people don't move around that often and usually don't marry long distance. And the tradition of preserving the family tree in rural areas is not fading as fast as in the cities. You'll have a lot more historical record to reference and a lot more people to ask for information.
Posted by xge at 2007-07-05 10:24:36. More

29 China's Social Resources

I just took my niece( 8 month old and from Shanxi) for a shot last month. I was actually surprised that it is free of charge and they have no problem taking her. The doctor built an record for her on the spot to track which shot was already given, and what is next. Although it took three of us( it definitely takes two person at least, one to carry the baby and another one to stand in line) the whole morning to take one shot, I was actually happy about the process. Maybe my expectation was too low. It proves that the government is not totally doing nonsense, it is till functioning and doing what it should do.
And it is considerably better comparing to the service in Shanxi. The last time she took the shot in Shanxi, the doctor didn’t even bother to sterilize her skin. When later my niece got an infection and my sister complained, the doctor said “Oh, every baby I gave shot to has it, it is completely normal.”
Posted by xge at 2007-07-03 10:52:35. More

28 The Dinner - Part III - Government or Party?

to my understanding, the party and the government are two parelell systems, and at every level of the government ladder, there is a conresponding party level that has a higher degree of power than the government and controlls the government.

Almost all the laws and regulations are only applied to the government but not to the party. This explain to a certain degree why the laws are not strickly followed in China, it is because the controlling power, the party, is not required to follow it.
Posted by xge at 2007-06-23 16:58:56. More

27 The Dinner - Part IV - Elected Officials

Maybe the only way to learn to follow a democratic process is to really do it. Although there is chaos at the very beginning, it seems the only way people learn about it.

This is the most important argument. Any thing else, like people are not ready, a certain portion of the chinese people are too stupid to deserve democracy, ... are just excuses.
Posted by xge at 2007-06-23 16:50:09. More

26 Difficulties as a Foreign Visitor

If you are coming from an foreign city/country and driving in Shanghai, the road signs are very hard to follow with just a map. The signs only mark the road you are entering, and a destination. Most of the time the destination makes no sense to a foreigner. It is not the place he is going, is difficult to find on the map, and he has to make a decision on a split of a second. I would suggest adding the immediate direction. For example, if you are entering A20 from LuoShan road, the sign should be (A20 东,浦东机场)/(A20 east, Pudong Airport) and(A20 西,辛庄)/(A20 west, XinZhuang), and if you are entering A20 from 金海/JinHai road the sign should be (A20 north, 外环隧道), (A20 south, Pudong Airport)
Posted by xge at 2007-06-20 11:18:40. More

25 Reasons of Bad Traffic in Shanghai

Other "Major" reasons that Shanghai's traffic is bad:
1.Bad traffic law enforcement. People do all kinds of crazy things(runing red light, speeding, passing cars when making left/right turns, cutting in front of the incoming traffic when making left turns, using far light in the city) without the fear of being caught.
2.Bad drivers caused by bad traffic law enforcement.
3.Bad road signs. The road signs only marks road name and its destination but not direction. It is only helpful for the locals who are familiar with all the roads, bridges, destinations. It is impossible for a driver from outside Shanghai to navigate just with a map. Just give you an example, Driving from Luoshanglu(罗山路) to A20, the sigh says(right A20 Xinzhuang(莘庄); straight A20 Pudong Airport). A better sign would be right A20 west, Xinzhuang(莘庄); straight A20 east, Pudong Airport.
4.Bad traffic lines on the road. For example, dedicated left turn lane, while there is no left turn signal light, causing straight going lanes to narrow and bend at the intersection.
Posted by xge at 2007-04-25 12:16:22. More

24 Serious Ill caused by Serious Mistake

This is what happens when the government is powerful and yet disfunctional. China is strangely authoritarian and anarchic at the same time.
Posted by xge at 2007-03-29 10:28:37. More

23 A Stolen Bicycle

For the sake of argument and in defense of "most of the Chinese", most people do not stop thieves/robbers because they do not feel confident enough that it is safe to do so. If you shout out, it is very likely that others won't help and the police won't arrive in time. People do not yield to ambulance because there are many cases that ambulance and police vehicles flash their emergency lights when there is no emergency. I have seen too many police vehicles run lights but drive in a way that does not seem to be in a hurry.
Posted by xge at 2007-01-30 11:16:35. More

22 The Scar in People's Heart

Walter: It is sad that you call starving people to death “trade-offs”. Besides, there was no nature disasters, and who is to live, who is to die is not a decision a government should make. An evil doing is a evil doing no matter what the situation is.
BTW, I was born and raised in China. Have lived in 5 different provinces for more than 30 years. Have lived in villages, small and big cites. Have traveled all over China. I don’t know who you consider know China well and qualified to criticize.
Posted by xge at 2007-01-23 09:23:21. More

21 The Scar in People's Heart

Walter
The difference between different places is not in executing the orders from the central government. It is the central government that taxed the rural villages heavily and reallocated resources to the cities. I wonder where you think all the food in the city came from while people were starved to death in places where food was produced. In a top-down society, the evil always comes from above and blames always stay at the bottom. I see the same thing happening in today’s China as well.
Posted by xge at 2007-01-22 11:44:37. More

20 The Scar in People's Heart

I'd like to recommand movie "To Live" to anyone who want to know history of modern China. The movie told a very sad story in an intentionally peaceful tune. I believe it is the best movie made by director Zhang YiMou. The movie was band in China and he never made any serious movie since.

It is avialable in most of the public libaries, and maybe even Block Buster in the US. To anyone who want to buy it in China, just find any DVD vendor on the street and ask for (Huo2 Zhe4 活着).

Posted by xge at 2007-01-22 09:43:13. More

19 Public Holidays in China

May 4th, the Youth Day used to be a well known holiday. But because of its political flavor, it is intentionally disregarded and less well known now.
Posted by xge at 2006-12-13 16:55:24. More

18 I am not a Big Fan of Hate - Part II

Elaine
I am not sure about JianShuo's observation of people's attitude towards Mao. At least amongst friends and colleagues I interact with, most of them were born in the 70's, Mao is never a heroic figure. Although none of us has direct memories of the bad things he had done, but it is never a secret that very bad things had happened when he was ruling China. I do not know how younger generations think of him though. But I can imagine that the older generations would have stronger negative feelings if not hatred towards him. My parents always avoid talk about Mao and the Culture Revolution because of the bad memories it brings up.

Posted by xge at 2006-11-09 10:57:43. More

17 I am not a Big Fan of Hate...

Herbert
Thanks for the correction.

And Wikipedia has more infomation.

About 军国主义
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%86%9B%E5%9B%BD%E4%B8%BB%E4%B9%89

About Jingoism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingoism
Posted by xge at 2006-10-30 15:10:24. More

16 I am not a Big Fan of Hate...

Hi Jian Shuo
You should post this on your Chinese blog too. Young people in China now are desperately in need of different opinions and stories. Hope your words can make people think.

Tim
I think "Jingoism" is a vocal translation of the Chinese word "军国(Jun Guo)主义". It has often been applied to the country we hate, but never the other way around.

Posted by xge at 2006-10-30 09:32:57. More

15 Beggars in China and People's Attitude

I try giving a little help every time when I am approached by a bagger. I must have been cheated a lot of times. It makes me feel sad and even angry sometimes.

Just last night, I was approached by two young couples carrying a little child. They asked for some money for their supper. I give them a few changes. They asked for more. I give them more. They ask for more again. I told them I have got no more change left. They asked me to take out my wallet and let them have a look. I took it out. There was 10rmb paper bill in it. They ask for it instead of the coins. I gave them the 10 rmb bill and the husband handed me my coins. While I was leaving, the wife asked again, can you give me those coins.

From the way they spoke, the way they demanded the money, I knew I must have been cheated once again. They must have been able to read my mind to know I would yield to their demand. I really regret giving them money. I should have just taken them to the store and buy them supper and watch them eat it. I feel really sad and angry toward those two couples. It's them that changed people's attitude toward beggars.

I still remember when I was a little child and living in a small villages in north west china, whenever beggars knock on the doors, my mother always managed to give something, even though we are very poor and short of food ourselves. If there is nothing to give, people will always try to invite the beggars into the house and offer some water. But nowadays, knocking on doors randomly in a village will only get the dog out barking at you.

China used to be a beautiful country to live in.
Posted by xge at 2006-10-17 10:56:19. More

14 7 Tips to Travel to China This Quarter

Tip #13: Check whether the toilet paper is avialable before sit down onto a toilet. It will be very imbarrasing calling for help with your pants down.
Posted by xge at 2006-08-31 17:42:33. More

13 New Jersey Government Shutdown?

Maybe it would be easier to understand how local goverment works in the U.S. if you think of it as the 物业公司 of your 小区, and the Congress as the 物业委员会 of your 小区.
then what happened to New Jersey and Saratoga may not be that difficult to understand at all.
Posted by xge at 2006-07-04 18:21:34. More

12 One Child Policy - Part II

Tony
the one child policy has lasted for almost 30 years. what you said may be true then, but definitely not true now. At least from my experience. I live in Shanghai now and have a lot of relatives living in small villages in the Northwest.

I have 4 uncles who are only 5 to 10 years older than me. Every time they visited my parent’s home, there will be about 20 kids with them. We have to do counting literally every time when we move from place to place. It is very clear that the one child policy is enforced very weakly now. The local official(village head) has lost their interest on enforcing this policy a long time ago and the fine hasn’t been changing for a long time. With people getting rich rapidly over the past 5 to 10 years, the fine is not a big problem anymore.



Posted by xge at 2006-06-21 11:59:17. More

11 Hukou System in China

Something more to add besides HuKou, DangAn and LiangPiao

DangAn is only established beginning at a certain stage of your life. I believe it is either college or your first employment. So, for some farmers who never entered school or employed by any unit (working in the field does not count), they will never have a DangAn. For those who have a DangAn, they are separated into different status either as GanBu (a white collar clerk) or GongRen (a blue collar worker). To transfer between these two statuses is difficult also. To transfer from a GongRen to GanBu is just difficult and from GanBu to GongRen is considered a demotion and no sane person would want to do that.

Besides LiangPiao and HuKou, JieShaoXin (meaning introductory letter literally) is used to control the traveling of people also. It is issued by your Unit (employer) if you have one or the governing committee of the village you belong to. JieShaoXin serves as an approval by the issuer that you are traveling with a legitimate cause. Without one, it is very inconvenient or even dangerous to travel. You will need the JieShaoXin to buy train/air/(long trip bus) tickets, stay in hotels. You can be stopped by the police at anytime and detained if you don’t have a JieShaoXin. I've learned that even the baggers bear JieShaoXin. JieShaoXin was abandoned somewhere in late 80's or early 90's.

China is not the only country to use a system like this. North Korea is still using the same system and even stricter. Vietnam use to have a system like this also but abandoned it already.


Posted by xge at 2006-06-12 20:23:57. More

10 Got Fever - 38.4 C

Hi Greg
I have the same feelings you do.
Almost any public place I went to in China, there will be people smoking. I don't want to be judgmental, but I hate those who smoke anywhere and anytime they want. The sad thing is people don't even realize that they are bothering others. Here are some reasons I can think of that explain why so many people smoke in China.
1. The lack of anti-smoking attitude in the general public and the government as well?
2. Comparing the harm done to your health by smoking than by other things(low quality of health care, environment pollution, bad food, bad water, bad life style, ...), the unhealthiness of smoking is nothing. I have many relatives and friends who smoke more than a pack a day and look much healthier than a lot of the none smokers. Maybe “smoking is hazarders to your health” is a lie?!
3. Smoking is a necessity for some people to socialize and make a living?
4. Smoking is fashionable to some people?
6. Make a living is so difficult that people don’t have any energy left to care for their own health?
Posted by xge at 2006-05-29 16:05:59. More

9 City Life v.s. Village Life

BLUEKITE
Zhang Yimou used to be a very good directer. Have you seen 'To Live(活着)'. I believe it is the best movie I've ever seen so far. Look what kind of movie he is making now. It is obvious that he has not improved much. But anyway, let's keep our hopes up spirits high. I was always regarded by my friends as lighthearted and optimistic after all.
Posted by xge at 2006-05-22 22:55:57. More

8 City Life v.s. Village Life

grAce
It is a bold assumption that things will improve in the future.

Let me give you some examples about how things improved in the past 7 years. 7 years ago when I left the country, people in my home town, a small village in the north west, are poor, but they have hope. They believe in the officials, they believe good deeds will bring them good future. When I came back last year, people on longer have faith in anything. They think good people are stupid. The only way to become rich is to out done others the bad things. My 80 year old grandmother used to be a fervent believer in Buddhism, now she is cursing the god. “God must be fucking blind”, it is shocking to hear such words come out of the mouth of a lady like her.

Here are more horrifying stories from my hometown.
The police put bodies of the murder victims onto the street at midnight to fake traffic accidents because they have been pressured by the above that all murder case must be solved.
To bring more profit to the local transportation business, buses from other counties are not allow to pick up passengers when they pass by, otherwise there window glasses will be smashed by gangsters backed by local officials.
After 3 years of paying his respect to the officials, my nephew finally became a civil servant. But his is not on the official pay roll. His salary comes from the fine tickets he always carries in his pocket.
And here is one more story of my own. Last year when I went to the police station to report a thievery case, the detective handling the case looked strait in my eye and said, “if you pay all the expenses I’ll investigate. And as a friend, I suggest you don’t waste any money.”

Here I should put a disclaimer. These stories are all hear-says or personal experiences, it does not represent the true picture of China at all. The true picture can only be found in news on CCTV. If you look for it anywhere else, it is you problem.
Posted by xge at 2006-05-22 11:45:31. More

7 Renting a Car in U.S.

This is just a reminder.
A chinese driver's license works fine with the rental company does not mean it also works fine with the police.

Not finding any official law/ruling only means that wheather it works or not depends largely on how a police officer thinks of it when he stops you and how well you argue your case on the spot.

My advice is, dirve cautiously and avoid stoping by a police officer as best as you can.
Posted by xge at 2006-05-08 11:11:47. More

6 The City and Its Moral Boundary

I am glad that somebody finally shouted out the morality problem in china. Up until now, I don't see it is anybody's concern. I still remember clearly when a few years back the Chinese national soccer team played a fake game with Hong Kong and still lost the ticket to the world cup. The whole nation got angry. They got angry not because that the national team committed fraud so astonishingly in the public, but because they did not faked a good enough game to secure a ticket to the world cup. We are basically a corrupted nation and are ready to give up anything to accomplish our goal. And I don’t see any hope that our next generation getting any better.
Posted by xge at 2006-01-11 22:58:00. More

5 Pressure at Year End

Does anybody here have problems connecting to haiguinet.com. I've not been able to visit it since yestoday.
Posted by xge at 2005-12-29 22:05:27. More

4 No Baggars Premitted on Metro?

It's very nice that you brought up this topic. What troubles me more is the banning of beggars by the authorities and the rudimentary cause of it. It reminds me a lot of the North Korea government. While the majority of the country is deserted, it somehow managed to create a clean, modern city of Pyongyang. Our current government may seem much more civilized, but they still bear the same root. It is difficult to comment more on this issue without causing harm to this blog and myself, both of which I love very much.
Posted by xge at 2005-03-19 23:04:09. More

3 Seoul Changes Chinese Name

As a Chinese, it is sad to see the way people like Ted reason. It is even sadder to see the similar line of think in public media or even official news reports.
Posted by xge at 2005-01-24 20:50:25. More

2 Is the Real Estate Cooling Down?

I'll move to shanghai soon. I can't wait to see the housing price going down. It probably would make my move more justifiable.
I believe most people will be happy if the price goes down. Am I right here? Who will be hurt?
Posted by xge at 2005-01-04 09:01:42. More

1 Going Back to China?

I sent the original question and it is nice that Wang wrote such a detailed and objective answer.

I realize now that 500k is certainly an unrealistic number, and it apparently is even an offending number to a few of the posters. My family is not rich, they may even never be able to earn such a shocking amount in there lifetime. They might have made up the number just to scare me off the idea.

Like Wang Jianshuo said, the choice is mine. I thank all the posters for helping me makeing this choice.
Posted by xge at 2004-11-21 16:32:18. More