Xiangyang Market – the Shopping Paradise

Want to know the must-visit shopping places in Shanghai? Want to buy the world’s most famous clothing, shoes, and watch brands, but don’t want to pay as high as it is labeled in department stores?Xiang Yang Rd. Market is the right place for you.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

World Famous Brands

They have North Face, Diesel, Nike, Rolex, Gucci, Prata, etc. Since China has been the manufacture base of world famous brand cloths, the cost of the famous cloths are actaully very low compared to their market price. I believe they are so cheap becaues some of the cloths are knock-offs or factory seconds. Others are just the original goods but got to the market via unknown channel. I guess they should not be allowed to be put on market with the Nike’s brand but with the out-of-factory price.

Anyway, you can get the finest quality with surprising price there. The sweater should be around 100 RMB (12 USD) and a pair of good shoes should be 100-150 RMB (12 – 20 USD). The North Face cloths should be 100-200 RMB.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

Bargain

Whatever you do, do not pay anything half of the first price.

Often you can get the goods at about 1/3 of the original price if you are good at bargain. They are quoted at least as twice as or higher of the real price. For foreigners, they quote much higher.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

Fake Goods

Beside the cheap genuine goods (either seconds or knock-offs), they also have fake goods – goods that are labeled as the famous brands but actually not.

One typical example is the fake Rolex watch. Guess how much is a Rolex diamond watch that is 18,000 RMB (2100 USD) in Xiang Yang Market? It sells at 100 RMB (12 USD) only. Of cause they are not real Rolex watch, but it is so similar with the genuine watches. At least the watches are very well made with finest handcraft skills. Fake goods are not displayed in the shops, but almost all stores selling watch will show you their secret box if you ask for them.

Warning

Never follow those who attempt to sell you goods outside the market. Typically, they charges extremely high.

Location of Xiang Yang Market

It is between the Xiang Yang Rd. and the Shan Xi North Rd. The easiest way to get there is by Metro. Turn to the right (where most people will go) at the Parkson Departmenet Store exit at Shan Xi South Rd. Station.

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Map in courtesy of the original map author and modified by Jian Shuo Wang

Wireless (WiFi) Hot Spots in Shanghai

LeiFeng reported many public hot spots along the way from Xujiahui to Hongkou (A district in north east Shanghai. “So many I couldn’t even believe myself”, said LeiFeng.

Public Hot Spots

I know almost all Starbucks are covered by China Mobile Network (CMC). Users with TianYiTong Account can directly access login. The bad news is, they are charging 0.1 RMB per minutes for all users (including paid Tian Yi Tong users) after Jan 21, 2004.

Pudong Airport offeres wireless access but it is the CNC network.

My Private Hot Spots

Really? I’d like to have Internet access in a park or on the road. I will have a try from Xujiahui to Caobao Road today to see if there is any this way. I have WiFi Hot Spot in my home at 77 Cao Bao Road. It is not public now but I’d like to share it out – there is no harm for me. Others may not be able to use it since I am on the eleventh floor and the signal will be very low down the the ground.

Several days before, XGAO (Chinese site) was very happy to find out wireless network in my home. He just brought out his computer and enjoy the free (for him) Internet access.

More Resources

Struggling for Parking Lot

I rent a car again these two days. I still don’t want to put out around 100,000 RMB to buy a car yet since the expensive to maintain a car in Shanghai is still far too expensive. The recent car plate reached 390,000 39,000 RMB (Thanks The King for finding out the typo) cost already. (Anyway, someone take it as another investment method with the rapid rise of the price)

Today, I moved around the downtown. I went to Xintiandi with my family and found an underground parking. It charges 5 RMB per hour. I was surprised that the price is already very low in that area. Last time, we went to the JC Mandarin hotel on the opposite side of the Shanghai Center. They charges 20 RMB for parking. Nearby underground parking in office buildings charges 10 RMB per hour. Some charges higher. The bigger problem for car owners is, there is not enough parking lots now. It is a big headache for me to find parking today. Drivers pull their car over to the road side and blocks the road. I did the same on South He Nan Road and waited there for several minutes for the arrival of the painting I bought in Yuyuan. It seemed there is no better options – if I go and find a better place to park, it may cost me 15 minutes to longer to get back to where I was. Anyway, the current situation is understandable and I saw the improvement in the last several years.

Beijing is a more friendly city for car owners. There are many free parking area in the city. If it charges, it charges for two RMB per hour or so. No to mention western areas in U.S.

Pudong is a New Shanghai

The situation in Pudong is much better. It is like Beijing. I can find many places to park for free and there is always parking lot available. In big shopping malls like Hymall, Nong Gong Shang and Lotus (both Pudong and Puxi), parking is free. They are very attractive for me. The several kilometers’ drive is well compensated by the free parking for my car. Well. I was so shocked to use the parking on the forth floor of Carrefour in Guibei Area. The slope is more than 30 degrees and I was very nervous as a new driver…

In Pudong, the roads are least as twice wide as in Puxi. The population is still far less than in Puxi so in many roads, there are barely no car (like Jin Xiu Road near the Centaury Park). The two areas are just like to cities with completely different life style.

Bird Flu Hit China

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Screen shot in courtesy of sina.com.cn

I heard the bird flu several weeks ago but wasn’t as worried as today. The Shanghai Morning Post reported the confirmed bird flu case in Guangxi and suspected cases in Hunan and Hubei. Tonight, the CCTV National News Program reported (Real video) the situation at 7:00 – 7:30 PM. All birds, ducks and chicken were killed in a three-km area around the place the cases were found.

Well done! I feel the society has become mature enough after the SARS crisis last April and May. They are skillful enough to handle this kind of situation. The media also responded quick enough to cover it. I am feeling much safer than I was in last Feb. Let’s wait and see the progress. Till now, Shanghai is still free of Bird Flu, according to local media.

Many Activities in the Spring Festival

Hello World!

I just want to update the blog so the world knows I am still alive. :-D I didn’t update my blog in the last two days since there are too many activities in the great Spring Festival. Anyway, I have expected this in my previous entry: Note: Update may not be regular in the Spring Festival (from Jan 22 to Jan 29). :-D Wish you a happy New Year! so I don’t feel too guilty. :-)

On the second day (Jan 23) of the New Year (lunar new year), we visited my good friend’s aunt and Shi Mao Riviera Garden and were very happy to meet his nice family members. We were quite impressed by their old photos of Hong Kong and New Year in the last half century.

On the third day (Jan 24), we hosted my friend couple in my home. They are expecting their bady this Augest. We were very happy to share the good news and saw the great changes after they know of the pregnancy.

On the forth day (Jan 25), I picked up my sister-in-low in Hong Qiao Airport and sent her to the Pudong Airport. There are 55 kms between the two airports. We took taxi there. It costed 157 RMB and less than an hour.

On the fifth day (Jan 26), my good friends visited and we had a wonderful lunch together. The table became a mess with many dishes and wine cups.

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On the sixth day (today), we hosted the family of my high school classmate and visited another friend of Wendy. The visiting or hosting is a great opportunity for us to keep in touch with our good friends and relatives. That is the benefit of the holiday.

Drama – Forget Me Tonight

Tonight, Wendy and I went to see the drama named Forget Me Tonight. It was adopted from Chengdu, please forget me tonight (Chinese literature). The original noval was exteremely popular in the year of 2002.

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Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang in courtesy of Shanghai Art Center at Anfu Road.

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Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang in courtesy of staff of Forget Me Tonight. (Shamelessly took this image during the performance)

I will recommend it to my friends since it is real life of the generation about 5 years elder than me. It is on show on Jan 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 and Feb 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 at 288 Anfu Road. The ticket price is 80 RMB per person. It is small theater dramer. There are less than 150 audience there.

Pure Geek Happiness

My article Webcam+Windows Media+GPRS+SmartPhone=? was kindly quoted by Scoble on his Scobleizer. Then the page is quoted at SmartPhoneThoughts. David commented “Pure geek happiness”. Exactly! It is pure geek happiness. I saw someone quote it as “High Tech Mirror”. Haha. Come on. Do you think I took all the trouble, configured all the software and paid for GPRS just to use it as a mirror? LOL. Only geeks understand the happiness to such kind of mirror.

Other sites quoting this “high tech mirror”: MS Mobile News

Actually, Phillip is the real geek (via Scobleizer). What he did is really amazing. He had a geek gym with Xbox Live and Tablet PC (WIFI enabled). He has a wireless orb device that will change colors based on data sources on the web. He took as many as 1066 photos in his 21 days trip to Asia – “while i was traveling in Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo, i decided to take a photo of what i was doing, every 30 minutes, for 24 hours, 7 days a week for 21 days in a row. after 3 weeks, i ended up with over 1,066 photos.” He also took 109 photos of every type of creature in the fish market. When he was in Shanghai, he could use any web browser to control his robot in U.S and bring back pictures (several frames per second). This is what I dreamed about for a long time. I just didn’t found a good solution to convert hits on webpage to electronic signals so I can control toys. He has so many eye attracting pictures on his website. Just go ahead to have a look. The Great Firewall went crazy again and his great site is blocked in China too. I can only visit it using the public proxy.

Happy New Year

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Image courtesy of Google.com

The Year of Monkey Arrived!

Fireworks Picture of Last Night

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© Jian Shuo Wang

The pictures above were taken from the window of my living room. This is the first time I stayed in Shanghai for Spring Festival – before this year, Wendy and I took trains to go back to our hometown. Those were miserable journey since trains are always crowded in this season.

So, it is the first time I took pictures of the fireworks. The fireworks are more splendid than any fireworks I have ever seen. :-D So many families went to the square of the residential garden and fired their own fireworks. Yes. The pictures I took were all fired by local residents. No government fund was involved.

Share Some Interesting Numbers

I’d like to share some amazing numbers with readers outside China. Just guess how many people watched the Spring Festival Celebration Party from CCTV? The statistics came out and the number is 500 million. Although the number decreased a little bit from last year (I remember), this four-hour program should still be the most popular program in the world in terms of number audience.

Also, it is forecasted that 17 billion SMS messages will be sent in China during this Spring Festival alone. The number was 7 billion last year. Think about it. 0.1 RMB for one SMS. It means 1.7 billion RMB income for China Telecom and Unicom alone in several days. I felt the difference since many people who didn’t send New Year greetings last year sent me SMS this year. I got around 40 SMS last night.

Note: Update may not be regular in the Spring Festival (from Jan 22 to Jan 29). :-D Wish you a happy New Year!

P.S. Today, I was interviewed by Jocelyn, from Marketplace.org. The interview is expected to be online tomorrow at http://marketplace.org

New Year Fireworks Broadcasting

The real time video is paused. The video above is recorded from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the night of Jan 21, 2003. It is a pity that the video recorded from 11:30 to 12:10 PM was lost. At that time, fireworks are everywhere from my window.

Happy Chinese New Year! At the night of Chinese New Year, fireworks will be on show all of the city. I have setup a webcam to broadcast the exciting time to the world. :-D The window above is in real time with about 30 seconds delay. Happy New Year!

Real Time Broadcasting Successfully Completed

From 11:00 to 12:30, the real time broadcasting successfully completed. Video clips and pictures will be available soon. Happy New Year!

Webcam+Windows Media+GPRS+SmartPhone=?

What if we combine Webcam, Windows Media Technology, GPRS and a SmartPhone together? Here is the result:

Video of my webcam is displayed on my phone in real time. There is serveral seconds delay between the encoder and the player. © Jian Shuo Wang.

I broadcasted the scene of my cubicle and use a smart phone to view it, in video, at real time. I can pull my mobile phone and see what is going on, no matter where I am, on bus, in Metro, at airport, in Beijing or in Hainan….

Technology Used

The Windows Media Encoder pushes the video stream from inside the firewall onto a Windows Media Server on public network. The SmartPhone Dopod 515 displays video using its Windows Media Player via GPRS.

Specification in This Experiment

Webcam: ICatch (VI) PC Camera (Driver) (Thanks for Yumin)

Windows Median Encoder: Version: 9.00.00.2980 (Download)

Windows Media Server: Included Windows 2003 Server

SmartPhone: Dopod 515

Connection: GPRS via China Telecom

Windows Media on Air

Firstly, read this article Real-Time Stream Broadcasting Cookbook and setup your Real-Time Stream Broadcasting station. The result is, you can view your webcam from any other computer from the public.

Secondly, visit the URL in your smartphone use your Windows Media Player. The Windows Media Play should behaves the same as the desktop Windows.

The steps seem straightforward.

Go Accross the Firewall

The first problem in this experient is, the webcam is within the firewall and I have no permission to configure to the firewall. So I need to let users outside the firewall be able to see the video inside.

The solution is to find a Windows Media Server on the public website. The Windows Media Encoder can PUSH the video to a publishing point at Windows Media Server. The HTTP connection is initiated by the encoder, so it can go out of the proxy. The client can directly access the Windows Media Server.

We are at Digital Age

I am so excited that my heart beat very fast after I see the video on my SmartPhone. It means a big impact to people’s life. This morning, I suddenly found I can turn Wendy’s phone into a radio. Just enter http://www.stv.sh.cn/990.asx and it plays the current East Radio Station’s program. Then enter http://www.stv.sh.cn/finance.asx, the mobile became a TV set – the real time TV program appeared on the mobile…

Really cool! Isn’t it?

Future Plan of Shanghai Metro

Amazing! Check out the future of plan of Shanghai Metro:

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Credit: Anonymous

Download the full size (3040×2548) map. 3.75M

There are so many metro lines under the city. There are some huge transition stations with as many as 4 metro lines. This will be a huge change to the city.

Metro is the nature part of my life already. Xiao Li described the close feeling with the Metro in this entry: the Metro (Chinese site) Good article!

Wow. Shanghai is Snowing

Hey, Hey, Shanghai is snowing…

Incrediable! Wowo. It is snowing in Shanghai!

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Photograph by Eric

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Photograph by Eric

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Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

In my memory, the last time it snowed is 1996. I was a Junior in Shanghai Jiaotong University. In the past 8 years, it didn’t snow. So you know why everybody rushed to the window side excitedly when we became aware of the snow outside. Yep. I hope it can snow longer and see the now covered Shanghai – I never saw such scene in Shanghai.

Snow Stopped

It stopped snowing at around 4:00 PM. In downtown (Xujiahui), I cannot see any place covered by snow yet.

Snowing Video 760 kb

More Observation of the Snow

The snow this noon is breaking news for people in Shanghai since it is so rare at the latitude of 31N. Bloggers are exicted about the snow and recorded it passionately.

  • Billy Qiu is one of them. His entry BRAVO! Snowing In Shanghai Today (Cool Pics + Video by Billy) contains fantastic pictures of the moment and one minute 10 seconds video clip. You must check out those pictures. It seems it snows more heavily in his area than in Xujiahui – maybe the point I took the picture is too high (23rd floor of Metro Tower)
  • Isaac‘s description is short but quick: Snow – Shanghai, heavy snow (Chinese site). :-D
  • phycat recorded her conversation with her hubby in Shanghai. (Chinese site)
  • qianzi said car accident happened at the entrance of the Yan An East Road Tunnel. (Chinese site)
  • sunadm reported the snow in Hangzhou. (Chinese site)

  • rainlee reported the snow in Suzhou. (Chinese site)

  • Shmily recorded the snow in Beijing yesterday. It is so normal for Beijing to snow, but not Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai. (Chinese site)

This should be the first time for so many blogger to observe the same weather event from different cities. These reports draw a vivid picture of the snow, but they are much better than the weather forecast program….

Taxi Dropped into River, Killing People

Dead road, incorrect sign and poor lighting condition caused a taxi to drive directly into a deep river. Number of people kill still not clear. Shanghai Evening Post reported the astonishing news.

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Image courtesy: Shanghai Evening Post. Photographed by Jian Shuo Wang

Dead Road

The accident happens in Baoshan, Shanghai. The road directly leads to the 60-meter wide river. There is any dence or sign. The road just stops there, according to the same source.

The Wrong Sign

On the right, the traffic sign clearly marked “Going forwad, 29 KM to Shanghai. Turning Right, 11 KM to Jiading”. It is partly true. Shanghai is 29 KM ahead – but on the other side the river. Death is only 600 meters ahead.

Number of People Killed Unknow

According to one witness, they heard one man and one woman shoutting from the river. Others believe there should be four adults and one child. The car was pulled out 16 hours after the accident with door open. No victims are not found yet.

Sign…

There are many misleading signs in the city. Any of them may be the next cause for accidents like this. Most of them are usability problems. I drove around Pudong Airport just to find out the parking entrance, but failed after 30 minutes – what a design.

I hope some miracle happens to the driver and the passengers. Hope they may find ways to escape, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger escaped in the film True Lie.

Meanwhile, I have to ask who is responsible for the signs in the city and why the dead road is there without any fence?

First Contributor for MyBusStop

Bill Qiu is the first person to take a picture of a bus stop in the My City, My Bus Stop Project. He took a picture of LuoYangErCun

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Image courtesy of Billy Qiu, Wangjianshuo’s MyBusStop Project

Well done. The system still need to be built – the idea itself is not good enough to support the community effort – if the geek Billy cannot find out good way to add a new route of 703B, I guess no one in the world can do it. So Wiki is not the final solution, at least now, when the idea of Wiki is not popular. Yes. You can directly click the link on the bottom left corner of a page to modify any page.

If it is the first time for your to experience Wiki, you will be shocked after you click the Save button. I was when I first edited a Wiki site — my eyes opened big and my mouth also opened widely to see my modification is REALLY saved. Hehe.

Went Skiiing

I went skiing with Daisy, Alex and Xia yesterday. It was quite long before we got together. We went to McDonald at Xinzhuang Metro Station. The McDonald hot soup looks good. I took a picture. But the Big Mac is really jerk.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

Looks better

Compared to the same site in October, 2002, it looks better. The blue back drop on both side decorated the site very well and the higher area’s construction is complete. So it is a full featured site already.

Looking above from lowest field. The run way is divided into three areas. The lowest, at an angle of aboug 15° is for juniors. The middle is about 20° and the highest part is almost 30 °, I guess.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

People learning skiing.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

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© Jian Shuo Wang

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© Jian Shuo Wang

It is super cool to rush down from the second field down to the end of the run way. Haha. The ticket price turned out to be 138 RMB for two hours and 98 RMB for one hour. The site closes at around 10:30. The 125 RMB for unlimited time option is only avialable on Friday and Saturday after 7:30 PM…..

UPC number 036000250015

The Facts

  • Google Weblog is my favorite weblog.
  • I guess it generates huge traffic to Google with its samples.

What Happened?

  • Aaron talked about the UPC code search function and provided a sample search: 036000250015
  • I was curious to see how many people follow that link.

What I Did

I Hope…

  • I hope this page is indexed by Google in the next few days. It should be around January 20, 2004.
  • I hope this page is #1 in the result list. Google likes keywords in title.
  • I hope you also get some idea about how many people clicked the link.

More

  • The actual number should be 300% of the hit counter number. I suppose less than one out of three people will click on my link after checking the genuine result.
  • This is just for fun.
  • Relax. Don’t throw eggs to me.
  • Actual search result is here: Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex 2-ply 8.6×8.4 in tissue

Write Better Weblog

When I started writing my blog in late 2002, I read the Mark Bernstein‘s 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web from A List Apart. At that time, not many people run bloggers, especially in China – actually, people say 911 event is the push power for the popularity of blog since people began to stop the work on their hand and to start thinking and recording about their own lives. It is the same as Muzimei’s role in the Chinese blog world – the one of the important tipping points of the popularity in Chinese blogging world.

Mark’s article was the guideline for my blog writing. In his article, there are some important rules I’d like to recommend to everyone to follow.

Write for a Reason

“If you don’t really care, don’t write.”

“Show us the details, teach us why they matter. ”

“Write for yourself; you are, in the end, your most important reader.”

“Write honestly. Don’t hide, and don’t stop short. ”

Write Open

“If you don’t write for a few days, you are unfaithful to the readers who come to visit. Missing an update is a small thing ?rudeness, not betrayal ?and readers will excuse the occasional lapse.”

“If you cannot write for a time, and the reason for your absence is interesting, write about it.”

Write Tight

“Omit unnecessary words.”

Make good friends

“Read widely and well, on the web and off, and in your web writing take special care to acknowledge the good work and good ideas of other writers. ”

“Weblog writers and other participants in the Living Web gain readers by exchanging links and ideas.”

Find good enemies

I didn’t under this rule at the very beginning, but later, I found an enemy is good to better clarify the nature of the idea. The anti-spam effort and SARS events report are good samples.

“Disagreement is exciting. Everyone loves a fight, and by witnessing the contest of competing ideas we can better understand what they imply.”

Relax

“Don’t take yourself too seriously.”

“Don’t worry about the size of your audience.”

“Do let your work on the Living Web flow from your passion and your play, your work life and your life at home. ”

Note: All sentences in quotes are cited from Mark’s original article 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.

My Practices

Owen from T i M E aNd T i D E (Chinese site and blocked in China. Why?) posted an article: Be True. He quoted Scobleizer‘s quote of my post Living Cost in Shanghai (Ops. What a wired sentence). Owen suggested to focus on small things. I was flattered by his article. Actually, focusing on details is a great way to amuse the writer him/herself, and the readers as well. I often check my previous posts and only those with great details about the day – the weather, the grass or some details attract my own eyes. These posts act as a training to bring me back to the old days via a time tunnel….

I do have a lot of friends. I feel guilty that I didn’t put link to their articles as often as I should. This is the problem to have an English weblog – I am aware more than half my reader cannot read Chinese and putting a link to Chinese site may be difficult for them to continue reading. I do want to share the good ideas generated by them. :-D BTW, Billy Qiu started English blog site: HitHat. He shares something similar with my blog: focusing on the small things in the city of Shanghai. He just posted an article 24-Hour Self-service Banks: Can We Really Count On Them?. Worth reading…

More Blogs

The largest list of blogs in China is Sinosplice’s China Blog List. According to Sinosplice’s description, “Many of them are written by foreigners in China, although a few are written by non-Chinese elsewhere or by Chinese people.”

At the Age of 27

There is not much change in my life recently. The weather is still cold and became colder these days. It seems the cold weather has frozen my life too. I no longer think about going out and won’t do crazy things like cycling to Taihu or visiting a degree confluence point. The city life is the same – wake up, rush to crowded metro, step into office and sit down. The world is as small as a computer screen. The connection to the out side world are two lines – one network cable and one telephone line. Friends become smiley faces in my MSN Messenger. A dinner at a hot pot restaurant is not expensive and can always please two of us. :-) Life at the age of 27 is not as exciting as that in younger ages. — I still remember a dinner at KFC needed two weeks’ planning when I was in university. Now KFC has became the last place I will go for dinner. That is progress. That is also the lose of fun.

Super Cool Moving Advertisement

I saw two astronauts under the big ball of Metro City in Xujiahui. It is around 6:30 PM. It is almost dark and the area become very crowded. These two men wear silver clothes and black glasses and was walking around without any emotion on their faces. There is a large LCD display on their back. Of cause, they are very eye catching.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

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© Jian Shuo Wang

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© Jian Shuo Wang

So interesting. I thought they were advertising for LCD. It turned out that they are advertising for the Xuhui Police Office. The characters were so small that I don’t know what they wanted to say. It is said they will appear in Xujiahui from 5:30 to 9:30 PM.

Spring Festival is Coming

Red lanterns hung everywhere in the area.

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© Jian Shuo Wang

Newspaper Store

I took some random shot at the Metro Station. Here are the magazines and newspaper at a store. Do you see your favorite magazines there? :-D

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© Jian Shuo Wang

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Any Advice for Smiling Library

Last Friday, talked with breeze and stonesee on the smiling library project. It is a very nice charity organization to gather old books and send it to very poor schools in the less developed areas in China. It started with an idea and now has less than 7 organizers. However, they have successfully setup 6 libraries in Yun Nan.

Breeze asked about the operation practices to run such a charity program. This kind of Non Government Organization (NGO) is not a common practice. They are very interested to learn how people in other countries run this kind of organization? What is the organizational structure? Who make the final call for decisions? How to ensure the quality of the libraries… there are many questions there. I shared my thoughts with them, but definitely need to learn more. Do you have any advice to make the project more successful?

My Name is on Mars

Everyone knows the explorer rover “spirit” has landed on Mars successfully. It is expect to explore the surface of Mars in the following days, after it overcome the barriers before it.

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Image courtesy of NASA

I am feeling connected with this little robot since it carried my name, Jian Shuo Wang, to the remote red planet.

Send Your Name to Mars Project

On December 10, 2001, I signed up the project and entered my name into it. Then my name has been burned into a DVD along with other participants?name. The disk bearing my name has been sent to Mars already.

I happily printed and kept my Mars Exploration Rover-2003 Mission Participation Certificate. The certificate is also available via NASA’s name query page.

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The DVD is There!!!

Here is the latest image transmitted from the rover. It clearly shows the DVD.

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A picture of the DVD from Mars! Credit: NASA

Here is the closer look of the DVD.

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Image courtesy of NASA

Below is the same disk before it was mounted to the lander. You see there is a robot there and Hello. Around its rim is a message, written in a secret code of dots and lines. I didn’t try to decode it.

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Image courtesy of Red Rover Goes to Mars

Below is the picture taken when the disk is installed onto “spirit?

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Image Credit: NASA

“The red arrow above points to one of the DVDs containing the 3,551,645 names that are being sent to Mars on both of the Mars Exploration Rover. Click here to see a much higher resolution image disk! Learn how the DVD was packaged for space flight. Both landers will carry a copy of the Name Disk! “, the website announced.

Of cause, this project stopped taking names already. If you haven’t signed your name by November 15, 2002, midnight EST, you already missed the very good chance.

Now, there is a similar project: Deep Impact: Send Your Name to a Comet! I have got my certificate. Why not go there and sign up today?

P.S. It inspired me of a similar project – Send Your Name to Jian Shuo Wang’s Kitchen. Do you want your name to be sticked to somewhere in the heart of the city of Shanghai? You can sign your name on this page, and I will write it down (instead of burning a DVD) with my own handwriting and posted to the refrigerator in my kitchen. Two pictures will be taken and posted when the paper successfully lands on the surface of my refrigerator. The deadline for sign up is December 20, 2004, Shanghai Time. :-D Just kidding.