Shanghai Map Finder

This is a helper page to get the HTML code of a place in Google Map, so I can copy and paste it into my blog.

Lat, Lng

HTML:

<script src=”http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=ABQIAAAAc6w3r_W-HieOehKlSsUEHRQPsA8lXb864JtcPYsku9QMH0vMhxS7ShslSX0dH64g2vn11uJa-IaUOQ” type=”text/javascript”></script><div id=”map” style=”width: 640px; height: 480px”></div><script type=”text/javascript”>if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById(“map”));map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl()); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(lat,lng), zoom, G_SATELLITE_MAP); }</script>

Chinese Stock Market is Crazy

Maybe I am among the minority who didn’t notice the recent bull market trends in Chinese stock market. I heard some news, but never really look at what is happening in the market. Maybe people outside Chinese also didn’t pay attention to the performance. Here is what happened.

3 Times Increase

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Index was 998.23 in June 2005. Yesterday, it reached 2870.42, which is the highest in the history of the stock market, and almost three times than one and half year ago.

What a crazy stock market!

Individual Stocks are Even More Crazy

The 3 time increase are only the overall increase. Individual stocks – those good performers are even better. Stories like people get 50% gain in days are not rare. When I watch the financial news, I can smell money in air. Double! Double! is the theme of change, instead of the conservative 6% – 7% expectation.

Buy stock in China is always like buy lottery. If you bought the right stock, it can easily bring your wealth to the sky in days, and if you are not lucky enough and get the bad stock, it will shrink at the same speed. I don’t have experience in the Chinese stock market – I never bought any or sell any in my life. I don’t know what my friends felt when he saw his wealth just increased 30% last week.

Unlike NASDAQ, the stock price in China has a threshold. If it raise or drop too much, it will stop trading and hold until the next day. When I chatted with my friend who know stock, he said, you have to catch the first 10 minutes between 9:30 – 9:40 AM. 9:30 is the market opening time. You start to trade at 9:30. However, if you do not act quick enough, the stock you buy may either stop for raising too much, or dropping too much, so you don’t have a chance to either buy or sell.

I cannot confirm whether this is true. But based on the recent crazy articles I read, it seems cash is flying in air. Instinct tells me it is the right time for the market to crash.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about stock market, so this article didn’t provide any suggestion.

Some Blogs about V2EX

Just spent some time to use Google Blog Search to get some comments about V2EX, after it is unplugged by the “big guy”.

Look at the angry people here. When a pure technical forum full of geeks and technical guys are monitored and finally shut down, who can claim to be safe? Who is the next? From the first day, bloggers should be prepared to be shut down at any time. I am prepared, at least.

Standing in a Train? No…

Today, Wendy and I went to buy train tickets. It is spring festival, and train tickets are not easy to get.

We asked for train #282, from Shanghai to Chendong.

The person inside the counter said: “There is nothing for this train in the next 11 days now. No sleeper ticket, no soft seats, no hard seats, and even standing tickets were sold out”.

In rush time like the Spring Festival, people buy “Standing Tickets”. Every square meter of free space on the train will be full of people with “standing tickets”. It is the same price as the ticket with seat. The different is, you have to stand there all they way, 30 hours or longer. I used to buy that kind of tickets when I was a student. I stood for 18 hours from Shanghai to Luoyang. That itself is OK, but the hard part is, if your standing place is far from the WC, you will have trouble.

But now it is out of my consideration to stand on a train for many days.

Well. The question is, even if you WANT to stand on the train, you don’t have the chance, since there are so many people standing there already. Standing tickets were sold out.

Wendy asked: “How about tickets after 11 days?”

She asked because all tickets are sold 11 days in advance.

The person said: “No. Don’t try that.”

Wendy was upset: “Then where are the tickets?”

The person replied: “If I tell you, I put all the ticket in my own pocket, do you believe it? Next!”

Good answer. It seems to me that thousands of tickets for that train didn’t go to her pocket, but where are the train tickets?

Life in a Crowded World

Life in Shanghai is tough. Who should we complain when there are so many people asking for the same service?

Long Lines in Banks

“Never, ever try to use any bank in Xujiahui area”, warned Wendy.

This is true. Last time Wendy went to Bank of China and got a service ticket. It stated that there are 180 people waiting before her.

One and half hour later, when she is back, there are still 150 people before her. At 4:00, when she is back again, her number just passed, and she has to get back to the bank the second day again.

The bank is full of people who have waited hours to deposit or withdraw money.

The online service of Bank of China does not really work, so there are not many options for its customer.

For me, banks are not different. The most common thing is, if you go to one bank, you will swear not to go to this bank again for the rest of your life. I did so for ICBC (ICBC – A Customer’s Experience), and other banks (Service Quality of Banks in China (Shanghai)).

Parking Lot

I gave up Carrfour many times just because the parking lot was too crowded, and there is no parking lot.

I gave up IKEA the last week for the same reason. I also gave up my goods in my shopping cart just to avoid the long line.

Train Ticket

Train tickets are even more ridiculous. Read on

The Changing Shanghai

This is a normal Saturday. It is cloudy.

Ihad a short walk with Wendy near my home in Pudong.

This is a normal place in Pudong. Here are some random photos I took today. This is the beginning of 2007. I am very sure that after 1 year, the view will completely change. Who can predict what is going to happen in China these days? Take a look at these pictures.

Below: Women formed a dancing team to practice before the Hymall. They have drums and loud music. I am so happy that my apartment is still 2 minutes walk away from where they dance.

Below:

This is typically bricks on the sidewalk in Shanghai. It rained yesterday, so some parts are wet. The sidewalk is pretty clean now, since the Chengshan 成山 road was just completed one year ago. It is a pretty empty road now. Who knows what it may happen after 1 year, when the road extends to the east, and forms the backbone of the road system in Pudong?

Above: In the next one hour and a half, I am wandering in this area. This park was still not finished. 1 year ago, this area was a typically Pudong village, and one year later, it becomes a park. These two pictures are similar, taken from the 20th floor of a building nearby.

Above: On the north side of the building, high-raise residential areas have been completed. You can see how many buildings there. On the south and west of this building, it is still a construction site. I will show you soon. However, it is for sure that the area I show later will become the same in 2 years.

Construction site #1. Look at those big tube? It is the natural gas station, and there is a big yellow place? I don’t know what it is.

Construction site #2. There are many big machines like this around where I live. Construction is going on everywhere.

Above: This is a new bridge. As you can see from the picture, it is not completed. I am expecting the bridge to be completed within one month.

This is the water gate, the old one. According to the construction plan, this will become a river within the residential area. The water gate will be removed.

Above: This is the prototype of a new road. The road will extend to connect with the current road near my apartment, which was completed the last year.

Above: Construction site, again.

Look at this river. Boats are coming from the East China Sea and going to the Huangpu River. The area south of the river is still not developed yet.

Above: This is the completed park.

Change! Change! Change!

The reason I posted these pictures is to show people who are not in this city the sense of change.

On this land, change is happening on daily basis, instead of yearly. I am going to take some pictures the same time the next year to show you the changes. All the buildings are expected to finish the next year, and all the roads.

Shanghai and China is developing in a amazing speed. When people run, it is very clear that the old system needs to catch up with the economical growth. Just remember, there are more than 160 metro stations under construction concurrently in Shanghai.

New Xiangyang Market Location?

Many people ask me about the new location of Xiangyang Market.

There are many versions to this answer since every emerging market is trying hard to claim themselves as the NEW Xiangyang Market. Non of the claim can be verified since as a market famous for fake goods, there is no official answer.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

It seems to ME that the one under the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is the most similar one I saw so far.

There are some characteristic of Xiangyang Market:

1. Tons of small shops for cloth.

2. High price in offer, low price in final deal.

3. Fake goods – good with pretty good quality, but use the brand name they don’t own.

The new market is true in these three criteria.

Especially on the second one:

High Price in Offer, Low Price in Final Deal

Remember a rule: Never, ever pay more than 1/3 of the price they offer for the first time.

Example, for a jacket, if you are the price, they said: “300 RMB”, you typically can get it at 100 RMB or so.

For foreigners, their first offer is typically higher.

The Location

Take Metro #2 and it is at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Do NOT exit the station. It is just at the basement level of the station.

Map

V2EX’s Network Cable was Unplugged

Livid’s V2EX is a great Internet application. 3000+ genius Internet developers gathered there to discuss topics related to programming, Internet, and other geek topics.

At 4:00 PM, Jan 11, 2007, the network cable of the server was unplugged by the Internet hosting company. It is according to “supervisor’s order”.

This is not the first case. It is too common in the current Internet world that no one even got surprised. This is how the censorship works. “Unplug” seems not so technical, but it is very effective. Great Firewall works for the servers outside China, and “unplug” is the first (and most basic) step to do with servers in China.

A footnote to this event is, blogbus.com was raided by people who claim to fine the company because they don’t have a so-called “License for transmitting Video/Audio Programs on Information Network”. At the same time, the new Google Blogger Customer Domain was blocked by the Great Firewall.

So this is the land I called it “homeland”, so this is the way they treat me, I’m always being constructive, I’m always being creative, I’m smart and I’m nice to everyone, I used to make wealth and knowledge for this land, but this land just cannot allow me to be a nice “good” man, so, what else can I do? – Livid

This is the real reflection of the current China in the begining of year 2007.

Here are some reference to this event: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

120K Self-Claim Tax in Details

Disclaimer: Just like previous post, this is just want I *THINK* it works. It is NOT an official explain of the tax issue.

The source of this explanation came from the tax summary paper I received in mail and this link.

Who Should Follow the Self-Claim Routine

Anyone who have annual income above 120K RMB should self-claim his/her tax to the tax bureau from Jan 1 to March 31 from this year.

Personal annual income includes not only salary, it also include bonus, income for labor, interest, stock dividends, author’s remuneration, copyright royalty, rent of property, transfer of property, accidental income and other income.

From the list, it seems any money that goes into someone’s pocket should be claimed. There are some exception, but none of them seem to be common to normal people.

Tax rate for most of the items are 20%.

How to Claim it

The tax bureau provides a hot line: 12366 to handle questions. People can go to their office to claim between 8:30 to 16:30, from Monday to Saturday.

What is the Status?

In the most important national wide news time from 7:00 to 7:30 PM, there is an update for the status yesterday. 9 days after the policy was announced, there are 1253 persons claimed it in Beijing, 400 for other cities, and no one claimed in some cities.

When I search the news on Internet, many cities didn’t see anyone come to their office to claim.

According to some (unconfirmed) sources, people we didn’t claim their tax will be charged up to 5 times of 50% of their tax due.

How about the Policy?

I am pretty sure that this policy will be among the countless policies that no one follow. Just like the ICP license policy issued in 2000, it was not enforced until the year of 2006.

For this one? It times time, maybe for 5 years for this policy to be really enforced. This can be a problem in China that laws and regulations are not accepted easily, just because the process of drafting these laws didn’t involve the people.

Personal Income Tax in China

Disclaimer: Tax in China is like many other things. It is a blur concept, and confusing most of time. I am not a professional on this. To be honest, if I were not to prepare this article, I never really understand or try to understand how tax works. So there may be error or misunderstanding in this document. Refer to official document instead of this person.

Personal Income Tax

The current income tax was deducted before you get your salary. The company is responsible to charge you tax on your behalf.

The formula is

$$$ due to tax = your monthly salary – basic tax waive $ – personal social insurances etc

* basic tax waive $ is typically from 800 RMB to 1600 RMB depending on the province/city you are in. That means, if your salary is lower than this amount, you don’t have to pay tax.

* personal social insurances are different kinds of insurance you pay to the government, like housing allowance, retirement insurance, medical insurances, unemployment insurance. To be short, there are many insurances that you need to pay the government. For the company, they also need to pay the company’s portion of the same insurance for you, which is typically 45-48% of your salary.

Tax = $$$ due to tax * Tax Percentage – Easy Deduction Rate

* Easy Deduction Rate: It is just for easiness of calculation. For example, if you way a rate of 25%, there is a portion (below 20,000) that is due to lower rate (20%, 15%, 10% and 5%), so you don’t need to pay as much as 25% of the full amount, so you deduct the Easy Deduction Rate.

Tax Grade

Grade | Monthly Salary (RMB) | Tax Percentage | Easy Deduction Rate

1 | $ < 500 | 5% | 0 2 | 500 < $ < 2,000 | 10% | 25 3 | 2,000 < $ < 5,000 | 15% | 125 4 | 5,000 < $ < 20,000 | 20% | 375 5 | 20,000 < $ < 40,000 | 25% | 1375 6 | 40,000 < $ < 60,000 | 30% | 3375 7 | 60,000 < $ < 80,000 | 35% | 6375 8 | 80,000 < $ < 100,000 | 40% | 10375 9 | $ > 100,000 | 45% | 15375

Consuming Tax

When you buy goods, you are paying consuming tax, but it is included in the final price everywhere. You have no idea about that you are actually paying tax.

Self-claim tax for annual salary > 120K

There is a new policy that people with income > 120K will need to claim tax by themselves. I never really understand what it means. Let’s wait and see how it works.

I Got a Tax Summary!

I received a mail – paper based mail.

It is from the Tax Bureau of the Shanghai Municipal Government.

In the mail is a list of the total tax I paid in 2006 from Feb to Dec.

I was surprised to see how much tax I paid for the government. I never receive this tax report for a year before.

Something interesting is, on the left bottom, there is a sentence in big font, and in both Chinese and English.

It reads:

Thank you for your contribution to China’s flourish and prosperity.

For the first time, I got an annual summary from the government, and at least a “written” thank-you for “my contribution”.

Interesting.

Night Chat at Hanyuan Bookstore

Hanyuan Bookstore is a great bookstore, and a nice cafe. It is almost the equal place as the Bookworm in Beijing.

Tonight, four persons chat in the great place, as Professor Chan put it, it is a “space of humanity”.

Xiaobo, journalist from 21st Century Business Herald, Professor Yuen Ying Chan, director of Journalism and Media Studies Center of The University of Hong Kong, and Tony Lee of Cheung Kong School of Journalist and Communication Shantou University. The forth person is me.

:-)

About Hanyuan

Hanyuan Bookstore is at #27, Shaoxing Road 绍兴路27号。They have a Chinese FAQ.

It is both a bookstore, and a cafe. The topic of the bookstore is about Shanghai.

Their telephone is 64732526.

BTW, the Shaoxing Road is a nice road (single way road from west to east). It connect the Shaanxi Road (a nice road with Phenix Trees), and Ruijing Er Road. In short, that area is a typical Shanghai residence. For visitors, I highly recommend to visit that area.

IKEA, Xuhui Store in Shanghai

Is IKEA still the IKEA of old days? No. Definitely not. It is already a super market, a crazy, crowded market. I didn’t realize IKEA has been such a great success in Shanghai. I went there, and took some picture.

Parking Lot

IKEA has one of the biggest garage in Shanghai. Look at these pictures. They have 10+ rows of parking lots like this. At the entrance, there is a person who dedicated to stop cars at the gate and allow equal number of cars enter the garage as the cars going out. The once empty garage is now completely full. Long lines appear before IKEA store and jammed the streat. It was free for several years, and now it charges 10 RMB per car. I believe the intention is not to increase revenue. It is to restrict cars from entering the garage.

Inside the Store

The huge store was full of people. Look at these pictures. Want to try the nice sofa? You need to wait for the person to stand up before you sit down. Want to get a storage box? Line up and wait for the person before you to get it.

Business Hour

This is IKEA’s business hour:

It is self-explainary.

Above is the elevator to garage.

Location

IKEA is located at the intersection of Inner Ring Road, and Humin Elevated Highway. It can be easily accessible by Metro Line #1 (Shanghai Stadium Station) and Metro Line #3 and #4 (Shanghai Stadium Station).

From the window of IKEA, you can see the Metro Line #3 and #4. The train is raining across the bridge.

Dining Room

IKEA’s dining room was once empty but now it is full of people. Many people are walking around with plate in hand, just to find a seat to have their meal.

People are paying for their meal.

Interesting Stuff

I like the color paper sheet.

Soft hand towel.

and paper box.

Besides the store inventory format (a term from eBay), they have cooks present how to create Sweden Meatball…

Things are Cheaper

Look at these Billy Bookcase!

We bought exactly the same one – same brand, same size, and same color, at 870 RMB with my first money salary in 1999. NOW, it is only 299 RMB. It is the result of local sourcing.

Kijiji Plate

Look at these Kijiji Plate:

Checking Out

We bought some small stuff, but we gave up when we see the long lines at check out counter. There are more than 20 people in each of the 20 counters. This is the first time we gave up our goods just because of the long line.

IKEA in China is a Huge Success

From an “Super Expensive” furniture store 10 years ago, to the current everyone’s furniture store, IKEA completed its 10 years of journey. It is a huge success. The first time I visited IKEA in 1996 was still as fresh a memroy as yesterday. At that time, there are definitely more sofa in the store than customers.

Ten years. IKEA is no longer my old IKEA.

P.S. It is not allowed to take picture inside the store. I am sorry that I didn’t go through all the processes to ask permission to prepare for this blog.

Pudong Airport to Portman Ritz Carlton Hotel

My previous experience in Australia taught me that the most important question people arrive at an airport in a completely new country is: “How can I get to my hotel, as fast as I can?” (src). This serie of articles serves a simple propose – to help you to get to your hotel as quick as possible, and as easy as possible. To find out how to go from Pudong Airport to another hotel, scroll to the end of this page.

Where is the Hotel

Portman Ritz Carlton Hotel is always the best hotel in my own rating system. Please note the “Best” here does mean the single top 1 hotel. Its service, location, room are simply the best.

It is located at the heart of the city. To give you some idea of the city, let me explain the location this way.

Shanghai is a very large city in space. It has an inner ring elevated road, and an outer ring. Pudong Airport is outside Outer Ring, and Ritz Carlton Hotel is almost exactly in the center of the inner ring.

There are many ways to go from Pudong Airport to the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

By Airport Bus

You are lucky to stay in this (expensive) hotel. There is one airport shuttle bus route directly connecting the airport and the hotel.

Airport Shuttle #2, from Pudong Airport to Shanghai Exhibition Center (which is right across the Nanjing Road of the hotel).

You can buy ticket at the ticket counter (no reservation needed) when you walk out of the International Arrival Hall. The price is 19 RMB (7.8 RMB = 1 USD).

It operates from 7:20 AM till the last flight arrival at Pudong Airport.

By Taxi

Highly recommended. If to get to your hotel is the first and most important thing, and you don’t want to experience the city too early, taxi is the choice.

I have to explain to people (especially from U.S.) that taxi in Shanghai is not as expensive as in the States (I am not saying it is NOT expensive. It is just not AS expensive). My estimation for the trip between airport and the hotel is 140 RMB or less than 20 USD, and it costs about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Maglev? I know you will like it

If you are not tired, and you have time, and you want to experience the city right after leaving your plane, why not take the Maglev, the fastest train in the world.

There is the location of Maglev Station (and how you get there), and in 8 minutes, you will be at the Long Yang Road Station.

After than, you can either continue your trip with a taxi (there are always many of them waiting there), or take Metro Line #2. The Maglev and Metro stations are the same building (to be more exact, two adjacent buildings).

Take Metro Line #2 to the Jing An Temple 静安寺 station. It takes about 30 minutes. You have to walk for a while (5 minutes?) to get to the Hotel. If you still have a sense of direction then, go east!

Call the Hotel!

The hotel has pickup service, and they have a counter at the airport. If you are used to hotel picking up, try it. (personally, I don’t like this option).

So….. enjoy your trip. In the future, I will give more directions to other hotels.

Shanghai Jiaotong University

Look at this Google Map:

It is the satelite image of Shanghai Jiaotong University Xujiahui Campus.

I stayed on this campus for two years.

I also have the following pictures of the campus these days.

Photography by Henry Gu

Photograph by RemoDing

Photograph by Henry Gu

A Good Place to Visit

Typically, unviersities are far from city. SJTU Xuhui Campus is an exception. It is in the downtown, and very close to the Xujiahui District Center. It can be easily accessed by Metro Line #1 Xujiahui Station (use Exit 13, the Pacific Department Store exit), and follow the Huashan Road for 5 minutes, then you are at the gate of the university.

If you plan to visit a university in Shanghai, that is the place you should go.

Last Day of Holiday

This is the last day of the three day holiday. When life is wired with Internet (or wirelessly wired with Internet), there is not a big different between working and non-working days. I am still with the yy.kijiji.cn site, and the site is still running as normal days.

5G Shanghai

This afternoon, I went to 5G Shanghai, a forum to discuss about Internet, new technology, and new economy. It is more from a journalist’s’ view to comment on the current events. Typically, there are around 10 people there.

5G is the address of the headquarter of Donews.com, the China’s leading IT journalist community. 5G means room G on the 5th floor. There is a large IT journalist and industry experts gathering in the room on the night of every Friday. It lasted for years.

Almost one year ago, Henry Hwa, Mingliang, and I became the organizer of the 5G Shanghai. If anyone is interested in the event, just feel free to join.

Location: 641 Cafe, 2nd Floor of Zhong qu Plaza, 227 Huang North Road, Shanghai

黄陂北路227号2F中区广场二楼641咖啡厅

Time: 2:00 – 5:00 PM, every Saturday

Just mention that you came from my blog is OK.

This gather is special, since last Saturday was a working day.

Shanghai is No Longer the Shanghai Years Ago

One typical indicator is IKEA. I wrote about IKEA many years ago (and was even quoted as an IKEA fans in Asia on Wired magazine). At that time, IKEA was small. Now IKEA is huge, and they are opening their second store in Pudong new my home. The store in Xujiahui is now full of cars. Their once-seemed-empty garage now is full. It seems their 1000+ car capacity is still too small for people in Shanghai. Yesterday, we drove their only to find out there is no parking lot.

IKEA is not long the IKEA years ago, not to mention real estate. Recently I took some personal time to check out cheap accommodation for my team members near Xujiahui, only to be surprised by how expensive the rent is.

Near Xujiahui, 3000 RMB per month seems to the most basic standard of living.

The Great Well in Jinmao Tower

I would recommend people who are interested in architecture, or who enjoy staying in a modern (even post-modern) building, to visit the 56th floor of the Jinmao Tower. It is a bar on the 56th floor of Grand Haytt (inside Jinmao Tower). Above the bar, is a GREAT WELL (I gave the name) that is 40+ floors in height.

From Google Satellite Map