Boston for Dummies is a nice book. I brought it with me these days and really enjoyed reading it. It helped me a lot to plan the Boston trip and also helped Boston to keep two visitors stay in their city one day longer. I only planned to visit Harvard and MIT before. Now, I know much more than that, such as the Freedom Trail and the Big Dig. It inspired me of being a For Dummies series writer. How about I write one book named Shanghai for Dummies? They didn’t have it yet. Emmn. Good idea.
Canadian in Shanghai
Canada China Business Council Shanghai Chapter is preparing its Christmas party and I helped to look for sponsorships. I realized more and more Canadian people came to Shanghai, while the immigration tide to Canadian from China seems to slow down with the high un-employ rate of the new Chinese immigrants in Toronto.
Nice China Shop
Recently, I found some very nice shops in Shanghai. I dropped by a china shop at Panyu road today and went out with a bag full of dishes and cups. It is located 135(A) Panyu Road, Shanghai. (phone: 021-6283 8766) – For Dummies books taught me to always include a phone number and an address with a shop name. If you are interested, the shop didn’t pay me for that. :-D I don’t accept payment of any kind and ask me to write about something or mention some business on this blog.
Image in courtesy of Dining Room, Shanghai
Image in courtesy of Dining Room, Shanghai
Foreign Shops in Shanghai
The owner of this shop is a foreigner. The store keeper mentioned that.
Many foreigners rent a shop space and open their shops or coffee & bars in Shanghai. There are something in common that you can distinguish them from local shops easily:
1. They tend to choose some street with many phoenix trees. Such roads are Changle Road, Panyu road, Madang Road (near Xintiandi)… These street are quite but not many customers coming in.
2. Many of the owners don’t really care about the revenue. They just wanted to open a shop and have fun.
3. The shops use vivid colors and have good signs.
4. They have their shop’s business card ready for customers to pickup.
5. They print website or email address on business cards.
6. They spend much money on the packaging bags.
When some of the above statements are true, I am pretty sure that the owner is a foreigner. It is the case when I entered this shop – Dining Room. Their goods are nice and I suggest people to pay a visit and bring something back. Tonight, Wendy boiled coffee for me and we enjoyed it very much with the newly bought cups.
http://www.boston-online.com/cityviews/north_end.html
Hi, Jianshuo:
Check out the North End if you have time. it maybe a part of freedom trail.
Jian Shuo, you could *totally* write a “Shanghai for Dummies” book, and you **SHOULD** (Sorry for the “shouting” there, but it’s just such a good idea!) I have a friend who authored one of the books in that series, and I proof-read it for her. It was a lot of work, but, like you with this website, she had already written and prepared many of the sections for a different purpose so it was just a matter of putting the whole thing together into the “Dummies” format. I think you could do that easily with the information you have already accumulated about getting around and living in your wonderful city. You should definitely keep thinking about this and find out if they would be interested. Who better to do it that you?! :-)
On, and about “the Big Dig”…it makes me laugh so much to see that they are still working in that area. I haven’t lived in Boston since 1968, but I grew up there before that, and for my whole entire life there has been construction in that area! I am not kidding. We used to go back there every year to visit family, and without fail there would be terrible traffic delays because of the work being done on those roads. I’m sure they will finish it *some* day, but probably not in my lifetime!
JoyMocha, you are right that the North End is now part of the Freedom Trail, and well-worth the walk. I just hope that the weather is OK while you are there, Jian Shuo. You might find snow (which is so pretty in Boston when it’s fresh) or leftover snow (slush) which is just ugly and messy when it’s old. I’m sure you will have a great time no matter what.
Which reminds me…you have used the word “we” but I don’t think you’ve said whether Wendy is going with you on this trip, or if you are speaking of a business colleague. I hope you will be able to have the adventure together and be with each other for Christmas!
Me again! (I know I won’t make top commenter for the month any more, but is there a special award for most comments about one post? ;)
I keep forgetting to ask/mention, Jian Shuo…a few weeks ago when you re-set the size of the font back to your original (smaller) size for the posts and comments like it is now, did something get overlooked about the format in which people *write* the comments? When I write in the comment box like I am doing now, the font is very large, and for some reason that seems to make it harder to proof-read and catch mistakes — like where I wrote the word “that” when I meant “than” at the end of the first comment. I have recently switched to using Mozilla Firefox for my browser, so it might be something to do with settings on this end, but I’ve fooled around as best I know how and can’t seem to figure out how to make it smaller. A very minor “problem”, to be sure, and not really a problem at all. I just wondered if other people were having the same experience, and if so, if it was something you meant to change.
boston seems to be the most “european” city of united states, perhaps if you enjoy it you will planned a trip to europe next year ^_^
Shanghai for Dummies is indeed an excellent idea. I think you should do it, JS! :)
Hi, Carroll:
I don’t have the font problem, might be something to do with your browser.
I think proper English would be we “brewed” some coffee.
These street are quite (quiet, quaint?)
un-employ rate -> unemployment rate
You’re blog is great – keep up the good work
Jianshuo, I know you’re a busy guy, so I can be of help to you if you need help with the “Shanghai for Dummies” project.
> I think proper English would be we “brewed” some coffee.
Clearly
>These street are quite (quiet, quaint?)
QUIET! （这些路很安静）
= not much sound, not too much traffic，not too busy !?
BUT: There are quite a number of such roads
= not few （这种路不少）
Joachim
JoyMacha, I will definitely go alone the freedom trail. What annoys me so much is I cannot search for Freedom Trail in Google in China. It is astonishing to find out the Great Fire Wall will simply cut me out when I search for Freedom in Google. Does it imply that Seeking Freedom is not allowed in Shanghai?
I was designing a trail route like Freedom Trail. It will help first time visitors to get started in Shanghai. The Starbucks trip was a perfect trail in Shanghai – linking all the modern part of Shanghai and there will be another trail links the historical parts.
Carroll, I am thinking of the idea seriously. Can you refer me to your friends or someone in the publisher company? I know it is not easy to get attention of those big names in publishing industry.
Wendy is planning to go with me but it depends on her visa. We are not sure if she can get her visa. As I described in my Visa Experience Article, the visa process for AmChamber member employees and non-AmChamber are completely different. The rejection rate is very high. Since Wendy travels on her own expense and she cannot leverage the AmChamber program although she also works for Microsoft.
Carroll, thanks for posting more comments. I treat comments like my candies and they are great reward for my work. I didn’t realize the problem you mentioned before. I reproduced the problem in FireFox and I will fix it tonight.
Thanks for correcting typos. I sometimes review once but sometimes skip review if it is too late for me to do that.
P.S. Please be patient for me to reply to your post. As part of the professionalism of work, I seldom check my blog at work time (from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM). So you may see 10 comments before I reply. I didn’t mean to ignore your interesting comment – I just didn’t see it until my work hour is over.
Fenway Park is worth a look.
大王，
欢迎你再来厦门哦， 现在这在举行第6届花博会
添加个连接吧。：）
xiamen oil painting gallery