Some of My Old Photos

I took a lot of photos with people I met, and many of them are good friends, but I never spent the time to organize them in a good way. Here is my attempt to make it happen.

Sanjeev Singh and Jian Shuo Wang. January 18, 2012 at Facebook Office in Melon Park, CA. Sanjeev was creator of Google Mail, and FriendFeed.com. I visited Sanjeev in Facebook after FriendFeed.com was acquired by Facebook, and had wonderful lunch together in the newly opened cafe.

Jack Ma, President of Alibaba.com. September 30, 2011 at Stanford University, CA. We attended China 2.0 Conference by Stanford University and Jack delivered closing speech after my pannel. We met briefly at the backstage.

Paul Halen, former China Director of National Security Council of White House. Taken in  Oct 29, 2011 in Xi’an when we went to Karaoke together.

Jan Berris, VP of National Committee on US-CHina Relationships (NCUSCR). Taken on December 1, 2007 in Nanjing during the Young Leader’s Forum. Jan participated US-China relationship building from leading the US Ping-Pong team to visit China in 1971, and brought Jet Li to US.

Zhu Tong and Jian Shuo. November 2007 in Nanjing, China. Rose Zhu served as interpreter of Zhu Rongji and Jiang Zemin.

With Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, and currently CEO of HP. Taken on March 28, 2005 in Shanghai, China. Worked with Meg for about two months in Shanghai during the summer of 2005.

With Mark Zuckerburg, founder and CEO of Facebook. February 25, 2010, in Facebook, Palo Alto, CA. Mark hosted me when I visited Facebook office with Matt Colher.

Photo with Prof. Tan when I delivered speech on September 21, 2010 at Computer Department, National University of Singapore.

With Zhang Jie, president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University on October 3, 2011, in San Jose, CA.

Group photo of few day gathering Young Leaders Forum gathering in 2007. Among them are Christopher Cassidy, astronaut of NASA and visited space station; Matt Isler, Colonel of USA Air Force with a squadron of F-15C airplane. etc…

Tomorrow is Steve Jobs Day in California

California claimed Oct 16 is Steve Jobs day. It is a well deserved honor. I don’t think Steve ever cares about it when he was alive, and when he knows his days were limited.

It reminded us the saying that “What matters is not what the world give us. It is what we offer to this world”. Steve offered a lot, and he is remembered.

Sometimes, people need such inspirational moment when a great person leaves us as wake up call. It serves as a north star to help us understand what matters, via the life of another great person. That last time I was shocked, and moved, and in deep thoughts were almost 6 years ago (the flower I left in that space).

Steve’s life (especially the later part) was guided by a personal vision – something to define what he is about and thus defined what a company was about. We need that vision to help us understand what we are about.

Unicom iPhone Cuts My Friend Connections

A very high portion of my friends cannot be connected via the number stored in my mobile phone. They changed their mobile phone number, just to use the Unicom iPhone. They consistently share their new mobile phone with 186 at the beginning of the numbers with me. For more, I simply got "The number you dialed has been out of service" message when I try to reach people.

Will it be significant that a new communication tool, or even just a new client device like iPhone dramatically shift the social interaction? Think about fax number. The impact of the iPhone 4 wave for me in China is, it cuts my friend connections effectively.

Gary Wang’s Speech

Just read Gary’s speech on GroupM Asia. Very inspirational, and well written. You should read it.

Like all explorers before, there are plenty of things in the world to concern us and tie us down: money, relationships, families, values, customs, rules and regulations, but since we are here in this pale world to paint some colorful colors, to explore, to create new things, to inevitably break up things, to push the boundaries, and since surely we will get old and get mature and settled down, become one day the establishment to be broken up by the newer generation, and become the dead old man, I know the boundaries will eventually catch up and get me. But when they do get me, I hope to have traveled more distances, and have had a lot of fun.

More is here: http://blog.tudou.com/?p=97042

A Highschool Classmates Gather

Spent the day in Century Park with highschool classmates – three families with two kids. It has been 15 years since we graduate, and we were planning a 15-year anniversary gather on Saturday, May 29, 2010 in Zhengzhou. Visibility is the best way to make things happen, so I put the date on my calendar and on my blog. I was the key organizer for the 10-year anniversary 5 years ago. We planned hotel in Qingdao, and we planned the date, and we planned the communication. The only problem was, we didn’t gather.

I am lucky to spend the most memorable 3 years from 1992 to 1995 at Luoyang No. 1 Middle school. We are still very well connected after 15 years.

Below is the photo we took in 1992 – few days after entering the high-school. Can you find me in this photo? I was there, although looked very different from today.

luoyang.luoyigao-all.926-milliary.training.jpg

The below is taken in one Sports Game.

luoyang.luoyigao-boys-sport.meeting.jpg

People on these photos do not appear as fashion as the current high school students, but as young as they are.

A side note: To setup the tent in Century park is a great idea. The trick is, find grassland without many people, and spend the afternoon there.

Travel is Life Intensified

Elliot Ng has many great thoughts. He does not talk too much, but from time to time, I think of something that often turned out to be from Elliot.

Elliot said this before:

Travel is life intensified

As an travel industry expert, his comment is very sensational from a personal level.

I searched for the term “life intensified”, and found out this interesting blog entry: Why I Travel:

Travel is intensified living.” The actual sentence reads “Travel is intensified living – maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. It’s recess, and we need it

A topic I was thinking for a long time is, how to enable people to travel in their own city. Travel is a life-altering experience, and if we can get that experience without long distance travel, that would be both financially efficient.

One of the program I can imagine to help people in Shanghai to actually travel in Shanghai – get away at weekend to a little hotel at the city center (or far away) and start the day from there? Anyone has the same idea?

P.S. Another favorite quote about travel, and life is: Life, an Accumulation of Mileage.

Met with Xiaolai in Beijing

During this short Beijing trip, after had great conversation with Keso in his home, I had a nice dinner with Chedong, Zhou Jun, William Gao, and Xiaolai

Xiaolai is a very interesting guy – the few people who really think independently and deeply about stuff. He shared the video: Justice – What is the Right Thing to Do:

Even without watching it, I know I should love it – the hard journey to seek what is justice, and morally right (as I kept seeking in this blog in the previous articles: The City and Its Moral Boundary, Bad Behavior, Its Reason, and Future). I am happy that there are some people around me who think about this philosophical question, although most people would discourage me by saying: “Get real. Do some business, and don’t just sit there and think as a God”.

I Need Some Change

I am not happy these days. Something terrible happens in life, one after another.

I broke my ankle first, and one month later, Yifan’s head is hurt. (well, I am very cheerful when my ankle broke – a very good experience for me, but I was mad when Yifan got hurt)

My mood falls down to lowest point in the recent years.

When things that is completely out of your control happens, people are more likely to be religious. Should I turn to a temple or church to find out some cure? Hmm… Wendy has already suggested me not to think that way.

To change the mood a little bit, we bought a new TV today. I will buy a good video camera (Sony HDRCX500E) this week. Then we are planning a travel this holiday.

I Need to Travel

The 8 day long national holiday is coming (Oct 1 to Oct 8), and we are thinking of getting out of Shanghai during the holiday and relax – to change the mood. We didn’t have this plan before. It is too late for a trip to Japan, or Europe – the two dream destination. Then we are now looking at another dream destination: Cairo.

Budget was always a big concern for us to choose where to go, but when we are in bad mood, we are not that sensitive to cost. Wendy and I just need to go to somewhere (better if it is far away), and spend some days.

We will decide whether we go or not tomorrow.

(Yes. I am still very sad these days, when I see Yifan – He is as cheerful as always, and he clearly shows his love and happiness to be with me)

Friends

This afternoon, when Yifan fells asleep, Wendy and I called our friends for a gather at Little Garden (220 Taikang Road), and dinner at Casa 13 (1100 Huashan Road). That helps. Sometimes you just need to talk and explore what others are thinking about. At least, good friends can act as a sounding board to help yourself to see your own situation better. Lesson learnt: When needed, pick up the phone and call your friends. That is always a very good choice. Thanks Eddie, Helen, Charles, Eric and Apple for your accompany.

P.S. Going bed now. Yifan is going bed, and he is calling me to tell stories for him.

I am Dreaming about Visiting India

Just had nice dinner of my Indian friend Pranay and Jiby. We spent two days together, when they visited us in our office.

Over dinner, we talked about a lot of politics, and shared about the change in China and India. It is interesting to see how the current Chinese system of a powerful central government can do whatever they want to do, and sacrificing individual rights for growth, and in India to sacrifice development for democracy. I do not agree on the general perception in India that China grows just because of one strong power. Will talk about it later.

At last, I suggested them to use Metro Line #1 to transit to Metro Line #2 at People’s Square and then transit to Maglev train to the Pudong Airport tomorrow morning. It is obvious that the Maglev part is a good suggestion, but transiting at People’s Square may not be as impressive for my India friends, who are used to the train station at Mumbai!

I am also impressed by the high house price (both rent and purchase) in Mumbai. I started to worry about my travel expense there.

Talked with Friend about Money

Spent the morning, noon, and part of the afternoon with Wendy and my good friend. We talked a lot in a corner of Starbucks, and then moved to a quiet restaurant at Zhongshan Park area. Here are some of the points mentioned.

About Wealth. He is in the stage that wealth is not a problem. People don’t need to have too much money to sustain a good life. 1 million RMB per year maybe the top range for any moderate successful people to spend – excluding people who put an equal sign between money spent and their value to this world. I would tend to agree.

On practice in stock market and real estate market. He treated everything as a mathematic model. Money is just a side effect. On the market, everything he does is to practice self-discipline – it needs a lot of courage and discipline to say no to many attractive, but not disciplined opportunities. By saying no many times, the self-discipline gets better and better.

Many other good stuff. Nice time. As Bob mentioned in his twitter, it is not time together, it is “qualified time” together.

PS. It is a good principle to always consult someone with experience. Everyone’s life and experience are limited. Talking is a way to connect your brain with others’ and to get experience they had. To build a network of great people to consult is great wealth.

Welcome Home, Chris and Endeavour

After 15 days in space, Endeavour Shuttle will return to earth in one hour – it should land in Florida at 10:48 EDT, or 11:48 PM China time.

Chris sent us (YLF) an email describing his departure preparation back to the Earth when he was in the International Space Station. It is the first email I got from the space – very cool. Obviously that very exciting and interesting email is private communication and should not be published, otherwise, I would be very happy to share what Chris experienced in the space on this blog.

As I wrote in my email back (Chris told me that it is possible for astraunauts to receive emails on space station), to hear from a friend about fact that night/day alternates at 45 minutes circle is much more “real” than reading it from a text book. I have never been so close to the space, and that is one of the inspiration of landing my own outer space exploration facility one day.

Image credit: NASA

Update 10:59, July 31, 2009

I watched it live on NASA TV, and took the following screen shots:

Xu Zhiyong’s Another Journey

At the same time Chris returns home, another YLFer, Xu Zhiyong, was brought away by the police in Beijing in his home. I admire Xu Zhiyong’s idea about Open Constitution Initiative, and his tiredless effort to help those treated unfairly by the government to get justice with his professional legal assistant. Several weeks ago, the organization Zhiyong started 5 years ago was fined by the Tax Administration for more than 1 million RMB, and soon, the OCI was banned by the government, and now Zhiyong himself is brought away by the police, and subject to sentence. Obviously the government is trying to prevent people like him to fight for justice to this country. To me, Zhiyong is actually doing something much more dangerous, and that needs more courage than the space exploration. I will closely monitor what happens to Zhiyong, and provide my help if needed (including update the status of the case on this blog).

Endeavour Finally Launched

I am very happy that Endeavour finally launched today at 6:03 AM. Unfortunately, after chasing the even for very long, I over slept this morning, and was not able to watch the even live – due to wake up too early two days ago.

Now I am watching the post-launch press conference, and watch the launch again and again, but the replay does not have all the communication between the crew, and the base station, which I am most interested in.

Very good. After trying for 6 times, they finally launched, and Chris should already be on the space – 200 miles+ above, and he is finally ready to do the spacewalk after years of training and waiting. Good luck!

Three Interesting Photos

I haven’t taken metro in rush hours for a long time, so I was surprised to see the current metro volume in Shanghai.

People need to wait for a long time to go down the stairs – without moving at all.

P.S. here is another photo I took from my mobile in Starbucks in Xujiahui (Metro City Store). They just renovated.

P.S. 2: Another interesting photo. For my Xiamen trip, Yiyi gave me the boarding pass like this:

I did take some time to realize it is not a real one.

10 Years Gather Since Graduation

Just returned from a day long gather on the SJTU campus. I haven’t seen most of them since we left the campus 10 years ago.

Photo by Wang Ye. Click on photo to view bigger image

I just have a question: How can it be possible for everyone not to change at all after 10 years? Everyone matches exactly what I remembered 10-14 years ago. I don’t believe that people won’t change. It must be a psychology topic to discuss. I just feel that they are so familiar as if we just graduated the last week.

10 Years from 32151, Automation, SJTU

My old classmate Gong Liang sent us an email to remind us to return to Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) on April 11, 2009 – it is the official “Get Back to School” day of SJTU. More than that, it is 10 years since we graduate from university. It brought my memory back to the class 32151 of Automation Department of SJTU.

10 years. I changed a lot in the last 10 years, and the time as a student in Shanghai Jiao Tong University seems to be very far from me. At that time, there was no blog, no digital camera, and there was plenty of time. I am not a good student when I was in university – I may talk about it when I am in the mood of getting back to old days…

My office now is still on the campus of the university, but only today, I suddenly realized that I have ever studied here 10 years ago – think about how long the 10 years are.

Yes. I am getting back to Min Hang campus on April 11. If there is any other alumni who go back to Minhang Campus, please let me know, and let’s schedule some time to know each other and talk.

Here is a list of names of classmates. I read the names of each person, and, ops, for some, I had a hard time to remember… We didn’t contact each other after graduation (to be more exactly, I intentionally isolate myself from others). Hope April 11, 2009 is an opportunity to reconnect to my old friends.

32151班

段晓文   陈黛    曲波    吴立纲   周捷

张铭    王锋    魏海滨   梅佳予   王晔

朱元晨   殷重先   宗锐    周珉    王怡靖

周俊威   刘冬清   王建硕   马劲    柴海林

张宜    何宇升   钱江    黄学    朱顺波

张震    宫 亮   陈汇钢

32152班

言玮    万洁卉   刘枫    王治    杨永

赵翊捷   潘炜    金东    吴文翔   刘毅

方圆海   徐军    顾军    池纪锋   费嘉亮

向阳    王凌云   王茂华   张江红   王昊鹏

赵家佳   潘正    陈波    徐光业   陈旻

张华    尹启龙   冯传正   

32153班

桑伟数   何育敏   王爱华   朱磊    冯玮

张敏毅   周纪    赵海峰   陈德嵘   俞清

叶凌    李炜    赵晋    池永华   蔡峰峰

李晓冬   陈昶    甘泉    卢会来   祁江

于祖强   冼旭和   盛浩军   杨添龙   郑鸿

严胜    

Congratulations to Xiaoliang and Tangjing

I am in the Liudao Resort to attend Xiaoliag and Tangjing’s wedding. Xiaoliang is not only my business partner, he is also my good friend. In the last four years of Baixing.com (a.k.a Kijiji.cn), we went along the same ups and downs, and we have built enough trust possible. We are more than friends, and I am very happy that Xiaoliang finally get married – counting as another marriage after Jiachen/Yeyun and others.

Baixing is a company strong tight of families – like most successful enterprises in China, we are not just working in the same company, 4 years of similar experience helped me to build strong personal connections, not only between our people, but their spouses – we are the same batch of people attending each wedding ceremony, and other important events for every people, like birthdays.

Happy wedding for Xiaoliang and Tangjing. I feel very happy about your wedding, and hope you get a great future in the speed just as your exceptional run to the stage. I am a little bit over-drink today and feel drizzle now with the effect of full cup of white wine, but I still want to write down in the room 214 of Liudao Resort about my wishes.

I just hope, that one day, when the business is really successful, ever shareholder of the company gets his/her own deserved part of the success. Most of the time, when I think about my personal mission in this company, I feel that I do need to make more rational decisions, and see the future more clearly to bring the team to final success. Think about the 20 employees in 2005, and 2006 who are still in the company, and many new friends joining the company, I feel I have a much greater responsibility than running the company, it is more in a sense of personal responsibility for the happiness of many families. That is also an integral part of entrepreneurship.

Let me just stop here, and get back to the wonderful evening. Although I didn’t attended the Dongfang of Xiaoliang and Tangjing due to Yifan’s schedule of sleep, I want to wish Xiaoliang/Tangjing a happy marriage, and I am sure the friendship between the to families, and even Yifan and their future children is long-lasting – much longer than a company or our limited life lasts.

It is nice to attend best friends’ wedding, isn’t it?

I need to go sleep now.

Written at Liudao Resort on February 28, 2009 (YLF)

Congratulations to Ryun and Jenny

Ryun and Jenny got married tonight. I just got back from their wedding ceremony in Shenyuexuan at Dingxiang Garden.

It is always nice to join the wedding ceremony of friends, especially when you know both the bride and groom. It keeps reminds us that there are much more than work in everyone’s life – to have some good friends, and to have a warm family (with husband, wife, and parents, and children) are so wonderful.

Ryun’s website at hejiachen.com seems went do, so let me just grasp a photo of him.

Photo credit: Ryun

Photo credit: Ryun

P.S Today is also the one year anniversary of Jia and Xiaojing. Congratulations for the wonderful achievement – to getting together for the first year means a lot! It is really a good day, even the raining seems so romantic.