It has been there for a long time and I am trying to get some idea from these courses.

This one seems good:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/index.htm

May 3, I hosted my friends in my company at home – 14 persons including me and Wendy. The house was under stress test, and so does the small IKEA seat. Pretty tired, but happy.

Let me get to the kitchen to handle all the rest of the fruits, and drinks…

It is nice to have party and we should host it more often…

When you see the picture of the bananas, they are all gone.

The trees at night

The flowers

The settings of seats around table.

Guess what’s this?…

Hello, Jian Shuo

I read quite interesting information in your blog

I’m a grandmother presently staying at my children’s place in Shanghai for a few weeks

I would like to go to Hanzhou as everybody says it’s quite beautiful

Problem is I have a very little income; could you please advise me as to the cheapest way to go there and tell me whether I can see enough in one day, or to I have to stay in a hotel for one night ?

I thank you very much in advance for your advice and congratulate you for your kindness in helping other people

Hope to get an answer real soon

Since the question is about how to get to Hangzhou really cheap, I will focus on saving budget in this guide.

Travel to Hangzhou

The cheapest way to Hangzhou, I believe, is by train. (correct me if someone found better or cheaper way).

Take Metro #1 to the Shanghai South Railway Station (or transit to #1 from all other metro system), and buy tickets to Hangzhou.

It costs 25 RMB before (I don’t have the updated price yet, but should not change too much) for single trip on the “hard seat”, which is the cheapest ticket. Since it is only 2 hours trip, it won’t be a problem for elder people.

Train Station in Hangzhou

Typically, you should arrive in New Train Station. Here is information you may need when you buy your return tickets.

Ticket Office

Wulinmen Ticket Office: No. 199, Wulin Road

Huansha Road Ticket Office: No. 147, Huansha Road

Railway Station Inquiry Number:

0571-87829424 (New Train Station)

0571-86450514 (East Train Station)

Transportation in Hangzhou

Take bus from the Train Station to the West Lake. Hangzhou has many attractions, but West Lake is definitely the top on the list. Bus takes like 2 RMB (correct me if I am wrong here. I am not so sure today), and spend your time in the West Lake area. If you only have one day, spend as long as you can in the places near West Lake.

Visiting Time

Typically, one day trip is good enough for most visitors who are lack of time or budget. You can arrive in the morning around 10:00 AM and be back at night around 8:00 PM.

Hotel

There are some nice hotel in Hangzhou and they are cheaper than in Shanghai (relatively). Home Inn (NASDAQ: HMIN) has branches there with 168 RMB room, and there are many which are cheaper than this.

To stay one night is a good idea, since the scene of the West Lake at night and in early morning is also great – even better than during the day time, in my personal opinion.

A bonus tip: don’t worry if it rains in Hangzhou. West Lake looks best (according to people’s opinion in the last thousand years) when it is raining.

Hope this helps, and have a happy trip to Hangzhou.

Inspired by this post, I added the comment feeds in RSS 2.0 format to this blog.

If you want to subscribe the latest comments, use this feed: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/comments.xml

I created a new index file with “Comments RSS” as name, and comments.xml as filename. This is the content of this template.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”<$MTPublishCharset$>”?>

<rss version=”2.0″>

<channel>

<title><$MTBlogName remove_html=”1″ encode_html=”1″$>: Comments</title>

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<description>Latest comments for <$MTBlogName remove_html=”1″ encode_html=”1″$></description>

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<lastBuildDate><MTComments lastn=”1″><$MTCommentDate language=”en” format=”%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S”$> <$MTBlogTimezone no_colon=”1″$></MTComments></lastBuildDate>

<generator>http://www.movabletype.org/?v=<$MTVersion$></generator>

<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>

<MTComments lastn=”20″ sort_order=”descend”>

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<title>Comment on “<MTCommentEntry><$MTEntryTitle remove_html=”1″ encode_html=”1″$></MTCommentEntry>”</title>

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Jack don’t need privacy protection. I know it, and that is the reason I used his name in title – correct me if I am wrong, Jack. :-)

Just kidding. But I had wonderful conversation and dinner with Jack Gu in my house, and we talked a lot. Let me record just a few so it reminds me to write something about it (maybe on my Chinese blog)

• Internet industry analysis starts from eCommerce – according to Richard
• Online and offline are two worlds – to promote offline business in pure online site is as ineffective as promoting websites on offline media
• We need some way to manage relationship – when you reach the stage that relationship are your most important assert, and source of happiness
• Google AdSense in China does not help bloggers and web 2.0 companies as much as it does in U.S – less than $0.01 eCPM is not rare
• Connection and training are two most important thing when someone is still in a big company
• De-attachment is key for releasing pressure
• Sometimes to go along a circle and getting back to where I seemed to be does not mean it is the same – the mood and feeling changes dramatically – just as the fishman’s story told us

Just list a few of them. Sorry that I don’t have time to explain every single item here, but I hope I can write more about these interesting topics.

Thanks Jack for sharing with me or listen to what I want to share.

SJTU = Shanghai Jiao Tong University

This is the view outside my office – the window is immediately at my left.

Sping comes, and the great grassland was full of people – in twos or threes. I believe they will be very happy about the sunshine.

Best Buy opens a store in Xujiahui, many weeks ago. After had three long meetings in three different locations for the whole day, I finally get back to Xujiahui, and visited the store – since there is no taxi in rush hour, why not take a look. I am very curious about how much market share Best Buy can take in the $100 billion market (according to Best Buy)

It seems to me it is the electronic appliance version of IKEA. I mean the color and environment.

Will Best Buy Fail, or Succeed

IKEA is an example of huge success in China. Wal-Mart is not yet, and many other U.S. players, especially in Internet segment are not.

In price-sensitive market like China, whether the service advantage over-comes price disadvantage (if it is its disadvantage) is the key question.

Google is innovaite. They allow my to put Google result inside my own page. This feature was released early August, so I can take advantage of this offer.

Let me write down the parameters of this configuration. Please note: This entry is archived under “backstage ” and is intended to be read only by me and people who are interested in how this site works.

Search Type: Google WebSearch + SiteSearch

Enter up to three URLs for SiteSearch: home.wangjianshuo.com

Length of text box: 20 characters

Customize the type of search results I get to my site content: Yes

Choose a profile: articles

Site Language: English

Opening of search results page: Open results within my own site

Enter URL where search results will be displayed: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060120_search_this_site.htm

Your site encoding: ISO-8859-1

Search Results Style: Seaside

Use SafeSearch: Yes

Custom Channel: Search

Search Code:

<!– SiteSearch Google –>

<form method=”get” action=”http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060120_search_this_site.htm” target=”_top”>

<table border=”0″ bgcolor=”#ffffff”>

<tr><td nowrap=”nowrap” valign=”top” align=”left” height=”32″>

<a href=”http://www.google.com/”>

<img src=”http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_25wht.gif” border=”0″ alt=”Google” align=”middle”></img></a>

</td>

<td nowrap=”nowrap”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”domains” value=”home.wangjianshuo.com”></input>

<input type=”text” name=”q” size=”20″ maxlength=”255″ value=””></input>

<input type=”submit” name=”sa” value=”Search”></input>

</td></tr>

<tr>

<td> </td>

<td nowrap=”nowrap”>

<table>

<tr>

<td>

<input type=”radio” name=”sitesearch” value=”” checked=”checked”></input>

<font size=”-1″ color=”#000000″>Web</font>

</td>

<td>

<input type=”radio” name=”sitesearch” value=”home.wangjianshuo.com”></input>

<font size=”-1″ color=”#000000″>home.wangjianshuo.com</font>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

<input type=”hidden” name=”client” value=”pub-8513779941474461″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”forid” value=”1″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”channel” value=”6801625507″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”ie” value=”ISO-8859-1″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”oe” value=”ISO-8859-1″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”safe” value=”active”></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”flav” value=”0000″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”sig” value=”NdyQdGFpJnNH_B3d”></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cof” value=”GALT:#008000;GL:1;DIV:#336699;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:336699;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:11″></input>

<input type=”hidden” name=”hl” value=”en”></input>

</td></tr></table>

</form>

<!– SiteSearch Google –>

Search Result Code

<!– Google Search Result Snippet Begins –>

<div id=”googleSearchUnitIframe”></div>

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var googleSearchIframeName = ‘googleSearchUnitIframe’;

var googleSearchFrameWidth = 650;

var googleSearchFrameHeight = 1300;

var googleSearchFrameborder = 0 ;

</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”

src=”http://www.google.com/afsonline/show_afs_search.js”>

</script>

<!– Google Search Result Snippet Ends –>

I pasted the code into a new entry: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060120_search_this_site.htm

Wendy reported that from today, KFC removed Potato Wedge and Pepsi Coke from all the suites. Instead, they provide vegetable salad and orange juice.

It seems it is a national wide change in KFC.

I remember this Monday when I had lunch there before the Beijing trip, Potato Wedge was still included.

There is always big conflict between a product in U.S. and in China. I think KFC is making a wise change to adjust their product to China marketing. Kudos.

Anyone noticed the new search function on this site? I wrote the code (PHP code) and added the following features:

Standalone Search Page

I have removed the search box from the title area and put a search link on every page. Thanks to readers like PP to point out the search box won’t work on certain browser. I know it is against Jakob’s usability suggestion that search should be a box, so I added a search box at the middle of the home page.

History

I record all the search terms entered in the search box so create some hints of what others are looking for. When the history data becomes large enough, I will hide some terms that are searched only once.

Search

I am a fan of Jakob’s usability site. His research show a site with more than 200 page should offer search function. This site has grow to more than 1000 articles (including both traditional site and blog site) so if you cannot find anything, don’t hesitate – search!.

Google is doing great on search, so I don’t need to create my own search engine.

Am I working too much on the technical side of this site? I often surpress my attempt to drive into code although I enjoy writing some small piece of codes. As I said, the soul of a blog is the content, not the technology it is using.

Have you seen Windows 2002? I saw a copy at a department store.

Photographed by Jian Shuo Wang

It is not from Microsoft though. :-D

Guess why so many people are queuing in Hymall (a big local shopping mall like Carefore Carrefour) in Pudong?

© Jian Shuo Wang

They are waiting to buy eggs.

© Jian Shuo Wang

I am not kidding. They still need to wait for more than 40 minutes to be able to buy eggs – cheap eggs.

The secret behind the scene is, the egg is on sale. The eggs will be sold at 2.50 RMB per/500g. According to the rule, only the first 200 customers were served. Everyone has allowance of 1kg of eggs only. The noon session starts at 13:30. (It was only 12:50 when I took the picture.) Many people have been waited there for a long time already.

So people may have some idea of how sensitive people are to prices of goods. Even the smallest change in price will trigger great demand. This is particularly obvious in Shanghai.

The rule also applies to Real Estate industry, the mobile industry and almost everyone in China market.

What an intersting and crazy idea: ATMs as WiFi hotspots. It is a cool idea because

• It has electricity power
• It must have a telephone line
• It is expensive (so people don’t care too much to put a Wifi AP)
• It is placed in crowded business centers where people more likely need WIFI
• People can easily pay for WIFI (if they are not free).

The original idea comes from nyc at typepad but I cannot access the site via my dial up to 16300 (User name 16300, password 16300). It seems typepad.com has been blocked. Anyway, the idea is cool. I love it.

How I eager to find a WIFI very soon? I am getting back from WIFI to dial up. There is no ADSL, no Cable Modem in Pudong. I just found out the FTTB+LAN by Telecom is also not opened yet although the line has been deployed to my room. I miss the Network Infrastructure in my previous home in Pudong. As you can see, the above are major broadband solutions in Shanghai: ADSL, Cable Modem, China Telecom FTTB+LAN, Greatwall Broadband…

I wrote about my dream travel destination at the begining of April. Now I found another place that is exteremely beautiful, even comparable with my previous Daocheng trip. Its name is Tahiti. Here are some pictures of the wonderful place.

Pictures credit: TVB via OnlyLady

This page provides very good information about all the travel related articles.

Tonight, I enjoyed the ice cream mooncakes from Haagen-Dazs. The Belgian chocolate flavor ice cream is really nice, as described on its web site: “When the first spoonful melts in your mouth the moment is pure pleasure”.

Haagen-Dazs changed its products a lot to meet Chinese styles and festivals. It seems Haagen-Dazs did great job in penertrate into the mooncake market of Shanghai. As I know, more than 10,000 joint-venture company employees received Haagen-Dazs mooncake certificates from efesco. This is also the third year I receive the Haagen-Dazs mooncake certificate. It must be one of the big deals of this

It is not long since Haagen-Dazs appeared in Shanghai. I still remember I attended the opening ceremony of Haagen-Dazs in Shanghai Center six years ago. Now, it has opened about four stores in Shanghai (based on the stores I know). There are two Haagen-Dazs stores near the building I am working in. One more store is under construction near my old apartmnt. It also expanded its coverage to Beijing, Dalian, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according to China Online’s report.

I have chatted with Bill Lum about another European company IKEA. I told him the store is very profitable in Shanghai and Beijing.

“If there is a holiday or a promotion, there are sometimes as many as 10,000 people here, so many you can’t move”

said Linda Shi, PR manager of IKEA Shanghai Store

Source: siamfuture.com

It is very true. When the store opens in 1997, I have visited the store and only few people are there. The price in the store is considered very high. Now, every Saturday, there are so many people that “you cannot move”. It is more like a supermarket of furnitures.

They are going to the second store in Shanghai. With 35,000 square meters’ store area, the new store will be the largest IKEA store in Asia. I was very supprised when Bill told me IKEA opened a store in San Francisco only one year before.

Update March 30, 2003

New IKEA store will open on April 16, 2003 in Shanghai… FULL STORY