Name Change Matters

Although there are many criticism about the high cost and convention change of the new National Expressway system, I feel excited about the change (if we put aside the cost). The name gives people better sense of direction.

A8 is Shanghai - Hangzhou Expressway (named under the Shanghai local naming convention) tells you that beyond the horizon of the road before you is Hangzhou - 151 km away. You don't know where the road leads to beyond Hangzhou.

G60 is the new name of the same road. It indicates the road start from Shanghai and ends at Kunming, Yunnan Province, a city that is 2730 km away, southwest of Shanghai (near the boarder of Burma. That inspires me of the bigger picture of the whole China.

My Travel Plan

I wish to be able to drive along the G60 to see other parts of China better. But before I start planning for it, let me just do some research on paper.

Below is the photo of G60 near the intersection with G15.

Photograph by Wendy

Toll gate near Xinzhuang in Shanghai.

Photograph by Wendy

Overview

The G60 connects the following cities. I use the city of Baixing.com as the link, to give myself a chance to virtually visit every single one of them.

• Shanghai 上海
  
• Hangzhou 杭州
  
• Jinhua 金华
  
• Quzhou 衢州
  
• Shangrao 上饶
  
• Nanchang 南昌
  
• Yichun 宜春
  
• Pingxiang 萍乡
  
• Zhuzhou 株洲
  
• Xiangtan 湘潭
  
• Shaoyang 邵阳
  
• Huaihua 怀化
  
• Majiang 麻江
  
• Guiyang 贵阳
  
• Anshun 安顺
  
• Qujing 曲靖
  
• Kunming 昆明

G60 Map

Thanks to Google Maps, and my 2 hours of hard work, I created a map of G60 in China on Google Map:

View G60 Shanghai - Kunming National Expressway in a larger map

Below are the detailed explanation about the road.

G60 in Shanghai

The G60 is exactly the formal A8 in Shanghai. It started from Xinzhuang Interchange (the largest interchange in Asia). The interchange connect A20 (now S20), S4 (formally A4), G60, and Humin Elevated Highway and many local roads with each other.

G60 in Zhejiang

The G60 is exactly the Shanghai - Hangzhou Expressway before it hits the Hangzhou Ring Expressway. My GUESS is, it turns southwards at the Ring Expressway, and use the current Hangzhou - Jinhua - Quzhou Expressway (Hangjinqu Expressway 杭金衢高速公路).

The Hangjinqiu Expressway ends at the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi - a small town called Liyuan. From Google earth, we can clearly see the big toll gate. A side note: the toll fee of expressways are collected by each province separately.

G60 in Jiangxi

In Jiangxi, the first part of G60 is the formal Liwen Expressway (Liyuan - Wenjiazhen Expressway 梨温高速). The passes Shangrao and Yingtan before it arrives at the Jiangxi capital Nanchang 南昌.

After Nanchang, it is named Changfu - Jinyu Expressway (Changjin Expressway). It ends at the Jiangxi and Hunan border - Jinyushi 金鱼石.

Unlike other province, Jiangxi named the expressway using names of very small towns, like Jinyushi - the exact town where the road ends in its border. Other places like Zhejiang used bigger city names, like Hangzhou - Jinhua - Quzhou Expressway. Personally, I feel the Jiangxi's naming convention is more interesting since it created something so unique that people cannot obviously see the reason of the name, thus make it more unique, but it is not as clear as the bigger city naming convention.

G60 in Hunan

As in other provinces, the G60 in Hunan consists of 4 sections. Two of them on the east was already built before 2007, and the two on the west was just completed three years ago.

Liling - Xiangtan Expressway 醴陵 - 湘潭
Xiangtan - Shaoyang Expressway 湘潭 - 邵阳
Shaoyang - Huaihua Expressway 邵阳 - 怀化
Huaihua - Xinhuang Expressway 怀化- 新晃

The four sections have their own names.

When I came to this point, I already started to understand why it is necessary to use a unified name G60 to refer to all these sections of the local highways. Even getting the names right in this article is hard work for me and it already cost about one hour, not to mention figuring it out on the road: The drivers need to be extremely good at geography to navigate in the old road system.

G60 in Guizhou

Will work on this section later when it is finished soon.

G60 in Yunnan

Shengjingguan - Qusheng 胜境关 - 曲胜 (Official Name: Qusheng Expressway)
Qusheng - Songming Expressway 曲胜 - 嵩明
Songming - Kunming Expressway 嵩明 - 昆明 (Official Name: Kunsong Expressway)
Kunming - Baoshan Expressway 昆明 - 保山

The naming convention in Yunnan continued to be different from other provinces. It always put the more important city first. In other provinces and in the China wide, it is more common to put the east side city first - thus the names will continue from one section to another. Please pay attention to the official name section (different order from other convention)

The last section from Baoshan 保山 to Ruili 瑞丽 (at the border between China and Burma) is under construction. I wonder when it will start to connect with the highway in Burma.

In 2003, I was admiring Kayne for 4 year wedding anniversary, one week after Wendy and I got married.

After 7 years, we are even more happier - than 7 years ago. Wendy and I am together since 1996, much longer than getting married - that is about 14 years ago. In 2003, I can still list what we did together in the last year. Now, I found it harder to make that list - it is easier to list what we didn't do together in the last 7 years than things we went through together. All the sweet, and pains, we came along together. The same experience made us similar persons, and one family.

Thanks Wendy for the wonderful years, and look forward to the long, long future to come.

The day started with Yifan's cry.

The teacher called in the middle, and told Wendy that Yifan kept crying. He even took the photo of other kid's mother, and watched for a long time. He gave a big hug to a calendar showing three-person family, and told the teacher that is his mother.

When Wendy picked him up, he sit on the beach, leaning his head to a toy phone. The teacher told Wendy that Yifan has been calling his mom for a long time.

I asked Yifan whether he called mom. He said, "yes. I called, and you see, Mom comes".

A quick overview of the new airport (before my more detailed report).

The Airport

The T2 is west of T1 (the old terminal). It is basically a new airport - 90% of the airlines will move to the new T2 (no wonder they didn't made too much improvement to the crowded T1 in the past few years - makes sense).

They share the same run way with the T1 - there are already two runways before T2 opens.

It is 4 times bigger than the current crowded T1. My biggest wish is, find a better taxi solution!

Transportation

Metro Line #2 will extend to the Hongqiao Airport T2, and other two stations further. The metro ends at 22:30 pm - late enough for most passengers. If you miss the last metro, you can still take the night bus - a new alternative to taxi. Please note: since the T1 is no longer an important hub, Metro Line #2 will skip T1 - you need to take shuttle bus between T1, and T2, before the Metro Line #10 opens this October, which connects the two terminal.

Another change worth noting: the shuttle bus #1 connecting the Hongqiao and Pudong airport will change its starting point from T1 to T2 of Hongqiao Airport - a natural shift that won't affect most people.

The Service

According to Shanghai Daily, the new airport will offer 80 check-in counters, and 47 security counters.

I don't know more details of this hub - need to go there to check out.

Transportation Hub

The new Hongqiao Airport T2 is not just an airport terminal. It is also part of the new Hongqiao Transportation Hub. The future Shanghai-Beijing high speed train and the future Maglev from Pudong airport will stop at the new Hongqiao Train Station. More metro lines will extend to this hub. The whole area has been well surrounded by newly built elevated highways (photos) - another mega project. In summary, there will be 30 new roads around this hub.

That is an amazing outline of the future.

G15, G50 and Hongqiao Airport

With the new naming system for the national highways, the intersection near the Hongqiao Airport becomes significant - the G15 and G50 runs west, and south of Hongqiao Airport.

G15 = Shenyang - Haikou Expressway - a 3715 km long expressway from the north most city Shenyang to south most Haikou.

G50 = Shanghai - Chongqiong Expressway - the 1900 km long expressway from Shanghai to Chongqing (near Chengdu) in the southwest.

Although people don't do it, you can just imagine that people in west or north or south of China can conveniently follow a round all the way up to Hongqiao Airport -- that is the power of a well planned round and an easy to use name. Putting Hongqiao airport to this bigger picture, it is more exciting to watch.

Yifan started his first day in kindergarten today. It is not the official kindergarten yet - that will start from this September, instead, it is 8:30 - 4:30 pm part time school. The official one needs him to be 3 year old.

We worried a lot for the first day - we heard the stories of kids crying for days to get used to the new life. We believe so since we tried to put him into some part time kindergarten before - does not work at all.

In the morning, Wendy talked all the way with Yifan. Yifan promised everything - he promised that he would not cry. He promised he would play nicely with other children, and he promised to be quiet in the music class, and won't go out of the class room.

Of cause, he broke the promise as soon as he saw the new kindergarten, and cried out loud when Wendy sent him to the door. The teachers got him, and disappeared behind the door - with Yifan still crying loudly.

Wendy was very worried, and spent tough morning by herself.

At noon time, the teacher called and reported Yifan slept, but didn't eat too much for lunch.

At 4:00, Wendy arrived early at the kindergarten. To her surprise, through the windows, she saw Yifan sat quietly on the little bench, and listened to the teacher to tell a story with other kids. Nothing went wrong. Yifan obviously seem to love the new place.

At night, I asked Yifan:

"Are you happy today?", he said yes.
"Did you cry today?", he said no. Never....

:-)

Yifan, my good boy!

I cannot believe it that I used the car for 6 years. I didn't use it very much - just for commute from home to office. The meter only shows 78K km - 13 km per year. The statics shows I used the car less in the last 3 years than the previous 3 years.

When I celebrated the 3rd year anniversary for Goudaner (Happy Birthday to Goudaner (3rd Year)), I drove for 41K - in the last three years, I drove 32K km.

My Sadness

For a small car like Goudaner (FIAT Siena), 6 years seem to be pretty long time. Not only for the car, but also for the family. In the last 6 years, many things changed. The biggest change is the birth of Yifan. For a family like us, and especially for a naughty boy like Yifan, the safety features of Siena worries us. I don't like Yifan to able to open the back door, and there is no child lock. Besides that, we need a generally safer car - maybe a mid-class car.

That means, I will inevitable come to a point to sell the car for a better one. That is the sad part of life.

I followed my readers' suggestion to give my first new car a name - Goudaner. People say, when you have a name for the car, the car runs better, and has better luck, since you treat it as a friend, not just a car. That is absolutely true. In the 6 years, we have been together very well - we visited many places, and many memorable moments happened in the car, like the moment we drive on the Nanpu Bridge, moving to Pudong with the last few boxes of what we have in the back, like the moment we welcomed Yifan to his new home, few days after Yifan was born - it was a heavily rainy day...

I guess this is the last birthday Goudaner has in this home. I'd like to thank Goudaner for the wonderful change it brings to the family, and the nice service it provided. We are sad to see old things moved out of our home, just because everything is our materialized memory.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

More interestingly, Yifan fell in love with my new Google Nexus One, and quickly learn how to take photos. Among the 50+ blurred and dark photos, I still can find some very decent photo taken by Yifan, at his 2 and 3/4 year.

Photo taken by Wang Yifan (Hey! He is 2 year and 9 month old when taking this photo)

Photograph by Wang Yifan

Photograph by Wang Yifan

Photograph by Wang Yifan

It is obviously not pleasant to get close to it, but it is not completely lack of artistic feeling.

I don't know how many of you feel the same as myself - I have to admit that I enjoy watching and shooting the scene of power towers when I am on the highways...

From time to time, we may want to spend some time to look at the world using a different angle. This time, I tried to ---

Look up!

Above our head, there are ceiling, and above the ceiling, there are complicated air system, and fire prevention system, and there is a speaker there. Did we really think about where the sounds of background music, or train arriving information comes out in the station?

In metro cart, there are similar system. We can breath 10 meters below the ground because of them, but not many people notice their existence.

There are different type of ceilings. Like this at Jinxiu Road Station:

and this in Zhaojiabang Road Station:

The wire under the TV sets broadcasting train arrival information is pretty scary, and messy:

If you look closer, wait a moment, what is this?

and this?

and this?

The cameras are everywhere.

I guess if we continue to take photos of worlds above us, that is a very different world than what we see today.

Photo taken by Jian Shuo Wang

P.S. When Yifan was sleeping (gradema was with him), I got out for a cup of coffee with my Moleskine notebook.

Taken at Guangyuan Road, and Gongcheng Road, at 8:50 AM, rush hours

Look at this photo. That is a normal day in rush hours in the morning. People started to wait for the looong red lights to cross the pedestrian. That was something very new to me. That continued to build my confidence to this city, and this country. As time went by, people will start to learn how to live in a city better, and will form some rules that everyone started to obey.

P.S. If you want to claim that this is another Shanghai Expo PR, please read this entry, especially my reply in the comment section. If you don't want to take the time to read, let me give you a tip of the direction I am going to send you: "Read the Blind man and the elephant story, again, before claiming that even the blindest man can see people cross the road at red lights, at any time, in this city".

P.S. 2: This is another photo of people lining up at Metro Line #7 at Zhaojiabang Road.

About few months ago, Shanghai started to check baggage at the entrance of major metro stations. The rule of whether a bag should be checked is not consistent.

I am wearing my black back bag all the time I enter metro. Most of the time, the security just ignore me, and allow me to enter without scanning, just like they treat the small hand bags ladies carry.

In other time, security asks me to put my bag into the scanning machine for security check. It is like this in most of the stations. The difference is, in bigger stations like Xujiahui, they tighten it, and in smaller stations like Jinxiu Road, they cover the big machines. Just two security guide using hand check.

I walked over the pedestrian viaduct at the Chengdu Elevated Highway, and the Yan'an Elevated highway - the theoretically central point of the transportation system of Shanghai. If you have some ideas of the Shanghai's elevated highway system, it is basically a few big circles, called Inner Ring Road, the Middle Ring Road, the Outer Ring Road (S20, formally A20), and the Suburb Ring Road (S30, formally A30). For the Ring Roads, there is one horizontal (east-west) back born road, named Yan'an Elevated Highway, and there is one vertical (north-south) elevated highway called Chengdu Elevated Highway. The intersection of these two highways is, naturally, the center of this big transportation system.

That is a mega project - there are two lane road for any possible connections. That is C(4, 2) composition problem - the answer is 6 different path to be built for this viaduct.

I took some photos of this viaduct via my new Google Nexus One phone. Here is the photo.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang at the intersection of Chengdu Elevated Highway, and the Yan'an Elevated Highway

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang at the intersection of Chengdu Elevated Highway, and the Yan'an Elevated Highway

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang at the intersection of Chengdu Elevated Highway, and the Yan'an Elevated Highway

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang at the intersection of Chengdu Elevated Highway, and the Yan'an Elevated Highway

From time to time, you can find some artistic moment and scene of this city - that is good thing for life. Hopefully everyone enjoys his/her own city this way.

Intuition

The government decision makers are very likely to make decisions based on intuition, and the planned economy mindset. I, myself, made even more frequent mistakes when I make decisions about the market. I admit that I did several things wrong in my business without respecting the market laws. Here are some examples about the actions people take (basically using xge's examples).

Hainan's Land

The recent sharp increase in the real estate price in Hainan was a typical example. When the Hainan announced the "International Tourism Island" strategy, the house price almost doubled over night by the stimulate.

The Hainan government was scared because of the jump in price. Then, in order to control the price, they immediately announced to pause supply of all commercial residential lands. Not surprisingly, the price doubled over night again.

Train Tickets and Taxi

Train tickets in Spring Festival times are extremely hard to get because of the huge demand (2.5 billion people/time needs to travel in the 40 days), and limited supply (not enough trains). The price for the train tickets went as high as 4x of the original price in the escort market.

In order to keep the price low, the government requires all train tickets keep the cheap price, and crack down all the escort market, and implement Real Name system for train tickets - none of them touch the supply and demand. Not surprisingly, it is still hard to find a ticket.

For taxi, people complain that the taxi is expensive, and hard to hire in rush hours, so "illegal taxi" started to emerge to help them out. In order to keep the price of taxi low, the government tried everything they can to crackdown the illegal taxis, greatly reduced the supply. Not surprisingly, taxi is harder to get, and the government enforced low price (lower than fair market value) keeps taxi drivers out of the market. (Well. for the taxi business, the real problem is, the monopoly of government owned taxi companies get too high fee out of the pocket of taxi drivers, and use the power to keep private sector entering this market).

Supply and Demand

Finally, we started to understand the simple market rule: price is determined by the supply and demand. The only way to drive price down is to increase supply, and the only way to drive price up is either to decrease supply or increase demand.

Let me just keep a record of the command I use.

ROBOCOPY D:\my Z:\ /E /Z