545 USD: Dong Nan Hua Ting

The following information was submitted:

Name:

Xu Gu

Location of your apartment:

Room 403, #1, Lane 150, North Lin Yi Road, Pu Dong District

Facilities:

Electric home appliances and furniture are well supplied.

Decoration:

Luxury decorated

Is it near Metro?

Not far away

Expected price per month:

545 USD

Picture Available?

No

Other comments:

It’s convenient for working at both side of the Huang Pu River.

Cell phone 13916551080

attn Xu Gu

Email address:

xugu2004@hotmail.com

Name of the apartment:

450 USD: Caoyang Jiun Yu yuan

The following information was submitted:

Name:

Jenny Ding

Locaiton of your apartment:

At the corner of Cao Yang Road & Lanxi Road.

200 metres away from Caoyang Station of the light-rail

2 stops away from Zhongshan Park.

Facilities:

New,

Fully furnished,

100sq., 2 bed.

Apartment with car parking.

Timber floor.

Air conditioned.

Community antenna tele system.

Computer desks.

Full range of white goods, & kitchen-ware.

Decoration:

Modern, simple.

Is it near Metro?

2 stops (of light-rail) away from Zhongshan Park area which is the commercial centre of west Shanghai, where endless activities, actions, entertaining, etc. going on.

Guarantee never boring.

Expected price per month: (USD)

450.00

Picture Available?

No

Other comments:

There are a lot of small eateries around the place, which provide cheap & handy takeaway. Anyone without cooking skill will be very happy to live there. Or a fresh food market nearby will provide you cooking material.

Email address:

Jennyding54@hotmail.com

Name of the apartment:

Caoyang Jiun Yu Yuan

700 USD: Biyun Oriental Apartment

Email me at: shapartment@gmail.com

Hi all,

We bought a new apartment in Piyun international district near the Yangpu Bridge. We decorated (or renovated in American terms) in a way for us to live in, but we finally decided to rent it out. Here are some pictures of the room. Don’t be surprised. I just took many pictures of the same room this afternoon and hope it gives you some idea of the room.

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Blogging in Microsoft

Issac mentioned Bill’s presentation on blogging (one of the topics). He also comments on the blogging in Microsoft (and kindly mentioned my blog). In one sentence, blogging in Microsoft is hot and becoming hotter.

Let’s see what Bill said in the Microsoft CEO Summit 2004:

Another new phenomenon that connects into this is one that started outside of the business space, more in the corporate or technical enthusiast space, a thing called blogging. And a standard around that that notifies you that something has changed called RSS.

This is a very interesting thing, because whenever you want to send e-mail you always have to sit there and think who do I copy on this. There might be people who might be interested in it or might feel like if it gets forwarded to them they’ll wonder why I didn’t put their name on it. But, then again, I don’t want to interrupt them or make them think this is some deeply profound thing that I’m saying, but they might want to know. And so, you have a tough time deciding how broadly to send it out.

Then again, if you just put information on a Web site, then people doesn’t know to come visit that Web site, and it’s very painful to keep visiting somebody’s Web site and it never changes. It’s very typical that a lot of the Web sites you go to that are personal in nature just eventually go completely stale and you waste time looking at it.

And so, what blogging and these notifications are about is that you make it very easy to write something that you can think of, like an e-mail, but it goes up onto a Web site. And then people who care about that get a little notification. And so, for example, if you care about dozens of people whenever they write about a certain topic, you can have that notification come into your Inbox and it will be in a different folder and so only when you’re interested in browsing about that topic do you go in and follow those, and it doesn’t interfere with your normal Inbox.

And so if I do a trip report, say, and put that in a blog format, then all the employees at Microsoft who really want to look at that and who have keywords that connect to it or even people outside, they can find the information.

And so, getting away from the drawbacks of e-mail — that it’s too imposing — and yet the drawbacks of the Web site — that you don’t know if there’s something new and interesting there — this is about solving that.

The ultimate idea is that you should get the information you want when you want it, and we’re progressively getting better and better at that by watching your behavior, ranking things in different ways.

Bill’s view of blogging is, not surprisingly, from the technical trends perspective. But the perspective from employees are completely different. I observed many creative usage of blogging that is related to business. Here are some typical Microsoft Bloggers in China.

Using Blogging as MVP Communication Tools

The most successful and innovative application of blogging, according to Wendy, is Grace’s MVP Lead blogging site (Chinese site). She hosted her blog at blog.joycode.com, where almost 50+ China MVPs gather. Blogging is perfect way for announcements and event organzation. As the China MVP lead, she droved the MVP satisfaction to the third highest in the world and the highest in Asia. That is fantastic. I believe a smooth communication like blogger is a very important factor for the MVP satisfaction.

Using Blogging as Technical Evangelism Tools

Eric’s blog (Chinese site) and Dotnettools are successful technical blogging on Microsoft technology. There are many other technical blogs in China run by Microsoft employees.

Using Blogging as Personal Presence

There are also many blogging site are for personal use, like mine, Liuzhijian and Run2me… The owner happen to be working in Microsoft. Blogging has been a very hot topic.

Blogging in Microsoft Worldwide

It is very clear now that the company is encouraging its employee to start blogging. Internal blogging hosting service has been running for several months and the blogs.MSDN.com is the centralized external blogging service provider by Microsoft. Among them, Gretchen Ledgard is using jobsblog to deliver recruiting information and introduces the processes and standards in Microsoft recruiting actives. Very cool! I believe many people are interested in.

More and More MSFT bloggers

I am seeing more and more people inside Microsoft joining the blogging movement. Some quitted after two or three post, but many has stick to it for more than half years. I didn’t expected when I started my blog in 2002.

BTW, two hours ago, three more Microsoft senior employees gathered at my cubicle and I showed them blogger.com, RSS and reader. They are very excited and planned to start their own.

DISCLAIMER: This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights. 本贴子以”现状”提供且没有任何担保,同时也没有授予任何权利

Will Shanghai be the Next Silicon Valley by 2009?

A reader was preparing for a debate. The debate topic is,

Will Shanghai be the next Silicon Valley by 2009?

He sent me a list of questions. I’d like to answer from an individual’s perspective and share with everyone. Disclaimer: I am not a professional on economy, politics, or culture. The opinions and data may not reflect the truth.

Economic

Q: Is it difficult for start-ups to obtain funding from local and foreign VCs? Is it difficult to find funding in general? How about transferring funds in and out of Shanghai?

A: I would say, it is not easy. I saw some foreigners who start companies in Shanghai and could easily get some fund from their existing relationship in U.S, but it is not the case for local start-ups. There is no good way to get funds. The public service to help small companies is not ready yet.

Local residents have huge amount of money in banks; the house and car mortgage transactions are very active; but there is not a good market for local start-ups to get money. The Small-Medium Enterprise Stock Market just opened in Shenzhen. It is good news but it didn’t start operation yet.

Transferring money to Shanghai are easy. Wired transfer and check all work well. I can get my Google check with local bank. It costs 20 RMB per transaction in China Merchant Bank.

However, PayPal and most other credit card gateways do not support direct transfer money to China yet.

Q: Is getting loans from the banks difficult? What other difficulties are there associated with banks?

A: It is easy to get small-amount investment loan in Shanghai. But the upper limit is 100,000 RMB. Any individual can apply that. But obviously, it is not for start-ups. To get higher loan is not easy (I didn’t try it yet).

Political

Q: What tax incentives are there for start ups? Are they similar to what we find in Silicon Valley?

A: If you register at a software park, like the Shanghai Pudong Software Park, you enjoy 0% tax policy for the first three years and 50% tax cut in the next two years. (Disclaimer: Check with the park for latest information. Use the data at your own risk.)

Culture

Q: Is there a general entrepreneurial fervor among recent grads from the universities in Shanghai (vis a vis grads from Stanford and Berkeley)?

A: I am not sure. The job market is very hard nowadays. Many students were forced to look at the option to setup companies by themselves.

Running in Pudong

The feeling of running in Pudong is completely different than running in Puxi, and it is much better than running on the running machine in gyms.

I went to Decathlon the other day. Wow. It is a very nice store. The goods there are very decent, of high quality AND cheap. There is a bicycle meter at only 36 RMB.

I bought Domyos running shirt and running pant. Wearing the new clothes, I look professional and athletic. I never bought cloths specially designed for one sports activity before.

Decathlon

The Decathlon store is at the opposite side of Long Yang Rd. Metro Station (or the Long Yang Rd. Maglev station). It is just beside B&Q and Metro.

shanghai-decathlon-longyang.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang

I have to say it has bad design as an entrance. I have been to B&Q for more than twenty times (I am decorating the new apartment) but didn’t noticed there is a shop by B&Q. Only after my friend Wang Chen talked about it did I realize the Decathlon logo is the logo for the shop, instead an advertisement board.

Running

After I start to run, I really enjoyed the feeling to run at Pudong. There are trees along the road and there are very few people. The slopes of bridges are natural and provide good sense of Varity to make running more interesting. Cars are passing by fast and safely. I don’t have to give ways to people, bikes, or even cars. There are separate roads for each. The air was fresh and smelled good.

map-jinxiu.rd-inc.centary.park.runway.JPG

&copyright; Jian Shuo Wang

Above is the journey I covered. The red arrow denote the way from my new apartment to the centaury park. This time, to my surprise, I managed to run to the Centaury Park and run back along the same way. That is 4 km single trip and 8 km for round trip. Ha. I feel energetic after the long-distance running. It is credited to the solid base on running I made in my high school. At that time, we run at least 3 km everyday for the whole 3 years. If I keep on practicing, I will be able to join the next Shanghai International Marathon (Chinese site) (42.195km) on November 13 this year.

Salary in Shanghai – Part II

David asked one question about salary in Shanghai.

Hello Wang,

Thanks a lot for creating this homepage, i really love it and i can get most of the information i need.

I was totally blind about Shanghai until i read this website.

But still i would probably need some sort of idea from you and maybe also another readers here to help me with my confusion.

I applied a job in Shanghai without knowing any standard salary there through email and surprisingly the company replied me so fast with one question ‘how much your salary expectation ?’, i got stunned and didn’t have any idea to answer the mail.

My job i am applying is to work as an Technical Manager (IT industry), i speak english, japanese and a little chinese that i think is an advantage for me besided my 7 years experience working in the same industry. It’s a foreign firm.

How much do you think i should expect from the salary ? well, sure it would be nice if i can feel Shanghai as a heaven too ! :-)

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

David.

Well. I have no idea about how a related Technical Manager would expect. “How much do you expect?” is one of the hardest questions to answer during job hunting, especially for the job in a completely unfamiliar city.

The best resource I would suggest is ShanghaiExpat.com forum

Here are some thread to discuss the salary:

Salary expectations Automotive … Manager

According to arnoldchina’s explaination, you should expect 30K-40K as a Automative industry

manager.

the average level of Manager is kinda about 30k-40k RMB annually,

plus the double/triple salary system. medical insurance, pension,etc.

for the hour workers is also can reach almost 10K a year

Airport Shuttle Bus #7 Starts to Operate

In additional to the existing 6 lines of airport shuttle buses, a new airport bus line started operation.

Time Table

At Dong Fang Rd.

First bus: 6:30

Last bus: 21:40

At Pudong Airport

First Bus: 7:50

Last Bus: 23:00

Price

Ticket price starts from 2 RMB.

Bus Stops

  • Dongfang Rd.
  • Pudian Rd.
  • Centuary Park
  • Longyang Rd. Metro Station
  • Keyuan Rd.
  • Zhangjiang Nong-gong-shang super market
  • Chengxi
  • Chuansha bus stop
  • Pudong airport

Call 96900 for Navigation Direction

If you are in Shanghai, and you don’t know which bus to take from one place to another, you can call 96900 for navigation instructions. They also provide foreign language service and for bus information to nearby cities.

They charge 1 RMB after an agent answers the call.

Their advertisements have been sticked to many bus stop plates and maps. Here is an example at Jin Qiao. Look at the three green advertisements tags on the map.

© Jian Shuo Wang.

Wicresoft

Hi, I am naughty. I just want to check out whether the ranking of this page is somewhere near the top in Google result for Wicresoft. Haha. I hope it is on the first page.

Update It is the Forth Result for Wicresoft in Google May 31, 2004

This entry becomes the forth sites returned in Google for keyword Wicresoft. :-D

Location:

21F, Bund Center,

No. 222, Yan An East Rd.

Telephone: (86-21) 63352266

Map

Update It is the First Result for Wicresoft in Google June 13, 2004

Nirmalya Ghosh reminded me that it is the first result in Google now.

I have been working in the office of Wicresoft for half year. It is a great company with passionate and smart people. They are working hard on Software Support Outsourcing. I believe it is the leading company in this field in China. Here is the official website of Wicreosoft.

How Did I Managed to Do it?

This is a public secret: creating good content and Google will like you. Check PageRank – Higher Position in Google Result

Night Life in Shanghai

Night life in Shanghai? Nick commented:

I have been using your site for awhile and you have some of the best info on the city there is. All you lack is a nightlife guide.

I see two forms of night life expat night life and Chinese night life. The difference being the places cater to expats so staff speaks English etc. The Chinese night life you definitely need a Chinese friend with you. On my last trip in April my Chinese friends showed me their side and I showed them mine so Shanghai has much to offer especially if you have a Chinese friend. This was probably the most fun I had had ever!

It is a very interesting comment. From what I see, there are three types of night lifes in Shanghai:

  • western
  • modern
  • traditional

Western night style starts with bars and parties and full of expats. (Am I right here?)

Traditional style is for traditional older Shanghai people, who almost barely have any nightlife. Most them don’t go out. A short distance walk on the street will be good enough for the old and the poor.

Modern Night Life

This is the style most local young people choose. Here are a list of activities I can think of.

Over Time Working

Well. If you ask anyone in my circle (25-30 in age, good income, good education) about what do they do at night, most of them will say “Working” or Jia Ban (overtime working). It is true.

Restaurant

Restaurant is the No. 1 choice if night life starts at around 6:00 PM. Eating is everyone’s favorite. There are many good restaurants in Shanghai with varied food style.

Cinema

There are some very nice cinemas in Shanghai. I would recommend:

  • Kodak Super Cinema, Metro City, Xujiahui
  • Shanghai Film and Art Center, Xinhua Rd
  • UME Cinema, in Xin Tian Di

Karaoke

It is not easy to find a country where its people like Karaoke better than China. Whenever we gather and ask where to go, the most possible choice that everyone agrees is Karaoke. Maybe singing is just part of the attraction – it offers a big comfortable room where friends can gather and enjoy snacks, drinks and ice creams.

Tea House

Tea house was traditional Chinese social place before it almost distinct in the last decade. However, it becomes more and more popular again. Inviting some friends and spend the whole night at tea house is very relaxing. Once we talked at a tea house till 2:00 AM in the morning. These tea houses open all night.

Drama

Drama is also a good place to go. The only place I know to serve good drama frequently is the Drama Center at Anfu Rd.

Shopping

For girls, shopping are the top choice. Major shopping centers are:

Xujiahui

Huai Hai Rd.

Nanjing Rd. (well, no. Nanjing Rd. attracts visitors better than Shanghai residents. Local people won’t go to Nanjing Rd. as night life)

Gyms

Many people will go gym after work. Gyms are built near office buildings. For example, Physical opens in Metro City and Alexander opens in Xintiandi.

Did I forget anything?

P.S. A new business website shanghaixp.com is launched.

MovableType 3.0 Released

Breaking news. MovableType 3.0 Developer Edition was Released. I waited for this for a long time.

Everyone wants to create big things. MovableType is one of the big things in the world. I admire what the creators achieved today. Maybe it is by chance, but they are more successful than any online software companies.

Congratulations!

I am reading First Things First. I will install MovableType 3.0, at the end of this month. To upgrade is something interesting, but is not so important to the overall quality of a site. ….. according to the book.

Shanghai Consolidated Guide

Tour to Shanghai? What you need to know about the city? I have spent two years working on this topic and now, I want to look back and give people some handy link to the most important stuff you must know before you set your foot to this city.

Air Ticket to Shanghai

Booking international flight from country in the world to Shanghai is simple. To book flight from Shanghai to other cities in China is not easy if you are outside China. Don’t try large booking system like Expedia.com – it suggests you to transit at San Francisco if you check for a flight from Shanghai to Beijing. :-D Check China Domestic Flight Booking Guide this page for more information.

Airport

If you take international flights to Shanghai, you must be landing at Shanghai Pudong Airport. There is another international airport, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. It is used for backup to Pudong Airport on international flight. It mainly serves domestic flight. You may use this one if you transit to other China cities.

Money

Only Chinese RMB is accepted in Shanghai. Exchange your money after you arrive at airport or visit a local bank.

Mobile

Bring your Mobile and Internet to Shanghai.

Food

You will like foods in Shanghai. Most of my foreign friends like foods here. I have a list of restaurant.

Transportation

Taxi, Metro and Bus are major transportation methods.

Hotel

Didn’t reserved a hotel yet? Here is my hotel guide

Language

People in Shanghai speak mandarine. Local people speak Shanghainese. Young people can speak English.

Living Cost

Considering relcating to Shanghai? Read my Living Cost in Shanghai and Living Cost in Shanghai – Part II.

Homesick

What you will miss when you arrive in Shanghai? Check Hardship of Living without Twix, 10 Things You Love/Hate About Shanghai and Discrimination Against Foreigners in Shanghai? (My answer is no).

The Village I was Born

I posted this article under name Typical Chinese Village” yesterday. Actually, this village means a lot to me. It is the village I was born and the village I lived before I move into the downtown area in Luoyang when I was 4 in age. The name for this village is Xin Zhuang (or New Village).

It is 15 km away downtown Luoyang. The yellow river flows by the village. More than 10 empirers were buried near the village, because it was regarded as a place with best Feng Shui. Now the village was abandended. People all move outside the village for easier transportation. No people live there now.

I visited the village again after being away from it for more than 10 years. Everything seems so familiar to me. Here are some pictures.

Entrance

Below is the gate to the village. The village was built on a hill with deep gaps around it. It is the only entrance to the village. It was movable bridge that can be hang up so enemies can not run into it. The solid defence protected the villagers from many wars.

There are holes on the pole. Stikes can be inserted into the pole to strengthen the door.

Caves

This is the cave near the village for shepherds. Anyone can easily dig a cave on the solid yellow soil and it never crashes during years.

Facade

The nice facade of Qing Dynasty. Generations of people once lived here.

Broken houses

Since there is no people living there, the houses started to crash, only living some facade and gates.

My Old House

This is were I was born and where I lived for my first several years in my life.

Thank God. Links 2.0 Finally Worked

Thanks to God. After fighting with the “Premature end of script headers” error in Links 2.0 for the whole night, it finally suddenly worked. Before that, it was always 500 Internal Server Error.

Now all the links directory and the related entry section of this website back to normal again. The migration is a long process. The Links 2.0 took longest time. Anyway, it started to work just now.

Transition between MagLev and Train

I found a train ticket office at the MagLev Long Yang Station. That means, you can directly buy train ticket from Shanghai Railway Station to any train destinations. Here are the instructions:

1. Get out of the Maglev Station to the ground floor.

2. Turn north (if you still can tell directions) and enter the building of Metro Line #2 Long Yang Rd. Station.

3. Go straightly ahead till to go through the building and reach the Long Yang Rd.

4. Turn back and you will see an outlet of the train ticket office on the first floor of the building.

I believe this piece of information is very helpful to visitors who want to transit to train after leaving Pudong Airport by Maglev.

Back to Shanghai via Train 1660

I am back to Shanghai via train 1657 (from Luoyang to Shanghai). After the fifth speed-up of the whole train system in China, the train I rely on to go home and get back to Shanghai – No. 1658/1660, is even slower than before. :-( It has to give way for other “faster” trains.

Anyway, it is very nice to get to Shanghai and I observe something new. There are some new building and the weather is hotter. It smells as summer already.

Update August 2, 2004

Comparing to the miserable condition of normal sleeper train, the new Beijing to Shanghai train is much better. Check pictures here:

Train from Beijing to Shanghai

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Nanyang Trip Report

In the last two days, I travelled to Nanyang (Wendy’s hometown) to visit her parents and family. We took the second day to Baotianman (宝天曼). It was fatanstic travel. Due to the limitation of Internet access speed (via GC75), I can only upload two pictures about the trip:

The Tianxin Cave (天心洞).

nanyang-cave-tianxin.jpg

The water fall of Baotianman.

nanyang-water.fall-baotianman.jpg

As you know, during travel, it is not easy to sort all the pictures taken and write full travelogue. I hope I can upload more after I am back to Shanghai. I start to miss my car in Shanghai and the newly built garden in the new apartment….

Luoyang Peony

Luoyang is famous for its penoy. Every April, millions of visitors will come to Luoyang to enjoy the colorful peony all around the city. I missed the chance this year. Thanks for my mom and aunt. They took pictures of some peony flowers for me so I can share with you all.

Red peony. The large flower is just unbelievablely beautiful.

luoyang-red.peony.jpg

luoyang-red.peony-garden.jpg