Let me update something that seems important for me but I didn’t take too serious about. :-)

1. Registration of blogs.

After I registered all my information with the official website, nothing happened so far. I checked every other day, but it seems there is no reply yet. It means, I am in the process of registration, and the process took about 2 weeks already. Don’t worry. My expectation is to get it done in the next two months. I can image how hard it is to process all the registration requirements from all the bloggers, personal website owners, business, and all kinds of website with a single website, and manual process. Let’s wait.

2. Recently, the change in custom rule requires all passengers exit the custom to claim their belongings.

The upper limit is 5000 RMB or equivalents. Anything above this number will be charged for tax. So in the next trip, I need to claim my laptop, my camera, so that I am not charged of tax when I am back. Actually, this rule was there, just like the rule for website registration, for years but hasn’t been enforced (correct me if I am wrong).

Others

I am doing well recently. I put all my effort into the new business Kijiji and really didn’t put too much time in this blog. Most of the time, as you may notice, the blog was updated after 1:00 AM. I feel bad about it, but still think I kept my commitment almost three years ago to write daily. But what is not as good is, as you may also feel, that I didn’t put too much personal stuff as I did in the previous two years. Well. I know that is the most important part of this blog – the details, and the human side of the life in this city. Let me try to get back soon. Sorry for not be able to reply to every single comment. I wanted to, but when I sit down at my desk in my home, it seem it is far too late for me to got to bed. This is Friday weekend, and I get back early – at around 10:00 PM.

Commit? You get it in China

I talked with a Tina, a girl with very nice profile in media industry, who is going to U.S. for graduate study in Stanford. She shared her experience of being a volunteer in Fortune. Her responsibility was to hold the microphone so if someone want to ask a question, she will hand it over. There are too much wire on the ground that she fell over when she runs. What one of the guess on the stage noticed was, she handed the microphone over to the person asking the question, before she tried to get up and check if she was hurt. The second day, the person (with name Mary, one of the big name) who saw it came to her and asked “Are you OK? I was really impressed yesterday that you gave out the microphone to complete your job first before you got up…”

It echoes the story I heard from foreigners at the Paulena in Pudong, at the other side of the Bund. The foreigners were discussing about how people committed to their work in China. “I was really impressed by how much people committed to their work. They just want job done!” commented one of them.

I happen to read about a story in Shanghai in Xinmin Weekly today. According to the late report, 1/4 of people go to bed between 10 – 11 PM, 1/4 go to bed after 11:00 PM in Shanghai. Only 1/10 of people go to bed before 8 PM. Well. I don’t know whether it means good or bad. On one hand, people work (or play) hard in this city, which is good for the grow of the economic, on the other hand, people really scarifies a lot of their personal life. I am pround of the hard work spirit people have in this city, and meanwhile, appreciate those efforts to remind people to spend more time with their family and enjoy life.

Personally, I am very happy about what I am doing – if someone has a chance to do something, that may change the way people live, and give back to the community and generate big business at the same time, the passion will drive him to try very hard. I am in the stage.

Personal Feel

The direct feel to live in Shanghai these days is, it is hot, way too hot. It has broken the record set in the year 1934. In the last 70 years, not a single year is hotter than this year in early July. It is wired that there is no raining season this year too. I warned two reporters who just relocated to Shanghai from Beijing that the two months of raining season is ahead and waiting for them, the radio station announced yesterday night that we have already left the raining season and stepped into hot summer. Wow. This is the first raining season without rain in Shanghai.