Lunch at Papa John’s

Papa John’s kept opening store in Shanghai in a speed higher than many people’s expectation. After I saw the first Papa John’s store in Biyun International District of North-East Shanghai, more and more stores appeared – in Xujiahui, and another in Biyun District. It has more than 20 outlets in Shanghai. The two I saw today are only within 7 minutes’ walking distanct. It either means bad planning or a sign of high demand. My observation is the latter.

I stepped into the Papa John’s store near the B&Q store. It is almost full, with only 2 tables left. It looks Papa John’s is having a good business.

Table Talk

There is an article named “The joy of listening to other people’s talk”. The article said it brings you to a world that you will never be able to enter.

The lunch talk on the left table is obversly about business. I cannot recognize what the conversation is about, but got some keywords:

Accenture / Multi-national compaines / CTO / Technology…

My guess is, they are students from the CEIBS (China-Europe International Business School). Their campus is about 2 km away.

Badminton Made Me Feel Good

I am just back from badminton with Wendy at the Youyou Badminton.

Image in courtesy of Google

I haven’t had sports for quite some time. So did Wendy. It made us feel very happy. The good thing is, the venue is within walking distance from the place I stay.

Here is the Google Map of the Area.

There are also middle school, and primary school – good city planning, I have to say. The place has 7 fields for badminton. Very nice place – except it is hot – there is no A/C inside. The price is 30 RMB (a little bit less than 4 USD) per hour.

We planned to have some sports every Tuesday night. We want to do that, although neither of us really believe in the plan… :-)

Back to Blog of My Own

Get Back to My Own Life.

I get a little bit tired of the recent “discussion” on my blog. I just found the effort to setup a communication bridge is not that easy. I am not comfortable some of the comments. If people involved in discussion are not willing to pay even little effort to learn, it does not make too much sense to comment.

It is not easy to open one’s heart to pay little effort to understand another country, for people both inside or outside China. It sometimes requires more than effort. It requires skills. To be honest, I feel complain and finger-pointing with only the limited information from mess media leads the discussion to nowhere. I did ignore some comments. Sorry for that. I have to.

OK. Let me take a moment and relax, and bring the blog to be my own one. I am not blogging for anyone. Just leave me alone… :-)

My Air Con

After the summer came, Wendy complained every day or two about the malfunction of our A/C in the bedroom. It simply cannot cool down the room. The HITACHI support staff also complained the new technology used in this model does not work as expected. I believe the big window of the room may also be the reason of the condition. The smaller, cheaper, and simpler LG A/C in my reading room works much better. It is just of half price. Sometimes cheaper stuff works better.

Windows Vista

Wendy is using Windows Vista on her new laptop already. On Vista, she also installed Office 2007. The new UI is cool, but I was surprised by the memory usage and the hard disk usage of the new operating system. Henry said: “When there is breakthrough in hardware (CPU, Memeory, Equipments), the demand for software increases; when the development of hardware slows down, Internet based application becomes popular.”

BTW, recently I just realized Wendy’s team is supporting the major Windows product like Windows XP, Windows 2003, and Windows Vista for Microsoft Asia premier customers. They even support Groove! Groove is the software enabling people to collaborate with each other. The company was started by Lotus Notes’ creator, and bought by Microsoft. It is an important assignment, isn’t it? Wendy and I both have our own worlds, with different pressure, and different metrics we oversee every single day. Recently, I just realized I know her business as little as she knows mine. Should we know more about each other’s business? I think the answer would better be “no”. :-)

To Save a Young Life

I received an email from Haisong. He is very warmhearted and responsible. The message is about the life of a young man in Fudan University. I am going to donate and help him and want to spread the word to as many people as possible. Please help to spread the word!

Dear friends-

Sorry for the spam email. The student association from Fudan University (from where I obtained my undergraduate degree) contacted me to seek help raising rmb400,000 for Ma Dong’s bone marrow transplantation by the end of August 2006.

Ma Dong, a third year student from Fudan University, was diagnosed leukemia in January 2004. After fighting the disease for 2 years, he is fortunate to locate a bone marrow donor in 2006. However, coming from a poor farmer’s family in Auhui, he is short of around rmb400,000 for a bone marrow transplantation. I hope that some of us can chip in whatever amount to help save a young life.

Please help circulate this message to any of your friends or other organizations who might be able to help.

To find more information, you can go to http://hompy.cn/madong or email me at xxxx removed xxx @gmail.com. I will forward your message to Ma Dong.

Enclosed please find more background information from the students. (I did not correct the grammatical mistakes)

Sincerely,

Haisong Tang

Here is the attached English introduction.

The letter presented here is from all the students of Physics Department of Fudan University. We are expecting your help with deeply grieved and extremely anxious feelings. Your kind hearted charity will possibly save a young life that is struggling its way through a fatal disease. Your generous love will possibly help his family to get over from the hopeless situation.

The young man’s name is Ma Dong, who became an undergraduate student of our university to get a bachelor degree in the August of 2002. Only about 5 months later, during the Chinese traditional new year of 2003, he was diagnosed with leukemia which is a kind of deadly disease usually referred to as “Blood Cancer”.

The sudden strike broke the hearts of his parents. However, Ma Dong himself was surprisingly confident of his future recovery and did not lose the courage to fight against his fate. With the financial support from Fudan University, some local charitable associations, and many benevolent individuals, Ma Dong finally got the chance to get the first step of medical treatment. During the past three years, he not only achieved to survive by chemotherapy, but also finished the major lessons of his specialties.

Unfortunately, at the time that everything was approaching to develop into the right lines, misfortune finally happened to him for the second time. In the nearest several routine physical tests, his illness turned out to be out of control again. It has been proved that his life will not be maintained only by frequent chemotherapy. In this way, the only hope for him will be BMT: Bone Marrow Transplantation. The expenses of the whole process of BMT will be more than 400,000 RMB (about $50,000), which is an extremely large number out of the imagination of his distressed family. Although we’ve found the matching bone marrow source, the operation cannot be executed until the bill is paid.

As his classmates and his close friends, we won’t see him pass away without doing anything. We are now soliciting contributions from charity associations, Fudan graduated magnates of business field, and all the other possible sources of donations. But what we’ve got now is still not enough to save his life. However, we will never give up. We’ll continue raising funds from the general public. Thousands of miles away, a group of young people are trying their best to rescue a fragile life from the death. They are working alone. They need your help.

For the basic humanity, for the respect to love and life, please help us…..

Anxiously expecting your reply. Thank you very much!!!

Chinese introduction:

“Love=Life”再次援助倡议

–为马栋点燃22岁的生命蜡烛

马栋的情况介绍

马栋来自安徽毫州市涡阳县,于2002年考入复旦大学物理系,然而2004年1月一场突如其来的灾难袭击了刚满20岁的他–不幸被查出患上了白血病。治疗白血病期间动辄几万、几十万的费用支出,对于一个母亲没工作,父亲下岗,月收入总共仅有200元贫困家庭来说,是根本无法承受的。

然而,坚强乐观的马栋并没有失去勇气,他安慰心急如焚的父母:”即使我把全世界都丢了,也一定可以把它再找回来!”

休学一年后,马栋成为物理系03级的一员,一直坚持边化疗边学习,依靠自己顽强的意志和病魔展开了顽强的斗争,感动了我们所有人。一年多来他顺利完成了多门专业课的学习。

然而,病魔并没有善罢甘休,就在不久前,他的病情第二次复发。

虽然他很幸运–目前已经在中华骨髓库中成功找到一例配型者;但是横亘在马栋面前的是至少四十万元的手术费–两年前募集到的捐款还余下不到这笔数额的一半,马栋的父母一筹莫展,师长同学哀愁叹息,谁都不愿见到年轻而灿烂的生命黯然失色。

我们–爱马栋的所有人又一次站到一起–想要尽一切努力,延续他的花季生命!

联系方法和捐款方式

A. 物理系办公室(物理楼223室)已设立募捐箱。

B. 邮局汇款:

汇款地址:复旦大学物理系 马栋收 邮编:200433

同时,请写清您的通讯地址

C. 银行转帐:

帐号:033267-08017003441

开户银行:上海市农行五角场支行营业部

注明用途:给物理系马栋捐款

联系人:朱莹13818116640 王大顺 13764599799 沈湉13916499633

赵瓅 13655280393 李琳燕 13816991256 王璞 13933060328

目前已经开展的募捐工作和当前的情况

1、 我们系在南区进行了大型毕业义卖及募捐活动,毕业班的同学拿出自己的书本、衣物、生活用品等进行义卖,为身患白血病的兄弟祈祷加油。同学们打出了”传递真情创造奇迹,让我们永远并肩前行共抗病魔”的口号,最后将所得全部捐赠给马栋同学作为手术费用。

2、 我们将捐款的倡议书发到了本系所有教授、教师和研究生的信箱,得到了热烈的反馈和回复前往物理系办公室捐款的老师和同学络绎不绝。我们还收到其他院系、班级、老师们的捐款,累计捐款达一万元以上。

3、 爱心扔在延续,我们期待您的加入!马栋刚刚做过一次骨穿测试,结果显示他最近身体恢复不错,适合做骨髓移植手术!

I just called Miss Zhu Yng, and found out to drop the donation directly into the donation box at 223 Physical Building is the most convinient way to do that – They don’t accept China Merchant Bank online bank – good for them to make the official account more trustworthy.

There is a Chinese saying:

If you wait until you have more money than you need to help others, then you never have the chance to help;

If you wait until you have spare time to read books, then you never have the chance to read.

The Chinese original statement is much shorter than its English translation:

待有余而后济人,必无济人之日;待有暇而后读书,必无读书之时

Let me do the donation tomorrow. So join me to help.

P.S. The Chinese saying was quoted from <先正格言>:

待有餘而後濟人,必無濟人之日;待有暇而後讀書,必無讀書之時。救難憐貧之濟人,不在大費己財,但以方便存心,應貧苦者急切需要之為是。能以自己儉用之餘物件品,可成人家之大用,積小惠,可成大德。

On Vision

Nearly everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. A few do not. (Join them.)

Arthur Schopenhauer, Source: The other 90%. How to unlock your vast untapped potential for leadership and life, Crown Business, 2001. quoted on page 154 of The Seven Secrets of Inspired Leaders. How to archive the extraordinary by the leaders who have been there and done it.

Update

Correction: Thanks to SSC, who pointed out that the quote is not the original statement. Here seems to be the more genuine saying:

Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.

New Jersey Government Shutdown?

What is the best joke I saw today? It is the shutdown of the New Jersey government. I sent the Chinese version of the news to Wendy immediately I saw it and shared the news with my friends when we had hot spot at dinner. “How can this happen?” I asked.

I know it is not a joke for people in the U.S., especially in New Jersey. I mean no offense at all. It is just something I could never imagine to happen in China. This shows a very different function of the government, and the way the government is organized.

I don’t know too much about this event – why it happened? Why the governor has the right to shutdown the government? What does the State look like after the State government stops all major services? When it will be back? I have no idea about the answers. Anyone can help to explain? Let’s just take it as a case study.

No Street Light in Saratoga

My other favorite case study of how government works in U.S. is the city of Saratoga, CA, U.S.A.

When we stood at the top of the mountain in Cupertino (Thanks Carroll and her husband) at night and looked to the east, we saw the dark area in the bright landscape. It was Saratoga. They wanted to keep the semi-rural feeling and keep commerce out of the city, they don’t have street-light. That is the reason the area is dark, although it is one of the richest area in the valley.

Saratoga also has a zoning code comparable to that of Los Altos, which requires that houses must be spaced farther away from each other and that trees must be properly taken care of to preserve a semi-rural appearance. Saratoga emphasizes its semi-rural appearance by foregoing street lights and sidewalks on most residential streets. This, in addition to the excellent schools, causes Saratoga to have very high housing costs. (Source: Wikipedia)

This case is quite eye-opening for me.

Disclaimer: I don’t think it is right to make decisions about which form of government is just the good way or the bad way. The series of articles I write on “West Meets East” are to discover the difference and explorer the reasons behind it, so people understand each other.

Slight Changes in “China”

Recently, I feel slight positive trends in China.

Resume from U.S.

3 years ago, if you’d asked me, “do you think it possible for foreign university graduates to apply jobs in Shanghai?” I would say “you are crazy”. But recently, I received many good resumes from top universities in U.S, like Stanford, or Chicago University, for jobs in Shanghai. On my blog, we also see the trends of more and more people coming to the country.

Also, people from China went aboard for study and even settled for years, and recently, they started to think to come back. I can easily write down a list of 10 of friends who came back to Shanghai in the last two years.

Quality of “Made in China”

I am not sure about this part. So I’d like to ask for your opinion. Some of my friends in the States told me, “Made in China” does not always mean cheap and low quality as before. Many goods from China means “high quality” and some means “not cheap” now. I read news that many OEM vendors in south China start to turn their huge manufacturing capacity to their own brands, instead of just manufacturing for orders.

Chinese Company’s Acquisition

This is also new. It starts with the Lenovo’s Acquisition of ThinkPad business from IBM. Recently, although the CNOOC’s acquisition attempt to Unocal Corp. was stopped by the U.S. congress, it is breaking news for me too.

It is the same. If you ask me “can you imagine these acquisition?” I would say, I believe it would happen, but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

I have More and More Foreign Goods in my Daily Life

We went to Carefour the other day, and bought many goods back home. After we are back, I found we bought the Florida’s Natural Orange Juice. They claimed it as 100% pure orange. We also got Australia milk. I didn’t notice it when we put them into our shopping cart.

I have been used to electronic goods from aboard, like TV, camera, and cars. But recently, I found more and more foods appear to be imported from outside.

Is it a sign of the entry of WTO? I am not an economist. I have no idea. It is just the small change I saw.

I Felt the Positive Trends

When I chatted with my friends who is younger than me (5 years or more younger), they are feel their future is promising and there is nothing to worry about. This is called “Confidence level”, right? It is also good.

This is a positive change. Changes happen slower than we expected. However, when it really happens, it seems faster than our anticipation.

It is too fast to draw the conclusion that the country is definitely going to the positive direction, but at least it shows some trends.

Disclaimer: When I talked with my friends in middle China, especially in villages, they showed completely negative expectation for the future. Some felt hopeless about future. The gap within the same country is big and obvious.

Xiang Yang Market Shutdown

This is confirmed news: at 9:30 PM, June 30, 2006, all the gates of Xiangyang Market was closed, and no customers are allowed to enter the market from then. Soon, the buildings will be cleared and the site will be turned into a retail and office complex.

No more Xiangyang Market in Shanghai. So don’t need to waste time to go to the site to try your luck – it is closed, and it is gone.

Update

Where will be Xiang Yang Market go? Many of them moved to Qipu Road Market, which is at the Qipu Road (near the Suzhou Creek and the Middle Henan Road), and others moved to the Yatai Market.

According to some report, 200+ small merchants moved to the Yatai Market at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Metro Station of Metro Line #2. The market will open soon.

There is no doubt that the prosperity of a market like Xiang Yang will not be back.

Also, it is clear message of “NO” to fake goods and products. According to the news, Yatai put “No Fake Goods” into the rental contracts and kept close eyes on this issue. Anyway, China has entered the WTO; the Beijing Olympics will be held in 2 years, and the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is just 3 years ahead.