Pause the blog for a short period of time. I am flying… to San Francisco via UA858.
It will be another long day.
Flying…
2
Yearly Archives: 2006
Water Mellon for Summer
There are trunks outside the residential area to sell Water Mellons.
I bought one yesterday and one today. They are so sweet. I like it a lot.
Although it is obviously illegal to sell by directly parking a car at the entrance of a residential area, I like this kind of “direct sell”. Although they don’t have a business license to operate, they have really nice goods.
This may be the forth time I buy water mellon this year. The previous few times, I bought it at super market. Really expensive and more importantly, tasted bad.
When the farmers were forced to sell their product to super market, they have lower margin than direct sell, and those who offer lowest price, instead of better quality have more chances to enter super market. That may be the reason I cannot find good water mellon there.
How I love those old good days when there is no super market and there are cars full of water mellons on the street!
P.S. I visited the first Wal-mart in Shanghai for the first time. It is a very American-style shopping center. I don’t like it. People didn’t react well with the opening of the shopping center. Something must go wrong. I still didn’t finger out what is going wrong, but I just feel it is not right. When I was in Wal-Mart, the only thing I can think of was, get out of here ASAP. It seems even not competitive than the Hymall 500 meters from my home.
I hope Wal-Mart will not be another failure case of “successful Amercian company getting trouble in China”.
Suzhou Taihu Mercury Club & Marina
I am happy to be invited my my friends at Suzhou Taihu Mercury Club to join them for one day of boating and BBQ. After sailing with BV guys in San Francisco, I deeply fall in love with boat, although currently, I can only afford “model boat”. I sank in the Dishui Lake one month ago.
The Suzhou Mercury Boat Club is the most professional boat club in China – the only one in its grade in the entire country. It is based at the West Hill area of Taihu, with very nice facilities. Let me show you the pictures of my day.
Boat is still a luxrious entertainment in China. Even in the Rich People club, boat is not mentioned. On one hand, when a golf club membership raises to about 80,000 USD, the boat membership relatively reasonable (130,000 RMB), but the boat is much more expensive than outside China. For example, Sea Ray Sundancer 2xx costs more than 2 million RMB, while it is jus around 1 million in U.S. (Based on what I HEARD, without research).
Get to there
It is close to my home in Shanghai, in term of distance. It is about 120 KM away, exactly from the parking lot to their parking lot. I turned on the meter when I am back.
I can get to A9, turn right at A30, and exit immediately at Daying 大盈 exit. The Suzhou-Shanghai Express way is completely, but not connected to A30 yet. So I have to go around 10 km west and get to the Suzhou-Shanghao Express. Not many people knows that experess, and there is definitely no cars running on it.
Then the West Hill 西山 exit is 63 km away. It takes less than 2 hours to get there.
Pictures
I like the style of boat owners. They put everything in order, including ropes. I enjoy to see all the ends of ropes were well arranged like this.
Another interesting part of boating is to be able to get to an island that not many people go, and see those untouched grass land.
People practice to get ready for the Dragon Boat Champaignship the next week.
I intentionally changed the focus of this picture so it came out with blured image of the large trees above us.
The dock of the boats – clean and nice.
Wendy took this picture during her course to learn to take photos. She demostrated the effect of a wide angle shot – the method to produce gaint-like picture. She obviously succeeded.
Enjoying the Sun and clean white table cloth and the good view of boat.
Look at this Labrador Retriever! It is one of the very few type of dogs I can tell, and I do love it after watching the Japanese movie “Little Q”…
There are some motor boat as well.
Some types of Sea Ray Sundancer. I suspect it may be 315…
The whole view of the dock at the boat club.
Boat returning home…
Going under the West Hill Bridge, which connects the land and the West Hill Island.
Another section of the bridge.
Something bad about the Taihu Lake is, it is not deep enough. Boats need to park at the middle of the lake, and take shuttle boat to the land. The boat is just too big to go near the small dock at East Hill.
It was me, before leaving for the BBQ.
The boat started to “fly”.
People leaving the habor on Sundancer 275.
Three boats ahead.
The habor, sweet habor. When I am getting back from one day of sailing, the bridge and lamp of the habor were more nice too me.
Conclusion
To be honest, I still enjoy quieter boat, like those sailing boat. I just don’t feel too excited on boat powered with huge engines and can run 90 km/hour on the surface of water. For me, there is not big difference than another car.
Also, Taihu is not the same after I went out boating for one day. It is not a big lake for me. Instead, there are routes on it that is deep enough and safe enough for boats. You just cannot sail around as you wish – you have to keep the predefined routes on the wide surface of the lake. To be short, to have a boat on Taihu does not bring the kind of freedom I expected. Mmm….
Jian Shuo Wang Flying to San Jose
Jian Shuo Wang is heading to San Jose on June 5, and will return on June 11, 20006.
Ticket information:
I am a big fan of technical details, abbr. and the secret codes used on the airline ticket. Here are all printed information on my ticket. I enjoy dig into details to find out meaning behind these characters.
NON REF/CHANGE FEE APPLIES VA
LID ON UA ONLY PENALTY/CHANGES31MAY06
WANG/JIANSHUO
SHASHA
W(LB1I/qG
SHA MERCHANTS INTL
RANS / GDSL
SHANG HAI CN
08306115/04 /0
SHANGHAI PVGUA 858T 05JUN 1245 OK TKXSPCNS
SAN FRANCISCO IUA 857H 1418 OK HKW6MS
SHANGHAI PVG
VOID
CNY 6950 SHA UA SFO 329.37TKXSPCNS UA SHA 534.46HKW6MS NUC863.83END ROE8.04546 XT 20AY304US41XA47XY41YC1206YQ37XF SFO4.5
CNY 90CN
CNY 1636XT
CNY 8676CASH
CPN 1
AIRLINE CODE 016
FORM 9415
SERIAL NUMBER 361 305
CK 4
What does it Mean?
Curiousity is very important part of my life. I keep being courious to many things around me, including this ticket. Hope one day, I get some idea of all the information of the ticket.
Looking forward to Sunny California
I love travel but I hate jet lag. Hope this trip I will be fine.
United Airlines Telephone in Shanghai
Telephone:
+86-21-33114567
Researvation
Monday – Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Ticket:
Mondy – Friday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Note: The old number, as published in the United.com and almost all the publications of United +86-21-62798009 does not work in Nov 2004.
The telephone system suggest travellers to arrive at the airport 3 hours before departure.
P.S. My mileage number: 01531062422
Happy Children’s Day
Happy Children’s Day!
New Rules to Push Down House Price
New rules was announced to push down the country-wide (so-called overheated) real estate price. There are many rules. Here are some I remember:
- Down payment must be 30% or higher for apartment bigger than 90 square meters. 20% for 90 sqr. meters or smaller.
- Selling apartment within 5 years of purchase are subject to about 5% operating tax of the total apartment price.
It seems the government start to be serious about the high price of apartments. Result? I cannot predict yet.
962288 Hotline for Foreigners
Good news for foreigners living in Shanghai. The government opened a 24 hour hotline dedicated to help foreigners to survive in Shanghai.
The telephone number is:
962288
If you are not in Shanghai, but in China, you need to dial
021-962288
If you are outside China, call
+86-21-962288
According to this piece of news,
The Shanghai Call Centre, which was officially launched on Friday, provides both English and Chinese information about tourist destinations, culture, sports, trade, medical care and other issues of daily life in Shanghai.
The hotline will run 24 hours a day and seven days a week and is backed by a group of 12 operators, all graduates with bachelor degrees.
It seems to be exactly the voice version of this blog. So record this number immediately and have a try. It just opened last Friday.
P.S. Please post comments on the hotline under this entry. I didn’t try because I feel too wired to use English to call, and the operators may find out I can actually speak Chinese. :-D
Hello, I am OK now
Hello! Hello! I am OK now.
I recovered from the most serious illness in my life, and now am perfectly OK now. The illness is nothing. To be short, the wisdom tooth grew up and caused problem on tonsil, and then caused hot fever.
Listen to the Body
Jack Z dropped me a SMS: “Take care and listen to your body”. It is good tip: Listen to the body.
The body is actually talking to you all the time, but most of the time, we don’t listen at all. This time, I spent 2 days, completely to listen to the body, and play game with the body. It was nightmare, but interesting (I mean only when I recovered, I would say so…)
The Circle
Because I had high body temperature, it was not possible to think too hard. Even turning on TV made me sick. So I just sit there, hours and hours.
I could feel the body started to become hot, and hotter. At the very beginning, only the chest, then the upper arm, the lower arm and finally hands. When my palm started to feel hot (that kind of hot without sweat. Only hot), I knew the body temperature must be 39 degree or higher. The thermometer showed my guess was correct.
Then I drunk hard (it hurt when I swallow the water), and within 5 minutes, sweat came out, and became pouring on my face, I can feel the body started to cool down. Within half an hour, the body temperature went down to below 38 C.
The problem is, before the tonsil recovers, the up and down cycle continued all the time.
Be Careful. Not be Sick Anytime
Being sick is so bad, that you’d rather gave up a lot of important stuff just to keep quite and not-so-painful life.
Barry listed seven things he matters most in his life.
I would agree. Sometimes, we devoted ourselves too much to work or fiance success and forget about health. That is not a balanced life.
Thanks everyone. Two days formed some good habit for me. I didn’t rely on computer and Internet as before – anyway, stayed away from computer for about two or three days didn’t kill me. It made me realize I had so much time when you do nothing…
May everyone be healthy and happy.
I am a Patient Patient
Let me explain what is the “Last tooth in mouth”. :-) It is the inner most tooth, that just grew out last week. In China, people call it “The Tooth of Wisdom”. However, it is troublesome, really troublesome.
I went to hospital three times these days, and my body temperature was as hight as 39.8 C.
If it were stock price of a company, I believe many shakeholders will be happy, but for me, stakeholders, including me and Wendy, were not happy.
These two days, I was a patient. A very patient patient. It is the most serious health problem in my last 10 years. Can you imagine that I sit at my living room (and sometimes sleep) for the whole day on Saturday without doing anything? I believe I havn’t do so at least in the last 10 years. :-D
Anyway, water and medicine help, and now I am pretty good. The temperature has get down to less than 38 C. Hope I will be fine soon.
Got Fever – 38.4 C
I cannot imagine that. The last tooth in my mouth came out, and my mouth is painful. The worse is, I start to have fever. The current temperature is 38.4 Degrees C. Well. Let me think whether I should go to hospital to get a shot.
With Google Coop, let me create a service that you can search in Google terms like “Wangjianshuo Temperature”, and it returns the current temperature of my body. Sounds cool? Let me get injection first.
Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Park
I was in Zhangjiang yesterday. Here are some pictures of the Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Park.
Location: It is east of Maglev Longyang Road Station. It means it is closer to the Pudong airport (a little bit) than the Maglev terminal station.
Why it is different?
It is the Shanghai’s high-tech zone, with a lot of chip design, manufacturing, bio-tech, and software companies. It is the terminal station of Metro No.2.
What is one the picture?
It is taken from Zhang Jiang Mansion, the tallest building in the park to south, and to north.
What is the lower building in the last picture?
It is villa.
PVG: From Pudong Airport to Changshu
Here is the letter:
Dear Mr Wang,
Hi, I am name removed from Singapore. I am deeply impressed how resourceful and helpful your blog/website are.
Kindly allow me to consult you regarding one matter. I will be visiting Changshu next month & will carry with me a big luggage bag. I understand there are 3 ways to travel from PVG to Changshu:
(1) From PVG, take direct bus to Suzhou. From Suzhou, take a taxi to hotel in Changshu. Total travel time: ab. 160 min. Total cost: ab. RMB 175.
(2) From PVG, take taxi to Shanghai shuttle bus station, then take a bus to Changshu shuttle bus station, then take taxi to hotel. Total travel time: ab. 190 min. Total cost: ab. RMB142.
(3) From PVG, take bus to SHG (Hong Qiao Int’l Airport). At SHG, take bus to Changshu, then take taxi to hotel. Total travel time: ab. 190 min? Cost: ab. RMB 97?
Pls advise which is the best route (1), (2) or (3) for me to take considering the fact that I am carrying a big luggage with me.
Ease and convenience are more important than costs factors.
Kindly advise the details (where to buy bus ticket, where to take the bus/taxi etc) of the recommended route.
Thanking you in anticipation.
I will answer the question after dinner. :-D
2 hours passed
I am back from dinner and have the energy to help on this question.
Disclaimer: I didn’t personally try this route, the information I provided is based on the information I got from Internet or from my observation. It may contain mistakes.
I would recommend option 1), if cost is not a priority. Reasons:
To reduce the burden of carrying big luggage with you, I suggest you to get to a Suzhou as soon as possible, instead of hanging around in the city of Shanghai. The long-distance bus is just outside the international arrival hall. You can use the small cart to move your luggage to the station (I am not sure if you need to lift it for some stairs, or you can get there from the level 2 of the airport.
At Suzhou, many taxis should line up and I believe the person who pick you is lucky, since the 38 km distance is a good business for them. He can help you to get the luggage to taxi and out at the hotel in Changshu.
Option 2 is a little bit troublesome, since the PVG to the nearest shuttle station may be as far as Changshu to Suzhou, no to mention the burdern to get off taxi, onto bus, and off bus and on to taxi again… Also, it may not easy for you to find out bus station – bus station is not as easy to find in Shanghai as airport or train stations (as in any city)
Option 3 is the worst. Considering the time you spend in Shanghai – from one airport to the other airport, that takes about one hour. This distance is far longer than the Changshu-Suzhou distance. It won’t save you money or time.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
OOB
OOB today. Too much thinking recently. Thinking is better than writing sometimes. Let me catch up soon. Now? Going to bed… Zzzz
City Life v.s. Village Life
I should put a disclaimer at the top of every entry I post:
Although I made all effort to make sure I honestly record what I see, I hear, and I think, this blog does not represent Shanghai. People with different history and status have competely different view about the city. It of cause does not represent China.
I read a peom about life in city v.s. life in village. I think it is very true. It reveals how different the two lives are. Let me translate some sentences of the peom and explain why it is true.
I live in city – I was born in hospital
I live in village – I was born in my home.
Don’t take it for granded that there are hospital in all villages. I viisted places where people deliver their babies in home.
I live in city – from today, I become happy citizen of the country.
I live in village – from today, I become a honorable tax payer for the country.
Actually everyone pays tax, but the burnden for people in countryside are much higher compared to the low income they have. They pay not only tax. There are many other fees they need to pay for the village.
I live in city – I am ill. Dad bring me to hospital. I am courious whether insurance cover it.
I live in village – I am ill. Dad sold the pig, and bring me to doctor.
Medical insurance only covers people in city. People in villages, and people who move from one city (home city) to the other city typically are not covered by any medical insurance. If they get ill, they need to pay for themselves.
I live in city – My family bought motor cycle, and prepare to buy car several years later.
I live in village – My family bought a new baby pig. Perhaps the year after next year, it will have more baby pigs.
Still, big contrast about what people are thinking about and expectation about future.
I live in city – Dad want to have a business of his own.
I live in village – Dad want to go into city, to be a farmer worker
Go to city is the dream of many people in villages. Now, farmer worker is a way, but very hard way. They work on construction site and work all days and night.
I live in city – country gave Dad all kinds of benefits, and waived all tax.
I live in village – Dad has to pay all the tax and fees back in home, and need to pay to get all kinds of licenses.
In the previous years, startups and small businesses in city was encouraged, but the situation for farmer workers got worse. From last year, things are getting better.
I live in city – Dad to go bank everyday, and servant smiles to him.
I live in village – Dad ask for delayed salary at the year end, but was beaten and insulted by business owners.
The previous years, farmer workers’ salary is not ensured. Many work for the whole year, and want to get their salary for the year. Many cannot get their salary, and don’t have money to go back home… The situation is better this Spring Festival.
I live in city – Government said Dad work on startups, and benefit the economy
I live in village – government said Dad’s rushing into city made big problems, and maliciously asking for salary.
I live in city – I can move freely in my country.
I live in village – I can live freely in my village.
This is interesting part. For people living in cities, they have city Hukou (or residential certificate) and they typically enjoy going to other cities. However, for people in villages (farmer resident), their move in the country, especially to move into city is restricted. Without Hukou, they don’t have benefit, don’t have medical insurance, and their child cannot go to local schools. (This is changing)
I live in city – Tomorrow is promising.
I live in village – Tomorrow is hopeless.
This is totally two different expectation about the future.
Totally Different
That is the current situation of the country. There are many good things everyday, and there are many bad things. One thing to point out is, many situation listed above are true about two years ago. Now, although it is still true in majority population, a lot of things are improving in the last two years. There is still a long way to go.
Hangzhou Round-Trip in One Day
Went to Hangzhou for Masup Camp China 2 on Saturday.
Left Shanghai on 7 AM and arrived at 11 AM – traffic jam in Shanghai for half an hour, jam in Hangzhou for 40 minutes, and stuck on the highway for about one hour.
Getting U.S. Visa in China
This is part of a series article: From Shanghai to US – A Handbook. These articles are to help my friends (obviously in Shanghai) to plan their first time visit to U.S. To be concise, I only outline information that I think helpful for this group of people. So don’t be surprised if it left some important information outside the scope.
The most critical, and troublesome step to go to the States is the Visa application and interview process. Let me break it into short sentences.
Disclaimer: I don’t want to appear as object. It is just my personal thinking about my personal experience…
- The U.S. Visa office is at the 8th floor of the Shanghai Westgate Mall at 1038 West Nanjing Road.
- The first time visitor must leave fingerprint there. (I hate it)
- People have to line up very early in the morning outside the shopping more in the morning for the appointment – the application letter states that you must be at the gate before 8:30 (I remember). I mean wait in the rain, in the sun, in the wind, or whatever weather outside the mall.
- No bag can be brought about. No mobile is allowed. There are many people there charging 10 RMB for deposite bags for you. That means, it seems everyone need to pay 10 RMB additionally to get interviewed.
- All first-time visa applicants are required to call the China-wide Visa Information Call Center at 4008-872-333 (for dialers within China) to make an interview appointment.
- The Visa Information Call Center operates Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- You will need to purchase a pre-paid PIN card in order to use this service. Users can pay 54 RMB for a 12 minute PIN card or 36 RMB for an 8 minute PIN card. PIN cards can be purchased at China CITIC bank locations or online at: https://www.usavisainformation.com.cn/eng/index.aspx. Please note, this additional fee is charged out of the visa fee they change.
- You need a completed DS-156 application form in English. (I filled it before)
- You need to wait at the visa office to get a visa (my experience in 2004)
- Sometimes, they pause their visa services completely no matter how important meetings you have.
- Yesterday, the American Chamber of Commerce issued a white paper. The report said about half of American Chamber of Commerce companies in China complained the high rejection rate of U.S. Visa program, and the average waiting time to get interviewed for visa for the year 2005 is 34 days. That means you typically need 2 months in advance to prepare an U.S. trip.
- For normal people to attend meetings in U.S. is almost impossible. For the last Microsoft MVP Summit in Seattle, many MVPs in China was invited, but almost none of the more than 10 people get rejected for interview. This time, the eBay community members attending eBay Live, as far as I know, were all rejected to get a visa.
- You can typically apply a multi-entry visa, which makes it much easier.
- The most ridiculous interview I heard with my own ears: Interviewer: “What did you have this morning as breakfast?” Applicant: “Bread.” I: “Nothing else?” A: “No.” I: “According to American law, we cannot grant you a visa.” A: “….”. I was sitting beside the person when he was rejected. You know, it is funny to reject someone according American law just because he only had bread in the morning.
- Feeling of insulting. I know a friend who is a high-rank official. He told me he refuse to go to U.S. for any reason just because he felt insulted during the visa application process.
- I feel very bad to be inspected and get shoes off, and even belt off and inspected as a terrism when entering the room.
It is Pouring! Pouring!
May 18, 2006 – it is pouring outside. There is no way to call a taxi on road, to be exact, there are almost no cars on the street. Typhoon will hit Shanghai tonight. Whenever typhoon comes, I keep my finger across and hope my trees in garden will be fine…
Low Tech World
Tonight, I chatted with Yatao. He said: “Before 1995, I don’t have telephone, don’t have email, and don’t have mobile. How hard it was to visit a friend in another city! I even cannot imagine how we meet at train station.”
I have exactly the same feeling. If there were no email in my life, no website, no telephone, no mobile, and not anything that is powered by electronic, what our lives would look like?
How hard it will be?
The other question is, will we be happier at that time? Maybe.
On Humanity
Chat with Fay today. I found Humanity is an inspirational word. When I am thinking about the business we are doing, we dig very hard into the details about what value we provide to users. At the end of every thread, I found out humanity is the final answer.
Fay put it very well. She reminds me in the year of 1900, when motor and cars were invented, it brought mobility and freedom to life. No matter how hard and detailed the manufactures’ work are, at the end of day, it satisfied the humanity need – people can get from location A to location B at any time they choose.
Internet is great. It changed people’s life. The last time I read the word humanity was in John’s book The Search
“… thousands of people very rich, improved the businesses of hundreds of thousands of merchants, and fundamentally changed the relationship between humanity and knowledge. In the process, Page and Brin have become fabulously wealthy and movie-star famous. And it did not take them …” on page 66.
A lot of things are important, but at the end of the day, only smile on human face explains all the reason why people work so hard.
Why I Have to Keep Thinking
Recently, I was put into a position that force me to think really hard about the deep reason we do it, and find out reasons about what we do, and how it is meaningful even after several years, even there are many people standing up and say no…
On Enemy
Jack Man’s last interview on Future Life is definitely a successful one. I didn’t watch it, but I heard one quote:
“When there is no enemy in your heart, there is no enemy in the world”.
It echos my thinking about Passion for Contribution, and Confident about Return. When your goal is to contribute, and competitors only help you to grow, you see no enemies, you see no angry, and the only thing you feel is passion. That is the situation everyone should be in.
Don’t Know What I am Talking About?
Don’t worry. I don’t know either. There are too many thread in my mind now, and I didn’t put it into a logic order. I hope it will come out later, but now, let me put it down and help me thinker deeper.
Wayback to Wangjianshuo’s Blog
Vince’s email mentioning Way Back Machine reminds me to check out what Wangjianshuo’s Blog looks like three years ago. Here are some snapshots.
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| 4 pages | 15 pages | 35 pages | 23 pages |