Yearly Archives: 2006

Campus Tour of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

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I visited SJTU (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) today for the Inspiration Forum. I often ignore it, but whenever I am back, I found the deep attachment between me and the 110-year old university. I know many visitors to Shanghai like to have a campus tour of the top local university. So let me be your guide.

Xuhui Campus

There are many campuses in SJTU. Xuhui 徐汇 Campus and Minhang 闵行 Campus are the two more important.

Xuhui Campus was the historical site of the university. It was built almost 100 years ago. Here is the location:

1954, Huashan Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China 200030

上海徐汇区华山路1954号 200030

Take Metro No. 1 to Xujiahui Station and use Exit No. 13. Go straightly ahead along the Huashan road for about 800 meters. You will find the main entrance on your left hand.

There are security guards at the gate. So try to walk naturally, easily, and be calm – so they won’t stop you. :-D

The difference in university in China and U.S. are, there are always gates and security. Don’t worry about that. It is for the safety of students.

Min Hang 闵行 Campus

Min Hang Campus is much larger than the Xuhui one. The construction started 20 years ago, and is still going on. It is already at least 4 times bigger than 5 years ago.

It is far from downtown however. It may cost 60+ RMB for taxi from Xuhui Campus. Here is the transportation guideline:

1. Take Metro Line #1 and

2. Transit to Metro Line #5 at Xinzhuang 莘庄 (the terminal station of Line #1).

3. Get out of the train at Dong Chuan Road Station 东川路站 of Metro Line #5.

4. The campus is less than 2000 meters away from the station. Ask for direction or take a taxi there (10 RMB or less).

It is not easy to tour the whole campus by walk nowadays. We took taxi inside the campus today. They have free shuttles, and you will notice enough bicycles on the Minhang Campus.

800 Dong Chuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, China

上海市闵行区东川路800号

Here is the current map:

Enjoy the Tour

I regret I cannot personally be your tour to the great campus. But I would highly recommend you to include a tour in your schedule in Shanghai. I spent 2 years on Min Hang Campus and two years on Xuhui Campus. The memory is sweet, although the real life didn’t seem so sweet to me when I had to experience it.

:-D

Let me know your comments of your tour.

P.S. I adopted the suggestion from many users – added Chinese characters to place and location names. If you don’t have a Chinese system installed, you may see two or three small blocks, questions marks, or garbage codes there. Don’t worry. I didn’t put any secret into those marks.

Xiamen – Tiny Beautiful City

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If you visit Shanghai, you may want to visit nearby city like Hangzhou 杭州. If you have more budget, you won’t want to miss Beijing 北京. Shanghai does not present China. Beijing does. If you want to relax, and really enjoy sea, Sanya 三亚 is the city to go. If you want combined experience of both seashore, and city life, Dalian 大连, Qingdao 青岛 and Xiamen 厦门 are good choices.

The second China Webmaster Conference was held in Xiamen, and I hosted a panel in the meeting. So I visited Xiamen for the third time (First, second)

Xiamen is warmer than Shanghai.

Xiamen is an island.

Near Xiamen is the Jinmen金门, part of Taiwan island. (Politically important places)

Xiamen is safe.

Xiamen has nice lakes and mountains.

Xiamen is a modern city.

Xiamen has more advanced economy than Fuzhou, the capital of the province, because it became the special development zone 20 years ago.

I love the sea of Xiamen – blue. The sea near Shanghai is yellow.

It is possible to swim in the sea, but not in April.

I like Xiamen.

Welcome to Wangjianshuo’s Blog

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Hi all, welcome to Wangjianshuo’s blog. I am Wang Jian Shuo. I live in Shanghai. I want to be visitor’s personal guide to this amazing city.

I try to help people to live better in Shanghai. You can get information about finding a job, making phone calls, getting Internet Access, using credit card , taking taxis. I will show you places to eat, to see, to shop, or to buy :-).

For visitors, I write about Pudong Airport, how to transit to other places, via Maglev, metro, buses, or train.

I introduced some hotels to stay, featuring some cheap and good hotels.

I have an online Shanghai Map, and accumulated three year of first hand observation of the weather in this city.

I love the city of Shanghai. I took photos to record its changes, and am worry about problems like traffic, or polution…

I travelled to many places. I like to visit beautiful places (like Daocheng, Lijiang, Sanya, Xiamen), and frequently visit cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hongkong. At weekends, I often go to places near Shanghai. In particular, Hangzhou, Chongming, Taihu, Yangshan, Shengsi.

Going abroad, I visited Seattle, and San Francisco for many times, and went to New York and other east coast cities for once. On the way there, I ever stayed in Japan for 5 hours. I hope to complete a Visit U.S. Handbook. The only thing I don’t like for travel by air is, jetlag.

A little bit about myself.

I was born in Luoyang, and went to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Then I worked in Microsoft for almost 6 years, then joined Kijiji in March, 2005.

I like sports, such as running, and cycling. I am dreaming of having a boat.

Two years ago, I learnt to drive, and bought a car. (I call it Goudaner). Then I moved from Puxi to a apartment with garden in Pudong. Some cats lives in it.

This blog was started more than three years ago. I chose to use English to benefit international visitors. It is now reported by many media. I use MovableType as blogging tool, and shared the tips and the back stage to build this website. I was forced to change my hosting company many times though.

Recently, I reviewed companies in emerging technology field, attended many conferences, and start to study the culture of both China and western countries, and see the conflicts when the west meets the east.

In my life, I also do crazy things. I joined the confluence project to visit integer cross point of latitude and longitude, and host meetup everywhere. I even visited all Starbucks by walk, and set up an personal photography exhibition in April, 2004.

I enjoy books, movies, and trying to understand art and improve my productivity. I think deep about what life means, how happiness works, and how I can help others. I am proudly a consultant for Smiling Library.

I am so happy to have Wendy as my wife, to have lots of smart friends, and thousands of readers. You can see my collection of funny toys. At this blog, I also celebrate all holidays, and special days with good wishes. For me, every single day is a holiday.

Thank you for staying with me.

CTRIP + CMB = Best eCommerce Experience

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It has been at least 4 years since I first used online payment in Shanghai. There were always dissatisfactions and “exceptions” either in the system, or credit card payment, or delivery.

Today, my experience to book a ticket on CTRIP, Pay with China Merchant Bank credit card, and claim e-ticket from China Eastern Airlines were perfect. I vote it as the best ecommerce experience I have ever had so far.

I am excited about the improvement in online stores, credit card system, and electronic flight ticket.

Booking

There are many improvement in the CTRIP system, that enables me to quickly enter all the information I need. For example, they store all the previous names on ticket, so I won’t need to enter my Chinese name, National ID, and Birthday again. These information are required by airline.

It responded quickly and suggested me e-ticket was available.

Payment

The credit card from CMB works best for me. I entered the card, and the system just went through. For many system, like net.cn, they have complicated system, and still simply does not work. When I enter a credit card number, those system reports scary technical details of an error, that is not possible to understand.

This time, payment is OK.

e-Ticket

MU (China Eastern Airlines) and CA (Air China) started e-ticket years ago, and kept expansion of their e-ticket services. There were always problems with a new systems before.

This time, the system seems to be mature already. I was told to visit the counter A, B in Pudong Airport to claim the boarding pass.

No burden of delivery the ticket.

3 minutes

Everything happens in 3 minutes. This is exactly what ecommerce should look like. From the idea to reality, it takes more than 5 years!

Change happens all the time. It is not as fast as we original expect, but when it happens, we realize it is actually faster than we thought.

Bill Gates said: “The development of technology is always below our expection in 5 year frame, but dramatically above our expectation in 10 year frame.”

It applies to social change too.

Visited Yangshan Deep Water Port

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Yangshan = 洋山

This is the satellite image of the island Shengsi 嵊泗 we went to.

Image credit: Google Map

Before I talk more about my trip in Shengsi, the island in the East Sea, let me talk more about the Yangshan Deep Water Port.

The Yangshan Island

In the East Sea, about 30 KM away from land of Shanghai, there are two big islands. One is called Little Yangshan Island, and the other is called Big Yangshan Island. You can see the islands in this satellite picture.

Image credit: Google Map

They are several islands that are not far from Shanghai. No one ever lived there. Shanghai needs a deep water port. The Yangtze river is only 7 meters in depths, and the Huangpu River is around 7-8 meters in depths. Large ships (like third or forth generation ships) cannot go into the river. They can only park in either Ningbo Port or Dalian and transfer the goods onto smaller boats and get into the river.

Shanghai want to build a world class deep water port that the larger ships can park. In the Yangshan Island area, the water depth is more than 15 meters, suitable to be a big port.

The project was started several years ago, and in 2005, the first phase was completed.

Dong Hai Bridge 东海大桥

I talked about Donghai Bridge last July. I wanted to visit the bridge, but at that time, the bridge was not completed.

This trip, we had the opportunity to go through the bridge. It is maybe one of the longest bridge in the world – 32.5 KM in length. It extends from the Luchaogang area in Nanhui District into the Hangzhou Bay.

How do you think if your bus runs at top speed on a bridge on the sea, for 20 minutes? It was really amazing experience for us, especially for people who never heard of the bridge. I can imagine how confusing people get after 10 minutes on the sea.

Shanghaiist guys has a picture of part of the bridge. It may be taken from a aircraft.

Credit: Shanghaiist.com

This picture is just a small part of the bridge. The bridge is at least 3 times longer than the part shown on the picture.

Entrance Permit

I can imagine how busy the bridge will be if a 500K-ton ship arrives at the port – if all the trunks are occupied to unload the goods, it may take weeks to get all the goods out.

Currently, private cars are not allowed to enter the port area. There are public buses. Here are some route.

1. Go to the Nanpu Bridget (the ground of the Puxi side). Then buy ticket to Shengsi (90 RMB single trip). They will have a bus to take you to Luchaogang, and then enter the port. You get on board the ferry to Shengsi at Little Yangshan Island.

2. Or you can drive to Luchaogang via A2 Expressway, and then transfer to a bridge tour bus (9 RMB? No confirmed) to go to the island.

I have some pictures, but not with me. Will share later.

P.S. Dinner with Xiaofeng

Xiaofeng is going back to bay area, and will move her company to Beijing afterwards. We had dinner at Face in Ruijin Hotel. I ate too much, and my stomach still hurt now. In the future, we should not eat that much, no matter how good the food is.

Back from Shengsi

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Back from Shengsi Island. The island is about 1 hour fast boat to the Little Yangshan Harbor. For the first time, I go through the East Sea Birdget – a bridge of 30 KM long. It is not common to get onto a bridget extending deep into the sea, and cost about 30 minutes to get to the other end. The project is even more amazing than the beautiful scene at Shengsi.

More pictures and guide to get there will be posted later.

Run, Linda, Jack Visited My Home

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Run, Linda and Jack visited my home (to be more exact, my garden) this afternoon. Happy about that. The Sun of spring shines perfectly and we were happy to eat banana (my favorite), and apple (Wendy‘s favorite) under my big umbrella.

I took every minute in the middle to complete my reading of Yuhua’s new book: Brothers.

Then we went to the Centuary Park. It starts to become crowded in Spring. There are people everywhere. So we jumped onto a boat.

Below: Jack on boat.

Below: The Xiangmei Garden tower

Podlook Office

The other highlight of the day is to visit Jack Gu’s office. They created podlook.com in the small room. I joked, when Del.icio.us was sold, their office may be similiar to this one.

I took some pictures. Hope this helps to record the starting point of a future famous company.

Above: I draw this big head boy on their wall. There are many drawings on their wall already. No wonder the first sentence Wendy said was “Am I in New York?”

Xiang joined us later. I became aware that everyone on this picture used to or is working for Microsoft.

More pictures of the visit.

Democracy in Residential Area

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Democracy is a sensitive word. You can not search it in Google, and you can not include it in your blog in MSN Space. However, recently, the residential area is experiencing the democratic election of the member of the Residential Area Property Owners’ Committee.

Banner: Appreciate the Democracy Right!

The whole banner reads:

Appreciate the Democracy Right! Actively participate in the selection of Residential Area Property Owners’ Committee Member!

These banners are seen many places. They are there for more than a month, I remember.

Candidates

After first round of selection, there are 12 candidates in the final selection. Their self-introduction and pictures are posted at the board at the entrance.

The conflict between property owners’ (including me) and the property management company exists for a long time. The house owners complain that the service company didn’t provide good service, and the monthly fee is too high. It is a long story. Many owners want to select members representing their interest.

It is interesting that one week before the final election, small posters stating 3 candidate didn’t pay the management fee for the last one or two years were posted in many places. The poster suggest people not to vote these candidates.

I guess it may be done by the management company.

The Voting

The voting will end tomorrow. Boxes collecting tickets are places at all the entrance.

Tomorrow, the first “All-Hands Meeting” will be held.

The Process

According to law, after a residential area is built, the house owners will setup their Owner’s Committee. All rights regarding the property belongs to the committee. One of the most important right is to choose a property management company.

It is a starting point of using voting to make decisions. I truly hope the process goes on well in my residential area.

Rain Breaks Plan

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Originally, I wanted to go to Shengsi, the island near Shanghai for a meeting, but the recent storm broke my plan completely. I miss the sunshine yesterday, and today, it is another world – rainy, and windy. Everyone has an umbrella in hand. People told me, recently, Shanghai looks like London.

At the elevator of Raffles City, I met two interesting people. I was told they are the top power sellers on eBay in the world. That means, they sell more than anyone on eBay. I was surprised they were LA based Chinese, and they speak very good mandarin (I don’t want to reveal the name before getting permission though).

Getting downstairs, I routinely bought two Beard Papa bread with me. One for myself, which I ate within 1 minute, and the other is for Wendy. I didn’t know the brand Beard Papa before, until RC recommended to me, and said it is popular in Japan. It tastes very good, with cream inside the bread.

The most amazing news today is the release of Google’s Chinese name. It is “谷歌”, meaning the “Song in the valley”. It is so hard to attach this name with Google. Give me some time to get used to it. Anyway, it sounds so funny to me.

DMOZ Revisited After 3 Years

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I was not happy: ODP – Not As Good as Zeal.com. (ODP ~= DMOZ). I was happy: This Site Listed in DMOZ.

Today, I saw a frequent commentor on my Chinese blog, Xiaoma, is a DMOZ editor for blog category (Chinese). It is nice. He is the first DMOZ editor I know.

In the last month, rumor said “ZEAL.com is to be closed”. Today, rumor Google Is Banning Sites That Use Open Directory (DMOZ) Data.

It seems both project is at its hard stage now. Anyway, I quickly submitted my Chinese blog to the Chinese blog category. My previous submission experience was really bad – just as they explained in their help document, it may takes months for a site to get reviewed. In my case, over 1 year…

Coffee, Chat and Metro Transition

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It is nice to meet Haichao again, after we briefly met half year ago. The Starbucks at Xujiahui is more crowded, and noisy. My reading before he arrives was frequently interrupted by some words or sentences from far away seats.

After many times, I still cannot distinguish Mocha and Coffee Latte. I know they are different, but cannot match the name and their tastes. So every time I order, I just randomly pick one name from the two. It is the same today. Anyone has ideas about what is the difference?

Haichao’s 51auto.com seems running great, and I continue to enjoy chatting with him, as the last time. The confidence of sending a company (LTON) to NASDAQ as a founder is much higher than normal startups.

After coffee, I stepped into the Xujiahui Metro Station. In the next 3 years, this place will become another construction site since Metro line #9, and line #11 will transit here to Metro Line #1. The transition station plan was announced. It leverages the underground parking area B2 and B3 of the Grant Gateway as the transition hall, and then arranges metro stations around the building is a fantastic idea. I was very excited to see this kind of innovation.

     |L11
     |
L9-+——- /
     |[    ]  /
     |[    ] /
            / L1

The yellow block is the Grant-Gate Way Building.

World Financial Center – Part II

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Last Friday, I had important meeting at the Grant Hyatt in the Jin Mao Tower. I was told of the meeting in the morning, and directly rushed to the tower. (I was actually sent an email 22:00 PM or later the previous day, while I was at 5G Review).

I found it is long before my last time taking random pictures while I move in the city. Maybe Dan Li is right. I suffer from burnout a little bit, so I don’t have time to pay attention to the details of life. The May holiday is not far. So… I believe I can have a good rest in that 7 days.

Shanghai World Financial Center

Before entering Jin Mao tower, I noticed (obviously) that the Shanghai World Financial Center is much taller than the last observation

It is around 20 floors so far. It is not a short building already, but it is only at its very early stage in the 101 floor plan.

From the second floor (where the big conference room and ball rooms reside) of the Jin Mao Tower, looking east, you get this great scene:

The taller neighbor of Jin Mao Tower is growing taller and taller.

Jin Mao Tower in the Previous Night

Look at the moon between the Jin Mao Tower (on the left) and the meeting facility buliding on the right.

Life in a City with Many High-Raising Building

Many people like high-raising buildings. So do I. I was keen to learn the name of all skyscapers, and metrics about the building. However, recently, I mean in the last one year, I start to get bored of the high buildings. Just like the Moon by Jin Mao Tower picture shows, it is not as pleasant to me as the picture of a Chinese ancient-style garden.

More than 6000 tall buildings (more than 11 floors) were built in Shanghai between 1990 and 2004.

Here is the list of top 50 higest buildings in Shanghai by Emporis.com:

01. Oriental Pearl TV Tow..

02. Jin Mao Tower

03. Shimao International ..

04. Plaza 66

05. Tomorrow Square

06. Hong Kong New World T..

07. Bocom Financial Tower..

08. Grand Gateway Shangha..

09. Grand Gateway Shangha..

10. Bank of Shanghai Head..

11. Maxdo Centre

12. International Ocean S..

13. Bank of China Tower

14. Raffles Square

15. Changfeng Hotel

16. Shanghai Dong Hai Pla..

17. World Finance Tower

18. King Tower

19. Pudong International ..

20. Sofitel Jin Jiang Ori..

21. Nan Zheng Building

22. Lippo Plaza

23. Shanghai Sen Mao Inte..

24. Huaxia Financial Squa..

25. Huaxia Financial Squa..

26. Golden Magnolia Plaza..

27. Radisson Hotel Shangh..

28. Golden Bell Mansion

29. World Plaza Shanghai

30. Bund Center

31. Wenxin United Press B..

32. The Center

33. Lan Sheng Building

34. Lansheng Building

35. China Insurance Build..

36. CITIC Square

37. CAAC Pudong Tower

38. Bao’an Tower

39. Huaneng Union Tower

40. Shanghai Futures Buil..

41. China Merchants Tower

42. Shanghai China Mercha..

43. Aurora Plaza

44. Pudong Development Ma..

45. Ciro’s Plaza

46. Union Square I

47. Union Square II

48. Pudong Shangri La Hot..

49. Citigroup Tower

50. Shanghai Property Inf..

110 Anniversary for SJTU

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SJTU = Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Today, April 8, 2006, is the 110th anniversary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), where I spent my 4 years between 1995 to 1999. It is the first modern university in China, and is the oldest one.

Here are some pictures I took during the event.

DSC02003 DSC02008 DSC02010 DSC02012 DSC02023 DSC02024 DSC02025 DSC02026 DSC02027 DSC02028 DSC02030 DSC02031 DSC02033 DSC02034 DSC02038 DSC02040 DSC02042 DSC02046 DSC02051 DSC02053 DSC02055 DSC02057 DSC02059 DSC02066 DSC02067 DSC02070 DSC02071 DSC02072 DSC02073 DSC02075 DSC02076 DSC02077 DSC02080 DSC02081 DSC02082 DSC02083 DSC02084 DSC02088

My Life in SJTU

I didn’t realize I would appreciate the 4 years in SJTU that much when I was a student. At the very begining, I was very disappointed about what the university offered, and skipped a lot of classes. I said a lot of bad things about SJTU. Several years after I graduate, I start to understand how wonderful the university is, and believe I have a strong connection with the shool. BTW, my major in the university is automation (1995-1999). Wendy, (my wife, if you don’t know yet), majored in computer science (1995-1999), and computer science master degree (2000 – 2002). We went back to the Minhang campus today. My father was also with us. He studied from the same university in 1950’s.

The Event

I was so surprised to see the expansion of the campus, and the number of students in the last several years. Although I spent a lot of time to get back to university and chat with students in clubs, and visit the campus at least once every half year, the east campus surprised me a lot. It seems the current campus is 8 times bigger than the original one.

Today, two gates were announced to put into use – the south gate, and the east gate . They are so funny to copied the historical gate in the Xuhui campus, and built a completely new but idential one in the new campus (1.5 times bigger though). Haha. LOL.

At the night, there is a nice party in the Jing Jing Hall, broadcasted live via Shanghai Oriental TV. The party is wonderful, as you can see from the pictures.

I am looking forward to the Li Zhi Forum (励志讲坛) on April 27, 2006 on Min Hang Campus. I feel honored to go back to the campus as a guest speaker 10 years after I stepped onto the campus.

Tulip Blooms in my Garden

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Hey. Look at my tulip!

Picture taken by Wendy

It sleeps for several months;

It wakes for several weeks;

and now it blooms in my garden!

Along with my tulips, other flowers and trees also welcome the arrival of Spring.

Picture taken by Wendy

Picture taken by Wendy

P.S. My cats? They are still doing well in my garden, but since I often forget to feed them, especially after long business trip, they left the garden to find food some where else. So currently, our relation is just like visitors and a bar. They visit the garden for fun, and sometimes sit outside the window of my reading room, staring curiously at me. They seem don’t understand how computer and Internet work yet.

Update: April 8, 2006

This picture is taken today.

Picture taken by Jian Shuo Wang

I am a little bit disappointed because the tulip dealer lied. They said there are five difference colors, and we picked from red, yellow, orange, pink… Even dark purple – they are more expensive than other colors. But it turned out every one is purple. Anyway, I don’t like the dealer, but I love the flowers, every single one of them so much.

P.S. At around 10:00 PM, the network seems to completely stop working. It should be the rush hours for network.

Look at my Drawing

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In the 5G Review Shanghai meeting yesterday night, I spent 1 hour drawing two pictures. I didn’t learn drawing before, so they are the first few “real” drawing I created. Check if it is good.

Original object

Hand drawn by Jian Shuo Wang. April 06, 2006

Hand drawn by Jian Shuo Wang. April 06, 2006

Don’t take me wrong. I found drawing can help me concentrate to the topic – just like staring at scene outside the train window helps deep thinking; listening music can inspire one’s mind, drawing in meeting can help fill in the consciousness with something, so to cultivate deeper think.

Drawing itself was inspired by Art of Travel by Alain de Botton.

PSP is Hard to Use

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I got a PlayStation Portal (PSP). It is hard to use – you have to buy more stuff other than the stone-like black box.

The usability is not that good. May need some time to get used to. There is almost nothing I can do with it, if I don’t have a Memory Stick Pro Duo card. Information on the Internet for PSP is not good enough. Seems all complicated. I start to wonder, did I change from a geek type of guy to an idol, or the hardware changes?

The Metro City offers so different price for Memory Stick Pro Duo. Some quotes 690 RMB for 1 GB, and some offers 460 RMB for 2GB.

Anyway, I don’t know why but my passion for hardware, even including camera is not as strong as several years ago. Why?

China International Boat Show in Shanghai

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Image credit: CMP SinoExpo

I didn’t know this event before. Anyway, it is the 11th time this event is held in China. Boat is just too far from me. The market of marina hasn’t really started yet. I met with Mr. Yuan, the CEO of a boat importing and reseller company at Taihu. He introduced the boat show to me and generously sponsored two tickets for me. Well. I start to get interested in boat. I guess I will be there next Sunday. Here are the pictures of the last year’s event.

Thanks to my friends in B.V. Capital, I had my first and exciting experience to go sailing in the Bay area last April. At least, I know there is a red rope on the boat that I can pull to lower the sail completely. :-) (Pictures)

There are many lakes in China, especially the east part of China. But they are very seldom leveraged. People don’t go there for sailing, or surfing. I hope this event will help to promote water sports.

P.S. Maglev stopped operation for 1 hour and a half due to technical difficulties this morning. It is not so positive news for Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev project.

P.S. 2: Oriental TV in Shanghai is creating a morning program for bloggers in Shanghai. Anyone interested? Please contact Miss. Zhang at [nizizp@126.com].