Monthly Archives: August 2008

Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

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I am still watching the opening ceremony of the Games. Now about 100 countries have entered the Bird’s Nest.

I Love it

I love the opening ceremony. It is full of imagination, and has deep culture roots. I specially enjoy the part with Chinese characters. I am happy to say, the opening ceremony is at least beyond my expectation.

Image Credit: AP via Yahoo!

Image Credit: AP via Yahoo!

Image Credit: AP via Yahoo!

Your Comments?

My friends, how do you feel about the opening ceremony? Which part do you like most?

The Day Before Olympic Games

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Tomorrow, the Olympic Games will open in Beijing. It is such a big event that people start to count down from 1000 days ago. When it comes, I just have many ideas in my minds. Just list some of them.

Impact of the Games

One reporter from Newsweek asked me can we call these 5 years as the “Olympic Age” in China. I said no.

The impact of the Games has not show up too much yet. I would assume the 5 to 10 years after Olympic Games will reveal some of the impact (hopefully), and it is not too late to summarize the 10 years as “Olympic Age” after 10 years. Now? I didn’t feel too much change yet.

My Connection with Olympic Games

I am lucky to still remember the opening ceremony of the 1984 LA Olympic Games. At that time, I was just 7 years old. I remember my father and I and many other people were watching it in the only TV in the area at a fire station. Children are just children. My attention was not long enough for the whole ceremony. I was dragged back to the TV when the Chinese team appeared.

Yifan is only 14 months old, and he is too little to have any memory of the event. But I still insist that we need to watch the game together. Just as the LA game 24 years ago, he may hear about it again and again in the future.

Worries

It is just like any big event, I start to worry a lot these days. With the uncomfortably increasing of security measure everywhere, I am worrying about something bad may happen to the opening ceremony. Terrorist did reached one of their goals – people really worry about it.

The other thing is the weather. I believe many people are worrying the same thing. There are no blue sky in Beijing from the pictures, and there are may be rains. Beijing is not very lucky this time.

I told Wendy: “I really feel worried. I am afraid something goes wrong, although I know it is not my fault.”.. Wendy laughed at me.

Impact to this Country

Complains about the Games can be seen on many places. I just feel it does not like a party that people celebrate, it is just like the exam a student needs to “unwillingly” attend.

When I had my meal, I heard a short conversation like this on the table beside me:

A: “Why just an Olympic has completely put my life upside down?”

B: “Yes! It does”

A: “Even all the shops in all the metro stations were closed.”

B: “My friends just had its last working day today, and will be on vacation until Sept 19, because their factory is near the Shanghai Stadium”.

A: “It is still better than Beijing!”

Impact to the life of people in Beijing is tremendous. Normal life were put on a pause, and it is very hard for people in China to enter Beijing, so do those business people to the city. No wonder the price of hotels dropped dramatically one month before the Games. The Game did expose some of the weakest point of the current system to many people. I don’t think the change many happen, but awareness may push for some change.

Traffic Police Everywhere

The Shanghai Soccer Game venue – Shanghai Stadium – is just within walking distance away from our office. Last night, when I drive back home, I saw policeman along the roads. I drove onto the Tianyaoqiao Road, pickup Wendy and drove out – just to realize the road was blocked one minute ago. This is the major change I observed in Shanghai.

What I will Do Tomorrow

I will stay at home, watching TV with my family.

I will also open my laptop and write random thoughts about what I feel about opening ceremony.

I will consistently upload my thoughts on to this blog in real time.

Business is Business

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Business is an interesting game.

It is like online game, with strategies playing a role, with execution, with resources, with consistency, with strong minds, with sense of directions, with changes we have to make every day… It is just like a wonderful, interesting, powerful, but complicated game.

Business is really a game.

P.S. This is the fourth entry I wrote with exactly the same title: Business is Business.

The first time was in 2002: Business is Business. That was just before I started to run the ESS business for Wicresoft.

The second time was in July of 2007: Business is Really Business. That was a short summary of what business means to me.

The third time was in Oct 2007. Business is Business, but at that time, the term business really mean finance for me.

Today, the “business” does mean business.

Pudong Airport T2 Behind the Security Gate

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I took many photos of the Pudong Airport new Terminal 2 after it is completed and opened to public. However, the previous entries only described the area outside the Security Gate. It is just because my flight was in T1 at that time. Recently, I traveled to Beijing via Air China, which departs at T2, so I can complete my report about T2 of Pudong International Airport.

In case you are interested, check out my previous entries on T2

The Area

The T2 is of the curve shape from the side, and you won’t miss the boarding area by looking up – there are big sign saying: Domestic Boarding on top of the roof. I love the bold and very visible signs in public spaces like airport.

At the time I write this article, they have a special security checking line for flights to Beijing. Hopefully after Beijing Olympic, they don’t need to bother to strengthen the security as much as before.

The shape of T2:

The Carpet

One of the key difference between T2 and the older, smaller, and colder T1 is, T2 starts to use carpet. The whole area after the security check counter is covered by nice brown carpet, which makes it more like an international standard airport.

The Gates

All the gates in T2 are named using convention like Cxxx. Here is the display board:

Look at the gates. The T2 is just like T2 – a very very long line of gates with stores on both sides:

It looks like me that the gates are arranged this way:

    54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94

52

50

51

53

    55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69      71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93

On the right side of the terminal are four gates:

96 98 97 95

just in the opposite position of gates 52, 50, 51, and 53.

(Some gates in the range of 70 – 79 are not available or opened).

Basically, the whole area is divided into section 5 (50 to 59), section 6 (60 to 69), section 7 (73 to 79), section 8 (80 – 89), and section 9 (90 to 98). Try to get your section first, and then get some idea about where your boarding gate is. Mine was C85 last time.

This is the what the new gate looks like:

In the middle of the two wings, there are four additional far-parking-flights boarding gates:

On the left are gates C220, C221

On the right are gates C222, C223.

Although there are only four gates, I suspect that they are highly utilized. Passengers need to take the shuttle bus to get to plane, something I will avoid if I can.

Boarding Bridge

The boarding bridge of Pudong Airport T2 is also different from T1. The main difference is, it offers two bridges, one to the upper level (for arrival) and one for the lower level (for departure passengers). That makes the logistic much easier because the two group of people now never see each other and don’t share public area, and can avoid many mistakes.

Special Rear Areas

The gate C50 – 53, and gate C95 to C98 are at the north and south end of the whole T2. Unlike other gates, the area only have one level. That is where is the lower roof covers if you see from outside (the roof of the two rears are significantly lower than the main part). But from inside, it is much higher since it is two level combined:

Chinese Elements

Just on the south side of the middle point of T2, they have a water frontier.

Water flows quietly along the wall:

and stones sitting in the water.

This is the entrance of the whole T2. You need to clear all the security check before you use the elevator to go downstairs to arrive at T2. Pretty strange design: you need to use elevators to go up for the security check and use it immediately after you complete it.

The Stores

There are much more stores in T2 than T1. However, their business is no so good since the T2 is just put into use.

They have some nice brand shops immediately on the left hand and right hand when you arrive at T2:

As a new father, I found the children’s place in section 7 of the T2 very cute:

Internet Access

They have a big badge saying: Wireless Internet for Free. The area is just at the side of gate C52 on the north end of the T2. You need to really walk hard to get there.

If you also visit the T2 of Pudong Airport, please feel free what you see in the comment section.

New Embassy of United States in Beijing

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Very soon, the US Embassy will move to a new location in Beijing. It is said President Bush will attend the opening ceremony of the new Embassy.

Location

The new embassy will move from its current location to several miles to north east. It is near the Beijing Airport Express Sanyuanqiao Station, and the Liangmahe Station of the Subway Line #10.

Below is the map of the New US Embassy. The embassy is in the red circle.

The two circle roads on the top-left is Sanyuanqiao.

The Building

Reportedly, the facility costs 434 million USD to build. To my surprise, the expensive building just holds about 950 employees. It is the second largest embassy for US. The first one is in Baghdad. It is understandable for Baghdad to be the largest one, after they spent much more money to be able to build one there – just kidding.

What is 97sese?

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In the search log, I found many people searching for 97sese.com, 97sese, or similar website. However, the site itself cannot be opened. I am amazed by the huge amount of search queries it generated.

My quick conclusion is, it must be an porn website which is recently banned by the GFW, or by the hosting company in other countries.

Along with the search keyword, there are other keywords like 97bobo or 97ai, 331xx… I assume they must be some porn sites.

Some people say the search log or any log that people input is many be the most accurate capture of what people think. I also think so.

Beijing Airport Express Train in Depth

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In this article, I am going to talk about the Beijng Airport Express in depth, just as I talked about the Pudong Airport Maglev Train.

Route

Beijing Airport Express is just opened one month before the Olympic. It has four stations along the line:

  • Airport T3 Station
  • Airport T2 Station (T1 is almost at the same building of T2)
  • Sanyuanqiao Station
  • Dongzhimen Station

The routes are like this:

Dongzhimen -> Sanyuanqiao -> T3 -> T2 -> Sanyuanqiao -> Dongzhimen

Please note that there is only T3 to T2 train and there is no reserve direction trains. The T3, T2 and Sanyuanqiao is just like a big circle – the train only goes counter-clockwise.

The Price

25 RMB (or 3 USD) for single trip, no matter which train station you get off. If you want to get to T2 from T3, they provide free shuttle bus. Please do not take the train if you want to save some money.

Travel Time

I took the train from Dongzhimen to T3, and it took about 20 minutes. From T3 to Dongzhimen may take about 30 minutes (considering the 3 minutes stay at T3 and go back via T2 and the stay there).

The Stations

The T3 Station is in the huge turtle shell, as I described before. It is at the south of the giant T3 station.

I have more photos of the station in this entry: Beijing Airport Express Train.

T2 is underground at B2 level of T2. Use the elevator to get to B1 (food courts), L1 (Arrival) and L2 (Departure)…

Sanyuanqiao station is exactly at the Third Ring Road and the intersection of Airport Express way. It is at the northeast corner of the city. If you know a little bit of Beijing road system, the Third Ring Road of Beijing is the major back-bone roads in Beijing. The Airport Express Road Station is connected with the Beijing Subway Line #10 Sanyuanqiao Station via a short tunnel – about 30 meters long. It is very convinient to transit.

The last station is the Dongzhimen Station. It is also built together with the Beijing Subway Line #2 Dongzhimen Station.

The Sanyuanqiao and Dongzhimen stations enable passengers to transit easily to other subway systems in Beijing. In this sense, it is designed much better than Shanghai’s Maglev.

The Ticket

Here are the photos of the ticket – front side and the back side.

On the back side of the ticket, it prints the route of the train.

It will be withdrew when the train arrives. It does have the paper based receipt that you can reimburse if you are on a business trip.

On the Train

This is what it looks like inside the train.

On the train, there are screen broadcasting some sports program. Unlike the commercial in Shanghai Metro, it seems non-profit.

The Tracks

This is the track looking from the front of the train.

This train has open space for the operator that you can stand behind them and watch the front (or the end) of the train.

This is the track transit junction just out of the T3 stations.

A switch will made the train turning to the right lane, which leads to T2. The left track is where the train come from – the Sanyuanqiao Station. If you look at the photo clear enough, on the top of the light pole, there are Olympic 5 circles.

On the left the track, you can see the big entrance of the Airport Express Way II.

You will see this giant place – for collecting tolls for cars entering the airport.

On the left on the way from T3 to T2, you can also see the many tracks for parking the trains.

It is visible event from the airplane.

Immediately after passing the parking area, the train will run into the underground section of the route.

As you can see from the photo above, at the very beginning, the tunnel is in shape of square, which means it is built by digging the ground and put a cover on it. Very soon, the tunnel will turn into round tube:

The journey lasts for several minutes, and ends at the T2.

Getting back to the city, and getting through the same tube tunnel, the train gets back to the ground and reach the elevated track:

When the train travels on the ground, you can clearly see the Airport Express. The train track is surrounded by high trees. Sometimes, you feel that you are traveling in a forest. The slogan “Green Olympic” starts to echo on my ears.

Along the track, you can see the Ikea store. It is the intersection of the Express Train, and the 4th Ring Road. The place is called Suyuanqiao:

The Sanyuanqiao

Here is the map on the wall of Train Station of Subway Line #10. The Airport Express Sanyuanqiao Station is connected directly with the Subway Line #10 station.

You can leave the train station very soon. As you can see from the map, the two stations are only 50 meters away from each other.

Want to know how far the two stations are? Look at the photo below:

Dongzhimen Station

The Dongzhimen station is also very closely connected with the Beijing Subway #2.

The two stations are connected by a short tunnel.

I have to say, the city planning and architects of the subways did wonderful job. They designed very good transition stations that people can get to almost everywhere in the city via the Beijing Airport Express.