If you are not technical oriented people or you are not interested in Facebook, you can safely ignore this page. This page is just for me to test some FBML (Facebook Markup Language).
FBML Sandbox of Facebook
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Monthly Archives: December 2008
Christmas Tree in Shanghai & Hong Kong
Christmas is coming. Although we don’t have tradition to celebrate Christmas, and people have different oppinions about whether we should celebrate Christmas in China, the Christmas tree is getting bigger and bigger in Shanghai, despite of the financial crisis.
Christmas Outside Grand Gateway
Swarovski X’mas Tree
Below is the Christmas tree inside the Grand Gateway.
Super Brand Mall
This is from the Super Brand Mall.
I saw this in Metro City.
and this outside the Grand Gateway area:
Hong Kong
I didn’t capture any tree in Hong Kong, but I saw this big wheel in IFC (International Financial Center).
Conclusion
My basic feeling is, Shanghai has more decoration and a little bit better than Hong Kong based on the places I visited so far. I may be highly biased since I only visited several towers in Hong Kong during my trip.
P.S. You still have
Movie All About Women
Wendy got to tickets of Xuke’s All About Women. We went to the Kodak Super Cinema in Xujiahui, and watched the long and funny movie. My rating will be 3 out of 5. I said there are no depth of the movie – just some fun moments. Wendy criticized me that I can only accept certain narrow range of movies. Anyway, it was a nice night.
At the end of the movie, the director, and the actors, and actresses came to the stage and held a pretty short ceremony, and answered some questions from the audience. Among the guest, my favorite were ZHOU Xun (actress of Painted Skin and a super star) and XU Ke (the director of many famous and nice movies).
The benefit to live in Shanghai is, there are occasions like this that you meet some people (although from very far away) like ZHOU Xun. It is not daily life, but it is not something you can never expect. I have already passed the age to be fan of any people, but it is just the benefit to live in larger cities (not like my hometown Luoyang). I am not familiar with the entertainment industry, but for Internet space, I have pretty close friends circles, which is basically a large portion of the Internet industry in China. So my learning is, sometimes, it is not because of who you are, it is because where you live.
Another observation: there are enough mobile phones with camera so they are journalist at any given time.
From the left to the right:
- The host (anonymous)
- XU Ke
- ZHOU Xun
- ZHANG Yuqi
- FENG Delun
- PENG Yuyan
Wangjianshuo’s Blog Supports Facebook Now
With about 2 hours learning and coding tonight, I finally enabled Facebook Connect on this blog. You may have noticed the Facebook Connect login button at the comment section of this page. That is it.
You can click on the button. If you have a Facebook account, you can simply click OK to login this site, and then you will see your photo, and your name, email, url information auto filled. Then you can comment with that information.
This is just the very simple first step about integration, and in the future, I will add more features, for example:
- Post your comment automatically back to your Facebook profile page as News Feed.
- See who esle you know are on this site
- Share the page with your Facebook friends more easily
The possibility is unlimited. After trying both Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect, I have to say, I gave rating 90 out of 100 for Facebook Connect, and 10 out of 100 for Google Friend Connect. The 10 points Facebook loses is because it is not easy to implement it, and the 10 points Google gets is only because it is simple to add, but basically useless.
If you want to know how I did it, you can check out this page: Facebook Connect with MovableType.
Hope to see you sigin and comment soon.
Shanghai is Freezing
Shanghai is so cool these days – the water in the lake before my apartment has already frozen- you can ice on the surface of the lake.
If you are coming to Shanghai, please take my alert: please bring some warm cloths with you.
Even people from Toronto, north part of China will feel the cold weather in Shanghai hard to bear. It is that kind of humid cold – very different from the coldness in north or central part of China. Let me tell you exactly how it feels – it is like putting you into the cold water of 0 degree. Don’t let the 0 degree mislead you – it is colder than you think if you come from somewhere the normal temperature is below 0. In those areas, there are heating equipment everywhere, and it may not as humid. Most large cities north of Shanghai have heating equipment in winter. Shanghai? No.
Good luck!
Facebook Connect with MovableType
I did a quick survey about How Many of My Readers Use Facebook and the initial response was quite possitive. It seems I have a lot of readers who are on Facebook already, no matter it is just random, or rare use, or daily use.
Then I believe I need to integrate Facebook Connect with MovableType. I search in Google about the term “Facebook Connect MovableType” but didn’t see any plugin. It should be a very popular plugin if someone create one.
So it seems I need to do a little bit JavaScript work to get the application working. It is very simple, and I have already created a working version in the first 30 minutes. I will take some time in the next few days (or weeks, just in case I don’t have the time, and don’t want to set the expection high), I will implement Facebook Connect on this blog, and share the exact steps here to help other MovableType bloggers out there. If possible, I would even want to create a plugin so you can easily put the code into a plugin – seems to far from where I want to archive, but I will give it a try.
So stay tuned about my implementation of Facebook Connect on my site.
Update December 9, 2008
Now, I have implemented Facebook Connect on MovableType. Although I don’t have a plugin for you to use yet, you can follow these not-so-simple steps to enable it on your MovableType site.
- Follow the steps outlined in Trying Out Facebook Connect. More specifically, follow step 1 (which includes 8 smaller steps), and step 2 to get your API key, and set the call back folder. I set it to http://home.wangjianshuo.com/scripts/facebook folder. Don’t need to do step 3 since we will do it together later.
- Login into MovableType console, point to Design menu, and click “Template”.
- Click “Individual Entry Archive” to start to edit your Individual Enntry Archives. Since everyone, especially advanced MovableType users, like you, may have different individual archive files, and many include modules, there is no uniformed way to explain what to do the next. Let me just use mine as an example.
- Change the html root tag from
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
to
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml” xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml”>
- Locate the section where user input Name, Email, and URL, and enclose it with the code provided below. Please note: you may find it in other places. The red parts are added. They are mainly for format reason, since the only payload is the Facebook login button (I noted with bold and red)
<table width=”80%” cellpadding=”0″ cellspacing=”0″>
<tr><td valign=”top” id=”authorInfo”>
Name: <br />
<input name=”author” /><br />
Email Address: (will not show)<br />
<input name=”email” /><br />
<input name=”url” /><br />
</td><td width=”50%” align=”right” valign=”top” style=”border-left:1px solid #336699″>
You can optionally sign in<br/> with your Facebook account.<br/>
<fb:login-button autologoutlink=”true” length=”long”></fb:login-button>
</td></tr></table>
- Paste the following script under the form section, ideally immediately before the MTIfCommentOpen closing tag. Before to replace the apiKey, and xdPath to your own.
<script src=”http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var apiKey = “655b6e2e042a5426d8f0b13dca4708fa”;
var xdPath = “/scripts/facebook/xd_receiver.htm”;
FB.init(apiKey, xdPath);
FB_RequireFeatures([“Connect”, “Api”], function() {
FB.Facebook.init(“655b6e2e042a5426d8f0b13dca4708fa”, xdPath);
FB.Facebook.get_sessionState().waitUntilReady(function(){
FB.Facebook.apiClient.users_getInfo(new Array(FB.Facebook.apiClient.get_session().uid), [“name”,”proxied_email”, “profile_url”, “pic_small”], function(result, ex) {
if(result.length > 0) {
document.comments_form.author.value = result[0].name;
document.comments_form.email.value = result[0].proxied_email;
document.comments_form.url.value = result[0].profile_url;
document.comments_form.author.readOnly = “readOnly”;
document.comments_form.email.readOnly = “readOnly”;
document.comments_form.url.readOnly = “readOnly”;
var authorInfo = document.getElementById(“authorInfo”);
var img = document.createElement(“img”);
img.src = result[0].pic_small;
var td = document.createElement(“td”);
td.appendChild(img);
authorInfo.parentNode.insertBefore(td, authorInfo);
}
}
);
}
);
}
);
</script>
- Save your template and rebuild your individual page.
You should get something very similiar to my implementation below.
If you meet any problems, please feel free to let me know by posting in the comment form below. I would appreciate you sign in and use Facebook Connect identity.
Poster about Financial Crisis in HK
Saw the following two interesting poster at Peking Road of Hong Kong:
Bascially they are the same, one in Chinese, and the other in plain English. It is maybe the only sign of financial crisis I saw in Hong Kong during my two day stay. Is there any other changes? I just don’t have a benchmark of what the city should look like in normal days so I cannot tell.
Photos of Hong Kong in December 2008
The IFC (Hong Kong International Finance Center). Obviously it does not change over years, but every year, and the persons who take the photo should be the same as the previous trip, but every time, the feeling is still slightly different.
Hong Kong’s ferry has a very lovely name: Star Ferry, or 天星小轮. It by itself is a highlight of my Hong Kong trip.
At night, the lights of buildings always shines under the clear sky:
The street scene of Hong Kong is pretty much similiar to Shanghai, reminding us of the deep connection between the two cities around 1940s.
How Many of My Readers Use FaceBook?
Facebook has a nice new release called Facebook connect.
It helps website like this blog to engage with Facebook users.
Facebook Connect is the next evolution of Facebook Platform – enabling you to integrate the power of Facebook Platform into your own site. Enable your users to…
Some idea I can think of using this tool on this website:
- Facebook users maybe able to use their identify to leave comment
- People can share their comment on both this blog and their Facebook profile, so others see your valuable comments.
- See if your friends are also on this blog.
The idea may be cool, but the first question I will ask is, how many of my readers are on Facebook. If there is not so many people, it may not worth the effort.
So, if you have a Facebook account, or don’t have one, would you please let me know by using comment section below? Thanks a lot.
National Flag of China in Airport – Part II
In 2002, Bill suggested that a Chinese flag should be hang at Pudong Airport. I thought it was a very nice suggestion, and we should do it. I also suggested to the Tourism Bureau but didn’t get any response.
I am happy that during my trip, when I returned from Hong Kong, I found this big flag at the arrival hall of Terminal 2 of Pudong Airport, just before the investigation point for passport.
May I also complain that the Terminal 2 of Pudong Airport, as many airport is completely empty without any decoration of posters or banners. It was so boring to walk from gate 69 all the way to the arrival hall – 15 minutes without anything to read – just feel very lonely when you happen to leave the airplane late.
Hong Kong Not More Expensive Than Shanghai
Another finding of this trip to Hong Kong is, Hong Kong is not too much more expensive than Shanghai today.
I had the impression that Hong Kong is super expensive, compared to Shanghai. Many years ago, I cannot understand why a bowl of noodle costs 40-50 RMB, and a direct ride on Metro cross the Victoria Bay costs around 9 RMB. At that time, same distance of Metro in Shanghai only cost 2 RMB.
During this trip, I have new ideas.
The first factor is the exchange rate. Now, 1 Chinese yuan = 1.12664683 Hong Kong dollars. Before, Hong Kong Dollar worth more than Chinese RMB. Something like 1.1 RMB to 1 HKD. Today, it is completely the opposite. I withdraw cash on local ATM machines – 200 HKD, and I got SMS notification that 177 was deducted from my China Merchant Bank card. I am feeling good about it.
Taxi is not that expensive also. A short trip from Hong Kong Station of Airport Express to Island Pacific Hotel cost 30-40 HKD. It is by no way cheap, but considering a typical Shanghai taxi drive also cost 20-30 RMB, I feel it is in the same range.
Noodle still cost around 40 HKD, but comparing to 30-35 RMB noodle shops in Shanghai, that is also pretty close.
My conclusion: it is not because Hong Kong becomes cheaper, it is because Shanghai gets much more expensive, so I don’t feel the gap any more.
Island Pacific Hotel is Pretty Nice
I stayed in Hong Kong Island Pacific Hotel during my stay. It is pretty nice hotel, and not super expensive – around 600-700 HKD. The only problem is, it is still far from the Sheung Wan Metro Station, and it don’t have free Internet access. An option for my next Hong Kong trip, besides the Youth Hotel we stayed during our first visit.
BTW, both JW Marriott Hong Kong, and Shangri-la Hotel Shanghai offer free Wifi service in their lobbies and meeting rooms. It is very nice. Just FYI, in case you are really in need of a WIFI service in Hong Kong or Shanghai.
Impression of Hong Kong
When I am going to conclude my forth trip to Hong Kong, let me describe what Hong Kong is in my eyes.
Transportation System
Hong Kong is the super crowded city, but the transportation is so efficient that both taxi and bus run pretty fast. The road system in Hong Kong is well planned, so there are cars running on all the smaller roads, unlike Beijing (with only big bold backbone roads like the rings but not too much working connecting road). Shanghai is a little bit better, but still far behind Hong Kong.
Prosperity
Although standing like a harbor in the sea of financial crisis (many times), you still can feel the prosperity of the city. The pace of the city is so quick – a detail I noticed since my first visit – the staircase elevator is faster in speed than Shanghai and Beijing. Standing at the over-street pedistrain bridge at Central, you just feel the flow or the river of people passing around. It is not like Nanjing Road in Shanghai, where the street is packed with shoppers, and tourists, the Central is packed with office gentlemen and ladies.
International
As the tag line of the Hong Kong Tourism Bureau designed for the city: Asia’s World City. Although people may argue whether it is Hong Kong or Singapore (but definitely not Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai yet), Hong Kong is really international. You can use Chinese (Mandarin) and English alternatively in most places, and people are speaking different languages other than English, Cantonese and Mandarin. It is very international.
Hong Kong? I Love It
If I have to decide the second city I may live in, I have the following candidate so far:
2. Beijing
3. Hong Kong
I don’t have a particular order for the cities yet. It seems Beijing may be in the no. three position in my mind so far, but still before most other cities.
Baixing Awarded as Red Herring Asia 100
Baixing.com has been awarded as Red Herring Asia 100. It is the only classified site in Asia awarded.
© Red Herring
I am pretty excited about it.
Red Herring Asia in Hong Kong
I am a blogger. To have a blogger in a conference is really dangerous for most of organizer. Here I am coming.
The conference started with some problems – not a surprise from the first impression. I am maybe the only person who don’t wear suite and tie – I am very serious. I am. I wear the green shirt – the only one who is not pure in black.
The session should start at 8:30 AM, but we started pretty late. The host, CEO of Red Herring was not able to come due to visa problems (I really don’t know why a US citizen has visa problem for a short trip to Hong Kong – I heard they don’t need a visa for stay less than 90 days). Then all the speakers for the keynote panel didn’t appear. So our poor hosts stood on the stage in a awkward position, explaining what happened. Then asked if there is any volunteer who want to go to the stage and say something. It seems if anybody can speak something on the stage help them a lot.
The short embarrassing pause was filled by Red Herring editor by talking about the recession – with all due respect, he did pretty good job to tell something without preparation, but it is obvious that no one is really interested. Within just few minutes, they realized that talk recession is not the right thing to do, so they started to invite Red Herring nominated companies to put their presentation ahead of schedule.
I managed to put mine about baixing.com to the third slot between 9:20 – 9:30, before everyone spread out to different breakout sessions. But, everyone doesn’t mean too many people. It is just barely half of the room.
The organization was pretty massy. The previous two day schedule was pushed to one day, and with the dinner cancelled in the morning – just got the announcement. If I had known it earlier, I could book the night flight back to Shanghai without staying in Hong Kong for additional night, and waste my valuable time in office – there are so many things to do. Then the next problem will be, where to go tonight. Hotel is not a good choice.
BTW, I am in Hong Kong. Anyone want to have a cup of coffee?
The sessions? Some are pretty boring, but as always, you can have a bad conference organization, but the entrepreneurs are always the highlights of any gathering. I have already talked with some nice people from India, Beijing and Hong Zhou. I would expect more…
Updated More Changes
At the morning session, I learnt that the Award dinner was also canceled. If I had known it earlier, I will definitely book a flight ticket back to Shanghai the same day, then I was stuck in Hong Kong. In the afternoon, when they announced the reward, the final list didn’t come yet. They said they will complete the list the second day.
On my Way to Hong Kong
I am sitting on the floor of Pudong Airport Terminal 2. My flight KA897 is going to depart at 17:20 to Hong Kong.
This is my forth time to Hong Kong.
First time, Wendy and I traveled there – I fly from Beijing to Shenzhen (cheaper), and she flys there from Shanghai. That was the longest trip, and my best trip there. My trip record: Hong Kong – the Amazing City
The second time, I went there for PR train. (PR = Public Relationship). That is single day trip – go there early in the morning and returned Shanghai on the same day. During that trip, I learnt Cantonese for street name: 百花街 (pronounced as Bai Fa Gai)… I don’t have any photos for this trip, and I didn’t write about it.
The third time was the fireware dinner for Randy. Stayed in JW Marriott Hong Kong. Report from Hong Kong in Jan
This is the forth time, attending the Red Herring Conference.
Happy 1.5 Year Birthday of Yifan
Today, Yifan is exactly one year and 6 months old. I am far away from my cute son. So I bought a big bear for him. On the tag, I wrote:
To: Yifan
From: Daddy and Mommy
Hope Yifan will like it. The toy bear is almost the same size of Yifan, and I bet he must be happy to have a little brother to play with him.
Below is a picture of Yifan when we brought him to Shanghai Zoo last Saturday. He is obviously happy to see monkeys, but he is not as excited as we thought when he saw giraffe – he shouted loud whenever he saw giraffe on TV at home, but did show too much excitement when he saw some real one.
I was told by Jim that baby are most lovely between 1.5 years and 3 years. I don’t know what happens after 3 years, but obviously, Yifan is more and more lovely everyday. Now he understand a lot, and start to learn to say some word. I cannot wait to get back home and kiss him.
Happy 1.5 year birthday, Yifan.