Eric and Apple got married today. Just got back from their wedding in Portman Riz-Carlton Hotel. Congratulations!
If you are not familiar with the name Eric, MVM may be helpful – http://home.wangjianshuo.com/mvm.
Obviously many girls and boys will be sad to see the handsome, and talented Eric, and the smart and decent Apple to both get married.
Hangzhou is a city full of innovation in public transportation.
Look at what they did to traditional pedestrian in Hangzhou!
They put an arrow on the right side of the pedestrian to indicate the side for people to walk.
What do you think?
Other innovation includes
We talked about the network effects of a real society many days ago. Hopefully, that explains why Chinese don’t use voice mail, calendar, or classified. We talked about it in YLF 2009 conference, and there are people who don’t agree with what I said.
Then I have another great example. When I was in Chengdu, no one uses coins. They always use the paper money of 1 RMB. Everyone hates coins. Why? Not for a rational reason. It is just because when you have a 1 RMB coin, you cannot spend it. People won’t accept it, and they ask you to change it to 1 RMB paper money. Just because you cannot spend it, you don’t accept it, and because you don’t accept it, others cannot spend it. The stronger the current feedback loop is, the harder it is to break.
On the contary, people in Shanghai LOVE coins. They don’t want paper money, although they unwillingly accept it. People will be surprised to get 7 coins as change to buy a 3 RMB ticket with 10 RMB note.
That is the network effect. Before debating about whether coin money is better than paper money or not, we need to look at where you are going to spend it, Chengdu, or Shanghai.
In November, I just feel some changes in the blogsphere. It seems to me that blogging activities are getting declining in the past month. I check my Google Reader few times a day in Oct, and every time I can get many updates, but recently, I check it daily and still didn’t get too much update. I didn’t change the feed source. It turned out that people blogged less. Did you observe the same decline in blogging?
P.S. Me? Don’t worry about me. It was just occasionally travel times, mixed with my passion for coding this week. Will be back to normal soon.
November 2009 is the month with most turbulance in blogging in the recent year. The frequent travel to Xiamen, to Chengdu made regular blogging harder than ever, and recenty, I was highly devoted in defactoring some of the code of the production environment. I found out code is really what my passion is at. I love to code any way, especially the design pattern, and defactoring. Hope I will have time to sit down at my computer to get videos, pictures of my trip out of my camera, and camcorder, and upload some of them to this blog. Please be patient for another few days.
Sorry that I didn’t post it earlier. I was out of blogging to Chengdu with the team in the last few days, and just got back to Shanghai. The continuous trip made blog posting hard, especially in a relaxed, and fun city like Chengdu. We had great fun, and return to hotel after 2:00 AM. I will make up some post to tell you more about Chengdu.
Let me put some photo I took during my Xiamen stay here. I do not remember how many times I went to Xiamen – this is the second time I visit Xiamen this year.
2009 – Young Leaders’ Forum 2009
2009 – Baixing company outing
2008 – 3rd China Webmasters’ Conference
2006 – 2nd China Webmaster’s Conference
200x – Microsoft Channel Meeting
200x – Microsoft Company Outing
Gulangyu:
Xiamen island:
I wrote about Spring Airlines three years ago. At that time, the low cost airline just celebrated its first anniversary. Now, it not only broke even, but also made decent profit, and grew very fast. I am a Spring Airlines fan. Let me tell you why.
I Always Fly China Spring
Recently, I really enjoyed flying with China Spring. Wendy, me and Yifan fly back to Zhengzhou via Spring Airlines, and fly to Xiamen and back via Spring. The 99 RMB flight ticket is very attractive. But there are more than that. As a business person, I appreciate what Spring Airlines did.
Low Cost with Relatively Bad Experience
Many people complained about the airline. They complained this and complained that, but they never complain about the price. The secret the airline keeps the ticket so low is very wise.
The seats are very tight. It is very compact. They re-arranged the seats to allow 20% more seats than most other airlines. It is tough and painful to sit there, but other than complaining about it, how can people refuse to take that airline? The ticket price is low!
There are no food, not beverage, and no any service on board – just a bottle of pure water. My guess is, if it is not required by the government, they will remove that also (since it is not allowed to bring any liquid on board, they have to offer something to drink). You have to pay for anything else.
They sell things! This is the part they got most complain. From the beginning of the trip to the end, the flight attendants sell stuff at the front of the seats, and use the on board broadcast system. People complain that they cannot fall asleep. They sell from Disney toys, to MP3, to shaver, and they have plan to sell real estates, and cars. Everyone complain about it, but that is the way they keep the flight ticket price low. I would say they are genius to make the decision to intentionally offer bad experience to keep the cost low, and it works very well. Everyone complains and most of them continue to choose that airline.
On the baggage allowance, they are the lowest. On the time for reserved ticket, they are the shortest (if you don’t pay in 30 minutes after reservation, your reservation will be automatically canceled). On the turn over time, their flight will take off again after 20 minutes of landing, so they push the limit to move passengers as quick as possible, no matter you like it or not. They require you to use their website or call center to book (no other agents and dealer), and you have to have your online payment account ready before you are qualified to buy a ticket from them. Bingo! I love their style.
They also have unified aircraft – A320, and they fly 14 hours out of the 24 hours – compared to 11 hours of the industry average. It is common sense that aircraft only makes money when it is in the sky.
They are also planning to sell standing seats if they get the approval from the government. Yes. You see it right – standing seats on the plane. I believe if approved, they can further push the cost from Shanghai to Zhengzhou, or Shanghai to Xiamen to under 10 USD on regular basis.
I Love China Spring
I admit the operating philosophy of Spring Airlines sounds great for me. Every business wants to use good words to describe themselves – the best experience with the lowest cost! But we are not genius. The only way that works is to give up a dimension of value, and only focus on the other. Spring Airlines stands for low cost airline, and they stand firmly on that area. I firmly believe they will be doing very well in the future, and will buy their stock if they go to IPO.
I am currently in a small hotel called Yoyou Inn (photos) on Gulangyu. We have finished the 3 day of YLF 2009 Forum in Xiamen, and the three day extension trip, and got back from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou to Xiamen.
In the later 3 days, I was always on the road roaming from one city to another. Not just our American counterpart, I, myself, hasn’t been to other part of Fujian other than Xiamen an Fuzhou. Although I tried my best to avoid saying “China is blah-blah-blah” on this blog, I still make the mistake to pretend I know what China is on this blog. Obviously, the part I saw with our American YLFers is not exactly the China in my mind.
I will fly back to Shanghai tomorrow, and when I settle down in Shanghai, I will try to write more about this wonderful trip.
I’d like to take the time to thank Jan, Jon, June, the National Committee on US China Relationship and all participants of the conference of this year. I am so happy to spend 1/52 of my year of 2009 with the great people here this year.
During the discussion at night, we started to talk about voice mail – why there is no voice mail in China. I happened to write a Chinese blog about it more than one month ago: The Network Effect of Technology Application. In that blog, I argued that Chinese don’t use voice mail because of lack of network effect. Voice mail is only useful when more people (at least more than half) will actually check their voice mail if you do leave one, or people will often check their voice mail only when you get at least one voice mail once every year! (I setup an answer machine with Wendy’s and my greeting at home, only to receive one valid voice mail during the first half year before I gave it up). The reason there is no network effect (no other people using that technology) is because voice mail emerges far ahead of mobile phone, and people in China just frog leap from no phone to mobile phone. The same situation happened to Video Recorder in VHS format – the tapes of video. Chinese directly entered VCD era – the first home video system in most Chinese families are VCD. The same for fax machine, and newspaper classified. Oh. I remember I also wrote about it in an English blog: Why People don’t Use Voice Mail in China and later, Whole Society is the Biggest Network Effect.
Another thing that people don’t mention was, calendar. Do you have a Calendar briefly discussed about it, but again, it is something with some sort of network effect – calendar is only useful when everyone has one if you want to keep the exact time for meetings. Otherwise, your life will be miserable with delay of meetings, and no shows if you are the only person who are not flexible enough to move meetings randomly on that day.
Buddhism
One of the sharpest question about Buddhism during our visit to South Putuo Temple was about the high ticket price to enter most temple in China. In my personal view, with the systematic destruction and a little bit construction of religion in China, the Buddhism temple has gone to a path to tourism location. The original meaning of quiet meditation and peace in soul have been forced to count the revenue of donations, so they build bigger houses to attract more people. The improvement of buildings in a temple certainly cannot meet the stronger religious needs from the confused people.
A Generation of Confusion
I know our American friends were confused by the Confucius ideology and the materialism and needs for a higher moral standard in China. When asked how I feel, my quick answer is, I am confused.
China has entered into a stage of conflicts. Within a short period of 30 years, the rich and the poor, the money-centric culture, and the traditional virtue, the new laws, and old conflicting laws, the materialism and the remaining internal pride not to talk about it — all these things mixed together, in a chaotic way that many people including me are quite confused, and one way out (as many people take), is don’t think about it, if you don’t to be more and more confused. I talked a lot about that confusion in my daily life on this blog in the last 7-8 years.
American Songs
Heard an interesting song when going to Karaoke with American fellows: Love Shack. It is an interesting song – very funny for me to listen and with a nice MTV attached to it. The closest song I can find to match that style of 1980’s American song is the Mice Loves Rice about few years ago in China. It is nothing serious – just that type of song completely for fun with repeated sentence: “I love you, just like the mice loves rice”. It is an expression of simple, stupid, but true happiness, and people love that popular folk song. I am happy that people in China started to appreciate those songs without high morale standard in it (as opposite to those propaganda songs)
Xiamen
Another note about Xiamen. It is, as I always say, an amazing city. This is maybe the third time I am in Xiamen this year. Xiamen is just 299 RMB or 1.5 hour away from Shanghai, and the airport is pretty close to the hotel area (not the downtown – the hotels with beach), and you can safely treat Xiamen as the back garden for Shanghai (although most people say Hangzhou is the back garden). I love Xiamen and I love to put my meetings in this amazing city.
Day 1 of YLF 2009. Just finished the morning sessions, and the afternoon will happen in Gulang Yu (the tomorrow’s afternoon session will be in Nan Putuo Temple). The morning session was wonderful – the success and failures. My notes about the topic is, it is all about dimension, and the diversity of the standard, and acceptance for the failure. Will write about it later when we are back from the afternoon and night session.
Let me post some photo of the noon view of the nice hotel room.
My Spring Airlines 9C8807 to Xiamen is further delayed to 18:20. I am still at Hongqiao Airport waiting to get on board at a restaurant. Yesterday, I just read Feld’s suggestion: Pretending You are Luggage when you are traveling by air. I agree. Luggage never complain and is never in a hurry. The reception at the outdoor grassland of YLF will start soon, and this big luggage is still in Shanghai. Hmm…. Don’t complain. Drink some water, and continue to pretend I am a luggage.
Update November 04, 2009
I finally sit in my nice sea view room at Seaview Hotel. The flight was delayed by 3 hours, so I was stuck in the airport for 5 hours today. When I arrived in Xiamen, it was already 9 o’clock.
It was so nice to my old friend, Jan, Jon, June, Matt, Stacy, Rose, Jennifer, Biao, Reihan, and new YLFer there. Will go to bed now, and expecting the great session tomorrow.
I am flying to Xiamen tomorrow to attend the YLF 2009 (Young Leader’s Forum). Very excited and cannot wait to see the great people there.
I will be in Xiamen from November 4 to November 11 with the main session from November 5 to November 7, and the extension trip from November 8 to November 10.
It has been few days after Wendy opened her milk tea shop. Let me share some of my thoughts for this small business.
My Position
I support Wendy with all my heart, but I intentionally keep a far distance from the business. There are several reasons. First, it is Wendy’s business, not mine (well, although legally speaking, I am also an owner). I know it is her dream to own a shop, and I let her do it without interference. Second, to run a shop requires a lot of time and energy, and I have my business to take care of. Sometimes, to put a firm line and won’t over commit is a must in today’s world. It is more of a joyful journey than a serious business anyway. I want to be a helper and observer, more than a participants. If I retire one day, I may be very happy to join in, and deliver milk tea to customers. That would be very interesting (more interesting than sitting in an office).
Milk Tea and Happiness
I was surprised to discover the connecting between a milk tea shop and happiness. Yes. It is just a mom-and-papa type of small shop. But when you quietly sit from a distance of the shop and see smile on people’s face, you just feel good about it. Just like Disney, milk tea is a business delivering happiness to people. Restaurant? Maybe “decent”, “elegant”, and “just nice”, or book store – “knowledge”, “empower”… for milk team, the term connected to it may be “happiness”, “romance”, and “relax”. I will be happy if someone say: That milk tea is so GOOOD!
A tip for this specific shop: the standard flavor of the shop tends to be a little bit sweet, as many customers told them. So you can choose mild sweet when asked.
Staff and Post-90s
I realized many of the staff in the shop were born after 1990 – the post-90 generation. They are doing very well – energetic, with nice communication skills. I was actually surprised. They were all recruited on Baixing.com within 4 days, and Wendy said: Good job! and I am happy to hear that.
Location, Location, Location
As you can imagine, the location of the shop is the key to the success of the business. Wendy was very lucky to find a shop in one of the best location in Shanghai. That is at the exit of the busiest Metro station (People’s Square Station), opposite to one of the landmark of the area (Raffle’s City), and besides arguably one of the busiest pedestrian in Shanghai – the one crossing Xizang Middle Road. To be short, it is at the center of the whole city. Technically speaking, it is 371 meters away from the theoretical center of Shanghai (which is the Park Hotel). If you search “Shanghai” in Google Maps, the shop is 300 meters away from the point marked as Shanghai. It is also within the same block of that point – the location of the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Sitting by the shop at night, and seeing huge flow of people passing you, and see the nero of Nanjing Road, you surely know that you are feeling the pulse of the city. I love that location.
Best Wishes to the Business
As any new venture, there are risks, and returns, joys, and sadness, ups and downs. There is a good start. At least the next time, we know where to hold our blogger meetup. I guess the next time, we will do it in People’s Park, with milk tea delivered. I believe Wendy may be kind enough to give us special “Buy one and get one for free” offer. :)
P.S. Another good news. I finally got back my eBay id: jianshuo. I love a simple ID without ugly numbers attached to it, like jianshuo99, or jianshuo2009. Now jianshuo is my gmail id, hotmail id, Facebook id, twitter id, Paypal id and eBay id. It is pretty good evidence that I am an early enough adapter to most new services. My eBay id was already 7 years old.