Monthly Archives: April 2010

Nissan Teana 2.5 XL

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I started to drive the new white Nisson Teana. We still haven’t given it a name yet, but will surely do that in few days. Here are some initial thoughts

Bigger Car is Not Necessarily Better than Small One

For the first time, I realized that bigger car is not as convenient as small car, especially in crowded city like Shanghai. I picked up my feeling of a new driver again – on the elevated highway, I started to complain the lanes are too narrow. At parking lots, I have to reverse the car to the narrow place – before, I always dive into the parking lot without even slow down too much – the benefit of a small car.

CVT

The Teana CVT’s impact to driving is obvious. When I accelerate, the engine’s speed is always 2800 round/min, and stick there as a constant. That is very different from the 5AT automatic shift, or manual shift.

V6

The V6 engine is very quiet. That also brings a problem. Wendy forgot to turn on the engine for several times. There are not very good ways to identify whether the engine is on or off without look at the big orange Start button. It is too quiet.

Keys Always in Pocket

My favorite part of the design is, you never need to bring the key out of your pocket.

When you go near the car, the car is automatically unlocked, and you can press a small button in the handle to open the car. Then you just need to press the big orange start button to start the engine, and you are on the road.

At the destination, you just left the car. If you are 85cm away from the car, it is locked automatically, and the front lights are closed. That is a very nice feature. I know myself better than anyone else. I tend to be attracted by small stuff like this than the power of the engine.

Need More Time

There are many great feature that I have not explored yet. I need more time to get used to the new car.

Yifan’s Song – Night of Military Port

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Yifan loves to sing. In kindergarten, he will routinely sing a song for the class before everyone goes to bed at noon.

Here is his newest song – night of military port 军港之夜.

I know, you must be saying: Yifan grows up so fast. I feel so too. Yifan can learn a song in one night, and sing it in an accurate way – much better than his father. Another interesting thing about Yifan’s learning behavior is, he tend to listen to the same song again and again without ever giving it a try. The first time he sings it, he always sings from the beginning to the end corrected. That always surprises everyone.

Expo Taxi and More Blurred Night Shots

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More Expo news is coming from this blog. I am reporting 3 km away from the Shanghai 2010 Expo site.

Expo Taxi

I am not a big fan of this idea – to manufacture 4000 special taxi just for the Expo. My proposed plan is to leverage the current taxi system, and expand it. If the standard is not good enough for the expo, why not take the opportunity increase the standard?

However, when I see the taxi, I am still impressed. It looks nice. The 3600 Volkswagen Tourans look much better than I thought. Hmmm…. That is the good side of involving a big private company – Shanghai Volkswagen instead of everything done by the government (look at the advertisement for Expo in the Times Square in New York!) Good PR for VW.

© Jian Shuo Wang

I was luck to catch one of the first 100 taxi this morning, but I am not luckier to get a full shot of it.

Since no public vehicles can enter the Expo site, including taxis, they issued license to these special taxis to enter the site. Question: will the 4000 taxi serve the 400K people per day? Let’s still bet public transportation like Metro, and bus.

Expo at Night on April 1

The Expo lighting work is finished. From the South Pudong Road, you will see part of the Expo site.

© Jian Shuo Wang

With the laser lights with all colors shooting into the sky, Expo site at night is amazing. I asked “What is the meaning of an Expo?” With the lights, and the scene, I just fell an Expo is wonderful (if we put aside all the cost related to it aside for a moment).

Reward for Shanghai Citizen

Although today is not a good day to announce anything formal, the party secretary of Shanghai (who ranks higher than mayor in the Chinese power hierarchy) announced today that every household in Shanghai will get a free expo ticket, and a public transportation card with 200 RMB in it to show the appreciation from the government for the support and understanding.

That sounds good – a good and friendly move from the government.

Update April 2, 2010

Saw another Expo taxi at Gongcheng Road near Jiaotong University.

Bet is Greatest Tool to Increase Visability

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I just made a bet with college in my company. The bet is like this:

The loser will travel to a city in the middle of Hunan province named Loudi (Loudi on Wikipedia), and take a photo before the Loudi Train Station at the end of this month.

Here is the transition plan:

K859 4:54pm – 9:08AM Shanghai South Railway Station – Loudi

K80 – 2:02pm – 4:53am Loudi – Shanghai South Railway Station

This is an interesting practice. We all have goals. Most of the goals are easier to accomplish with the peer pressure. Run Liu put it this way: “The best way to accomplish something (like passing an exam, or losing weight) is to tell all your friends that you are going to do it.” By increase invisibility, you setup some pressure for you that you cannot remove by yourself. The only way out is to work hard on it.

A bet is like this. It draws excitement for everyone involved, and a great way to show case that you are serious about it.