Guess why so many people are queuing in Hymall (a big local shopping mall like Carefore Carrefour) in Pudong?

© Jian Shuo Wang

They are waiting to buy eggs.

© Jian Shuo Wang

I am not kidding. They still need to wait for more than 40 minutes to be able to buy eggs – cheap eggs.

The secret behind the scene is, the egg is on sale. The eggs will be sold at 2.50 RMB per/500g. According to the rule, only the first 200 customers were served. Everyone has allowance of 1kg of eggs only. The noon session starts at 13:30. (It was only 12:50 when I took the picture.) Many people have been waited there for a long time already.

So people may have some idea of how sensitive people are to prices of goods. Even the smallest change in price will trigger great demand. This is particularly obvious in Shanghai.

The rule also applies to Real Estate industry, the mobile industry and almost everyone in China market.

What an intersting and crazy idea: ATMs as WiFi hotspots. It is a cool idea because

• It has electricity power
• It must have a telephone line
• It is expensive (so people don’t care too much to put a Wifi AP)
• It is placed in crowded business centers where people more likely need WIFI
• People can easily pay for WIFI (if they are not free).

The original idea comes from nyc at typepad but I cannot access the site via my dial up to 16300 (User name 16300, password 16300). It seems typepad.com has been blocked. Anyway, the idea is cool. I love it.

How I eager to find a WIFI very soon? I am getting back from WIFI to dial up. There is no ADSL, no Cable Modem in Pudong. I just found out the FTTB+LAN by Telecom is also not opened yet although the line has been deployed to my room. I miss the Network Infrastructure in my previous home in Pudong. As you can see, the above are major broadband solutions in Shanghai: ADSL, Cable Modem, China Telecom FTTB+LAN, Greatwall Broadband…

I wrote about my dream travel destination at the begining of April. Now I found another place that is exteremely beautiful, even comparable with my previous Daocheng trip. Its name is Tahiti. Here are some pictures of the wonderful place.

Pictures credit: TVB via OnlyLady

This page provides very good information about all the travel related articles.

Tonight, I enjoyed the ice cream mooncakes from Haagen-Dazs. The Belgian chocolate flavor ice cream is really nice, as described on its web site: “When the first spoonful melts in your mouth the moment is pure pleasure”.

Haagen-Dazs changed its products a lot to meet Chinese styles and festivals. It seems Haagen-Dazs did great job in penertrate into the mooncake market of Shanghai. As I know, more than 10,000 joint-venture company employees received Haagen-Dazs mooncake certificates from efesco. This is also the third year I receive the Haagen-Dazs mooncake certificate. It must be one of the big deals of this

It is not long since Haagen-Dazs appeared in Shanghai. I still remember I attended the opening ceremony of Haagen-Dazs in Shanghai Center six years ago. Now, it has opened about four stores in Shanghai (based on the stores I know). There are two Haagen-Dazs stores near the building I am working in. One more store is under construction near my old apartmnt. It also expanded its coverage to Beijing, Dalian, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, according to China Online’s report.

I have chatted with Bill Lum about another European company IKEA. I told him the store is very profitable in Shanghai and Beijing.

“If there is a holiday or a promotion, there are sometimes as many as 10,000 people here, so many you can’t move”

said Linda Shi, PR manager of IKEA Shanghai Store

Source: siamfuture.com

It is very true. When the store opens in 1997, I have visited the store and only few people are there. The price in the store is considered very high. Now, every Saturday, there are so many people that “you cannot move”. It is more like a supermarket of furnitures.

They are going to the second store in Shanghai. With 35,000 square meters’ store area, the new store will be the largest IKEA store in Asia. I was very supprised when Bill told me IKEA opened a store in San Francisco only one year before.

Update March 30, 2003

New IKEA store will open on April 16, 2003 in Shanghai… FULL STORY