Call a Taxi on the Phone? In English?

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My friend dropped an email and complain about waiting for half an hour or even one hour for taxi everyday – seems he is living in a very “decent” place that even taxi won’t go there to break the peace of the area. He asked if there is any telephone number he could call to book a taxi. He does not speak Chinese.

Well. There are many numbers to call in Shanghai for taxi services, but not many offers English service, so far as I know.

My Preferred Call Center – Qiang Sheng Taxi

After the previous year, I have formed the habit to dial +86-21-62580000 for taxi services. There are many other lines, like 96822 from Da Zhong taxi, but the chances to get through to Qiang Sheng call center is much higher (Dazhong’s taxi is much better though).

I checked with the center. They don’t have special English service line, but there are some agents who are able to answer English phone calls. So just call it and say whatever language is not Chinese. If an operator cannot understand you, chances are, he/she switch it to a person capable of English.

Lunar Calendar is Moon Calendar

Lookup and see the moon tonight – it is full moon, and I know it is the 15th day of the 9th month in lunar calendar. The beauty of Chinese lunar calendar is, it always exactly meets the face of the moon.

Closed Trackback

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I removed the trackback script from the system which means there is no way to post track back to this site. I also removed the trackback information from the page.

The Death of Trackback on My Site

Three years, trackback brought a lot of fun to me, when not many people blog and not many people know about blog. That was really exciting expertiment.

Recently, many people know blogging, especially many “smart” spammers. They turn to use Trackback in a more efficient way than normal bloggers. They send thousands of trackbacks to my site.

After putting about 3400 different patterns and IP addresses into my MT-Blacklist, there are just increasing number of spammers join the Trackback Spam Club. I bet it will be a problem in Chinese blog sphere some time, but so far, so good.

In the last year, I deleted about 10 thousands trackback spams, and my blacklist is blocking several about 200 trackback pings everyday.

The Death of Innovation?

I regret to shutdown my trackback, and I believe many people will do the same after spammers get more and more smart. I hope I can reopen the system after I upgrade to MovableType 3.0 or higher, and get protected by better spam prevention tools. But for now, sorry.

Faithful for the Truth Instead of Dream

Trackback is a good idea, but periodically, before better anti-spam tools/standard is aviable, I am more concerned with the success of the content and reader experience, instead of insisting on a technology.

Just as DDOS attack educated that the Internet is built on a weak infrustructure, trackback proposes very high risk when someone what a DDOS to a site – how about try to enter 10G of data into the disk of a blogging system – if the system has 10G or more to fill?

I Hope I can Turn it On Some Time

Just like Push technology Channel failed in IE 4, RSS changed to a new way to do the same thing after several years, I hope we have better ways to leverage the idea of trackback after 3 years. I hope I can turn trackback again in Oct of the year 2008.

Four Must-See Roads in Shanghai

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Johnny asked about four must-see roads in Shanghai. My answer is:

  • Nanjing Road – for the commercial scene of Shanghai.
  • Shi Ji Road (Centuary Road) – for the development of the Pudong area.
  • Henshan Road – to know the beauty of residential areas,
  • Small roads in Yu Yuan – to discover the history of Shanghai

Enjoy your Shanghai trip on Shanghai street!

Chongming Hotel

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This question is rare, since not many people go to Chongming.

Dear Sir,

I visit your personal web site and blog site, because I trying to find

somes information about Chongming Island.

In fact I need to find a hotel on Chongming, where I will stay during 2

weeks for works, but I can not find any hotel information on the web.

Could you please help me and tell me if it is more easy to stay in Shanghai

and go to Chongming every day.

There are some hotels on the Chongming Island, but I don’t think they have websites yet. The only thing I can confirm is, it is impossible to going to Chongming back and forth on daily basis. It takes about 1 or 2 hour for the ferry. The hotel on the Shanghai side is not much better than the Chongming side unless you go to the downtown, which takes another 1 hour. Hope my Chongming Trip report helps to understand the distance.

Two Side of the World – Where Should I Stay?

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How interesting that on one hand, so many people are looking for services and goods and on the other hand, many services and merchants are spending too much but still cannot find customers.

I often receive emails to help on recommend good tour guide, hotel to stay, or places to buy stuff. Many times, I have to reply that I don’t have much more information than the information already on the Internet, or on my blog. :-)

I believe the difference is, there is not a strong TRUST between two side. Even though thousands of ads are running every day to tell you what is the best hotel, people (you and me) will still ask the question to our friends: What do you recommend to stay? We do NOT trust advertisement as much as friends. If people cannot find some friends who know the area – if no one from around has visited the place, they turn to someone they think a little bit more trustworthy, say, Jian Shuo in Shanghai for Shanghai information.

So to run a successful advertisement business, the key opporunity is, to build trust between the two sides…

Hit by Caribe.sis Virus via Bluetooth

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So exciting. One week after I switched to Symbian phone Nokia 6670, I was hit by a virus distributed via bluetooth.

Yesterady, when I had coffee at Starbucks, my phone ringed and displayed “die*_*lucky is sending you a file via bluetooth”. I accepted, and it promoted me to install an application. I realized something wrong happened. So I interrupted the installation and turn to Google for the name of the application:

Caribe.sis

Cabir replicates over bluetooth connections and arrives to phone messaging inbox as caribe.sis file what contains the worm. When user clicks the caribe.sis and chooses to install the Caribe.sis file the worm activates and starts looking for new devices to infect over bluetooth.

So Interneting Physical Replicated Virus

This is very intersting – I know someone around me – within 10 meters – carried a phone that was infected by the virus. How fun…

Friends Nearby?

I got very excited. Not the virus, but the fact that someone very similiar with me are within 10 meters away from me:

  • We use the same Symbian Nokia Series 6 phone.
  • We all enabled Bluetooth
  • We are in the same city, same district, and in the same Starbucks Cofee. There are just less than 50 people there.

If I were not in a business conversation, I would be really interested to stand up and look for the virus spreader… I thought of the application of Jambo.net by Jim and Charles. They install the application on laptop and detect other people with Jambo nearby via Wifi. It is the concept of Internet technology in a very specific area.

P.S. Shang Jin sent me this. Pure geek happiness again.

Where to Buy Digital Cameras and Phones

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Aliza asked:

Hi, I am looking to buy a digital camera in Shanghai, can you please

recommend a reputable store? I will be here for 2 more days.

In Shanghai, there are two major places where you can buy low price 3C product – digital cameras, phones, computers, MP3…

Metro City

Metro city is the traditional gathering place to buy these products. Here is the location:

The nearby Pacific Digital Plaza is also a good place to go.

Transportation: Metro Line #1 Xujiahui Station.

Cyber Digital Plaza

Transportation: Metro #1 Huang Pi Road Station

Cautious

They offer the best price, but it is too crowded inside. Be aware of pocket pickers. Many of the goods there are pirated (imported without tax), so there is no warrantee. Please be aware of the risks before going there.

Super Girl Concert in Shanghai

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Yesterday is next to the last day of the long vacation. Around 4:00 clock, Wendy suddenly brought up the idea to go to the Super Girl Shanghai Concert. Well. It sounded not bad. Although I am not a big fan of super girl – the competition, the TV show and the crazy SMS voting campaign, but I don’t think I am old enough to say: “Let those kids go there and play…”. The Super Girl Concert is a big event in Shanghai – at least in certain rage of age of people. How about just go there and experience the real-time effects of the end of this crazy show?

The Stadium

Shanghai Stadium is the largest gathering place in this city. The 80 thousands capacity is often used for super large event. It is the place for this Super Girl Concert. According to news, many fans arrived in Shanghai from surrounding areas.

The Ticket

We didn’t buy ticket in advance. We have been experienced enough that for these event, there must be enough escrowers hanging around. They offer last minute tickets that is typically cheaper. The risk is, sometimes when the tickets are too hot, you can hardly get a ticket. I think we can take the risk. Finally, we bought the ticket at the original price – 100 RMB (12 USD). It is a little bit closer to the stage than the 50 RMB tickets, but later, we found out the different is so minimal that we can ignore. Many people are selling tickets originally marked 580 RMB at less than 100 RMB. Instinct tells me that they are selling fake tickets. Before the show started, everyone is running, screaming – just like a war.

The photos

Here are some photos from the event.

shanghai-super.girl-color.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. Many colorful lights waving in the air

shanghai-super.girl-fire.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. The main stage

shanghai-super.girl-people.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. The stadium is completely full

shanghai-super.girl-stage.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. The stage is far away – I bought 100 RMB (12.5 USD) ticket. There is not too much difference whether I am 100 meters closer or further – it is just too far to see anyone on the stage. The telescape helped a lot

shanghai-super.girl-sticks.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. The shining sticks are full of the stadium

shanghai-super.girl-police.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. Enough policyman gathered to ensure safety

shanghai-super.girl-cars.jpg

© Jian Shuo Wang. Many cars outside the stadium

After the show

As expected, transportation is a big problem for any show like this. When 80 thousand people coming out of a stadium at the same time, there is no way to catch any taxi, any bus. The metro was closed due to the safety consideration – which is critical. We walked about 1 KM to the Xujiahui area, waited in the Metro city for a while and then joined the long line at taxis waiting area…

MU2043 from Luoyang to Shanghai

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I took the Luoyang to Shanghai flight MU2043 and safely arrived in Shanghai.

Luoyang is a small city. Around 12:30, I got on board a green CITROEN taxi – Citroen taxis are among the better class of taxis in Luoyang.

Luoyang airport is near the central of the city – about 10 km away. 10KM is a long distance in Luoyang. The road to the airport is very good, and more importantly, no too much traffic.

I remember when I was in primary school, we visited the airport – in my impression, it was quite big, but now, it seems just like a normal building without many people.

The Luoyang government spent much effort and money to keep the airport alive – for a city with just more than 1 million population, it can hardly support the operation of an airport. The Zhengzhou airport is just 1 hour of express way east of the airport, and the tickets are much cheaper than Luoyang… That is the situation 80% of the airports in China have to face.

Luoyang Trip Report

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During the Oct, I am back to my hometown in Luoyang. Here is the photo report of the city. Let me spend some time to explain what the photos mean. Please keep in mind Luoyang is a second tier city in China – it is not Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or a privince capital. It is just one of very normal cities in China with 1 million urban population and 6 million total population.

luoyang-jianshuo-phone.jpg

luoyang-jianshuo-phone.jpg

luoyang-new.city.hall.jpg

luoyang-real.estate-ad.jpg

luoyang-real.estate-fortune.jpg

luoyang-real.estate-today.jpg

luoyang-road.to.airport.jpg

luoyang-night

luoyang-new.district

luoyang-new.gov

luoyang-new.gov.front

luoyang-new.gov-building

luoyang-new.home

luoyang-trees.on.roads

DSC00248

Back from Donews Shanghai Meeting

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I am back from Donews Shanghai Meeting. It is a successful event. Recently, I have to give up some very good habbit, including “camera-on-hand all-the-time”. I don’t have a photo of the event to share, because I spent the whole afternoon talk with all great people and got around 100 name cards.

Donews is an IT community with many active users in IT industry and IT related media. Around 600 people attended the event – a very big one.

Shanghai is lack of this kind of peer to peer gather. There are no such big event in my memory. Shanghai has transformed into a great platform for IT startups.

There is a long list of people I want to document the meeting but I guess to go to bed is a better choice for me. :-)

Update:

shanghai-donews-meeting.jpg

Credit: Donews

Back to Tong Ji Univ. with Jun

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I am back to Tong Ji University again with Jun Tang, CEO of SANDA (NASDAQ:SNDA) and my old manager Hong-Wei Hua. This time, Jun presented his fantansitic experience in U.S. The students were so amazed by the presentation. The lecture ended about one hour later than expected because of students’ request to share more stories, and un-interruptable Q&A session. MC’s several attempt to stop Q&A failed many times. Meanwhile, a book named “Beyond” written by Miss Xie was release today. It is a book about Jun and Microsoft. There are some short paragraps about me in it. The book will hit the market tomorrow.

screen-jun-book.gif

Image from UUZone.com

Mao from UUZone created a portal specially for this book.

Shanghai Weather in Oct

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We are going to enter October.

October is among the best weather in Shanghai (if not contain spring in April). Typically, it is not hot and not cold – just the best time for people to live and visit.

A T-shirt can do and a sweater is also OK. The autumn comes. As the old sayings put it, it is the time you can wear whatever you want – not so hot and not so cold.

The average temperature in Shanghai in Oct is 18°C (66°F). The average high temperature is 22°C (72°F) and average low temperature is 15°C (59°F), according to the previous 21 years of record

The reason I wrote about this topic is, I found there are many hits from Google to my site when searching for “Shanghai Weather in Oct”

Comment System is OK Now

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I felt strange that there were no new comment after I posted my last comment at 25, 2005 12:55 AM. I thought it may because of weekend. To my surprise, I found the site stopped accepting new comments after that.

The reason is, I put “…” into the banned world list of my MT-Blacklist tool. Three dot means to match any three chracters. Some readers may lose some comments that they spent much time to write. Sorry for that. The good news is, the system is back to normal…

Do You Believe in Living Cost Index?

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The big difference between really living in a city and not is, you have better sense of the relative environment of a city.

There are many reports on living cost. Shanghai sometimes ranked very high in the list – in the top 10 most expensive cities. The recent 2005 report says, Shanghai is the 30th most expensive city in the world. One of the key factor is the change of RMB price.

What is the Standard

I don’t doubt that the report has been generated in a scientific way. However, I don’t know what the standard they are using. I didn’t check out the questionnaire, but I guess they may use a western standard. For example: the price of Hamburg. The price of a Golf course, the price of car, the price of apartment, the price of gym…

The problem is, there are many things like Golf and Gym that is not necessary in the life of Shanghai. The average cost of those rare activities is much more expensive than many cities, just like everywhere in the world. People in Shanghai can make good live with only several thousands RMB, while using the standard,, 10K USD may not be enough.

Living the Chinese Way

So my conclusion is, living the U.S. way in Shanghai is much more expensive than living the U.S. way in U.S., but to live in the Chinese way in Shanghai is much more cheaper than living the U.S. way in U.S.

100 Anniversary of Fudan

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Today is 100 Anniversary of Fudan University. Big congratulations to this famous university in Shanghai.

Typically, the two best universities in Shanghai are:

Fudan University

Shanghai Jiao Tong University

And people typically list the order with Fudan in the front.

100 Years of Fudan

Although China is an old country, there are not many old universities. SJTU past its 100 anniversary in 1996. Beijing University followed at 1998. Now, Fudan, and Tsinghua’s 100 anniversary will be held in 2011.

I have many good friends who graduated from Fudan. They are excellent. Fudan is more focused on literature and theoretical analysis. When I was in SJTU, students may be more fond of talking about Fudan’s higher rate of girls:boys ratio than SJTU…