Hong Kong MTR

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I was very impressed by the Hong Kong MTR. I have just uploaded some pictures of the MTR onto the photo section of this site:

hongkong-kcr.tickets * 1280 x 960 * (548KB)

The Hong Kong MTR ticket is very similar with the ticket in Shanghai. The difference is, it is much more expensive (9 HKD to go across the Victoria Strait v.s 2 RMB to cross Hong Pu River in Shanghai).

hongkong-kowloon.tong * 1280 x 960 * (600KB)hongkong-central.sign-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (596KB)hongkong-rocket.wall-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (493KB)

The Hong Kong Metro is colorful.

hongkong-signs-exit.mtr * 480 x 640 * (149KB)hongkong-mtr-inside * 960 x 1280 * (591KB)hongkong-quanwan.line-kcr * 960 x 1280 * (584KB)

hongkong-station-mtr * 640 x 480 * (147KB)hongkong-red.entry-kcr * 1280 x 960 * (593KB)hongkong-waiting-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (569KB)

Hong Kong is famous as a crowded city, but the metro was built with large scale. There are very big halls undergrand, many wide tunnels and enough elevators. I didn’t experienced jam (short delay due to too many people) there.

hongkong-large.hall-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (540KB)hongkong-entry-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (540KB)hongkong-slop.from.up-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (562KB)hongkong-slop-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (592KB)hongkong-ticket-seller * 640 x 480 * (144KB)hongkong-window-mtr * 1280 x 960 * (574KB)

I like the transition of the Metro most. From KCR to Central, I can always get to another line on the opposite side of the same platform as I get off. It is like Singapore. Shanghai and Beijing are different stories.

P.S. I am on business trip these days. I travel to a city, sometimes a county, sit down and have meeting with local customer, get on to a van, travel, and then sit down with another group of customers. I visit two places every day and sleep in a different city every day until this Friday.

How to Go to Hong Kong via Shen Zhen

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If you want to enjoy easy and relaxed trip, and you are not interested to save money at cost of time, just directly fly to Hong Kong from anywhere in the world. However, if you want to get there with a budget trip from mainland China, to visit Hong Kong via Shen Zhen is a cheaper choice. You can experience the KCR (Kowloon Canton Rail) and Hong Kong MTR (Massive Transit Rail).

I went to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. The ticket to Shenzhen I bought one day before the departure was 790 RMB (55% off). If I directly fly to Hong Kong, it is more than 1400 RMB for single trip. (Wendy bought the promotional package from Shanghai to Hong Kong and it is 1660 RMB for round trip). From Shenzhen back to Shanghai took me 700 RMB only.

Here is a route map I created based on my memory. I didn’t refer to a map when I created it so its anything but an accurate map.

map-shenzhen.to.hongkong.jpg

It is said the Shenzhen airport is 40 km away from the Luohu Custom Port. I took airport bus there and it took 20 RMB and about one hour (maybe 40 minutes, I do not remember). After I left the bus, as I expected, I was very confused since there is no single sign pointing to the destination many people are interested – the Luohu Custom Port, the gateway to Hong Kong. I asked four persons to find out my way to go to Luo Hu Custom Port. Two pointed to the right direction, one gave me the wrong way on which I met the forth person who were looking for Luohu too. She confirmed at least the way she came from is the wrong way so I turned and continued seeking. Later, when I approached the entry to the custom building, I finally saw the first sign pointing to Hong Kong – the typical Hong Kong style black bordered sign.

If you follow the same route, follow the following suggestions:

1. After you get off board the bus, turn left and go directly along the street for 200 meter.

2. Get to the over-head pedestrian bridge and go upstairs.

3. Go to the end of the road and turn right. (Never turn right along the road until you reached the end off the road)

Passing the Custom

Passing the customer is easy. Now, mainland residents still need a special Hong Kong/Macau Entry Visa to cross the border. There are not many people if it is not weekend. It took about 20 minutes to me, but others suggest to plan one and a half hour for it.

After getting into Hong Kong, I don’t need to talk about the route since everything became very easy and there are volunteers to help. Get onboard the KCR train (almost the same train like MTR), and transfer at Kowloon Tong (the only station) to MTR. After you reach MTR (or subway, or Metro), you can reach almost every corner of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.

See some pictures of Hong Kong MTR at my Hong Kong MTR Photo Gallary.

Hong Kong – the Amazing City

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I am back from Hong Kong with the late flight at 9:45 pm via Shenzhen. The Monday that just past was a busy day for me, after my absence in office for five weeks. Everyone including the Ayi, seems to have something to say to me. Now, I have left Shanghai and now I am sitting at the desk of Shangri-La Hangzhou. I will start my journey in Zhejiang from tomorrow.

hongkong-jianshuo-victorial.small.jpg

Jian Shuo before Standard View of Hong Kong Island. Photographed by Wendy.

Well. Considering it is already early in the morning, I won’t talk too much about the Hong Kong trip this time, although I have so much to talk about it. Hong Kong is an exciting and attractive city. This first time visit helped me to learn that there is still a very long way for Shanghai to catch up with the standard Hong Kong built and maintained, as a friendly metropolitan, as a business central and as a tourist city.

Here is what is the key learning this time. I will find more time (maybe this weekend) to explain the trip in more details.

  1. Hong Kong is a city with great usability (as Eric said). Look at the Hong Kong metro – so effective and so clear.
  2. Hong Kong is a communication intensive city – there are 5 times more signs, signal lights, yellow lines (on the road), posters and other ways of communities than in Shanghai
  3. I like boats there – the star ferry is fantastic. I also took private boats and fasterTurboJet.
  4. I love the islands around Hong Kong – we visited Cheung Chau, and Lantau (the Sea Ranch). – Thanks for Minji to host us on her small island.
  5. Hong Kong is an ideal place for hiking – surprise? I claimed up to the maintain along Mt. Davis Path to the Jockey Club Mt. Davis International Youth Hostel. It took me 35 minute but the view was breath-taking

I took about 600 pictures there and it takes sometime to upload it to this website. I will be back.

Acknowledgement

Wendy and Jian Shuo would like to thank Minji and the German girl (we didn’t know her name yet) for hosted us on their 50-residents island, and Eric for professional tour guiding.

Digital Words in Real World

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Zheng 2.0

Zheng was among the happiest blogger these days. He had a son on Aug 23. He called hsi son “Zheng 2.0” in his blog. Many people came and sent congratulations to the happy Zheng 1.0. (via IsaacMao). BTW, he said his son was “released”.

404 Error

Here is another example to use computer words in real world. The day before yesterday, we were busy working in a small lab when someone came to look for a person.

“Is Mr. Somebody here?”.

“404 Error” was the reply.

The man turned and disappeared. The rest bursted into laughter. Someone corrected: “I didn’t have the chance to tell him: 302 – Restroom on the 18F!”

This is the usage of the Status Code in HTTP Protocol in real life.

Maglev Schedule

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Update: Shanghai Pudong Airport Maglev Schedule

First train: 8:30 AM

Last Train: 5:30 PM

Interval: 20 mins

Ticket Price: 40 RMB

Highest speed: 430 km/h

Trip Distance: 30 km

Single trip: 8 mins

Effective since: March 29, 2004

I created an image of the information above and put the image into my maglev related page. I hope whenever there is a change in the schedule, I can change the image so all the information on this site about Maglev become current immediately. Here is the code:

<img src=”https://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/2004/08/24/screen-maglev-schedule.png” width=”640″ height=”240″ border=”0″ />

The schedule does not work for me. When I came to Beijing this Monday, the flight is 0840 and the first train to Pudong Airport is 0830. Fast as it is, it cannot help me to catch the flight.

Update May 17, 2007

The information was out of date. Please use this updated version.

See How Many Articles I Wrote

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Do you have an idea of how many is 722 articles? I had no idea before I print out the screen shot of the archives page on this site. Every blue line in the picture below that is too small to read represents an article.

screen-wangjianshuo-archive.jpg

Screen shot of Wangjianshuo’s Blog Archive page.

That is a lot! That is the accumulation of small effort everyday (of two years).

P.S. The screen shot was captured by HyperSnap. I tried the 15 day evaluation edition. It works great.

Dan Washburn Arrived in Beijing

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Dan Washburn finally arrived in Beijing after his first stage of around China trip. We met at a Hakka restaurant called Lao Hanzi.

He Lost Weight

When Dan show up at the door of the Fujian style restaurant, I hesitated to say hello to him. His face became slimmer after the long trip. He left Shanghai on July 1, 2004 and this is about the fiftieth day of his trip. He told me he did lost some weight. Well. To travel with limited budget is an effective way to lose weight. Wanner have a try?

The Trip

I am happy that Dan has completed the first part of his plan of visiting some remote areas in China. He has been to small villages of less than 4 thousands population and saw the poor along with the rich, the accident side and the modern side of China.

I bet Dan, as an American, started to learn the country more complete and thorough than many people who were born here. Dan mentioned his trip mate Jason, who was born in Shanghai. Jason went to several places with Dan in about one month. It is a nice experience for Jason since he learnt a lot outside the city. I encourage everyone who live in the city to go out to see what the country really look like. I was moved when I get back to the village and to western part of the country. I started to realize how different the lives in the country are.

Anti-American?

Dan talked about the experience he interacted with local people. “I was surprised that I never feel the Anti-American moods in any area of China, as I felt in other part of the world.”. It is true since for most people in China, they are more curious about people from outside, instead of “Anti-“. Japan is a special case though.

Dan Wants More Contacts

As Dan is moving to the northeast and to the west, he needs more contacts around China. As the “China PR Director”, as Dan has called me, I’d like to seek for help for Dan.

If you currently in any of the city/county in China where Dan has not visited, no matter how small the place is, (or how big), you can help Dan to learn more about China by being his contact in your city. Drop him an email so he may visit the place you are. You can find his contact information on his website.

Last Night in Shanghai

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The last night in Shanghai. Let me keep today’s post short so I can allocate more time with my family.

China has got 20 golden medle so far in the Athens 2008. It is a great achivement. Congratulations!

Last Friday, when I was busy with my Project Server 2003 setup lab, my friend Lei called my mobile and asked “Check out whose voice is it on the radio!”. He was driving on the road and happened to tune to the China Radio International. On the radio was my the audio of my last interview. I said: “Yes. It appeared to be mine.”. Ha. I am a little bit surprised that they did broadcast the interview. Thanks Shen.

Later, Wendy told me that Daine, the reporter from BusinessWeek, has sent me a copy of BusinessWeek. It is very nice of him. Wendy finally find my name in the magzine with my help on the phone. There is no F5 key on the hardcopy of the magzine. She said she was disappointed to discover that I was not in the cover story. I know she was kidding.

Shanghai rained dogs and cats today. It washed my car effectively. There are two kinds of rains in Shanghai – one only left dirt on your car and the other washes your car.

OOB Today

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I got back to Shanghai for weekend. I will go swim with Wendy and hold the update for this blog for one day.

OOB = Out Of Blogging

P.S. Shanghai is hot and my car (left there untouched for two weeks) seems a little bit strange to me and covered with dirt.

My Friend’s Apartment for Rent

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Eric finally decided to move to his new role within Microsoft in Beijing. I believe it was not an easy decision but he finally has the courage to move on. He talked about it indirectly on his post on his birthday. I cannot agree with it more. After working for more than two to four years, many people are coming to the point to make some changes and it needs courage to step out. We are seeing people making choices everyday. Congrats to Eric.

He is preparing to move to Beijing. So he has to think about how to handle his apartment at Xujiahui. I will definitely do him a favor to put an advertisement for the apartment. Please check this link for more information.

He called the apartment “a house with stories”. It is true. Any apartment is a venue (or container in technical terms) for stories. His blog reveals the wonderful loving story attached to this nice room. I have been there twice (or three times?) and had great time there with close friends. It is strange, even for me, to hand it out to someone else to live in it, let alone Eric himself.

He offered 3500 RMB per month for the 80 square meter apartment. Well. I won’t say it is the cheapest apartment in that area. Some offers lower. I know it deserves it. It is clean, with good taste of design and equipped with nice electronic applicants. His contact information can be found on his Apartment for Rent page.

Disclaimer: Eric is among my best friends in GTEC (I found 59 pages in this site mentioning the name of Eric – not all meant this Eric though). The information is provided as it. Make decision with your own judgment.

I can Swim Now

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Easy access to free (so called free) swimming pool is a big advantage to stay in a hotel. I have stayed in hotel for about one month. The biggest progress in the last month is that I can swim now.

I started to learn swim from Oct 26, 2002 (ops. That is almost two years ago). During the first year, I didn’t learn much and the swimming pool was almost a big bathtub for me. :-D The first breakthrough happened in Sanya. The nice sea water (with more salt and more floating power) helped me a lot. I started to be able to keep my head above the water. Wendy and I spent a lot o time in water during the three-day stay in the Holiday Inn. I’d like to show you the nice swimming pool there:

First used in this article: Sanya Travelogue – The Holiday Inn Resort

First used in this article: Sanya Travelogue – The Holiday Inn Resort

Why the nice swimming has to be built near the wonderful beach? I spent most of time in the sea and missed this nice swimming pool.

I can Swim Now

Today is another breakthrough. I found myself suddenly get used to the water and be able to swim along the longer edge of the swimming pool – about 25 meters back and forth. I guess I have continuously swam about 10 round, with is about 500 meters already. I couldn’t believe it because I can hardly complete the 25 meter track along the last time. It is called magic.

I love swim now and I can put swimming to my favorite sports list now. This is the keep takeaway I got in August 2004.

Interviewed by China Radio International

Just after I returned to hotel around 9:15 pm from the hospital of my college, the telephone in my room started to ring. I rushed to pick it up and it was Mr. Shen from China Radio International. We made appointment about the interview, on this blog. I guess the program will be online (should be on air) very soon. I’d like to thank him and Hailey, and Le who made it happen. I am very relaxed to talk with these nice people.

Hailey and Allen already put online a report at the headline of Real Estate Channel days before, titled Guanxi and Big Money Get the Homes in a Seller’s Market. It was about my story to buy a house in Shanghai, with my big silly picture there. I have to point out that the hot real estate market may have ended. The N-N-N policy (“No Price. No Reception. No Apartment”) was true in October 2003, but not now. Anyway, I’d like to thank them to make it online. It is said another article about my blog will go online (the web version) in another channel. I am not sure though.

P.S. China Radio International was founded in 1941. CRI broadcasts 290 hours everyday in 43 languages. It is the most powerful radio station for overseas audience in China.

Eric’s Birthday

Today is Eric‘s birthday. Happy Birthday to Eric

I seem Elegant?

Stephen commented:

One major deficiency is Mr. Wong so reluctant to reply to the enquiries you received some how made people think you are so elegant.

This reminded me that I didn’t reply comments as frequently as I did before. This is due to the pressure of my current project. I noticed I should try harder to keep participating in the wonderful discussion. Just let you know that I did read all comments but didn’t have time to reply – not because of elegant. :-D. Thanks Stephen for pointing it out.

Shanghai Taxi Colors

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Want to see real colors of the taxis, as I mentioned in this article? Here you are.

Dazhong

Turquoise

Qiangsheng

Yellow

Taxi Queue

The left most taxi with only a tail is the Indian Red I mentioned. The dark blue taxi between the Dazhong (Turquoise) and the Qiangsheng (yellow) taxi is from Blue Union.

More Pictures to Come

I am not in Shanghai so I cannot take more pictures of the other colors, especially the France Red taxis. But I will post them here.

Starbucks Tour in Beijing

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Yesterday, I spent 5 hours (from 3:15 pm to 8:15 pm) to visit 13 Starbucks alone the Chang An Street. I took about 3 pictures for each store. That is a long march – from the Fuxing street on the west side of the city to the Guomao street on the east.

screen-stabucks-visited.i.png

Yellow line is about the route I visited the stores

Along the way, I visited the Jianguo Gate, the Parkson Store, the Financial Street and the headquarters of major banks in China, and then visited the west commercial area Xidan, and long the street to the National Theater, and Qian Men. I even visited the south most Starbucks at the New World center – that trip was not pleasant at all. Although it is very near the heart of the city (Tian An Men Square), the south part of the city is far behind the north part.

I visited many stores, including the new Oriental Plaza, and then to Dongdan, Friendship Store and finally arrived at the China World Trade Center. It was a long trip and I will definitely find sometime to record the buildings I saw and the people I met during the trip.

Why Shanghai’s Taxi is Good

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There are 42000 taxis in Shanghai. Generally speaking, they are offering very nice service. Here are some of my old entries on Shanghai taxi.

Taking taxis in Shanghai

Shanghai Taxi Tickets

Typical Taxi Fares in Shanghai

Taxi Services at Shanghai Pudong Airport

Benz Taxi in Shanghai

More Shanghai Taxi information.

Why Shanghai’s Taxi Service is Good?

A taxi driver told me about the secret of management when I was in Shanghai.

People know there are several different color of taxis in Shanghai. If you observe carefully, you will find there will be only 8 colors of taxi in Shanghai.

Unique Color-ed Taxi

There are may taxi companies in Shanghai, and not every company are allowed to create its own branding color. Only taxi companies with more than 1000 taxis can select its own color for their taxi.

There are only 5 taxi companies reached the bar:

  1. Dazhong (Turquoise)
  2. Qiangsheng (Yellow)
  3. Jinjiang (White)
  4. Bashi (Light Green)
  5. Nonggongshang

Check the Background story – Why lot of taxi in Shanghai are red? section in this article.

All these companies care their branding very much and are competing with each other. They have highest quality standards.

Blue Taxi

All taxi companies with less than 1000 but more than 200 forms a union called “Blue Union”, and all of them are pained blue. All these companies are strictly monitored by the Blue Union for service quality.

Indian Red Taxi

For other smaller companies, like those with 40 – 100 taxis, they are all painted red – or to be more specific, the Indian Red. The service quality is generally lower than the big companies or Blue Union. It backed the general practice in Shanghai “Avoid Red taxis”.

France Red Taxi

To be fare to the good taxi drivers in smaller companies (less than 200 taxis), a new brand is introduced. It is called France Red Taxis. They are selected from 30 taxi companies (out of the 300 “Indian Red” taxi companies) with prove good service qualities. The France Red Operation Team monitors the quality of this type of taxi and they sometimes provide even better service than the big names.

Well. As you can see, the 8 colors represent the service standard in Shanghai. I would rate them in the following order

  1. Turquoise taxi ( Da Zhong)
  2. France Red
  3. Yellow taxi (Qiangsheng)
  4. Light Green Taxi (Bashi)
  5. White Taxi (Jinjiang)
  6. Blue (Blue Union)
  7. Indian Red (Others)

Beijing should learn from Shanghai on the management of taxis.

Athens 2004 Olympic Opening

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http://www.athens2004.com/

Now I am here in waiting for the opening of the Olympic game. China is 5 hours earlier than Athens. When the Opening Ceremony of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games starts at 20:30 on August 13, 2004, it is already 1:30 AM in the morning of August 14. I just called Wendy. Wendy will not watch it since she will continue to learn to drive tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM.

screen-olympics-google.com.gif

Image in courtesy of Google.com

It is exactly 4 years before the Olympic comes to Beijing in 2008. The city is preparing itself for the coming game. I am now on the 8th floor of Shangri-La Beijing. Beside this newly decorated old building (from 1980s) is a planned second tower – which is higher and bigger than the current one. It will be completed by 2006. It is obviously Shangri-La is betting a good revenue stream during the Olympic Games (and after it).

As what Shangri-La does, other hotels are moving to Beijing. Ritz Carlton will open at Financial Street in 2006. JW Marriott will open a new hotel in Beijing at 2007. The hotels are helping build Beijing as a better place.

But at the same time, the full pause of all major Olympic stadium hits the headlines of major media today. People in this city or in this country started to calm down from the cult for Olympic and recalculated the cost and decide to change designers of the stadiums. The Beijing Olympic Committee also delayed the construction to 2007 from previously planned 2006. This is nice move, isn’t it?

http://en.beijing-2008.org/

Athans 2008 Olympic Game in Greek

Doorplate not Used in Beijing

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Shanghai is unique in China, although it is more similar with western cities.

In Beijing, it is rare to use doorplates to locate a place. Instead, they use landmarks.

Even though some land marks have a door plate, but almost no taxi drivers can easily find the place when I only tell them the address like “29 Zizhuyuan Road”. Instead, people use “near …. bridge”, or “opposite to … building” to describe a place.

However, it is not difficult to use this convention in Beijing. Beijing’s street is either north-south or west-east, and there are always big buildings/bridges/gates at the intersection of major roads. By pointing these landmarks at the intersection, they basically specify a latitude and a longitude on the map. Buildings in Bejiing are larger in size and easily to find.

Pause for One Night

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The left-most finger of my left hand started to feel pain. I suspect I am using keyboard too much these days and I have the bad habit to use the left SHIFT key only, for capital keys on both left hand and right hand. I pause the blog tonight to rest my left hand – or to be more accurate, the left-most finger.