Singapore Second Impression

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I am at Orchard Hotel at Singapore, on the famous Orchard road.

This is my “second impression” of Singapore – the first impression was about 10 years ago.

1. Singapore is far from China. I was surprised that there is no time difference after 5 hours’ of flight. Then with the help of a map, I figured out that it is at the same longitude with Kunming in China, only moved to 1 degree north near the equation. That was my major mistake, since I always thought Singapore is somewhere very west.

2. I read the autobiography of its formal prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. The development of Singapore is very unique, and not replicable.

3. Singapore is small. Xiamen is maybe one of the small cities that is like Singapore – It is also on an island. Singapore’s surface is 710.2 sq km, and Xiamen, is 1,565 sq km, about twice the size. Singapore has about 4 million people, while, in China, there are 39 cities with urban population more than 4 million. If we count the rural populations under those cities, the list can be longer (the 30th largest cities in total population, Tangshan, has 7 million people). So, it again reminds me to put things into perspective, and don’t simply transplant rules in Singapore to China.

4. Having said that, I found there are many great ideas and learning from the experience of Singapore, like the greenization effort, and using English as a comprise for all the people there.

5. Singapore airport is still the best airport, and they are trying harder. I was selected as a participant in their usability test. Two college age girls followed me to tour the airport, and asked interview questions to me about how to improve the airport.

6. The people I met, mainly in airport, and hotels, are very friendly. They speak different languages. The reception who looks like Chinese does not speak Chinese at all. They are from Philippines. The FAQ in my mind was, what language the person is speaking in. Lerry even got confused when waiter speak Chinese to him: “Which language she was using?”

7. I was completely blew away 10 years ago on Orchard road. Now, with more big shops like the new LV flagship store, I just don’t feel more excited than Huaihai Road, and Nanjing West Road. Singapore is great, but I am growing up, and my standard changes.

8. Thanks Prof. Tan for the great arrangement, and picking us at the airport. I felt very welcomed, and taken good care of. Looking forward to talking with about 300 students in National University of Singapore tomorrow.

Beijing Traffic Jam on Wide Roads

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Check out how wide the road of Beijing is, and how terrible the traffic jam of today. Thanks to lee who posted this to the Internet:

copyright: Lee from t.sina.com.cn

Yes. Beijing has a problem in transportation now.

Update and Correction

People sent me message and tell me it is not like Beijing. At a closer look, I believe so. Sorry for posting confusing message, and it is the time to re-enforce my rule on this blog: only post something I personally see.

Injected the Measles Vaccine

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Following up the question: Shall I Sign for Measles Vaccine, here is the update. We finally signed the letter, and had Yifan injected the Measles Vaccine.

Few days before, immediately after Beijing reassured everyone that it is voluntary, the kindergarten Yifan attended posted a poster and said, it is mandatory. Although they offered a form of two choices, they said any claim not to inject will be invalid, and should be chose again…. The kindergarten closed at 12:00 at noon in Friday, and ask parents to bring their kids to do the injection.

So, based on the information I collected, although not 100% sure, we feel OK to have it. Hope everything is fine. If anything happens, it is about 100 million kids that we are talking about.

Singapore e-Visa

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I was impressed by the efficiency of Singapore government. They issued an e-visa the second day after I submitted the application, although the standard processing time is 3 days – an example of “under promising, over delivering”.

The e-visa is just a printed paper (just needed for airlines to check-in). The real visa is in the computer system, and will be validated with my passport.

The visa fee is 153 RMB (30 S’$). It is valid of two years, and multi-entry.

Good. I am happy that I can visit Singapore at any time. If there is cheaper airline ticket, that will be better.

If you are interested in the event I am going to participate, check here. Thanks for the kind sponsorship from the School of Computing of National University of Singapore for the trip.

This will be my second trip to Singapore, with the first one about 10 years ago.

Why Chinese Citizen Needs Visa Everywhere

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I got an invitation from Prof. Tang (via Mingliang and Hua) of National University of Singapore to deliver a talk on a seminar there. Then, I visited the Singapore visa office very early in the morning to get a visa. Every time I apply for a visa, either for United States, Australia, Singapore, or other places, I cannot stop wondering why Chinese citizens need to apply visa for almost every country existing on this planet.

Henley Visa Restriction Index

Here is the Henley Visa Restriction Index of 2010. The score means the number of countries and territories which can be entered without a visa by a citizen of the respective country

Rank Score

1 United Kingdom 166

2 Denmark 164

3 Sweden 163

4 Finland 162

4 Luxembourg 162

5 France 161

5 Germany 161

5 Italy 161

5 Netherlands 161

6 Belgium 160

6 Japan 160

6 Spain 160

7 Ireland 159

7 Norway 159

7 United States 159

8 Austria 158

8 Portugal 158

9 Australia 157

9 Canada 157

9 New Zealand 157

10 Switzerland 156

11 Singapore 155

12 Greece 153

13 Iceland 151

13 South Korea 151

13 Malaysia 151

14 Liechtenstein 147

15 Malta 146

19 Hong Kong 140

25 Israel 133

28 Brazil 130

31 St. Kitts and Nevis 121

47 South Africa 88

48 Montenegro 86

49 Russian Federation 83

51 Dominica 80

65 United Arab Emirates 64

69 Thailand 60

71 India 57

74 Bosnia and Herzegowina 53

77 India 50

84 Egypt 43

84 Vietnam 43

88 Nepal 38

88 China 38

90 Pakistan 36

92 Iran 34

94 Lebanon 32

98 Afghanistan 26

China ranks 88 in all the countries, a little bit better (but not not significantly) than Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran, and Pakistan.

What’s up?

I am interested to know what are the 38 countries/territories that gives free visa access to Chinese citizen. I checked the list, and didn’t find too many countries I am familiar with. A note said, China was on their list mainly because they give free access to every country, so China was not intentionally excluded.

What is the reason? Can anyone familiar with this matter share some ideas about it?

My guess is, the root cause is the Chinese government. Currently, the only countries that China gives visa free status are: Negro Brunei Darussalam 文莱, Singapore and Japan. The visa free period is as short as 15 days.

Visa free status should be equal. If China requires visa for citizens of another countries, the common case is, they need to do the same, unless some countries who really don’t care about the diploma affairs.

Why China require visa? That is an even harder question to answer. I only knows the government even requires visa to its own territory like Hong Kong, Macau, and previous Shenzhen. Well, the politically correct version of visa is, the Hong Kong, Macau Pass – which can be only applied to another passport like booklet, but not passport – and adding additional burden and waste.

China also have the established Hukou system to effectively create a visa system within the country. People move harder within the country than most people moving across countries, and sometimes, it is harder to do it for Chinese citizen to move to another city than moving to another country (for example, moving to Shanghai is harder than moving to Canada and Singapore).

With that tradition, I believe it will take long enough for China to waive its visa for other countries, and longer for other countries to wave its visa requirements.

Photos of Hong Qiao Railway Station

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I didn’t make a mistake here. It is NOT Hong Qiao Airport, it is the Hong Qiao Railway Station.

Before many people know it, the Hong Qiao Railway Station at the new Hong Qiao Airport Terminal 2 has operated for quite some time. It is the new station serving the highspeed trains from Shanghai to Nanjing, Hangzhou, Beijing and future destinations.

Location

It is exactly at the west side of the Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2. It shares the same building with the Hong Qiao Transition Center (Metro Line #2, and Line #10, and future Maglev, if they are lucky to be able to build it), and the T2. You can basically walk from the railway train station to the Hong Qiao airport terminal 2, but it is a pretty long walk. You can also take the Metro for one stop (got the idea about how far it is to talk at the basement of the building?)

How many Train Stations in Shanghai?

There are many, but only three of them really matters.

The Shanghai Railway Station, which serves most of trains from the north and west for Shanghai; the Shanghai South Railway Station, which serves most trains from the south, and the Hong Qiao Railway Station, which is built just for the high-speed trains. They are not strictly divided by destination. So do check your ticket before get onboard a taxi or metro train.

The Photos

This train station is, again, as most Chinese buildings, the newest, biggest, and nicer train station, even better than the recently build modern Shanghai South Railway Station.

Below is the B1 level of the station, where all passengers arrive. Unlike all the design of train station I saw in China, this tunnel is not just a tunnel. It is a shopping center by itself. On the right hand, you can see a row of glass doors. That are the exit from each platform, and on the left, are the food court, and shops.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

The departure area of the station is at level 2. It is a big area of seats, with check-in gates arranged on the both side. Thanks to the transparent high ceiling, it is pretty pleasant to wait there for a train trip.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

From the top, where they have a McDonald’s floating somewhere near the ceiling, you can see the seats better.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

This is the McDonald’s I was talking about – hard to recognize – somewhere near the ceiling.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

From the middle of the runway on the top, it is a symmetric view.

Hong Qiao Long Distance Bus Station

Besides the Hongqiao Airport, Maglev Station, Metro Station, and Railway Station, it is also a big Long Distance Bus Station. Here is the roof of the station, which is on the west side of Railway Station.

The ticketing office is at the B1 of the station – passengers can directly get here after getting off train.

Good luck!

8 Years of Blogging

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I almost forgot about the 8 years of blogging anniversary if my reader hadn’t notified me about it. We should celebrate it a little bit, right? (Well, as always, I don’t want to be too high-profile of it due to our respect to the people who lost their lives in 911 – The two days are just co-incidentally the same).

8 years – about 10% of one’s life – with daily blogging. Isn’t it crazy?

Shall I Sign for Measles Vaccine

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Yifan got a letter to parent from kindergarten. It is about a sudden action to inject Measles Vaccine for the upcoming nationwide measles immunization campaign. That was a big shock to me.

Only after I got the letter that I realized that it is not just for Yifan. Parents of more than 100 million children in China received the same letter, and the deadline for signing the letter is just tomorrow. There are about 3 days for us to decide whether to accept it.

I was very shocked that a campaign involving 1/60 people on this plant, and all of them are just between 8 months, to 4 years old, just come out so quickly, and quietly, and the deadline is just tomorrow. That of caused caused panic among parents. All kinds of rumor started to spread like wild fire in the parent community, suggesting not to sign it.

This happens at the background that people’s trust in the health system has maybe reached to the lowest point in history. The poison milk, the AIDS infection from injection, and recent early-mature of kids… We don’t have much confidence that it is safe to inject anything the government requires. Ironically, my panic does not stop when the spokesman from Beijing claimed it is absolutely safe – the memory of “There is absolutely no SARS” was just 7 years ago.

What decision shall I make for Yifan?

How Startups Enter China?

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My friend asked me a question:

It is stupid to ignore China market for any startup. What is your suggest for startups to enter China market?

My quick answer is: Don’t.

My alternative suggestion is, enter China market by putting your headquarter in China.

I have many successful entrepreneur friends in the Silicon Valley, who don’t have China presence yet (and I suggested them not to do it), and I also know some great American in Shanghai who have amazing business in China. In contrary, I also know many of my local friends who were laid off after working for the Shanghai branch offices for startups in US, or Europe.

Why is that?

Startups are constrained by resources. With resources, I mean in terms of people and money. It is NOT constrained by market size. Either US or China is big enough, way to big for a startup to explore. Concentrate in one market, and setup the model before expansion.

The more important question to ask is, whether you want to start up the company in US, or in China.

Advanced Asphalt Road Paving System

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At Haibin North Road 海滨北路 of Weihai, I saw the most advanced road paving system I have ever seen.

The system consists of many big machines, lining up for about 200 meters. It completely automated the work to pave a new Asphalt road. The whole army of trucks moved slowly, but after them, the old broken Asphalt is turned into new and ready to use road.

This is how it works.

The machines on the trucks at the front use fire to burn the existing asphalt surface of the road, to make it soft.

Then a big machine dig the old asphalt out, and put it into the middle of the road.

The old asphalt will be mixed with some new.

The mixed raw asphalt will be transferred to the top to continue to heat.

Then it will be put into the road again and heated on the road.

Finally, a road roller will be responsible to pave the whole road.

Look – shining new road is ready!

They work on one lane at a time. After few hours, the whole road is ready, and will be opened to traffic the second day.

Weihai by the Sea

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This is the second day I am in Weihai 威海. Here is some observation during the day.

Where is Weihai

Weihai is at the tip of the Shandong Peninsula, at the other side of the Korea Peninsula. In that area, there are four major sea-side cities: Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai, and Rizhao.

My Impression

Weihai is a newly raised city. According to the plate number, it is 鲁K – traditionally, the capital city of the province is numbered A, and the cities are then number according to significance. K is not a very top number.

It turned out, as many Chinese cities, especially cities along the sea, the city has developed very quickly. The most big buildings are either government building, or new residential area developed by developers (just as the situation in Luoyang). Below is the building of the People’s Bank:

Guess what is this? The local Police Office.

The two statues near the sea.

The art center:

The Shandong peninsula is generally green and nice.

We saw it when the aircraft was landing.

The team spent nice time at the beach this afternoon. This was before we took a group photo.

Blue Sky of Shanghai

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We are flying to Weihai 威海 this morning. I wake up earlier than before to get the new Hongqiao Airport Terminal 2. On the way, I took some picture of the rare blue sky of Shanghai.

After paying attention the pattern of blue sky in Shanghai, I found out it is a rule that whenever there are wind from the sea (south-east wind), Shanghai will be very beautiful, especially after a typhoon.

P.S. I am in Weihai, and had two wonderful sea-food meals already.

We went to Qingdao and we really loved it. We want to visit somewhere near Qingdao in area. It turned out Weihai is not another Qingdao.

Yifan’s Happy First Day in Kindergarten

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Yifan’s first day in kindergarten was great. He was very happy when we sent him to the kindergarten. He was singing a song when we stepped into the gate. He went straight to the LEGO in his room.

He cried briefly when his mom left, but basically enjoyed the day. The teacher reported that he ate well, and slept well this noon. Great!

Yifan as Apple Fan

Wendy bought an iPad, and Yifan naturally can play with it. Kudos to Apple Inc. to make it so usable. We bought an Apple T-shirt in Apple Company Store at Apple headerquarter, and dressed him up with the new T-shirt. The front reads: “Hello. I am a Mac”, and at the back is an Apple logo.

Here are some photos of Yifan with his new Apple T-shirt.

Does T-Shirt Matters?

Interestingly, the little boy has already have many T-shirts with hi-tech logos. Before he was born, we already had some Microsoft baby T-shirt. He wore Microsoft T-shirt from 6 month to 1 year. Then he started to wear eBay T-shirt (with a “Future PowerSeller” in the front). Now, he is wearing Apple, with a Google T-shirt in his bag to kindergarten, in case he need to change.

Parents influence the kids in many small ways. The T-shirt they wear may one day influence their interests… This is my hope.

Typhoon Hits Shanghai

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Typhoon is coming to Shanghai tomorrow. It will be the first day Yifan go to kindergarten. His teacher in kindergarten sent us SMS that the kindergarten will be closed tomorrow due to typhoon. So, Yifan has one more day at home before he can play his favorite cars in his classroom.

Take care, my friends, if you are in Shanghai or southeast coast of China.

Cost Structure of the Kindergarten

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Yesterday, I posted about the new kindergarten near my home. In the comment section, people are very interested in the low tuition – 180 RMB per month per person. That is just the tuition. The meal per day is 6 RMB, which is about 120 RMB, plus some minor fees. In total, it is not expensive at all. Why?

The Public School Sponsored by Developer

It is a public school. Most private school charges much higher than that. Before, Yifan attended a pre-kindergarten care. That charges about 1600 RMB per month – a pretty normal one. The better private day care charges about 300 RMB per day, which is basically 6000 RMB per month, which I didn’t choose.

Public schools are typically cheaper.

The Developer – Dahua

This particular kindergarten is not 100% government school. The land was sponsored by the developer, and the developer built the building – a very nice one.

By developer, I mean the Dahua Real Estate Development Company (their actual translation may vary). They built the building for free and gave it to the government. Why?

The whole Dahua residential area was developed by a single developer. They got huge piece of land in the middle of Pudong. They are going to build 3 million square meter of commercial building in more than 10 years. Yes. I didn’t made a mistake here. It is 3 million square meter! Altogether, 100 – 200 thousand people will be living in the building they developed. That means, it is bigger than most cities in the States by its own.

The tricky part of the story is, when Dahua got the huge piece of land about 10 years ago, the house price per square meter was 3000 RMB. I moved here in 2004. The house price was about 6000 RMB. Now, the newly built house is priced at 20-30K per square meter. The land price didn’t change. Think about it. If they can make a profit at 3000 RMB, what the profit it will be at 10x of the original price.

To support the high house price of the area, the developer also need some basic infrastructure. So they want the best kindergarten, and school to move it. Compared to the huge profit they are making, the building of kindergarten is even smaller than a rounding error.

The Government

According to the president of the kindergarten, besides the developer Dahua, the local district government also put 2 million RMB per year into the school. Since it is in the public school system, it is the routine.

The Kindergarten

Finally, when the building is ready, and the money is ready, then there comes the kindergarten. With the urbanization process, it is easier to build the building, to have the land, and the money ready, it is harder to get the right process. So they invited the Oriental Kindergarten staff to run this newly built kindergarten.

Finally, the three parts were put together to make this one possible.

Yifan’s Kindergarten

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I cannot believe it. In three days, Yifan will officially start his kindergarten life. This will be a great milestone for him. The kindergarten starts from Sept 1, 2010 – the official school date for almost all schools, and kindergartens in China. I attended the first parents’ meeting yesterday.

Don’t get confused with Yifan’s current kindergarten. Yifan was in another kindergarten for two months:

Yifan Started His Kindergarten Life

Yifan’s Second Day in Kindergarten

That was pre-kindergarten child care. From Sept 1, he will be officially enrolled.

Yifan’s Kindergarten – Shanghai Oriental Jinxiu Kindergarten

With the rapid urbanization in Shanghai, there are new kindergartens being built every few years. Yifan’s kindergarten was just finished – barely finished with the workers still busy moving the building materials out of the campus. Yifan will be the first batch of kids attending the school. Interestingly, with 23 classes, it will be the largest kindergarten in Pudong area.

The Building

When I started the blog, I wanted to share events around me with my readers, so people can “virtually” experience the life of Shanghai. I am happy to share the new kindergarten.

I am very satisfied with this one. It is within walking distance from where we live – just one block away. Yifan can walk there easily.

The building was designed by an American architect – that is the typical way for an organization to show off the “quality” of their building.

This is a corner of the building. The building is a three-story closed building formed the shape of a square with courtyard in the middle.

This is the entrance:

The big hall full of toys. With the recent kindergarten accidents in China, they obviously strengthened the security. Parents cannot enter the kindergarten after 8:30, and the local police sent policeman every day.

They have a nice playing field – the toys, and equipments are still under installation.

I heard they have swimming for the kids. It is not finished yet.

Yifan visited the kindergarten after the parents’ meeting. He obviously enjoyed the cars, and toys here.

They have cute chairs, and tables. I checked our their class room – there are four rooms in it.

One is living room – where they play and have classes. The other equally big one are their bed room with about 20 small beds in it. They will sleep between 12 to 14:30 in the noon.

The third room is the entrance where they place a lot of equipment there.

The forth is their restroom.

This is the courtyard in the middle of the building.

Cost

This is a public kindergarten, so the cost is very low. Because it is a newly built one, and they haven’t evaluated and given it a grade yet, it is charging by a lower standard.

The cost will be 180 RMB / month (that is about 25 USD). Cheap, isn’t it? For this particular case, I am satisfied with the public service of Shanghai, although in most cases, I feel desperate because of the lack of resources – med care, for example.

This is the scene of the parents meeting. They have about 20 students for the 3-year old class – junior class. For each class, there are two teachers, and an Ayi.

Hopefully, Yifan will love his new kindergarten and start his new life smoothly.

Yifan’s Kindergarten v.s. Mine and my middle school

Yifan’s kindergarten is very nice. The facility is much better than my middle school, not to mention primary school in Luoyang.

This reflected the change in both cities, and time. It is a new kindergarten built 20 years from my age, and it is in Shanghai, one of the most advanced cities in education, and Luoyang is one of the underdeveloped city.

Another change is, 30 years ago, I was not able to attend a kindergarten because of I didn’t have a Luoyang city Hukou (residential permit). The result is, I never attended a kindergarten. But fortunately, I spent extremely happy time along the rivers, and neighborhood, with a home key hung on my neck.

Now, kids at the age of Yifan can attend the kindergarten even without Shanghai residence, as long as they are in the school district. (Well, the Shanghai local residence are given priority in enrollment though). That is the change in the last 30 years.

Journalist Should Not Be Director

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Last week, I received an interview from ICS (International Channel Shanghai). The program is ICS news.

I regretted that I didn’t insist not to take the interview. I have decided not to take interview from the local media, especially TV media, but finally, I said yes.

Then it comes the filming. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience inn talk show programs from ICS. My favorite is “Culture Matters”, which I have been with their program for 5 times. I enjoyed the style of Sammy who is the host, and also the CEO of Sunny TV. He brought a lot of modern journalism style to the program. For example, they only record 30 minutes in total for the 20 something minutes program. That means, they basically broadcast all the content without too much editing. For other talk show like “Crossing Over” with Hong Huang, it went on well, although not as good as Culture Matter.

This is the first time I appear on News type program. To my surprised, I found I became an actor, and the journalist became the director. They have a script to record me in a restaurant, explaining the menu in English, to a foreigner. I don’t like that idea. I think it is stupid and not relevant to what I do. Finally, I firmly said no to the request on that section.

The few minutes shooting was on air at 9:00 PM the same night. I didn’t bother watch it. The key point is, I want journalism to be an observer, not the director. I want to be the person I am, not to act in a script. That is the key conflict in belief.

I know that is the way news is produced in China, even the English language news with expat as audience. What I can do is to stay away from it.