Expo China Pavilion – Oriental Crown

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Here is the Shanghai Expo 2010 China Pavilion, a.k.a Oriental Crown.

Taken by Jian Shuo Wang on March 8, 2009

It does look like a crown.

Where is it?

It is located the crossing road of horizontal and vertical axes. The photo above was taken at the Shangnan Road 上南路 and Pudong South Road 浦东南路. This cross road is also the terminal station of the current Metro Line #8. BTW, Shangnan Road will be the main axes for the Expo site.

The Architect

The China Pavilion is reported to cost 1.5 billion RMB. It is also one of the first visible architect in the Shanghai Expo Site…

The color of China Pavilion is red. They have a special name for this exact red: Gugong Red, ( 故宫红, or Forbidden City Red). If you see the rendered photo of the completed building, you will find out it is exactly the same red as the walls of the Forbidden City.

The shape of the China Pavilion seems to be created by wood. Imagine you have many toy bricks (long and short), you can create the same architect without any fixing equipment. The whole China Pavilion looks like everything is just put on a pile.

Rendered effect of China Pavilion. Photo in courtesy of Shanghai Expo 2010 Site

The 63 meter tall building looks much taller than it actually is. I guess it is because of its size – it is not higher than most of the buildings in Shanghai, but it is still may be one of the biggest buildings in this city.

The Wisdom of Chinese Architect

The wisdom of Chinese accident wooden architect is, they don’t use nail or fastening things like that. They just put wood part on top of each other. The core is, the wood has too be carefully crafted, so they fit each other perfectly. It is as simple as that.

The whole China Pavilion, as a whole, is just one of the basic element of Chinese architect. It is called Dougong 斗拱. Look at these pictures to understand what it is. Dougong is just the complicated supporting structure on top of a pole in a big building.

This structure started from 2000 years ago (700 BC) till today, and the architectural blood line passed on to 2010. I love this design a lot.

The next time you check out a Chinese wooden building, look up to the top of the big poles, and you will see a Dougong, or in the future, I guess people may say: “There is a Expo China Pavilion on top of each pole of Chinese accident architect”.

“We Thought…”

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In the gray cloudy Saturday morning, I sit down with Elliot Ng, and other friends in Meeting Place: Starbucks at Jinyan Road, Pudong for some free chat. For some reason, we talked about contrast of people’s belief and the reality of this world.

“We Can Change”

To better understand the different, I found by adding “We Think …” to whatever statement twist the meaning a lot. Even more interestingly, adding “We thought …” to any statement is even more clear about the difference.

We talked about Obama’s slogan: “We can Change.” By adding “We Think”, it becomes

We think we can Change

By adding “We thought”, it becomes

We thought we can change

(No offense at all. I am not joking about the slogan itself at all. Using it is just because it is so famous and widely spread out.)

The idea is, by adding something like that helps us to really understand the difference between what we believe and the reality, and face the fact that we don’t want to admit: What we think is not always what the reality is.

“Is this what they told you?”

Another interesting story is about how to distinguish what we were told and the reality.

Long time ago, when our close friend Clair left Shanghai for a small town in France to join the nuclear power station, we had a dinner to say good bye to her. Naturally, we worried about the safety to work in a nuclear station.

We asked: “Is it safe there?”

Clair answered with full confidence: “No worry at all. The radiation level in the nuclear plant is less than 1% of a normal X-ray check. Blah blah…”

Someone looked at her with full sympathy and asked: “Is this what they told you?”

Pretty embarrassingly, Clair admitted that this was what she was told…

I am not saying nuclear plant is not safe at all. The point is, sometimes, by asking “Is this what we were told?” to many questions helps us to understand the difference between the information we get, and the difference of the reality. Although many times, the two fit each other, most of the time, they don’t, at least not in full.

Be Sensitive to What We Think, and What We Were Told

What we think comes from what we see, and what we were told. What we see or touch or smell is also just what we were shown (by people. or by the nature). Be careful to use our perception and the reality.

Train is Better than Car to Hangzhou

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I am back from Hangzhou via CRH Train. I would still highly prefer train over cars to get to Hangzhou from Shanghai, especially for international visitors. Here are some advantages of train:

  • Train is faster – 1 hour and 30 minutes for train, but car can easily take 2 hours – both does not include the travel time in Shanghai or Hangzhou city.
  • Train is safer – I am not happy with the safety record of Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway (aka A8). You have to deal with many full stop on the road – scary.
  • Train is more modern – look at the photos of Hangzhou-Shanghai train, and Beijing-Shanghai train – it is so beautiful – just like a five star hotel.
  • Train is smoother. Of cause you don’t expect that the train is completely still at speed of 170 km/hour, but you just feel very comfortable sitting there. Don’t try to stand up thus – you cannot stand there without holding something if the train is turning directions.
  • Train is reliable – 1 and half hour – with error within several minutes.
  • Shanghai South Railway Station – this is the bonus tip: You will regret if you don’t use the Shanghai South Railway Station during your stay in Shanghai – it is wonderful.
  • Train is better for a group of people – either poker or chat is good on train, not car.

So, the next time, I would use train over car – always.

Finished Talk in Hangzhou

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Pretty late now (12:55 AM), and I am sitting at a budget hotel at Hupan Garden 湖畔花园. It is 160 RMB (discount of 20 RMB comes Jim Sang, who is their frequent guest). Jim said the advertisement of this residential area stated many years ago that this is the only villa area in Hangzhou that you can hear the song of birds.

This garden is more famous in Internet community because of its connection with Taobao, and Alibaba – all of them are born in one villa in this area. People believe in Fengshui a lot and said this area has good Fengshui.

The Talk

The Shanghai-Hangzhou Talk happened in Dafeudi 大夫第 (not sure if this is the right pronounciation of the name) near edushi office. The attendant list:

As the last time, it is very educational talk for me. I may need to take some time to write down what we talked during the night. Conclusion: it is good to visit another city from time to time and gather some CEO friends to talk about how to run a company.

P.S. Logistic side, we drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou, took about 2 hours.

Eighth YLF Meeting in November

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YLF 2009 Time

Just got email from Jon that the eighth YLF (Young Leader’s Forum) meeting will happen in November 4-8, 2009, in China. The location is not confirmed yet. I am very expecting to join the meeting and see my old deep friends there.

WWW Conference Developer Track

Yesterday, just one day before the deadline, I managed to review the 11 papers assigned to me. I am pretty flattered that some of the paper sent to me are actually pretty important persons, like Matt, the architect of YUI… Hope the conference go on well in Spain – I don’t have plan to attend in person though.

Shanghai is Rainy

Many people complained on twitter about the rainy Shanghai, and look forward to the arrival of Spring. I am the same – it keeps raining, and raining. Shanghai is not in rainy seasons yet. How come?

Hangzhou Trip

I am leaving for Hangzhou in few minutes. I am expect to meet with Xiaowei from edushi.com, and other friends there – a traditional Shanghai-Hangzhou gather. When the Shanghai-Hangzhou train is built, the trip will be 38 minutes from Hong Qiao Airport to Hangzhou. I am sure that will impact the development of the two cities a lot.

Tired in Shanghai

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The recent Shanghai Daily Article We’re tired, say office workers caused some discussion about the pressure level of office workers in Shanghai.

FEELING tired is the top complaint of local office workers, followed by worries over their jobs and emotional problems, according to an online survey.

And the following finding put a smile on my face:

Global travelers and artists were considered the people with the most enviable lives and the survey found that the best sources of happiness and satisfaction came from going to places they had never been before and staying with family or people they loved.

Exactly. At least I feel the same – to go to places I have never been before is one of the key happiness source I can imagine, and the other one, staying with family members or people I love is also a great source. I want to say, at least the survey revealed exactly what I feel.

Am I Tired?

Sure. I am pretty tired these days after the Spring Festival. The fast pace of Shanghai drives people crazy, and some people even escaped to villages (Do Chinese Move to Small Cities)

YouTube Blocked in Shanghai

Just got message on twitter, and then confirmed by myself: YouTube.com was blocked here in Shanghai (I am using China Telecom ADSL). When this happens, you know there are either conferences going on in Beijing, or something happens. Hmm… It is not news at all for any content site to be blocked, especially user generated content site like YouTube.

Tera Wellness Club

Tera Wellness Club is a premium gym. It is building a new gym near my home, and to be completed very soon. @dianakuan said on Twitter:

Shanghai tweeps – How do you excercise? Gyms and yoga studios here seem way overpriced.

I do agree – over priced gym + yoga is a characteristic of Shanghai. But anyway, to have a new option near my home is a good thing – I can use not to use it, but I cannot choose if it does not exist.

Civitology and Shanghaiology

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Had a cup of coffee with @David Feng about Civitology and Shanghaiology. David did wonderful job in taking pictures and record every metro station in Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.

What I learn from David during our conversation is the western popular idea of “dummy proof”. “There are many be mistakes of giving too much information, and there are mistakes of giving too little information. If we can choose, we the first mistake” David explained, and he also talked about a sample equation: “Instead of giving 3+7 to your user, give 10”.

Pursue of preciousness is reflected in the whole website of civitology, and I admire the work he and his local team did.

Civitology and Shanghaiology

What is Happening in Shanghai

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Looking at twitter, and you can find out many people’s story related to Shanghai. Here is what is people are doing around Shanghai. Hit F5 from time to time to get update. You see, Shanghai as a big hub with many people coming and go, and they have something in comment – they are twitter users, and love to share what they are doing.

    Congratulations to Xiaoliang and Tangjing

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    I am in the Liudao Resort to attend Xiaoliag and Tangjing’s wedding. Xiaoliang is not only my business partner, he is also my good friend. In the last four years of Baixing.com (a.k.a Kijiji.cn), we went along the same ups and downs, and we have built enough trust possible. We are more than friends, and I am very happy that Xiaoliang finally get married – counting as another marriage after Jiachen/Yeyun and others.

    Baixing is a company strong tight of families – like most successful enterprises in China, we are not just working in the same company, 4 years of similar experience helped me to build strong personal connections, not only between our people, but their spouses – we are the same batch of people attending each wedding ceremony, and other important events for every people, like birthdays.

    Happy wedding for Xiaoliang and Tangjing. I feel very happy about your wedding, and hope you get a great future in the speed just as your exceptional run to the stage. I am a little bit over-drink today and feel drizzle now with the effect of full cup of white wine, but I still want to write down in the room 214 of Liudao Resort about my wishes.

    I just hope, that one day, when the business is really successful, ever shareholder of the company gets his/her own deserved part of the success. Most of the time, when I think about my personal mission in this company, I feel that I do need to make more rational decisions, and see the future more clearly to bring the team to final success. Think about the 20 employees in 2005, and 2006 who are still in the company, and many new friends joining the company, I feel I have a much greater responsibility than running the company, it is more in a sense of personal responsibility for the happiness of many families. That is also an integral part of entrepreneurship.

    Let me just stop here, and get back to the wonderful evening. Although I didn’t attended the Dongfang of Xiaoliang and Tangjing due to Yifan’s schedule of sleep, I want to wish Xiaoliang/Tangjing a happy marriage, and I am sure the friendship between the to families, and even Yifan and their future children is long-lasting – much longer than a company or our limited life lasts.

    It is nice to attend best friends’ wedding, isn’t it?

    I need to go sleep now.

    Written at Liudao Resort on February 28, 2009 (YLF)

    Jian Shuo Wang’s Talk on Lunch 2.0

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    Let me briefly record the transcript of my talk on Lunch 2.0 meetup. I talked very fast, and may be only used 3 minutes. It was supposed to talk about my business baixing.com. But as always, we want to be low profile about what we are doing, I talked about something instead. It is basically based on a Chinese blog article about entrepreneurship I recently wrote.

    I started by saying “I am Jian Shuo wang, CEO of Baixing.com. It is a online classified service that provide housing, jobs, second-hand, services, and community. Since the business model of classified is so simply, let me talk about three things I learn from 4 years of my company”. Tomorrow is actually the 4th year anniversary of baixing.

    Then I said about the first learning:

    First, Focus. After doing many different things, the CEO of blogcn.com, a blog hosting company, to claim that he spent 4 years to learn that blogcn.com should really focus to blog. That is also what I learn. Baixing is all about doing classified well, as Dianping.com is created to do dianping well (reviews). Many company started with an idea to do something, but it is too easy for us to forget what were are supposed to do.

    That was my short first point. The second:

    The second is, cost. We discovered a magic formula that no one else in this world every understand: Profit = Revenue – Cost. (laughter). In good times, we only care about revenue, because founders look at valuation of the company. $1 in revenue may make $20 difference in valuation. They don’t care to spend $10 to get $1 revenue. Today, luckily, everyone is getting back to the essential of business: spend $1 to get $1.10 back. That is the reason we look at cost.

    Then I talked about the third learning.

    Third learning, simplicity.

    We want to add more features, but never really understand the cost of it. We are all tech companies, and we know to add a comment feature is just few hours of coding. But when we put it online, we learn a new word: spam. Then we need to hire people to moderate it. If we are talking about people, we are talking about hiring, firing (if you are “lucky”), creating report, review report, and everything related to people management. You need to bring people out for dinner, and think about moral building. Back to feature. Someone may want to delete a comment…

    “CDE!” my audience laughed.

    Right. Like CDE.. Then you need to create a cool concept called user account, and they need to signup, set password, change password, and stupid people like ourselves may even forget passwords…

    Think again before adding many feature.

    OK. That is the three things I learn from my past 4 years as an entrepreneur: focus, cost and simplicity. Thanks

    Pretty short talk, isn’t it? I guess it is just three minutes.

    Expats More Need Community

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    I just attended the Lunch 2.0 organized by George, invited by Gang Lu and Calvin. As I described in my last blog International Events in Shanghai, I was surprised to find out it is a pure international event – the expat entrepreneur community meetup.

    The conversation is in English – I delivered short 5 minute speak along with my old friend Zhang Tao (CEO of Dianping.com, and host of this Lunch 2.0), and new friend David Feng of Citiology. The attendants, as I expected, are mainly expat entrepreneurs in Shanghai

    This leads me to think about community needs in a city. It seems to me expats need community much more than local people. The scene here I saw in Lunch 2.0 reminds me of the similar Chinese engineer meetup in the Silicon valley. It seems it is much more easier to organize such groups in a foreign city.

    People has the need to talk with people of the similar background. In US, Chinese people traditionally tend to live in China Town, and int he recent twenty to thirty years, people from mainland China going to US are mainly students for higher education, and there are many groups connecting them, like the Huayuan Science and Technology Association..

    In Shanghai, it seems the same is also happening. This time, the community seems to be around the young entrepreneurs, rather than students. Many years ago, when I just started my blog, I also joined some of the expat community, and at that time (early 00’s), expats in Shanghai are mainly professional managers in big international organization, like Microsoft, Motorola, or P&G. They are not interested in doing business. Their topic is mainly about where to shop, how to hire a nanny, and is it safe to to here, or there, is it safe to eat this or that, or is it safe to …..

    Good. I see the change, and expect more changes happen.

    International Events in Shanghai

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    I don’t know about you, but I feel that there are more and more international events in Shanghai. To be more exact, by international, I mean events organized by expat community (people not native in China), and use English as the main language, plus the international (western) style, and format.

    Lunch 2.0

    Let me give you some example. Tomorrow, I was invited by Gang Lu, blogger of www.mobinode.com/ and Calvin, founder of Qifang.com to attend an event Lunch 2.0 Shanghai (facebook page) in Dianping‘s office. It is not a surprise for Shanghai to have entrepreneur meetup, but from the RSVP list, I have a feeling that this event is very international. At least I am very sure there are some people on the list who don’t know anything about Chinese, and from the name and background, I am sure another 10 people should use English only. Hmmm…. I didn’t expect that. Shall I ask whether I should use English or Chinese in delivering this speech?

    SXSW @ M1NT Shanghai

    Another event is SXSW @ M1NT Shanghai. I heard about it from Elliot Ng. Obviously, from the speaker list, and from the attendant list, and the venue, you know two things. First, it should be an English centric community. Second, there is already a very big expat entrepreneur community in Shanghai already. Look at the successful companies our international friends have built here in Shanghai.

    Entrepreneurs’ Organization – EO

    Introduced by Alvin Wang of minfo.com, I started to notice EO – the Entrepreneur’s Organization. They have a Shanghai chapter. Alvin said many great things about the organization – it is all about thoughts sharing among annual 1 million USD above revenue company CEOs and founders. I checked the website, and to my surprise, it seems to be another English speaking community – I checked the photo gallery here.

    More in the Past, and More to Come

    There are some significant difference in these events and the Shanghai local events.

    1. English speaking.

    Of cause I suspect we speak a lot of Chinese, but insist to say Chinese unless you don’t really want communication, and want to provide an excellent chance for our friends to learn oral Chinese.

    2. Western style.

    Although the events happens in Shanghai, it is completely in western styles. The venue are in top places in Shanghai, and the expense is of cause pretty high. The decent bars, and social events are not common practice in Shanghai yet – we tend to go to a tea house, or more often, go to a big restaurant have setup some big tables of food.

    3. Expense.

    This also interesting. Lunch 2.0 charges 22 RMB, according to the previous event. SXSW @ M1NT Shanghai charges 100 RMB and 200 RMB at door. EO Shanghai charges about 20,000 RMB annually to be part of it (well, this is not the case of an event, but… still pretty expensive)… Charging for conferences, and events are common practices in US (which commercial conference is really free in US, or Europe), but it is still not the common practice in Shanghai yet (“Conference? Do they cover accommodation and flight? No? How come?”)

    My 2 Cents

    I think it is the good sign that Shanghai, after 80 years of isolation (I am counting from 1930’s), Shanghai is getting back to the international community. I noticed more and more international events are adding Shanghai as a stop along with San Francisco, and London. Hmmm… Good thing. I would expect the the local community may need some time to get used to this kind of diversity. We need to be more open about this, and let the both community to integrate together.

    For me… It seems get English as a second language is getting more important. :-) and to be a bridge connecting the two side world is also meaning work to do.

    Good luck to all the events, and communities.

    Virtual Physical Name Card

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    If I sent this link to you, I want to sayGlad to meet you. Sorry that I didn’t bring my name card with you today. Here is my Virtual physical name card. Keep in touch!

    If you just discover this link by yourself, continue to read about why I posted this.

    Sometimes, I went to meet with people only to find out I didn’t bring my name card. I promised to send to them later, and most of time, I did. The interesting thing is, many of them, we know each others’ contact information already (like email and mobile phone), but just feel the need to exchange a card to get complete information (title is one of this information that we seldom directly ask). So I take a picture of my name card (two pictures for both sides) and post it online. It feels better to see a real name card than VCard.

    A Blogger at a Media Event

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    What happens if a blogger attend a media conference designed for journalists? This was what happened today, when I was invited to join the Australia Pavilion Foundation Completion Ceremony. Here is my observation.

    Amateur vs Professional

    It seems everyone in that room was there simply because it was their jobs.

    There are officials from both Australia and Chinese government – should be pretty routine job for them to participate in events like this. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean it is not important, but to do ceremonial thing again and again may cause people lose the real passion doing that – just holding wedding ceremony many times may cause the bride and groom to lose their passion for love at the moment of exchanging finger ring.

    There are PR agency, food vendor, logistic vendor, venue service people there. They are doing their job (well done,BTW). They are professional. All the attendants: journalist and camera men all went there for work. They are professional. It seems I am the only person who are there just because of curiosity (with a warm invitation).

    This is an interesting contracts for me and inspired me to really think about the line between amateur and professional about doing anything.

    Working people

    Amateur with Attitude of Professionals

    Sports, for example, are often amateur for most people. However, I found people who do it with the attitude of profession enjoyed it much more than others. People like running get nice running shoes, and record how long they run, and do many research about it (like guys Yiqipao). We are amateur in most things – there should be only one or two things we think we are professional (the things we do to make a living). In the end, the line between professional and amateur is really blurred.

    Professional with the Passion of Amateurs

    The more interesting thing I learnt from today’s event was about doing professional things with the passion of the amateur. Look at the people who participated in the media conference. I am sure if I have to attend all the similar events and have a pretty big news report waiting for me to write, I will lose my passion too. I won’t do what I did today. (I used the stair to go to every floor, and examined every corner I am allowed to in the building).

    Looking at what we do in offices! We are profession, and we do it professionally. But if we imagine we are just the walk-in stranger, and we can discover much more of our daily life than otherwise.

    The Right Combination

    To combine the attitude of the professional and the passion of the amateur may be the best case possible. Thanks for the opportunity today to be a professional amateur, and an anmateur professional.

    Australian Pavilion Foundation Completed

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    I am currently sitting at the audience seat of a special event: Shanghai Expo Australian Expo Pavilion Foundation Completion Ceremony. I was invited by Ogilvy Public Relationship Shanghai as a "journalist" of digital media – interestingly enough, this is the first time. The original ceremony was planned to be held before the Australian Pavilion construction site (wow!) but now it was moved to a conference room inside the Expo Land building due to the heavy rain this morning. As you can imagine, it is not fun at all if you have to get to the center of a construction site in this weather. Pretty disappointed, to be honest, and I want to find other ways to get into the site – I mean before the Expo starts. I am a big fan of construction site.

    The Australian Pavilion

    The Australian Pavilion has been shown in Metro stations and along the roads across the whole Shanghai. I just understood that the reddish color of the pavilion symbolizes the red earth of Australia – I didn’t think about it yet. 

    image 
    Image in courtesy of Australia Pavilion and Shanghai Expo website

    Photo taken by Jian Shuo Wang via Nokia N78

    The Meaning of an Expo?

    Many of my readers, my friends, and even me for some time were wondering why there should be an Expo at the first place.

    Culture Event

    The Australia Pavilion, for example, has a big performance center with capacity of 1000 people on the 3th floor of the pavilion. There will be art performance there (daily?).

    Imagine that even without an Expo, how many culture events happening everywhere across the globe? You see many performance from many countries in the Oriental Performance Art center, and events like France year in China, and China Year in France. What a great idea to have an altogether party for every country to participate? That is the idea behind World Expo.

    VIP Business Areas

    According to the materials they distribute, there will be 200+ invitation only business meetings inside the pavilion. Whoever challenges about why have meetings should admit that it is way more effective to have gather everyone in a bigger party, than having many 1:1 meetings. A big meeting involves one travel arrangement for each party, while the other way means thousands of travels from so many parties. To have a business meeting center inside the Pavilion is a great idea. I am sure many pavilions do the same. To have a 100-day "big meeting", it brings everyone from the world to gather in one site (Expo Site), and help to facilitate communication and boost business opportunities.

    Australian Food

    This morning’s event include show case of Australian food. According to the organizer, the food were prepared by the same food vendor for the Australia Pavilion in 2010.

    Photo taken by Jian Shuo Wang

    Photo taken by Jian Shuo Wang

    I am not a big fan of food, and it is a waste of resource to give me really good food (especially western food – I just feel I am a rabbit). For breakfast, Baozi + Bean Milk seem a better combination than cake + orange juice. I believe that is the reason to have food exchange program to help people understand the difference of food.

    BTW, when Mr. Peter Tesch, Commissioner-General of the Expo effort from DFAT fo Australia told us what to expect, he mentioned “The drinks will be cold, and the food will be delicious…”. I thought to myself, it would be a great chance in this Expo event to help to translate the meaning of “the drink will be cold” into Chinese, because, for Chinese people, if you say, the drink will be cold, that is worst thing. We say, the tea will be hot… :-) By mixing the culture and business of Australia and China together would be the most beneficial thing I can imagine in the coming expo.

    The New Logo

    The new logo of the Australia Pavilion is very nice. Without any explanation, I can recognize the Australia map, the blue sky, the red earth, and the golden sand beach. I would not have had the ability to understand it without my rewarding trip to Australia in October 2007.

    Good luck to the construction of the Australia Pavilion, and look forward to experience the great “Journey” the Pavilion promised to 70 million visitors in 2010.

    P.S. Anna sent me the picture of the Australia Pavilion construction site:

    shanghai-australia.pavilion.construction.jpg

    Credit: anonymous

    It seems we didn’t miss too much today. :-)

    First Impression of Shanghai Expo Site

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    Note: this entry was overwritten by another one for some time, and I have now recovered it

    Well. To be more exact, this is my first impression of the Shanghai Expo planning headquarter which is located partly inside the Shanghai Expo Site.

    Where is it?

    The Shanghai Expo Building is located #3588, Pudong South Road. Coming from the north of the Pudong South Road, you can see a 12-story building with big ExpoLand logo on it. That is it.

    What is it for?

    To prepare for the Shanghai Expo, Shanghai government setup a special organization called Bureau of Shanghai Expo Co-ordination. Even people like me who don’t really understand the Chinese government structure can see the significance of setting up a standalone bureau in a government means.

    The Bureau of Shanghai Expo Co-ordination is located on the second and third floor of the ExpoLand building. I found it out both by the name plate at the entrance and by intentionally got lost twice.

    The fourth floor is the conference facility, and most of the floors above 4th floor are occupied by the Shanghai Expo Land Holding Co. Ltd. That must be the reason why this build is marked as ExpoLand building. I suspect (not sure) that it is the same structure as most other mega projects in Shanghai: The government will setup a holding company (instead of a government agency) to interface with the participating countries and organizations, and do it in a pretty market oriented way. They have done this successfully in the construction of Shanghai Metro and most of the bridges and expressways.

    The Buildings

    The entrance of the Shanghai Expo organizing center is petty narrow, but when you enter it, you will see many buildings (11 as far as I see).

    Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

    Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

    Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

    These are all the buildings with busy people preparing for the event.

    Below are the new buildings – seems to be many office buildings spreading out along the Huangpu River – from the lowest on the south and taller at the north area.

    Inside the building #1:

    My Impressions

    1. The Expo is Near. You can see people busy working there, and the sites are being built.
    2. Very professional organizational work. I have a strange feeling that I am in a company, not a government leading initiative. The design and internal facility inside the expo building mislead me to believe that it is a normal company that I have visited. Pretty big contrast with the traditional government image.
    3. International. It is by no means just a Shanghai effort. People from many countries participated. I saw many people outside China working there. The dining room is big and impressive. I believe they are as involved as organizer, if more than them.
    4. The standard is high. I just feel at the background of city development of Shanghai, the expo site must of world class, based on my observation of newly built buildings, and renew of the old facilities.

    Below is the Google Satellite map of the Expo headquarter I talked about:

    Favorite Road: Wukang Road

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    I have been asked many times about my favorite road in Shanghai. It is so hard to answer this question, since I have many roads in my minds that can be my favorite road. So I am trying to make a list along my way of discovery of my real favorite road. Wukang Road 武康路 is just a starting point – let me repeat, I have not decided to give my favorite road title to Wukang Road yet.

    Where is Wukang Road

    Wukang Road is a north-south small road in Xuhui District 徐汇. It starts from the Huaihai Road, with the historical V-shape Wukang Building 武康大楼 as the landmark, and extends northwards until it reaches Anfu Road 安福路, where the Shanghai Drama Institute is located.

    Image in courtesy of Google Maps

    Why this Road is Special?

    Like many of small roads in the Xuhui villa area, the road brings you the best part of old Shanghai (and obviously, it still represents the current Shanghai). Things I like most:

    1. The trees

    There are many Wutong Trees 梧桐树 (or Phoenix trees) along the both side of the road, and form a beautiful and artistic “cave”. The road is small, and there are not many cars on it (actually, it is a north-to-south single way road). Walking along the road is best experience, since you can just take your time. No hurry, and no car horn. It takes about 30 minutes for one way.

    2. The old villas

    The highlight of the road is the old villa, and old residential area behind the trees. Even people familiar with the area may not know the name and history of all the villas. Most of the villas are either French style or Spanish style with big yards, and tall trees. Wandering in that area, you don’t feel you are in a big city at all. Sometimes you can see people grow vegetable in their garden, and in an extreme case, I saw chicken running around in one garden. It is amazing how life is in these 100 million RMB houses.

    3. Connection with other nice road

    Along the Wukang road is a nice area. You will see Xingguo Road 兴国路, Taikang Road 泰康路, Hunan Road 湖南路, Fuxing Road 复兴路, Wuyuan Road 五原路, and Changle Road 长乐路 – all these roads are as beautiful as Wukang Road, and all worth some time to explorer.

    It is a petty that I don’t have any picture of this beautiful road yet. I will try to take some and post them here.

    Update Photos uploaded March 8, 2009

    This cloudy Sunday afternoon, I invited Wendy to go to Wukang Road with me. I did bring my Nikon D50, but I only found out that the battery is dead. So I am using Wendy’s small Windows Mobile phone to take some photos.

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Photograph by Wendy Fan

    Six Apart’s Problem?

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    Whenever I search for some plugins on MovableType community, I constantly run into the great plug-ins by Byrne Reese. The plugin that is in my head is AutoLink. I am thinking about installing it tonight. However, when I just browse the articles on Byrne’s website, I stumbled upon an article dated back to December 5, 2008: A sad departure from Six Apart and looking to the future. Byrne left the company? It was from that entry did I understood that Six Apart has done 8% layoff in November 2008.

    I Do Care about Six Apart

    Long time readers of this blog may understand my love to MovableType and its creator, Six Apart. Without MovableType, I am very sure I won’t have started blogging 7 years ago, and won’t write for 7 years. My blog started just as a test drive of MovableType in 2002, and my first entry of this 7 year old blog was exactly about my experience of installing the software: < href="https://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20020911_movabletype_successfully_installed_on_windows_xp.htm">MovableType Successfully Installed on Windows XP. In the last 7 years, I used MovableType more often than Windows. I open MovableType everyday, and I even don’t do so for Windows (I also used Unix system).

    I still remember my first visit to Six Apart office by introduction of Chris (CEO of Rojo.com at that time, and later became CEO of Six Apart), met Mena and Ben, and visited the office many times later. I also enjoyed hosting my friends Ginger and Seki in Shanghai.

    My friends in Six Apart treated me so well. On for 5th Anniversary of blogging, the whole Six Apart team had a wonderful celebration party for me, and Ginger brought me to see baseball game at AT&T Park.

    It would be fair to say, I am a hard-core MovableType fan, friend of the company, and the person who cares about this company a lot.

    My Thoughts about Six Apart

    From the upgrade of MovableType from 3.x to 4, my direct feeling is Six Apart is losing its focus, and slips to the wrong direction. I said, MovableType 4.2 is disappointing after I had been expecting it for a long time. But that is not the key problem. I just feel Six Apart is doing too many things at the same time, and now, MovableType is no longer the focus of the company. I am very sure that my friend in Six Apart will argue that MT is still the most important product, but importance is really measured by resources put into it.

    I read about Chris’ post about Changes of Six Apart:

    This year was one of profound growth and change for Six Apart. In addition to welcoming almost 90 new people and growing to a company of over 200 employees, we launched Six Apart Services, Six Apart Media, Blogs.com, Movable Type Open Source and MT Pro, a suite of TypePad-powered products, including Blog It, Blog Link, the TypePad iPhone app and TypePad AntiSpam, and reached the final stage of the biggest technical project in the company’s history: the migration of TypePad onto a new platform. And, as you all know, we aren’t done yet, with several of our most significant product releases still to come this year.

    .

    Let me count the initiatives:

    1. 90 new people (almost double) in one year
    2. Six Apart Services
    3. Six Apart Media
    4. Blogs.com
    5. MovableType Open Source
    6. MT Pro
    7. Typepad-powered products
    8. Migration of the Typepad platform

    I believe this was just the new initiative in 2008, and there are many lasting projects accumulated from as early as 2002 when the company was formally founded. All those projects need maintaining resources.

    Among all the initiatives, I think I personally have most concern toward Six Apart Services, and Media. Although it is where revenue comes from, but don’t forget about the cost side of the equation. Any company has its unique DNA. Who founded the company? What is the story? Who hired the first 10 people? What format the company meeting is? All these small details makes a company unique, and optimized for one particular task. Simply put it, I don’t think the same group of people who build blogging software can do service well, or sell advertisement well, or the other way. The result is either a hard-core engineering team building great software + a so-so advertising and services team (the best possible situation), or a diluted so-so engineering team + a so-so advertising/services team (most possible).

    That is the reason why Ben can ship MovableType 1.0 with one person, and now 200 people shipped MovableType 4. Don’t get me wrong. MovableType 4 IS great in many aspect, but I am just talking about the ratio of resources put into it, and the outcome. Till now, I still think MovableType 3.2 is the best blogging software in the world – I still have my Chinese blog, and my friends’ blog running on it. MT 4 is great in functionality, but the core is not about functionality for many people, it is about simplicity, reliability, and speed, which I think MT 3.2 is better.

    In tough times, it is even more important to keep focus. My personal bias is, Six Apart was a great technical company and should remain to that core. I know everyone faces revenue challenges, but doing engineering is the most cost-effective way to run a company, isn’t it? Saving the cost of expansion to other business also means moving toward profit.

    I Still Stand on the Side of Six Apart

    Although I have some pretty harsh comments about my great friends there, I want to make it clear that it was just because I care the company so much. I want to see a successful company, and my best wishes goes to Six Apart from Shanghai, China.

    Track Click on Elements

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    I once used the code below to track the clicks on elements on a page. If you know JavaScript, you may understand what it is about.

    // Track every click within the page.

    document.onclick = function(e) {

        e = e || window.event;

        el = e.target || e.srcElement;

    if(el.tagName.toLowerCase() != ‘a’ || el.tagName.toLowerCase() != ‘input’) return true;

        var name = “”;

        var i = 0;

        while(el != document && i++ < 10 && el.tagName.toLowerCase() != "html") {         name = el.tagName.toLowerCase() + (el.id == "" ? "" : "@" + el.id) + (el.className == "" ? "" : "." + el.className) + "/" + name;         el = el.parentNode;     }   _uacct = "###########YOUR GOOGLE ANALYTICS CODE HERE############";   if(typeof(urchinTracker)=='function')     urchinTracker(name);   return true; }

    Basically, it just record entries like below in your Google Analytics account.

    html/body/.related/a

    html/body/#header/div.navigation

    …