Congratulations to my best friends and partner Jia and his newly married wife – Xiaojing!
They registered for marriage today!
Here is his announcement (Chinese site).
Congratulations to Jia and Xiaojing!
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Advise on visit to Beijing & Shanghai
Today, I am trying to help Sally about his/her Beijing & Shanghai trip. Here is the letter: (Again, for my readers who haven’t read my privacy policy, I reserve the right to publish any email you send to my email address (hotmail one) unless you instruct me not to do it. Also, when I publish any email, I will NOT include email address, unless otherwise noted in your email).
Dear Mr. Wang,
Wishing you and your family a Happy & Blessed 2008!
We have read your Blog and we enjoyed and appreciate the information/life stories you had posted. In particular, we are impressed by the information you shared on the Z5 TRain from Beijing – Shanghai as we are planning to make a trip to China in early March 2008. Hence, we would appreciate your advice on the followings:
- Weather in Beijing & Shanghai in early March
What are the clothing we should bring – thick winter clothing or just few sweaters? We are traveling with a child of 6 years. Is thermal wear for kids necessary?
Generally speaking, Shanghai is still pretty cold in March. Although Spring is coming, it may still be like winter. This year, for example, we are expecting freezing weather at the end of Feb, and even snow. This year in Shanghai is particularly cold. So, definitely bring your sweater, and other cloths to keep you and your family warm. Beijing is even colder than Shanghai, since it is 1000 km north of Shanghai. Hope the Weather section of my blog gives you more detailed, and more personalized feeling about what the weather looks like during March (especially the Spring section).
- Hotel in Beijing & Shanghai
We are considering staying at Harmony Hotel in Beijing (Suzhou Hutong) and Holiday Inn Downtown in Shanghai – could you advise if these are good choices (considering that we would like to go locals as much as we can i.e. taking MRT, buses instead of joining local tours)
I don’t know about Harmony Hotel in Beijing, but I know Holiday Inn is pretty good. Not sure which one though. The one near railway station is not that good, since it is very crowded nearby. The one in Xujiahui is much better.
- Places of interest/Shopping
Could you please help us to list where are the places of interest for us to visit?
Shopping – is there a wholesale centre where we can get things are good prices for children’s summer clothings and accessories?
For attractions in Shanghai, I have about 100 articles in the attraction section. I am not an expert in Beijing (and don’t want to pretend to be).
- Z5 Train versus Bullet Trains
We are impressed with the article on the Z5 train from Beijing – Shanghai. But we have been told about a bullet train. Do you have any idea on the pricing/schedule etc. Do you think a 6-year old child would enjoy the train experience? We would certainly appreciate and grateful for any other relevant information that you could provide so that we can better plan our holidays and have a memorable trip this March.Thank you in advance for your time and efforts.
Sincerely
Sally Teo Singapore
I would suggest you to take the bullet train – it is newer, faster, and takes less time. However, as a traveler, Z5 is still attractive since it travels at night (leaving Beijing at night and arrives in Shanghai in the morning) while the D (Bullet) train travels at day time (10 AM to 9 PM). Choosing the Z5 train also means you save both time and one night cost of hotel. I believe your kid will enjoy the train, although 10 hour trip may be too long or boring for any kid. For the other information, if you want to invest the time, there are 2000 articles on this blog about this topic, and you can use the navigation menu to walk around in this blog.
P.S. I would appreciate questions that are new and never covered, and would appreciate questions that are specific. To be honest with you, a big portion of emails I got is basically one question: give me some suggestions about my trip to Shanghai. I am willing to help but I guess the 2000 articles help more than an email response.
Culture Matters from ICS
Just got back from the studio in STV for program Culture Matters. It was a great talk show (I would say it even before I participated) by ICS, and hosted by Sammy Yang. What an experience! It is the first time I record a long TV program, and first time to get first hand information from inside a TV studio. I have been interviewed or joined radio talk show programs, but never on TV. Let me share my precious experience with you.
About the Program
According to the official web site of ICS:
Culture Matters is China’s first cross-cultural bilingual talk show. Its target demographic is aimed at well-educated Chinese audiences interested in western culture, as well as foreign expats living in Shanghai. Unlike other talk shows or interview programs, Culture Matters sets its sights on comparing and contrasting various aspects of eastern and western culture. The show’s host and guests will draw upon a vast range of cross-cultural topics to discuss in a relaxing, lively, and insightful fashion. Topics include differences in education, adventure, food, housing, cultural symbols, etc. VTRs conducted outside the studio, along with universally beloved sitcoms and movies are seamlessly incorporated into the show, making it an ideal jump-off point for water cooler chatter and substantive discourse alike.
Logo credit: ICS and SMG
They also have a blog at http://blog.sina.com.cn/CultureMatters
In some sense, the program and I am doing the same thing – two things, to be more exact.
- Helping expat community by providing the right information and insights into the society of Shanghai.
- Build a bridge of understanding between the western culture and the Chinese culture.
So, I would encourage my readers (if you are in Shanghai) to turn to ICS channel and watch the program. It is not easy to find a relaxed culture program in English in Shanghai yet, Culture Matters is the first one.
For my readers who are not in Shanghai, or who are in Shanghai and don’t have a TV (like my friend Mark who don’t turn on TV often), this is a handy link that you can watch the channel LIVE on Internet. (Special note: They install a plugin into your computer. By linking to the site does not mean I fully tested it. Use at your own risk).
About the Topics
This time, we are talking about blogging – what is blog, why people blog, privacy of blogging, blog and society, and even blog business models. I won’t tell too much of it, and leave it until the program is on air sometime in March. After it is public, I think I will add more note to what I talked during the show.
I can, however, dig into the piles of articles I created, and assembly a list of the topics covered during the talk show, which I already covered in my own blog. Sammy, Maria, Mark, Kenneth, Peter, and Paul, for many of the discussion that I don’t have enough time to talk too much, I have all the answers listed here:
- Blogging and Early Wake-up Sep 20, 2007
- Five Years of Blogging Sep 11, 2007
- Thanks for Giving Credit to Me… Feb 10, 2007
- Remove Comments? Maybe Not Oct 4, 2006
- Four Years of Blogging Sep 11, 2006
- Three Years of Blogging Sep 11, 2005
- Celebrating 1000 Days of Blogging Jun 6, 2005
- My Blog Won’t Go Commercial Mar 20, 2005
- Negative Comments for this Blog Sep 15, 2004
- I Started the Blog to Post Resume Jul 1, 2004
- Abandon of One Entry Per Day Rule Feb 2, 2004
- One Year Anniversary for This Site Sep 11, 2003
- Blogger in China Jan 13, 2003
- "I Will Follow All the Rules!" Dec 23, 2007
- Why Classified is NOT Popular in China, Yet Nov 15, 2007
- We Need a Bridge, Seriously Jun 13, 2006
- Culture Differences – Part II Feb 26, 2006
- Different Views on Typhoon Aug 12, 2005
- T.I.C Moments Apr 11, 2005
- Service Shock in Shanghai Feb 2, 2004
- Muzimei’s Sex Blog Brought Trouble Nov 12, 2003
- Muzimei Shock Wave (cont.) Nov 13, 2003
- Chinese: Can Blog Make Money? What a Question! November 01, 2005
- Chinese: My Thoughts on Making Money from of Blog June 29, 2005
- Chinese: My 3 Principles of Writing a Blog May 11, 2005
- Chinese: Blog is grass and Wiki is Eagle May 04, 2005
About the Studio
Emm…. This is my favorite part. How many of you have visited the studio of a TV Station in Shanghai? I bet everyone is curious. Thanks f
or the kindness permission, I took some (a lot actually) photos of the studio, and here are some of them.
Look up, the ceiling looks like a "light farm" for me. There are all kinds of light pointing to different directions. This is amazing, and very symbolic of a professional studio.
This is the camera – pretty big, and not those carried by camera man who does the street interview.
The stage of the Culture Matters program. Besides it is the Shanghai Quest (look at the left hand, and there is a red UEST there. That’s it).
This machine is very cute. It displays the script so news reporters can read – it uses a mirror, and the characters are large enough to recognize from far away. This is a modern version of this paper (well, the paper based article is about usage in a negative way, while this machine, I love it)
Coco was very nice and reminded me that when the lights are turn on, it will be very warm. She is absolutely right! This is how it feels when the lights are on. Much better than being on the stage of a company party in a hotel – you can still see everything, but light enough that you feel you are under the Sun, although it is dark outside already.
On the screen is me. Yes. They have the screen acting as a mirror – I am still not used to this "TRUE" mirror yet, since when I am turning my head to the left, it shows right to me.
The huge timer:
Adjusting the lights took us some time – about half an hour. I said to Coco, and Xiaoqian, that it seems pretty expensive to produce a TV program – you have to have a lot of people around – several camera man, lighting, sound, equipment, and more importantly, every details have to be taken care of. Peter, the chief-editor of Shanghai Daily echoed that it is more complicated to produce a TV program than publishing a newspaper. I would say, it seems publishing a blog is not that a big thing compared to this TV show.
This is the stage of the talk show.
Our host Sammy Yang (right), my old friend Maria Trombly (middle, I mentioned her in post in 2005) and me – on the left. Well. I wear a green sweater, and why it turned out to be — brown?
Sammy gave me strong impression. He did wonderful job as a host. I watch Culture Matters, and many people do, but what we may not know is, he is now the CEO of Sun TV, and was a talk show host in San Francisco, AND general manager of a TV station there. He is much more of an Entrepreneur with great vision and experience to me during the side talk than just a wonderful host.
This time, with Kenneth, editor of Shanghaiist.com (left)
Everyday, the ICS news program is broadcast LIVE from this stage:
Behind the scene, there are many monitors and computers – it is in another room, from where the mysterious instruction comes from during the whole course of the show, like count down: 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 -…
Around 8:00 PM, we left the studio of STV. For those who didn’t know, STV stands for Shanghai TV.
P.S. The program may be on air in mid-March, from Monday to Friday, at 7:30 to 8:00 PM on International Channel Shanghai. I will keep you posted.
P.S. I also wanted to ask Isaac, and Run Liu to join the program, but Isaac is very busy, and Run got cold and could hardly speak…
Lantern (Yuanxiao) Festival
Today is the Lantern Festival. I bought fireworks and fire it tonight.
For my readers who didn’t see the fireworks box – where the splendid fireworks come from, here is the photo:
There is a green thread at the side, and you can use match to light it.
Here you go!
From under it, it does not look very beautiful, but it IS very nice.
Fireworks outside my Office Window
From farther locations, fireworks looks better. Look at these photos I took after work in my office.
I like this one most:
Readers Wanted for TV Interview
I just had wonderful meetup with the producer, Zhu Xiaoqian, and Reporter & Editor, Coco of talk show program – Culture Matters of ICS. I am happy to join the program this Friday and talk about blogging. They are all wonderful people, and passionate about the expat and foreigner/vistor community in Shanghai. BTW, if you want to send feedback to ICS (International Channel Shanghai), you can leave comment under this blog entry, and they really read!
Image in courtesy of ICS
The program Culture Matters is on ICS from 7:30 PM to 8:00 PM, Monday to Friday, and it is in English. It gets started from Jan 1, 2008, and is getting larger audience since then. To serve the expat community, I think it is a good idea to be part of the program. The filming will be on Friday this week, and maybe on air some time next week or so.
Help Needed
Coco wants to arrange TV interview with some of the readers of this blog – Wangjianshuo’s Blog, to get your input about the blog. The short interviews will be put into the 30 minutes program during the show. They are seeking for volunteer who are in Shanghai, and a reader of this blog, and who are willing to share their comments.
If you are interested, would you please drop an email to jianshuo AT hotmail.com or simply comment under this entry, and I will forward the mail to Coco. They will contact you to arrange a time and location that is convinient for you (Thanks Coco for being so kind). I would appreciate your participation and longing to see on TV what you say about my little blog.
So, share what you think.
Electronic TV Guild in China
Below is the current TV program and their channels. Sorry that I only have Chinese version.
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