My Experience with Hong Kong

How many times I have been to Hong Kong?

The first time, I get here with Wendy, and Eric, and stayed at Minji’s place (the Sea Ranch on an island).

The second time was a pretty short one, on March 10, 2005. I couldn’t find an entry about the trip in my blog. Anyway, it was a really short one. I fly in in the morning, get to Upstream Asia’s office at noon, started the conversation in the afternoon, and get back at 6:00 PM. One day trip to Hong Kong. It was during that trip I learnt Cantonese: 百花街 (Crookedest Street). In Mandarin, it is Bai Hua Jie, but in Cantonese, it is pronounced as Bai Fa Gai…

The third time was today in 2006. I started in Shangri-la in Pacific Center – nice real estate project

This is maybe the forth time, and I stayed in the same area, just opposite to the Shangri-La hotel – JW Marriott. It is a very nice hotel, especially to have a harbor view. I was not able to take pictures at night when all the lights went off, but I will definitely take some shots tomorrow.

Hong Kong

I have never see a place where high-raise buildings are so close and concentrated like Hong Kong. Even New York don’t give people the energy like Hong Kong.

Taxis in Hong Kong is more aggressive in starting and stopping, but due to relatively better traffic rules (I mean relatively), it is running pretty smooth.

Miracle

Hong Kong is a miracle. Miracle, Energetic are the keywords I describe Hong Kong. I like here.

Visa? I hate Visa

What makes me feel bad is, I still need something like Visa to visit Hong Kong. Visa application time is so long – 7 days – which is even longer than U.S. visa, and India… Also, most people don’t need a visa to Hong Kong, but I do. :-(

Habibi

We had Egypt food in Habibi (Sounds like Kijiji). The food and music attracted me to pay a visit to Egypt.

P.S. Tired today. Let me go to bed now, and maybe watch the harbor view tomorrow morning, taking some pictures, and post it on this blog tomorrow.

P.S.2 Wendy went to see Swan Lake today.

Living Cost in Shanghai – Service Fee

The third article to answer SSC’s question:

What about service fees, like cleaning, electricity installation, etc.?

If you want to live in a low cost life, and a local life, chances are, you don’t need any service. You clean the house by yourself, and install electric applicants by yourself, and change bubble by yourself.

If you do need service, check it here.

Service

I once wrote an article named Life in a low cost labor world.

It described how to hire someone to work at home. Later, to further clarify the reason I encourage people to hire instead of do by himself, I wrote Helping by Hiring. Hope you read two articles together.

In Shanghai, the general practice is to hire an Ayi (which literally means Aunt in Chinese), or nanny to help you on cooking, cleaning, baby sitting, or other household works.

Price for work per hour is typically 7 RMB. Some areas, like Xujiahui charges 10 RMB. There is a significant difference in hourly pay between Shanghai Ayi, and other places Ayi. Shanghai Ayi asks for 12 RMB per hour in places where others asks for 7. I believe this is clearly discrimination, but to describe the fact, let me just put it as it is.

Installation

There are not too much installation service, since the market is not big enough. I don’t know the price, but you can refer to the average 10 RMB per hour price, and double it (because it requires some technique).

HairDresser

To have you hair cut, it is typically 20 RMB in many chain beauty salons, like Young, or Wenfeng… If you buy their pre-deposited card, it is 10 RMB per hair cut, pretty amazing, since they also have hair wash, shoulder massage (like 20 minutes?) service.

Foot Massage

I hesitate a little bit whether I should include this service as “living cost” in Shanghai, because it is really an add-on instead of necessary services. Anyway, just give you some sense about the world where labor cost is not as costly as industrial product.

Typical foot massage costs 50-60 RMB for one hour. Cheap street shop is as low as 20 – 30 RMB per hour, and better one is 100 RMB.

I met many friends in California who have been to Shanghai. To my surprise, their favorite was food massage (and Xiaolongbao). Some added Xiangyang Road.

Added Today in History

Today, I added a new plugin – OnThisDay

The difference is, you will see the “Today in History” section.

This is the MT code in my Individual Archive Template. In case you are also a MovableType blog owner, you may find it interesting.

<div class=”comments-head”>Today in History</div>

<ul>

<MTOnThisDay>

<MTEntries>

<li><$MTEntryDate format=”%b %e, %Y”$>: <a href=”<$MTEntryPermalink$>”><$MTEntryTitle$></a><br>

<small style=”text-decoration:none”><$MTEntryExcerpt$>

</small></li>

</MTEntries>

</MTOnThisDay>

</ul>

This is useful to me to remind me what I did in the last year, the year before last year, and even the two years ago.

For example, I found the entry Second Day in Hong Kong in Jan. How interesting! I am going to Hong Kong tommorrow. Without this feature, I won’t remember that I was also in Hong Kong the same day last year.

Enjoy it and give me some feedback about this feature.

Living Cost in Shanghai – Driving

Continue to answer SSC’s list of question:

– What about driving costs, like registration, oil, parking, tolls, fines, etc.?

I have a car category in my blog. You can see many article related to having a car.

There are several part of cost related to a car.

Buying a Car Itself

Not surprisingly, buying a car costs a lot. Cars in China is more expensive than in U.S.

Cars under 100,000 RMB are classified as cheap cars, like FIAT, Buick SAIL, VW Polo, VW Gol, Golf…

Cars between 100,000 – 200,000 RMB are referred to as middle-class cars, like Honda Fit Salon, Toyota, Volkswagen Bora, Satana…

Above 200,000 RMB are expensive cars, like Volkswagen PASSAT, Audi, BMW, Benz…

Of cause if you count the luxurious cars, there is no limitation.

Registration Fee

This is the license fee. In Shanghai, license fee is very expensive. Since its price is settled in a bidding process, it varies from 20,000 RMB to recent 40,000 RMB.

People workaround this buy getting licenses outside Shanghai.

Annual Fee

Every year, you need to pay the annual fee, and the so-called “Road Maintenance Fee”. It is around 1400 RMB (again, I have no idea about the real price.

Gas

It is 4.90 RMB per liter today. Two year ago, it was 3.2 RMB per litter.

Parking

In Shanghai, most of places (90% places I go) charges 10 RMB per hour for parking. Underground parking is more likely to charge according this price.

Some places charges lower, like 5 RMB, or 20 RMB per day, 50 RMB per day, depending on how many customer they have.

Fine

Typical fine is 200 RMB, for example, if you park at the wrong place.

Car Insurance

Depending on how expensive is you car, you need to pay for the insurance. It is mandatory. It is like 2000 RMB for a car of 100,000 RMB per year.

P.S. Correct me on any numbers I gave for sake of readers’ benefit. I am not sensitive to money, and I cannot remember the price clearly.

Living Cost in Shanghai – Medicine

SSC asked more about the living cost. Let me try to answer these “new” questions.

– What about medical expenses, like insurance, hospital visit, drug prices, and even “red packets”?

For medical expenses, it is really hard to give a guideline. It depends on what kind of illness you got. Also, for the insurance, it depends on how much you want to cover… Let me just give some examples, so people have a sense.

A typical hospital visit costs at least 100 RMB. If you just feel not good and want to go to see a doctor, no matter you just feel a little bit fever, or your teeth feel pain, or stomach does not feel good, you need to prepare some money. It works this way:

1. You need to pay the Registry Fee (挂号费). I don’t know how I should translate this into English. It is the fee you have to pay first at the counter to get a ticket. Without the ticket, no doctor will talk with you. Sometimes I just pay the 8 RMB (sometimes 13 RMB) to say hi to a doctor. :-) Just kidding.

2. The Laboratory Test Fee. Recently, doctors in most hotel I go to ask me to do the laboratory test before they give me any suggestion. Blood test and other test is typically 100 – 200 RMB.

3. Medicine Fee. Since recent hospital reform have put the revenue of medicine sell into the hospital’s P&L, and some even connect the doctor’s revenue of sales of medicine with the doctor’s bonus, most doctors are willing to give you more medicine than you actually need. I am often confused about the different types of medicine they gave me. Last time, I got a little bit fever, they give me several boxes of expensive medicines, and many others. I believe although the doctor was hurry to sell more medicine, he still care my health a little bit, so he told me: just eat this (the cheapest one). If you feel good, ignore the rest. If you don’t feel good, then you can try others. It seems he gave me enough backup drug that I even don’t need to take.

Well. For this part, it costs 100 – 200 RMB.

I don’t have any experience to end up within 100 RMB for whatever ill I got in the last three years. Most of the time, if I don’t go to hospital, two tablet of normal fever medicine works great for me.

OK. This is about the medicine and hospital part. As you can see, I am not a professional and I don’t have the ability to tell exactly whether it is the right medicine or not. I just feel I am over charged every time. Medicine is such a special good, that people seldom negotiate with doctors. The root cause is, the sale of medicine now happens in a hospital, instead of in drug store.

Insurance

Most citizens in Shanghai enjoy basic medical insurance. I didn’t really argue with the doctors because although it was expensive, it came directly from my medical insurance account, and I don’t have to pay.

Employees pays a certain amount of social medical insurance from their salary at certain percent, and the employer pays the other part (majority). If I remember it correctly, employers pay 8% of the monthly salary and employee pays 2% of salary. After that, basic medical care is covered.

Besides social medical insurance, you can also buy commercial medical insurance. This really depends how much you want to cover, and it varies greatly from company to company, from contract to contract, and even varies for different age.

Just an example, I know a major disease medical insurance costs 2000 – 3000 RMB per year…

Red Bag

I don’t know exactly the situation of red bag, since I never encountered any serious health problem that requires a red bag. I heard it is not as popular as before. Many hospital hang big banner to claim they don’t tolerate receiving red bag for their doctors. I don’t know the real situation now.

How Expensive It is?

For most people with a job in Shanghai, it is OK to be sick, since the medical insurance covers most of normal disease. However, if there is serious disease (those may cause death), you have to use commerical insurance to cover.

Many people who don’t have that kind of insurance face serious challenge, and to raise money from family and friends, or people in the same company is typical solution.

For foreigners, or expats in Shanghai, i don’t know exactly that the sitution is. If someone has any experience, please feel free to share.

Living Cost in Shanghai (2007 Edition)

This is the third report on living cost in Shanghai, following the previous two (I, II). The data is updated according my personal experience in Jan 2007. The data is pretty like the city in my eyes. Please be aware, different people may have different impression of the same good (depending on when to buy it and where to buy it). It is intended to give overall guideline to living cost in Shanghai.

Please note: 1 USD = 7.75 RMB as this article is written.

Transportation

This is easiest one.

Bus:

most buses is one price for all route: 2 RMB. Some specially and urban buses are higher (4 RMB) and some non-air-conditioned bus are 1 RMB, but pretty rare now.

Metro:

Lowest price (one stop) is 3 RMB, and the longest stations are 6 RMB. Typically transportation via Metro is 4 RMB.

Taxi:

11 RMB for the first 3 km, and 2.1 RMB for each additional kilometer.

Ferry:

Ferry is not often used, and it costs 2 RMB (with air-condition), and some are cheaper than 1 RMB.

Drinks

Coke:

A can of Coco-Cola is 1.2 RMB in super market, but it is at least 5 RMB if you order the same thing in a restaurant.

Purified Water:

A bottle of purified water (500 ml) is around 1.5 RMB.

Beer:

A bottle of beer (600ml) is typically 4 RMB (for example, Tsingtao Beer). Foreign beers are a little bit more expensive.

Food

Grocery is much cheaper than going to restaurant (it is the same everywhere in the world).

I don’t want to give price of every fruit, or meat. Just give you some idea, 10 RMB raw material for a meal for two persons is good enough (at least for persons like me).

Meal at restaurants varies greatly. Here are some example:

Dumpling in small dumpling shop is 2.2 RMB per 50g (I used the shop of Xiaohui at the gate of Jiaotong University). 4.4 RMB is good enough for really nice dumpling or Xiaolongbao.

Shanghai-style Noodles at street shops is between 3 – 5 RMB (if you visit residential areas), or 10 – 12 RMB in tourism area (like most places visitors go, People’s Square, bund…). The food is the same, and the difference is just the rental price of the venue.

Above are the traditional food shops you find on small streets.

For modern food shops, like those in big shopping malls, a meal cost 20 – 30 RMB.

40 RMB per meal per person is called “average”, and there are some better places with 100 RMB per meal per person. (How much better is “better” varies from person to person).

The next level of restaurants are those with fantastic views, like the top of the Jin mao Tower, the Huangpu River scene restaurants. They typically have minimum fee of 300 RMB per person.

For western food, most decent restaurants (run by expats) charges lower price than San Francisco, or New York, but is still way to expensive. Don’t be surprised if you get a bill of 500 – 700 RMB per person in restaurants in Three on the Bund. (Last time, my friend from San Francisco told me her feeling: it is not cheap, but it definitely worthwhile for the view and environment).

House Rental

Flat sharing (three or more person share the same residential apartment) is typically 500 RMB per person per month. This is the cheapest place I can think of. There are lots of this apartments in my residential area.

For a standalone apartment near Metro, I believe 1000 RMB is the minimum price you need to pay. However, be prepared that it may be the terminal station of Metro #1, or #2, which is very far from city.

1000 – 2000 RMB is the most typical price for an one-living room, one bed room apartment. 2000 – 3000 RMB for two bed room apartment. Be prepared that these apartments are not in downtown, and maybe in an unfamiliar residential area that could not be found in any tourism guide.

If you want to live in downtown – I highly recommend you to do that to fully experience the beauty of Shanghai, be prepared to pay more.

For example, in Xujiahui area, 3000 RMB is the minimum price I can find. It is for an apartment with one bed room and one living room (or only two bed room), like 60 sq. meters. Also, be warned that apartments with this price must be a pretty old one, with smell, and dirt…

All the apartments described above come with kitchen, bathroom.

The next level are much better. It is like 3000 – 8000 RMB. These are not bigger, just nicer – in newly built residential area (built in the last 10 years), and with very nice garden view, and environment.

I also know some expats who spend like 5000 USD to 10000 USD for a historical villa in downtown every month. It is out of the scope of this article.

Water and Electricity

Water is very cheap, compared to the items listed above.

Water is like 100 RMB per 1000 kg. Just to give you some idea, I paid like 30 RMB for water for two persons who take shower almost everyday.

Electricity for a household is typically 200 RMB (for household like me).

All rent prices do not include water, and electricity.

Telephone and Internet

Telephone is 0.12 RMB per minute, and domestic long distance varies depending on your comm. plan. It is less than 1 RMB per minute.

Internet fee (for example, ADSL) is 100 RMB for the whole month. You can buy higher speed with more money.

Others

Here are some items I can think of:

A middle-sized Mocha in Starbucks: 22 RMB

Ice cream: 2 RMB (Haggen-dazz is like 30 RMB)

A typical McDonald meal: 15 RMB (the cheaper package)

Salary: 1400 RMB per month is the city’s average. 3000 RMB is treated fair for university graduates. 10,000 RMB is regarded as high salary for employees.

Anything else that I missed?

You can come to the newly established BBS to discuss more about how to live in Shanghai.

Update September 18, 2007

This is a minor update of this Living Cost in Shanghai (2007 Edition). Since it is September, and especially after the increase of price of many goods (the Consumer Price Index increased by almost 6% in August), the price needs some updates. I have a reader who are so kind to list all things he wants to know, so let me update it according to these items:

Car Fuel:

    I am using 100 RMB per week (30 km on weekday and 10 km on weekend)

Car expenses: Insurance, taxes, Â….

    (this is complicated.)

Groceries: We love to cook, we would cook almost everyday at home.

    If you cook at home, the cost should be pretty low compared to dining outside. I have a groceries cost list here. The price is recorded this March, and please add about 10% increase for current situation.

Entertainment (bars, ice cream, cinemas,Â…)

    Bar is expensive here. Budget 100 RMB for a bottle of beer for one person or 200 RMB for two. If you really want to drink a lot, there is no limitation. Typical movie ticket is 60 RMB. Ice cream is pretty cheap – I mean the normal Icecream, 2 – 4 RMB, but if you love HaggenDaze or Iceason, it is 30 – 40 RMB per person

Internet: Unlimited broadband high speed access

    This is easy: 1400 RMB per year

Water, Electricity, phone line with international calls

    300 RMB for water (for normal use), 300 RMB for electricity, 100 RMB for gas, and phone line monthly now is typically included in the broadband Internet access (the 1400 RMB package), and international call is 4 – 6 RMB per minutes, but you can always find Skype which is almost free to make phone call.

Cell phone plan: average plan

    Budget for 100 RMB for normal use, or 300 RMB for intensive usage

Transportation: Occasional buses, taxis, metros

    Bus is cheap – 2 RMB per ride. Metro is 4-5 RMB per ride, and taxi is more expensive. Common taxi ride is 20 RMB

Health: 2 private insurance plans, everything covered

    3000 RMB is typical insurance plans for one person.

Chinese lessons

    Budget 60-100 RMB per hour for one person. Typical class is like 1000 RMB per person

OK. I am happy I finished all the questions. However, please do remember that it is not easy to answer general questions like this. Everything really depends on how much you use it, how good is your standard of good. So I didn’t bother to check any exact price of anything (for exact price, check my other entries under Living Cost category.) My suggest just give you a range, or impression about how expensive it is. So you understand at least “is it expensive or cheap”, or “is it in 10s range, or 100s range, or 1000s RMB range. Above all, life in Shanghai is an adventure, and you may not be able to plan for everything. People in Shanghai don’t like planning.

The Scar in People’s Heart

Yesterday, before Wendy’s parents went back home, we finally had some time to sit down together as a family and chat. It was a wonderful hour. We had the chance to know more about their experience in the old days, when they were young.

I don’t Know China Well

I admit (as I always do) that I don’t know China well. No matter how people claim, the history of this country is a mystery for many people, including me.

We chatted about the “three dark years” from 1959 to 1961, which is officially named “Three Years of Natural Disaster”. It is actually NOT. The three years is a blurred image for me. I know many people starved to death during the three years, but it is still hard to connect this piece of history with the person before me, and myself. It is not a far away history anyway.

Why and How

From 1959, before the Great Leap started, there came the order from Beijing. People in the whole country were not allowed to own any private property, and were not allowed to cook at home. Anyone who setup fire to cook would be sentenced as criminal. Everyone had to go to public dining rooms to have “free meal”.

It was not bad in the first year, since there was so many food that was more than people can eat. However, at the same time, people were almost not allowed to work in the field.

The second year, not surprisingly, there were not enough food left from the previous year. Since the order from the top were the same: No cooking at home, no private property (especially food), and no working, people started to starve.

During the three years, so many people did nothing, just wait to starve to death. I read about this in history books (of cause not the current official version), but I was still stocked when parents described some real stories. They emphasized this is not a story on TV or film, this was the real life. They saw it with their own eyes.

Their neighbours were found death. One with 5 persons – all found dead in their own home, quietly. The other family had 3 persons. The parents died, and lied on the bed. The child didn’t tell anyone, and went to dining room to collect three persons’ food. Although the food was still less than one normal meal for one child today, he ate them all, but it was too much for this child who barely didn’t eat for months, and die because eating too much. People found three bodies in their home long time later, two in bedroom and one in kitchen. In other families, after people died, the neighbours could do nothing because they were so weak to carry the bodies.

The lives of our parents, and their brothers were at the edge of death. Mom said she opened her eyes but was not able to see anything clearly. Even when bird flow by and drop shit onto ground, people would put it into their month…

Well. This was the real situation in the year 1959 to 1961 in the normal small village. Record shows overall, the weather for the whole country were good, and there were no natural disaster, but millions of people died. No one know the exact number.

It Changes Lives of a Generation

Before, when I talk about common sense, my example was: parents always keep food left from this meal to the next, and I only want fresh meal the next time. My parents’ common sense is “to save money”, and my common sense is “to get best experience”. I compared and claimed: there are two different common sense, and people seldom communicate about this, and this is the reason of conflict.

Now, I’d like to say, I was partially wrong. The common sense of parent generation was not “to save money”, it should be “to save food”. I deeply understand when a person witness his/her family member or friends starved and died just because there was nothing to eat, how uncomfortable he/she would be if he/she throw away food – for the rest of their lives.

It also explains about why the whole generation (above 60 in age) went along from the Culture Revolution have such a strong sense of “insecurity”. They save money, because they don’t know what may happen; they are very cautious to talk, because a political movement easily swipe their lives away. The more I learn about what they have experienced, the more I appreciate their decisions, and their behavior, and the more I understand about this country.

This is a scar in the heart of that generation. I saw it, but I didn’t realize why there is a scar before.

Removed “Chedong” Copyright

Finally removed Chedong Copyright under the title to keep it more clean. In case I need it in the future, let me do a backup here.

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Also, I backed up the category module as below:

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Where are the Train Tickets?

Remember about how tough it was to buy train ticket?

Well. The question is, even if you WANT to stand on the train, you don’t have the chance, since there are so many people standing there already. Standing tickets were sold out.

Wendy asked: “How about tickets after 11 days?”

She asked because all tickets are sold 11 days in advance.

The person said: “No. Don’t try that.”

Wendy was upset: “Then where are the tickets?”

The person replied: “If I tell you, I put all the ticket in my own pocket, do you believe it? Next!”

We tried every ticket office and there is nothing for the next 11 days or even after.

The Real Secret

Finally, we were approached by someone (not one, there are so many of them everywhere) who claim to be able to provide us with any ticket we want. Wendy decided to buy two tickets from them. We call them “yellow cow” (Huang niu, or 黄牛).

They charge 50 RMB more for each ticket as service fee.

A traditional “yellow cow” is a person who takes the time either to line up to buy the ticket and resell it at higher price, or buy back tickets from ticket owner at lower price and sell it at higher price.

But for the railway tickets, it SEEMS that they even didn’t bother to line up in the ticket window. The amount of the ticket they have seems not to be bought at “retail” window.

Reports say many of them have been directly or indirectly affiliated with the “insider” of the railway ticket system.

The Result. Aha!

No matter how terrible the ticket availability seems to be, we find out the real situation.

Yesterday night, when Wendy and I sent our parents to the railways station, and to the train cart, we found the train was only half full.

On the sleeper train No. 3 of K282 from Shanghai to Chengdu, the first 4 sleeper section only have to passengers – our parents.

There are three deck of beds for each number. All of them are empty. That means, in the first 4 rows, 2 out of 12 beds were occupied. The rest 10 are completely empty.

Bad System Brings Bad People Together

Well. Spring Festival is the time most people will go back home. It is for sure that tickets are hard to get. On one hand, all tickets were sold out, and many people cannot go home. On the other hand, trains ARE EMPTY!

Who gets the benefit? Thousands of “yellow cows” who gets 50 RMB each ticket (1/6 of the ticket price). It is for sure that they need to share the revenue to those in the railway system who control the source of the ticket. But who cares.

When we are back, we past by the ticket window. There are still thousands of people lining up to get a ticket. I am sure many of them will find their effort to stand in cold for hours in Vail. No ticket at all! There is no tickets! It is not because there are too many people there, and too few seat, it is just because of the corruption of the railway system.

I realize the current problem of railway system is no longer the problem we faced 10 years ago, when I can still find a standing place on the crowded train.

Shanghai Map Finder

This is a helper page to get the HTML code of a place in Google Map, so I can copy and paste it into my blog.

Lat, Lng

HTML:

<script src=”http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=ABQIAAAAc6w3r_W-HieOehKlSsUEHRQPsA8lXb864JtcPYsku9QMH0vMhxS7ShslSX0dH64g2vn11uJa-IaUOQ” type=”text/javascript”></script><div id=”map” style=”width: 640px; height: 480px”></div><script type=”text/javascript”>if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById(“map”));map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl()); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(lat,lng), zoom, G_SATELLITE_MAP); }</script>

Chinese Stock Market is Crazy

Maybe I am among the minority who didn’t notice the recent bull market trends in Chinese stock market. I heard some news, but never really look at what is happening in the market. Maybe people outside Chinese also didn’t pay attention to the performance. Here is what happened.

3 Times Increase

The Shanghai Stock Exchange Index was 998.23 in June 2005. Yesterday, it reached 2870.42, which is the highest in the history of the stock market, and almost three times than one and half year ago.

What a crazy stock market!

Individual Stocks are Even More Crazy

The 3 time increase are only the overall increase. Individual stocks – those good performers are even better. Stories like people get 50% gain in days are not rare. When I watch the financial news, I can smell money in air. Double! Double! is the theme of change, instead of the conservative 6% – 7% expectation.

Buy stock in China is always like buy lottery. If you bought the right stock, it can easily bring your wealth to the sky in days, and if you are not lucky enough and get the bad stock, it will shrink at the same speed. I don’t have experience in the Chinese stock market – I never bought any or sell any in my life. I don’t know what my friends felt when he saw his wealth just increased 30% last week.

Unlike NASDAQ, the stock price in China has a threshold. If it raise or drop too much, it will stop trading and hold until the next day. When I chatted with my friend who know stock, he said, you have to catch the first 10 minutes between 9:30 – 9:40 AM. 9:30 is the market opening time. You start to trade at 9:30. However, if you do not act quick enough, the stock you buy may either stop for raising too much, or dropping too much, so you don’t have a chance to either buy or sell.

I cannot confirm whether this is true. But based on the recent crazy articles I read, it seems cash is flying in air. Instinct tells me it is the right time for the market to crash.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about stock market, so this article didn’t provide any suggestion.

Some Blogs about V2EX

Just spent some time to use Google Blog Search to get some comments about V2EX, after it is unplugged by the “big guy”.

Look at the angry people here. When a pure technical forum full of geeks and technical guys are monitored and finally shut down, who can claim to be safe? Who is the next? From the first day, bloggers should be prepared to be shut down at any time. I am prepared, at least.

Standing in a Train? No…

Today, Wendy and I went to buy train tickets. It is spring festival, and train tickets are not easy to get.

We asked for train #282, from Shanghai to Chendong.

The person inside the counter said: “There is nothing for this train in the next 11 days now. No sleeper ticket, no soft seats, no hard seats, and even standing tickets were sold out”.

In rush time like the Spring Festival, people buy “Standing Tickets”. Every square meter of free space on the train will be full of people with “standing tickets”. It is the same price as the ticket with seat. The different is, you have to stand there all they way, 30 hours or longer. I used to buy that kind of tickets when I was a student. I stood for 18 hours from Shanghai to Luoyang. That itself is OK, but the hard part is, if your standing place is far from the WC, you will have trouble.

But now it is out of my consideration to stand on a train for many days.

Well. The question is, even if you WANT to stand on the train, you don’t have the chance, since there are so many people standing there already. Standing tickets were sold out.

Wendy asked: “How about tickets after 11 days?”

She asked because all tickets are sold 11 days in advance.

The person said: “No. Don’t try that.”

Wendy was upset: “Then where are the tickets?”

The person replied: “If I tell you, I put all the ticket in my own pocket, do you believe it? Next!”

Good answer. It seems to me that thousands of tickets for that train didn’t go to her pocket, but where are the train tickets?

Life in a Crowded World

Life in Shanghai is tough. Who should we complain when there are so many people asking for the same service?

Long Lines in Banks

“Never, ever try to use any bank in Xujiahui area”, warned Wendy.

This is true. Last time Wendy went to Bank of China and got a service ticket. It stated that there are 180 people waiting before her.

One and half hour later, when she is back, there are still 150 people before her. At 4:00, when she is back again, her number just passed, and she has to get back to the bank the second day again.

The bank is full of people who have waited hours to deposit or withdraw money.

The online service of Bank of China does not really work, so there are not many options for its customer.

For me, banks are not different. The most common thing is, if you go to one bank, you will swear not to go to this bank again for the rest of your life. I did so for ICBC (ICBC – A Customer’s Experience), and other banks (Service Quality of Banks in China (Shanghai)).

Parking Lot

I gave up Carrfour many times just because the parking lot was too crowded, and there is no parking lot.

I gave up IKEA the last week for the same reason. I also gave up my goods in my shopping cart just to avoid the long line.

Train Ticket

Train tickets are even more ridiculous. Read on

The Changing Shanghai

This is a normal Saturday. It is cloudy.

Ihad a short walk with Wendy near my home in Pudong.

This is a normal place in Pudong. Here are some random photos I took today. This is the beginning of 2007. I am very sure that after 1 year, the view will completely change. Who can predict what is going to happen in China these days? Take a look at these pictures.

Below: Women formed a dancing team to practice before the Hymall. They have drums and loud music. I am so happy that my apartment is still 2 minutes walk away from where they dance.

Below:

This is typically bricks on the sidewalk in Shanghai. It rained yesterday, so some parts are wet. The sidewalk is pretty clean now, since the Chengshan 成山 road was just completed one year ago. It is a pretty empty road now. Who knows what it may happen after 1 year, when the road extends to the east, and forms the backbone of the road system in Pudong?

Above: In the next one hour and a half, I am wandering in this area. This park was still not finished. 1 year ago, this area was a typically Pudong village, and one year later, it becomes a park. These two pictures are similar, taken from the 20th floor of a building nearby.

Above: On the north side of the building, high-raise residential areas have been completed. You can see how many buildings there. On the south and west of this building, it is still a construction site. I will show you soon. However, it is for sure that the area I show later will become the same in 2 years.

Construction site #1. Look at those big tube? It is the natural gas station, and there is a big yellow place? I don’t know what it is.

Construction site #2. There are many big machines like this around where I live. Construction is going on everywhere.

Above: This is a new bridge. As you can see from the picture, it is not completed. I am expecting the bridge to be completed within one month.

This is the water gate, the old one. According to the construction plan, this will become a river within the residential area. The water gate will be removed.

Above: This is the prototype of a new road. The road will extend to connect with the current road near my apartment, which was completed the last year.

Above: Construction site, again.

Look at this river. Boats are coming from the East China Sea and going to the Huangpu River. The area south of the river is still not developed yet.

Above: This is the completed park.

Change! Change! Change!

The reason I posted these pictures is to show people who are not in this city the sense of change.

On this land, change is happening on daily basis, instead of yearly. I am going to take some pictures the same time the next year to show you the changes. All the buildings are expected to finish the next year, and all the roads.

Shanghai and China is developing in a amazing speed. When people run, it is very clear that the old system needs to catch up with the economical growth. Just remember, there are more than 160 metro stations under construction concurrently in Shanghai.

New Xiangyang Market Location?

Many people ask me about the new location of Xiangyang Market.

There are many versions to this answer since every emerging market is trying hard to claim themselves as the NEW Xiangyang Market. Non of the claim can be verified since as a market famous for fake goods, there is no official answer.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

It seems to ME that the one under the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is the most similar one I saw so far.

There are some characteristic of Xiangyang Market:

1. Tons of small shops for cloth.

2. High price in offer, low price in final deal.

3. Fake goods – good with pretty good quality, but use the brand name they don’t own.

The new market is true in these three criteria.

Especially on the second one:

High Price in Offer, Low Price in Final Deal

Remember a rule: Never, ever pay more than 1/3 of the price they offer for the first time.

Example, for a jacket, if you are the price, they said: “300 RMB”, you typically can get it at 100 RMB or so.

For foreigners, their first offer is typically higher.

The Location

Take Metro #2 and it is at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Do NOT exit the station. It is just at the basement level of the station.

Map

V2EX’s Network Cable was Unplugged

Livid’s V2EX is a great Internet application. 3000+ genius Internet developers gathered there to discuss topics related to programming, Internet, and other geek topics.

At 4:00 PM, Jan 11, 2007, the network cable of the server was unplugged by the Internet hosting company. It is according to “supervisor’s order”.

This is not the first case. It is too common in the current Internet world that no one even got surprised. This is how the censorship works. “Unplug” seems not so technical, but it is very effective. Great Firewall works for the servers outside China, and “unplug” is the first (and most basic) step to do with servers in China.

A footnote to this event is, blogbus.com was raided by people who claim to fine the company because they don’t have a so-called “License for transmitting Video/Audio Programs on Information Network”. At the same time, the new Google Blogger Customer Domain was blocked by the Great Firewall.

So this is the land I called it “homeland”, so this is the way they treat me, I’m always being constructive, I’m always being creative, I’m smart and I’m nice to everyone, I used to make wealth and knowledge for this land, but this land just cannot allow me to be a nice “good” man, so, what else can I do? – Livid

This is the real reflection of the current China in the begining of year 2007.

Here are some reference to this event: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

120K Self-Claim Tax in Details

Disclaimer: Just like previous post, this is just want I *THINK* it works. It is NOT an official explain of the tax issue.

The source of this explanation came from the tax summary paper I received in mail and this link.

Who Should Follow the Self-Claim Routine

Anyone who have annual income above 120K RMB should self-claim his/her tax to the tax bureau from Jan 1 to March 31 from this year.

Personal annual income includes not only salary, it also include bonus, income for labor, interest, stock dividends, author’s remuneration, copyright royalty, rent of property, transfer of property, accidental income and other income.

From the list, it seems any money that goes into someone’s pocket should be claimed. There are some exception, but none of them seem to be common to normal people.

Tax rate for most of the items are 20%.

How to Claim it

The tax bureau provides a hot line: 12366 to handle questions. People can go to their office to claim between 8:30 to 16:30, from Monday to Saturday.

What is the Status?

In the most important national wide news time from 7:00 to 7:30 PM, there is an update for the status yesterday. 9 days after the policy was announced, there are 1253 persons claimed it in Beijing, 400 for other cities, and no one claimed in some cities.

When I search the news on Internet, many cities didn’t see anyone come to their office to claim.

According to some (unconfirmed) sources, people we didn’t claim their tax will be charged up to 5 times of 50% of their tax due.

How about the Policy?

I am pretty sure that this policy will be among the countless policies that no one follow. Just like the ICP license policy issued in 2000, it was not enforced until the year of 2006.

For this one? It times time, maybe for 5 years for this policy to be really enforced. This can be a problem in China that laws and regulations are not accepted easily, just because the process of drafting these laws didn’t involve the people.

Personal Income Tax in China

Disclaimer: Tax in China is like many other things. It is a blur concept, and confusing most of time. I am not a professional on this. To be honest, if I were not to prepare this article, I never really understand or try to understand how tax works. So there may be error or misunderstanding in this document. Refer to official document instead of this person.

Personal Income Tax

The current income tax was deducted before you get your salary. The company is responsible to charge you tax on your behalf.

The formula is

$$$ due to tax = your monthly salary – basic tax waive $ – personal social insurances etc

* basic tax waive $ is typically from 800 RMB to 1600 RMB depending on the province/city you are in. That means, if your salary is lower than this amount, you don’t have to pay tax.

* personal social insurances are different kinds of insurance you pay to the government, like housing allowance, retirement insurance, medical insurances, unemployment insurance. To be short, there are many insurances that you need to pay the government. For the company, they also need to pay the company’s portion of the same insurance for you, which is typically 45-48% of your salary.

Tax = $$$ due to tax * Tax Percentage – Easy Deduction Rate

* Easy Deduction Rate: It is just for easiness of calculation. For example, if you way a rate of 25%, there is a portion (below 20,000) that is due to lower rate (20%, 15%, 10% and 5%), so you don’t need to pay as much as 25% of the full amount, so you deduct the Easy Deduction Rate.

Tax Grade

Grade | Monthly Salary (RMB) | Tax Percentage | Easy Deduction Rate

1 | $ < 500 | 5% | 0 2 | 500 < $ < 2,000 | 10% | 25 3 | 2,000 < $ < 5,000 | 15% | 125 4 | 5,000 < $ < 20,000 | 20% | 375 5 | 20,000 < $ < 40,000 | 25% | 1375 6 | 40,000 < $ < 60,000 | 30% | 3375 7 | 60,000 < $ < 80,000 | 35% | 6375 8 | 80,000 < $ < 100,000 | 40% | 10375 9 | $ > 100,000 | 45% | 15375

Consuming Tax

When you buy goods, you are paying consuming tax, but it is included in the final price everywhere. You have no idea about that you are actually paying tax.

Self-claim tax for annual salary > 120K

There is a new policy that people with income > 120K will need to claim tax by themselves. I never really understand what it means. Let’s wait and see how it works.