Through talking with the folks i am working with in China, i learned the following interesting things:
- If you are single and you are working for a state-owned business, you get to take up to 40 days a year off to visit your parents/family. If, however, you are married, then you get up to 40 days a year every 4 years.
- Homes in cities north of the Yangzi river are supplied with heat from the state during the cold months of winter. Homes in cities south of the river are not. A soldier standing guard on the north end of the bridge spanning the Yangzi river is supplied with thick winter clothing but a soldier guarding the south end of the bridge is not. (Update 12/17/2005: Turned out this may not have been true.)
- By law, a doctor is not allowed to reveal the sex of the baby to the expecting parents.
- You can pretty much forget about doing business in China during three weeks around the Chinese New Year. No one will be at work.
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I am back in Beijing. This is my first business trip since i started working at Availant less than 3 months ago. I am feeling excited and yet at the same time, a little nervous. The nervousness probably arises from the fact that i am representing Availant in front of a customer for the first time. This is almost the same feeling i had when i first went on a high availability implementation project in my previous job.
I was in Beijing back in July for about a week. That was my first ever trip to China. Now i am back again, though the weather is on the other extreme end now. Back in July, it was very hot and daily temperature was around the 90s (Fahrenheit). Last week, the average daily temperature in Beijing was in the 20s (Fahrenheit).
I am glad the Beijing Shangri-la has complimentary high-speed internet because i really do not like paying RMB 120 a night like what i did in July when i was staying at the Shanghai Hilton and the Pudong Renaissance.
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I have not stopped laughing since i saw the hilarious lip-syncing effort by these two Chinese art college students. Thanks to Smelly for the link.
Update 2005-11-01 01:20
Apparently these dudes are pretty big in China now, at least in the online community. Tian, creator of the Hanzi Smatter blog, has more information about them, including most, if not all, of their other videos. If you can read Chinese, sina.com even has a site for them, calling them the Back Dormitory Boys.
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Most of the pictures, except those of the Real Beijing Men, from my two-week China trip can be found in my photo gallery.
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It’s a good thing i decided not to go to Suzhou this morning. I was feeling really lazy and didn’t want to go to the train station to be surrounded by tons of people again. Shanghai has been pounded by heavy rain and strong wind since last evening. I had wanted to go to one area well-known for fake goods but the weather prevented me from leaving my hotel. I could not even go out for lunch. I went to the 20th floor of the hotel after finding out that a well-known hotpot chain is located there. I was seated next to the window and i could see the glass window moving back and forth - i was wondering if the window was going to hold up ! The hotpot was the best i have ever had. The soup, the dipping sauce and the ingredients were all excellent.
Continue reading ‘Typhoon Matsa’
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I arrived in Shanghai in the morning on the overnight express train from Beijing. After checking into the Hua-dong hotel (華東), i took the advice of the subway assistant by taking the bus to Cheng-huang temple (城隍廟) directly. I was not really clear on what Cheng-huang temple was all about prior to arriving there. I thought Cheng-huang temple was only a temple. I found out that it was more than a temple. The Cheng-huang temple area included tons of commercial stores, the temple was only a very minor part of it. I saw global companies like Starbucks and Coca-cola there. It really was not what i had expected. It was not what i had intended to see.
Continue reading ‘Day Ten - Shanghai’
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Since i was going back to Shanghai in the evening, i did not plan any excursions today. I went to the Oriental Shopping mall again at Wangfujing Road. Bought some pretty cool-looking shirts - my only purchase in China so far. While i was there, i made my third visit to Starbucks. It’s funny because i have never bought anything from Starbucks in the US, even though Seattle is literally lined with Starbucks. And now that i am in China, i have already gone to and bought drinks from three Starbucks. So far, i have tried the green tea iced Frappuccino. I have never acquired the taste for coffee but this drink is really good. Somehow i think Starbucks is probably not catering to most of the Beijing population. A tall size of green tea Frappuccino costs RMB 29 and that is about two meals for most people.
Continue reading ‘Day Nine - Beijing’
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On my way back from the Great Wall, i saw an incoming a Audi A8L that was flashing what i call “cop lights” (similar to those unmarked police cruisers in the US) and blaring its siren. I thought the police department here must be pretty well off to be able to drive Audi A8s as their cruisers! Later near the Beijing train station, i saw yet another Audi A8 doing the exact same thing. Later, i found out from the tattoo artist that these vehicles are not police cruisers. These vehicles are actually for high-ranking officials in the government. They are built with flashing lights and sirens just so the drivers of these vehicles can clear the traffic. But seeing how the normal drivers here react to an exact police cruiser that had its “christmas lights” on, i have to say that they probably do not work. From what i have seen, drivers here do not give way to emergency vehicles. They really don’t give a rat’s ass about emergency vehicles at all.
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