Watching China

Just get back from SVB Bank Wine Tasting event. SVB (Silicon Valley Bank) is a very special bank. Based on my experience with them, they know what they are going to do, and have some great people in the team, and of great culture. It is like a family.

The event happened in Le Platine in the Xintiandi area. The venue is a very nice place for such private meetings. They mixed their partners, VC clients and entrepreneurs. The first part of it was not very interesting (I just want to be honest with myself), but the last part, I had the opportunity to talk with Hairong Ji from Focus Media (I learnt he was in SJTU for 8 years), and David Wu (my school mate of the same department. SVB folks joined the talk after they sent most of their guest out.

I had great wine - although every time wine tastes great for me. I had a lot and get a little bit dazzle after it. As Terrence put it, not every bank can provide good wine...

I won't shy away from my praise of the SVB, just like I am a happy customer (and friend) of MovableType. SVB team is like a family, and as a customer, I am feeling happy...

P.S. Pretty busy days, but I have made up my mind to put most of my time into the business for long enough time. So time flys quickly for me.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 10, 2008 12:52 AM
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Visited Aspect Gaming, and AdChina today.

Nice Internet startups in Shanghai. Had wonderful lunch with Justin, and talked in depths with Alan. Both are good friends of me. They are both in Shanghai Mediazone Tower (Wang Wang Tower) near Nanjing road.

We really should get together with great people more often and get inspiration. I do need to talk with people - my type of people need inspiration to live, and to work.

Maybe I should setup a goal to meet some great people every few weeks (if not every week), to keep my life exciting.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 8, 2008 11:16 PM
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I wrote about my software list for newly installed PC the last year. Since I reinstall my laptop from time to time (on average, every quarter), I keep a list of software to be installed. I don't like software like Ghost - I just want to keep my PC as fresh as possible.

Looking back at the article I wrote before, there are not many in the list. This time, i create a longer list. Maybe after 5 years, when we look back at this list, many of them no longer exists, or we have started to use newer software at that time. A trend I observed from the last year is, most of my daily use software was downloaded from Internet (for free).

1. Drivers - especially Video, and network drivers.
2. Windows Update to get to the latest version.
3. Keep Windows Messenger that comes with Windows XP (don't want to use Live Messenger)
4. Turn on ClearType. If in Chinese environment, change the font family for titles, and menus to Tohama from the default SimSong font - so the ClearType can take efect.
5. Firefox, and then do not use IE after that.
6. Sogou Pinyin IME (for better experience to input Chinese)
7. Google Toolbar
8. Google Picasa

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 7, 2008 6:43 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20081007_software_list_for_newly_installed_pc.htm

The traffic jam at around 8:00 - 9:00 in Shanghai has finally reached a point that driving is slower than taking public transportation. From the first day of the new season (October, or the new quarter, or you may call it the first day after the long holiday), I decided to use public transportation to commute to work.

Public Transportation System in Shanghai

The public transportation system in Shanghai is reasonably good now. With metro lines reaching many important places (unfortunately, not including my home yet), and many bus lines, it is very convenient to use the bus + metro or just bus combination to commute.

With a public transportation card in hand, the experience is more enjoyable. Just keep your card in your wallet, and swipe it as you enter the bus, or metro, just like the bus or metro is free. Without the hassle to find coins, or changes to buy tickets, it is really easier.

Morning Routine

I have tried to take 970 to the Lan Cun Road Station of Metro line #4, and transit to Metro Line #1. It takes about 1 hour, but you have to go up stairs and down for many times.

The other way is to take the Xu Chuan Line bus, and it directly take me to Xujiahui. It takes about 50 minutes if I get on board at 7:00 AM.

I wake up more than one hour earlier and try to go to bed one hour earlier than before.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 6, 2008 11:19 PM
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The fourth and the last quarter of 2008 begins. How exciting. I am getting back to work, full of energy now.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 6, 2008 10:34 AM
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This is the end of the last holiday. The holiday started from Sept 29, and ends today, October 5.

What I did in the last 7 days? I was in Beijing in the first two days, and spent the rest 5 days at home. With Yifan at home, most of the time, if all, were spent with Yifan. We went to the Lujiazui area the first night, went to Century Park, and Xujiahui at night. We also went to dinner with Yifan. Then we went to the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum the other day, and on the final day, went to hospital together.

With Yifan in the family, my life is dramatically changed in the last year. I read some blogs in the year of 2002, and 2005, and found out it is almost completely another me, especially when I looked at what I did in holidays. We didn't travel for two years.

The other day, Wendy said, with a baby, the pain in life doubled, and sweetness tripled. I generally agree. But my formula is, the pain doubled, and sweetness got 10x. I believe it is because Wendy did most of the painful work to take care of the baby, and I was only the assistant, and Yifan brought me too much happiness, like a big toy or pet (is it the right word to describe my little boy?)

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 5, 2008 9:31 PM
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Yifan got a little bit fever, and we brought him to the Shanghai Children Medical Center. We have already tried the local small clinic called Anda Hospital - the place within walking distance from our home, but they were on holiday, and we went to the Becai Community Medical Center - they were on holiday too. We have to take our last choice, the one we really don't want to bring Yifan to - the Shanghai Children Medical Center. We don't want to bring Yifan there because it is really a refugee for children. Today, Yifan's grandfather went there early this morning, and got a ticket with #608 in the queue, and he came back. We drive there about 2 PM in the afternoon, and we arrived just on time. They just past the ticket No. 600. So, practically speaking, you have to wait for 4-6 hours to get your child to see a doctor for 2 minutes. Anyway, this is not news. They are always like this. The conclusion I got was, with the increase of GDP, tax dollars the government collect from all kinds of activities, and the increase of demand for people to get health care, the supply of hospital and other medical resources just kept unchanged. That is a big problem for the current system.

The Free Exam for Poison Milk Victim Children

Something new I saw this time was about a special area, and process to handle the victim children of the poison milk. There are many places you can get aware of it.

Poster

The first is the poster everywhere telling people what to do. They listed all the symptoms of the affected children, and procedures to get the free exam. They rest assured anxious parents that by drinking a lot of water, stones in kidney smaller than 4mm that are not solid enough will run out of the body. Bigger one will be handled by the hospital.

Pre-exam Counter

The second place is a "pre-exam" counter at the entrance of the hospital. They have banner with the following message:
"Problematic Milk" Pre-Exam
They have a form on the table that parents can fill in.

I asked them that my child didn't drink the "problematic milk" that were reported, but I am still not sure. They offered pretty good answer, and suggested that if I want, just bring Yifan to the clinic for a free and quick B-ray scan of the body. It seems every child, no matter what history is, can go in and do the exam immediately, for free.

I finally decided not to take the exam. Something I learned was, hospital in China is one of the most dangerous place to be, and I don't want to risk Yifan's health to take any unnecessary exam.

The Special Area for the Exam

Immediately after the registry counter are a special area with large banner: "Problematic Milk Children Exam" (I just did the word by word direct translation). There is a safe guard sitting there to maintain order. There are not many people there. During the several minutes I was there, I only saw one child went into the clinic, and two out of it.

Only Comparable to SARS

That is what I observed so far. This special treatment is comparable to SARS period - I mean by the terms of the amount of resources hospitals put into this. Let's see how it developers.

P.S. I still don't have too much to say about this whole event. I think the only value I can add besides the piles of articles and comments on this is to provide some first hand information about the event to my readers who cares about it.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 5, 2008 8:21 PM
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Several weeks after the US financial crisis really burst out. I tend to use Monday, Sept 15, 2008, the day Lehman Bros announcing bankruptcy, and Merrill Lynch's sold out as my indicator of the big storm in US. I was luckily (or unluckily) in US at that time. At that time, almost everyone I talked with concerned about the crisis, and talked about the impact to them, to their firm, or to the country.

In China, there is no big tangible impact in daily life yet. The real estate price was impacted a little bit, but just from the real estate developer side. The newly built house price drops a little bit, but for second hand, there is no direct change yet (I mean the area I live in Shanghai). The increase of grocery and other daily goods are there for a long time already. Banks are still stable, and I don't think people worry about any bankruptcy in China yet. In contrast, during my dinner with Microsoft friends, they were worried about their money in Washington Mutual Bank, which turned out to be valid concerns. In China, there is no such worry, YET.

I will continue to report about the reaction in China, from the daily life perspective.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 4, 2008 8:47 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20081004_impact_of_us_financial_crisis_on_china.htm

At night, Wendy, Yifan and I had dinner with Run, Eric Zheng, and Apple Zhu.

Yifan felt boring when the adults discussed about something that he was not interested. He got some dishes, and a glass cup and played wit it. Not surprisingly, very soon, he dropped the glass cup to the ground, and broke it.

Finally, we paid 11 RMB for it to the restaurant, and Run was kind enough to pay the penalty for Yifan. Thanks, and here is just for the record.

Yifan already learned to walk very well. Most of the time, he just enjoys wandering from room to room to look for something attracting his attention. Very cute now.

Last time, Yifan broke a bow in Hangzhou and we paid 10 RMB for it.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 3, 2008 11:30 PM
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Rob left a comment on my blog, and I learned about his amazing journey. He used 800 days to skateboard from Switzerland to Shanghai two days ago, and here is his journey.

I have shot an email to Rob asking whether he has time for a meetup in Shanghai. It is very like many of my crazy project, but his is much more crazier.

Enjoy these boundless thoughts and actions in this world!

P.S. Matt's dance was another amazing piece:

Damian Woetzel showed the video to the audience during the YLF 2008 session.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 2, 2008 10:37 AM
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After I returned to Shanghai on Sept 23th Shanghai time, my sense of time was completely disordered, and due to the national holiday, and the recent travel to Beijing, my sense of days is also destroyed. In Beijing, I happened to have no Internet access, and that is the reason of one of the longest blogging pause in my blogging history.

Now, I am back.

And I will make up some blogs to fill in the absence - I don't like to record something that I know is not truth. My way to handle it is to change the time to some day in the past, and put a disclaimer at the end of the entry to tell people (especially for myself) the actual day the blog was created.

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at October 1, 2008 10:44 PM
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From the first day I am in Beijing, I planned to visit the new Adidas flagship store in Sanlitun, Beijing.

I am not a sports fan, and I am not an Adidas fan yet. I went there just for the building. When we were at a bar at floor 4 of the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, Greg told me that he has a new architect completed in Beijing. This is one of the only three works he did for Asia. I went there and check out his building.

P.S. This page was actually created on October 1, 2008

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at September 30, 2008 11:23 PM
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In Beijing, almost everything related to household utility is prepaid. This is the biggest difference in life in Beijing and Shanghai.

I have taken it for granted that the following things should be billed after use:

• Natural gas
  
• Water
  
• Electricity
  
• Hot-water (if it is provided)
  
• Fixed Line Telephone

Card....

For most of the households in Beijing, they have many different cards:
- Electricity card. You have to go to bank or self-serve machine to buy electricity credit, and then insert it into the electricity meter to get electricity.
- Gas card. The same thing. Buy it at bank first, and insert the card into the gas meter, so you get gas.
- Hot water card. You have to got to the property management company to prepay the hot water you need, insert it into your hot water meter, so you can get hot water.

If you do not insert the card, the meter just stops anything from passing it - no matter it is electricity, gas, hot water, or anything else.

Big Difference

Mvm has complained for this when he was in Beijing. There are all types of people - people like to plan and people hate plan in advance. Not everyone can plan exactly how much electricity, how much water, and how much gas the family will use in that month. I assume in Beijing, people may often run into the situation of no gas, no electricity or no water. Imagine at night, you don't have electricity, like what Eric experienced during the middle festival. You have to wait until the second day to take short leave from work to buy some electricity...

Nothing Right, or Wrong. It is Just Different

I just feel the pain in Beijing, but there is no right or wrong. It is just different from Shanghai, just like many foreigners felt the difference and suffer from the difference from their own country in China.

What do you feel about the prepaid model in Beijing?

P.S. This page was actually created on October 1, 2008

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at September 28, 2008 10:50 PM
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I went to Wendy's high school gathering in Beijing on Sept 28th. For many classmates, Wendy haven't seen them for 13 years. Time flies. Here is a nice photo after the dinner. Me? I was the photographer.

Photograph by Jian Shuo Wang

Posted by Jian Shuo Wang at September 28, 2008 10:19 PM
Copyright: You are free to redistribute this work, as long as you keep this disclaimer and this link: http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20080928_wendys_high_school_gathering.htm