wake up

While we were at HKIA waiting for our flight crossing the Pacific for YVR, we used the newly opened CX lounge. We were flying coach. I flew so much now I am Gold.. Member that is. This was a space age lounge completed w/ bar tenders & chefs. Not bad. Then came to power plugs. Geee..... Is this only HK people travel? Look at the plugs. Couldn't fit anything else, and CX calls itself an International airline? Even PVG was smart enough to provide multiple-adapter power plugs in all the lounges and public power charging units. And you? Get some sense.... It's the little thing that really frustrate me seeing stuff like this. Forward thinking? Not.

paper

See this wrapped up scroll at the corner by the door?  I had a silly experience at the Hong Kong airport.  Where else, the supposedly friendly, free and forward thinking society... Right.... Since the Brits left... 

As I was ready to get through pre-screen before actual security screening and immigration, this girl stopped us.  "You cannot take this onto the plane, it's too big!".  Excuse me?  Too big?  How so?  "This is longer than 21" she spoke snarlingly.  Typical power trip.  In her hands, I noticed a stack of orange paper wondering what that was.  So iron-wife and I trooped back to the CX counter.  "It's a paper scroll, we need to hand carrying this.".  The ticket agent said "Ok, wait a minute".  She came back with on orange slip, typed it on the scroll and said "You are good to go".  What?  All this fussing for a piece of orange paper?  

I walked thru the pre-screening.  That say snarly girl came over and said "I need to tear one side of the paper off".  That was it.  We walked through. So what the hell was that all about?  Whose sick idea of "process".  It's worst than the pre-red commie days.  The only thing I can think of: job creation.  And we are wasting paper for this?  A rubber stamp may do the trick.  Literally.

 

news reporting

I was on the elliptical machine this morning and caught a BB C news about the launching of Shanghai-Hangzhou high speed rail. I laughed when the reporter said: "The cost is 20 dollars for first class and 13 dollars for second class which is a lot for most people.... ". His tone was like people here cannot afford to pay for the tickets. I beg to differ. The Chinese will spend on big expensive items to "show off". Sitting on a train cannot show it off to the world or their peers. How come this reporter did not do a piece on "how many LV, Channel, Gucci bags running around in China?".

The price for a first class seat is RMB 245 and 2nd class seat is RMB 149 and standing room ticket is RMB 80.00...(he forgot to report on the standing room ticket) One way. The time from station to station is 45 minutes. It's not that people cannot afford it. When comparing prices, we always convert an amount to our own country's and justify. That's ethnocentric. Has nothing to do with if the price is just. I always stress to visitors that when visiting a place do the local do and see from the local's eyes. RMB 245 one-way, I would think twice about it! Not that I can't afford it. I live here so I am compare price based on what I have been spending to this new price. The answer: it's more than double. And what does it buy me? A whomping 30 minutes saving in travel time from one station to another. Does it worth it? Specially when I have to take either a taxi to the new Hongqiao train station at a cost of RMB 70.00 through major grid lock on the elevated road (this means to leave home early!), or to take the number 2 subway line at a cost of RMB 4.00 and spend an hour to get there. Now, what kind of savings do I have?

What I am getting at is to take the report with a "pile" of salt not a "grain" of salt.

The reporter also failed to mention that, by launching of the new highspeed train, the normal fast train schedule has been "adjusted". "Adjusted" as in less frequent so people have to take the much more expansive highspeed train. That affects people's net income in the end. Also, the highspeed train stops at some far flung stations along the way. This means people are traveling more and more for the "high speed" to save what 30 minutes? Make senses?

Seems this reporting I saw on TV is not much in depth and just plain "thick head".

For a quick reference on train numbers, it always starts with "G", "D" or "K". G is the first letter in Pinyin for "Gao Tie". That's the highspeed train in Chinese. "D" is "Dong Che" in Pinyin that means electric powered. "K" is the good old train speed "Kuai" means fast. In scale, you always want to get on at least a "D" number train.

dirty

Yikes. This is a pre-filter for our ionizer aka water purification system. After six months of use, the filters were changed out as a schedule maintenance. Look at the one lying in the basin. It's yellow. When we installed it six months ago, it was pure white!

Just hope next Summer we are not going to have "salty" water. :-(

recent tours

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here they go.  

We did two tours so far in Shanghai.  Tuesday, we did Expo.  Today, we did an ancient water town.

http://web.me.com/damiaolo/expo2010/page_1.html

http://web.me.com/damiaolo/zhujiajiao/page_1.html

lowered

Or dud.... Not sure what this self-perceived super dud power wants the motherland'$ $ to raise. The upri$ing of the Red was long over back in the 1970'$. It's so pathetic as the ri$e of the mother"load" would not help the dud's economy anyway. In fact, it has the opposite effect. Our in c0m e BA SIC A LLY D ROPP ED BEc@ USE OF THAT. In turn, we will be forced to raise our fee to compensate the 15% depreciation (seems like 15% to me). This asking will in turn force the dud companies that do business here w/ us feeling the pinch. I still see a lot of foreigners on expense account here spending $. If the dud exchange rate continue$ to slide, wouldn't the spending stop? And no one will be sent over here. Or the Big dud companies are that stupid?

Just 4 months ago, 1 dud dollar gets me 7.2 mother"load". 10 thousand times that and we get to pay rent and other business expenses from working w/ the dud companies. Today, 1 dud dollars gets me only 6.66 mother"load". My rent has gone up by 10%, food prices here are up again.... And the people back in the dud land won't get more j o b$ as big dud corporations will look for the next cheap labour pool here in thi$ part of the world. So what doe$ it prove? Ignorant? Stupid? Probably.

Going to bed.... Heading out tomorrow to clear my head of all the stupidities. After 130KM ride, I am sure I have somethings else to distract me from this mother"load" appreciation !$$ue. I don't even read the N Y x anymore... Useless news....

bubble?

Normally, a real estate investment is expected to have about 10+% return a year. Unless my math is off, buying investment property here in motherland just doesn't make sense.

The first image is a list of apartment units for sale at a complex not far north from our apartment. It's service apartment style with management. To the right are the price. 4,900,000, 1,900,000, 2,300,000 etc... Most are one-bedroom suits. The first one on the list shown here is 101 sq meters. The second one was 43.33 sq meters, the third one was 50.9 sq meters... you get the hang of the reading from the image. Then you see 48515, 43850, 45187.. those are "per sql meter" pricing. Tonight, I saw a unit from the same complex was asking 2.5million. An expected monthly income (net) of 6,000 was stated. OK, for one year the return is about 2.88%. Ummm....

Now the second image is the "official" gov't-control published mortgage rates. The first table lists mortgage rates for individuals. 5 year rate is about 5.94%. Alright, if I only get 2.88% return and have to pay 5.94% mortgage rate. Am I having a negative rate of return?

The second table, from this same image, provides a list of mortgage rates for those who use their pension fund $ to purchase. Rates listed are about 2 points lower. Still.... I am running a negative rate of return right?

Don't forget, the "Official" down payment is 30% of the price. If one cannot afford, he/she will have to borrow from parents, relatives and friends. So those have to be pay back. Now, what math will I be running then?

Panic

Yes, major panic this aft. I did a sync of my Apple's Contacts and iCal data to the "cloud". The .Me cloud. After uploading it, I notice not only my contact's numbers and address but the content of the notes section as well. Well, that's not good. With the cloud, who else can read all my personal information that can start hacking... I wiped them from the .Me. Several hours later, I tried ooking up some information on my computer. O no, the data that I wiped from the cloud were also mirrored to my computer! Holy! I had it set to only sync one-way: from my computer to the cloud. What the hack! There must be some bugs some where.... I synced both of my phones prior too. So, I couldn't "recover".

Thank goodness for Google. I knew a copy of the backup before the sync must be on my harddrive somewhere. Buried. For security sake from Steve. I ended up restore one of my phones like I had just bought it and recovered from backup, all thru iTune. My universe was balance once again after 15 minutes of shortness of breath. It worked! I recovered all my data.

I immediately backup the recovered Contact and iCal data in six different ways! Both of my phones are synced again. And yes, I disabled the "behind the scene" cloud syncing that it should have never happened as I had it on manual.

Welcome to the cloud computing 101. Back up data somewhere as cloud can have a problem too. Don't rely on it to save the day.

Speedy

Yes, very speedy zipping to Pudong airport. I have successfully in two airports in Shanghai all in one day. In the morning, sent off iron-wife for Beijing. In the afternoon, me to Pudong Airport. My trip though was so unplanned and sudden.

Talking to dad at around 2pm on Skype after a late morning of North American travel bookings, we realized we needed to get some things attended to. So a quick chat on Skype w/ iron-wife to ensure all the stars were aligned, I booked CX. Actually, Xmas shopping for kids ;-) The earliest flight was 630pm. Done. Thank God for Be tter C!ty B ett er L! FE. My Internet had been fast the last week. In less than 5 minutes, I got my e-Ticket. Flight info downloaded to my iPhone. Ah... so civilized compared to the chaotic and ever money sucking North American airlines would not provide. Next they probably want to charge me by the minute to use the Website purchase. Enough ranting....

Good thing I traveled light. I already had my biz casual work clothes on. So I did a 10-minute house cleaning and unplugged all the unnecessary power tools, o yes, garbage and spray of "firewall" to stop bugs from coming in. I was off. LIterally with the shirt on my back.

Yes, thank you for Be tter C!ty B ett er L! FE. I took the subway and Maglev. Got to the airport shortly after 4pm. I knew I could take an earlier flight just because the web purchase did not offer. 5:30pm. Sure! Wow, a 747 too.

Now, CX proud itself to the seat comfort next to Singapore Airline. Not sure who designed the economy seats. Maybe a very proportioned 6" ramrod person that would only sit straight up. The seat sucked! So uncomfortable to site. When I reclined, my ass had to sit on the space between the seat back and the end of the seat cushion in order to have my back set nicely to the seat back. O yeah, I could not have my legs spread wide; otherwise, I might get out of alignment. Then the head rest. What the f^(()k! When the seat recline, the head rest couldn't. So I got this big lump on my head that my neck would need a neck specialist to fix after a 12-hour flight. O dear... I am flying econo to North America and on the return too. O... red-eye as well. Both ways. And the seat cushion, slowly creating this carpet burning feeling on my ass as I slowly sliding toward the bottom. My bloody Macau/Hong Kong Ferry seat has more cushioning. Yes, I got my own entertainment system and a power plug.

But still took me over 4 hours to get to Hong Kong from the time I sat on the plane. Yeah, Air Traffic Control. 1 1/2 hour behind schedule. I thought by arresting this vice chairman of civil aviation should stop the congestion or even cancel some of the ill gained routings to relief congestion. Guess not.

Speedy? Yeah... the booking online and the decision to make the trip; not so speedy w/ the flight.

familiar

Notice the logo on the top left corner. Familiar? Even the website name, so similar to a company named "Ver xxxx on". This site is for tracking flight status in the motherland.

Ca$h

Ha$ anyone heard? A small group of mine owners from Mainland C h!n@ got robbed in $weden couple days ago. The robbery was not the new$, it wa$ the @mount $tolen! 1, 600 000 .00 motherland C@$H. Yep... C@$ H. They left the amount in a touri$t bu$ while having dinner one night. Apparently, thi$ group wa$ $uch a $howoff when walking into the re$taurant. Attracted a bit too much attention.

I am $ure they are now attracting more than just the local cri min al$. Now, I $uppo$e they will have to ju$tify the C@ $H to the motherland. Where the amount came from? Had thi$ amount been obtained through un l@w ful Mi ning ....

disgusted

Wow, never thought I would have seen this in my regular "kitchen". The vegetarian restaurant we frequented so much that it was like our own kitchen. It was early. We said down and in my field of vision was this 50-ish guy with one leg pant pull up, he was scratching and rubbing it like it some sort of mammal ready to shed its skin for the upcoming season. He wasn't particularly outfitted well. Reminded me of the 70's commie era personality. Then clicking noise, I looked. There was this 55-ish woman clipping her finger nails at the table. Come on! And of course, she was dressed in expensive clothing and a Burberry handbag. Then she was complaining some of the food delivered to her table.

Gee... People must be coming back into town after the holiday. All sorts are back.

130K ass sitting

Yes, we did 130KM cycling trip today.  Beautiful day.  Best was NO people and car on the road!  Yes! Well, at 530am we left the house and there wasn't a single soul out.  By 830am, still no one.  We went to the Shanghai Yacht club at QingPu district about 60K away from our downtown apartment.   The location of the club is here: http://www.shanghaibyc.org/locations.php

It was at one end of a lake that was nice.  Water is so nice after all those concrete forests in downtown and around Shanghai.  As I was cycling along, my eyes were like a camera snapping images left and right. Too bad I could just stop here and there to take pictures.  The pics wouldn't be sceneries but more a human documentation.  People in bags boarding buses to town, getting ready for the start of first work day after Oct 1 holiday.  You could tell they were all from out of town, from villages.  Then I passed two men, suspect the faces were molded by working under harsh conditions (could be only 47 years old) but they looked over 55s.  Each of them wore Chinese made leather shoes, worn out.  A suit that was oversized and it was a trademark of villages.  Then on their shoulders, each carry their work tool - a pick made of steel, the one that used to break a wall down.  Then at one end of pick, dangling, swinging was a small bag (probably some belongings) and a thick jacket.  They were walking heading to the direction of Shanghai.  Out of country visitors definitely need to do a cycling trip in order to people watch and think a bit deeper about this country. 

The ride to the Yacht club was uneventful.  We got there, had our so call b'fast.  I was expecting a local noodle shop that I craved at rides toward this direction.  Nope, we at there.  Good thing I brought $.  Well... Western you know, Yacht, so more expensive.  How expensive?  RMB 250 for 3 of us.  2 hamburgers, two orders of scramble eggs w/ croissants, one latte and one coffee.  Ummm... I wasn't expecting to eat at the club there.  Iron wife made the decision; ha!  Well, after 2 and half hour ride one would be hungry too!  We headed back in the direction of Shanghai around 9:45am.  We didn't arrive at the bike shop until 2:00pm.  Long huh?  Not the distance, we were clipping along until I had a flat!  Couldn't avoid big bum on the road.  15 seconds after I crossed it, my back tire was flat.  

Couldn't patch it w/ our patching kit.  Finally we made a decision to ride and pump.  Good thing we were not far from town.  Every 2KM, I stopped and pumped the back tire.  Got to the designated bike shop at 2pm, by then we were all tired and hungry.  Didn't have anything to eat since 930am!  We had a bowl of noodle while we waited for the fix.  The guy at the shop asked: "Do you want light-weight or durable?"  Durable as the inner tube weight would not make that much of a diff to my already feather-light bike.  O yeah, we did bring a second inner tube, but that too was faulty with a hole.  

Well, at least now I know how to change a tire and how to take it off the back!  

All in all, a good day's ride.  There were some roads we will not take in the future, not safe, crowded and dusty.  Hey, if we didn't try today we would never know.  I have my iron-wife/GPS (valid only in China only, does not work in Australia, NZ and any countries in the Southern Hemisphere, some US cities) .

i Pho ne 4

It's finally officially here at the Apple's non-Ch!n@ M0b!Le partner. Not to steal the show, Ch!n@ M0b!Le announces that it too can accommodate this new phone. From Sep 28 to Oct 15 or so, us the also want to be hipped Ch!n@ M0b!Le customers can get a free microS!M if we get this new Apple phone from somewhere. Slight problem, can't use the 3G on Ch!n@ M0b!Le as this company has its own standard thinking that everyone has to follow. Well, this is one time the world has won. So why would I spend lots of money on a phone on your network while it's the 3G that I want to use?

closed

This is a picture of the subway stop that was closed every afternoon from Sep 29 to Oct 3.  Why?  Too many people using this station.  What? Due to the October holiday, this station was overwhelmed with tourists.  So, it was closed at 3:15pm until the line was close.  Smart or Stupid?  By having this subway station closed, everyone must exit the train at People's Park and then walk to the Bund.  O right...  People's Park has about 3 lines intersecting.  And it's alway swamped with people.  Now, closing this subway stop to "ease congestion".  Guess what?  Massive people at People's Park.  Make sense?  I don't know.  I am not crowd control expert but there were lots and lots of people on the platform at People's park. 

*Note: Photo was taken from Sin a . c om 

painting

This older gentleman was a painter. In the early morning while a group of older ladies doing fan dancing as exercise, he drew them in action WITH WATER. There was a paint brush wrapped at the end of a long stick, he stroke the action figure out. Quite nice. And when the water dried up, no harm to the side walk.

Sorry "Iq" you didn't see this when you were in Shanghai. Missed it by a week.