Day: September 27, 2006

Life

An interesting story

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on September 27, 2006 by stlplace

On the plane I met an old guy from Washington DC, he told me his 2 weeks China trip is wonderful (he and his wife went to Beijing, Xi’an, Congqing and Yangze River). To light up the conversation, I asked him if he is a politician. He said “No” seriously, then he said: I am not a politician, or a lawyer; I am an honest person. We all laughed.

Being in the States for a long time, I can certainly understand what he is talking about. And now I know another reason some people don’t like Bill Clinton 🙂

Travel

More Shanghai travel tips

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on August 27, 2008 by stlplace

1) If you decide to stay at home inn (Rujia), book early (2 to 3 weeks in advance), here is the web site and their phone No. 800-820-3333. I booked through their web site. Note their web site is designed slightly different from some of the US travel web sites. Couple times I thought I already booked but the system did not think so. Make sure you get a confirmation email.

Home Inn front desk

2) Get the money (RMB): the best way for me is bring the USD (or other hard currency). You can exchange it at the Pudong Development Bank at the Pudong airport (they waive the fee if you exchange more than $500). You can also exchange any amount at Bank of China without any fees. I also tried my Citibank ATM card at the ATM machine outside Citibank Branch at Marine Tower in Pudong, it still treated me as non-citi customer and charged 1% transaction fee. Later I found out I can do it at the Super Mall (Zheng Da Plaza) itself: I walked 15 minutes from the Marine Tower to Super Mall.

Don’t bring money order, or travellers check, as they can not be cashed immediately.

3) Maps: I found the dingding map to be handy. You can search places (e.g., 中国银行 bank of China), or get the bus transmit toute from point A to point B. It seems could not understand English very well, for instance, when I typed “bank of China”, I only got one 中国银行, the rest is all coffee places (maybe it thinks China and coffee are close?).

BTW, there are many web based maps in China, Wang Jianshuo has a short review at his blog. He also suggested there is no good maps in English language.

Tags China, shanghai, travel

Life

真诚

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on September 29, 2006 by stlplace

Just got back from a 3 weeks China trip and it was fantastic, except now I have to recover from the jet lag. I received an email from a new friend titled “给最真诚的人敬礼“. To be honest, this email made me feel real good. While in Shanghai I had similar experience when a friend gave the comment that I am a 真诚 person. Seriously, I know I am far from perfect. In most times I do have 真诚, but sometimes I do fall short.

真诚 probablly is the single most important factor in friendship and relationship, especially in the online world (e.g., dating). But we all ignore it sometimes. We craved for something else instead: appearance, height, weight, education level, status (single/divorce; green card or citizenship), wealth, etc. Not that those things are not important. I think some are very important for a good match (such as education); some are very practical, for instance, if you have only Green Card and want to bring your spouse over, the waiting time is about 5 years at this time. But, (borrow a word from a friend), without 真诚, where is the love?

I believe in 真诚 because deep in my heart I am still optimistic. Although I have heard and read many not-so-good stories in past 2 years, e.g., while in China I got this book titled “网络姻缘”(Matching on Internet) by Jie Huang, it is a collection of some real stories of Chinese girls who eventually married guys in the US. While some are for the love, some are not 🙁

Another reason I believe in 真诚 is because of an old saying “what comes around, goes around”. In simple English, it says if you treat people unfairly, you will also be treated not fairly by other people soon or later. This probablly is hard to prove but I found it’s usually true in many occassions.

Finally I want to end my essay with my own story (not about love). Yesterday while I was in Panera Bread, the old lady sits beside me could not find her cell phone, she asked me in very suspicious tone. I told her maybe her husband has taken it and suggest her use her husband cell to call her own cell. My guess was correct. The lady eventually apologized to me.

I wish I would meet fewer people like the old lady in the future.