stlplaceLast Updated on April 24, 2007 by stlplace
I’m not talking about the credit card use (I’ve talked a bit in my previous posts).
It appears to me Chinese are using more and more plastic bags for packaging: from the morning “Bao Zi” to “Ma La Tang” (Chong Qing hot pot) on the street.
Last Updated on April 22, 2007 by stlplace
It’s show time. All the major car makers including domestic players such as Chery and Geely (remind me of Heelys), are putting up a big show in Shanghai new international expo center (is that the venue for 2010 World Expo, just be curious) this week.
Last Updated on April 20, 2007 by stlplace
Occasionally I received spam text messages from unknown people. People want to sell cars, apartments, etc. But yesterday I got a message from Home Inns (Rujia), it promotes the post “Golden week”(May 1 to 7) sales: it will give one night free during May 6 to 10 if I stay in their hotels for 3 nights. I can not stop laughing.
Separately, Home Inns is selling more shares (stocks), it will get $30 m from the proceeds to build more hotels. The competition among economy hotels in China are heating up.
Last Updated on April 20, 2007 by stlplace
That’s how I felt after spending a lot time in China in last 2 years. China is essentially the US in 1950 and 60s. The cars. The urbanization (people move from rural areas to cities). The chain restaurants, hotels, and hair salons. The malls. The new industrial zone such as ZhangJiang and MinHang. The credit cards. The new apartments and houses. The highways. The bullet train. The new banks (foreign and domestic).
Last Updated on April 19, 2007 by stlplace
Here are some of the pictures I took at ZiZhu IT Clusters (ZiZhu info and digital harbor if directly translated from Chinese). These buildings look like the ones in the States. Both Microsoft and Intel have presence there.
Second picture is taken at JiaoDa MinHang Campus, which is near the IT cluster. Two of my family members attended JiaoDa. I visited the campus in year 1992.
Note MinHang was the first development zone of Shanghai (earlier than world famous PuDong), the first Coca Cola bottling company in China was born there. Nowadays ZiZhu IT cluster is modeled after Silicon Valley. With the completion of Metro line 5 (from Xin Zhuang to MinHang), MinHang is much closer to the city. It’s interesting to think you can go from New York (downtown Shanghai) to Silicon Valley (MinHang) in one hour.
Last Updated on April 19, 2007 by stlplace
I got the Diplomat luggage back. It took me quite a while to get to the elevator in “Si Chuang Da Sha”, because it’s 9 AM in the morning and obviously the building does not have enough elevators (lifts). This is something new to me but not to many Shanghainese: people lined up for the elevator. The good part is, I got my luggage case back, and it only cost me 20 Yuan (to install a wheel), which is the price of a big Mac. I will put on a picture later on. On serious part, I think the cheap labor in China help the low inflation in the US and other developed countries in a big way (cheaper goods).
Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace
I saw this article from Sina, it says a Google Cell Phone is under development. It will support 3G and EDGE, and will have Google search and Gmail services. It is set to debut in 2008. Here is a picture. I don’t see anything special about it. Do you?
Last Updated on April 16, 2007 by stlplace
By now we all know what happened in Virginia Tech, a big public university with good engineering reputation in Blacksburg, Virginia. Although many people are really angry at “how can this happened again, even after the Columbine”, I think right now the proper thing to do is: give our thoughts and prayers to the people lost their loved ones. After all, life is the most precious thing.
I never visited Virginia Tech, but I visited Richmond, the capital of Union, a few years back. I did like the hills and natural scenes there.
Last Updated on April 12, 2008 by stlplace
Normall I don’t comment on the general market trend (I took cue from the Oracle of Omaha because he does not predict this). But China domestic market is just too crazy in my mind. New record for the index everyday. New record for the new accounts being opened everyday. People talk about stocks everywhere. One day I heard a friend recommend a stock, the second day it jumped almost 10%. No, I hadn’t bought that particular stock because I felt I want to follow Buffett rule: buy the stuff I can understand.
Last Updated on April 15, 2007 by stlplace
I believe the dealine is April 17 in the US. If you have not done so, this is a good time to do so. I found the Turbo Tax Online discount link still works (15% off).
On a separate note, more than 1.6 million people in China filed personal income tax for last year. Only individual has annual income over 120,000 Yuan need to report. The average income of that group was 320,000 Yuan (80% are workers, “Da Gong Zhu” in Chinese), and the average tax is about 50,000 Yuan. Wang Jianshuo has a good formula to calculate tax in his blog.