Category: advice and tips

Step out of comfort zone

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Sara Blakely intentionally embarrass self: this reminds me of I may want to do this to my kids occasionally. Both my kids are quite shy now.

an image of Sara Blakely LinkedIn Post

Public Appearance on Internet, and social media in general

Something related to this, partially due to pandemic, we are seeing the booming of live broadcasting on social media, such as TikTok, Douyin or Youtube.

Something interesting, or obervations from Jamie Zhong, she said on DY, people usually come to listen to her songs, while at WeChat, some people come to listen to her talk. I guess it goes both ways, for people who are freelancers, or no longer go to office, there are very little real human to human interactions nowadays, and broadcasting gives a meaningful way for people to interact, or talk.

Also 在M记等一个不会来的人 and I am quoting the album description below (it’s written by Ayen何璟昕, btw）。

深夜的M记霓虹灯管下，漂浮着无数个都市失踪者的剪影。我们恍然惊觉，在这个24小时营业的现代驿站里，等待早已成为一场集体无意识的自我放逐。

那些被手机蓝光反复切割的夜晚，充电线维持着岌岌可危的情感电量，续杯咖啡在玻璃窗上拓印出无数个昨日倒影。歌词中”失踪的人”是极具现代性的精神切片——当约克郡的雾气被替换成快餐店冷气，当承诺像汽水泡沫般迅速消散，在第七次擦拭手机屏幕时突然顿悟：原来被等待的幽灵正是自己出走的那部分灵魂。这份荒诞的清醒，让”辞职信在口袋里融化”的意象成为当代人精神困局的绝佳隐喻。

不断坍缩的”No one’s coming”像反复撕开的伤口。”咬住吸管练习不颤抖的呼吸”的细节，暴露出当代情感关系中荒诞的仪式感——我们甚至在练习如何得体地吞咽孤独。当晨光擦亮沾着番茄酱的餐盘，结账的不仅是某个具体的失落夜晚，更是整个速食时代的情感困境：在即时满足的消费主义幻境里，我们终究无法购买到隽永的慰藉。

这首歌以M记的塑料座椅为解剖台，剖开了现代人最隐秘的生存状态：在永远明亮的快餐店里，我们都是被自己遗弃在自动点餐机前的失踪人口，对抗着整个世界的恍惚。

Last but not least, step out my own comfort zone

I did Toast Master in 1998. I led Math Fact Scholars between 2019 and 2023 (including a break during pandemic), Spode Passport Night (twice), taught at Webster University for a year, St. Louis high schools catalyst program (once). Presented at work including when work as graduate research assistant (since 1998 ).

Fraternity (1998 to 1999): main goal was to learn English

Most recently I drove for Uber (288 trips total in about a year).

advice and tips Saint Louis

How to print a file on school google drive at Saint Louis County Library

Post author By stlplace
Post date October 18, 2025
No Comments on How to print a file on school google drive at Saint Louis County Library

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I had to provide both Uber driving and tech support for my younger daughter – she wants to print a PDF file on her school iPad. The file is available on google drive in her school google account.

It’s the 1st time I am using the printer at the new County Library the Clark Family Branch (it used to be the HQ before the rebuild). I think initially we tried to log into her school google account on the PC dedicated to the scanner. That didn’t work. I asked her to log into google drive on my iPhone. It worked. But there are no “Air Printer” from my iPhone. Also per school IT policy, she could not share the file with me because I am not a school employee.

So there is how I did: I made the file available offline. Then I went to Google Doc app, and shared the file via “send a copy” aka email to myself.

Later I log into one of the library computer, and logged into my email there, and click “print” (we gave the job a name). There are one more thing before the printer job will go though – there is a computer between the two printers (the black/white and the color printers). And I log into that computer and approved the “named” print job. Each library patron gets $5 printer credit each month, and it’s enough for small printing job. If not, I believe they take cash or credit card.

Last but not least: you will need to bring your library card in order to use the computer and the printer at the library.

PS: we have printer at home and it supports air print: meaning we can print it from an iPhone or iPad. But this time our younger daughter wants color printing and our printer only prints black and white.

(Update 11-21-2025) So S6 wants to print color copies for a file in Canva app on her school iPad. The process is similar, I asked her to export the document as PDF and save it to her Google Drive. Then on my personal iPhone she was logged into the Google Drive app, I just need to send the PDF file to myself. Tomorrow I am going to print out the file at country library. Again all this is to get around the issue of she cannot share file directly with me. So we have to do it in 2 steps (via the intermediary of Google Drive).

advice and tips Life Tips

I learned to say NO to things or friends or families for that matter

Post author By stlplace
Post date September 29, 2025
No Comments on I learned to say NO to things or friends or families for that matter

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I talked about Don’t work too hard, work smart and Don’t work too hard (again) this April and May respectively.

And recently I gave more thoughts on activities that is not work related. And my conclusion is I need to take care of myself 1st. And it’s okay to have 2nd thoughts or change mind. For example, I think it was probably 9 days ago, I realized I have 3 things to do in about one hour or so. So, what did I do: I changed my mind and only did the 2nd thing, the most important thing, which is to drop off S8 our old daughter to the pep band (for the HS football game). I skipped the 10th grades (sophomores) parents’ happy hour, and the Ladue Education Foundation celebration of 20 years, both activities I signed up earlier, but I am not VIP at both activities, and I don’t need to be there. I dropped off S8, I took a peek at the LEF thing and went home. Later on, that evening, I came to school and pick up her – because the following morning she needs to go to a Cross-Country Race/Meet.

It’s okay to say NO. I used to think “saying NO” will hurt people’s feelings, but at the same time I just realized “saying too many Yeses” will hurt my feeling. I learned the lesson the hard way recently too – and after I realized it, I started saying NO to a friend who thinks I have nothing to do during the day for my WFH job.

(Update 10-26-2025) Came across this from XHS this morning, here is the YT link 當你停止對所有人隨叫隨到，你的人生將徹底改變｜卡爾·榮格的覺醒之道 #心理界線 #能量守護 #榮格哲學 #自我覺醒 #心靈成長 #沉默的力量 #心理能量 #情緒自由 as I assume they will be similar. Wish I have watched this earlier. But better late than never 🙂

(Update 01-01-2026) Yesterday evening Mr. R called and asked for a favor when I was at Pan Asia grocery store. I said I was not at home. She said she needs a ride at about 6:30 to 7 to go to the bar. I said okay. At about 6:15 pm I was home, Mr. R called again, and she said if she could drop off something before going to the bar (her daughter’s ask). The place is 13037 Old Farm Dr., I was not nervous about it as I drove for Uber this past year, and this is at a middle class neighborhood. But after dropping off the thing (she said clothes) I had some uneasiness – as I don’t know what it exactly is. Maybe her daughter was doing some delivery job? I hope it’s the case. I think from now on I really need to politely decline those kind of asks because it made me not comfortable.

advice and tips Fun Life Life Tips

Exercises, music, work and sleep

Post author By stlplace
Post date September 29, 2025
No Comments on Exercises, music, work and sleep

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I talked about my recent exercise trend here. But I think I need to focus on my sleep a bit more, as in recent years, due to various reasons, I didn’t get the necessary sleep and that is taking a toll on my health.

As I reflect back, in addition to aging, work at MC is one culprit of my deteriorating sleeping quality. I talked about my on call experience of that employer (in Chinese) here.

Fortunately both my last job and my current job are less demanding, and less stressful. But I am getting older too 🙁

Recently I started to listen to music during sleep. That alone may not be the best solution for “not being able to fall into asleep”. But I am fine tune it, as well as adjusting so that I don’t listen to my iPod Nano (I talked about it here and here), or a new MP3 player I bought the whole time.

Also, back to exercise, I think in addition to swim or walking, I am going to focus a bit more on meditation, such as breath on Apple Watch or Yoga via YT (see my YT Yoga playlist).

PS:

I got to see my uncle (my mom’s little big brother, who is 89 years old) this summer. He commented on the sleep problem we have. He said, not exact words, but why we are worrying about things in the night? His point was we probably had too much stress from our day job (which is probably true). Back to the time when he was young, he probably doesn’t have the material things we have now, but he is much happier. Probably one reason he lives to 89 🙂

(Update 10-17-2025) I just came across this at FB “What is Success? Success is being able to go to bed each night with your Mind at Peace.”

PS 2:

To my fellow HS students’ parents especially parents of student athletes: now we have this AI thing – let AI do the work and let our kids and all of us have some more sleep 😴 (not my words, coach and my uncle’s words – they are wiser than me. Okay I added this AI thing for dramatic effect [捂脸]). Btw, tonight is the blue and white night at #LHWHS and if you have time (no impacting on your or your kids sleep schedule): the girls powder puff flag football game is fun to watch. #homecoming #powderPuff

PS 3:

年近退休睡觉不爽，有招了

I did one thing similar: something I mostly figured out my own, with some inputs from friend(s). I listened to Cantonese music (slow music, more like lullabies). Do you want to guess which musicians (singers) I listened to most often? Btw, I mostly use my 13-year-old iPod Nano (as shown here). Because it doesn’t have the fancy stuff on my iPhone and won’t pull me into the blackhole of “doom scrolling”.

I think in theory at least, a podcast or a book would do the similar trick. I mostly just listened to one song non-stop (loop) – a side benefit is it saves the battery of iPod Nano.

(Update 12-9-2025) Your Body Ages Rapidly In Your 40s And 60s. Doctors Say These Habits Will Help Slow It Down (Women’s Health via Yahoo.com)

Tags aging, exercise, iPod-nano, music, sleep, tips

advice and tips Life Tips

Cost of eating out via food ordering apps

Post author By stlplace
Post date September 25, 2025
No Comments on Cost of eating out via food ordering apps

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Came across this article “The insane amount of money people are spending on McDonald’s, according to new study” from NY Post yesterday. Some thoughts:

I have a friend who is by no means rich, but I saw the friend orders food delivery often. For me personally I usually order the store app and pick up food myself, and occasionally I order via Uber Eats or Grub Hub (also self-pickup). My Amex Gold card has some benefits for both apps: $10 cash back for each app each month, note the card has an annual fee that kind pays itself. For Uber Eats I bought discounted gift card at Costco. I just noticed today that Grub Hub price is slightly cheaper than Uber Eats, which the article also confirmed.

One thing though: when scrape the Uber Eats physical gift card, always do it via a coin, and do it gently. Don’t make the mistake I made on the bottom card: initially I though I can peel and see the code. I was wrong and almost lost $50 due to my stupid mistake 🙂

My uber gift cards: already redeemed. Make sure you don’t make mistakes that I made on the bottom gift card

I didn’t realized I am privileged

I just realized that when I made comments above, I didn’t realize that I am somewhat “privileged” in terms of I have the flexibility of working from home and can pick up food myself if/when needed. Not every job offers this kind of flexibility. But at the same time though, I still need to make up the lost time in the evenings or weekends when it’s applicable. Also, I actually helped that particular friend quite a bit whenever I was called and when I can.

Re: the “when I can” part, more recently I also realized that I need to make sure that I take care of myself: including my family and my work first. This is a bit touchy topic and I will talk more about it when it’s the time.

advice and tips Life Life Tips

Quitting alcohol

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I think it’s time. Right now I am only drinking the non-alcoholic beer. I may quit that too. I never tried non-alcoholic wine, but may taste it once later on.

I think my main motivation factor is better sleep, as I talked a bit here. But there are other concerns: mainly around driving as I got my Uber duty for my kids. Also eating, which is related to sleep too.

It looks like I tried quitting about 3 years ago. I have since quit whiskey. Btw, I never drunk whiskey before I watch the Netflix show the Ranch.

Note in last 20 years or so, I don’t recall I ever got drunk once. But I do recall once, more than 20 years ago, I did had too much alcohol at my home, probably my house warming party or something, and I ended up calling up other friends and talked too much… 🙂

Note DUI (driving under influence) is a big problem in the USA. And it’s something one should never do. Because I have Uber duty (mentioned above), I think quitting drinking completely also removes one factor when I am on the duty.

Somewhat related to this: I recall a few years ago, when our older daughter was with the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, the artistic director who is a bit older than me, told the parents of the Concert Choir kids, that we write down her cell phone number and give the number to our kids. The reason is she cares deeply about the kids, and she want the kids to know, they can text or call her anytime, even when the kids are drunk or something. I think I am at this stage of my life too, if any of my family members or friends truly needs urgent help, I can be there.

When I was much younger, note I grew up in China and there was no legal drinking age. I remember a few incidents such as this one (in Chinese), I drunk some wine trying to help me fall into asleep – the results was not very good, I think. Before I was 10, I recall two incidents in which I drunk too much alcohol, and I just went to bed and slept. The other notable drinking time was around time I graduated from college.

I will update this post as time goes. Action is louder than words.

(Update 09-25-2025) I came across this tweet (a very short video) about addiction, and I found it’s helpful. There is a longer both English and Chinese versions here. The talk is actually a Ted Talk – Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong | Johann Hari | TED (YT link here).

If I can extrapolate a bit, I think a lot of times we put too many “artificial” (self-made) constraints around us and thus limiting us to achieve our full potential. I was thinking I did this to myself many times in my life, and probably many friends suffered from similar syndrome too.

Tags alcohol

401k and Personal Finance advice and tips Life Life Tips Software development

When should I retire

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The best time is now; the second-best time is tomorrow. –anonymous

After 25 years career I finally got an office with windows

Career

Per my age and typical stereotype, I think I am expected to wind down my career in the software field now (my LinkedIn profile here). I understand career is more than a LinkedIn profile or a resume, but here in the USA IT IS one of those things that MATTER, in addition to title, experience and compensation history. Useless or but fun fact: I started my LinkedIn profile in 2008, about 17 years ago.

US companies are mostly snobs, in my not too humble opinions. I mean CEOs or the higher ups, not the average Jane and Joe. Doesn’t matter whatever they say publicly – their mission is making money for the owners, not for employees. This is quite obvious from the recent high-profile layoffs such as Amazon laying off 14,000 back-office people/white collar workers last week.

And I have my favorite quote related to that topic too. When questions by reporters why he took $55 million exit package in 2002, when he was forced out, former CEO of EDS, Electronic Data Systems, Dick Brown famously said: I have an expensive wife. I know I know, I don’t have expensive wife. But I also have two daughters who like to buy things. Or should I ass that they have good taste? 🙂

Sorry a bit off topic 🙂 Last month (Oct 2025) I passed 25 years’ work anniversary in the USA. I started working here on Oct 2nd, 2000. A lot has changed since I started working here. I have seen quite a bit of industry underwent paradigm shift. From the Internet bubble (web 1.0) burst to web 2.0 (remember delicious, Flickr and digg.com?). And now we have web 3.0 and more. My career wise, I changed from working in the CAD software to mostly enterprise web applications, with a bit of consulting and iOS dev in between.

I don’t want to be forced out

I have seen coworkers who are about 50 years old, being laid off, at multiple places. Some of them were caught off guard. I was much younger or a bit younger then. Now I am at that age. And I don’t want to be in their shoes. I have literally seen grownups crying when they got laid off.

Also, right now I felt I can still do some meaningful work. If the time comes that I feel I cannot contribute in a meaningful way, I will just quit.

Re: AI, we all know the AI is causing a lot of disruptions and anxiety among IT/software workers nowadays. But I also believe at least for now, my job is not impacted. And if I can learn those AI tools and they can actually help me doing my job.

How much money is enough

One problem is most of us don’t know the answer to “how much money is enough?”. Or my favorite answer is “a little bit more” (it’s both a joke and also has some truth to it).

But seriously I need to think about this question as the date of retirement is approaching, either I want to face it or not. Some of the things I am thinking about regarding this topic.

1. My retirement is probably going to be different from my parents’ retirement. They have a more traditional retirement. My dad has a pension, and I don’t. And they stopped working completely when they retire. I think I will likely do some work (not too strenuous), for example, I will manage my 401k and IRAs, as well as doing other things I like to do (music, walking outside, does that include swimming??? 🙂 And some social life too (not drinking at the bar, I mean probably I am good enough, I can play music at the bar, again just for fun, not for money 🙂

Do I continue to mow my lawns? If I am health enough and feel like it. If not, I can either outsource it or sell the house and move to a townhouse or condo. Note selling the house will be a joint decision not solely mine.

2. I will probably have some hobbies and some travel. But probably equally important, I need to manage my 401k and IRAs, making sure they have decent return and will last. This is also something my parents don’t do. Sorry I am getting repetitive here – signs of my age and the need to retire 🙂

Still TBD as of 11-03-2025 (JIRA board doesn’t look good in terms of velocity 🙂

I need to calculate how much my 401k and IRAs were earning in last 3 5 or 10 years or so. If the total earnings (capital gain + dividend) are approaching my take home pay of my day job, that will be a good sign. Obviously, I need to fact into my financial obligations: the big-ticket item will be my kid’s college costs, and it will also be a big unknown because the US higher education industry is very similar to the US healthcare industry in terms of price transparency 🙂 You may read more about the college cost here as I learned last year. Note that’s applicable for the American students only (I assume US citizens and permanent residents, not sure about the children of visa holders), and not for the international students. Consult an expert on this topic, if applicable.

3. When applicable, I am thinking some side hustles including but not limiting to Uber or eBay to make some money and have something to do.

Cannot counting on that for meaningful amount of money though – ideally main income stream should come from investments, as said in this old saying “if you don’t make money when you sleep, you will work until you die.” I for one definitely don’t want to work until I die.

PS:

(YT 油管）75-Year-Olds Share Their Biggest Regret at 55

(YT 油管）Ayen何璟昕 – 時間不等你【粵語新歌】 [Official Music Video]

(Old blog post from yours truly, originally written about 20 years ago) Monday is not my favorite day

YT Shorts: Early retirees shares truth about early retirement

Tags retirement, retirement-planning

advice and tips gadgets Life Tips

Computer setup for family including teens, preteens

Post author By stlplace
Post date July 2, 2025
No Comments on Computer setup for family including teens, preteens

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I have a Mac Mini, and I owned it for quite a few years now. I bought it at Costco St. Peters store, at around Christmas 2021. I used to use it to get to Citrix via Citrix Workspace, the remote desktop software that I used for work. The main reason I prefer this over the company provided IGEL product is I like the keyboard and touchPad for my Mac Mini better than the IGEL’s. I no longer uses Citrix as my employer switched to another software for remote work, also they provided a company laptop for work.

But I still have the Mac Mini, and sometimes I like to see my kids use the Mac Mini, instead of the laptop. Because the Mac Mini (the desktop) is in a public location, and I know what they are doing there. My older daughter (15) has the MacBook Air too: and not surprisingly she would goof around much more – aka doing TikTok etc. compared to do real things at the desktop.

Other benefits of a desktop computer is a larger display or screen, and family members can work on something together, if/when applicable. This is similar to the good old days, when we work in office, we have desktop or large screen, we can do pair programming or debugging together.

If you have limited budget, and don’t have extra money for Mac Mini or something similar, I fully understand. And if you have an extra display, you can still connect the laptop to the external display, to take advantage of the real estate. In fact, I think I have one or two extra external displays, if you are in STL area and are interested, shoot me an email at minjie dot xu at gmail dot com, and you can pick it up at my home at Olivette (aka 橄榄村)。

Also, you may be interested in the computers I used for work.

Separately, I just bought a new iPad for myself. I hope to use iPad more often (instead of iPhone). This has been my goal, but previous effort (a Samsung Android tablet) has been fallen short.

Tags colaboration, desktop, home-computer, laptop, large-display, mac-mini

advice and tips Life Tips

Don’t talk behind other people’s back

Post author By stlplace
Post date June 24, 2025
No Comments on Don’t talk behind other people’s back

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Be kind.

We cannot always be more talented than others – assume the nature born talent is “born”.

But we can always be more kind than others.

Example 1:

A rival tennis club owner trash talks about CCRC (Creve Coeur Racquet Club), ironically this owner is a fellow parent of kid in my younger daughter’s grade. Initially I thought about moving my daughter from CCRC (now Lifetime Fitness Creve Coeur) to that rival tennis club. Now I have some doubts whether I should move her. I do understand quite a few people moved before of the CCRC to Lifetime Fitness CC transition, including the coaches (the pros in the tennis world).

Example 2:

An internet singer I recently wrote, trash talks Coco Lee 李玟 ‘s perceived lack of mainland culture awareness in her mandarin education: 说她中文不正宗. This is totally unnecessary as Coco grew up mostly in the west. Quote a bit from her Wikipedia page below:

Ferren Lee was born on 17 January 1975^[19][20] in Hong Kong^[6][16] or Wuhan.^[21][22] She was a posthumous child, as her father had died earlier of an illness. She had physical defects in her left leg, which affected her throughout her life and contributed to her later challenges.^[23] After her father’s death, Lee’s mother moved the family to Hong Kong to seek support from relatives. They faced difficult times there before emigrating to the US when Lee was nine years old.^[24][25] She had two elder sisters, Carol and Nancy, the latter of whom would become Lee’s manager early in her career.^[26] Growing up in San Francisco, Lee attended Redding Elementary School, Presidio Middle School, and Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.^[27] She won the title of Miss Teen Chinatown San Francisco in 1991 at age 16.

Buffett and Munger

Now I recall Warren Buffett famously said “critique by category, not by name”. Charlie Munger may be a bit more critical on people in certain industry, e.g., cryptos.

In many ways we can out-work or work harder than others too. That’s topic for another day. But work smarter is equally important if not more.

advice and tips Life Life Tips

China trip: quick recap and some thoughts

Post author By stlplace
Post date June 15, 2025
No Comments on China trip: quick recap and some thoughts

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这里有一个谷歌翻译的中文版。请注意，在国内有可能访问不了这个网站。

Boeing 787

I took a quick trip to China in last 2 weeks and just got back. I left STL on early morning of 05/31 and came back late last night 6/14. The flight route is STL => DFW => PVG: one stop at DFW. I booked the flight back in January 2025. The DFW to PVG flights (both ways) were full. A side note is on the June 12/13 night (post mid-night) the Air India 787 news came. That was unsettling to say the least. Note Air India 171 used 787-8, while AA 127/128 used 787-9 (which is slightly bigger than 787-9).

DFW

I have been to DFW in the past (a while ago), it seems the terminal E is new addition since I was there last time. If my memory is correct, they used to have a rectangular kind of arrangement with terminals A, B, C and D. I did notice DFW has quite some eateries and stores, it could also be because last time I was there, I was in a hurry and didn’t have much time too look or check out. This is actually a valid point I like to emphasize – don’t forget the sceneries on the road, when we were buried in our daily grind. Sometimes I intentionally take a local route instead of highway when I was not in a hurry, so that I can slow down, and look at the two sides of the road.

The re-entry into the USA was pretty easy. There is a line for US and Canada permanent residents, and it was a short line. The immigration office took a quick look at Green Card and let me in.

Uber rides

I took Uber to airport and back to home. The 1st driver (I reserved the ride because it was early morning), is a part-time driver, his day job is a medical translator. But he works extra shift driving for Uber because he has a 17 month old and a new baby on the way. The 2nd driver is a young immigrant from Philippine, he came to the US in year 1995 (when he was 5), so he is about 35 years old: he drives for Uber full time (as much as Uber allows in terms of hour, and at his own choice as well). He did mention he makes good money on New Year’s Day and Mardi Gras.

Phone

A phone number is handy for 网约车 (Didi, Gaode or WeChat 微信出行服务), because you cannot always find Taxi in some places. I got my phone SIM card at Amazon. I activated the SIM before the trip, and insert it to my old iPhone 12 (for iPhone, only iPhone 13 and earlier has the physical SIM card slot).

I used Uber, 网约车 and Taxi 出租车 for the most of my trip: with one exception. I used an “unauthorized” vehicle for my trip from my hotel in Beilun to Ningbo railway station. You may call it 黑车，but it’s a nice Camry (probably SE and XLE with leather interior/seat). And the driver told me he used to drive for 外企，got laid off, and started driving for guests in the hotel, because some guests prefer something nicer than a taxi or a 网约车. There are always opportunities in today’s world – even in China which is considered much more competitive than in the USA. He told me his car is only about 140,000 Yuan which is about $ 20,000 (USD) – I told him his car would cost more than $30,000 in the USA (now I think it could be about $ 40k). Car industry in China is ultra competitive nowadays.

For the record, I paid about $28,000 for a certified preowned Camry LE in year 2022 (my tweet here).

trip.com

I booked the air ticket via expedia.com (I did this for last year’ trip too). I used trip.com for the HKG to NGB air tickets last year. This year I used trip.com for my Beilun hotel and Gao’tie (high speed train). I compared the trip.com with the HHonors.com (Hilton family hotels reward website) price, it seems trip.com is slightly cheaper. For the Gao’tie, it charges a few dollars of fees, but I felt it’s worth it because the ticket is tied to my CHN passport and it allows me to check in manually and board the train before the general boarding – which comes handy as I have two luggages, I mentioned the luggages and elevator below in Odds and Ends). Also: I 1st heard trip.com from an old friend last year.

Stay

I stayed at the same hotels: they are the Doubletree Beilun (as I talked about it here), and Hyatt Place Shanghai Hongqiao CBD. I noticed some small changes at both: at Doubletree Beilun, it appears they didn’t keep up the maintenance as I saw two things – one is the card reader in the elevators are not very reliable; another one is the chair in the room is worn out, and the small refrigerator is broken. At Hyatt Place Shanghai Hongqiao, they no longer offer the breakfast for free to rooms/guests redeemed via points or free night awards.

Both obviously are in cost cutting mode: but I felt the former’s action (lack of maintenance and upkeep) seems jeopardized guest experience. I understand the hotels are having a hard time nowadays due to the economy and the competition, but at the same time, I still feel there are something in hotel that had to be maintained or kept, and unfortunately the card reader and the chairs are in that category. And the refrigerator too.

Now I am thinking about switching my hotel in Beilun next time: DoubleTree Beilun does have 2 features I like – they have an indoor warm water swimming pool, and the room is very spacious. I will keep both in mind. Talking about swimming pool, I just learned Hyatt Place Hongqiao CBD has swimming pool too – “Take a break from the Shanghai sun and make a splash in our rooftop pool, located on the 11th floor, adjacent to the 24/7 fitness center.” – I will check it out next time.

VPN

Please refer to my blog post here – update 06-18-2025: this post is password protected now. Email me at minjie dot xu at gmail dot com for password, no spams please 🙂

Tattoo

I maybe a bit slow, but this time around I noticed many younger people in China now have tattoos, on their arms. My quick thought is the younger generation want to express themselves 🙂

A side point I want to make is: even amid China/US tensions, the top country many Chinese students/youth want to visit or study at is the the USA.

Douyin

I explored Douyin 抖音 a bit. Please note Douyin is the No. 1 video (short video, and live broadcasting) platform in China – as I just realized recently – I talked a bit about the video platforms here.

第19集｜任素汐《亲爱的你啊》完整版 #无尽的尽头主题曲 # 任素汐 # 治愈歌曲推荐有人22岁结婚生子，有人40岁读研，有人追求稳定，有人拥抱冒险；可以允许自己偶尔”掉队”，但要永远保持重新出发的勇气；在不确定的世界上，做一个温和而坚定的行动者。 “我们不需要完美，但需要完整”

If you read Chinese above, this also sort of echoes my earlier point of “slow down, enjoy the sceneries on the road while you can”.

Common question from my friends

I saw quite a few friends this time as I was going solo and have a bit more free time.

When do American people typically retire? I think I just saw a flight attendant a gentleman at the returning AA flight, and he is likely in his 60s.

Have prices gone up in America due to tariffs? ……

How do you think about the LA protests? ……

I have my own political opinion and belief – but I am going to keep them mostly to myself and my family for now.

Odds and Ends

Because I carry large luggages sometimes, I prefer elevators. But sometimes finding elevator (instead of escalator) is not easy. And once, I almost fell because a young guy tried to pass me on the escalator, and I think he pushed me a bit. I am almost 54 and was holding my two bags. This made me to think – maybe if I am 65 I would ride the elevator. I am not saying Chinese people are rude. I think there are nice and rude people everywhere (China and US). But at the same time, there are likely more nice people on both sides too. Look at the brighter side.

This can probably apply to the two questions above too: both the tariffs (trade) and the immigration too? I would look at win-win instead of win-lose in both cases.

A second point is: treat others like how you like to be treated.

PS: