stlplace

Category: advice and tips

  • 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.

  • 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:

    You may be interested in:

    2024-07-21 My new favorite hotel in Shanghai 近年来我在上海住的旅馆

    A quick review of our summer 2024 China trip

    Some random thoughts during my recent China trip – 我2024年夏天中国行的一些观察

    China Trip Spring 2023 – observations and thoughts

    China Trip Spring 2023 – logistics

    Flash back – Back to St. Louis 10/28/2007

    Videos

    Below 2 are YT videos, by yours truly

    上海嘉里中心 Shanghai Kerry Center June 12, 2025

    Morning walk trail beilun Ningbo June 2025

    YT Shorts – Jing’an temple plaza 上海静安寺广场 苹果店 6/12/25 evening

    YT Shorts – My childhood home beilun baifeng Xiaomeng June 2025

    YT Shorts – At Shanghai Hongqiao the Hub #虹桥天地

    YT, by Essential Craftsman, this one is a bit deep – Why Most People Are Never Satisfied

  • eSIM app for travel

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    I am aware of two right now. They provide cellular data for travel. I haven’t personally used them yet, but may try out later on as I see fit.

    MobiMatter (official website; reddit)

    Sally (Reddit; heard it from Teacher Mike YT video 1st)

    And one to avoid: I bumped into this junk 易博通 eSender last summer, when we were traveling in China mainland and HK. We were hoping to get a mainland mobile phone number for 网约车 rider share car services. After spending some money and back and forth with the customer service, we realized it’s a scam. We found it because they advertised heavily on WeChat.

    Other choices:

    International roaming

    T-Mobile roaming: heard good things about them. Quite a few friends used their international roaming in CHN.

    MintMobile International Roaming (minternational pass): their price is quite competitive. Last year I used their pass for my summer trip. This year I may not need it as I am not going to Canada and HK this time. (Update 06/02/25) I still bought the 10 day pass with data due to technical difficulties of connecting to gmail via other means. One thing to note: it cannot be used as hotspot for the MacBook. So in other words, I still need to find other ways if I need to use Gmail on my MacBook (not super critical if I have Gmail on my iPhone).

    And I already got a China SIM card. Btw, MintMobile made Canada roaming free since summer/fall of last year.

    Side note: from iPhone 14 on, the iPhones sold in the USA no longer have physical SIM card slot (they have eSIM instead). Meanwhile in CHN, a physical SIM card is still needed for a mobile phone – that’s one reason you may consider bring an iPhone 13 or older if you travel to CHN. The reason you may need a mobile phone number is it’s required if you plan to get a Uber 网约车 in CHN. Taxis sometimes are not available and many taxi drivers drive for 网约车平台 too. In that case the two eSIM apps may not be sufficient for you. Because all you have is a mobile phone number outside of CHN which will not work for 网约车。

    Note: I still receive spam calls on mint mobile when I travel – and they call during the night, the carrier could not mark them as “spam likely”. This is true for China Unicom SIM card too (the spammers call during the day).

    Verizon TravelPass: much more expensive than MintMobile

    Note for all the options above, you can get to Google etc. without doing anything special, just like you are in HK.

    VPN: obviously you still need your own internet, usually it means Wi-Fi. This may be handy if you need to get to YT or Netflix, because you would likely burn through whatever your data plan fairly quickly if you stream.

  • Getting old

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    sucks 🙁

    I wrote on this topic from time to time: and I found a few below. May not be a complete list.

    01-21-2006: Senior moment (I think I was wú bìng shēn yín 无病呻吟 here)

    04-24-2023: Getting older

    05-19-2025: Food, sleep and health

    Also, probably something I didn’t write, but I vividly remember, in year 2011, sometime in the summer/fall, when I was working as contractor for the UniGroup, and I happened to know a friend from China. We hiked at the Power Valley trail one afternoon after work. During the walk, I suddenly realized my body shape is typically middle-aged man, with the “inflated belly” and so on. I was 40 then.

    But looking at the glass half full angle, I am getting wiser. And from the swimming point of view, there is a lot of room for improvement for me 🙂

    I swam 800 yards at the J Chesterfield yesterday. It’s probably a record for me, at least my Apple watch says so 🙂

    PS:

    A tweet thread re: side effects of GLP-1.

    Btw, I googled “berberine” and found this article interesting – “When it comes to science, don’t look for expertise from graduates of the University of TikTok.“

  • Food, sleep and health

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    Below is mostly for my own reference

    NPR: 5 eating habits that can help you sleep better at night

    Reduce caffeine during the day. I found out one way to do that is to get the daily coffee from a place such as Panera bread, so that I don’t brew my own coffee (and I tend to brew more).

    Reduce or stay away from alcohol. No hard liquors (e.g., whiskey).

    Reduce red meat (dinner): for that matter, control the portion for dinner. More on the timing below.

    Reduce snacks (unhealthy ones) during the day. Main task for me is to buy less snacks when doing grocery shopping.

    Reduce sugar.

    Reducing eating leftover food: there are many ways I end up eating leftover foods. Cooked way too much. Usually it’s my wife who cooked too much 🙂 Because I don’t cook much, and when I cook, I don’t cook a lot or I usually just cook some egg, fish or shrimps and they are usually manageable. Another scenario: my wife usually put certain amount of food on my daughters’ plate, and she expected the girls to finish them. It’s not usually the case they finish them. And sometimes (maybe too many times) I came from the background of “not wasting food”, I end up eating my girls’s leftover. Similarly for other small leftover on the tables.

    Don’t eat anything substantial after 8 pm, per Dr. Bonacorsi. It seems he already retired and he lives in my old neck of the woods 🙂 I also think for me, probably stop eating anything substantial after 7 pm is the goal.

    Okay to consume in moderation: fruits, vegetables, milk, coffee, yogurt, eggs, tofu, sea food (shrimp and fish), and healthy bread.

    Sleep

    Put the phone and computer outside the bedroom.

    References:

    Healthy food

    Testosterone is what keeps men alive and dominant. Here are 9 foods proven to boost it naturally:

    1. Avocado
    2. Eggs (with yolk)
    3. Extra virgin olive oil
    4. Brazil nuts
    5. Grass-Fed Beef (in moderation)
    6. Oysters
    7. Pomegranate
    8. Fatty Fish (like tuna, salmon, mackerel)
    9. Ginger

    Another tweet thread on food to boost testosterone.

    Joint health

    Doctors Say This Is How Walking Helps Digestion 饭后百步走

  • My trips

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    Below was written in 2008

    Half the fun is “planning the trips” and “getting there”

    In 2006, I decided to visit Australia by myself.

    Research in Borders bookstore, maps, hotels
    air ticket via United

    Expedia check out hotels

    Found this wattle house via. book, verify via trip advisor
    http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g255060-d286116-Reviews-Wattle_House-Sydney_New_South_Wales.html (not sure if this links works in 2025)

    In 2007, my wife and I spend some time in Sanya Marriot for our honeymoon, booked via. Ctrip, took photos at the beach

    Travel in US
    Summer 2000: Yellowstone trip (mount Rushmore, crazy horse, beartooth highway…)

    holiday 2000: CA bus tour (Yosamite, San Fran, San Diego Sea world, Univeral Studio, Disney)

    2003: Florida

    2004: Maine, Acadia National park

    2008 Summer: Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Jackson

  • Before return the company PC or mac

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    Mainly double check PC and mac to see if there are any personal info left behind

    Delete chrome/safari/IE browser history

    Chrome=>setting, clear browsing data, check saved password/forms, delete user, delete cookies/Content settings

    Safari=>delete history, privacy=>delete website data; reset safari

    IE=>Internet options=>Browsing history

    Delete files and folders

    check myDocuments/my pictures on PC

    check Downloads/Documents/Key Chain folder on Mac

    check myNotes, or notes.txt on Mac and PC (applicable to me only)

    Some notes for new Mac Users

    short cuts, and things different from windows
    command + s, command + c, command + v

    delete is backspace, fn + delete for delete

  • Don’t work too hard, work smart

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    My generation (so called Gen X in the USA, people born between from 1965 to 1980) was usually told to “work hard” when we grew up – I found this is true both in the China and in the USA. I think in addition to parents, quite a few teachers emphasized this too – for me personally my middle school teacher 周国夫老师 emphasized it quite a bit.

    But over the years I realized this is not necessarily true or the best way to handle work. I recall my project lead at Unigraphics Solutions (UGS Corp.) said once on this topic:

    Don’t just work hard, work smarter too. The latter is probably more important.

    By that time, I was already over 30 years old.

    About 20 years ago I recall my golf instructor (or should I call him coach? He is a pro btw) said: hold the club about 70% tight, don’t hold it 100% tight.

    Maybe we should apply the same logic to school, study and work too? And investing in equities (stocks) and bonds as well?

    My Zhenhai middle school exp: with all the craziness going on, we had some fun time such as the ad-hoc co-ed basketball – I remember it was during my math teacher and counselor Zhou Guofu 周国夫 老师 🙂

    Btw, I recall my best teacher – Chen Bing (高一数学老师). I think he made me to appreciate the beauty of math 数学之美，and encouraged me to learn as much as practical, and participate the math competition. Again we don’t just work hard on it – because math competitions have problems outside of the normal textbooks. The most important here is be passionate about harder math problems – “working harder” won’t do much about it, btw.

    “We don’t know if we will die from overworking but why take chance” – probably said by Ronald Reagan (per Charlie Munger or Warren Buffett). Update: it seems Edgar Bergen talked about this first – “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” — Edgar Bergen (source: reddit).

    Last but not least, probably one of the hardest working place I worked

    It seems that place is quite transactional(people mostly work for money). But I did gain some experience on production support and operation. Also communicate as precisely as possible. Once again: work smarter is more relevant there. In fact I worked pretty hard, and I was still laid off in early 2019 – and I knew the main reason of layoff – the managers didn’t like me 🙁

    Btw, I don’t believe in pleasing everyone helps one’s job security, or pleasing every manager one has. At the same time, that place has a tradition of laying off about 5 to 10% people every year (usually at the beginning of a calendar year). And in early 2019 I was somewhat caught off guard, probably because I was getting somewhat complacent. But that’s okay, as I explained in the “layoffs” blog post: one door closes and another door will open. Also it gives me a new opportunity at a new place. So there is that.

  • Software Engineer Job Market March 2025 and Some Job Search Tips

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    The IT software engineer job market seems warmed up a little bit recently, from my observations. I am getting some emails from the recruiters, and they looked like real jobs or openings.

    I think during the middle of last year (June 2024) I came across the software engineers job chart from (FRED) Software Development Job Postings on Indeed in the United States, and the chart could be a bit misleading because the start date is Feb 2020. Basically, we can say it just showed the dramatic increase of software engineer jobs and subsequent declining of job openings due to the pandemic over-hiring earlier, big tech big cuts following Elon’s huge cut at Twitter post his acquisition.

    I believe this hiring boom and bust trend is similar for the related area such as quality assurance (testing engineers), localization and translation, platform and dev ops engineering, product development and project management and so on.

    Indeed and LinkedIn

    In recent years, I mainly use Indeed and LinkedIn for job search: for my last 2 jobs (Mastercard and Ascension) I found them mainly through Indeed.com. I remember the days (year 2010) when I found my job at local craigslist, those days are long gone. I found my current job in year 2021 through a recruiter btw – I know the recruiter (recruiting company) through previous engagement (year 2011), and we kept that relationship over the years 🙂

    A note on LinkedIn, LinkedIn has DESTROYED the job market (in 2024). I tend to agree – because LinkedIn aggregates a lot of jobs nowadays, and for one job especially the remote job, it’s quite easy for the recruiter to received hundreds of resumes in a day or two. For example, this staff software engineer job at GE Healthcare, I saw “(posted) 23 hours ago · 62 people clicked apply” right now (03-25-2025, 2:17 pm central). So this is a real problem. And I don’t know how to get around it – unless you know the recruiter or hiring manager.

    Typical process (St. Louis based dev jobs)

    Phone screen, technical screen and manager interview. Offer or being ghosted, or if they are nice, they will send you the rejection email. Note in STL we don’t do the leetcode stuff which is common among Silicon Valley, Seatle or Austin based tech companies. They needed those quizzes to filter out candidates – in a way it’s like the Gaokao in China.

    Interview

    There are usually two types of questions: behavior and technical. For behavior sometimes you can go to glassdoor.com and see if there are any. I guess we can do similar for technical questions too – but at the same time I think it’s probably more unpredictable.

    Whatever the question you receive, try to be calm. Over the years I have interviewed at places, in rare cases the interviewer will have some sort of undesirable attitude – for example, I recall once at Tomson Reuters in year 2009, the guy commented towards the end – you are not the most ignorant person coming in in terms of technical knowledge 🙁

    Occasionally you will meet some super nice people too: people with decency and true empathy. Once in New Jersey, I was interviewing at Ingersoll-Rand office all day, one interviewer said, let’s make it informal, so he took me walk around the cafeteria. It was winter, and we didn’t go outside.

    Don’t be defensive, as much as practical obviously. Once my big boss at current place, asked me: it seems your tenure is not too long in this and the place, note the implied question here – are you a job hopper (I talked about this topic here too). More on job hopping for practical purposes, there are data to back up that for many people, salary or compensation increase is from “job hopping” (Forbes). A few of my job changes (not hopping 🙂 confirmed this trend too.

    Some other tips

    Background check

    Don’t lie on your resume. At the same time, don’t stress over the background check. Sometimes at some old-fashioned companies or out of date places they will ask a question such as “have you ever involuntarily lose your job”: I would say No regardless the situation. Or ignore those places if they are truly “out of date“. Because you may feel out of places when you join them.

    Usually, background check is a part of the pre-employment process, and you would need to give two weeks’ notice at the current place. That’s also sometimes people have stress – what if anything goes wrong with background check?

    My experience with this is: as long as you don’t break laws, etc., you should be fine. It seems to me the background checking companies are mostly providing a service anyway, and in the process making some money. I have done quite a few background checking in last 5 years or so. In fact I did three (or 4) background checking in this school year: depends on how you count it.

    First: the volunteer background check for the school district I volunteer. They have two background checks: one requires fingerprint (and I assume some sort of FBI database lookup) Missouri Automated Criminal History System (MACHS); another one is for Missouri educator sort of check called FCSR, stands for Family Care Safety Registry, this can be done online exclusively.

    For Uber: it’s done fairly quickly. Cannot find the background checking company from my email now.

    For Lyft: it seems they used checkr.

    For my current job, I did background check via clariti (now a part of DISA Screen). Btw, I noticed they had a security incident recently 🙁

    Drug testing

    This is required sometimes. Nowadays they usually only require urine sample. And you can go to a specimen collection place such as Quest Labs, or other special places such as occupational health clinics, etc. In the old days when I got my 1st job, I recall they will cut some of my hair for testing – those are more rigorous testing in my opinion. Anyway, don’t do illicit drugs, marijuana and/or cannabis included. I recall when I was working for coal mining companies: they even said the company can ask for urine sample anytime.

    Reference check

    It seems this is rarely done nowadays.

    Microsoft Teams – multiple Microsoft office 365 accounts

    I learned my lesson the hard way during real interview. I clicked on the Microsoft Teams link on the Chrome browser that I usually use. But I forgot that I recently used that browser for outlook (another email account, different email from the link I was clicking). And the Chrome browser gave me an error right away. So I copied the link, and open a new incognito window and pasted my link there, it prompt me with some new information. I was not sure what to do. So I opened Safari as I believe I haven’t used that browser for a while, and got information similar to the new Chrome incognito window (at least they are consistent), and I just clicked the link there and it worked.

    Reference

    (MarketWatch, Paywall) LinkedIn co-founder has known Elon Musk for years. Here’s what he says Americans don’t understand about the Tesla CEO.

    (Yours Truly) FAQs on work: tenure, job hopping, purpose of work, and overtime

  • Mixue Bingcheng IPO

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    Mixue Bingcheng

    RIVAL ARRIVAL World largest fast food chain eyes America after kicking McDonald’s off top spot – menu items start at 15 cents (the-sun.com)

    This boba chain you’ve never heard of has more outlets than McDonald’s (CNN Marketplace Asia)

    China Bobba Tea, Milk Tea players (most contents are in Chinese, links for each store go to Wikipedia)

    蜜雪冰城: 千亿餐饮 IPO，被时代选中的创业者 by 晚点LatePost (their website is not responding, so I just post their YT channel here). 2097.HK

    喜茶 : last few years (2023, 2024) I noticed their store in Shanghai Hongqiao Hub (see below), after I listened to this Apple podcast. They (疯投圈) actually did two more episodes on milk tea – one and two. My impression is they are the high end, consider this as Starbucks of Chinese fruit tea. Btw, I know it’s useless but fun fact: do you know which area in Shanghai has the most coffee shops? (Hint, see this pop-up store inside Hongqiao Hub). Once I counted there are 7 well known coffee (brands) shops in the area: Starbucks, Canada’s Tim Horton (Tim’s), Man Coffee (Shanghai high end brand), Luckin coffee, etc.

    古茗：晚点对话古茗王云安：得三四线者得天下 also by 晚点LatePost

    霸王茶姬: 霸王茶姬（英语：CHAGEE）是一家中国茶饮连锁经营品牌，主打“原叶茶+鲜奶”的“鲜奶茶”饮品。霸王茶姬于2017年6月由张俊杰创立，品牌名称源自京剧经典曲目《霸王别姬》，标识为水墨风格的虞姬形象，主要售卖水果茶、奶茶等现制茶饮饮品。同年11月17日，首家门店在云南昆明五一路开业，其后发展为中国西南地区的知名茶饮品牌。2019年，开始进军海外，先后进入马来西亚、新加坡、泰国等东南亚市场。2021年6月，总部由昆明迁往成都。2021年9月，霸王茶姬对品牌进行升级改造，使用全新英文名称“CHAGEE” ，标识改为白底红色的京剧花旦脸谱，参考奢侈品门店风格设计新门店，并加入中国古建筑中的榫卯结构，全国首家旗舰店在成都春熙路开业[1] 。(Update 2025-12-01 Just noticed they are listed in the USA and Nasdaq now, with ticker symbol CHA). If you looked at the stock price history, it’s a good way to lose money if you bought the stock at the debut.

    茶颜悦色: 是中国湖南省长沙市的一个中式古风茶饮品牌，由吕良创立于2013年，经营着多家连锁茶饮店，目前仅在湖南、湖北、江苏、重庆开设分店[1]。茶颜悦色在制作茶饮时强调“中茶西做”，是长沙最受欢迎的本土茶饮店。在形象上，茶颜悦色的商标图、饮料名称、包装、店铺装修等都体现了传统的中国古典风格[2]。

    茶百道: 2555.HK. 一年卖超10亿杯，会员超1亿：茶百道，要上市了.

    2021年，奈雪的茶率先在港交所上市，成为“新式茶饮第一股” 2150.HK；2024年，茶百道也登陆港交所，成为“加盟制茶饮第一股”；今年2月，古茗完成了港交所挂牌上市 1364.HK。

    I would be very careful buying any of their stocks.

    Guming – 古茗HKG:136410.94
    Mixue Bingcheng – 蜜雪冰城HKG:2097297new IPO
    Nayuki – 奈雪的茶HKG:21501.57
    ChaPanda – 茶百道HKG:25559.09
    4 Listed Chinese Tea Companies in HKSE stock prices as of 03-05-2025