Category: China

I missed most of US open tennis because of this trip. I watched Andre Agassi’s 3.5 hrs fight agaist No. 8 seed Baghdatis the night before leaving. His perseverance prevailed. I have a lot of respect for him. I hope I can have some more perseverance too.

Back to TV programs. I watched one reality show on the CCTV, “Winning in China”, sponsored by Yahoo China etc. The partipants presents their business plans, answer questions from three judges: the Alibaba Chairman Ma Yun, UTStarcom China CEO Wu Ying, and a VC guy Mr. Xiong. I think most of the questions are good ones, except one lame question from Wu Ying. At one time he used English to ask a Haigui about his personal life: it seems to me Mr. Wu was just trying to show off his English and the question is definitely impropriate in western customs (the question was how come the participant got married 3 years while his kid is only a few months old). Maybe Mr. Wu has been back for too long.

I also saw another TV reality show “Quest USA” advertisement being shown on the TV screen in Metro stations. I have a few pictures at Yupoo.  Here is one:

It was more like the “Apprentice” or “Amazing race”, basically the team work together to accomplish some tasks. The team are made of Chinese from China, Hongkong, Taiwan and the US. I thought about applying for this last year, but the show was canceled due to lack of sponsorship. Obviously this year they made it work.

I also watched some talk show, which to some extent is similar to the Jay Leno or David Letterman’s late night show. It seems to me the TV program in China is closer to the US.  

This time I post it at Yupoo, the China’s flickr. Here is the link. And here is the view from my company’s office on Nanjing Xi Road (West Nanjing Road), Shanghai Center (Ritz Carlton Hotel), and J.C. Mandarin Hotel. No, I have not stayed at those hotels yet. 

I posted some pictures (I took at Shanghai during the past week) at flickr, you can get it from the right side bar (my flickr) or the link here.  

I have stayed in the Home Inn (Rujia) for a while. My hometown friend, who is a small business owner, recommended it to me in 2004. Since then I would stay at this motel for my China trip, because it’s clean and fit my budget. Not supersingly, Wang Jianshuo also recommended it in his blog. I stayed at Jin Jiang Star too. The main difference is Rujia has free Internet access (Jin Jiang charges a fee based on usage).

But I had some problems with the mattress at Rujia, both during my last trip and this one. I felt the mattress is too hard. I know I am a little spoiled after being in the States for a long time, but my body seems only like the mattress made in the US (more soft). Last time, I tried different rooms in the Rujia, without any luck. I believe they bought the mattress from the same place. So this time, I have to do something else. I asked them give me some comforter (quilt). They came back with a small comforter. It helps but it’s like “using a cup of water to put out a fire”. So I decided to called up my old buddy in SUFE, took the taxi, and got the quilt from his home.

Now I feel more at home at “Home Inn”.

Li Jia Jun, the legend Chinese short track speed skater, announced his retirement today. Here is the news (in Chinese). And here is his picture. The thing I like him is he never quits. Let’s wish him well upon retirement.