Category: China

Pudong 浦东 is well-known these days because it stands for the development of new Shanghai. I remember in 1980s there is a saying in Shanghai: 宁要浦西一张床，不要浦东一间房. Translated in English, it says people would rather want a bed in Pu Xi than a room in Pudong. Not any more. From what I heard from my friends and what I saw, Pudong has much more open spaces, wider roads and side walk, more green, and fewer people. Basically, it’s more like the States; while Pu Xi is much more crowded. Lu Jia Zui 陆家嘴, which is opposite to the Waitan(Bund) on the Pu Xi, is now the financial center of Shanghai. There are many skyscrapers. The view from the Bing Jiang Road 滨江大道 is also fantastic. The new airport, Pudong International (PVG), is also at Pudong near the East Sea. I have some old and new friends live in Pudong happily these days. I am thinking, if I come back to Shanghai, I will pick Pudong too. Yes I know Pu Xi has many more fun places, such as bars, restaurants, and shopping places. But I can trade all these for more spaces.

I will be going home tomorrow. To be more precise, I will go to my parents home at Ningbo this weekend. Since twelve I left my home for middle school, I am used to move. From Zhenghai, to Wuhan, to Shanghai, eventually to Missouri (Rolla, St. Louis). Sometimes I don’t know where is my home. Since graduating from college I spent very little time at Ningbo because of work or school. I believe my parents really like to have me at home more but I had to admit I am not a good child. I remembered when I was in college at Wuhan, at one Winter break I told them I did not want to go back because I did not want to take the pain to stand in the railcar for 20 hours. My mom, who never wrote to me, wrote a heart-warming letter to persuade me to come back. I had no choice but to listen to her plea.

On the other hand, although I bought a condo in St. Louis last year, and I have lived in STL for more than 5 years, I still don’t know whether I should call STL my home. In my mind a home is more than a physical place, it should have some emotional attachment.

Today I bought the bus ticket from Shanghai to Beilun, it will be a 4 hours bus trip. Yes I am still confused about where is my home, but I hope my home-coming can make my parents and family members happy…

I am not a big fan of Starbucks coffee. I admire it as a company and its business is doing well in the US and internationally. I was a bit surprised last summer when I saw a Starbucks shop inside the Forbidden City (Beijing). This time as I spent more time in Shanghai I found Starbucks and coffee culture is really taking off in China.

I seldom have problem finding a seat in a Starbucks coffee in St. Louis; while it’s often the case in the Shopping malls in Shanghai. Besides friends sitting there for a chat, there are some people working there using laptop computer.

Another thing I noticed is the taste of Caramel Macchiato in Shanghai is different from St. Louis. It’s not as sweet as the US version. Note I am the strange Chinese guy what can enjoy the sweetness of American drink or dessert. Another thing is the Caramel does not taste and smell as good. Maybe they put too less Caramel? It seems to me just like the McDonald and KFC modify the taste of their food to suit the local market, Starbucks is doing the same.

From business point of view, “affordable luxury” is making a lot of money in China. Besides coffee and espresso, other life style related business such as restaurants, clothes, accessories and iPod are also doing well.

Not surprisingly, work and live in Shanghai is more hectic than St. Louis. I live in a hotel near Metro lines. I usually get up at 7 AM. After shower and breakfast, I hit the road at 8 AM. It took me about 45 minutes (change of Metro Line 3 to 2) to get to the office at W. Nanjing Rd. Most people get there at 9 AM. Besides lunch break, I usually get off after 6 PM. After dinner and Metro, I will get to hotel after 8 PM. This means I spend 12 hours for the work related actitivies (8 AM to 8 PM). One main reason is the time spent on the road. Another thing is the working hours (9 to 6). Note this is typical for many white collar workers in Shanghai. Combining these two factors people here will have less time for leisure and families, compared to the slower pace in St. Louis. One solution is live close to work. The rent in Shanghai is decent considering the sky high housing price. I don’t know if we can do anything about the working load/hour.

There are many chain restaurants in Shanghai these days, with all kinds of flavors. This noon I went to an Japanese restaurant with my old friend at Lu Jia Zhui (the financial district in Pudong). I noticed that restaurant has a store in my current office building too. I don’t have problems with Japanese food. But it’s the first time I saw yellow curry in the noodle, which I don’t like. But I can not complain it to my friend because he treated me for the lunch. The other problem is there are not much food except the noodle. A bit rice and salad. I felt hungry at 4:30 PM and went to the “Dun Huang” for “Lan Zhou La Mian”, it’s much cheaper than the Japanese food (RMB 8 vs. RMB 40). But it’s much filling.

This made me thinking about the cost, the pricing, and the business model of different restaurants. The price of those chain restaurant is high because they got better location (higher rent), higher marketing cost, etc. From consumer point of view, I would go to the other kind of restaurant because I got real Chinese food for less money.

Just as I felt pretty good about working & living in Shanghai, I lost my digital camera on a taxi. See, sometimes I can not feel too good about myself. It’s mostly my fault. I put the camera in my coat pocket because I took pictures whenever I saw something interesting. It’s very easy for the camera to slide out of the pocket.

I took about 100 to 200 pictures in Shanghai: from subway to shopping malls. I was amazed to see the penetration of luxury brands in China. I saw “Burberry” in 3 places in Nanjing Rd; in St. Louis there is a small counter in Plaza Frontenac. I remember one summer I saw a leather coat on sale at Chicago Burberry store, but I hasitated a while and went to another store. When I came back, the store was already closed (Sunday evening the store closed at 6PM). That’s one reason I remember the Burberry brand.

Losing a new camera certainlly is not a happy thing. I did manage to call the taxi company right after the loss, I am not optimistic about the outcome. Usually I take another look at the seat before leaving taxi. But today I did not. I did not take the receipt, which makes the investigation more difficult.

I will try to keep all the wonderful things about Shanghai in my memory.

Today is the second day I work in Shanghai. Taking the subway (metro, underground) from Xu Jia Hui to Jing An Temple was not too bad. It took me about 45 minutes from my hotel to the Kerry Center in W. Nanjing Rd. I chose No. 3 and No. 2 subway. The reason I did not chose No. 1 subway and People’s Square for transit was that I got scared by the number of people in People’s Square last summer. I spent about 20 minutes walking, 25 minutes riding the metro. Good exercise. The down side is: yesterday afternoon it started raining. It’s difficult to get a taxi in a rainy day, especially during rush hour. Today the weather is really cold. Only at those times I miss my car.

Food-wise, it’s fantastic. I went out for lunch with my co-workers. For RMB 10-15, you can get lots of stuff, real Chinese food. Yesterday we got “He Fan”, which has pork, fish, vegetable, soup and rice; today we went for “Northwestern” food: lamb and noodle.

Work-wise, I also got something accomplished. I even talked to my coworker in India, to help him with his problem. When I was in the States, we had a big time difference; now India seems much closer.

I did missed the super bowl and commercials, but I guess it’s OK. Because my home team St. Louis Rams is not in play.

I was amazed at the number of cars in apartment complex in Shanghai. Many recent apartments have build-in garages. I asked one friend who lives in a 3 years old high-rise apartment. He told me one covered parking spot cost RMB 150,000, or it can be rent for RMB 6,000 per year; the parking along the street costs RMB 1800 per year.

The Taxi drivers complained the “state of business” is not good during new year holiday. One reason is people are driving their own cars. Another reason lots of people went back to their hometown for the New Year. Seems like I am the opposite in this aspect. The same friend told me Shanghai has the most taxi in the world. I kinda agree because I didn’t have any problem getting a taxi these days.

I have not first hand experienced what the traffic will be like during rush hour. But I heard from some friends it’s terrible. One friend did an experiment, he tried all kinds of combinations driving from his home (in Pu Xi)to Pudong during rush hour, the time is the same regardless of what road combinations he has. And the time is the same as taking the subway (including tranfer time). But I can understand some people will still prefer driving because it give them a sense of freedom (freedom of stuck in traffic); not to mention the subway is very crowded in rush hour too — I will have hands on experience tomorrow. I guess that’s just the life of living in big cities such as NYC, LA, and Shanghai.

Will I buy a car if I live in Shanghai? I don’t know. I am used to driving since I’ve lived in the US for a while. But I think I can adjust, considering all the cost of owning a car. In addition to parking, the cost of a license plate is about RMB 40,000. They only issue 6,000 licenses per month using the auction method.

I heard there are places you can rent the cars but the process is not as smooth as US, especially if you have an accident.