stlplace

I used to think Shanghai is very big, until a few days ago I took the taxi from Lu Jia Zhui (the financial district in Pudong) to Jing An Temple in West Nanjing Rd. It’s only 5 km (3 miles) and 15-20 minutes drive during non-rush hour. I remember in mid 90s I walked half that distance on East Nanjing Rd (from YiBai to Bund), and I felt tired. 

Automobiles dramatically changed our perspectives about the distance and our life styles. Shanghai is definitely growing, same as my hometown. While I am glad to see people have more spaces to live (I remember in 90s I shared a room with 3 co-workers in my company’s dorm), more and more people got cars; I also see a few new things from car ownership.

First the parking. I don’t know if I can park my car in those apartment complex or on the street. One has to be very good at “Parallel parking” to do that. A smaller car may make the parking easier. But when I asked one taxi driver what car he like, he said “Buick”. Come on, a few years ago the average Buick drivers’ age is 66 in the States; while here Buick is doing very well because its size and (dare I say), its marketing. On the other hand, the smaller and more efficient VW Bora (Jetta), Golf, and Polo are not selling well.

Cars also helped the spending. When I was in graduate school and got my first car in the States, my friend told me “you will spend money more quickly”. That’s very much true, because you can get to the shopping place whenever you want. The spending is more spontaneous. I remember at one time I got an habbit of driving to Wal-mart after 12am, just to get a few things (BTW, at that time, the gas is about $0.80 per gallon, or RMB 1.6 per liter). Today I am seeing similar behavior from people in my hometown, with the opening of super-market, and shopping malls.

I am at Ningbo Beilun, the forefront of opening and economy development of Zhejiang Province, argubally the most dynamic province in China these days. “Zhe Shang”, the business people from Zhejiang province, makes and sells many things you see in Wal-mart: underwear, stationary, toys, small applicance, etc. The scale of economy is enormous: I heard one time on NPR that in one villiage there are 26 plants which supplied 60% buttons of the world.

Of course I can not talk about Zhe Shang without mentioning the group of people from Wenzhou, “the Wenzhou house flippers”. A few years ago some people from Wenzhou saw the potential in Shanghai’s real estate, and they bought lots of apartment buildings and bet the price will go up. Now they all made a fortune. Last I heard some of them already bought some land in Hai’an and Haimeng (near Nantong) because there is a plan to build a bridge (over the sea) connecting Shanghai and Haimeng.

These are shrewd business people. Interestingly, on Shanghai Dragon  TV (Oriental TV), I saw a show about Zhe Shang and Su Shang (business people from Jiangsu province). In US terms, Zhe Shang has the “street smarts”, Su Shang has the “book smarts”; Zhe Shang speculates, while Su Shang invests for long term. Certainlly all these are in relative terms. BTW, I am not a typical Zhejiang Native 🙂

I did not take too much taxi this time, I used the Metro (subway) a lot: more convenient, no traffic jam, besides it’s only 2 minutes ride from where I stay to where I work (more than 15 minutes walk though, good for me).

I like to talk to taxi drivers from time to time; I feel I can learn new things from them. The taxi driver who took me from Pudong airport (PVG) is a lucky guy, he bought a truck license for RMB 20,000 five years ago. One year ago he exhange that license for the taxi license and it’s worth RMB 400,000 now. He told me he also bought an apartment in Minghang for RMB 110,000, and you can imagine its value increased several fold as the real estate price in Shanghai went through the roof. I admire his risk taking, execution ability and congradulate his success. A lot things are easy when we look back. But not so before the facts.

Another taxi driver, a guy who is 54, told me an interesting story: a young professional (maybe businese person) took his taxi from work to home, for about RMB 84. The driver asked the young guy why he took taxi because he could take the bus from starting point to end (and he could have seats on the bus). The young guy told the driver he can got home one hour early (than taking bus), get better rest and make more money the next day. The driver strongly disagrees and I believe this is very common between generations.

Last but not least, I saw the famous “Shanghai taxi driver” on CCTV, the DaZhong taxi driver knows how to make most money while using least effort (resource). I believe he gave lectures to many companies about management, resource planning and business.

I mentioned some differences (between Starbucks in Shanghai and the States) a while ago during my last Shanghai trip: more crowded, less sweet in taste. I found another difference today: the cup size is smaller here. So a “Venti” (large) here is really a “Grande” (medium) in the States! Maybe Starbucks thinks that Chinese are not as addicted to caffeine as American? Or they think Chinese should not drink as much coffee as American do. Don’t they save material cost (and make more money) by doing this? Despite all these, my friend told me Starbucks is the most popular coffee shop in town. One has to be both wealthy and well connected to open a store here.

Tip: if you bring your own cup, you could save RMB 2 for the drink. Don’t know if this works in the States. I am going to try it next time…

Update: I wrote yet another Starbucks post after quite a few years.

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”.