About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

Queues. They’re just about everywhere in China. (No wonder the folks who made this nation in its current form in 1949 deliberately chose People’s Republic as the name of the state. It kind of makes sense, when you take a look at the whole thing.)

Queues are part of everyday life here in Beijing. It used to get really unruly. However, even in this day and age of the “Line Up on the 11th” program (where the 11th day of every month is “Line Up Day” — this program was announced in time for the Olympics, to make Beijing look more “genteel”), we can still have folks not queueing up with the rest of the pack. It’s bad enough in the human world. It’s worse in the auto world, where scenes like these are more frequent than ET sightings:

And remember, we’re supposed to host a nice, harmonious Olympics this summer! So having that in mind, here’s my bit on helping Beijing line up even better — and telling the outside world the Gap, queue-wise.

Queuing at the Doors

Be they the subway doors or the lift doors, the trouble with queues in front of doors is that all too often, locals rush to the dead center of the doors. In the subway system, they’ve kind of struck home the point that you wait at the two corners, and you let passengers off the train first. The bus system has an even better queue system: queue for your door (which is one-way, both for passengers leaving and entering the bus; you enter or leave through a different door).

The lift system is the one that can get some people more than annoyed. It’s not rare to see people wait right in front of the doors, only to see that the lift is overloaded — and that the cables are about to snap any attosecond. Unfortunately, at the same time, folks have to leave at the first floor — and you being right in the middle of the mess doesn’t make the whole thing a whole lot better!

There’s got to be a more logic-related “bit” to the whole queueing business, too. Isn’t it more logical to wait in line, let those off first, and then board the train or lift? It’s efficient. It’s logical. And, of course, much more genteel.

And Then There’s Those Who Play Foul

I haven’t seen this in front of my eyes yet, but if what I’ve read isn’t — you know, fake, there apparently exist people who will actually mix into queues and get your railway tickets faster if you give these people some money. Think about this — this is like buying yourself into the queue! To many a Westerner, it’s simply not on; yet the sheer size of the queue kind of lets them off guard and just hope they’d get their train tickets faster.

More foul behavior can be seen in Beijing’s streets. When lanes merge (or when ordinary cars are about to leave a dedicated bus lane), what you see is sheer dis-harmony as cars cram into each other — quite literally. It takes people ages to get from A to B — probably because the guy driving the van is at odds with the taxi driver, and they’re letting it out on the streets. At the end of the day, everyone is a loser. They really should just let each other get along better.

The Natural Queues

Hong Kong is probably one of the best places I’ve been to — queue-wise. You queue for absolutely every last thing — paying at the cashier, immigration, the pastry, MTR tickets, just about everything. Queuing is natural — nobody gets away from it, and everyone’s happy with it.

Hong Kong is pretty much close to the way things are done in the Western world. No Swiss, for example, would dare not queue in front of the railway station. And where Hong Kong has the queues “made artificially” (by erecting barriers), there are considerably less barriers in Switzerland. Jumping queues is a firm no-no to many a Westerner.

There’s a cultural aspect behind this, too.

What Queues Mean

Queues aren’t just displays of lines of people lining up in order. Queues test your patience (naturally), but it also tells people if you can fit into a system — if you’re willing to play by the rules. Play along, and you’ll go far.

Don’t play along — OK, once, they’ll probably let you off the hook. Twice — and it gets serious. There’s probably no chance for a third queue-skipping; to many, it’s just morally wrong. Of course, every society will have people that will ram in their wheels into an orderly queue. And to those who break the laws — well, what can we say? They just won’t expect anything good at the end of the day.

Because the good things in life belong to those who play nice. And play by the rules.

By queueing — for a start.

I had dinner at my aunt’s home this weekend and somehow we ended up talking about the new Labor Contract Law (LCL, 劳动合同法, Láodòng Hétǒng Fǎ) . This is the second most popular law that gets discussed over normal Chinese dinner tables because it impacts anyone in employment; the most popular one is Property Law (物权法, Wùquán Fǎ).

Meanwhile, the company I work for is building a team in China and I want to learn about it. This new version of Labour Contract Law was signed by Chairman Hu Jingtao on Jun. 29, 2007 and has come to be effective on Jan. 1 2008. A reporter from jrj.com (a website of China Financial Online Co. (NASDAQ：JRJC) Wei Heping (魏和平) said on an article “Why are Entrepreneurs Panicked at Talking about the New Labor Contract Law?”(谈新劳动合同法企业家为啥恐慌) on Jan.21, 2008:

“On 2007 China Entrepreneur Summit (6th annual conference) held in Dec. 2007, President of Lenovo Group Liu Chuanzhi expressed his concerned that the new Labor Contract Law is too protective for the employees, which is an disadvantage for the development of companies. Professor Zhang Wuchang (张五常), dean of School of Economy and Finance Hong Kong University also blogged about the new law. He believed that the new law could be ‘protecting lazy people’ and ‘there is a possibility {for the new law} to blow up the current well-reformed economy’.”

The reporter also presented two statistics to show how “panicked” the entrepreneurs are:

1. He tried to contact ten entrepreneurs who often “actively talk about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in front of medias”, but only four of them agreed to accept an interview on this topic.
2. He didn’t find many comments by entrepreneurs like Liu Chuanzhi on this topic since last June. But he found a few reports about some well-known enterprises announcing mass lay-offs by Jan. 1 2008.

According to Professor Zhang, the most debated four topics are:

1. Dispatch (派遣) between Organizations. (I don’t understand what does ”dispatch” means and it is not defined in the law. To my best understanding, it can be translated as “outsource” (外包)).
2. Probation period.
3. Compensations on various situations: not signing a contract, terminating a contract or lay-off.
4. Non-fixed term contract.

No. 4 “non-fixed term contract” is the main reason of panic, which can be understood as “an employee is automatically granted a permanent contact after serving a company for 10 years continuously”. Professor Zhang compared this rule with the tenure system in American universities and he believes it will protect lazy people and be unfair to young people in the coming decades when all the “tenure” positions have be felt by senior employees.

In industries, according to Wei’s interview, Lenovo president Mr. Liu felt that to keep the “permanent employees” or pay the compensation when ending a contract will be a huge burden for a company in long term. But Liu Jianguo, the CEO of a new startup (aibang.com) and also former CTO of Baidu.com, said the “permanent employees are the most valuable assets of a company, and the new law will help to improve the overall management level in China.” Shanda President Tangju commented that people felt panic “because they think management cost will increase. But in order to be a socially responsible corporation, a company must be responsible to its employees first.”

China Law Blog’s China’s New Labor Law — It’s A Huge Deal. Huge I Tell You will help you to understand maybe only Chinese entrepreneurs are “panicked”. China Briefing (a law firm) have cleared up several common misperceptions here . (Updated on Feb. 1, 2008: Note: I didn’t verfiy every statement in these two posts by refering them to the orignial  LCL in Chinese language. AND i am not a lawyar and don’t have a law degree. These two citations are quick references for readers who are interested in this topic. Thanks  our commentor Fidelmeister: both authors don’t read Chinese language. )

Here are some details about hiring part-time helpers in China (as I am interested in this part). FYI.
• Definition: Paid by hour, daily working hour is less than 4 hours and weekly total working hour is less than 20 hours.
• Contract format: verbal agreement is accepted.
• Probation: No probation allowed.
• Contract termination: Either party can terminate the agreement any time without advanced notice, and employers don’t need to pay any compensation.
• Payroll interval: Maximum 15 days.

Download a Chinese version of NEW and OLD (1994 version) Labor Contract Law here. (Author: Li Qiang) (Note: This is a version I found online and NOT guarantee it is the the 100% original version.)

OK, OK… what does blue-ified Emmenthaler, Mozart music and half-and-half Sovietesque design have to do with the more underground bits of the capital of a People’s Republic of 1.3 billion and counting? They form the incredible miracle in the making known as the Beijing Subway, which will give the Tube competition by 2015.

A little stroll now, if you will, of our odd, somewhat obsolete, but always Ohne-Stau (German for “no traffic jams”) subway network. (You see, I had to come out with three Os in a row, and I had to cheat using my German.)

Underground Mozart

When Subway Line 5 opened, Beijing got its first taste of — underground Mozart, get this. Everything was new on Line 5 — platform screen doors, automated ticket checking machines (live soon), the signage — and yes, the music. The Mozart. Unfortunately, the Mozart disappeared about three months into service, but when it was there, being underground and waiting for the train was one of the best musical experiences. The music they had was relaxing, and you felt that waiting for the train in itself was more a pleasure than an inconvenience.

Architecture-wise, the Mozart Line (as I call it) saw some major breakthroughs. Platforms were suddenly a lot wider (about double some of the smaller platforms on Line 1), there were chairs at platform level (except for at the interchange stations), and those horrible blasts of freezing wind that were sure to send you shivering when you headed to the exits (a la Line 2 stations) were no longer there. The best thing was probably the variety inside the stations — we’re talking about things as small as whether or not the columns were square, aqua blue, or sunrise yellow.

The signage was a relief, although upon closer examination they seemed to be more than a mere clone of their Hong Kong counterparts. (This shouldn’t be making the headlines, though; Line 4, now under construction, will be brought to you by — the Hong Kong MTR!)

Half-and-Half Sovietesque-ism

If melodious Mozart, TV screens at platform level, and platform screen doors make subway travel all the more enjoyable, the opposite can be said about Lines 1 and 2. Built less as a mass transit network and more as a “just-in-case” operation to stop the Soviets thinking of attacking Beijing back in the 1960s, these two lines have all of the Soviet-ish design along with none of the art (of the likes of the underground railway systems in either Moscow or Pyongyang).

Possibly the scariest underground pits are in Guchenglu station, where trains literally enter an underground semi-jailhouse. No effort has been made to impress the incoming visitor; nope, the whole thing was just built in a hurry.

Better are the underground palaces on Line 2, although even with décor like what you see below…

…we think that they could have been a bit more creative. But then again, wasn’t this built before they applied for the Olympics for the first time in 1993?

Coming Soon: Blue Cheese

If you long for more of either the underground pits or the Mozart Line, take note of this: if all the subterranean blueprints work out, Beijing will be home to 561 km — of the underground railway system — by 2015.

A rundown would seem scary, but here it is.

• Ready by June 30, 2008: Subway Lines 8 (Stage 1, aka the Olympic Branch Line), 10 (Stage 1) and the Airport Line
• Under construction now: Subway Lines 4 (city section), 6 (Stage 1), 8 (Stage 2), 9, 10 (Stage 2), and Daxing and Yizhuang Lines
• Under construction by late 2008: Subway Lines 7, 14, and probably the Datai Line
• Reality by 2015: Line 15, and Changping and Fangshan Lines
• On the drawing board: Lines 3, 12 and 16

While we could tell you where all these lines went, this blog would have fallen victim to pages upon pages of detail. So to make sure Elliott and Min get some airtime, I’m going to point you to the Subway pages on the Beijingology wiki, and leave you there.

Meanwhile, before I go, I’d like to show you what a Line 10 station in the works looks like…

…and just leave you with this bit of news: from the pictures of Line 10 stations I’ve seen in the paper, get ready for underground blue cheese…

I’ve been debating whether to really share my Google Shared items feed or just use it to share with a few friends and my intrepid fellow bloggers here at CN Reviews. Should I share my Google Shared items out or just reserve it for a few friends? Here’s what I found interesting this week. (BTW, writing this post took way too long so not sure I’ll do this on a regular basis)

TechBlog86 - techblog86 Mind the Gap Saturday: Microblogging Revisited, China and the West
China Microblogging has been an area of interest here at CNReviews (starting with our CNbloggerCon Microblogging roundup). Our own David Feng highlights some interesting differences between China microbloggingm, where you are bei guanzhu (被关注) and the West, where you are “followed” or “following”.

The Chinese word for being part of the “attention span” is bei guanzhu (被关注), which equates to something along the lines of “being focused upon”, “being followed”, or - as I said it a moment ago - “part of the attention span” (ie “someone is paying attention to everything you do”).

The way these very words are used reflect pretty much on how things work in different parts of the planet. In the West, where individualism is the order of the day, you’re pretty much all-out after attention; you love it when folks follow you around. In China, though, the feeling that “someone is paying attention to everything you do” gives you a warm feeling that sometimes care about you.

RConversation - Hong Kong 2.0
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Hong Kong and Hong Kongers, partly because my family is from Hong Kong and partly because I experienced the summer of 1989 in Hong Kong. Rebecca posts about her preface to Charles Mok’s new book Hong Kong 2.0 where she admits that many Beijingers disrespect my Hong Kong homeboys but she has come to know and love the people of Hong Kong. This brought a warm feeling to my heart, Rebecca. Thanks for rooting for my peeps.

China Web 2.0 Review - What do Chinese Internet users do online?

49 mm bloggers, or 23.5% of the total 210 mm internet users at the end of 2007. While 34% access the internet through an internet cafe, 74.8% of them have a high-school education or below.

Thomas Crampton (via Danwei) - Exclusive: Matt Roberts on About.com’s launch in China as Abang.com and related post on 14 China Internet insights About.com learned launching Abang.com -

1. Chinese don’t trust professional-looking sites (vs. US users who like a more polished look)
2. Chinese like titles to be the same length (vs. US users who don’t care.
3. Chinese love images (vs. US who care less)
4. Chinese love nutritional information on recipes (vs. US About.com readers)
5. Chinese like to comment after each article (vs. US About.com readers…this seems wrong to this blog writer who thinks About.com is a bit antiquated in user experience)

Marketing Pilgrim - How to Make a Blog Post go Viral with Social Media. Some interesting ideas include creating your own Facebook Application for your blog (BlogFuse, $5 per month), create a profile page for your blog on MySpace (not sure that’s my audience though).

Read Write Web (via TechCrunch)- Humans Interupting Algorithms: Wales v. Calacanis on Human Powered Search
Marissa Meyer was pretty negative on the whole idea of human edited search. You cannot do the “fat tail” solely with human intervention…the value is in the long tail, and that requires an algorithmic solution. Calacanis: “I will go kill myself now. My dream just got slashed by one of my idols. No, but I think fat tail equals humans. Long tail equals advertising.” I’m watching Mahalo pretty closely to see what I can learn from them.

Mad about Shanghai - link to Artzine China. I’m interested in learning more about Contemporary Chinese art and wish I had found this resource before my last trip to China (where my goal of setting aside a whole day to tour galleries with a knowledgeable independent curator turned into a one-hour walk through of Beijing’s 798 District…never enough time…

Scobleizer - what to do if you’re laid off in the 2008 recession. All great tips even if you are happily employed. And wired like the Scobleizer!

Plus8Star (via China Vortex) - Inside QQ report is out!
I learned that Tencent (QQ) is largest in the world at 270 mm accounts vs MSN 250 mm. It’s roughly a 400 mm USD company in 2007. Here’s what I gleaned from the report:

Why do global giants fail in China? (23/184)

1. Expats and execs from HK and Taiwan have limited field of vision, ensconced in nice high rises with well-paid office workers
2. Lack attention to and understanding of the masses
3. Risk adverse because they are earning 8-10X salary than local competitors. More willing to do nothing than to risk failure and loss of their fat salary
4. Focus on Long term strategy rather than reacting fast…long decision making loops with foreign HQ

Examples of current Internet pop culture (34/184)

1. Mice Love Rice
2. Backdorm Boys
3. Furong Jiejie
4. Mu Zimei
5. SuperGirls

Kaiser Kuo’s framing of key differences of the China’s internet industry (94/184)

1. Entertainment-focused to the point of distraction
2. Ferociously competitive
3. Plagued with very bad and unreliable metrics
4. Less obsessed with privacy issues

I turned 26 a few days ago, so I decided to throw a massive KTV party (by my records) for about 12 friends or so. Two couldn’t make it, but the room was already crammed with ten maniacal singers. The first song, of course, was Happy Birthday, but after that, we jumped into songs in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese Minnan and English. A kind of hidden reminder that the Birthday Boy knew ten languages… My favorites for the night were songs from Stefanie Sun (孙燕姿).

As you probably know, Karaoke, or KTV, is the rage in China. The rage started back in the 1990s and since then, a great many KTV stores have sprung up on both sides of the Straits — both on the mainland and in Taiwan. KTV itself is part of what must be modern Chinese culture — or at least “post-work culture”; there’s no better way to wind down after a day of super-loaded work than to yell it out in front of the microphone!

We went into what was probably the best KTV chain store — Taiwan’s Cashbox Partyworld (Qiangui, 钱柜), and also one of the earliest Cashbox Partyworlds in Beijing — in the Chaowai area just off Chaoyangmen Outer Avenue. The name is especially appropriate: the KTV store was a virtual cash box, charging you all-the-more-exorbitant rates. I paid the hourly fees, sparing the gang of utter, total and complete bankruptcy; I can say that this was not cheap. Those Taiwanese probably know how to make money the best: El Cheapo rates during daytime hours, rocket-ish prices at night. Sing along during the daytime; it’s cheap to the tune of around CNY 38 per person. Come in at night, and you start off in three-digit territory already! Charges are either per hour (which may not include the buffet) or come in brackets of up to three hours (with the food included).

In terms of the food, they’ve all-you-can-eat buffet, but charges don’t come cheap: when we got in at around 20:00, they wanted every person coming in to pay a charge of around CNY 100 for an all-you-can-eat buffet, plus a smaller surcharge for 3 hours of yodelling rights. During the daytime, however, prices drop back to more flatland levels. They used to have it so that the buffet stopped at 20:30, but our previous attempts at filling up food and drinks with even — get this — bowls — got these people rethinking their policy (or I guess that would have been the case), and now the buffet is open until 02:00. Being a Chinese-and-Western food hybrid, yours truly prefers fried rice and Fanta, but for the rest, the food is equally delicious.

On the big screen itself was the song and the music TV. The MTV bit, by the way, is interesting: recently, Chinese copyright authorities have started a crackdown on illegal or pirated MTVs. You’ll know which is a pirated MTV, by the way: if what you see are scenes from Switzerland and a flute accompaniment, it’s most probably a fake. If what you see are people dancing and pulling out those impossible-to-mimic movements (and if the text is in traditional Chinese), it’s probably the real thing. There’s still a bit of controversy boiling over who gets to pay the copyright fees, but out of all the KTV joints, Cashbox Partyworld’s slate is easily the cleanest.

KTV is big in China — and at that, singing, too. Many a corporate party incorporates karaoke (the Beijing Macintosh User Group does this nearly every year), and people singing or humming songs when the spirit moves them are a regular sight in the streets of Beijing. (Nobody looks at them funnily, by the way; everyone’s into the singing mania.) Chinese KTV events can be pretty big; parties with 10+ or even 20+ people are not unheard-of. The Chaowai Cashbox Partyworld store has a lot of “small-ish” rooms that hold five to eight people (we managed to squeeze in ten without any casualties of any degree or magnitude), and I’ve heard rumors there are bigger rooms on the first floor that hold up to 20 people and have an added treat — wireless microphones. Most KTV places are full of private rooms; rarer is the format where you sing in front of an entire audience.

By the way — I had a great birthday bash. The room was sometimes filled with the loudest yelling the eardrums could tolerate, but everyone had loads of fun.

If you want to join in, head up to the next Cashbox Partyworld — there are four in Beijing so far. Those are on:

• Chaowai store: Union Plaza, Chaowai South Street just south of Chaoyangmen Outer Avenue (朝外店, 朝外地区朝外南街)
• Shouti store: Southeastern corner of Baishi New Bridge (首体店, 白石新桥东南角)
• Yonghegong store: Southeast of Yonghegong Bridge (雍和宫店, 雍和宫桥东南角)
• Huixin store: Huixin East Street, just south of Huixin East Bridge (惠新店, 惠新东街以南)

All KTV stores close by 02:00 according to a recent government decree — which was kind of unpopular for those used to yodelling through the night. But hey, we all need that bit of rest, don’t we?

CNReviews Mind the Gap Wednesday focuses on the gap — or difference — between China and the West, in the technology, culture and business worlds, as well as other places where there is a large gap.

Take your average train station — Beijing Subway or Zurich Main Station. You see two very different systems at work…

• Beijing Subway: Someone has to stand (stand guard?) next to the machines where you touch in your subway transport card. Nobody is spared; if someone tries to break the rules, a very loud “Ay, ay, ay!” is uttered and the offender immediately isolated. If the going gets tough, more subway personnel or even the police is called in.

• Zurich Main Station: The Swiss trust you to either validate your multi-passes or to buy a ticket. Spot checks are rare, but they are not easily dodged: the inspectors sometimes are not in uniform and arrive unannounced, catching some folks unawares. Relax — you did buy yourself a train ticket, right?

From things as basic or as down-to-earth as checking your train tickets, we see the difference between the Chinese and Western worlds: the trust factor.

It’s not that in China, no-one trusts no-one; nope, that would be a national disaster. But those who try to spot tiny holes in the legal system or trust system often get their way, and if there is a way to “play dirty”, some do. It’s not that the Swiss never “play dirty”, either; but there are more folks in China who choose the “easy way” out. Unfortunately, not all “easy ways out” are necessarily “clean ways out”. An example that I’ve been through: some other Mac site in China helps me get the word out about a BeiMac meeting. When I’m really in need, though, I request them — kindly — to help me out, and they get tough, going, “Who the heck are you? Why should I help?”. In China, to make sure that your deal is indeed sealed, you need a jiandu or supervision factor — to make sure you get to sleep at the end of the day. That’s, to some extents, the subway lady checking if you’ve touched in at the stations.

China: Come on, come on, show us the ticket. Trust? Hmm…

The Swiss aren’t exactly the opposite — you can’t say that there are no liars or folks who take the “easy way out” in Switzerland. But the Swiss (the majority of the Swiss, at least) do believe that you have to be responsible for what you do — and that playing foul, or violating the law, is not a good idea. Try it; throw even a napkin around, and more often than not, the Swiss will express disapproval — instant disapproval at times. The Swiss believe in the law more than the Chinese do (it shows!), and if a Swiss agrees to something, it’s a done deal, no doubts about it. There’s less worries in the West; not a lot of effort is put into the jiandu-ing or supervising because most people trust each other.

Switzerland: We trust you, but if you play foul, you’ll be fined.

From things as basic as checking your tickets at train stations, we see the differences between trust in the Chinese world and trust in the Western world (with Switzerland as an example). The concept of trust is catching on in China, though, so for those in China for the long term — bluer biz skies are in the forecast…

Ladies and gents — it’s a great pleasure joining the great team at CNReviews.com. My name is David Feng — you may have known me from what used to be blognation China, or my current gigs, the BeiMac Union, techblog86 and Beijingology. Additionally, I write for Shanghaiist, blog with City Weekend (for their The Beijingologist column), and am a frequent guest on Beijing Radio (in everything travel-related). That’s quite a lot of stuff I’ve on my plate…

Beijing is an interesting place for me. I was born here (in fact, 26 years ago today — how time flies!), witnessed the city through the era of the planned economy (I think I still have a voucher for a rice ration I never claimed), witnessed the price of bus tickets rising from the old “red ticket” of just CNY 0.05 to what the prices are now (still not that expensive — CNY 0.40), and witnessed bridges being built all over the city. Since returning here for the long term beginning in mid-2000 (after 12 years in Switzerland), I’ve completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and International Finance, and now hold a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from the School of Media/Broadcasting Arts at the Communications (Media) University of China.

I’ve been blogging for quite a bit — since late 2005. When I first heard of blogs in 2003, I thought they were “decadent places full of foul language” that I had to keep my own 101 miles from — but I soon realized just how much I was missing (and to some extents, how wrong I was). I started my personal blog, Raccolta Online, on December 29, 2005. Times have changed, but the blog has always been there. My blogging commitments expanded in late 2007 as I wrote for blognation China, and it has kept expanding in 2008 with techblog86, Shanghaiist, and now CNReviews.com.

After doing about a dozen articles for the Wikipedia on the freeways around Beijing, I found out that there was an audience for this thing (amazingly enough). In fact, at one point, the editor of a freeway mag offered me a job! So with the interest there (and with me never a big fan of the rather complex GFDL), I started Beijingology on a trial basis in mid-2006, with much of the work getting underway for real in late May 2007. Beijingology is a wiki and blog about the city of Beijing that — obviously — has no end.

Last but not least, most of you (or some of you) may know me as the Mac guy in Beijing and around the PRC. That’s all because of the Beijing Macintosh User Group, and now the BeiMac Union. There are over 600+ like-minded Mac geeks and ordinary Mac folks inside the BeiMac world; I probably wouldn’t have met one of them were it not for Mr D’Arcy’s “just grand” Mac lessons back in elementary school in Switzerland. That got me into the tech world as early as 1991, and no matter what I’m into these days — tweeting, Dopplr-ing or hanging out with Linux/open source people, all roads point back to that computer class in autumn 1991.

The one thing that I love is languages. I consider both English and Chinese to be native tongue-ish languages, and German, French and Italian following closely behind. I’m also OK with a bit of Japanese and Korean, can read Spanish and Rhaeto-Rumansh with few problems, and even know a bit of Latin from high school. I’m not sure how this might work out at CNReviews.com; for that, I’ll have to refer you to my own blogs, which feature content even in Swiss-German…

It’s great being part of CNReviews.com, and I hope you enjoy my tech and urban posts!

Via Techmeme, I saw a post by Louis Gray entitled Mashable Uses A-list power to Steal B-list buzz alleging that Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins of Mashable stole a quote without attribution.

Aside from getting me a bit indignant about the plight of the little guy, the post reminded me of a Mashable post from Mark bashing the tech blogosphere for being obsessed with Robert Scoble’s Facebook erasure versus the violence and disputed election in Kenya. Which then spun out-of-control into criticism of Robert Scoble himself. Which then resulted in Scoble defending himself and explaining why he doesn’t blog about Kenya. Via RConversation, I also read Global Voices co-founder Ethan Zuckerman’s defense of Scoble that also does a great job explicating the “known bug” of the blogosphere that people write and read about what they know about, and they often don’t know and don’t care about international issues like the Kenyan post-election events. If you read this, please take the time to read Ethan’s post now!

In fact, Robert Scoble is already global, and his post on wanting to go to CNbloggercon was one reason why we opened this blog. He has also repeatedly tried to share his blogger fame and fortune generously with Global Voices’ founders Ethan and Rebecca MacKinnon. He is already a globalist. So we emailed Scoble late last year and asked him what he wanted to learn about China.  This is what he had to say:

1. Who are the best tech bloggers in China and how do they differ from bloggers elsewhere in the world?
2. What is being a blogger in China like? What perceptions do you have of bloggers elsewhere in the world?
3. Take us around your local technology store and give us a tour.
4. How do you perceive American companies like Microsoft/Yahoo/Google/Sun Microsystems and how are they behaving in China?
5. What are the big topics in China? News we should pay attention to?

(I didn’t get advance blogging permission on sharing this so I hope its ok Robert that I share this!)

These are the issues that we intend to cover at CNReviews. We want to create greater awareness and cultural understanding. We are not sure what the dividends are but it will be surely goodness.

At the same time, we want what we do to have reach and to generate profits, and agree with Ethan’s view that the problem is on the demand side, not the supply side. I also engaged in a great dialog about this subject with Kai Pan at Tripdingo.com (disclosure: I work at Kango and Tripdingo.com is a Kango sponsored blog) where he shared some similar insights about what people really gravitate toward and some tough questions about who our target audience is. In Beijing, I also had one of the best chocolate croissants in my recent life in Chaoyang (contact me if you want to find out where!) with Kaiser Kuo where he shared a data point that one very respected China blog is only getting about 1000 unique visitors/day, and only has about 1000 RSS subscribers. That was a bit depressing because I really viewed this blog as a giant in the field. There is clearly a demand problem.

So I’m excited about 2008 and the journey that we are on with CNReviews. I know we can make a contribution, and I know we can engage with some great blogs and some great bloggers. I hope we can get some people to read the blog too! In the meantime, we’ve got some great feedback from Robert Scoble and hope to tackle some of these issues in the months ahead!

Photos with CC license for commercial reuse: DEMOSH from Kenya; Kai Hendry from China

Via wangjianshuo.com, I learned about Fays Rooms, a new short-term room rental network that has several apartments in centrally located JingAn and the popular Luwan (French Concession) districts of Shanghai (see interactive Shanghai map to get to know the geography). For travelers who are either staying longer in Shanghai, looking to save money on lodging, or wanting to live more like a Shanghai resident, a short-term room rental can be a nice option to consider. Because any friend of Jian Shuo’s is a friend of mine, I decided to give it a try!

Summary of Fays Rooms “Manhattan Heights” apartment

• Great location in the JingAn district of Shanghai, just 2.5 blocks away from Nanjing Xi Lu (Nanjing West Rd.), Plaza 66, CITIC Plaza, Portman Ritz Carlton. Just 3-4 blocks away from the Nanjing West Rd. Line 2 Shanghai Metro station, which connects you directly to People’s Square and Pudong. About 4-5 blocks away from JingAn temple, CitiPlaza (Jiu3 Guang1) shopping center, and the Jing’An Airport Bus to Pudong. After about seven trips to Shanghai, I think JingAn is probably the best place to stay especially if you are meeting entrepreneurs and expat/returnees, many of which seem to live near JingAn. And it is on Line 2 subway which is convenient to both Pudong and other places in Puxi.
• Near popular meeting places like Starbucks at CITIC Plaza, Wagas at CITIC Plaza, Element Fresh at the Portman Ritz Carlton. Within striking distance of Jing’An Temple Chamate and other food places. When meeting up with people, its good to have landmarks that are easy to describe and easy to find. Starbucks is always a safe bet!
• Price is very fair for what you get. I paid RMB 220 for one room in a 3BR apartment. Price seems to have risen to RMB 250 in 2008, still a very fair deal.
• Good local amenities nearby, including laundry service, convenience store, street-stalls for Chinese breakfast.
• Not as private as a hotel room. The MBR has a private bath but the other 2 BR share a bathroom. Also the doors and walls are similar to a residential apartment, so there is less privacy than a hotel room which has better sound insulation between hotel rooms that the rooms in a typical residential apartment. But I had no problem with noise when I stayed there. This is a risk of a short-term room rental situation.
• Nice opportunity to socialize with other travelers. Fay has a vision about her guests networking and helping each other out, during their stay and beyond.
• Wireless network was free and great.
• I stayed in January and the heating was not strong enough for my tastes. Fay and her manager Brian are considering getting space heaters to address this issue. During the spring and other seasons, it should not be a problem.

General Advantages of Short-Term Room Rental

• Lower cost, about RMB220 - RMB250 per night, vs RMB 800 - RMB 3000 for a true 5-star hotel. Affordable for a longer-term stay.
• Living room. Great if you are sharing a room with a partner and have jet lag.
• Kitchen and dining room. Convenient for low-cost, American-style breakfast at home.
• Multiple bedrooms you can rent. For a family with kids, you might be able to rent the whole apartment.
• Feels more relaxed and residential.
• Free internet. Some high end hotels charge RMB150 or more just for the internet access!

Disadvantages of Short-term Room Rental vs a 4- or 5-star hotel

• Neighborhood. Many room shares are much less convenient than many of the best hotels. If you are staying for just a few nights and have a super-packed schedule, chances are you can find a much more convenient hotel near Nanjing Xi Lu or People’s Square. Manhattan Heights, however, is actually a very convenient location in a great neighborhood.
• Location of apartments can be less convenient that hotels. In general, I was told the best real estate is dominated by hotels and office complexes. Some of Fays Rooms are several long blocks further from the Metro stations than the Nanjing Xi Lu hotels. However, the Manhattan Heights apartment I stayed
• laundry service — need to walk down the street
• breakfast not included, unlike many hotels. No lobby suitable for business meetings
• no business center and limited technical support.
• no conference room
• may not have pool and exercise facilities like a top hotel
• a bit more confusing to find the first time. Fay gave me great directions and I still found it confusing, because of my limited Chinese fluency.

Fay has some accurate pictures of the apartment on her website. I thought I would take some photos of the surrounding area and the building I stayed in.

Here are the Xikang Rd (Xikang Lu) roadsign and Xinzha Rd (Xinzha Lu) roadsigns which is the intersection nearest to the apartment. Shanghai has very foreigner friendly street signs, almost always with the pinyin names of the streets. Because I forgot the Chinese name of the apartment complex, I would just tell the Shanghai taxi drivers in my elementary Chinese bring me to Xikang Lu and Xinzha Lu.

The building at the Northwest corner of Xinzha Lu and Xikang Lu was my visual landmark. You can see the highrise of the Manhattan Heights building where one of Fays Rooms is located. It is right behind on the right hand side of the picture below.

Below is a picture of Xikang Lu facing north after crossing the intersection of Xinzha Lu and Xikang Lu. This is just north of Nanjing Xi Lu. To the left you can see the distinctive wall of the Manhattan Heights complex where Fays Rooms is located. At night, the top of the wall pillars is lit up.

We are almost to Fays Rooms! Here is the sign in front of the complex.

Fays Rooms is in building number 5 directly across the courtyard as you enter the complex from Xikang Lu.

Here is the entrance.

I also considered a competitor called Salo Homes that also has numerous properties in the JingAn area of Shanghai as well. I will consider them for the next trip I take to Shanghai.

UPDATE:

Fay emailed me after she saw this post and reminded me of her blog’s North of YanAn Neighborhood Guide. There is a nice map of the area around the Fays Rooms Manhattan Heights apartment that I’ve linked to below.

April 18, 2004 5, was an important day for Andrew Yu and the kids of more than 200 elementary schools in remote villages in China. On that day, Andrew founded 1kg.org (多背一公斤, duā bēi yi gōng jīn), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that sought to build a volunteer network of travelers to help kids in remote areas of China by delivering much needed books and other school supplies. “[The idea came up] in a lunch with a few good friends, also for Sichuan food,” said Andrew. “A friend shared his recent trip to Yunnan Province, where he observed the poor conditions of the local schools. We talked and all agreed that it is far from enough for only a few of us to bring something to the kids when we travel. We needed more help. So I came up with the idea to enable more travelers to help….” Andrew, known as 安猪 (ān zhū) in Chinese, shared with us how 1kg first got started, when we met with him in Beijing over dinner at a Sichuan restaurant.

I became aware of 1kg.org about two years ago when one of my college friends started to feature the 1kg.org logo as her MSN messenger image. I followed the stories on her blog and was amazed by how many young people were willing to help the kids as volunteers. However, I was disappointed that I didn’t see much coverage of this organization in the mainstream media. (See search result on Google and Baidu.)

Today, 1kg.org manages a database of over 200 elementary schools which includes information on: 1) how many students are in the school; 2) what is the kids’ primary need; 3) the school name and contact person; 4) detailed directions, including method of transportation, of how an independent traveler can reach the school. Last year, more than 130 independent travelers volunteered to carry one kilogram of stationery or books to the kids on the travelers’ trips.

Helping kids on your adventurous backpacking trips is an idea that must come from a true travel enthusiast with a generous heart like Andrew. Not only enjoying travel himself, Andrew also enjoys helping people prepare and share their trips as a moderator of a Ctrip forum. Unlike the United States or Europe, where independent travel (not with a tour package) dominates the market, independent travel in China is very small percentage of the market, even in 2008. Three years’ ago, I can imagine how much less information there was for people to plan a trip themselves, even to well developed tourist destinations like Jiuzhaigou. I don’t think people used the word “vacation” in Chinese very often three years’ ago when there was less disposable income for leisure travel.

“There are more than 400,000 elementary schools in remote villages, but less than 10% of these schools received any sort of governmental or NGO support in order to improve education quality, ” shared Andrew. During the past three years, after many 1kg trips, Andrew realized that “the original idea to encourage more and more travelers to help kids hasn’t changed.” But “[today] I have a deeper understanding of what the kids really need for education, other than books and stationery”.

So, how does 1kg work?

There are only 3 FULL time people for 1kg.org. Suave Su in Beijing is responsible for the website development and maintenance. Vivian Liu (a.k.a. 小V), based in Kunming, Yunnan, is a program administrator. Andrew focuses on PR and marketing. The 1kg website is 1) a database of the rural village schools with location, contacts, financial status and needs which are collected by the volunteer, and 2) an online communities for volunteers. When traveling to a new destination, the traveler can download a standard form, print it out and give it to a school contract to fill out, after which they can submit all the detailed information online to 1kg. Meanwhile, the traveler can share their experience with the online community. 1kg suggests that travelers pack “1kg more” stuff, like inexpensive stationary or books, and donate them to the schools. By spreading the word on forums and blogs, organizing informal volunteer gatherings, and hosting photography exhibitions in Beijing and Guangzhou, there are now more than 2000 people who take part in the activities.

On the question of why this service model will work, Andrew compares 1kg.org with traditional NGOs in China. He believes that traditional NGOs operate as agents responsible for results, control information, and direct the work of volunteers. This process generates a lots of administration & management cost and leads to low working efficiency. It furthermore limits the creativity and initiative of the volunteers. 1kg, a grassroots NGO, has a different operating model, and is inspired by the social collaboration power of wikipedia, encouraging knowledge creation and sharing to understanding the needs in order to help them.

Andrew has an ambitious objective to reach 5000 schools, cover 1 million students and collect 3 million books by the year 2012. I like his idea to collect 10,000 used computers and set up computer rooms with Internet access for 1,000 schools.

I am not a backpacker. Honestly, I don’t know if I can make my way to any of those remote villages on my trip, but I hope I (and all my friends) can do this at least once. I have a concern that there won’t be enough people that will travel independently to the schools. But when I learned that the profiles of volunteers have started to change from white collars to students. I interpreted it as that 1kg.org has created quite some social awareness of charity action on the younger generation. Today, there aren’t propagandas about “Learn from Comrade Lei Feng” (向雷锋同志学习, xiàng léi fēng tóng zhì xué xí) ” to ask everyone to help others selfishless any more, but more and more people are starting doing it. Maybe I am over concerned. Anyway, besides of hoping for and wanting good things, people also have the needs to do good things for themselves. This is a good experience if you are going to backpacking around China, isn’t it?

Good luck, Andrew!