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The new Beijing US Embassy, the second largest in the world (after Iraq), is a sign of the unparalleled importance of US-China relations going forward.

Beijing U.S. Embassy - Photos

I first saw pictures of the Embassy on Wangjianshuo’s site:

photo courtesy Wangjianshuo.com under Creative Commons by-sa 2.5

photo courtesy US Embassy Beijing

Scale Model of the Beijing Embassy:

photo courtesy Beijing US Embassy and Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Plan of US Embassy in Beijing:

plan courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Beijing US Embassy Facts:

• Beijing Embassy houses staff of 1,100 representing 26 agencies, according to Ambassador Clark T. Randt.
• Project Size: 500,000 square feet of space
• Site Area: 10 acres
• Stories: 8
• Building Height: 45 meters
• Construction started: 5/28/2004
• Cost: $434 mm USD / RMB 2,976,632,400
• Number of local workers who helped in the construction: 1,500
• Designed by team from San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, led by Craig Hartman

Beijing Embassy Artwork:

Art includes Jeff Koons sculpture, Tulips; art by Cai Guoqiang; piece by Maya Lin. Also Betty Woodman, Robert Rauschenberg, Yun-fei Ji, Hai Bo.

Photo of Jeff Koons, Tulips. Not sure if this is the same one:

photo from Wikipedia

According to China Daily , Cai Guoqiang’s piece has special significance:

Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang’s Gun Powder work Eagle Landing on the Pine Branch is displayed inside the Atrium Office building of the new US Embassy compound in Beijing, August 5, 2008. The motifs of eagle and pine trees were chosen for their symbolic value in both China and the United States, representing the friendship and cooperation between the two countries. Cai Guoqiang, trained in stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute, is renowned for his gunpowder works on paper and is one of the major stage designers for the Closing Ceremony of the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.

Here is a photo of the piece:

Photo courtesy China Daily

More facts can be found on the US Embassy Fact Sheet for the NEC (New Embassy Compound)

Beijing Embassy Location (according to Wangjianshuo):

• located near Beijing Airport Express Sanyuanqiao Station (see Beijing Subway Guide on CNReviews, Beijing Subway on Beijingology)
• located near Liangmahe Station of Line 10 Subway

I’m sure things are busy there during the Games!

We just posted the Olympic Video World of Warcraft edition. Our new contributing editor, Thalia Kwok (aka Chinkerfly), did a great job with a CN Reviews exclusive: translation of the music video AND a scene-by-scene identification of the 88+ movie- and rock- stars in the video so you can impress your Chinese friends with your intimate knowledge of Chinese popular culture!

Here is the original version of “Beijing Welcomes You” (on Youku):

Video is also on YouTube.

Hundreds of Chinese favorites appear in front of famous sites around Beijing in the original version of the song.

Here’s a translation along with the names of the artists so you can impress your local Chinese friends at the next KTV night with your incredible knowledge of China pop music culture. (IfGoGo.com also has a translation here.)

北京欢迎你 - Beijing Welcomes You
Composed by Xiao Ke (小柯) Lyrics by Albert Leung (林夕)

【陈天佳】迎接另一个晨曦 带来全新空气
[Chen Tianjia] Welcome the first rays of sun in the morning and the fresh air that comes with it.

【刘欢】气息改变情味不变 茶香飘满情谊
[Liu Huan] The air changes, but the taste of friendship never changes. The fragrance of tea is full of affection.

【那英】我家大门常打开 开放怀抱等你
[Na Ying] The door to our home is always open, and we wait for you with open arms

【孙燕姿】拥抱过就有了默契 你会爱上这里
[Stephanie Sun] Embracing one another is to know each other. You will fall in love with this place.

【孙悦】不管远近都是客人 请不用客气
[Sun Yue] No matter how far you have come, everyone is a guest, please make yourself at home

【王力宏】相约好了再一起 我们欢迎你
[Wang Lee-hom] We promised to be together again, we welcome you

【韩红】我家种着万年青 开放每段传奇
[Han Hong] In our home we plant evergreens, every branch tells a Chinese story

【周华健】为传统的土壤播种 为你留下回忆
[Wakin Chau] Scatter seeds in our ancient land and take away with you unforgettable memories

【梁咏琪】陌生熟悉都是客人 请不用拘礼
[Gigi Leung] Friends and strangers are all welcome guests, please enjoy your stay

【羽泉】第几次来没关系 有太多话题
[Yu Quan] It makes no difference how many times you have visited, we have much to share

*【成龙】北京欢迎你 为你开天辟地
[Jackie Chan] Beijing welcomes you, a whole new world has been opened to you

【任贤齐】流动中的魅力充满着朝气
[Richie Ren] The intoxicating spirit of sportsmanship fills the air

【蔡依林】北京欢迎你 在太阳下分享呼吸
[Jolin] Beijing welcomes you, let us breathe the same air under the sun

【孙楠】在黄土地刷新成绩
[Sun Man] Break new records across our land

【周笔畅】我家大门常打开 开怀容纳天地
[Zhou Bichang] The door to our home is always open, we open our hearts to heaven and earth

【韦唯】岁月绽放青春笑容 迎接这个日期
[Wei Wei] The years reflect the joys of youth as we welcome the this day

【黄晓明】天大地大都是朋友 请不用客气
[Huang Xiao Ming] We are friends in this giant world, please make yourself at home

【韩庚】画意诗情带笑意 只为等待你
[Hankyung] Everything is prepared, just waiting for you to arrive.

【汪峰】北京欢迎你 像音乐感动你
[Wang Feng] Beijing welcomes you, we hope the music moves you

【莫文蔚】让我们都加油去超越自己
[Karen Mok] Let’s go! Let us all push ourselves to the limits

【谭晶】北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
[Tan Jing] Beijing welcomes you, anyone with a dream can achieve greatness.

【陈奕迅】有勇气就会有奇迹
[Eason Chan] Where there is courage there can be miracles

*Repeat lyrics
【阎维文】北京欢迎你 为你开天辟地
[Yan Weiwen]

【戴玉强】流动中的魅力充满着朝气
[Dai Yuqiang]

【王霞 李双松】北京欢迎你 在太阳下分享呼吸
[Wang Xia, Li Shuangsong]

【廖昌永】在黄土地刷新成绩
[Liao Chan Yong]

【林依轮】北京欢迎你 像音乐感动你
[Allen Lin]

【张娜拉】让我们都加油去超越自己
[Jang Nara]

【林俊杰】北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
[JJ Lam]

【阿杜】有勇气就会有奇迹
[A-Do]

京剧：北京欢迎你呀~~

【容祖儿】我家大门常打开 开放怀抱等你
[Joey]

【李宇春】拥抱过就有了默契 你会爱上这里
[Li Yuchun]

【黄大炜】不管远近都是客人 请不用客气
[David Huang]

【陈坤】相约好了再一起 我们欢迎你
[Chen Kun]

【谢霆锋】北京欢迎你 为你开天辟地
[Nicholas Tse]

【韩磊】流动中的魅力充满着朝气
[Han Lei (voice)]

【徐若瑄】北京欢迎你 在太阳下分享呼吸
[Vivian]

【费翔】在黄土地刷新成绩
[Kris Phillips(voice)]

【汤灿】我家大门常打开 开怀容纳天地
[Tangchan]

【林志玲 张梓琳】岁月绽放青春笑容 迎接这个日期
[Chiling, Eileen]

【张靓颖】天大地大都是朋友 请不用客气
[Jane Chang]

【许茹芸 伍思凯】画意诗情带笑意 只为等待你
[Valen Hsu, Sky]

【杨坤 范玮琪】北京欢迎你 像音乐感动你
[Yang Kun, Fan Fan]

【游鸿明 周晓欧】让我们都加油去超越自己
[Chris Yu, Zhou Xiao Ou]

【沙宝亮 满文军】北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
[Sha Baoliang, Man Wen Jun]

【金海心 何润东】有勇气就会有奇迹
[Hannah, Peter Ho]

【飞儿 庞龙】北京欢迎你 为你开天辟地
[F.I.R., Pang Long]

【吴克群 齐峰】流动中的魅力充满着朝气
[Wu Kequn, Qi Feng]

【5566 胡彦斌】北京欢迎你 在太阳下分享呼吸
[5566, Anson Hu]

【郑希怡 刀郎】在黄土地刷新成绩
[Yumiko Cheng, Dao Lang]

【纪敏佳 屠洪刚 吴彤】北京欢迎你 像音乐感动你
[Ji Minjia,Tu Honggang, Wu Tong]

【郭容 刘耕宏 腾格尔】让我们都加油去超越自己
[Guo Rong, Liu Geng Hong, Teng Ge Er]

【金莎 苏醒 韦嘉】北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
[Kitty Land Kym, Allen Su, Wei Jia]

【付丽珊 黄征 房祖名】有勇气就会有奇迹
[Fu Lishan, Shawn, Jaycee Chan]

[Everyone singing together]
北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
有勇气就会有奇迹
北京欢迎你 有梦想谁都了不起
有勇气就会有奇迹

Forget about the Iraqi’s, what about the Alliance and the Horde from the Land of Azeroth?

World of Warcraft junkies will get a kick out of this Olympics music video. Someone over at Mop with either a lot of creativity or too much free time created an WoW remake of the much overplayed “Beijing Welcomes You” music video. We discovered this at a great new blog called chinaSMACK earlier this week.

On Youku:

On YouTube:

We’ll post the translation of this on a separate post with the original video.

If you haven’t seen the new chinaSMACK yet, please do. It’s our new guilty pleasure. Here’s how chinaSMACK’s blogger Fauna describes the site:

China is a big country, with a lot of people, and has the world’s most internet users (sorry, USA). A lot of crazy stuff happens in China each day and someone will always put it on the internet for everyone to see. The government officially say these things are illegal, immoral, or unhealthy. Sometimes the government and websites will delete these things and stop people from talking about it. But if it is funny, embarrassing, outrageous, or shocking, someone will post it, share it, and talk about it.

The really “hot” stories, pictures, and videos spread quickly onto many BBS forums all over the Chinese internet (I think foreigners call this “viral”). I realized that many of my foreigners do not know about Chinese “viral” things because they do not know how use Chinese websites and cannot read Chinese.

So, I decided to make this website and share a “slice of Chinese life” with English-speaking foreigners. I will collect and repost all of the hot, popular, interesting, outrageous, and shocking things that I see on the Chinese-language internet so foreigners can understand, experience, and enjoy also. Maybe there will be some cultural differences and maybe not every foreigners will understand what Chinese think is funny, sad, angry, or ridiculous but I will try to translate and explain the “cultural context.”

Very “hot“, very “viral“. CN Reviews welcomes you!

Warning: Off Topic Post

Paul Denlinger of China Vortex and I attended the TechCrunch August Capital party yesterday night. (Paul’s a bona-fide A-list China blogger, even if I’m a pretender.) I had a great time–a great chance to forget about the larger, fundamental economic problems facing the United States and the world at large! Sand Hill Road (home of the world’s VC)seems completely separate from the hard times that Alibaba’s Jack Ma talks about, or the mortgage meltdown.

Here’s some photos to bring the experience to our readers in China:

Long line to enter, over 1000+ people attended.

photo from Chris Alden, CEO of SixApart Ltd.

Custom engraved geek gear and suspiciously attractive excited party attendees

photo fom Mike Arrington, Flickr

New Tesla sports car parked outside, probably Mike Arrington’s

photo from Tristan O’Tierney, Flickr

Celebrity bloggers and their fans

Photo from Mike Arrington, Flickr

And colleagues from UpTake Travel

Regular CNReviews coverage will resume on the next post!

An interesting conversation unfolded on Meg’s blog post about China Visa problems. Commenter CnInDC offered a well-argued explanation of the root cause of work visa limitations in both countries.

But one thing he (or she) shared helped me understand the feelings that some Chinese people must have:

I agree that the current visa “crackdown” was caused by security concerns about the Olympics. If you watch news in China you’ve probably already noticed that the China’s domestic Olympic propaganda has been dramatically toned down from wanting a most successful Olympic to a merely safe one. The reality is there, that a most successful Olympic is already beyond our reach. The people they wanted to impress the most, the western media and the general public from the western countries, are impossible to please. So they go for the next best one, that at least it’s safe, no ugly scenes (or at least not a major one), and the Chinese can enjoy the party all by themselves. I’ve heard this before from the Chinese people around me and think it may have a point: “大不了办成全运会”, or, “At least we can turn this into a national sports event”.

Photos from my visit to see the Good Luck Games in May:

It reminded me of this poem entitled “My Friends, What Do You Want From Us” I saw earlier in April on China Digital Times (also on China Herald) from cbc forums via C’est la vie blog:

What do you want from us?

When we were called “sick man of Asia”, we were called peril.
When we billed to be the next superpower, we’re called the threat

When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.

when we’re falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
when we’re putting the broken pieces together, “Free Tibet” you screamed! “it was invasion.”

So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist.
So we embraced capitalism, you hate us for being capitalist,

Then we have a billion people, you said we’re destroying the planet.
Then we limit our numbers, you said it was human rights abuses.

When we were poor, you think we’re dogs,
When we loan you cash, you blamed us for your debts.

When we build our industries, you called us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blamed us for global warming,
When we buy oil, you called that exploitation and genocide.

When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted rule s of laws for us.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you called that violation of human rights.

When we were silent, you said you want us to have free speech.
When we were silent no more, you say we were brainwashed.

Why do you hate us so much? We asked. “No”. You answered, “we don’t hate you”.
We don’t hate you either Bud, do you understand us?? “of course we do”, you said, “We have CNN, BBC, and CBC”.

But why, we still feel, your western people are not happy with us.

What do you really want from us??

My friend, What do you really want from us??

There is plenty of angry rhetoric from people who take extremist political positions on China on the China Digital Times post. There is also some extremely thoughtful points there too. Please read that comment thread first before posting some extreme rant (either highly critical of China or highly defensive against perceived criticism of China) that has already been said over there.

I propose we just take the time to try to understand the feeling expressed in the poem above and figure out how we can all take this feeling into account in our behavior with each other.

(Why am I posting this? I figured this poem would be hard to find in the future and wanted to just capture it on the blog where I know I could find it)

Beijing Airport Express (机场快轨; jichang kuaigui) opens up to the public today at 14:00. CNReviews reported on the Beijing Airport Express back on 6/27, when the inservice date was originally 7/1, but the launch date has been in flux ever since.

Photo courtesy of Beijingology

This news was first reported to the Anglophone world on Twitter by our fearless correspondent David Feng:

News on the opening is also on China Daily, and Sohu (zh). According to David on Beijing A to B, the fare will be RMB25. According to David on Beijingology:

The line will have only four stops along the entire line. There will be two stops in central Beijing — Dongzhimen and Sanyuanqiao — with the two remaining stops at Beijing Capital International Airport. The Airport Express reaches Terminal 3 before reaching Terminal 2; passengers for Terminal 1 need to use the transfer passageway at Terminal 2.

Service intervals are expected to be 5 minutes at the start, with the entire trip taking around 18 minutes (Terminal 3) or 25 minutes (Terminal 2).

The new subway line will be a driverless system.

The Airport Express will feed into the overall Beijing Subway system at Dongzhimen (interchange with Subway Line 2 and 13) and Sanyuanqiao (interchange with Subway Line 10). The Line 10 interchange is especially exciting because it provides one-transfer access to Beijing’s CBD and to Beijing’s Haidian high-tech district. For a high-tech entrepreneur traveling to Beijing, this is transit nirvana!

Here’s a video of an earlier test run I found on YouTube:

More on this live from David Feng once he recovers from staying up all night waiting for the Beijing Apple Store Sanlitun to open up!

David Feng chimes in with the following first-day travel experience:

I think it’s been like this for — let me think — the best part of 58 years since Beijing Airport entered the real world. The old brown terminal, Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and now Terminal 3. For too long, Beijing Airport was just a road-and-air biz. No trains. No way.

Enter the airport on and after 14:00 on July 19, 2008.

When the guys that built Terminal 2 got their hands dirty with the construction work, they left virtually zero space for a Subway connection — hence making the Terminal 2 something like an add-on. The thing’s not big, by the way: only one side platform. (To make it up, though, it has probably one of the widest side platforms ever.)

When the guys that built Terminal 3 got into action, however, they left the new T3 (as we call it in shorthand) with a glitzy new Airport Express terminal connection, with platform screen doors, faregates (later installed), and just about everything that plain shouts at you METRO STATION. Except for one thing.

The train.

Oh yes — the train. Flashback forward to July 19th — and to the new Airport Express service.

The new Airport Express links Beijing with the airport — and by that, we mean really quickly. This is a four-stops-only biz: two stations in central Beijing, two on at the airport. I got onto the train at Sanyuanqiao, which is the second stop; I hailed from the Line 10 interchange. (The transfer passage, by the way, was so short that it seemed nonexistent.) I tapped in with my Beijing Super Pass (I think I was the only one; other got Single Journey Tickets for the line), and waited for the train, sure not to miss it. (If you miss your train, by the way, you’re treated to an excruciating wait of 15 more minutes before a 4-car Airport Express heads your way. 2017 plans call for gaps of 4 minutes only between trains. We sure hope they start shortening the gaps — soon.)

The train wasn’t exactly smooth — even with semi-autopilot on, the train behaved at best like a boat going through sorta-rough waters. (The “vomit-inducing”, as I later noted, weather outside — the heavens threatening to open up — made the trip that bit more miserable.)

However, the trip was pleasant for one thing: you got a seat. Imagine standing (like you do on main line Subway lines) for 15-odd minutes. (A repeat trip today saw me getting productive on the road — I pulled out the MacBook and got online while mobile. By the way, I cheated — a la GPRS. No wifi on the Airport Express — yet.)

Also, one of the best things about the Airport Express is that they run to an invisible schedule — 15 minutes as we have it. The gaps are uniform from the first train to the very last one. Little wonder, then, that when I finished my bit of Yoshinoya at T3, I was able to head back to central Beijing — in good time.

The Airport Express is a “good thing”, but here’s what they could’ve done (or, indeed, could do — remember, there’s plenty of room for improvement coming down the road) to make the thing better:

• Shorten the gaps between one train and the other.
• Add a station near Dashanzi/Wangjing East. (It won’t kill you, by the way; Line 14 is expected to snake its way across the region.)
• Add wifi to the thing and either make it free or affordable. (Wifi on the Heathrow Express is about GPB 5 — OK in the UK, but bloody murder in Renminbi Yuan.)
• Make the thing smoother. Make the thing more quiet.
• Finally, make all faregates super-wide. (About 30% - 40% of the faregates are — a massive improvement over what they have on downtown Subway lines.)

For Day One, though, good stuff!

CNReviews was invited to attend the media preview event of the Apple Store Sanlitun today. David Feng of CNReviews (who is also from TechHub86 - techblog86 and BeiMac) was able to attend. In these pictures exclusive to CN Reviews and TechHub86, we can see the opening of the first-ever Apple Store for all of Greater China.

Apple4.us (h/t Flypig on twitter) has some great photos from the event:

More photos at Apple4.us.

Also on Twitter, Stephen Schwankert aka @chinabuzz (who’s day job is China Correspondent for IDG News Service) remarked on Twitter that “our new best friend: John Ford, Sanlitun Apple Store manager“.

UPDATE: Stephen (aka @chinabuzz) posted more details at PCWorld:

This is the first of many stores we will open in China,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, in remarks at the store. He later added that Apple will open stores “in Beijing, in Shanghai and beyond,” and confirmed that another store will open in Beijing’s Qianmen area, a shopping street south of Tiananmen Square that has been renovated ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin next month.

UPDATE: More great photos from Apple4.us on a new post:

Thanks again to Amy Barney of Apple Computer for the invite.

The store will opening on July 19, 2008 at 10:00 (reported by David Feng at TechBlog86).

invite courtesy of TechBlog86.

If you have a foreign bank account, foreign currency account, and are a U.S. person, you need to have reported those accounts by June 30, according to this reminder IRS press release (dated 6/17). As you can infer from the date of this post, I blew it and now have to beg for mercy from the Department of the Treasury and IRS.

Dear Department of Treasury, I beg for your mercy.

I now endeavor to help others not make this same mistake by providing some FAQs on the process of submitting the appropriately named FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) form.

But first, some background on how I lost faith in the U.S. dollar

Image courtesy of Freaking News

• On 3/20 I posted about the new CNY exchange traded notes announced by Morgan Stanley & Van Eck Global on 3/17, as a way of hedging RMB appreciation.
• By 3/30 this year, I concluded that RMB appreciation was inexorable and might even require a “one-off maxi-revaluation” to stem speculative inflows.
• On 4/2, I posted about the decline of the US dollar’s reserve currency status as another contributing factor toward USD/RMB exchange rate.
• On 4/11, I posted that I exchanged USD for RMB at the rate of 6.9835 into my China Merchants Bank account, and that I had established an Everbank RMB account (in the US) at 6.9544. On 4/10 the central parity rate was set at 6.992.
• On 7/11, Xinhua announced that the central parity rate of the RMB was set at 6.8397 (see China Foreign Exchange Trading System website Chinamoney.com.cn (zh) for more info). So the RMB has appreciated by 2.2% in 3 months, or a 9.2% annualized appreciation rate. So clearly, putting all my spare cash in RMB (even in the 0% interest Everbank WorldCurrency Access Deposit account) is a no brainer.

USD-RMB exchange rate chart, 2008. See a pattern?

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Now back to the FBAR. I choose to pronounce this “fubar” which has another meaning in English.

Q: Who needs to file the FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts)? I mean, I really don’t have a lot of money abroad.

A: If you have a foreign account, and the value of that account exceeds $10,000, you need to file a FBAR. More at IRS.gov here.

Q: Is this part of my Federal Tax Return? Can I get an extension?

A: No and no, that would be too easy and too obvious. According to the IRS:

The FBAR is not to be filed with the filer’s Federal income tax return. The granting, by IRS, of an extension to file Federal income tax returns does not extend the due date for filing an FBAR. There is no extension available for filing the FBAR. Account holders who do not comply with the FBAR reporting requirements may be subject to civil penalties, criminal penalties, or both.

Q: Umm, how was I supposed to know about this?

A: Well did you monitor the press releases on the IRS website? The IRS published a press release IR-2008-79 on June 17 specifically to remind taxpayers to report certain foreign bank and financial accounts by June 30. An interesting fact from the press release:

Since 2000, the number of Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) forms received by the Treasury has increased by nearly 85 percent, from 174,528 in 2000 to 322,414 in 2007. Despite this significant increase in filings, concern remains about the degree of reporting compliance for those who are required to file.

Only 322,414 were received in 2007, and I’m sure that there isn’t 100% compliance with this requirement. But even then, it seems like a very small number of U.S. persons actually have a foreign account.

Q: What’s the deadline again?

A: June 30, 2008 for the 2007 calendar year. Yes, if you haven’t done this already, you are delinquent.

Q: OK, what form do I use?

A: Form TD F 90-22.1 (pdf) located on the IRS website. If you only have 1 account, its less than 1 page long.

Q: Where do I send it?

A: Don’t send it to where you send your normal tax returns. According to the IRS, you should send it here:

U.S. Department of the Treasury
P.O. Box 32621
Detroit, MI 48232-0621

Q: No offense, but I don’t trust anything in the blogosphere these days! Where can I get the official information?

A: Yes, in general, don’t trust bloggers for legal, tax and compliance information unless they happen to be licensed professionals in the right field. So go get the real deal here:

• IRS FAQ on Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
• IRS copy of Form TD F 90-22.1 (pdf)
• email the IRS: FBARquestions@irs.gov
• call the IRS at (800) 829-3676

Q: Why do I have to do this?

A: This seems to be under the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the US Department of Treasury. It seems partially motivated by tax compliance and partially motivated by addressing money laundering for drug trafficing and terrorist activity.

Fellow bloggers: how do you measure success with your blog?

Bloggers and metrics: I’ll show my stats if you show me yours.

Some of my most fun meetups in China were with passionate bloggers lik38e Aw Guo Qirui (Awflasher (zh), Ifgogo) and Paul Denlinger (China Vortex). Some of those meetings I would characterize as “I’ll show you mine (stats) if you show me yours.” LOL. Apologize in advance for the self-referential 自恋 (narcissism…or is it 自我自恋?) inherent in this post.
Aw and Lisa were nice enough to pick me up at the Beijing Airport. But first thing Aw did when I got to my hotel was crack open his laptop to compare blog stats! Funny. But this turned out to be a blogger bonding moment. When Aw Guo talked about his focus on RSS subscribers as the ultimate stat I felt I had found a kindred soul. With another Ifgogo blogger Lisa Lee, we then talked about readers, traffic, Google, metrics, GFW, the new generation in China, blood types, Myers-Briggs, fortune telling. Here he is in my overpriced room at the Beijing JWMarriott:

Then the next day I had the same conversation about blog stats with Paul Denlinger! Here’s Paul and I going at it at the executive lounge at the JWMarriott:

Photo courtesy of ChristineLu.com

I later met with Paul and he said: “You really like numbers, don’t you? I can tell from your posts.” He called it. So here I am feeding my metrics obsession with another mega-post. How do you measure success with your blog?

First half of 2008 in review

With the close of the second quarter ended June 30, 2008, I thought I’d take the opportunity to look back at the first half of the year and measure some of our progress with CN Reviews. In summary, I’ve been pleased by our progress, but also feel like we need to restructure our blog and our focus to get better success in the future.

One of my favorite posts of all time on blog metrics is from Avinash Kaushik of Occam’s Razor. He met with us in Palo Alto and gave us some great blogging tips (like focus on RSS subscribers). I have followed his six recommendations closely to evaluate our own progress on CN Reviews.

Framework: Six Recommendations for Measuring Blog Success from Avinash Kaushik.

Here’s what Avinash recommends based on your “blog persona”:

CN Reviews is a “business blog” in Avinash’s framework. Below, I have followed his suggestions #1 through #4 and added a #5 which I call “Search Engine Optimization”.

Summary of my self-assessment of CN Reviews

• Raw Author Contribution - We have done a great job since our start on Dec 25, 2007, with 153 posts or 24 posts per month. The team, with David Feng being the #1 poster, has maintained a steady stream of posts for our readers. However, our posts are too long (including this one) and our writing is not accessible enough for non-native English speakers. Post length of 998 words/post needs to go down!
• Audience Growth - We are pleased with our audience growth, with June traffic of 12k visits and May traffic of 31k visits. We created a duplicate content situation which caused Google to start suppressing us in late May and June so we are recovering from that. Because we are a niche blog, we are also focused on quality of audience rather than quantity. So I don’t care so much about overall traffic. However, I do care about RSS subscribers and we have failed to build RSS subscribers at the rate we would like. So we need to focus our coverage and theme the blog more strongly to encourage more people.
• Conversion Rate - I’m pleased with the participation from the blog, with 2.5 comments/trackbacks per post on average.
• Citations/Ripple Index - Right now, our Technorati Rank is 51,951, and our Technorati Authority is 164. Our TA was 2 in January 2008.
• Search Engine Optimization - We are doing a good job with Search Engine Optimization. Google Page Rank = 4. Google Pages Indexed = 286. Yahoo Link Domain 2 = 16,878

And now on to the details…

#1 - Raw Author Contribution

Raw Author Contribution =

(A) Number of Posts / Number of Months Blogging
(B) Number of Words in Post / Number of Posts

I installed the General Stats plugin to measure these stats (on 7/4/2008):

CNReviews Raw Author Contribution is:

(A) 153 posts / 6.33 months (since 12/25/07) = 24
(B) 152,840 words in post / 153 Posts = 998

On average, 24 posts per month and 998 words per post. The frequency has been great, but long posts are not good for non-native speakers of English.

#2 - Holistic Audience Growth

Following Avinash’s methodology, we looked at our first measure of audience growth: Onsite Audience growth.

In June we had 12,082 visits, vs. 31,131 visits in May.

Our May traffic included a large spike due to the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, and then a drop in June due to a duplicate content problem on our site that caused us to be suppressed in Google and seriously damaged our Google traffic.

Here are some comments the Google suppression that we saw:

• May - We had a huge spike of traffic immediately after the China earthquake. May 16, was our peak day, with 4,641 unique visitors that day. But by 5/30, we noticed that we seemed to be suppressed in Google (for example, we couldn’t rank even on keyword query matching our post titles) and we were down to 497 unique visitors on 5/30.

• June - By 6/12, Min found the reason why. Thanks to a bad WordPress plugin, WordPress Contact Form 7, we had duplicate content for almost all of our pages. We found 495 pages in Google with this query: site:cnreviews.com “?wpcf7″. But our total indexed pages in Google was less than 900. We ended the month with 10,394 absolute unique visitors and 12,082 visits.

The second measure of audience growth is our “Offsite” Audience Growth or Feedburner and Feedsky (since Feedburner is blocked in China) subscribers.

We currently have 93 subscribers via Feedburner:

We also have on average 24.4 subscribers via Feedsky:

#3 - Conversion Rate

As Avinash says, blogs are a conversation. And comments are a reflection of how many people want to get into the conversation.

Conversion Rate =

Number of Visitor Comments / Number of Posts

To date, we have 546 total comments and trackbacks. However, many of those comments and trackbacks are our own:

• Self-trackbacks = 11% , or 61

• Self-comments = 19% , or 102

• So visitor comments and trackbacks = 70% of total reported comments, or 382

So our conversion rate is 382 / 153 = 2.5 comments/post

#4 Citations / Ripple Index

How broad is your impact across the blogosphere? Avinash recommends measuring “citations,” or how much people refer to your blog.

Citations / Ripple Index =

(A) Technorati Rank
(B) Technorati Authority

Right now, our Technorati Rank is 51,951, and our Technorati Authority is 164.

#5 Search Engine Optimization

From 1/1/2008 - 6/30/2008, we received 66% of our traffic from Search Engines.

Search Engine friendliness is a key factor for getting high quality blog traffic. We look at the following measures.

Search Engine Optimization =

(A) Google Page Rank
(B) Google Pages Indexed
(C) Yahoo! Link Domain (LD2)

Using a Firefox greasemonkey tool called SEOQuake, we can capture the following measures:

• Google Page Rank = 4

• Google Pages Indexed = 286

• Yahoo Link Domain 2 = 16,878

In summary, I’m pleased with the first six months of CN Reviews. Its a great start. But I would characterize it as a group of passionate people that have written on a number of interesting topics. But this group of people have not yet brought it together into a consistent, easy to understand concept that can get lots of RSS subscribers. That is what I’ll be working on with the CN Reviews blogging team to develop over the next few months. Stay tuned!

I consider Wang Jianshuo one of my blogging mentors, and I read on his blog about the announcement that Kijiji.cn is changing to Baixing.com (百姓网):

Baixing logo

Kijiji logo

Baixing screenshot

Kijiji screenshot

Baixing.com seems like a great name for China

Baixing (百姓) is reminiscent of the term lao bai xing (老百姓), or literally “old hundred surnames” and can be used to refer to the “ordinary people” or “commoners.” This is meant in a positive way, like “people power” or “The People.” As such, the name seems very populist, and very Chinese. Kijiji, on the other hand, is a completely foreign name that means “village” in Swahili. So maybe to Chinese the new brand means “The People’s Classifieds Network” or something like that!
History: Kijiji started in March, 2005

Wang Jianshuo joined Kijiji around March, 2005. At that time, Kijiji was just getting started. According to Wikipedia, Kijiji launched in March 2005. China was one of the initial launch categories at the time. Here is a picture from the Wayback Machine of Kijiji.com on March 6, 2005:

Today: Kijiji in the United States

Meanwhile, eBay Live is going on in Chicago and eBay (the owner of Kijiji worldwide) just issued a press release celebrating Kijiji’s launch in the US (h/t AuctionBytes):

Kijiji will mark its one-year anniversary in the U.S. online classifieds market and commemorate its success of reaching more than four million unique visitors per month. This milestone clearly positions Kijiji well ahead of most major competitors who have targeted the online classifieds market. With the goal of creating a free, clean, and easy-to-use online classifieds platform for local communities, Kijiji has exceeded expectations with phenomenal growth and adoption since the site went live on June 29, 2007.

So clearly eBay is not abandoning Kijiji worldwide…yet.

Question: Are international brands an asset or a liability in China?

The big question this name change raises is: is an international brand an asset or a liability in China, and in which categories? Clearly you can identify foreign brands that have cachet, especially in luxury goods. But what about internet brands?

Kijiji has been in the market for 3 years, and is the dominant classifieds site in Shanghai. They have been building the Kijiji brand for over 3 years. The classified business is competitive, and Kijiji competes with many classifieds players including Ganji (赶集), Koubei (口碑), and Taobao (淘宝). This change suggests that a good local brand that is memorable, easily recognizable and has some Chinese meaning and positive connotations was worth the switch.

The other implication is that Kijiji failed to build sufficient brand preference in the last 3 years such that the switching cost of changing to a new brand was low relative to the benefit of a good brand foundation for the future.

Last year, Wang Jianshuo also highlighted some of the historical reasons why classifieds was not popular in China in the past, and his belief in why that will change in the future. Many of the reasons offered were because of historical restrictions around where to live and where to work. Many of those restrictions are now gone, and Chinese have the same needs as people in other countries to buy and sell things. So this change may also be driven by a belief that there is a great future for classifieds in China and it is not too late to make.

Congratulations to Wang Jianshuo for driving this decision and doing what he felt was right for China. It was probably a difficult decision for an international company like Ebay to make and I can only imagine the amount of convincing that he had to make.

Here are some pictures from the Baixing office from our recent visit!

Baixing.com office building:

Jianshuo Wang, Head of Baixing.com and blogger at Wangjianshuo.com

View from the Baixing office down onto the grounds of the Shanghai Jiaotong University Xujiahui campus (SJTU):

Congratulations again Jianshuo!