Photos of the week

more on Shanghai streets



PS: 5 weeks to go for Chrismas holiday! Yay!!!

Photos of the week

Photos of the week - Moving Objects

Jorge started his photography class 2 weeks ago and he received 1 assignment for each week. Last week assignment was to capture moving objects. So here are some of the results.

Reflection

Lujiazui at Night

Rush Hour


Next assignment is called "different perspective". We'll see the result.

Dance anyone?

We won!

Yesssssssssssssssssssss!
First (and perhaps the only) Gold Medal for Indonesia in Badminton Men's doubles!
And to add to the excitement, they won it in the Independence Day of Indonesia!!!
That will for sure make the headline of tomorrow newspapers!!!!

Congratulation to Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan!
You guys rock!!!!

PS: It definitely kills China's dream to win all gold medals in Badminton! Yay!!!

Finally!

So it's officially started!

The fireworks and the lighting of the Olympic torch was incredible! But then again, the Chinese did invent the fireworks and they would like to make sure we know it.

We celebrated the evening in a bar next door. I would like to post a short clip to show the atmosphere and enthusiasm but haven't managed to edit it so far. So it has to come later!

Meanwhile, we are now off to our one week vacation. This time: Maldives!

Photos and many other beautiful photos from the ceremony can be seen in The Boston Globe.

D-2

In two days the most awaited sport event of the year will be happening in Beijing.

The event will be taken place mostly in Beijing, which is around 1300km from Shanghai or about 2 hrs with plane or 9 hrs driving but you won't believe all the security measures they have implemented for this event here in Shanghai.

1. No liquid allowed for air travel has been implemented since min. 3 months ago (see this post)
2. X-ray machines and dogs check all luggage going in and out of China
3. The government has imported millions of "explosive residue detection kits" from US to swab all incoming and outgoing passengers in order to see if they have been recently in contact with explosive materials
4. All bags must pass security control in the subway stations
5. All shops and vending machines located in subway stations are closed for a month without government compensation to shop owners (imagine if they try to implement this in a capitalist country!)
6. The government removes the business license of many small Chinese manufactures if they don't meet certain environmental standard (resulting unfortunately major price increase in China)
7. The government enforced "no free plastic bag" regulation when shopping in any store in China, also in spirit to be more environmental friendly (in Germany is only applicable for shopping in supermarket, but not when you shop for clothes in the mall!)
8. Gasoline stations are only open before 9 am and after 7 pm at night because the government banned trucks traffic into the city during the day time (imagine the long queue every night!)
9. And last, yesterday my friend told me that the government will ground all Chinese airlines traveling any places on earth for a period of 5 hours before and after the opening ceremony! (Thank God I am flying on Saturday!!!)

Another blogger wrote, and I must agree to his words, "Almost all of the action is taking place in Beijing, hundreds of miles from here, but from the frantic security tightening around town, you’d think Osama Bin Laden was coming to officially open a new Mosque here in Shanghai."

I'll be glad when it's all over!!

Complaint to China Post!

This is a complaint to China Post!

It has been a while since I came back from Germany but I haven't managed to post this in time.

I was really upset in the last visit to Germany as my credit card was blocked by the credit card provider.

I was in a finance conference with other financial officers of our subsidiaries worldwide. It was held in an exclusive resort and spa in Bad-Herrenberg. When it came to hotel billing settlement time, the receptionist lady told me that my credit card was blocked for use. Immediately I was confused as I don't remember using the credit card a lot in the last weeks. In fact, I rarely use my credit card in Shanghai as I have only a German credit card, which I reserve it only for either emergency or holiday purposes to avoid loss in conversion rate and the overseas charges. I have of course tried to apply for a local chinese credit card but soon realized that it is almost impossible for a foreigner to have one. Don't ask me the reason why. After 15 months living in China, I have learned that some things should remain as a mystery.

Anyway, I was lucky that I still have my debit card from my German bank so I can pay my hotel bill without embarassing myself by borrowing money from colleagues around the world (remember, it was an international Finance conference!).

After the conference, I called my credit card provider just to learn that the credit card was blocked because the replacement card* was returned back with a remark of 'address unknown" from China Post! Being German as they are, they immediately blocked both current card and the replacement card for security purposes.

For those of you who don't live in China. China is a new emerging country in the world economy. The country is at the moment the only country in the world that has surplus economy. The country enjoys long time benefit for being a Low Cost Country and has focused its main activities with export to US and European market. I bet you money that you'll find chinese made product in the shop next door.

However, little that you know that the country has faced serious problem with foreign language ability. In the offices in Shanghai, you will find only the managerial level has acceptable foreign language skill. The staffs level have still difficulties communicating in English. Outside of the office, eg. taxi drivers or shop owners, speak either very little English or none at all. If they do speak English as they claim, they can only express the general word and not your specific requirements. Easy example is when you shop for clothes. They can only say that the clothes are made of good quality (read: expensive!) but you can't ask them if you have to handwash the material or dry clean, let alone to explain if it's made of cotton or polyester.

In China Post, they have special department which their daily task is to translate every address in the envelope into Chinese characters so the post delivery man can understand. But imagine they will translate millions of international letters every day and perhaps one of them, like my replacement card, is sort of slip in the translation process and here I am stucked with the bad situation. So far, it is not my first experience with missing mails. I have never received christmas cards sent by my friends last year also and only God knows which other letters I have lost as well.

I strongly suggest China Post to educate their staffs with minimum English or at least to read the normal Pinyin** to ensure safe arrival of our letters in China. Afterall, we, the foreigners, have copped up also with our other limitations in here.


Notes:
*apparently my card will be expired in October so they sent in advance the replacement card to my shanghai address (which is my billing address).

** all international letters have chinese address written in Pinyin (romanized mandarin based on its chinese pronounciation)

Extended!

Today I signed the extension of my contract here until 30th June 2010. I do hope I won't regret it!

Summer has arrived!

We went for a walk around the French Concession yesterday and soon realized that it was a wrong decision! Summer has arrived in Shanghai and temperature raised up to 38 degree on day time and around 35 degree at 8 pm last night. It will be like this for the next 3 months so you might want to reconsider your travel to Shanghai!!

We have a temperature measure in our apartment window and it records 40 degree at the moment. So definitely we will stay inside!! We are lucky that we have planned to travel to Germany this week where the temperature will be 10 degree lower! Yay!!!

News from Shanghai Daily here

National Mourning for Sichuan Earthquake Victims

China has called for 3 days of national mourning and suspended the Beijing Olympic torch relay to remember the victims of Sichuan earthquake, the country worst earthquake after 1976. National flag is flown at half pole and all entertainment activities (bars, karaoke, movie theaters, internet sites and tv broadcasts!!!) are closed for 3 days.

Especially for today, all activities (including all public transport, factories, car drivers, stock markets, etc) were stopped for 3 minutes silent at exactly 2.28 pm local time as a tribute to the victims. Car and ship horns, as well as air raid sirens will be sounded in remembrance of Sichuan earthquake victims.

Imagine..1.3 billion people have stopped their activities at the same time for 3 minutes!!

Video can be seen here:

Photo is taken from Shanghai Daily, video from China Daily.

Sichuan Earthquake: Aftermath

China was hit badly by earthquake in Sichuan province last Monday. The center of earthquake in Wenchuan county was recorded at 7.8 richter scale and the death toll as per Wednesday 2 pm was above 14.000 people and rising.

Aftershock of the earthquake was also felt in Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok (Thailand).

I was actually having a teleconference meeting in 30th floor when it happened and for a moment I thought that I was just struck with a terrible dizziness as I felt the room shook and swayed. But then I realized that the overhead projector hanging in the ceiling of the meeting room and the window curtain were swaying too. I scream for earthquake and told everyone to immediately rush out of the room and run towards the emergency stairs. It was a panic condition at that time and by the time we got to the street, we’ve found that a lot of people are exiting from the next door building.

Thankfully, I have to say this for my case, that the center of the earthquake is about 1500 km away from Shanghai. Unfortunately it is not the same situation for those people living in Wenchuan county. Everyday I received forwarded emails showing aftermath pictures. Today the company called for a meeting to request for donation from the employees. For every cent that the employees donate, the company will donate double. I think it is a very good gesture.

If you want to donate to the earthquake in Sichuan, please go to this link.

Countdown Beijing - 100 days to go

I don't really follow the Beijing Olympic progress too much and so far I haven't sign up for any ticket either. I heard that it is not easy to get tickets as the government uses the same lucky draw system like the one used for World Cup in Germany in 2006. This simple means that you can register here to buy tickets to the games of your selection, but your registration will go through a lucky draw process and if your name comes out, then you can go ahead and purchase the ticket. Otherwise, you'll have to re-register again (if you opt to do so).

Despite of the developing situation of Tibet, the chinese government has made a lot of efforts to make the olympic a successful event.

1. If you go to Beijing, you will find a number of new buildings currently undergo final finishing stage. The new terminal 3 in Beijing airport, the Olympic bird nest stadium, the national aquatic building for swimming olympic, China National Grand Theater and CCTV Tower are among them.

2. Starting from 1st of May, the chinese government will ban smoking in public places in Beijing. Smoking are only allowed in designated area, the same regulation like currently implemented in Germany. The regulation is in line with the effort to make a smoke-free and healthy olympic. There is rumour that the new regulation will also be implemented in other major cities in China, such as Shanghai and Qingdao but the government has not yet released official statement about it.

3. New visa regulation is also currently in place. Make sure that you have give enough time ahead when you are applying chinese visa. Also prepare very well your travel documentations and supporting documents as the embassy has imposed a strict rule of selections. I have also heard that the price for chinese visa is increased to about 4 times the price before (at least like that in Indonesia) and that the embassy only grant tourist visa with maximum 1 month stay.

Some of my colleagues from the headquater have also difficulties to obtain chinese visa at the moment. One colleague is rejected for visa and another one receives only 3 days visa to China.
For foreigners who are currently residing in China, please make sure that you give enough time when you have to extend your work/residence permit. I have heard many stories that some people receives no extension of their residence permit and therefore has to leave the country. I suppose the process will become more difficult as it gets closer to the olympic games.

4. New travel safety regulation has been implemented since beginning of April. No liquid is allowed in carry on luggage and each passenger is limited to only 1 carry on. There is no tolerance given in the liquid regulation, it means simply no liquid allowed. It doesn't matter if you bring liquid in container smaller than 100 ml or that you purchase the liquid from a duty free item in another airport and the plastic bag is still sealed. My friend is just came back from Vienna where he purchased a bottle of Whisky in the Vienna airport duty free. Unfortunately he has to transfer in Beijing to catch the local flight to Shanghai and the officer in Beijing does not allow him to bring his Vienna-approved-and-sealed-duty-free-Whisky to Shanghai and he has to dispose it in Beijing airport! Seriously..no tolerance!

5. More and more blocked internet sites are now available for browsing in China. I have been able to browse wikipedia, youtube and flickr photos anytime I want to!

6. At last, currency. As many other Asian countries, China is also influenced by the weakening USD and strenghtening EURO. This of course will benefit the European tourists but definetely a set back for the American. You can monitor the official exchange rate development here. As you might already know, China practises a controlled foreign exchange market. The rate you find in Bank of China will be the same rate you'll find in any other banks or money changers.

Prices of foods have also increased significantly in the last quarter as China reported for the first time in history a CPI increase of 8.7% in February. This record high are triggered from various factors, eg. the strenghtening EURO, increase of fuel price in the world and the extreme climate change in south and central China in this winter. China Daily reports here.

The Pins are out!

Finally! After 11 months attached to my shoulder, they are finally out! And the truth, they look scary also! Good thing I didn't bother to see how they look before the doctor put them in my shoulder otherwise I will never agree to have the surgery a year ago!

I was very nervous when they prepared me for surgery but the anesthesia doctor was a friendly and efficient german lady and she checked me very thorough and ensured that she will take care of me during the surgery. It was quite a relieved and before I realized, she put me to sleep already.

The recovery (post surgery) went very well also. I stayed one night in the hospital and the nurses were very surprised that I didn't request for any pain killer at all. I also insisted to got back home on the second day as I don't like hospital and its atmosphere in general.

One thing happened on the night at the hospital though. I was half-sleeping when I heard loud noise outside of my room (which is very near to the nurse station). One german lady was talking on the phone in german and she was trying to explain about somebody who had an accident and had a fracture in the bone (she didn't mentioned specifically in which bone). She insisted that an operation needed to be done ASAP and she wanted to have the person in the other side of the line to call her back to the hospital, to the bed number 1210 to be exact! Guess what, THAT WAS MY BED NUMBER!

I was half-asleep and felt already quite annoyed with her loud voice but I tell you now..I was almost jumped out of my bed when she said my bed number loud and clear in german! 1210! I immediately thought that my anesthesia doctor (remember she was also a german lady!) found something in my medical record, came back to arrange another surgery for me for that night!

I immediately thought for the worse to come and I was panic that I started to look for an escape way. Of course I cannot do too much with an I.V. and heart beat monitor attached to my arm. The fact that the room was located on the 12th Floor also didn't give me much option either. So I gave up and I woke Jorge up, hoping he could clarify all the discussions going on outside at that time. I jumped into glory when Jorge came back and said that the lady meant bed number 1310 instead! *Big relieved sigh*

So anyway, the wound is so far healing up good also. The doctor told me that he will remove the stitches on Monday but I have to wear my arm sling for another week and should not carry heavy items for about a month. Other than that, I am good to go back to the office and also to go for holiday! Yay!!!

Friday, 18.04.2008

About three and a half months ago I received a good news from my orthopedic doctor. It looks like that my clavicle bone has grown back together and I should be able to remove the metal pin whenever I want to.

I should be happy, and I am really happy, except that I am no fans of any kind of surgeries. I have cold feet just imagining the sterile surgery room with doctors holding scalpel and trying to cut me open.

To add to my misery, Jorge mistakenly played one movie called “Awake” which tells about a man who suffers “anesthetic awareness” and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery. Trust me, that brings me hundreds steps away from the surgery room!

Anyway, after putting the surgery into on hold for quite sometimes, I have finally given up and have managed to persuade myself into scheduling an appointment for this coming Friday. That was for sure not an easy job. In fact, I choose this Friday on purpose as I have an important deadline to meet at work on the Tuesday before and I intentionally plan for a holiday in the beginning of May (just two weeks after Friday). If you don’t believe me, you can try to meet your work deadline and arranging for your vacation (including places to see, hotels, tickets, visas, etc) and arranging for blood test, x-ray and doctor’s appointments at the same time. You surely don’t have too much time to think about the “what if” anymore.

And to really add to the burden, I have arranged for my parents to come and accompany me during the recovery week. They will arrive just one day before the “D-day” and we will go on holiday together.

It is funny how they both agreed to come but both have different agendas in their minds;

My mom wants to make sure that I really walk into that hospital and not trying to escape from the back door (trust me, it crosses my mind the last time!)

My dad on the other hand, well now I have to be careful writing this, his “official” task is to guard the back door (apparently I have the “surgery-blood-cold-feet” gen from him so he prefers to keep reasonable distance from the “room”). But most important, his main intention to visit me here is for the vacation (yup, I also inherit the “I-love-to-travel” gen from him). It is obvious that he is more interested to ask about where we are going and what we will see there rather than how the procedure for this Friday will be. (For the record, no complaint recorded here as it really helps me also!).

So I guess, to the rest of you, wish me luck please (and don't put a hidden camera on the back door!).

PS: If you wonder what Jorge’s task at the moment is, well, I have asked him to stay away from any movies but the "Cinderella-and-the-prince-live-happily-ever-after" Hollywood-kind of movies.

Celebrating 1 Year in China

time flies really fast here!

Tibet development

We have been planning to go to Tibet in beginning of May but now we have to cancel due to the recent development in Tibet. We are quite disappointed as we now have to find another location to go. The time is already fixed, it will be on the labour day week.

Nevertheles, we are quite astonished with the local media publication about Tibet. The story about the Great Firewall of China is not an urban legend, it is true indeed. In fact, after living in China for almost a year (yes, that long already!), we are quite used to the firewall. Most of the time, sites like wikipedia, bbc, blogspot are closed in China. From time to time, the Government also closed Flickr and Youtube. It's just depending on the current events going on about China in the international world.

But it is quite surprising that the Shanghai Daily and China Daily have been following up closely about the development of Tibet crisis. Of course as Tibet is at the moment closed for foreigners, we can only rely on the official reports given by the government.

I have found some pictures released in SINA.com, a local news similar like CNN. More photos of current Tibet situation can be found here.













UPDATE 29.03.2008: China has recently opened to foreign newspapers to send their representatives to Tibet to do close cover-up of the current situation after the riot. Also China Daily annouces today that 15 foreign diplomats are scheduled to visit Tibet in short term.

Celebrating International Women's day

To my surprise, China do pay respect to their women and join to celebrate the international women's day every 8th March. In normal working day, women in the office are allowed to work for only half day. This year the women's day fall on Saturday so my company gave a gift certificate from Shanghai Ticket worth of 100 Chinese Yuan to all female employees.

Now I have to figure out how to read the chinese website to make use of my voucher!

Happy Chinese New Year 2008

We are off to Indonesia to celebrate the arrival of the year of rat with my family. To those who celebrate the chinese new year, we wish you all the best for the new year and enjoy the holiday with your family!

新年快乐!
万事如意..
鼠年大吉,身体健康,万事如意,心想事成 !

I found a very nice song about the chinese new year. They've been playing for the whole month in every department stores. Enjoy!!!

Bad Weather in Asia

This is something that you don't expect to have when you are about to travel somewhere.
Shanghai continues to receive heavy snowfall since yesterday and it causes delay and flight cancelation in both of Shanghai airports.

At the same time, my mom has been sending me text messages to give some updates about the rain and flood in Jakarta which also cause flight cancelation/reroute as the runway is covered with 50cm high of water and visibiliy is only about 300m.

The weather outlook for both cities for the next week are not very promising. Rain and snow are still expected in both cities. In China especially, the Chinese New Year holiday is coming next week and they expect heavy travellers traffic trying to reach home to spend the holiday with their families.

So either we are stucked in Shanghai airport or somewhere between Singapore and Jakarta. We actually plan to spend the Chinese New Year golden week with my family in Jakarta. We will have to see if that will be possible.

* Photo is taken from Shanghai Daily showing hundreds of thousands of people waiting for train home in Guangzhou train station.