December 2007 – Page 2

Brands in China

China, Sports Illustrated No Responses »

Dec 092007

Western brands are common in China. Just like in the United States, Starbucks has a significant presence. In Beijing, there was a Starbucks right near my hotel.

In Shanghai, there was a Starbucks in Yuyuan Gardens.

Trademark protection in China is not as strong as in the United States. Does the Wandanu logo remind you of a certain international athletic apparel maker?

The Nightmare Before Christmas store appears to be a shop that caters towards clothing for young women that is inspired by the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Many newspaper stands in Beijing had Sports Illustrated in China awnings. I was working at SI when they launched their China branch. Interestingly, while it was still for sale, I did not see any advertisements for SI in China while I was in Shanghai.

I walked by the Google offices in Shanghai one morning. As I walked by their offices, I realized that as Google is opening offices across the world, Time Inc. is closing foreign offices. I don’t think this is an accident; in fact, I believe it is indicative of a shift in how we receive our news.

Chinese beliefs

China 1 Response »

Dec 052007

Sharon and Mark live in a large apartment building in Shanghai. 13 is not considered an unlucky number in China, but another number (四, sì) sounds very similar to death (死亡, xī) in Chinese. Care to take a guess which number it is?

Yuyuan Garden

China No Responses »

Dec 042007

On the edge of the old city neighborhood of Shanghai is Yuyuan Garden. Yuyuan Garden is a a set of buildings surrounding a garden with a large water feature in the middle. The water contains a striking collection of goldfish. I bought a bag of fish food. After using around half the bag, I gave the remainder to a little girl and her grandmother.

The giant sculptures are of Shanghai’s hairy crabs. More on those in a later posting.

In the center of the pond is a tea house, where you can have a small tea ceremony for around 40 Yuan (approximately $6). It was very relaxing.

City under construction

China No Responses »

Dec 032007

Beijing is a city under construction. Every other block seemed to be a construction site, with up to four large cranes working on a single block. Unfortunately, I was not impressed by the contemporary architecture of Beijing. Aside from the Olympic area (which I did not visit), it appears that the majority of construction sites are simple, blocky buildings without the elegance of the modern movement. The contemporary architecture of Shanghai was much more impressive and reminded me of La Défence outside of Paris. I feel that Shanghai has done a much better job of creating new beautiful structures while respecting the past. In Beijing’s rush to be a “modern” city, its architectural ideal seems to embrace demolishing the old in favor of the bland.

Construction in the distance beyond the Forbidden City in Beijing

The Shanghai World Financial Center from Yuyuan Gardens

Broken camera

technology No Responses »

Dec 022007

In the past week, I noticed that the auto-focus on the camera was acting a bit chunkier and some of the images were a little soft. Sunday morning, I was out with Sharon taking photos of hairy crab before I left. I took my photos and then put the camera in my pocket. A few minutes later, I saw folks practicing tai chi. I grabbed my camera from my pocket, and the lens started to come out of the camera and then stopped. It now makes an interesting grinding noise whenever I try to use the camera. And the lens is stuck out.

The camera cost over $300 or $400 when I purchased it. Now, just a little over two years later, it’s no longer available. A much better camera is $260. It would cost around $120 to repair my camera and I wouldn’t have it for three weeks. I’m thinking of trying to repair it myself.

Anyone have any recommendations on a new camera? The Canon SD850 IS is $260 at Circuit City.

(In other news, I seem to be having a bad technology day. My receiver is now producing an odd hum on my speakers, even if all of the sound sources are unplugged. I may need to buy a new receiver. And my desktop machine had a failed hard drive–I think the power supply may be underpowered.)

Flying back today!

China 1 Response »

Dec 012007

In 30 minutes or so, I will be flying back to the United States. I am now at Sharon and Mark’s house in Shanghai; my flight to Beijing leaves around noon. From Beijing, I have a direct flight to Newark International. (It’s a fast flight: it leaves at 5:00 pm and arrives at 5:40 pm!) At Newark, I hop on New Jersey Transit to Penn Station. Finally, a few quick stops on the A train and I’ll be home.

I will continue to post more photos of my trip. I have enjoyed Shanghai. It’s a cosmopolitan city with fantastic architecture and great food.

Unfortunately, my camera broke this morning. The good news is that it broke the day I was leaving. Even more importantly, it broke after I took some photos of hairy crab.

Black, white and sleeping all over

China, zoo No Responses »

Dec 012007

I visited the Beijing Zoo before flying to Shanghai. I support the Wildlife Conservation Society (née the New York Zoological Society) back home, and I’m always curious to see zoos in other locations.

The main attraction of the Beijing Zoo is the pandas. It costs an extra 5 yuan (approximately 80 cents) to see the pandas. They are beautiful animals, although they are very sleepy.

I was also able to see much of the bird exhibits before I had to leave for my flight. The centerpiece of the zoo was a lake with a variety of different water birds.

I did not eat this duck.

Spot-Billed Pelican!