Saturday, February 10, 2007

Beijing institutes queuing day

Beijing institutes queuing day

"The 11th of every month in Beijing is to be 'voluntarily wait in line' day as the city attempts to eradicate queue-jumping before next year's Olympics, a city official said on Wednesday....

"'The reason for establishing such a day is to mobilise the Beijing population to ensure that where there are more than two people, they should wait in line,'" said Zhang Huiguang, director of the Capital Ethic Development Office."

Of course, one of the most striking things to a Californian living in Shanghai is the mob scene to get into anything, and how people will just walk up and cut in front of you, and often shove you just because. Queue-jumping is hardly the word for it. On the upside, however, when you're in a bad mood, it's nice to be able to shove people and cut in line.

For folks from New York City, though, no big difference. Boarding a plane at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai or in LaGuardia Airport in New York is pretty much the same....

Imagethief : What do the kids think of Starbucks in the Forbidden City?

When you enter the Forbidden City, besides the droves of Chinese tourist groups and the occasional group of international kids on field trips, one of the things that you will see is a rather well integrated Starbucks. Those of you who have been following the news from China may have heard that a Chinese Scholar is up in arms about this.

Imagethief : What do the kids think of Starbucks in the Forbidden City?

Interesting link...

Sunday, February 04, 2007

What a Contrast: Hangzhou



















You get used to being in a big (big) city like Shanghai, and you can forget that there is a countryside, or green space that isn't maintained by an army of gardeners. A couple of weeks back, we spent the weekend in Hangzhou, which is an old town a couple of hours southwest of Shanghai. It was dang cold, but we lucked out - it was crystal clear.

This is a view of part of Xihu (West Lake), a mostly man-made (via dredging) lake that is the center of Hangzhou.

Another thing you forget about in Shanghai (being a river delta kinda city) is that there are hills. What a pleasure to walk up hill for a while - just like being in San Francisco.

Hangzhou isn't a small city, it's roughly 3 million urban residents. But compared with Shanghai (18 million municipal, 9-10 million urban), it's small.