Olympic Torch Relay: Nanjing, China
The Olympic Torch Relay finally arrived in Nanjing after the 3 days delay for mourning of the Si Chuan earthquake victims. The streets were packed with a river of red flags and “I heart China” t-shirt. I, of course, join in the fun. Why would anyone want to miss out on such an experience? Enjoy the photos, my favorite one is the one with a guy wearing a “I heart Tibet” t-shirt. Who ever said there is no freedom of speech in China needs to take a second look.
Beijing Trip Photos
Some photos from my Beijing trip. To see bigger version or to see more visit my flickr page.
Jay Chou Threw a Nun Chuck to Me
On Saturday night of April 19, 2008, I went the second concert of my life. The first concert seems like a little kid birthday party compare to this one. With a crowd of approximately 20,000 standing in the rain, in the sold-out Olympic Stadium, in Nanjing, China, Jay Chou gave a performance that is worth the money and the time spend standing in the rain. And yes in the end of the night, he threw his nun chuck at me.
Arm with two VIP tickets and my girlfriend, I head into Olympic Stadium not knowing what to expect since this is my first concert in China. Each of our ticket cost us Y1580, that’s about $225 US dollars each. That is not a bad price compare to US concerts. Our seats were about 20 rows from the front and we were smack in the middle. Every seats were sold out, the Stadium was pack and just right before the concert start, the rain started to pour. Fortunately they gave us some plastic rain coat. It was very thin but it did the job. I was too smart to check on the forecast so I didn’t bring an umbrella, and yes I got an earful from my girlfriend for not bringing the umbrella when she told me to.
Some moments that was unforgettable that night involve two kids. Both pretty chubby, both about the same age, but both did not have the same amount of fun though. There was one kid to our right who couldn’t see the stage because when the concert started, everyone stood up, no not on their feet, but on the chairs. The dad got pretty upset that he paid so much money for the tickets and his kid couldn’t even see Jay Chou, he tried his best to get people to sit down but it didn’t really work. By halfway through the concert they were gone.
This other little chubby Chinese kid on the other hand had the time of his life. Even though he couldn’t see anything but the top edge of the TV screen, he sang, to the top of his lung, along to every, I mean every songs that Jay Chou perform. He knew every song, every words, every beat, and did not care that he was getting rain on and that he couldn’t see Jay Chou. He had a blast.
For us, my girlfriend and I, we were kind of in between. There were moments when people in front of us had their umbrella up and we couldn’t see but when that happen we just scooch to the left (two of the seats to our left were empty), and when we couldn’t see there we scooch to the right. We didn’t know all of the words to the songs but some clever dude decided to put lyrics up on the big screen so all 20,000 people could sing along. Who ever thought up that idea needs a bonus in his next pay check. Other then getting hit by the light saber look alike thing about 5 times by the girl who was standing behind me, the night was violent-free until Jay Chou decided to throw his nun chuck at me.
No that is not a typo, during the last song Jay Chou decided to dance around with nun chuck and when he finish dancing, he threw it into the crowd. Guess where it landed? Yes, right at me. I caught one end of the nun chuck and within milliseconds, this other girl grab the other end. We stare each other down. It was a face/off. Time froze. If there were not 20,000 crazy Jay Chou fans around we could’ve work it out and split the nun chuck in half. I saw it in her eyes, she saw it in my eyes that we could just split it up. About three milliseconds later a crowd of nun chuck hungry Jay Chou fan came crashing down on it. The chairs that we were all standing on were now on top of people. As I saw the crowd coming in, I let go of the precious nun chuck. My precious nun chuck that Jay Chou wanted to give me was not gone. I grab my girlfriend and we moved away from the hungry crowd searching for a nun chuck. We never found out who finally got the nun chuck.
Out of 20,000 people in the crowd, Jay Chou threw his nun chuck at me but I didn’t want to die that night so I let go. You can see in this first picture, the nun chuck that he threw at me.
Blame China?
Jack Cafferty’s remark on China on April 9, 2008. “I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different,” Mr. Cafferty said, according to CNN. “We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper.We are also running hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth or trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart.
“So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed,” he continued. “I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
The Chinese people are demanding an apology from Jack Cafferty and CNN for his remark, but it does not seem that this “strongly” opinionated news host will ever apologize. Jack Cafferty claim that the comment was made toward the Chinese Government and not the Chinese people. One thing that Jack Cafferty might not know is that those two words might as well be interchangeable.
One thing I learn being here in China is that, the Chinese people’s relationship with their government is very different from American’s relationship with their government. Especially during this time before the Olympic, the feeling of nationalism is everywhere. You can even see the rise of Chinese nationalism within Chinese who are not living in China. Pro-Chinese protests are starting to sprout up everywhere in the world to contest against the Ant-Chinese protests during the olympic torch relays.
It does not matter that Jack Cafferty’s comment was made to the Chinese Government. The people of China and the Chinese Government has never come this close to unity like they are right now, because of the Anti-Chinese protests and the upcoming Olympic. With the Olympic and the anti-Chinese protest around the world will rise the new Chinese Nationalism.
Suning: China’s Only Electronic SuperStore
Last Week, my Econ professor took our class of 8 people to Suning, China’s version of Best Buy. We were given a grand welcome and a grand tour of their main store in Nanjing. I have never had this kind of welcome before, there were about 10 people in suit welcoming us and clapping and saying “huang ying huang ying”. After the grand tour of the store we met up with one of the director of the company and were given a quick presentation about the company. We ended the day with Q&A.
What is Suning? Suning is China’s largest electronic superstore with chain stores all over China. Suning originated in Nanjing, in the early 1990’s as an air-conditioning supplier. It grew to sell computer, communication devices, and consumer appliance. They call this their 3C’s. Now it is 3C+ and plus if for their services, such as repair, delivery etc. Suning is very similar to Best Buy. Unlike Best Buy, Suning follows a more eastern philosophy of developing harmonious relationships not only with their suppliers but also their employees and the community. They have been able to grow with the support of the government and the community. They have received various awards in helping the community; for example, during the recent winter storm in China, Suning has sent both money and aid to those in need.
During their presentation, they presented us with graphs of their company’s growth both in terms of total revenue and the numbers of stores.
“Suning, one of the country’s leading home appliance retailers, said its 2006 profits jumped 105% in the last year thanks to booming sales of televisions, cell phones, and computers. Demand is so strong that the company opened 145 new stores in 2006!” (source)
The company is planning to open 200 more chain stores by the year 2010. According to the director, the location of the store is located by three criteria population, economics, and easily accessible areas, such as downtown shopping city. The Suning headquarter that we went to is located in the hottest shopping area in Nanjing, the Suning store is right across from Wal-Mart.
During the Q&A, the director was asked if the company will expanding internationally and the answer was a little surprising to many of the students. While most companies want to expand overseas, Suning wants to keep its concentration in China. The main reason is that the market in China has not yet matured. The rise in the number of middle class citizen in China is still growing; therefore the demand for the 3Cs will keep on rising. At the moment, Suning does not have a main competitor in China. There are thousands of small electronic shops in China but no real big store that can compete with Suning. Best Buy has opened a store in Shanghai but according to the director, he is not at all worry about competition because as he said before, the market in China has not yet matured yet. At the moment there are enough consumers for Suning, small electronics shops and the one Best Buy in Shanghai.
As China keeps on developing, the number of consumer who could afford computers, communication devices, and consumer appliances will continue to grow also. One of my questions for the director was “Who is Suning’s biggest competition” and the director smiled and responded simply “自己” (zi ji) meaning “itself”.
Electricity and China; Chinese are more Energy Conscious then American.
The second night we were here in Nanjing University, one of my friends came back to a room fill with darkness. We thought there was a blackout, but realize minutes later that everyone else had electricity except for her room. After making a few phone calls, we realize that electricity in the hotel/dormitory we are staying in is “ration”. Each day we are ration 2 “duol”, I was told that is the measurement for electricity here. Unfortunately one hour of heating up the room takes up 2 “duol”. The people who work at the hotel dormitory says that an average international student uses about 25 “duol” a day because during the winter they use a lot of heat and in the summer they use alot of air conditioning. So my friend basically used too much electricity and now must pay for her extra usage.
In the United States, at Drew University, I am use to leaving everything on from my television to my computer and other appliances. We even sometime open the window and turn on the heat at the same time. That was how wasteful we were back in the States. Here, the Chinese really are a very energy conscious group of people. Even at the Motel 168 we stayed at in Shanghai, the only way that the electricity would work is if you put in your magnetic keys, which also opens the door, so when you leave the room, all the electricity are turned off because you take the key with you. Only here in China have I started to think how about big of an energy hog Americans are. We complain so much about the price of oil and electricity but we never really do anything to try to conserve energy. Here in China, it seems that everyone is trying to use the least amount of energy as possible.
When the Chinese do use electricity, it is very pretty, here are some pictures of the night scene in Shanghai and Nanjing. The first two are from Shanghai, while the last two is from Nanjing.
First Impression of China
After a 16 hour flight from JFK to Fu Dong International Airport in China, I was exhausted. I arrived in Shanghai at 5am in the morning and started touring the city. I won’t be able to updated until next Tuesday when I get to Nanjing University. I would like to apologize to fellow entrecard member who has been dropping cards on me. I will be back full time when I get to Nanjing University. Here’s some photos for your viewing pleasure.
The winner of the 2000 EntreCredit Contest
The winner of the 2000 EntreCredit Contest is: Scott| AndroidGuys
Congratulation to Scott| AndroidGuys, he has won himself 2000 Entrecredit and all he did was comment! Thank you to everyone that participated!
The Law of Diminishing Return
I hate to break this to you all, but when your parent says “Too much of a good thing is a bad thing!”, believe it or not, they are right. Well if you take into account the evil “Law of Diminishing Return”. Here is the definition:
“Sometimes referred to as variable factor proportions, law of diminishing returns states that as equal quantities of one variable factor are increased, while other factor inputs remain constant, ceteris paribus, a point is reached beyond which the addition of one more unit of the variable factor will result in a diminishing rate of return and the marginal physical product will fall.”
English translation: There is a point where, when adding one more item (food, cloth, girlfriend/boyfriends), it decreases your “marginal” utility(happiness).
For example, you love ice creams, so you bought 3 cones of vanilla with sprinkle. It was the best ever! Then you bought a fourth one. It turns out to be not as good as the first three,but it ws okay. Then you bought a 5th one. That didn’t taste as good either. Then you bought a 6th one, that tasted even worse. Actually, it made you feel sick. That is the Law of Diminishing Return working at its best. The first 3 were good but the rest just made you feel worse because you were already full from the first three.
So, prove me wrong, what is something that will not be affected by the Law of Diminishing Return?
Tuesday: Around the Internet World
Tuesday Link Love has officially changed to Tuesday: Around the Internet. This week we look at sites that deal with economic (or tries to), from theory to plain old saving money. By the way, if you live in the United States go out and shop and help us prevent the recession from happening.
http://ahkong.net/silent-thoughts-being-needed-and-the-ability-to-serve/
First, we have Deimos who tries his best to explain blogging through a Chinese proverb while adding economic into it! Econ 101 Supply and Demand. Good Job Deimos.
http://www.moneyrelations.com/2008/02/11/buy-on-rumor-sell-on-news-with-yahoo-and-microsoft-deal/
This blog is has a lot of informative post. It keeps you up to date with the big news in the finance world and also give helpful tips about finance. This blog is an informative personal view about finance and the economy in general.
Here is a great article on how to save some money with grocery shopping and food. The blog is about ways to save money *hence the domain name*. It always update with new and exciting ways for the reader to save money. It even have challenges from time to time.