Travel China and Beyond

Polution in Beijing and the approaching 2008 Olympics

For those of you who have spent any considerable amount of time in Beijing, it is probably very apparent the issue that is facing the upcoming Olympics — the issue of air pollution. It used to be that the air was filled with smoke in the winter as the farmers around Beijing would burn the fields in preparation for the planting season.

I remember vividly the day my family and I arrived in Beijing (a couple of years back) on my third stint in China. It was a dark winter evening and the Beijing airport was covered in slightly blue smoke — there was so much of it that it even permeated the plane as we were waiting to disembark from it…..Then as we entered the airport terminal it was felt as well….At the time we thought “No big deal, this is a temporary issue…” And it was (sort of) — in the Spring things improved. Then last year the weather and pollution were quite a bit heavier — there were days when the sun was just a silver disk in the sky (behind the haze)….

And now that the Olympics are approaching the local government is concerned and acting. I am sure there will be a drastic reduction in manufacturing and construction activity several months prior to the August 2008 date. This should allow the construction dust to settle. Factories are being relocated (this has been going on for a couple of years now), and car traffic will be heavily restricted…..

I have no doubt that all these measures will help and make the Olympics successful. But there is a need (a drastic one) to make changes. One example of that is the adoption of alternative energy sources and engines…. Here is an example of some really new and interesting one and I also try to cover developments in new / hybrid vehicles in my automotive related blog.

Living and driving in China you get to see how congested roads are and you start to appreciate how important impact hybrids and alternative fuel could have on China….both on emissions, greenhouse gases, and also on cost of driving (alternative fuels could reduce the strain on resources and the resulting run up on prices)….

For those of you who are not sure if you have seen the Beijing haze, here is a look…:

Real Estate and Bulgaria — Going Up, Going Up…..

Over the last several years Bulgaria has become a magnet for many real estate buyers, retirees, real estate investors and speculators.  In 2006 my family and I visited Bulgaria and were surprised to find real estate agencies targeting specifically UK citizens for example — in the town of Bansko (Southwestern Bulgaria) there were a number of developers and agents promoting villas, apartments, etc. to buyers from the UK (and other Western European countries).  This year, the situation is continuing to progress.  Investors from the former Soviet Union republics, as well as Western Europe are driving prices up.
Some statistics (from mediapool.bg — published in the Bulgarian newspaper IMOTI):
Just in the last 3 months (April, May, June 2007) prices for apartments in Varna (on the Black Sea) have risen 3.9%
In Burgas (another big city on the Black Sea coast) — the increase is 4.1%
In Sofia — the increase is 3.8%
Average prices for apartments are:
Sofia   — US$1152 / square meter
Varna   — US$1196 / square meter
Plovdiv — US$771  / square meter
(These prices were calculated based on exchange rate of US$1 = 1.43 Bulgarian Leva)

Here I have listed the prices for the major cities in Bulgaria, but even the small and unknown cities like Haskovo, Stara Zagora, Gabrovo, Smolian, Silistra are exhibiting strong price increases — in the range of 6% - 8%.  Of course those increases are from a much smaller base, but they show the impact of increasing demand and focus from multiple sources of investors.

If you just consider the new construction and list / advertised prices, the prices are even higher.  I came across many offerings in the range of 580 Euro to over 1000 Euro per square meter (For reference 1 euro is 1.95 leva), so higher than the averages given by the statistics above.  A studio apartment in the Vitosha suburb of Sofia with area of 46 square meters has a starting price of 33600 euro!  That would be 730 euro per square meter ==> or about US$1000 per square meter ===> or US$100 per square foot!  How about that…?!?!

Broadband Web Access - What is going on with Web Access around the world

Recently my family and I have been traveling in Bulgaria.  We have visited the country 5 times since 1995.  There have been many postitive developments in the economy and living conditions in the country and this made me think about an interesting case of how the Internet and access to it gets enabled in different parts of the world.  In the 1990s Internet access was growing rapidly in the US.  I remember being required (by my professors) to submit homeworks and projects via email.  We had to use the engineering department workstations (Do you remember Digital Equipment Corp.?  — the famous and now gone, Dec Stations…) and the tools that came with them like FTP, Telnet, E-mail clients, to access BBS sites setup by our professors for the purposes of class exercises.  It was an exciting time.  We felt so hip

Then dial-up started growing (as penetration among consumers and businesses) really fast.  AOL, Excite@Home, and others became big portals.  Then Yahoo came — and all these sites were optimized for text based browsing mostly — after all the dial-up modems (eventhough they progressed rapidly) topped out at 56kbps (and for most users actually at 48kbps or even less 24kbps due to bad phone wires)….The US was in the lead.

Now the situation has changed drastically.  Broadband Internet access even in small countries like Bulgaria is growing fast and is very low cost.  Recently on a trip to this country I passed by numerous billboards advertising 2Mbps ADSL connections for 15.95 leva per month.  This is the equivalent of US$11.15/month!  In the small village of Krqn (on the outskirts of Kazanlak — the main city in the Rose Valley), cable modem access is about US$10/month….

Recently even the New York times ran an article on the rapid drop in worldwide position of the US with regard to broadband subscription rates.  The US is now behind most Western European countries (e.g. France, Denmark, ….) even behind countries like Estonia (former Soviet republic).

I am not sure why the US is lagging in availability of broadband, but that could certainly have implications on both e-commerce as well as delivery of new services like VoIP, Video on demand, IPTV (TV over packet), and potentially be also a barrier to innovation.  After all the Amazon.com, eBay, etc. were developed in an era (sounds so long ago but it was only 7-10 years ago) when the US had dominant position in Internet access….so will we miss on the next wave of new business models….?

Travel Problems — Airline issues

So, this past week I was supposed to fly (with my family) from New York (JFK airport)  — to London Heathrow — to Sofia Bulgaria.  Usually that is a relatively uneventful flight with one connection which was supposed to be a relatively comfortable 1hr 50 minute layover…..Little that we knew.  We arrived at JFK (on another flight) 3 hours before the flight to London.  We had plenty of time so I decided that we can spend a good portion of the time in the Admiral’s Club.  At the appropriate time (35 minutes before the 6:10 pm flight) we showed up at the gate to find that the aircraft was being serviced, then the “service” became repair —> and soon enough we were told that the aircraft was not operational until repaired.  Of course we immediately started seeing a BIG issue looming — we were about to miss our connecting flight from London to Sofia.

The big deal about that is the fact that there is only ONE (direct) flight from London to Sofia per day (early morning one).  So I rushed to the Admiral’s club to see what our options are.  After checking with the helpful agents there we determined that we are essentially not in luck.  No way to switch to another flight as American Airlines will not pull our luggage from the aircraft as it was already loaded on our flight.

There were 3 other flights leaving from JFK to London between 6:10 and 9:20, but we were not going to get on either one of them — for one reason only — the check in luggage can not be taken off the plane we were supposed to be on.

So we had to look into all sort of options but unless our flight was cancelled and luggage unloaded we were not supposed to do anything but WAIT.    Very frustrating…The other flights had open seats and we could have even made our connecting flight have we been able to get our luggage and get on the 6:30pm flight…. I do not understand why the luggage rules are so inflexible!

Now, we had to wait till 10:30pm and finally boarded around 11:00 pm and the plane took off at 11:30 pm — 5+ hours late.  So we missed the connecting flight, were able to get our self on a Lufthansa flight and will let you know what the next ordeals were —- can you spell “missing luggage”….?  More to follow…

Are you willing to give VoIP and Skype a try…

Have you tried Skype yet? If you have not than may be you have been in a corner of the world, where the Web does not reach or you are completely oblivious to all the noise VoIP has created over the last several years. At any rate, I thought I should provide some (at least minimal) information on using VoIP in China for those of you who may be planning a trip or relocation to this country.

Over the last 2 years I have used both Vonage (yes, I brought my Vonage Linksys router with 2 phone ports from the States when I moved to Beijing), and Skype. I used that service for almost 2 years until I started testing Skype (testing is a bit of an overstatement I started trying it) and was happy to find its quality good. (I will write about some of the problems I had to resolve to make Vonage work in a separate posting)

Having used Skype with my laptops (both Apple iBook, Dell Latitude, and HP laptop) I decided to take the plunge and buy a Skype phone. The product I purchased is shown here: As you can tell it is a Linksys basestation and cordless phone.  At any rate, the product works fine — I have been using it for 4 days now.  So, if you want to get on with the “program” and start using this new technology, give it a try — you can always go back to the traditional wireline phone….Let me know if you have questions

If you doubted that Tour Guide companies lead you to shopping, now you have a proof

In discussions with some visitors to Beijing you would often hear their descriptions and some times complaints about the fact that they were lead to various stores or left for a long time at shopping arcades on visits to museums or historic sites around Beijing.  I personally do not think much of tours as options to see the city, but many people do participate.

At any rate, now  Sina.com reports that the Beijing Gov’t has not only confirmed (via their recent orders) that being the case, but are also mandating that the tour companies stop the practice.  Here is a link to the article: http://english.sina.com/life/1/2007/0424/110414.html

So, now that you know this, isn’t it better if you explore the city on your own

Information on one of the more established areas for expats in Beijing

I wanted to post a quick summary for those searching for information on places to live in Beijing…If you have a family with you and are looking for an area close to the WAB or ISB (International schools in Beijing), you may want to consider the area near by River Garden.  Included here is an image / map I prepared based on a Google Earth snapshot of the area:

In this area you can find not only River Garden (established community) and Eurovillage but also Capital Paradise (to the West of River Garden — not seen on the image here), and Leman Lake (next to River Garden — they share a wall, not seen on the image either).  All these developments are within 5-10 minutes by bus or bike from ISB and about 10-15 minutes from WAB (Western Academy of Beijing).  As you can see from the image above, this area also includes a fairly well established shopping plaza with the proverbial Jenny Lou’s supermarket as well as a bunch of restaurants — even a Domino pizza franchise outlet, services like a Vet clinic, medical office, a tailor, as well as some shops for clothing and shoes, and of course a golf driving range.
If you have questions on this area do not hesitate to drop me a line.

Interesting Initiative by the Beijing City Government

In the last couple of years I have observed multiple cities in Asia (e.g. Taipei, in Taiwan) and North America either deploying or planning wireless broadband networks for city-wide access.  Today I came across such an initiative by the Beijing City Government as well.  Here is a link (in English) to the form which was created to gather input from what it looks like mostly expats.

Of course until that city-wide broadband network is available, you may want to consider the hot-spots which are available across multiple bars, restaurants, etc. in Beijing.  I have been compiling those in a list from various sources and personal experience.

Here are some currently active spots for Free WiFi:

Cafe Niro - near Tong Li Studio just off Sanlitun

Fruity Mix - Pacific Place

John Bull Pub - 44 Guanghua Road

Man Pen Xiang Restaurant - Basement of Times Square (Shi Dai Shang Chang)

O’Farrell Coffee - SOHO Block C, ground floor

S.I.T. Cafe - Hairun International Condo No. 2, Jiangtai Road (and other locations too)

Sculpting in Time Cafe == No.1 Building 12 Hua qing jia yuan.Cheng fu lu.
Haidian District. (West of WuDaoKou train station.)
All Sages Bookstore == near South gate of Tsinghua University.

Be There or Be Square Café == Beijing Oriental Plaza, No. 1 East Chang An Avenue , Dong cheng district.
Bar Blue == Tongli Studios, Sanlitun bei lu, Sanlitun bar area, Chaoyang District.
The Drum and Bell cafe == Located at the corner of the plaza between the Drum and Bell towers.  41 Zhong Lou Wan Hu Tong, East District, Beijing
Grandma’s Kitchen == Level B, Jianwai SOHO, Dong Sanhuan Zhong Lu, Chaoyang District

Steak & Eggs == 5, 6 Xiushui Nanjie, Jianguomenwai, Chaoyang District (favourite with the expat crowd for Sunday brunches)
Top Club & Lounge == 4th Floor of Tongli Studios (South Entrance), Sanlitun.
www.topclubbeijing.com.

Cafe de Niro == 1 st floor Tongli Studios, Sanlitun north bar street, Chaoyang District.
The Den == Expat bar and club == 4A Gongti Donglu (next to City Hotel)
Fruity Juice == 107 PCCW Building, Gongti bei lu,Chaoyang District .
John Bull Pub == 44 Guang hua lu, Chaoyang District.
Mrs Shanen’s Bakery and Café == 5 Kaifajie, Xibaixinzhuang, Shunyi. (near River Garden and Capital Paradise housing developments)
Fishnation == 31 Nanluoguxiang, Sanlitun Area (the little alley between Poacher’s bar and Kai)

Man Pen Xiang Restaurant == Basement of Times Square (Shi Dai Shang Chang).

O’Farrell Coffee == SOHO, Block C, ground floor.

Le Petit Gourmand == South Bldg., 10 Sanlitun lu (North Bar Street), in alley just west of Skyline Bar)

SPR Coffee == Hairun International Condo No. 2. (near Lidu in DaShanZi area)
The Bookworm == Building 4, Nan sanlitun lu, Chaoyang District.
Touch Bar == 8 Qianhai Beiyan, Houhai Area, Xi cheng District.
Salud Cafe/Restaurant == 66 Nan Luogu Xiang.
There Cafe Salon & Restaurant == 97 Nanluoguxiang, Dongcheng.
Gustomenta
The (new) Bookworm == Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District.
Saveurs de Corée == Swish Korean bistro with free WiFi
Chazhenxiang Tea and Coffee House == Zhongguancun Nan Dajie, next to a KFC
Kerry Centre Hotel == No. 1 Guanghua Road,Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020,
China World Hotel, Beijing == No. 1 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Beijing 100004, China
(The place itself is really nice, aside from the free WiFi –  enjoy    )
Cafe Pause == 2 Jiuxianqiao Lu
The Pavillion == Opposite Workers’ Stadium’s West Gate
Sequoia Cafe == 44 Guanghua Lu (beside John Bull Pub)
Stone Boat Bar == Ritan Park, southwest corner
Browns == Sanlitun South, Chaoyang District (above The Loft)

Air Travel in China

Over the past 2 weeks I had the interesting experience of having a bunch of flights between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.  The reason I call them interesting is that I heard again the strange explanation of why flights get delayed.  Over the years of living and working in China I saw the country’s air travel network being stressed more and more.  At the same time I also saw the masterful capability by the various airlines (Air China, Eastern, Southern….) not to answer your question when flights get messed up.

There are many ways to let the passengers know that they will not get on time to their destination, but the “best” one I hear all the time in China is “We regret to inform you that the flight is delayed due to aircraft delay”

Does this statement really provide any information?  No, it just tells you “the flight is delayed” Why is it delayed?  No plane… Duh…But why is the plane not on time? Well that is a whole different question isnt’t and no, we will not tell you why

So, that is about it.  Don’t worry when you travel — you flight could be delayed, and you will not know why, but on the other hand, does it matter ?  You just sit back and relax.

Oh, and by the way, my flight from Hangzhou to Beijing earlier today left about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  You better not be late for your flight

Over the past 2 weeks I had the interesting experience of having a bunch of flights between Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.  The reason I call them interesting is that I heard again the strange explanation of why flights get delayed.  Over the years of living and working in China I saw the country’s air travel network being stressed more and more.  At the same time I also saw the masterful capability by the various airlines (Air China, Eastern, Southern….) not to answer your question when flights get messed up.

There are many ways to let the passengers know that they will not get on time to their destination, but the “best” one I hear all the time in China is “We regret to inform you that the flight is delayed due to aircraft delay”

Does this statement really provide any information?  No, it just tells you “the flight is delayed” Why is it delayed?  No plane… Duh…But why is the plane not on time? Well that is a whole different question isnt’t and no, we will not tell you why

So, that is about it.  Don’t worry when you travel — you flight could be delayed, and you will not know why, but on the other hand, does it matter ?  You just sit back and relax.

Oh, and by the way, my flight from Hangzhou to Beijing earlier today left about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  You better not be late for your flight