More about Qingdao - A Winter Day in this interesting city…

This is my second posting from Qingdao — I spent three days here and enjoyed a stay at the Grand Regency Hotel on Hong Kong Street (丽晶大酒店), which is a nice hotel for the price. The rooms are large and nicely furnished (although the overall furnishings are a bit tired). Here is a photo of the insides of the room I stayed in

So on Sunday I decided that it is time to explore the city — no matter how cold it was…After a hearty breakfast in a Chinese buffet - yes, this hotel is Chinese owned and run and with a different view of the breakfast buffet vs. the Grand Hyatt Taipei let’s say… No pineapple here :-( but still had my fried eggs and lots of dumplings…and coffee was OK.

Then after doing some work I braved the howling wind and headed out in the town - the objective was TianHou Temple and the downtown pier at the bay.

Today was a sunny day, but the wind made it still freezing… After a cab ride, I reached the temple and was pleasantly surprised - not crowded and relatively colorful. Bought some Year of the Tiger charms from the monks, and came across a small shop of a paper cuts artist - bought a paper cut of the year of the tiger and she gave me a sheet of her biography - very nice lady.

Then I walked for a mile to the bay with a pier that reaches pretty far out in the sea. On the pier there were all sort of people trying to sell stuff - mostly it appeared illegally (as they hurriedly collected their wares a couple of times while I was there on what appeared the approach of police). I saw a guy display on the boardwalk sea stars (I think that is what they were called — I took pictures)
pulled fresh out of the bay. They were beautiful - yellow undersides and blue-purple tops… I heard one of the mulling people asking or concluding “yes, they are good eating…” — oh, well too bad for the creatures…

Given the freezing wind, it was amazing how many people were on the pier -

my guess many of them visitors from the country side - the local Qingdao crowd was probably staying warm at home ;-) as the rest of us visitors were trying to catch a view of the ocean and city…and I don’t blame them - after about 10minutes on the pier I was ready to head to a warmer place…
That turned out to be the local Parkson Dept. Store…after a quick walk through it - I headed out again and continued my walk along Zhongshan Lu and the near by streets. A detour brought me to an imposing church built on a hill of Zhongshan Lu…a remnant of the times the German residents occupied a large chunk of downtown Qingdao…(The story goes as such - Qingdao was surrendered to Germany in the late 18 hundreds after two German monks were killed in the city and German troops marched here)
Took a lot of pictures - the architecture along side Zhongshan Lu is very interesting - you would think you are in a European town…

By 4:30pm I was finally too cold, so I hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel. The cab was a VW Passat - admitedly a bit nicer than the VW Santana cabs which are prolific - but I had an interesting surprise - “luxury” comes at a price - the meter of that cab was quickly running up the tab… When I asked the driver “what gives…?” - his response was “well new model cab - new price…”. He sounded almost apologetic. By the time I got back to the hotel the meter was at RMB26 !!! While at noon the same trip cost me RMB17!!! What is that - over 50% markup…
Another interesting observation - the paper cut of the Chinese Zodiak Year of the Tiger in a frame done by a local artist cost me RMB25 …hm…?!?! Peculiar…!?!?
The difference between the local and global economy…

Taxi Cabs in Beijing, Qingdao (and other cities for that matter)

As you can tell from many of our postings we have lived in China for a number of years, having come and gone a number of times. Many things about life in the country are changing very fast and to the better — the quality of life is definitely going up, many of the cities in China are becoming very cosmopolitan, and so on and so forth. One thing seems to be staying unchanged though is the attitude to taxis in China. Every year I expect a remarkable improvement in their cleanliness, their safety and every year I get unpleasantly surprised at the same thing — the more China is changing the more its taxis are staying the same :-) I put a smiley face here but in reality there are many unpleasant aspects of the taxis in China. In most cases you can not find a safety belt for the passengers. If you look for them you will find that they are hidden / trapped under the seat covers or under the actual seats…. Good luck using them. Over the years the taxi drivers have become more aggressive and speedier — in some cases they drive on the city highways at speeds around 100km/hr. An accident in those conditions and with you wearing no seat belt will not be a minor thing…..

Then there is one other aspect that really baffles me — it is winter, the temperature outside could be in the range of -5 degrees C, and the cab driver cracks the window open and drives that way ???!!! What is that all about….? It is not like they are feeling warm — in all cases they are dressed in heavy winter clothing and constantly rubbing their hands when stopped at traffic lights. But the window on the driver side and in many cases on the front passenger side has to be open half way almost —> with pretty awful results — cold wind hitting you (the passenger in the back seat) in the face and causing your eyes to tear up….

Whenever I have pointed out that anomaly to the drivers they look at me as if I am asking a major / strange question. “Of course we have to keep the window open… How else will we get fresh air…”

Oh, well — cars can become technological marvels and I still will probably see the cabs going by with cracked open windows in the cold winter days of Beijing (or any other city for that matter)….

One advice. Of course dress warmly and if you feel uncomfortable — just try to ask the cab driver (or gesture to the driver) that you want that window closed…. And of course try to find a cab with safety belts that are NOT hidden — yes, they do exist! Happy travels.

More updates on Travel to/from Hong Kong Airport to Shezhen

The questions about how to get from Hong Kong Airport to Shenzhen and back keep coming up in various forums. Even now that there are direct flights from Taiwan to China (rather than via Hong Kong) the topic is still active. The fact is there is still a border and a border check between China / Shenzhen and Hong Kong — so it takes time and effort to make the connections. I have done the trip via various modes
* Ferry: Hong Kong airport to Shekou (described here: http://site.chinafinds.com/travel/?s=Shekou)
* Plane: Shezhen to Hong Kong Airport or Macao Airport and on to next destination
* Van / car : you get picked up in Shenzhen and the driver helps you with the transfer
* Taxi to LoHu border crossing — cross on foot — taxi, MTR or van to other points in Hong Kong

All these modes are fine based on what your challenge is — time, money, effort…. :-) Or if you go often to Shenzhen / Hong Kong, try them all :-)

I have put the timetable for the CSK lines in the Resources section of this Blog

Street Performer off WangFuJing

Just recently I was scanning through the videos we had taken during various times in Beijing and came across an interesting one (not great quality unfortunately — the evening we took the video we had just a small pocket digital camera with us which had basic video functions). That evening friends of ours and us went out for dinner in the Pacific Plaza Mall (near the intersection of JianGuo Avenue and WangFuJing) and after dinner decided to take a stroll in the area. We ended up in one of the backstreets (near the night food market) selling the usual small eats and trinkets but we also came upon a stage where amateurs performed various Beijing Opera acts….. So if you are interested in that, this could be an easy area to get to and spend some time checking out the various performers — apparently they are different each evening….Here is a short video of what we saw and heard:
Beijing Opera Performer off WangFuJing in Beijing

Not all $100 bills accepted for exchange in China

I had an interesting experience on a recent trip to Beijing. I had reached the daily maximum at the ATM in the hotel lobby and wanted a bit more cash, so I tried to exchange three one hundred dollar bills at the hotel’s front desk. To my surprise, the clerk politely declined to exchange one of my bills. When I asked why, he told me that it was a ’series 1996′ bill, and because those bills were frequently counterfeited, the hotel clerks had been instructed not to accept them. Luckily, I was able to find another bill with a different series number on it, and was able to get the money I needed. However, I noted that of the ten one hundred dollar bills that I had brought along to China with me, four of them were marked as ’series 1996′. (The series number is written in small letters in the lower left hand corner of the bill–to the right of the large ‘100′ in the bottom left corner.) Had I been relying solely on cash for my currency exchanges, I would have been in an unpleasant situation. So be forewarned–if you intend to exchange cash while in China, carefully examine the series numbers on the bills–it may save you much aggravation!

Looking back in history and current economic data

January 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of official diplomatic relationship between China and the US. In light of this anniversary I thought it will be good to bring in some interesting links about the recent history in the relationship between the two countries, as well as comparison data on statistics….

First a link to a summary on Nixon’s historic visit to China

Then if you want to really look way back into history, use the US Department of State good chronology - it goes back to 1784!

The US Embassy in Beijing has a brief look at the last 30 years here

And finally, I thought that the comparison statistics published in a March 19, 2007 issue of TIME magazine will show a good view of the current development of China (using the same statistics for the US as a reference). The image below shows the comparison. (It was also published by China Today also using the Time magazine data)
Interesting comparison…..

Of course what this table does not show is how the numbers (statistics) will look if we were to do that same comparison but for two sections of China’s economy - the prosperous coastal regions and cities (e.g. Shenzhen, Shanghai, Qingdao, Xiamen….) and Beijing vs. the Western (less developed although currently a focus for investment for the Chinese government) provinces….. Will look for such data in the coming weeks and see how the story may change.

At any rate, Happy New Year and hopefully this brief compilation of data points and links to historic events will help you discover some missing info (from your knowledge) about China and the US-China relations.

Update on travel logistics in Shanghai - Pudong (high speed rail and taxi fares)

It seems like the topic of transportation costs in Shanghai is constantly on the front of many people (travelers and residents alike). So I wanted to add a short paragraph on what I consider cost and time effective ways to move from Pudong airport to several points of interest in Shanghai. Keep in mind that I include in this summary the value of time — i.e. what may be a relatively quick way to get to those points around the city (I exclude using buses in this as they are a slow (in my opinion) way to get you where you are headed)

Once you arrive at Pudong airport (or using the same in reverse for heading out), you should consider getting on the Maglev (high speed) train. There are plenty of signs around the airport to get you to the train terminal. When buying a ticket for it, show your boarding pass from the flight you just took (or the one you will be taking, if on the way to Pudong Airport) and you will get a discount on the ticket. One way fare (to Longyang station) will be RMB40.

Upon arrival at Longyang train station you have a couple of options

• Transfer on a subway line
• Get to where you are going via a cab

If your choice is the second — travel via cab (due to lets say having too much luggage with you), here are the costs to some notable areas/places:

• Hong Qiao Airport (yes, I know, you just arrived but what if you have to transfer to another flight, or take a flight a couple of days later…..) — the cost is approximately RMB80
• Xu JIa Hui (so you can visit friends, relax in a new trendy caffee….or just shop at Carrefour ) — RMB50
• People’s Square (you can get there via subway line #2 as well) — RMB40
• The Bund — RMB40
• Shanghai Railroad station — RMB60
• The Oriental Pearl Tower (in Pudong) — RMB30
• Renaissance Hotel (in Pudong) — RMB12
• International Expo Center (in Pudong) — RMB11
• Carrefour, Best Buy, and other shops area in Pudong — RMB12

Word of Caution for Travel and Security Checks at Chinese Airports

Recently I found that some of the Chinese airport security personnel have changed their view on what is allowed and what is not in your carry-on luggage. In the US you are aware that 3oz bottles of liquids are OK through security as long as you can place all the containers in the required Ziplock bag. Not so in China. At a recent flight from Xian to Shanghai I was asked to leave behind my hand sanitizer liquid (a 2 oz bottle). In the previous days and weeks I have flown through many airports (I had not been to Xian for at least 1 year) in China and my hand sanitizer gel has never been a problem. I use it frequently as a way to quickly wash hands before meals etc. and when you are in a rush for the next business meeting, it does come handy….

Well, the security folks at the Xian airport decided that it is flammable and dangerous liquid as it was alcohol based :-) –> I wonder why they allow all these cans of beer on the planes then :-) and confiscated it. I tried to have a conversation and ask WHY, but in the usual manner I was told “Shi Guiding” — “it is the rule” — nevermind, there was no rule that I was aware of (or any of the other airports like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Nanjing, that I fly through relatively frequently)…. Oh, well, live and learn.

So, for those of you who plan to travel next, you may want to keep your liquids in your checkin luggage (even if they are of the required size).

Happy travels!

Visit on Memory Lane — Some old pictures from HuangShan - 1989

Just this past weekend I decided to go through some old photos (from the days when digital cameras were not yet the norm :-) ) and - Oh, gasp - use my scanner to convert some of those to a digital format. Long story short, I came some photos from 1989 and a trip I took with friends to Huang Shan. Huang Shan being one of the most famous spots in China of course gets lots of tourists - there were plenty of people even back in 1989. At any rate, here are some beautiful shots from the mountain peaks and the sunrise on one of the mornings.

Looking at these photos, you can understand why this mountain is one of the frequent topics of many Chinese paintings…It is a beautiful place - enough said. So if you have a chance plan for a trip there. For those of you not familiar with its location - you will need to travel to Anhui province in Eastern China. I personally got to the mountain via bus (a long bus ride) from Hangzhou.