Archive for the ‘China’ Category
An Electronics Mall and Internet Messaging in China and Skype Prime
Last week I was in Akihabara - the gadget mecca of Tokyo.
This week I am in the gadget mecca of southern China, in Shenzhen. There are few of these blocks full of electronics stores.
Inside there are rows and rows of gadget shops.
These OEM guys sell you the latest gadget that factories in the region have come up with. You can order these according to your specifications and they even give you your choice of language on the menu.
“Ipod nano and shuffle”.
Discussions and bargaining everywhere.
ipod speakers galore
Most of the stores are like cubicles with one or two young people manning them. Almost everyone has a screen in front of them and from time to time they look up the screen.
Almost all the screens have some internet messaging software on. In this picture it is QQ. QQ is the most popular internet messaging platform in China.
Sales people think that I am one of foreign buyer coming here to order some electronics. they pass me their business cards and tell me what they have on offer.
Most cards have the person’s MSN or QQ id.
This girl was packing some things and again she has her chat window open.
There two kids are busy with Nintendo DS and the boy at the back is busy on QQ.
Here this guy is playing a QQ game. These games can be played along with your QQ contacts. Sometimes when you ask them for a product, if they don’t have a product, they will message their contacts to find the stuff you are looking for.
Often in my talks I recommend that companies and schools not block internet messaging. They often say that IM is very distracting. I argue that IM is better than a phone call as on most IM clients you can specify if you are busy or free. Often my friends in China and Vietnam message me to ask for suggestions and ideas on something they are working on. I am used to getting a random phrase on my IM window and a question below if the grammar in the phrase is correct or not.
I bet the bosses of these companies are glad that their staff have access to IM.
This chat thing is changing the way we work and learn and maybe even earn. I just activated Skype’s new prime service. This service works over Skype. You specify can specify what you are good at and offer to answer questions on that topic for a fee.
You can advertise your expertise and the service on your blog.
As I have many posts about travelling in China, people searching for some info might land up my blog and if they like the content I have they might call me for a quick answer.
Namecards in China and Japan and Moo Cards
Personal name cards of girls in Japan are often feature such cute characters and might show their blood type. …aaah…miss Japan… Many Japanese people think that blood type can be used to predict a person’s character.
Just got this name card from a lovely girl from Shanghai…aah…miss China. Chinese kids these days prefer to be contacted via internet messaging services like MSN or QQ (a Chinese IM service). Some namecards also show the person’s skype id.
My favourite cards these days are the Moo cards. Moo takes your Flickr pictures and converts them to cards.
Now everyone wants my cards but no one cares reading my name or contact details.. they love the pictures. I had ordered two packs of 100 cards back in September 2006 and I have already finished them. I ordered three more packs earlier this month.
I also prefer using my skype id to my mobile number as I travel often or keep changing my mobile number.
Technorati Tags: businesscards
Déjà Visité
There were places in my travels - like the old quarter of Xian where I felt that I had been there before and somehow I knew the way around. But this time the deja vu was real.
I had just randomly walked across couple of streets in Zhuhai and turned a corner and I found myself in front of the border post between China and Macao.
I was here in Jan 2001. That was my first trip to China.
I have travelled to many places in China since then but never got a chance to come back to Zhuhai. The city like any other Chinese city has changed a lot. There are bigger buildings, some places I spent time in 2001 had disappeared.
These new cafes are all over, most of them selling beer, juice and coffee.
At night they turn into entertainment joints where you can try a dice game with the girls running the stalls.
Zhuhai has its own beer now and it is called Hai Zhu, that’s Zhu Hai spelt backwards. (Hai=Sea, Zhu=Pearl)
The fast food joints are always full, I have never seen an empty mcdonalds in China.
Another trend you see in Chinese cities is that the food shops that used to line the street side shops have now moved to back alleys - rising rents means the front row of shops now are fashion shops or stylish fast food chains.
Every possible empty space has some business activity on, like these street side barbers advertising for a hairdressing school.
And music too.
Six years ago, I travelled with couple of guidebooks then, now I don’t even have a map - getting lost is half the fun.
Postmen in the Mountians
This one movie from China I like a lot. Postmen in the Mountains is the story of a rural postman who is passing on his responsibility of delivering mail to his young son. The father makes one last trip to accompany his son for his first trip. The whole trip lasts a couple of days as they travel on foot through picturesque areas and minority regions. Everytime I watch this movie, some bitter sweet saddings happen as I have been to some such places in China and I have met generous people like the ones in the movie.
Watch the trailer of Postmen in the Mountains.
Seems the director of the movie is in Singapore on Nov 29 talking about the film industry in China at the National Library in Bugis.
Sadding is another word used by one of my friends in China. She will always ask if life is sadding, happying or boring.
Japanese site translates Chinese blog content
There is a site in Japan called China Intelligence Bureau (Searchina) dedicated to Chinese current events and they recently started a column called “Today’s Blog“. This column features interesting Chinese blog posts translated into Japanese.
The blog translations are under a category called “Today’s Blogs” . There is a page that describes the Chinese blogosphere and why they think that blogs are worth following. (in Japanese)
Here is a translation from a Chinese blog post about rising divorce rate in China. The original Chinese blogger is credited at the bottom.