00031:Metros in Shanghai

I am sitting in the metro cab currently and just leave my office.thats why i suddenly would like to talk about something about metros in shanghai.
There are more than 12 metro lines in shanghai,whose number and density may be inferrior to those in such cities like New York and Tokyo. However,shanghai has the most developed metro lines network compared to other cities in China. We can go to nearly every important CBD and transportation center through metro lines and most people choose to take the underground to the offices in shanghai.
The biggest advantage of metros is the timetable can be accurately controled especially in the morning or evening when the traffic become terrable on the road.
The first metro line one opened to the public more than 15 years ago in shanghai. It started at the North railway station and ended at Jingjiang Park,only around 10 stops at all. The gov prolonged some important metro lines and extended those line`s stops up to 15 or 16 at last.
Currently, the network of metro lines in shanghai has covered most area of shanghai city,from urban and rural area. It is reported that the metro line 9 will be extended to Chongming Island through Changjiang Bridge-Tunnel.
If you take care of some passengers' behavior on the metros,you will find that about 30% play with their cell phone,including iphones,nokia,sony ericcesson and so on. Nearly another 30% use their mp4 player listening music,watching movies and reading ebooks.About 10% passengers play games by psp while 20% often read newspapers and books. Most of the others usually take a nap .Reading ebooks or playing games on my dopod c720 is my first choice to killing time...And it is the first time im trying to write this article in the metro train!

00030: what happened in last 9 days...

    Sorry, everyone. I was in breach of my promise again. I realize that I am only a ordinary people and find out the impatience is one of my big weak point. I once read a survey that only half of bloggers can insist on updating blogs frequently after 3 months. And only one tenth of bloggers can continue updating theirs blogs after 1 year. I dont how long i will hold on after today, but I will have a try and hope to be one out of ten. 

    Turning back to the main point, it did occurred lots of important things or incidents in Shanghai and Chinese circle during the past 9 days.. 

1. Shanghai Changjiang tunnel-bridge opened to the public on Oct 31th. The project consists of Changjiang Bridge and a Tunnel part with the total length of 25.5 kilometres. The overall investment reached nearly 12.62 billion yuan RMB.  The bridge starts from Chongming Isand and ends in Changxing Island. And the tunnel brings the Changxing Island and Shanghai land together then. It is a momentum for the local citizen that people can take bus or cars to go Chongming or Changxin Island, where were only reached by ships only. Many Shanghainese now are hoping to have a short tour on Chongming Island, including our family.

2. Qian Xuesen, the father of China's rocket and the Space Program, died on Nov 11th. He used to study in Massachusetts Institute of Technology and came back to China and made great efforts to the development in China's space technology. Mr Qian was not left a deep impression among the so called 80's or 90's youth people, but he was respected and revered by most of people as my fathers age. My father once told me before that Mr Qian was a real scientist in his image at the time when my father was young. 

2. The construction of Shanghai Disney Land was finally approved by the government on Nov 5th. All the local newspaper and mass medias placed this breaking news on the headline. I believe it is an cardiotonic to the local economics. Sorts of local stocks related to the project of Disneyland had witnesses a sharp increase in price during the past half year. The floor price of the crude land where the future Shanghai Disney Land will be located doubled during the past one year and reach a high point at 14000 yuan per square meters. Although we local citizens welcome the Shanghai Disney Land, we also have some worries about it, such as the future price in real estate market, the threat against local market and so on.

    Life is going, and I will try to continue doing some valuable things rather than wasting my time, which will make my life much more meaningful.....

00029: my timetable....

6:30   a.m    get up

6:45   a.m    breakfast 

7:10   a.m    leave home for the office

7:36   a.m    on the metro bus

8:10   a.m    arrive at People's Square

8:30   a.m    arrive at office and start working

11:30 a.m    lunch

12:00 p.m    reading newspaper or playing Plants VS Zombies

12:40 p.m---1:25 p.m  have a nap

1:30 p.m      work

5:15 p.m      leave the office and go back home

5:40 p.m      take on the metro bus

6:15 p.m      reach gym and start swimming

7:00 p.m      finished swimming and bathing

7:20 p.m      arrive at home

7:30 p.m      dinner (with my parents)

8:15 p.m      learning English or reading books

9:00 p.m      blogging on Internet

9:00 p.m      ready to sleep,listening to some music or radios or newspapers

10:30 p.m    turn off the light and go to sleep

00028: Windows 7 is coming...

    Microsoft China started to sell Windows 7 in the mainland simultaneously on October 23th, 2009. Windows 7 Home Edition  is priced at around RMB 699 Yuan, lower than the price in other countries. It is reported that it is the first time Microsoft software sells cheaper in China than other Nations. The launch of Windows 7 has attracted much attention by PC companies,technology manufacturers and customers. Lenovo said that its service system had been prepared for the launch of this new operating system.  I believe Windows 7 is welcomed by most PC companies and hardware manufacturers, as its a good opportunity for them to launch new products and eliminate old ones. It is also a good chance to push the whole electronic technology into a high level.

    However, I am still using the computer I purchased six years ago, equipped with Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz, 256MB memory, 17' inches CRT screen. The operating system of this computer is windows XP. I have never planned to upgrade to windows 7, although I am sooo shocked at the beautiful operating interface and desktop of Windows 7. I even love the transparent manus of Windows 7, which impressed me deeply. But the reason why i do not make a change may be as follows:

1. windows xp can meet most of my working and entertainment requirements

2. windows xp is much more compatible than windows 7, i supposed. New system always has some problems in computability.

3. my hardware may not meet the minimum requirements for installing windows 7

4, at last but not least, my windows xp is cracked version.  I can not upgrade to the new version.

   Although the new windows 7 is sooo attractive, the only thing I could do now is to make a wish that windows 7 can be sold well in China and win the victory in the final competition against cracked software market!!!

 

00027:Liu Xiang.....

   Liu Xiang won the first prize in Chinese National Sport on the day before yesterday. I believe many Chinese people were sitting in front of the TV sets watching and witnessing this exciting moment that time. 

   

    Liu Xiang, born and grown up in Shanghai, was famous for his breaking record in 110-meter hurldes in 2006. He set a new world record in the 110 metre hurdles, at the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne on July 11, 2006, with a time of 12.88 seconds. It was the first time Chinese people conquered other atheletes in the world track and field sports races. 

    Liu has become so popular since then. He took part in many comercial activities and was attractive toward big companies. We could always see lots of TV advertisments played by him at that time.

   However, to all of us surprise, Liuxiang quit the 110-meter hurldes in Beijing Olypics last year, which irritated some Chinese people. Some people thought he did it on purpose as he was afraid to be defeated by others. But others believe the official explaination that Liu did had some problems with his legs.

    Liu seems to be a national treasure in China now. He represents the Chinese image, speed and spirit. No matter why he quit the olympics, most Chinese people love him as much as another sports star Yao Ming  who is as a basketball sportsman in NBA. 

   Anyway, as far as I am concerned, I always marvle at his the exaggerated movements and expressions......

00026: Chung Yeung Festival

    Today is the traditional Chinese festival called Chung Yeung Festival. Chung Yeung Festival falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar. People usually take part in some tradional activities on Chung Yeung Festival, such as go climbing and eat Chung Yeung  Cake. 

   The following story is taken from the internet. 

    "Traditionally, people go climbing on the Chung Yeung Festival. This custome come into story from the Han Dynasty tells of a man named Huan Ching who was studying the immortal arts from the Taoist monk Fei Chang-fang. One Day Fei Chang-fang warned Huan Ching that, "On the ninth day of the ninth moon, great calamity will strike your home. You must quickly tell your family to sew a cloth bag and fill it with dogwood branches. This you must hold tightly in your hand and ascend to the mountain top and there drink chrysanthemum wine. If you do all of these things as instructed, you will be able to avoid disaster." Huan Ching heeded Fei Chang-fang's warning, leading his family to the mountain top on the specified day. When the family returned again at dusk, Huan Ching discovered, as the Taoist sage had warned, that all of his chickens, dogs, and sheep, and other animals had been violently slaughtered. Upon hearing this news, Fei Chang-fang went to Huan, telling him, "All of this has been done so that you may escape death!" And since that time, the customs of ascending high, drinking chrysanthemum wine, and carrying dogwood branches have all become part of the Chung Yeung Festival"

   As it's not easy for people living in cities to climb mountains, most of people choose to eat Chung Yeun Cake. Here is another story about Chun Yeung Cake I read from Internet. 

    "The tradition of eating cakes in September is originated from the ancient times. Though the name of "Gao" started from the Six Dynasties, the cakes had already existed in Han Dynasty, which was called "Er" in Chinese at that time. It is made of rice flour, which is classified into two types: paddy rice flour and millet rice four. They are streamed together, which is named "Er". In September, the millet is ripe. It is regarded as the food just in season, which is offered to ancestors as sacrifices. Chongyang Cake comes from the food just in season in September. That is why Chongyang Cake is recommended for offering sacrifices to ancestors on the day of Chongyang Festival."

    I went to a food grocery named "Shen Da Cheng" in Nanjing Road after work today, which is famous for their Chung Yeung cakes. To my surprise, I marveled at how many people lined up in front of the store when I arrived there. I finally bought a box of it. My parents were so happy when I sent them the box of Chung Yeng Cake. And I feel so relieved at the same time.

    The attached photo in this blog is the cake I bought today. 

00025: we want a job....

    I read a news on today's local newspaper. It was reported that twin sisters named Christi Bali and Kitty Bali struggled to find jobs since May last year in the United States. They have sent out hundreds of resumes on Internet and attempted to do more than 150 jobs.The twin sisters have done such jobs like waitress in a bar, mailing for the old, cutting the grass, or even helping an Animal Protectionism to bury accidentally died animals on the road. They spent most of time on Internet to grasp any job opportunities, checking mailbox and browsing craisglist frequently everyday.  However, they are still unemployment at present.

   

    The article vividly portrayed the difficulty of job seeking for new graduate students in United States. However, there was another news report drew me attention today. There are many Overseas Education Exhibition held in Shanghai and across China these days. More and more college students choose to go overseas for further study so as not to work or seek job immediately. The statistics shows that over 16 thousand student went abroad for study in 2008. And the number will be expected to reach 20 thousand in 2009. United States and Australia are two hot spots for Chinese students. 

    Frankly speaking, the employment ratio of new graduated students in Shanghai is far from satisfactory too. I talked on this topic with one of my colleague on my way home last Friday. She was graduated in the summer of this year and employed by our company several months before. She planned to be a teacher but become a salesman in our company at last. She told me most of international companies closed or stopped their employment plan on fresh graduates in China, such as Big Four Accounting Firms, Investment Banking Corp, famous Consulting Companies, which used to be attracted by lots of Chinese fresh graduate students.

    So we are all facing and suffering the negative effects on global economics recession. 

    Although I am not happy with my current, I have a job at least.......