Category: Shanghai Edition

Philbert’s Phables Shanghai – IV – Hangzhou Marathon

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I realize that the Shanghai Edition of this blog is my most popular feature, so I am pushing out back-to-back posts about more of my experiences in China.

Two weekends ago I travelled to Hangzhou to support a colleague running the Hangzhou marathon. I did not run the marathon myself. Hangzhou is a very developed city about an hour southwest from Shanghai on the high-speed rail (HSR). It is most famous for its picturesque West Lake and for being where Alibaba’s main headquarters is located.

Not my picture

Booking the HSR ticket was a pain as you need to connect your real-name authenticated identity with a Chinese railway app called 12306 to book a train ticket (no such requirements for plane tickets, I guess it’s impossible for people to enter or leave the country otherwise). But I ended up having to go to the train station itself a day or two before to stand in line for tickets, and “tying” my passport (i.e. real name) to 12306 in person at the train station service center.

The other alternative is to buy tickets at special ticket counters throughout the city, but none were close to where I live or work. Then there is a special lane for foreigners when you go through the gates at the station.

Shanghai or Hangzhou station

Saturday evening I arrived at a Holiday Inn, which was an experience in of itself. These hotels aren’t exactly luxury ones in the US, but they are in China. Because of my status as a Spire Elite member with Intercontinental Hotels (a distinction I earned while staying at the Crowne Plaza in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay for more than a month for work) around only $80 a night I was upgraded to a very nice room and given 2 drink vouchers. I also got a 15% discount on the food I ordered for dinner.

What?? You’re lucky to get bottled water in the US! There must be so much competition between the hotels leading to such niceties. The wine with the drink vouchers was quite good Chilean (?) wine and the Hainanese Chicken Rice was good too. At a Holiday Inn. I forgot to take pictures, you can look it up yourselves!

The next morning, the marathon itself began and ended near West Like, but we never got to see the lake because it was so crowded in the vicinity of the finish line (the Huanglong sports stadium). Below is a picture of the stadium. It was pretty interesting because the inner ring of the stadium, not in the stadium itself, was filled with restaurants. Everywhere around the stadium were restaurants.

We arrived around 11 AM and the marathon ended around 1 pm. Apparently this marathon is a lot easier to get spots in than the Shanghai marathon, which gives spots mainly to foreign runners.

My other colleague and I watched the finishing runners from a vantage point and ended up cheering on our colleague as she approached the finish line. After it was done we went to a local restaurant and toured a creative colony (? essentially a lot of creative industries and cafes in the same area).

Hard to believe China has such a place, but there you go. Most of Southeast China is considered the cultural center of the country. On the other hand, the traffic is notorious for being very bad, so we spent a lot of time in DiDi rideshares.

There were a lot more people than this makes it look like

Actually I have been to West Lake and Hangzhou before, since I have family in the area – My grandfather on my dad’s side has a sister who lives in the vicinity, and I visited her and other extended family members around when I was in middle school. They lived a hour or more drive away from Hangzhou in nice villas now that they made some money off of owning a factory. They also had a small lake where we took a speedboat ride (grandpa’s sister included) and I remember playing ping-pong with some extended family as well. Needless to say, times have changed since those folks were growing up. 

These are the family that my grandfather could not return to in China after 1949, as he had gone to Taiwan prior to the Nationalist Government escaping there from the mainland. He did not see them again until the 1980s. 

Ads running outside of the subway train (on the walls)

There is one more tidbit about the Hangzhou trip that is interesting: I booked the wrong ticket going back so had to quickly get another one at the ticket window in East Hangzhou station. But they could not provide any more tickets on the same train going back, they only had tickets for the next train. Fine, I thought. But my colleague ended up actually booking a ticket for me on the original train through CTrip, one of the travel booking apps I covered in my other post, by “competing” for an online ticket for that train. You compete by inviting friends to support your “competition” for that ticket as they click into a link and “push” you forward in the app. We won the ticket, so away I went.

Until next time…

Philbert’s Phables Shanghai Edition – III – Musings on Music

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As the dust settles and the “new car smell” begins to fade after my arrival in China nearly two months ago, the reality of living here for two or more years starts to set in.

I think this is a good thing, as it allows me to focus on my work and my writing.

On the other hand, the end of the honeymoon period came about rather quickly and with some unnecessary consternation. It is easy for me to live in Shanghai, but to enjoy it is a different story.

I have come to frequent a jazz bar in the neighborhood where I live and work called Wooden Box. It is pretty much that, a single-story wood-enclosed structure with a small area for live performances. The first night I went there the remnants of a typhoon were blowing through the city, so the light rain and the wind contrasted with the warmth and jazz within the venue. I even went up and sang a rendition of the song Night and Day a la Frank Sinatra to a crowd of about five people. The intimate venue allowed me to speak with and interact with the musicians as well.

The jazz bassist Danny spoke of how it was becoming difficult for foreign musicians to stay in the country due to tightening restrictions on visas. For whatever reason, we also discussed where everyone was on 9/11 (Danny was working as a legal proofreader in New York at the time).

Another evening I was there, some Chinese (probably) musicians were performing bluegrass music. Yes, American bluegrass music. It made me think of a bluegrass festival I went to with my grandparents in North Carolina when I was young. As these things go, it made me a little sad, since the world and America my grandparents lived in is no longer in existence, and I really don’t know what to make of its replacement.

Jazz and bluegrass, bluegrass like what I heard on public radio when I was living in North Carolina, those haunting winter nights.  Who put the record on every Friday? Someone has to keep the light on for the arts when the onslaught of now threatens to extinguish them. The songs my grandparents used to listen to, so many of them from the 30s, 40s, 50s, are gone with them. Someday, I too will grow so old that I won’t know any of the songs on TV, on the radio, on the internet, whatever will be the form of communication then. Telepathy for all I (and Elon Musk) know.

It’s a scary thought, which is part of the reason why I try to listen to new songs to keep up with whatever’s going on in music right now. But sometimes I still find some interesting bits, like an Apple Music album called 1930s Radio Show Classics. Live from the Hotel Lincoln, in New York City, is Artie Shaw and his Orchestra. Right now I’m listening to a song called Night Over Shanghai, about “pale yellow faces and sad old eyes.” Ha!

Actually, I doubt they will ever stop playing Beatles or Jimi Hendrix songs in my lifetime, so I might be safe there. And the artists like Beyonce and Taylor Swift will want to maintain their dominance for years to come (Note: I am not a fan of either). But in 2017 I remember watching the MTV awards, again with my grandfather, and there were quite a few artists and acts that I couldn’t recognize at all, until Jared Leto showed up with tribute to Chester Bennington of Linkin Park (the band’s lead singer who had committed suicide). Finally, some people I knew.

Where am I going with this…music, jazz, getting older, music will always be my refuge. But it’s what happens when the music ends, that’s the problem.

Until next time…

Philbert’s Phables Shanghai Edition – II – A Brief Overview of Major Chinese Apps

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This next post is something of a testament to how difficult it is to get basic services set up as a foreigner in China. First off, I got my health report back with no problems, so now I am eligible for a work permit. This is what the report looks like:

Next, I had to get a bank account and a China mobile phone number. For a bank account I needed my basic identification (passport, visa) and a signed, “chopped” copy of my employment contract with my company. Chopped, meaning it has the official seal of the company plastered in red ink or some such.

This was not too difficult – However, a bank account is only of limited use in China since most payments are conducted using WeChat Pay or Ali Pay. These are third-party payment methods offered by WeChat (China’s largest social messaging and networking app offered by TenCent – more on this later) and Alibaba, respectively. Basically the Chinese do everything through their phones now, even in some instances unlocking and locking doors.

Cash is almost non-existent and credit cards are not prevalent as they are difficult to obtain. I’ve mainly only seen foreigners using cash (myself included). You can transfer money to other people using the app (though again, there are limitations for foreigners) or pay vendors like shops and restaurants.

With Alipay, you scan the vendor or a friend’s QR code and pay or transfer money them through the app. WeChat pay is similar. There is a daily limit for transfers (image from https://www.saporedicina.com/english/alipay-alibaba-payment-platform, a helpful article on Alipay)

But in order to get those services, I needed real-name authentication of a Chinese phone number – I needed to be personally identified with a Chinese cell phone number at the China Mobile office, with my picture taken, along with my passport information, for the real-name authentication to take effect.

I got a real-name-authenticated, local Chinese number, which I was able to link up with the bank (debit) card I received in WeChat and Alipay, so that I could pay directly out of the bank account or transfer money into the two apps and vice versa. With that, here is a brief overview of the main components of China’s app (they call them “A-P-P”’s ecosystem.

This non-exhaustive list of essential apps in China includes WeChat （微信）, DiDi （滴滴）, Baidu Maps and Baidu （百度）, Alipay （支付宝）, TaoBao （淘宝）, JingDong (JD.com)（京东）, ELeMe（饿了吗），Meituan （美团），Dazhongdianping （大众点评），CTRIP， Tielu 12306 （铁路12306）and DingDong Maicai （叮咚买菜). They are displayed in order below:

WeChat: It would take an entire blog post or more to describe the centrality and functionality of WeChat to Chinese life, but besides being the most popular social messaging app in China (1 billion users worldwide as of early 2019), its payment feature allows you to pay vendors (restaurants, stores, even fruit sellers and locksmiths) and receive money yourself from friends and others.

There’s a lot of features in WeChat, but once you add money to your WeChat balance with a Chinese bank account (and Chinese cell phone number,) you can transfer money by scanning people’s QR codes and adding them as friends, or pay others using the Money button, where the vendor scans your QC code that pops up (picture from helpful https://lerner.co.il/2018/12/28/the-foreigners-guide-to-wechat-payments-in-china/)

DiDi Chuxing: China’s highly dominant ride-sharing service, equivalent to Uber or Lyft. You can order more than one type of car (nicer vehicles, or regular taxis) at a time when queue times are long, which happens a lot in a busy city (there isn’t so much of a surge charge as there is in the US). Of course, you pay with WeChat or Alipay. Lots of safety tips and driver rating systems.

Baidu Maps and Baidu: Very similar to Google Maps and Google, but in China

Alipay : There are a ton of features and products on this app too, but it’s mainly used to pay with – Dominant in Hangzhou, where Alibaba hails from

TaoBao, JingDong (JD.com) : Similar to Amazon in China, you can buy pretty much anything on these sites, although the stuff on TaoBao tends to be cheaper in quality and price. I’ve ordered 24-packs of Perrier, silverware, and clotheshangers so far.

As you can see, lots of food can be ordered in bulk

ELeMe（饿了吗）[Blue theme]，Meituan （美团）[Yellow theme]: Food delivery apps, think GrubHub or DoorDash but not as expensive – it’s only slightly more expensive than dining in a restaurant. Super popular.

Dazhongdianping （大众点评）: This is like the Yelp of China, lots of ratings of restaurants, shops, stores, bars, everything.

Stores in the hot pot category, you can filter by distance, rating etc.

CTRIP : Dominant Chinese version of Orbitz, Kayak, etc., you can book tickets for plane, rail, tour packages, hotel and hostel trips, and so on.

Tielu 12306 （铁路12306） : One of the main apps for rail ticket booking in China

DingDong Maicai （叮咚买菜) : They will purchase groceries for you and deliver them to your door.

To show some of the complexity around these apps, many of these apps link to one another within the app itself. For example, WeChat connects to Didi, Jingdong (JD), Meituan and Dazhongdianping, as shown below:

I could keep going with these apps – and probably will – but this is just a start. Remember, basically all of these apps require a smartphone to operate.

Philbert’s Phables Shanghai Edition – I

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I flew to Shanghai on September 1, 2019 as part of my relocation to my company’s China office for at least two years. It’s only been about five days since I arrived, but of course there are already Phables to be told. It’s China! 

Actually, this entire process to transfer to China took five months, and it’s still ongoing. Two months for corporate and leadership to approve the transfer, two months to gather and prepare the necessary documents, and about one month of just waiting around. Here are my bags packed and ready to go after the apartment got cleared out. 

There were more bags than this

To be honest not many Americans understand or know much about China. But I believed that this was the right decision for my career and my future. 

The flight itself went well. I didn’t sleep much but watched a lot of movies, some of questionable quality. American Airlines claims not to edit their movies for “objectionable” content, but they did for the latest Hellboy movie, which is obscenely violent. Aquaman needed no editing, being one of those mass market PG-13 comic book romps, but what struck me about both movies is this idea of a hero of mixed “breed” trying to unite both worlds – Demon and Human in Hellboy’s case and the undersea people and surface people in Aquaman’s case. Both characters were born as hybrids of humans and whatever other species. I kind of took to this idea since I’m mixed with both Chinese/Taiwanese and American heritage, and sometimes see my purpose as bringing the two (well, three) worlds together, all the more important during these times of difficult relations for all sides. 

I also identified a lot with the Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga movie A Star is Born, but mainly the song “Shallow.” I knew I really wanted to watch the movie since I’m a fan of both of them but I never got around to doing it until this flight – and I only watched the first parts where people were still enjoying themselves. The timing kind of worked out well – here are the lyrics to Shallow that really resonated with me on where I was in life, going to a new city in a foreign land (well, not that foreign, as I’ve lived here before):

I’m off the deep end, watch as I dive in

I’ll never meet the ground

Crash through the surface, where they can’t hurt us

We’re far from the shallow now

I’m not exactly escaping my problems in the US, but things weren’t going that well for me, either. I went straight to the deep end on this one in a sort of career Hail Mary. Over the past five days I still find it kind of crazy that I’m actually here. More work remains. Just listen to the story of how I had to get a state-sponsored health checkup in a neighboring city.

My office building in downtown Shanghai

In order to apply for a work permit in China, I had to get a health checkup at a government-sponsored hospital. Since there is apparently only one such hospital per county, city region, or whatever, and the one in Shanghai was booked out for “group” checkups until some undetermined date, Suzhou was the only option within reach. Suzhou is about 30 minutes from Shanghai by high-speed rail, which is pretty reasonable. So I went. 

It was pretty easy to buy a train ticket at Shanghai station and get through security (I had to show my passport and train ticket a bunch of places) and it was easy getting to the Suzhou official hospital as well. I got a pass in my application as I didn’t have one of the required documents but they were able to use an alternative method of authentication, and I also later got a pass in one of my medical exams (I wasn’t supposed to drink water but did in the morning since I was too thirsty, but they let it slide “this time”). Someone on the staff there also re-sized my application photos for me.

A note on photos and picture-taking, there are definitely sensitive parts of China I would be uncomfortable taking pictures of, for law enforcement reasons or just out of courtesy, so you’ll have to imagine those parts from my descriptions.

There were seven examinations in a number of different rooms or stations, each staffed by Chinese nurses, technicians, or maybe doctors. I had to get an ultrasound of some of my internal organs, a chest x-ray, blood drawn, a urine test, an eyesight and color blindness test, an EKG test and my height, weight and blood pressure measured. Everyone was very nice about it but it did feel like going through the official motions. There were specific diseases they were screening for (like venereal diseases and diseases of the liver), but I’m not sure what the big picture on this is, and the rules have definitely gotten a lot more stringent in recent years.

A number of other applicants were there as well, we all passed through the stations together. While standing in line I met Austin, an American linguistics student from Syracuse University studying in Suzhou. He said his dad would probably tell him not to talk to me owing to the rivalry with Georgetown. Other students and entrepreneurs from other countries were there too. 

I didn’t see much of Suzhou, I wanted to go visit 寒山寺, Hanshan (Cold Mountain) Temple, as it is featured in a poem by Tang dynasty poet Zhang Ji which is (or was) one of the lessons in Taiwan’s middle school textbooks that I remember. According to Wikipedia the poem is taught in Chinese and Japanese (?) curricula too. The poem goes like this (slightly altered English translation from https://eastasiastudent.net/china/classical/zhang-ji-maple-bridge/):

The moon descends, crows caw, frost fills the sky;

riverside maples and fishermen’s lights face me in my worried sleep.

Outside Gusu city lies Cold Mountain Temple;

at midnight, the sound of bells reaches the ferries.

But I picked a random place in the city to eat noodles (I love noodles) and it was pretty far from the temple. Next time – At least I got a cappuccino in Gusu city. Zhang Ji would be proud.

Suzhou

One other note is how helpful the younger people have been on my trip. I got help from a man on the high speed rail about finding out which was my ticket and which was the receipt, and while at a CoCo beverage stand in Suzhou the young woman working there helped me with directions and even offered to have someone drive me to the nearest metro station on an electric scooter, which would have been a Phable all by itself. I walked.

So it’s been a somewhat exciting five days. Can’t wait to see what the coming days bring.

Until next time…