What do these 3 things have in common?

It’s that they all cost 1 RMB!

Believe it or not, most restaurants charge you 1 RMB for napkins and for the really annoying skinflints, 1 RMB for chopsticks (even for reusable chopsticks and towelettes) ! Small Fat Lamb (hotpot restaurant) use to be like that, but I think they’ve since changed.

Besides being nickeled and dimed to death, what I wanted to point out was that starting today (June 1st), a new policy has been implemented that does not allow stores to give away free plastic shopping bags (defined by a thickness of 0.025mm). Yep, that means all supermarkets, shopping centers, roadside stalls, etc. This law was passed earlier this year in January as a means to improve the environment. Furthermore, as a part of the initiative, the gov’t is trying to curb the production, sale, and use of the bags while increasing the number places you can recycle them.

Brushing aside the enforcement aspect, I think it’s a great idea. Chopsticks and napkins, not so much. To steal a great phrase, I already “refuse plastics bags with impunity” and think that until there is some kind of financial impact, there won’t be much of a change in consumer behavīor. Let’s just hope it works!

As an aside, I think US is even more plastic or package happy than China.

这三个东西有什么共同点？ 都是一块钱呀！

我刚来的时候很难接受在莫些餐厅用筷子还要一块钱。。。我记得小肥羊原来就是这样的，不过现在应该取消了。今天去了优衣裤才发现禁止提供免费塑料袋的政策已经实施了。 虽然之前一些朋友会嫌我抠门因为付那个毛巾的一块钱我都不愿意（这些东西还要付钱我很反对因此我从来不用）。。。但是我非常认同对塑料袋的政策。 我觉得人是个习惯的动物，如果没有什么额外的刺激，人是不会改变得。

反证除非实在没办法的话，我通常都拒绝拿塑料袋。。。希望这个新政策真正对环保有贡献。

The earthquake in Sichuan happened a little over a week ago, but I was actually oblivious to it until 10 minutes later some of my friends IM’ed me asking if I felt it. Nada…but for some of my friends in high-rises, they said the entire building shook laterally at least 3 feet for almost 5 minutes! That’s pretty incredible considering the earthquake happened about 1000 miles away from Shanghai which is still farther than say Chicago to DC (~650 mi).

To be honest the aftermath of it reminds me a lot of 9-11 back home, in the way that people are responding to the natural disaster, hearing about amazing human feats of survival, workers digging tirelessly to rescue the victims under the rubble…

From what I hear it’s been covered a lot back in the US, but I think here are a few links worth passing along. (It might be a bit slow for those of you not in China)

(From 南方都市报)
looks like a tornado went thru there…except imagine if there were hundreds of tornadoes simultaneously)

(From 南方都市报)
a couple taking their wedding pictures as the earthquake happened - this is 8 minutes after the first earthquake

People getting together in shanghai to remember the earthquake victims

Lastly, the government put out a notice saying “为表达全国各族人民对四川汶川大地震遇难同胞的深切哀悼，国务院决定，2008年5月19日至21日为全国哀悼日。在此期间，全国和各驻外机构下半旗志哀，停止公共娱乐活动，外交部和我国驻外使领馆设立吊唁簿。5月19日14时28分起，全国人民默哀3分钟，届时汽车、火车、舰船鸣笛，防空警报鸣响”

Essentially it says, from 5/19-21st, to remember the victims of the earthquake, the gov’t has decided that the flag will be at half mast, and must cease all public entertainment events. Further, on 5/19 at 2:28 there will be 3 minutes of moment of silence.

In response websites grayed out their logos or sites or even shut it down entirely for 3 days.

As I signed onto MSN instant messenger yesterday, I was greeted with a bunch of “heart china” signatures.

too lazy to take my own screenshot, here is one from shanghaiist

Similarly reported by Shanghaiist and Wangjainshuo according to QQ MSN China tabulates over 2 million users adding this signature! (in chinese)

To summarize, this was a response by chinese netizens to all the negative press China has been getting in the world arena. Furthermore, there has even been a call to boycott French goods (like carrefour) given what happened in Paris during the torch relay.

Politics aside, what I wanted to highlight was the phenomenon of using IM signatures as a viral tool in China. People in the US use email as the primary tool for everyday communication whereas in China it’s IM (as mentioned here and here). In one signature change, you’ve accomplished the equivalent of sending out an email to your 100+ contacts on your contact list. Moreover, when you email something funny or interesting to your friends, you probably only select a subset of friends whereas your IM signature is a broadcast to your entire contact list no matter if they are acquaintances or best buds.

I wonder why IM signatures hasn’t caught on in the US?

At the behest of my friend to by a bicycle, I succumbbed and bought this bike last week. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!

Mine is the shiny red one.

And it folds up too! Which is nice in case I get tired and can just put it in a taxi or head to the nearest subway.

I was a little worried with no gearing and the 16″ wheels, but luckily shanghai is as flat as a pancake so I haven’t missed those nicer options. The purchase ran about $80 which was just about the cheapest one they had, some of the nicer ones run up to $500-600 (20″ wheels, superlight frame, gears, disc brakes, etc).

So simply put, having a bike is a game-changer. I can’t say that I’ve missed having a car, but I do feel a renewed sense of freedom. Plus, it’s a decent way to get good exercise - when I’m not inhaling car exhaust that is.

Plus, I feel like this is also a good way to see and get to know the city better…check out some of the pics I took during my recent rides

French concession area is a good place for a nice relaxing ride

plus I found this cool old school motorcycle with a sidecar

Believe it or not, the following pictures are all from the same block

I found out the hard way that you get fined for ignoring this sign….luckily it was only 5 rmb’s.

These bike lanes make it much more pleasant to ride on the street - though in shanghai, you can’t seem to get away from people no matter what you do

How bad is inflation in China? According to businessweek 8.7% in Feb…is that good? bad? what does it really mean?

First off, some frame of reference - since Ben Bernanke has taken over, the Fed has come out explicitly to target an inflation rate of 2%…so by that measure 8.7% is extraordinarily high. In slightly more concrete terms, it means that if your salary in 2007 didn’t increase by 8.7% nominally…you ended up with a pay cut!

But before you go pouring all your investments into gold in fear of inflation, one must keep in mind that that China amidst all this inflation worries still grew at 11.4% in real GDP terms in 2007! Which means the country came out waaay ahead even after accounting for inflation.

A lot of this macro mumbo jumbo doesn’t really mean anything to me on a daily basis…well, that was until this past week. For some reason, it hit me all at once…

1) The milk tea I buy around the corner everyday cost 3 rmb, that is until last week. Now it’s 4 rmb
2) One of my perennial favorites noodles bowls went from 18 rmb to 22 rmb’s
3) Today I had to cough up 548 rmb’s for the same exact bike my friend purchased a month ago at 498 rmb,

Bummer, couple that with the US dollar getting weaker, it’s a double whammy for me.

UPDATE: After writing this post yesterday, I found out another one of my regular hangouts reprinted their entire menu just to raise their prices…

物价涨是个热门话题，不过物价涨幅８．７％实际上对我来说有什么影响？算多吗？还是少？

要判断之前还是要有一些对比。　首先，美国Fed Chair, Ben Bernanke, 宣布了涨物价要控制在2%以内，用这个为标准，8.7%的确超级高。　从另外个角度来看，这就是说明如果你２００７年的工资没涨8.7%，就算工资被砍了。

不过，不能光光顾这个物价的涨幅，还要考虑到中国２００７年度实际经济增长率是11.4%，就是说，扣掉物价涨幅后，经济发展还是很火热。

通常这些经济大道理对我来说没什么实际的生活影响，不过我这个礼拜终于感受到了。。。

１）天天买的奶茶本来是３元，突然涨到４元了
２）我最爱的鱼香肉丝面从１８元暴涨到２２元了
３）同一款的自行车，我帮我朋友上个月买了４９８元，今天我自己要买的时候已经涨到５４８元了

加上了美元汇率续跌，我亏死了！