This July, I had gone to see two residential quarters in Jiangqiao town of Jiading District. The average price was about 20k RMB per square meter. Recently I have received several text advertisements, all said that the property developers have special discount. Xiangfuwan, for example, has 10% off discount and provides extra 25k funds for buyers.

It says that Vanke, the top resident property developer in China, is selling all its houses with as much as 30% discount. The sales office of  its property called Qinglinjing was smashed by its customers who bought their apartments before the discount with higher prices. Similar smashing occurs in several other sales offices, not only in Shanghai, but also other cities, like Beijing.

Now the government still claims that it will not loosen the economic policy, and Premier Wen Jiabao said that the government is determined to control the house price. But to be true, the government lost its credit in the past years.

If it is not the best timing to buy an apartment in Shanghai now, then when?

The first Apple Store in Shanghai is the Lujiazui Apple Store located in the IFC building. You can go there by metro line 2 at Lujiazui station.

 Lujiazui Apple Store

The Apple Store in east Nanjing road is the third one in Shanghai that opened last month, while the second one is that in Hongkong Plaza.

 Apple Store in East Nanjing Road

Apple Store in East Nanjing Road in night time

As east Nanjing road is a walking street and is a famous sightseeing place in Shanghai, the Apple Store there attracts many tourists from other cities, what usually makes the store very crowded. It may be not a good idea if you go to this store to buy Apple products.

At 14:10 on September 27 (Beijing Time), because of the equipment failure at Xintiandi station of metro line 10, the subway trains slammed to brake. Then the section between Jiaotong University and East Nanjing Road was scheduled artificially. At 14:51, two subway trains collided at Yuyuan station, the very central of Shanghai.

The signaling fault was supposed to be one of the accident cause. The signal system provider of metro line 10 is CASCO, and the same train signal system was used in Wenzhou train crash accident.

Although the metro line 10 resumed operating 4 hours after the crash, part of the line (from Yili Road to North Sichuan Road) is out of service for further investigation.

 The roof of the Xijindu residential area

A corner of the Xijindu historic street

Zhenjiang is an important transportation hub in the recent history, owing to its location near the intersection of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, and in which condition, the UK built the British Consulate in 1889 in Zhenjiang Xijindu.

 The British Consulate in Zhenjiang since 1889

There are residential buildings since the late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic, and are still inhabited. The buildings are in old style and the doors attract me.

Zhenjiang’s special food are Guogai noodle (锅盖面) and Yao meat (肴肉). I like them very much and still have aftertaste.

A box of mooncake is usually presented as corporate welfare in the Mid-Autumn Festival. A few company may post a box of mooncake to their employee’s family, which is recognized as a better way. Many companies send mooncake to their customers for better relationship. Anyway, it is very common to receive more than one box of mooncake in a family.

However, as people care about their health and eat much healthier more than before, they don’t eat many mooncakes. One or two piece(s) of mooncake is enough for the taste in this traditional day. Many families left a lot of mooncake after the holiday and it becomes a big waste. The negative voice says that they don’t want to receive mooncake anymore, and they recommend not to send mooncake to employees and customers in the Mid-Autumn Festival. You can buy some yourself if you want.

Mooncake tax is another story. The tax authorities indicate that it should pay tax when company sends mooncake to employees. People feel incredible and dub it a ‘Mooncake Tax’, but actually, such tax has been paid for 17 years already.

Julia bought some American cherry yesterday, which is expensive and not a usual fruit in China and it really tastes good.

We brought and ate the cherry this morning  when we went downstairs.

Julia asked “are you happy and do you feel good?” (OK, I admit that I do not remember what she said exactly)

I said instantly that it is NOT what you eat or where you live makes you different.

Julia interrupted to say that it is what people think make them different.

Clever Julia, isn’t she?

This Monday, another English learning program OMG attracts me. An American girl records 2 minutes video every Monday to Friday to teach English on the website, one small topic each time.  It has lasted more than a month.

Poppy’s website succeeds to attract people’s visiting everyday, and it even starts hiring. The OMG program on Youku video has over 2 millions hits in a month more time.

Poppy’s performance art is somewhat easy for any girl, while only she starts and persists in posting everyday. There are many schools in China teaching English, but only OMG employs such a different method and makes English learning funny.

Both stories tell me that, do one thing and do it well, others will follow.

The experience in the first company helped me to learn the working process and how to co-work with others. I met most friends in Shanghai  in that company.

In the startup company, I experienced a lot about how to construct a company, how to communicate with customers, how to recruit and interview, how to interact with other departments and some sale knowledge. All of these make me mature.

In the foreign company, there are many chances to work with colleagues from different countries. The communication and English skill is very important, and you have to encounter different cultures.

What’s next? I don’t know.

In my own opinion, the exhibition isn’t worth a visit. It is chaotic at the site and very crowded.

What attracted me most while browsing today’s schedule is that there is a book signing by Mark Obama, brother of President Barack Obama. The book name is <Nairobi to Shenzhen>. We Chinese people knew Mark Obama after Barack Obama was elected as the President in 2008, and know more when Barack visited China in 2009, because that Mark Obama is living in Shenzhen, China.

 ’Nairobi to Shenzhen’, written by Mark Obama

As it is more and more convenient and cheap to buy books online, is such book fair still necessary? Or is it just a way to promote book sale?

The new railway operation chart is still under compiling, and railway stations have stopped selling all high speed train ticket after Aug. 15. In the meantime, the State Council is going to check the safety of all high speed railways and the projects under construction.

In the past several years, China has accelerated the train speed for 6 times. It is the first time to slow down the train speed after it rushed for the world record highest speed for several times.

Hope the high speed train can be safe. Hope it is a good start for China to correct its blind development.