Plum blossoms

Last Sunday we went on an excursion to a local park to enjoy the plum tree blossoms. XinZhuang Park has been known for over 50 years for its large collection of plum trees that blossom in early spring. On Sunday, the locals were out in force to enjoy the blue skies and fragrant blossoms.

Upon arriving, I took a few minutes to study the park rules that were conveniently posted in English. I didn't want to spoil the whole outing by getting busted for inadvertently "practicing medicine" or "lying about" or engaging in "feudalistic activities". There were quite a few park rules. I have included them here for your perusal.


Luckily for me, photography was permitted. I took this shot of a fragrant plum blossom.


Many other people were also taking photos of the plum blossoms. It's a good thing that each tree has many blossoms. An average tree can accommodate about 3 photographers at a time.



Sometimes you can be lucky enough to find a tree all to yourself with plenty of room to maneuver for the optimal shot like this limber fellow.


Also in the park that day were many groups of amateur musicians and singers performing traditional Chinese folk songs in a "jam session" atmosphere. This group was particularly good.



And one last photo.

Lights! Camera! Photos!

The 15th of day of the New Year is Lantern Day. It is the first full moon of the year and marks the end of New Year celebration. It is also the third night (after New Year's Eve and 4th Day) of major fireworks.

The Yuyuan area in downtown Shanghai was all decked out for Lantern Day during the New Year holidays.

Is that Snow White and Price Charming?












A pile of money for prosperity.




Tie a ribbon and make a wish.




Tradional Lanterns.




The other major areas of the city also seemed more festive.

NanJing Dong Lu pedestrian mall.












Pudong on a foggy evening




The Bund was all lit up too, but our photo came out horribly.

A quick word about traffic signs

There is a lot of traffic on the roads of Shanghai – pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, taxis, motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses -- the list goes on.

In order to control the traffic, there are traffic lights almost at every intersection. Red lights effectively stop traffic and green lights effectively start traffic. There is a bit of chaos when the light changes. Like in some European countries, the light flashes red and yellow several times before it turns green. Drag racing anyone? Coming to a complete stop on a red before making a right turn is a recipe for disaster since no one does it. Left turn arrows are usually obeyed. On a road with little traffic, blowing the horn can be a substitute for stopping at a red light.

Lanes are clearly marked and are usually effective at controlling vehicles until there is a backup. Then only curbs and medians can control the flow.

There are two basically two classes of drivers on the road, professional drivers (taxi/bus/chauffeurs) & new drivers (everyone else). There are very helpful street signs for the new drivers.



Stop signs which are ubiquitous in the US are a rare sight here since they would either be ignored, cause accidents if actually obeyed, or necessitate a traffic light. We have caught one so far, along with a rollerblader with a bag of oranges in hand.

Working at Intel

What's it like working at Intel in China?

I commute to work on company provided bus. The ride to work lasts about 23 minutes. The ride home a little longer. I am a quite popular seatmate as one gets a free English lesson by engaging in small talk with me. ;-) I try to get a bit of a free Chinese lesson in return.

Our building has a small car parking lot since most of us commute by bus. There is also a bicycle parking lot.

There a cafeteria on the first floor. It serves breakfast and lunch. Breakfast costs about 50 cents US. Lunch is about $1 US. There is a small convenience store and Starbucks-like coffee bar in the cafeteria. A latte is $1.50 US.

I sit near a west facing window on the 2nd floor in a 2 meter by 2 meter cube which is similar to any cube in the US. All Intel employees have a cube, even the CEO. My "desktop" PC is an IBM laptop (T42) running Windows XP. We use Outlook for email. [We also use Sharepoint and shared network drives.]

We have a break area on each floor (referred to as "the pantry") with a water cooler (hot and cold), several small tables with chairs, microwave, fridge, and coffee machine. Free coffee, crackers, 4 varieties of tea bags, Sprite, Orange drink, and Coca-Cola (with straw) are also available.

With the cheap local labor supply, the bathrooms are in a state of constant cleaning, complete with the yellow plastic "CAUTION WHEN WET" signs in English and Chinese.

The meetings I attend are usually 100% in English, even if I'm the only native English speaker present. Occasionally, the discussion switches to Chinese for a few minutes while some point is hashed out, but then returns to English with a brief summary provided to me.

[I will write more later about S/W engineering in China and how it is similar and different from S/W engineering in the US]

Beer

How is the beer in China? Well, it depends. There is beer. There is cold beer: an improvement from 10 years ago. There are beer girls: girls in tight fitting logo clothes that try to sell you their brand as soon as you sit down in the bar or restaurant. There is a brand of beer called "REEB" ---- that's beer spelled backwards --- how good could that be? There is Tsing Tao. There are 7 flavors of TsingTao. There is a cold quart bottle of Budweiser "to go" for $1. There are cases of beer delivered to your home. There is Heineken and Corona. There are six-packs. There are Irish pubs that have Guinness on tap. There are at least 20 brands of beer in the Carrefour (like a Walmart) supermarket where we shop. However....... There are no pale ales. There are no IPAs... Sigh... There are no micro breweries (that I know of). There is a Trappist beer, Chamay, from Belgium at Carrefour that costs about 3 US dollars for a 12 oz bottle. It is pretty darn tasty.