You need to leave right now. Is it that hard to play one year of basketball in China without you or your family getting into fistfights and choking people? Again, thank you J.R. and your family for all you're doing to help improve the image of Americans in this country. I wholeheartedly appreciate your wonderful effort.
(你他妈的)
China Unicom did quite well in 2011, signing up 26 million new 3G subscribers. Even though it still lags behind China Mobile in 3G subscriptions, the percentage difference is much smaller than the total subscriber amount (as seen below thanks to mobiThinking).
Some analyst are attributing China Unicom's stellar 2011 to the introduction of low cost 3G phones. While this certainly helped to boost Unicom to meet its 2011 projections for 3G user base, the iPhone is still the ultimate network differentiator for this society's taste makers. I have met so many Chinese businessmen and even some CEOs that have switched to China Unicom just to use the iPhone. Even the CEO at my company decided to switch to an iPhone after spending some time with me and my colleague's phones.
Yet I have been even more surprised how many lower-level workers have purchased iPhones. About 6 months ago I noticed some lower-level Chinese colleagues that had purchased iPhones. When asked how they were able to do so (after all, an unlocked iPhone from the online HK store costs more than 5000 rmb), one man told me China Unicom had some relatively cheap purchase options in their stores. That's why I'm a little hesitant of this statement from Bloomberg's article:
A 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S costs 4,988 yuan at Apple’s online store, or more than two months’ wages.
I don't think a lot of lower-level workers who are buying these devices are doing so at that price. Seems it is cheaper to buy it in-store. I will stress that I certainly haven't seen a lot of lower-level employees buying iPhones. But I have seen more than I thought would have had the means to do so.
So now to my story.
Since I moved to China, I had always used China Mobile as my carrier. China Mobile (CM) always seemed like the hippest carrier and the one attracting almost all of the young friends I had. Whereas Unicom (CU) ads featured basketball player Yao Ming, China Mobile advertisements showed young, hot entertainers having an incredible great time with their phones. I rarely came across friends or associates with Unicom phone numbers. So of course I got a CM number.
I purchased an iPhone 3G in September of 2008. I then realized that I could not use the iPhone's 3G on China Mobile's network. CM used a technology called TD-SCDMA, a homegrown 3G technology that could not be used by the iPhone, while CU's WCDMA network was 3G compatible.
But I was a) stubborn and b) ignorant. I had been using China Mobile my entire time in China and didn't want to change my number (CM and CU phone numbers are not compatible). I had also never used 3G networks in the US and so the browsing I did on my iPhone, on CM's 2G network, seemed fine enough. Plus there weren't a lot of apps to take advantage of a 3G connection. I was satisfied.
I then got a 3GS iPhone while living in Qingdao and continued to live a life of ignorant bliss.
I moved back to Shenzhen in October of 2010 and decided to change to a Shenzhen phone number. I had an iPhone 4 and the only way still to get 3G was to use China Unicom. But I was still stubborn and ignorant and purchased a new phone number from the CM store. China Mobile was a steady force in my life. It had been there, in my pocket, every signal day, for more than 4 years. How could I abandon it now? Well, I couldn't. After the purchase, I sent hundreds of text messages out to friends and acqaintances with this new number. A friend of mine texted back asking why I didn't switch to Unicom and order 3G service (you can tell a CM vs CU number by the first 3 digits). My response? "Don't worry about it. This is adequate for me."
That night I happened to start a new Flickr account. I also downloaded the iPhone app and was excited by the possibility of uploading photos to the cloud almost instantaneously. I was on the bus the next day, took a photo, opened the app, pressed upload, and waited... and waited... and waited some more...
"On no. I've really made a mess of it this time."
After what seemed like an eternity (it was probably closer to 4-5 minutes), the photo was uploaded. I got off the bus dejected. That day, I asked a colleague at work, "where is the closest Unicom store?" And I switched that day. And then had to send out hundreds more messages telling everyone to ignore yesterday's sent number and to save this new one. That same friend from earlier texted me back, "I told you."
Yep, and I was too stubborn to listen.
But seeing how I don't have a contract with either China Mobile or Unicom, and the government is implementing new programs to allow numbers to be carried over to a new carrier, it's a lot less painful to change than it would have been in the US. I'm basically living in a paradise free from Early Termination Fees.
See the Chinese Stig at 1:49 showing off his incredible kungfu moves. On another note, why oh why did the Mclaren have to be driven by Captain Slow? Most unfair competition ever. The 458, Aventador, and M600 got off easy.
An easy and enjoyable ride back home. It was the first day I didn't have to wear a jacket and I used my sunglasses, not because or rain, but because of sun.
So Project SGZS turned into SDS (Shenzhen-Dongguan-Shenzhen). Later in the spring I'll attempt the full ride to Guangzhou and Zhuhai. I now know the best way from Shenzhen to Dongguan, the weather should be better in the Spring, and I should weigh a few pounds less.
Stats for the day:
Ride Time: 3:18:51
Stopped Time: 18:28
Distance: 27.43 miles
Average: 8.28 mph
Fastest Speed: 28.04 mph
Ascent: 2423 feet
Descent: 2278 feet
Calories: 2189
Problems: While riding back, I saw "Shenzhen Helicopter Airport" on Google Maps. Thinking it would be neat to see, I headed that direction. But trying to actually get to the heliport was nothing but trouble. And after actually finding it, there was nothing to see. It was a big, fat, letdown.
Photos for the day:
I would have left my room before noon, but I starting watching a movie on CCTV 6. It was a Chinese car racing chick-flick. So of course I had to stay and watch. The movie ended shortly after 1 pm. I'll try to find the movie's name.
Finally, a nice day.
I bought a present for Mom from this man.
What's that in the distance? Giant horses? Must stop and look...
It was a large park with the biggest horses I've ever seen.
Don't mess with China.
Found a lot of nice tree-covered roads.
While trying to find the Shenzhen Heliport, I though I saw a shortcut on Google Maps. This ended up taking me on the first dirt road of the entire trip and a dead end.
After 30 minutes of zig zagging around, I finally arrived at the Heliport. And it turned out to be the most boring thing I saw during the entire trip. I wasn't allowed to enter and I saw no helicopters : ( In the left of this photo in the distance are people playing tennis. Guess every Helicopter Airport needs tennis courts and a driving range.
The final road home. Don't worry Mom, I wasn't on the highway for more than 5 minutes... It might have been more like 10-15 minutes... I don't really remember.
Castle.
More nice inner-city roads.
Arriving downtown. Shenzhen Hilton ahead.
After 127 miles of rain, potholes, highways, factories, parks, and cows, I'm back home. Good to see you again Mr. Lion.
Home at last. Will post today's stats tonight.
Long day. So long that I was too tired to do this post last night. So instead it is the next morning and I'm laying in the hotel bed writing this. I left the Dongguan hotel and rode to China New South Mall, the largest mall in the world based on gross leasable area (of which a majority is not leased). After driving the go karts at the mall, the time was about 12:30pm when I set off for Shenzhen.
Considering I got all the way to the Shenzhen Airport, I probably could have made it back home from Dongguan in only one day if I would have left the hotel at 9am and rode all the way though without too many stops. I took the route closer to the coast. The biking turned out to be a lot easier than my trip to Dongguan, with lots of straight and flat roads.
If Star Wars fans want to know what it would be like to take a long bike ride on Coruscant, you should take the route I did today. All I saw was 50 miles of factories, busy town centers, huge empty highway crossings, and more factories.
But I did get to see buffalo/cows!
Stats for the day:
Ride Time: 5:11:20
Stopped Time: 1:40:05 (Include mall visit and lunch. Doesn't include cow crossing)
Distance: 49.75 miles
Average: 9.59 mph
Fastest Speed: 23.80 mph
Ascent: 2805 feet
Descent: 3040 feet
Calories: 3589
Map of the ride: http://j.mp/wDmMwR
Problems of the day:
No real problems. Rear bike wheel is a little bent. Not sure if this happened before this trip, but only noticed it today. While the hazy skies of the past few days were cloud and fog related, I'm not too sure today's was. Often there was the smell of smoke in the air. Being New Years, most of the factories are closed and that should help cut down on the population in this area. But the sky was overcast all day and some of that probably was pollution.
Taffy given out today: 1 piece. Gave to a really old man at a large road crossing. He was selling feather dusters and steering wheel covers at the intersection. Seemed he wasn't having too much luck. He seemed happy to get saltwater taffy though. (Don't tell anyone, but I ate two pieces).
Photos of the day:
The New South China Mall was about 5 miles from my hotel. This was my first sight of it.
I had no idea how to get in. Further down the road I found a small entrance on the left that led to a spa, but instead of stopping at the spa's entrance I continued to bike onwards and ended up in the restricted section of the mall (I wasn't really trying, but there weren't any barriers saying 'Do Not Enter.') I don't know if this section has always been closed off from the public or if it is undergoing renovation. And remember that at this point the entire mall might have been closed as far as I knew. Florence Bridge was the first thing I saw:
I guess this section of the mall was made to look like Venice. According to Wikipedia, the mall has 7 zones that look like different cities/regions (I wish I would have found the California zone). There is a canal running through this section, and all the bridges over it have names like "Florence Bridge" or "St. Marks Bridge." So I rode around what looked like Venice after the apocolypse and snapped some photos. I only ever saw one person, an old man sweeping dust off the path.
Suddenly I heard people talking and turned around to see a gondola passing by. Where did they come from? Maybe this place isn't so dead after all.
I got to the end of the closed section and luckily a construction door had been left open. When I came out, I saw people...
I saw cars...
I saw an IMAX...
and I saw a Lexus dealership (although there were no cars inside).
I continued forward and arrived at a small amuzement park in the center. I promised the security guard I would not ride my bike while inside.
While most of the mall's square footage might not be occupied, at least it has a McDonalds and Pizza Hut, making it like the other 99.9% of Chinese malls.
I decided to get off the beaten path once more and continued to the eastern half of the mall. While not under construction like the western Venice side, this area seemed completely unoccupied, all 4-7 stories of it.
While walking in the middle of this huge unoccupied mall, I just happened to look down a hallway to the left a saw a sign for "Kart Race Track." Like a fly towards light, I followed.
Above the elevator, Michael Schumacher is telling me my dreams (梦想) are on the 7th floor (七楼). Well I certainly wasn't going to turn back now.
And that's when I did find my dream: an enormous go kart track on the 7th floor of the world's largest empty mall. Both when I arrived and left, people were coming to the track, so customers do know about it. The group before me did a best lap of 1:07. My best was a 1:04. Apparently the track record is a 0:58. I originally bought two tickets (each for 10 minutes), but after the first session I looked at the time and decided I needed to get going. They were nice enough to refund the second ticket.
Shortly after leaving the mall and heading southwest, I came upon my greatest discovery in the 5 years I've been in China. It is so massive and so groundbreaking that I cannot share it now. It must wait for a very super special post. But here is a sneak peek:
Stopped for lunch at a Muslim noodle place. Outside of McDonalds or KFC, these are the most reliable restaurants in China. They are in every city and has the same exact menu on the wall.
Road to nowhere.
This cute little lamb was at the side eating. Must have been someone's pet. I now want a lamb.
In the middle of the Shenzhen/Dongguan industrial area I came upon a group of buffalo, cows, and a single horse. They were grazing as a large group. They then decided to cross the highway (which luckly wasn't crowded with cars). A few minutes later the owner of the cows came by to make sure the few stragglers continued with the group.
Took a pee break in a field and found sheep.
I had to cross a river and the only way to do so was by highway. I took a ramp with a sign for Shenzhen and was met at the other side of the river by policemen with machine guns at a car checkpoint. Every driver had to show identification before entering. The man with the machine gun asked to see my passport. But before I got it out, another police asked where I was going (Shenzhen), where I had come from (Dongguan), where I lived (Shenzhen), and how I had gotten here from Dongguan (by bike). He laughed along with the other policemen and waved me through.
I was officially on the road back to Shenzhen.
After a while, I reached Shenzhen Airport.
It was after 5, so I decided to find a hotel and have an easy ride back home on Saturday. I previously had a late flight canceled due to weather and the airline gave us complimentary rooms at a hotel close to the airport. I remembered the hotel being next to the new airport metro line. So I followed the metro.
Found it.
Took some convincing for the security guard to let me keep the bike in my hotel room instead of the room behind the front desk. I ended up having to resort of humor and telling him the bike was like my little brother; I couldn't leave my little brother alone for the night.
Serious helmet head.
After 50 miles and 5+ hours of riding, finally laid down and watched some tennis.
Tomorrow (which is actually today as I'm writing this)? The ride home.
There is no way I'm not doing this.
Why only to see the largest mall IN THE WORLD. This from Wikipedia on the New South China Mall, in what might be the most mind blowing stat I've ever read:
No. of stores and services: 47 (20 planned) (Total spaces: 2350, Unoccupied: 2303)
I'd say they have some spaces to fill. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia entry also states a closing date of 2011. I'll head out to see it anyway. Ths path will take me in the direction of the coast and I'll ride down along the water to Shenzhen. I was hoping today would be warmer. While the iPhone promises temps will rise to 66 degrees, it is currently on 48. No rain for Shenzhen but possible rain for Guangzhou. I am halfway in between.
Due to the weather I decided to stay in Dongguan for the day. This turned out really well as I had a relaxing day and saw some of Dongguan city. I am currently sitting at a bar drinking a white Russian and working on this post (and now it is later and I am back at the hotel finishing this post).
I left the hotel at about 12:30 pm. First order of business was getting a haircut. I found a local place a block away and got a haircut/head massage for 30元. Your welcome Mom.
In the distance I saw what looked to be European architecture. This turned out to be a large shopping complex. I felt like I was in St. Marks square (I've never been, but I imagine it's something like this).
I found Batman's daily ride.
I will be posting the videos later of the below Xinjiang lamb BBQ street vendor. I was attracted to it by the loud music. The chefs were dancing to the music while cooking lamb sticks. The ploy worked as customers streamed in. It was a crowded area anyway since it was in front of the Dongguan Walmart.
On Google Maps I saw what looked like a large park a few blocks away. This turned out to be Dongguan People's Park (东莞人民公园). Lots of lakes with pedal-powered boats and nice historical architecture and traditional gardens. While it was a chilly day, the New Years holiday brought a lot of people to the park.
Around the park were at least 20 large displays for Chinese New Years.
Cute baby!
There was a medium sized amusement park with rides and games.
The one downside of the day was this carnival game. I wanted to know what the huge crowd was gathered around. It was a game in which you throw hoops around prizes. What was a little depressing was that some of the prizes were little bunnies and birds. So not only was it really cold but these poor animals were having their cages constantly hit with plastic hoops. Sad :.(
Monument at the top of the park's tallest hill.
I saw a sign with directions to an 'airplane.' Didn't know what to expect, but yes, there really was an airplane. It's a MIG?
There was also a sign for 'Monkey Hill.' I found Monkey Hill, but no monkeys.
Flower celebration.
Proof you don't have to be completely alive to play Chinese chess. He certainly looked half dead. I actually need to learn how to play so I can take part in these street games.
Angry Birds!
The gate exiting the park. I gave the guy on the ground 10元.
On the way to the bar street I found another park. Looking at the park's map (and viewing it in Google Maps), it might have been the largest inner-city park I've ever seen.
More Angry Birds!
I arrived at Shooters around 4:30 to watch the tennis match. I settled in with my computer and a glass of white wine.
Met some new friends. Had a drink, played pool. Met some more people.
This guy was incredible drunk. Fell off his chair ever 5 minutes. Manager had to put him in a taxi after an hour.
Had a final drink(s) at a place called Hollywood Baby Too with a few of the people I met at Shooters.
There philosophy (in a photo taken the day before):
So that was my day in Dongguan. Saw some parks, had some drinks, watched some tennis (I hate Nadal).
A story from my hometown of Shenzhen:
Dr. Hai Hong’s story is a typical tale in China’s hyper-competitive manufacturing sector. A medical-school graduate, Hong turned to manufacturing in 2005, after he failed to line up a hospital job. He started building plastic moldings for manufacturers, but it was a tough business, and Hong and his business partner saw that they could improve margins by going direct. They tried selling on Alibaba.com — a popular Chinese marketplace for small businesses — but it was still tough to make a profit, and they knew that if they could somehow sell directly to the bondage and S&M websites that marketed these products to U.S. and European customers, they’d make a lot more money.
Typical indeed.
The Wired article does contain some worthwhile passages.
According to Haley, the real problems start when inexperienced Chinese companies start doing international business — and dealing with China’s byzantine export regulations — for the first time. That can mean losses for the small business, or late shipments to the U.S. customer. In a worst-case scenario, the Chinese manufacturer could even face jail time for an export code infraction. “In dealing with China Customs small companies without established relationships with the customs officers in their home region are at a serious disadvantage,” he says.
The following quote is pretty amazing:
According to Asian Correspondent, school leaders showed up to a recent job fair in Hebei province looking to fill nearly 9,000 positions. Only 810 applicants showed up, giving prospective teachers plenty of options.
Certainly not like this in every Chinese industry. Wow.
Plus got to see two great public parks. Will post pictures later.
After 30 minutes of intense internal discussion, I've decided to spend the day in Dongguan. It is still very cold outside and the rain could start at any moment. I still have clothes drying and a ride to Guangzhou today would be the opposite of fun. I would then have to leave the next morning for three full days of biking back to Shenzhen no matter the weather.
So I've decided to stay in Dongguan for the day, do some mountain climbing, see some sights, and relax. The weather should get better tomorrow (60s-70s with no rain). I can ride towards the coast and have two easy days of biking along the ocean back to Shenzhen.
When spring arrives I can attempt a full ride to Guangzhou and Zhuhai as it was meant to be. To think that only five days ago I was riding around Shenzhen in shorts and a tee shirt. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate.
So the only question is, should I get burrito's again tonight?
It is now Thursday morning. Should have posted this last night but I was too tired. All in all, a very cold day. Would have been a beautiful ride in the summer time. Not today though. Did see lots of country and small farms. Many of the millions of shops and restaurants located along the road were closed. This is probably because of the holiday (I hope).
When I road into Dongguan I saw nothing very interesting. Just miles of factories and small Chinese shopping areas. So didn't hold out much hope for seeing anything interesting my night here. Went out in Dongguan for something to eat and happened to find Bar Street by accident. While one side of the road has lots of Chinese clubs, the other side has a lot of different restaurants, including Thai, steak, American seafood, and pub food. It was a really nice area. I went into a pub called Shooters. I was the first person there (about 5:30 pm) but in the next hour other American/Western families started arriving for dinner. The area was very nice and was totally unexpected on my part.
I am still trying to figure out my plan for today. The weather today is the same as yesterday: very cold with probable rain. Tomorrow the weather will start improving. I have two options.
Stats for the day:
Ride Time: 4:14:15
Stopped Time: 50:07
Distance: 35.91 miles
Average: 8.48 mph
Fastest Speed: 25.00 mph
Ascent: 2402 feet
Descent: 2802 feet
Calories: 2545
Map of Yesterday's ride: http://j.mp/wLMVHs
Yesterday's problems: All weather related. Rained all morning. Stopped at noon time but then temperatures dropped. I really need to find clip-in peddles when I get back to Shenzhen. Lastly, I saw my first little kitty roadkill. Not a great way to start a morning. Finally, the hotel wired internet is not working with my Apple computer. This is the second time in two days. So thank you China Unicom for allowing free hotspots on your 3G network smartphones.
Photos:
The park by my hotel. Stopped to have a look as I left for Dongguan.
Outside the park were little carnival games. Not the nicest day for outside games.
This picture doesn't show it, but this was one amazing looking campus. You can see the security guard on the right. I took to tight of a turn in front of the gate and the bike slipped out from under me. I simply ditched the bike but was able to stay on my feet. He was there watching me the entire time. First fall of the trip.
All of what's best and worse about modern China can be summed up in the next two pictures. On one side of the street is Mission Hills, probably the most famous golf course in all of China and is not only played by the Chinese elite, but also probably thousands of visiting golf tourists from the West each year. And then directly across the road...
...is a pretty depressed Chinese community. It doesn't look like it from this picture, but this is almost in the middle of nowhere, and in the lead up to this area were tiny farming villages. You have immense wealth on one side of the road, and poverty on the other.
A huge nature park. Guess they were expecting my arrival and put out biking sculpures. It was pouring rain when I took this picture.
Wish I could take these home to my mom so she could put them outside the front door.
I came upon Bar Street. Was really unique in that the street literally ran up to the side of the surrounding mountains. I imagine would be beautiful in the summer time.
Shooters. I sat at this Dongguan pub for a few hours watching the Australian Tennis Open. A few minutes after this photo was taken a Malaysian man entered with a Chinese/American woman. He was already drunk and yelled profanity after profanity (in a good humored way) at the food, woman, and waitresses. Greatly diminished my enjoyment of the moment.
Shooters had all these great posters on every wall of the pub, but when I went upstairs to the bathroom, I found this. A 'She's All That' poster? In German? Why?
Of all the restaurants on the street, this Thai place was by far the most popular. There was a fairly long wait to get in. I hope the chefs outside had heat.
After dinner, I walked to the city square. I had passed this in the taxi on the way to the pub. Lots of New Years decorations.
My hotel. Not a good hotel for those that are epileptic. I'll post a video later so you can see why. There are gas masks in the room, just like last night's. Is it Chinese law?
I got a burrito to go from Shooters. The menu said, "as close to Taco Bell as you're gonna get in China." So I had to get them to see how awful they really were...
...and they turned out to be the best burritos I've had in China so far. Good job Shooters. Even came with Jalopenos. If I ever return to Dongguan, I will be stopping by Shooters and ordering these again.
After the rain and dropping temperatures, I decided to stop this afternoon and get a room in Dongguan at something called the Prosperous Hotel. My shoes are drying by the air conditioner and for the second hotel in a row, the Internet isn't working with my Apple computer. Thank goodness for the personal iPhone 3G hotspot.
I think this is the first time in my life I have given a bike a shower in an actual shower. It deserved it.