Mickey Mouse Hands Beijing Hutong Dancers

I took this video in Beijing when my mother and father came to visit. We were in the Beijing Hutong (the oldest part of the city) and some dancers were putting on masks and costumes. We followed them out to the street, where they danced to music and took pictures with those watching. Still not sure what they were advertising, but I do like the Mickey Mouse hands. 
Beijing, China

Brains!!!! Pig brains at hot pot (not my idea)

Went with some older Chinese friends to eat hot pot. If you don't know, there is a large bowl of boiling soup in the middle of the table. You order plates to meat, seafood, and vegetables and cook these yourself in the soup. I haven't met a foreigner or Chinese that doesn't like hot pot. On this occasion I came back to our table after washing my hands in the bathroom and found, among the vegetables and meat we had ordered, brains. Turns out an older woman at our table who I did not know personally ordered this, and it's the first time in my 5 years in China I have ever seen pig brains being ordered at hot pot. Has it been on the menu this whole time?

Anyway, we are nearing the end of the meal and the woman leaves, not even remotely touch the pig brain she ordered. I started offering 20 rmb to anyone at the table that would take a bite. No takers. Even my Chinese friends were laughing about it and didn't want to eat it. I finally scooped it up and put it in the soup. It was the very definition of playing with your food.

And the worst thing? Turns out cooked brains smell awful. Video incoming.

Shenzhen, China

Apple surpasses Lenovo in revenue for greater China

According to the Financial Times, Apple may have just surpassed Lenovo in total revenue for greater China, with revenue of $3.8 billion. No wonder Tim Cook declared during Apple's Q2 earning's call that the company was extremely happy with their growth in China. The iPhone was the main agent of this growth, with sales up almost 250%. 

For its part, Lenovo's share of the Chinese PC market continues to grow and CEO Yang Yuanqing does not believe the comparison of total revenue is an accurate representation of the current state of the market:  

But Mr Yang, speaking to the Financial Times in New York, rejected the comparison. “That is not an ‘apples to apples’ calculation,” he said. “Their calculation includes the phone business but Lenovo’s main focus is in PCs, our phone business isn’t that strong even in China. High quality global journalism requires investment. 

“If you compare the PC business we still have a lead far ahead of any of our competitors,” he said, noting that Lenovo’s share of the Chinese PC market increased in the latest quarter by 2.3 percentage points to 31.7 per cent.

It will be interesting to see if Lenovo can continue to capture market share in both China and the US, especially in light of other PC manufactures' difficulties.  

Hands-on with the Nckia C6

As you may have guessed, the Nckia C6 is not an actual Nokia. It is a relatively cheap knockoff that attempts to closely copy the form and function of the real Nokia C6. Mobile phone knockoffs are very popular in China and hundreds of varieties of fake Nokias, iPhones, and Android phones can be found at any large computer market. This is a hands-on with one such model.

The C6 pairs a resistive touch screen with a slide out numerical pad (unlike the landscape slide-out QWERTY keyboard of the real C6). Under the screen are three physical buttons: Select, menu, and cancel. Removing the back cover reveals two SIM card slots and a 950mAh replaceable battery. Upon first touch, this phone is surprisingly nice to hold. The edges are gently curved and the phone has a good weight to it. The mechanical sliding action of the number pad is very smooth and stays firmly locked in place when not in use. 

The phone has a 3 megapixel camera on the back and a small front facing camera. After taking a few pictures, I unfortunately have to say that this advertised 3 megapixel count is a lie. The picture quality is the worst of any phone (or camera) I have ever used and the shutter is very slow. I was unable to test the front facing camera as no application utilizes it. 

Where the phone really starts to disappoint is with its slow software and resistive touchscreen. The software is modeled after both Symbian and iOS. The home screen and most supporting applications are similar to those of a real Symbian phone. These applications include a Wap interned browser, voice recorder, FM radio, QQ messenger (a Chinese instant messaging platform), ebook reader, and NES emulator. The unlock screen, phone dialer, and camera app closely mimic the iPhone's. 

The resistive screen is difficult to use and requires long nails and a lot of downward pressure to register any touches. The C6 does have an attached stylus but the short length of the cord renders it almost useless, especially when writing Chinese characters. Most users will probably opt to simply use their fingers to operate the touchscreen. 

Overall, this phone feels great to hold but the resistive screen, laggy software, and terrible camera make it a pain to use. The phone can be bought at most illegal phone and computer markets for around 500元 ($78). My suggestion is to save your money until you have 1200元 to spend on a real Nokia. 你不应该买这个手机!

[I apologize for the quality of the video below. The video is upside down, which apparently this is a known iOS bug. The image and sound also do not match up correctly. Not sure if uploading to Youtube (instead of Youku) would make any difference. Watch if you dare.] 

More photos of the Nckia C6 can be found here. 

Lost with a very talented HK taxi driver

I was paired with a very talented taxi driver. He spoke through bluetooth using one phone and text messaged with another phone attached to the dashboard. Result? What should have been a 2 minute, 15元 fare ride from metro to hotel turned into a wild 25 minute, 90元 ride. 15 minutes in he and I finally realized he was going to the wrong place. He was nice though and still only charged 15元.

 

One full week of Angry Birds encounters in Shenzhen

Yep, Angry Birds is all the craze in China. After reading yet another post about China's Angry Birds fever (in addition to my own previous post), I decided to document one week's worth of Angry Birds encounters here in Shenzhen. And these are only the pictures I was able to unlock my iPhone in time to take (iOS 5 lock screen camera short cut, I need you now). So here was my week:

1. Angry Birds table game. This was bought by my roommate as a present for a friend. "Let's Play In The Real Life!"

2. Angry Birds iPhone home button stickers. 10元 a pack. What makes them an even better value is the misspelling of "Aary Bird" on each sticker. 

3. Angry Birds USB drives. 8GB drive for as low as 20元. 

4. Angry Birds sticker book. Bought by another roommate for use in his English class.

5. Lenovo Angry Birds computer boxes. Not sure if there are actual computers inside or just prop boxes.

6. Angry Birds steam bun commercial. I apologize for the photo quality but I was on a moving bus and reaching over the man in front of me. I wish I could have taken a video and will do so in the coming week. The steam buns are saying "啾" which is pronounced like "Joe" and is meant to sound like a bird's chirp. The chemicals are saying such things as "添加剂" which translates to 'food additives.' The buns (birds) are knocking down the additives (pigs). Do you get it?

7. Fake iPhone 4 fake Angry Birds app. I was comparing my real iPhone 4 with a colleague's fake iPhone 4 when I saw an Angry Bird's app. When I pressed the app, I could not have imagined what I was about to experience. It was glorious.  

So that raps up one week of Angry Birds encounters and it doesn't even include the guy in the lunch line with an Angry Birds t-shirt, the Angry Birds pillow my roommate also gave away as a birthday present, and the four children playing with Angry Birds playing cards that I could not take a picture of because my bus left before I had a chance.