Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I went looking to buy a sewing machine and bought a bike

I was thinking about making some of my own softgood products (very inspiring, this Shanghai) from felt bags to dolls and went to look for a sewing machine last Sunday. There's a local electronics mart next to me (3 floors of random kiosks selling just about every gadget you can imagine) so of course I thought I'd be able to find some cheap imitation Singer or something. Well, no. Seems like these are harder to come by- but I did spot a bike kiosk. And was intrigued by the variety they had. I had been considering buying a folding bike in the Bay area but thought they were too expensive and also too heavy. Well, this one stood out- it's a "A-Bike" imitation and folds up in like 10 seconds and is super light.

Here are some photos below... I need to get one of me riding it. It's surprisingly faster than it looks, and the steering takes a bit of time to get used to as it makes for sharp turns. Bay area Caltrain, here I come!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Snacks

I went out to Tai Kang Lu with Bec the other day and the weather is getting so nice here! It's sunny and warm- if you wanted to visit now is the time. We stopped to get some ice cream from a kiosk and we decided to try new flavors. I was intrigued by a package that had a corn pic on it. After confirming that it was *not* a frozen corn on the cob, I decided to get that. (it was 1RMB btw which is like 15 cents.) To my surprise it was really good! Think corn dog, where the dog is the ice cream and the corn is the cone. Albiet a tag soggy from being in the bag, the outside waffle shell had corn imprints on it, teehee.

Walking around my neighborhood today, I saw a woman popping popcorn on a mobile stand. Chinese really like sweet popcorn (bleh!) so I asked her to improvise and instead of sugar to add salt.

Okay, and just to add another one so that you don't go away thinking corn is the only snack- this last photo is me next to the Shanghai Glico factory. props to you if you know what that company is famous for. ...pocky! We drove by it on the way to a bicycle factory we were checking out. No free samples, but I still thought it was cool.


Saturday, April 25, 2009

Objectified the movie

okay, so there are a few times where I really wish I was back in SF. Eli's birthday, Tomo's bachelorette party... and for the SF screening of Objectified! It's an independent movie about design (think Helvetica), and has a lot of design superstars including IDEO's founder David Kelley and high profile guys like Johnny Ive and some design firms. They do a segment on IDEO and our process and I found out from some friends that i was in it for a few seconds as well. woohoo! I don't think I'll be seeing it anytime soon- and there's no hope of it reaching Shanghai...just yet If you've seen it, let me know if I can apply to the Screen Actors Guild with my performance :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Guilin trip

So when Hanson came this time, one of our goals was to go to Guilin. Guilin is in the south of China and is known for its picturesque scenery. If you have a 20 RMB bill, on the back is a picture of Guilin on the LiJiang river. We passed by it on a boat.

We left on Thursday afternoon and we had researched quite a few things to do already. We scheduled a river cruise that went to YanShuo, a small town about 1.5 hour drive away. The cruise lasted a good 4 hours and we had the typical "tourist experience" with lunch served on board. After getting to YanShuo we decided to pass on a packaged tour and decided to rent and ride bikes around the small town. We hired a guide and since she had grown up in YanShuo she knew the backroads and where to go. It was a great experience- we saw the scenery at our own pace and then stopped to take a bamboo raft down another small river. We put the bikes on the raft as well!

Then we rode around to see a 1400 year old Banyan tree and hiked up Moon hill before rushing back to get tickets to see Zhang Yimou's folk musical, "Third Sister Liu." Zhang Yimou was the director of the Beijing Olympic events, and this performance did not dissapoint! The whole event was on the water (Vegas "O show" on crack). Let's just say, hundreds of performers, mountain scenery, elaborate costumes... amazing!
The next day we spent mostly in Guilin city and did quite a few things like tour the Reed Flute cave, ride a cable car to see the heights, tour the four lakes and see the elephant trunk hill.
The third day we joined a small tour (total 4) to go visit the LongSheng Terraced fields. These rice fields are terraced to utilize the land to the fullest and a batch of rain came in which filled a few of the levels to show a nice reflection from the sky. In the summer months each level would be filled with water. You can just imagine the thousands of man hours spent to build this!



Hanson comes to visit!

So my brother Hanson came to visit from Sat April 11-20th. He came before last Xmas with my parents, but this time was more casual and I now know the city/country just a tad bit better :)
We went to an "indie concert" at a local venue on Sat night, played soccer with the IDEO team on Sun, and went to Sue and Eric's housewarming that day as well. It was nice to bring him along and meet all my Shanghai friends.

Another weird thing happened this week, I got to experience a little bit of the health system here. One of my co-workers brought her little kitten into the office the other day and while I was playing with her, the kitten bit my finger. Kitties tend to do this often, and it wasn't a big deal...Until my finger became very swollen the next day! I thought I should see someone after the 2nd day so I went to the local hospital here. It was pretty Western and they all spoke English. I have medical insurance, and everything went smoothly. I had a little scare as I had to speak to the nurse in Chinese, and trying to explain health problems is little tough. Then the doctor came and was like, "So, what's the problem here?" Ah... A week of antibiotics later, I'm fine and dandy.

Also, our IDEO office arranged a class with a Chinese calligraphy instructor at the local language school. 9 of us went and learned the basics of "Shu fa" and spent a good 2 hours practicing lines and dots! This art takes years to master, at least I have a much better appreciation for it!



Thursday, April 9, 2009

Living la vida local shopping

Ah, So I'm getting back into the swing of things in Shanghai... which means buying stuff! Yesterday Christine, Selena and I went to this "black market" glasses shop which had some designer frames and we went to go see their selection. I got a decent pair of black acetate frames. The cool thing about China is that delivery, extra labor, etc. sometimes is at no cost. They are going to hand deliver them to my office after making and installing the lenses so I don't have to come pick it up! (which is good, because it was so hard to find that I doubt I will find the place again, doh.)
Also, Eddie and I went to a sports store after work to look for some astroturf shoes so I can play soccer with our work team. We went to Decathlon, a French store, which is huge in China! For those who don't know, it's like a Sports Authority, and they had a ton of selection. I bought a pair of red and white ones since they are our team colors. ... and they didn't have the black ones I liked in my size. Thomas and I caught up for dinner tonight and I bought a red Shanghai Niketown shirt to thus complete my "jersey" for the team. Seeing that there is no game this Sat and I am out of town next weekend, I sure hope I can use these shoes and shirt more than just a couple times!!

The weather is getting really nice here. I came back and the temp has been like 70 degrees and sunny (!). Spring came while I was gone... unfortunately I've heard that this nice weather won't last too long... and it will be blistering hot before I know it!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

India


I just got back to Shanghai and am happy to say that I will be staying put (well, at least staying in China) for awhile. The direct flight from Delhi to Shanghai was only about 6 hours so it wasn't so bad. But... don't fly Air India if you have a choice, it just wasn't a great experience.

But India, wow! Eddie (my teammate) and I decided to spend an extra day in India to do a little siteseeing. The work had been pretty nonstop except for a few evenings. So, we booked a day tour to the Taj Mahal on Monday that turned out to only be about $80. (4 hours each way, plus driver and tour guide.) There was a bit of traffic and got to spend a few hours at the Taj around noontime. How amazing! The white marble makes it seem like different colors throughout the day. We went inside and luckily our guide had some shoe covers because the floor was hot (and not to mention, slightly gross with everyone walking aorund barefoot). I love how the four minarets were designed to lean outwards so in the rare occurance of an earthquake, they would fall backwards and not onto the Taj. The ironic thing is, we went on Monday, and in China the country has the day off for it is "Tomb Sweeping Day." How better to celebrate this than to go to one of the most magnificent tombs in the the world?! Our guide kept talking about it being "Muggle" architecture... turns out it is "Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman, Indian, and Islamic architetural styles." thank you Wikipedia.

Included below are some pictures from Delhi's lotus temple and a few other Indian shots. (i.e. cow dung patties sold on the side of the road, and an elephant who happened to be walking right on the shoulder)





Saturday, April 4, 2009

Around the World in 2 weeks

Okay, so a bunch has happened since Brazil. I flew to SF, then back to Shanghai. While I was there, I unpacked, did my laundry, and then repacked. Okay, maybe a little more than that, but that's what it felt like! I did manage to go to a fashion show with some friends. Ah, Shanghai.

But, then I flew to India last Sunday (for work!) to do field research for the emerging markets project I'm leading. It's been such an amazing experience. I haven't been to India before but what nicer way to learn about a country than by doing tons of interviews with people across all social economic classes about all sorts of things? We flew to Delhi and spent four days there before flying to Indore on Thursday. Can I just say... traffic?! It took us hours to get anywhere with the cows, trash, pedestrians, etc. everywhere. New construction looked like old construction.

Some highlights: In Delhi Eddie and I had all of 2 hours to do some sightseeing and went to Hamayan's tomb. We'll try to hit the Taj on our return trip. Tried on a Sarri, it was great just having the man show us all the various types and colors, I'm getting a matching blouse made as well.

Some other interesting tidbits: lack of infrastructure (the weekly trash man was corrupt and charged people to pick up the trash), little public female presence (I walked around at night and saw 98% men), clean air (Everywhere is better than China), cow dung patty sellers (people burn these).

Oh, and I know I'm a product designer because I would rather see a car than the temples my fellow colleagues wanted to see. The Tata Nano just hit the showrooms in Indore and as I saw a full page ad today, I had to go check it out. The dealership said that in the last two days 20,000 people have come to look at it. I stuck out like a sore thumb in the huge crowd, and the employees wanted me to sit in it and jump the line. I was pretty impressed- there was A/C, power windows, seat belts, spare tire in the front (where the engine usually is).

Talking with a few people there, one said that there have been so many ads about it that he believes it must be good. There were mostly younger families there, but some older couples were considering buying them for their grown children. One man said that it doesn't go up steep roads so was concerned about getting to Temple. Pretty cool. If not for the deficiency in hill climbing I think it'd make a great addition to SF!! (the SmartCar is like 8 times the price!)