Google's Withdrawal from China

The news that Google Inc's potential withdrawal from China, over the censorship in China and the hacker's attack on GMail accounts for Chinese human right activists, sent shock waves not only in the investors world, it is also a hot topic that concerns a lot of Internet users worldwide as well as the players in the IT industry.

The mass Internet users in general supported the move by Google to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the gmail accounts as well as the Internet freedom.

However for some, this appears to be a calculated economic decision for the company. The operation in China contributes only less than 5% of the company sales. Based on the Sept 09 report on search activity from Comscore, Google Sites was the top search destination in Asia Pacific Region, accounting for 44.1% share of all searches in the region. However when drilled down the statistics by individual country, Baidu.com Inc. led as China's top search destination with 63% share of searches performed. Therefore the withdrawal does not seem to be fatal for the company in the short term as its market share is not that significant in China at the moment.

There was also conspiracy theory especially from China that the US is behind Google, engineering all this and this event is more of the political game in between US-China rather than a sole corporate decision.

Based on the research report from Comscore for internet population aged 15+ accessed the internet from a home or work location, China, home to the largest Internet population in the world, experienced a 31% increase to 220.8 million in a year from Sept 08 to Sept 09, making it the fastest-growing Internet country in the region. The long term effect for permanent withdrawal from China market is therefore unwise for any Internet company. I would rather think this event is just a tactic for the company to have a better position in the negotiation with China for more freedom in its operation in China. Let's wait and see how the story progress in Feb 09, after Chinese New Year.

An Abandoned Tin Mine in Puchong

It used to be an abandoned tin mine with the mounting sand hill as high as a 3-storey building, at the back of IOI Mall, Puchong, when I first moved in Puchong in 2000. In the last 1-2 year, the eyesore has turned to a big lake unnoticeably by the developer. Row of buildings were built facing the lake or facing the LDP highway. Eatery & shops newly opened are frequently packed with Puchong folks for meals in the evening.

Lake view - no longer an eyesore

Eatery and shops facing the lake

Currency Movements

In responding to the global financial meltdown from 2008 onwards, countries were implementing different measures to keep their economies staying alive. Other than the multi-billions or even up to trillions of government sponsored stimulus packages to boost domestic spending and revive respective economies, many countries especially export-dependent economies have also chosen to devalue their currencies to maintain their export competitiveness or to achieve other political agendas.

In 30th Nov of last year, North Korea announced the plan to devalue the currency (North Korea won) by 100 to 1 by rolling out 10 won of notes to replace the existing notes of 1,000 North Korea Won. This measure was practically equivalent to wiping out the savings for the people of North Korea. On hearing the announcement, the people in the country rushed out to convert their local currency to the RMB or USD to protect their savings. There were also cases reported that there were people committed suicide for the fear of losing the entire savings.

Venezuela announced on the 8th Jan 2010 that the government‘s intention to implement a dual system for a fixed rate Bolivar by devaluing the currency from the 2.15 per dollar, in place since 2005, to the range of 2.6 and 4.3 per dollar. Exchange rate for essential goods such as food, medicine etc will be devalued to 2.6 per dollar, while the exchange rate for the non-essential goods (such as imported cars) and services will be devalued to the 4.3 bolivar per dollar. The currency devaluation, according to the President Hugo Chavez , is expected to boost the export while discouraging the people from buying non-essential imports. After the announcements, it was reported that Venezuelans flocked to shops to buy appliances, electronics and other import items in anticipating of the upcoming price revisions.

China, the world biggest exporter that surpassed Germany in 2009, has chosen to peg its renminbi at about 6.8 yuan to the US dollar during the recent financial crisis to boost its exports. The monetary policy has attracted many criticisms especially from the US and Europe. Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winner in 2008, in his recent new year article, openly criticized China’s stand in devaluing the renminbi and blamed that this had created unfair advantages to China and had "stolen" 1.4 mil jobs from the US over years. The western countries are seemed to be standing together to force the fastest growing economy to appreciate its currency. This appears to lot of people as another plot from the west similar to what they have done to Japan which resulted to Plaza Accord in 1985 and the subsequent leading to the asset price bubbles and the eventual lost decade for Japan. The difference now is the victim is changed from Japan to China. All eyes are now on China on when and how much the country will appreciate its currency to ease the inflationary pressure as well as the mounting pressures from the West.

Like it or not, average people like you and me are definitely impacted by currency movements, no matter in what directions. Nobody wants their hard-earned money to be wiped out when the country devalue its currency. On the other end, we should also be alert that the country which we are dealing with is expecting to appreciate its currency as the prices of goods and services will be higher. As far as I am concerned, the renminbi appreciation would blow by travel budget for my China vacation in April. It looks to me that it is definitely make sense for me to convert to renminbi now before the appreciation.

2010 - Embracing A New Decade

It was not a good start for 2010 with the occurrences of few instances of churches and schools been perpetrated with attacks in the last couple of days, leaving many to us to wondering what had really happened to this country, which used to be and hopefully continue to be a harmonious country. You have never had before a new year wish to live in a safe and peaceful country (Malaysian have always take this for granted). Nevertheless for 2010, you have just included this as the main one in your list. You know you are not the only one.

In the last decade, we witnessed the worst financial crisis in 2008 Q4 - 2009, probably one of the worst in our life time for some with many tightened the purse strings in the economic recession. For Malaysian, 1997-1998 financial crisis was the probably a worse one with many of our friends, colleagues or family members & relatives lost their jobs or forced to change their careers unwillingly. We also had the memory of the worst scares during the SARS epidemic in 2003 and over 70+ death cases in the H1N1 outbreak, which caught a lot of us in surprise in 2009.

Other than the above, As the saying "The only constant in life is change" goes, you know you must embrace 2010 as a new decade of changes with the following wishes laid out in this year.

Moving into the next decade and worked for than 15 years in the same field, a strong feeling and urge arisen for diversification into another career, not in the IT field. This feeling existed in the last couple of years and became much stronger now at this juncture. All this while you often think IT is a industry which really discriminates the players by age. Staff moving into the middle age like you (35 and above) are often hit with bottlenecks and we are not as competitive as the new entries in their young age in acquiring the new technology & skills, which are essential for the survival in this field. In this aspects, you told yourself many times that you would spare more time this year to venture and diversify from the usual track.

This is also a year for your execution of planned travels with a minimum of 2 weeks for at least 2 trips. A trip is currently being planned for China ChengDu and Xi'an for 2-3 weeks in April this year, an extension from last year's trip of 6 cities in China. Another trip, hopefully in Europe, at the second half of the year have not been planned yet. You also hope that the trip to Shanghai for the visit to Shanghai Expo (held from 1st May - 31st Oct 2010) can be materialized, but this can be expensive due to the foreseeable huge crowd from the worldwide.

In addition, you would continue the reading habit for this year with at least 24 books per year (about 2 books per month). Books on Financials have been your focus in the previous years and you hope that this would change this year.

The final one would be to achieve the financial objective of the net worth target by end of the year, which you had initially stated from 2007. The journey is definitely bumpy considering the economic recovery does not seem to be as solid and sustainable as we first thought.

Attach here a photo snapped this morning, looking out to the window from the bed. The rising sun, hopefully would bring everyone a sea of good changes, and of course the required wisdom to enbrace the challenges.

Shanghai (3) - A Perfect Wrap-up for Future Trip

We wrapped up our China trip on the 30/05. We took the Shanghai Maglev Train to Shanghai Pudong Airport for a flight back to KLIA. At full speed, the train journey takes about 8 minutes to complete the distance of 30 km. The train can reach 350 km/h (220 mph) in 2 minutes, with the maximum normal operation speed of 431 km/h (268 mph) reached thereafter. This is the fastest train I had ever ridden. An awesome experience on the world fastest train.

Shanghai Maglev Train Station

In relaxing mode


Inside the Shanghai Maglev Train

The entire China trip took us 19 days, encompassing 6 cities from north to south, was just so amazing and undoubtedly a self-fulfilling experience. On the flight back to KLIA, the questions on my mind were when would be the next China trip and what would then be the next destinations.

Shanghai (2) - Sightseeing and Shopping

We have 28/05 & 29/05 for for our sightseeing & the planned late-minute shopping, before we wrapped up our China trip on the 30/05. The first destination was the area around City Gold Temple - Chenghuang Miao (城隍庙), the traditional district of commerce in the city, surrounding the City Gold temple. There are hundred of stores and shops in this area, and most of these buildings are nearly a century old.

The streets of Chenghuang Miao

Chenghuang Miao Area

Century old buildings in the Chenghuang Miao area

There were so many city dwellers and the tourists like us crowding the entire Chenghuang Miao area, probably to come for shopping as well as to feel the traditional ambience which is uncommon in other parts of the city.

Pavilions and teahouses in the Chenghuang Miao area


Pavilions and teahouses in the Chenghuang Miao area


Chenghuang Miao area

The Entrance for City Gold Temple

We had a short stroll at People's Square (人民广场), a large public square adjacent to Nanjing Road. This is a good location for photo-snapping as there are many landmark buildings around such as Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Grand Theatre (上海大剧院), JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai and the others.

Entrance for Shanghai Museum


Shanghai Grand Theatre (in the front), JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai (in the centre)

Another view of skyscrapers around People's Square

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (上海浦东市区中国科技馆) was also one of our sightseeing spot in the afternoon.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum



Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

Nanjing Road, the main shopping street in Shanghai, was our final stop for the day. The district is located in the city center, running in a west-east direction. We strolled along the bustling commercial street with stores on both side of the street packed with city dwellers and tourists. I picked some Shanghai Expo 2010 souvenirs from the souvenirs shop here.

Sightseeing Tram offering services along the Nanjing Road


Nanjing Road


Neo-classical buildings along the bustling street

Shanghai (1) - The Oriental Pearl Tower

The Oriental Pearl Tower - the iconic landmark for Shanghai

Different colours of flags in the sunset

We took the train from Hangzhou station and arrived at Shanghai south station at about 5:00pm on the 27/05. Shanghai, our sixth city as well as the final stop in our China trip, is the largest and the most populous city in China with the population of over 20 millions (If you can not imagine, this is 3.5 times more than our most populous area at the entire Klang valley) .

Our main destination was the Oriental Pearl Tower (东方明珠塔) with our limited time left after the hotel check-in. We got out from the subway Lujiazui (陆家嘴) station and the Oriental Pearl Tower is just beside the exit. We took a short walk at the nearby Riverside Promenade - Pinjiang Da Dao (滨江大道), the best venue to have a panoramic view of the Shanghai Puxi (浦西) skyline. The promenade is 2.5km-long and consists of manicured lawns, flower beds, and a broad walkway dotted with kiosks.

The entrance for Reverside Promenade

The cityscape at Puxi, Shanghai.

Puxi skyline with the many skyscrapers.

The impressive-looking Shanghai International Convention Center with its twin globes is located within the proximity.

Shanghai International Convention Center

We moved on to the Oriental Pearl Tower to have a night view of Shanghai. The Oriental Pearl Tower is a TV & radio tower completed in the year of 1995, with the height of 468 m. It was once the tallest building in China, but surpassed by Shanghai World Financial Center in Sept 2007. We paid RMB100 for the Sightseeing floor and the Shanghai Municipal History Museum (上海城市历史发展陈列馆) at the tower's pedestal .

In different batches, We went into the elevators, which hold up to fifty people at the rate of seven meters per second. A courteous elevator attendant in the red uniform, gave us an introduction to the TV Tower in both English and Chinese and it ended when we reached at the Sightseeing Floor, at the 263m high.

A night view of The Oriental Pearl Tower

The Shanghai World Financial Center (left) and the Jin Mao Tower (right)

The outdoor observation desk with the thinck glass flooring was definitely the highlight in the entire visit. This is an adrenaline-popping experience and I practically hold my breath before start walking on the glass, with most of the Pudong skyscrappers at the below. Well, there were of course some screams from the young girls around in their exitement.

Outdoor observation deck

The Bund and Puxi skyline at night

The Shanghai Municipal History Museum was a surprise for us as it really added value to the entire tower visit. We had never expected to visit this "live museum" which displays the history of the city with emphasis from 1860 and 1949. We practically walked in the "real" old Shanghai street with the experience on the old transports, shops & builldings mimicked from the old time of Shanghai.

A display in the Shanghai Municipal History Museum

Hangzhou - The Wonders in the West Lake

Sunset in the West Lake, Hangzhou

Hangzhou was our fifth city in our China trip. Hangzhou is labelled as the best tourism city in China. The free travel guide booklets which are readily available in the hotel counter are well written with clear description of travel highlights in the city and also printed in different languages to facilitate tourists from local as well as from the abroad. This clearly reflects that Hangzhou city is really steps ahead from other cities we had visited in marketing the tourism industry in the city. The iconic West Lake (西湖) , located in the western area of the city center, is definitely the brightest pearl in attracting tourists into the city. In the long history of China, there were many philosophers, politicians, and men of literature, renowned poets came to visit West Lake and this scenic lake had long been part of their creativity.

We arrived on Hangzhou in the late afternoon on 24/05. We checked in into the 7 Days Hotel not far away from the West Lake. A short walk in the night by the West Lake was comforting especially with the lively music fountain. The show was really impressive with the lights and accompanied with background musics, in both traditional Chinese and Western music.

Music fountain at night

A view of the West Lake with pavilion in the background

The size of the West Lake is amazingly big with an area of around 6.5 sq km, making the tour of a complete round of the lake by walking is almost impossible to complete within a day. We took almost 1.5 days to complete the journey. On the 25/05, we walked southward, heading to the direction of LeiFeng Pagoda, from our starting point near the music fountain.

Picturesque view with the willow trees by the lake side

The West Lake used to be called as Lake of Golden Bull, derived from the old legend. The "Golden Bull Arise from the lake" sculpture placed in the lake, with a man seen pouring the water to clean the mud over the bull body.

Golden Bull Arise from the lake

The next spot was Qian Wang Temple (钱王祠), a memorial temple to the kings of the Wu Yue kingdom who ruled this area for fifty five years (between 923 AD and 978 AD)

Qian Wang Temple

Memorial archway in front of the Qian Wang Temple

We reached the Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔) , one of the popular tourist spot with the scene "Leifeng Pagoda in the Sunset" (雷峰夕照), listed as 10 scenic spots of the West Lake. The five story tower was originally constructed in the year AD 975, it collapsed in 1924 but was rebuilt in 2002. The pagoda was heavily mentioned as a important scene in the popular Chinese legend - "The Legend of the White Snake" ( 白蛇传).

Leifeng Pagoda

The new site was inaugurated on Oct 2002 . We were quite surprise to see that it was equipped with escalator to carry visitors to the pagoda's foot. Part of the pagoda is converted to a display hall of the ruins of the old pagoda, and also exhibitions of many interesting materials.

Leifeng Pagoda, with the escalator

The main entrance of the Leifeng Pagoda

View of the man-made islands from the Leifeng Pagoda


Another view from the Leifeng Pagoda.


Dragon Boat

We proceeded to the Flower Pond park, a popular site to view goldfish. "Fish Viewing at the Flower Pond" (花港观鱼) is one of scenic spots in the West Lake. The Flower Pond is quite a large park (with about 20 hectares) with picturesque landscape. The rains got heavier and we were shivering in cold, walking in our light jackets.

Fish Viewing at the Flower Pond

The scenic view at the Flower Pond

The next scenic spot was "Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer" (曲苑风荷). The lake view was lovely even though the lotuses had not blossomed yet. I could imagine how splendid the lake view would be in July - Aug, when different types of lotuses in blossom.

Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer

Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer

Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer

Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer

On the next morning, we resumed our journey by walking towards the north, from the same starting point as the previous day, near the music fountain. Very soon the Broken Bridge was in front of us. This is listed as one of the 10 scenic spot in West Lake, the popular "Remnant Snow on the Bridge in Winter" (断桥残雪) . This is best spot in the entire West Lake for snow sighting during the winter. As it was early summer, I could only imagine the beauty of entire Broken Bridge covered by the white snow during the winter.

The Broken Bridge

From the Broken Bridge, we could also see the Baochu Pagoda (保俶塔), located just north of West Lake on top of Precious Stone Hill (宝石山)

Baochu Pagoda can be seen from the Broken Bridge.

We walked along the Broken Bridge, which is also the beginning of the Bai Causeway (白堤), During the Tang Dynasty, the Hangzhou governor Bai JuYi (白居易), who was more widely known as poet, ordered the construction of a stronger and taller dyke, with a dam to control the flow of water, and thus solved the drought problem and improved the lives for people in Hangzhou. It was also mentioned that he ordered the construction of a causeway connecting the Broken Bridge with the Solitary Hill (孤山) to facilitate walking by foot. The causeway was then beautified with plantation of coolabah trees and willows trees along the dyke and it eventually turned out to be a popular landmark in the West Lake. It was subsequently renamed as Bai Causeway, in honour of Bai's contribution to Hangzhou.

Bai Causeway

We arrived at the next scenic spot - Moon over the Peaceful Lake in Autumn (平湖秋月), on the western of the Bai Causeway, one of the 10 scenic spots named by Emperor Kangxi during the Qing Dynasty. It is currently a favorite spot for moon sighting during the mid autumn festival.

Moon over the Peaceful Lake in Autumn (平湖秋月)

Moon over the Peaceful Lake in Autumn

Our next destination was the Solitary Hill (孤山), the biggest and the only natural island in the West Lake. It is connected to Bai Causeway in the east. There are many interesting spots within the compound such as Zhejiang Museum (浙江博物馆) , ZhongShan Park (中山公园).

Solitary Hill

ZhongShan Park

Zhejiang Museum (浙江博物馆) is located at the southern foot of the Solitary Hill. The admission is free. I initially did not expect much from this visit but it turned up to be a really both eye-opening and eye-popping experience. The displays include the Hemudu culture (5,000-4,500 B.C.) and Liangzhu (3,400-2,250 B.C.). There were many precious collections in the exhibition including bronze implements, Buddhist statuary, Chinese art, and prayer inscriptions on silver tablets, coins etc.

Zhejiang Museum

Next we headed to the Yue Wang Temple, the tomb for the hero in the Song Dynasty, Yue Fei.

Yue Wang Temple

A breathtaking view of the lake

Another view

We completed the trip for the entire West Lake with a cup of coffee in the StarBucks, enjoying the splendid West Lake scenery in the sunset.

A cup of coffee in StarBucks during the sunset

Longjing Village (Dragon Well Village) is well-known for the tea plantations of Longjing tea, one of the most sought-after chinese green tea. We included in our trip a tour to the Longjing Village. We did not purchase Longjing tea here because we were told that the best quality of the Longjing tea is always sent to tea shps in town for sales to the public.

The entrance at the Longjing Village


The Longjing Village
Tea plantations in the Longjing Village