Tales of City

I have been looking for an apartment in Shanghai for several months, but without any progress, I am still waiting for a better timing since it looks like that the house price is slipping in China. The question is when it is the best chance?

This July, I had gone to see two residential quarters in Jiangqiao town of Jiading District. The average price was about 20k RMB per square meter. Recently I have received several text advertisements, all said that the property developers have special discount. Xiangfuwan, for example, has 10% off discount and provides extra 25k funds for buyers.

It says that Vanke, the top resident property developer in China, is selling all its houses with as much as 30% discount. The sales office of  its property called Qinglinjing was smashed by its customers who bought their apartments before the discount with higher prices. Similar smashing occurs in several other sales offices, not only in Shanghai, but also other cities, like Beijing.

Now the government still claims that it will not loosen the economic policy, and Premier Wen Jiabao said that the government is determined to control the house price. But to be true, the government lost its credit in the past years.

If it is not the best timing to buy an apartment in Shanghai now, then when?

China is definitely a big market contributor for Apple, and its front line cities play major roles, such Beijing and Shanghai. There are 3 Apple Stores in Shanghai and 2 in Beijing till now. I have introduced the Apple Retail Store located in Hongkong Plaza in July, and this time, I want to introduce another 2 stores in Shanghai, Lujiazui and East Nanjing road Apple Stores.

The first Apple Store in Shanghai is the Lujiazui Apple Store located in the IFC building. You can go there by metro line 2 at Lujiazui station.

 Lujiazui Apple Store

The Apple Store in east Nanjing road is the third one in Shanghai that opened last month, while the second one is that in Hongkong Plaza.

 Apple Store in East Nanjing Road

Apple Store in East Nanjing Road in night time

As east Nanjing road is a walking street and is a famous sightseeing place in Shanghai, the Apple Store there attracts many tourists from other cities, what usually makes the store very crowded. It may be not a good idea if you go to this store to buy Apple products.

Yesterday afternoon, two trains crashed in Shanghai subway line 10. Till now, 271 people have been injured without dead.

At 14:10 on September 27 (Beijing Time), because of the equipment failure at Xintiandi station of metro line 10, the subway trains slammed to brake. Then the section between Jiaotong University and East Nanjing Road was scheduled artificially. At 14:51, two subway trains collided at Yuyuan station, the very central of Shanghai.

The signaling fault was supposed to be one of the accident cause. The signal system provider of metro line 10 is CASCO, and the same train signal system was used in Wenzhou train crash accident.

Although the metro line 10 resumed operating 4 hours after the crash, part of the line (from Yili Road to North Sichuan Road) is out of service for further investigation.

Julia bought some American cherry yesterday, which is expensive and not a usual fruit in China and it really tastes good.

We brought and ate the cherry this morning  when we went downstairs.

Julia asked “are you happy and do you feel good?” (OK, I admit that I do not remember what she said exactly)

I said instantly that it is NOT what you eat or where you live makes you different.

Julia interrupted to say that it is what people think make them different.

Clever Julia, isn’t she?

Last year, I went to the Shanghai Book Fair. This year’s book fair has opened today in the same place, and will last for a week to Aug. 23.

In my own opinion, the exhibition isn’t worth a visit. It is chaotic at the site and very crowded.

What attracted me most while browsing today’s schedule is that there is a book signing by Mark Obama, brother of President Barack Obama. The book name is <Nairobi to Shenzhen>. We Chinese people knew Mark Obama after Barack Obama was elected as the President in 2008, and know more when Barack visited China in 2009, because that Mark Obama is living in Shenzhen, China.

 ’Nairobi to Shenzhen’, written by Mark Obama

As it is more and more convenient and cheap to buy books online, is such book fair still necessary? Or is it just a way to promote book sale?