Archive for 'December 2006'
Santa Claus
Santa Claus! Santa Claus!
A Christmas morning I woke up and found a Christmas gift next to my sock, which I planned to place next to my bed for the gift collection of Santa Claus every Christmas. It was a story more than 28 years ago. My parents told me the story of Santa Claus since I was two. They said I had to put a sock next to my bed on Christmas Eve, then Santa Claus would come to our house, and put his gift inside my sock. My Mum said Santa Claus usually comes down chimney and exists through the fireplace but we did not have a chimney so he would climb in from the window. I did believe in it for several years!! hahahaha! I always received gifts next to my sock until one night when I was still awake; I saw my Dad secretly put a gift next to my sock then I found out the Santa Claus was actually my parents!!! How sweet they are, and what a wonderful lie they told me to make me being a happy and innocent kid!
When I became a teenager, I did write to a Santa Claus club in Finland, and had a reply with some stickers and cards from Santa Claus. I knew that Santa Claus club was just a children organisation that to keep the tradition and story for children education but for me it does mean a lot as this is a sweet story between my parents and me when I was a little kid. I always had gifts from parents when I was a kid. I guess I did learn from the way they give love since I was a little kid. Gift giving is the way to express my thought towards the people I care and love!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Big head cat
I have never ever seen any cat having such big head!! Her head is about half size of my head. No Kidding! Her body length is about 60cm, and 35cm in height. It’s like a dog. I think she is quite old as she moves so slow. I doubt she can jump much as her body size is too big as a cat. She will more likely break things around once she jumps from one place to another.
Another giant cat I had ever seen, which a cat from neighbourhood was called George when I was living in Nottingham. George had black and white pattern all over his body, just like cattle. I did call him cow cat every time when I saw him walking across the road, on his way back home from somewhere else. The most funny thing is he was wearing a name tag on his neck with his name on it – George! Can you imagine a cat called George?? He was extremely fat and big, was even bigger than the cat I saw today, but his head was smaller. He also moved so slow, but I don’t blame him as he was too fat to move. He was very gentle though as I did touch him a lot when I saw him. By the way, his master was also a fat man. 
Late posting of Christmas lighting…
Oh I forgot to post these pictures last week as I have been a bit lazy to update my blog lately. I will blame on winter!!! 
Anyway, I haven’t been out much so I didn’t really go to see much Christmas lighting this year. I only passed through Ocean Terminal one night last week, and took a few shots with my mobile.
Giving birth in HK?
Raising prices for non-residents isn’t really a solution: Collections are already a problem. Well said!
Be honest, HK ID card is not that attractive of many think. HK is an international and nice city to live in, but not completely, a perfect city you must have your baby born in here. I don’t quite understand why there are many Mainlander mothers want to have their babies born in HK in the recent few years. Some of them said medical care of HK is much better than hospitals in Mainland, so they can have better medical care in here. Some of their purposes aim to get the HK birth certificate for their babies, then their babies can live and study here in the future. Our government hospitals raised up the price against more and more pregnant Mainlander mothers to give birth in HK, but it doesn’t help. The cost is raised up to HKD40,000.00 same as private hospitals charge for non HK residents. Then the private hospitals raised up their cost again and try to avoid anymore Mainlander mothers giving birth in their hospitals, but it also doesn’t help. If those mothers can pay up to HKD40,000.00 for giving birth in HK; it means they can also pay the same or even higher price in the best hospitals in Mainland. The medical care won’t be too bad in those private hospitals of Mainland. Some are even like six stars hotels. This situation causes serious complains of both taxpayers and local HK pregnant mothers. Many Mainlander mothers do enter to HK while their babies are almost due, then they can guarantee the hospitals will accept their entry without refusal. Many of them didn’t even have full body check up before they went to the hospital that could be dangerous as the doctors don’t know what the health status of those mothers are on during their pregnancy. Meanwhile, for the local resident mothers will be lack of care in the hospitals as the nurses are not enough to take care of so many mothers under such situation. They will go for those who are in emergency. Moreover, if the nurses and doctors do treat Mainlander mothers differently compared with the local mothers, then they will be said against the law. The taxpayers are also not happy, as they are paying for the medical care not for themselves, but some people who don’t live in this city, and who never pay tax.
I heard that if any Chinese (or any pregnant women from foreign countries) pregnant women enter the US, they would have trouble to enter the country even with visa, and they could be exiled immediately. I am not sure about the truth but this is being said around for years. The US government is against those who aim to have their babies born in the US and trying to have the residency. This won’t be happened in HK, as it’s against the basic law of HK; the law sees it as some sorts of inhuman treatment. However, I think the Chinese government should do something for it either to improve their local medical care or educate the local people. A married couple in China is not allowed to have more than one child in a family. If they have the second one, then they will get fine and punishment. This is the law since 70s. During 80s, if pregnant women have been found pregnant the second time then they would be forced to do abortion. If those haven’t been found, then they would secretly travel to another county of Mainland giving birth and having the residency of that county. In this case, they won’t be found out they have two childs in the family. It’s part of the reasons why Mainlander mothers would travel to HK and giving birth. We may see that there is a leak in the law of Chinese government.
There are many nice cities in Mainland, perhaps it could be still lack of resources to certain extent in some places, but it’s not really that bad. Staying at home, is not that bad, isn’t it??
It’s not a good idea!
It’s not a good idea for people travelling to China for work often. China is going to have their own telecommunication system within the country. This system will bring lots of inconvenience to business travellers. I believe this system will lower the phone cost of local people, as now they have to refill the phone card regularly once they finish the value of it. For what I understand is their phone card doesn’t store too much value to cover much talking time as their phone cost is quite expensive. We pay by monthly fee such as HKD138.00 for 2,000 minutes. Some companies offer HKD60.00 for 1,500 minutes. We have plenty of choices. My supplier did discuss about the telecommunication system in China with me last week. They are surprise that we run monthly payment system for mobile phones, as they have to refill their value card every while, sometimes is less than two days when they talk a lot on mobiles. RMB100.00 is not much to cover, maybe only up to 100 minutes for local phone calls. It’s indeed expensive.
The new system will certainly lower the local mobile phone cost, and brings lots of benefit to local telecom companies. However, it makes very difficult situation for foreigners who travel to China for business, and also make difficulties for local people who travel abroad often. It means people need to have more than one mobile phone for usage as sim card changing system is no more existed. It’s just like network system in Japan and Korea. Most of HK mobiles can work in Japan, Korea and US as most are under network of WCDMA, GPRS and GSM. I guess when China has well developed system for their new network, its about the time HK has upgraded telecom technology to meet their changes otherwise most of HK telecom companies will be in very competitive positions with the Chinese telecom companies.
4 commentsChinese actresses in Hollywood
I read a very criticising article on the plane. It’s the airline magazine published by China Southern Airline. It’s a four A3 pages long article. It’s about comparison of Zhang Zjiyi and Gong Li as well as all the Chinese actresses who ever taken movies in Hollywood. It wasn’t a good article about Zhang Zhiyi. It’s quite mean to her actually I am very surprise to read that. She is very famous in international movies, but not gaining popularity of market in China. Her acting has been criticised not having much improvement compared with Gong Li while they were both in Memoirs of Geisha. Although Gong Li is older than her, and only taking Hollywood movies in recent years, her acting is whatsoever much better than Zhang Zhiyi. It said the Hollywood movies Gong Li ever acted which were much better standard than those Zhang Zhiyi was doing. Well, personally, I am not sure about it as it seems those Hollywood movies Gong Li ever acted, which are not stories able to express her real acting. They are just movies directed by the famous western directors. I guess this article is more or less related to the bad attitude of Zhang towards public media of Greater China area. She always refuses interviews with local media but accepts the interviews from western medias, so it’s inevitably of her being written in this way in her home country.
It seems that the whole article is not very pleased with those Chinese actresses who want to get famous in Hollywood. It mentioned those who can get famous in the west by acting, who are only Gong Li, Zhang Zhiyi and Maggie Cheung. The rest who can get their names appeared in Hollywood those must be willing to take off their clothes on the big screens, those who don’t mind acting low class characters, maybe those who can do fighting movies or those who are pretty but can’t act. It also mentioned western movies could have extra benefit in international market if they have famous Chinese actresses playing in the movies that related to the popularity of Chinese heat. It seems that Chinese media is very much prefer their own actresses going home to do more acting rather than in the west.
2 commentsAirport
For some reasons I like this airport. I feel like being in the airport between 50s and 70s in China. I also feel like I am in airport somewhere of former Soviet Union or any small airports in Eastern Europe. It’s very small and backward, but I just like it. You can only go to three different destinations from this airport. It is very simple, just right down south, Shenzhen, pass through Xiamen, and up to north, Beijing. I always like things being very original and simple. Modern airports are built up by high technology facilities, which are in practical form, but old small airports do have much closer relationship with their passengers.
I think I like small cities in up north China more than big cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, Guangzhou in down south. People are simple and up front in the north. They are easy to get close to. Business people are not too tricky, but of course there is always exception. I guess I am lucky to meet honest business people so far….so it’s also part of my fortune….
What’s that?
I have ever lived in many hotels of China, but never seen such funny shape of hair dryer…. ^_^ Cool eh!
What a day!
Ahhhh! I eventually arrived in Yiwu, an industrial city in Zhiejiang, China. I spent five hours waiting at the Shenzhen airport due to some not understandable reasons. I thought China Southern Airline is the best airline of China but it seems not quite at all. If my trip was related to personal holidays, then I wouldn’t mind waiting as I could have plenty of time but my trip was related to work then the schedule was very tight. It’s only one flight a day, and three flights a week flying from Shenzhen aiprort to Yiwu in the whole canton area. It’s the reason why I was so nervous if the flight was cancelled completely. The next flight will be on Friday then I need to travel back to HK from Shenzhen by boat again. It would be extremely troublesome and inconvenience. The public announcement of flight details was totally unclear at the airport. They announced two different departure time in two different languages. They announced the flight would be delayed to 4:50pm in Mandarin, then announced again 7:00pm in English. Such announcement was repeated again and again. When I asked the airline people to confirm the details, they just can’t give me any answers. However, I am very glad I eventually arrived though it was five hours delay.
I just found out that domestic flight is always delayed as the local people around me who took it casually. They didn’t react like the way I did. There must be lots of complains if such case happened in HK. They only offered us a bottle of water in five hours which couldn’t be happened in HK. Airlines in HK must offer free lunch for five hours delay in terms of compensation. Well, anyway I sincerely hope that there is no delay on Friday flight as the local airport is extremely small. There is not much space for sitting. If the weather changed to too cold, then it would be horrible to wait at the airport as this airport is very much in outdoor.
2 commentsThe reality and the imaginary
Alison Jackson, the British photographer who is talented in creating images between imagination and reality. She successfully creates her fake paparazzi shots of celebrity look-alikes in her works. Many are very controversial but telling the truth which is in beyond our imagination and reality. I particularly like the following picture about Bush and Tony Blair. It’s absolutely true! Every image of Camilla she created, which is also not so impressive. It’s easy to tell how much Alison Jackson is not pleased with impression of Camilla. The idea of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed with their baby could be the real future scene if Princess Diana didn’t die. I think this is really the imagination and thought of many of those who adore Princess Diana. You may see most of Alison’s works in her official site. I am looking forward to her new works coming up in spring of 2007. Part of her new creative ideas will be with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as well as Paris Hilton. I can’t wait to see that..
