2010
09.02

Aftermarket Insert Turns Your Weber Kettle Grill into Coal-Fired Pizza Oven

This is a great product, I was searching for one and came across this article on

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/08/aftermarket-insert-turns-your-weber-kettle-grill-into-coal-fired-pizza-oven.html?utm_source=Serious+Eats+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=55fbd26b61-Serious_Eats_Weekly_Newsletter_August_30_2010&utm_medium=email

The Pizza Kettle ($79.95) is an aftermarket insert that turns your Weber Kettle grill into a sort of coal-fired pizza oven. It basically “extends” the height of your grill enough to give it an oven mouth that you can slide pizzas in and out of. The lid stays on, with the idea being that the temperature stays high enough inside to cook the pizzas under the same intense heat that the best wood- and coal-fired ovens reach.

I got wind of it in this email from Slice’r Philip Given, with the subject line “Look what I just bought”:

… I like the actual design of the product. I’m thinking I will mod it to be sort of like the 2stone Pizza Grill thing, since it’s basically a metal insert. It also reminds me a lot of the PizzaForge/FrankenWeber that Pizza Hacker uses (but not made of stone).

Massachusetts inventor Al Contarino makes the Kettle Pizza Oven and sells it from Main Street Hardware in North Andover, Massachusetts. It’s $79.95. You can also buy it online via eBay.

I am in Shanghai China, so I probably will try to make or copy it with a few changes to make the fire proof brick to fit.

More at kettlepizza.com »

Rating 3.33 out of 5
[?]
2010
09.02

Hermes Maison Building in Shanghai

In 19th, May 2010, Hermes announced normally to the public that Hermes will restore and build an excellent historical culture traditional building in Shanghai Luwan District. This building will be used as the first Hermes High-rise in China. The Hermes store for now is at 1266 West Nanjing Road, Henglong Plaza, 1/F (near Xikang Road, Metro Line 2 West Nanjing Road Station)  Plaza 66
南京西路1266号恒隆广场1楼 近西康路, 地铁2号线南京西路站

http://www.hermes.com/

I found this to one of the best blogs for Hermes. They describe every product and tells the story of the product.

http://www.hermeswiki.com/

Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]
2010
09.01

The power of the internet

A girl sent me this link, http://hi.nciku.cn/space.php?uid=2286&do=blog&id=3480.  Even though the article is from China smack it made it’s way from blog to blog.  I find it very interesting that spreading power of the internet.  So I thought I would add to the chain blog.

Chinese women! Please don’t sleep with foreigners.

标签women Please Chinese foreigners sleep 2010-06-10 15:27

From Chinasmack, translated from Tianya, NetEase and Mop by maxiwawa
(I usually let Shanghaichanges do these reposts, but apparently a Shanzhai arc reactor is more interesting than this.  Enjoy!)

Chinese women! Please don’t sleep with foreigners.

Ask a foreigner why he has come to China.

He’ll probably answer that he likes China’s long history, splendid culture, rapid development and changes.

But let me tell you, apart from a small minority who have been sent by the government or their company (usually along with their families), the vast majority are related to the two factors below:

One, they’re not doing well in their home countries, or they simply can’t survive in their home countries;

Two, they’re looking for Chinese women.

One afternoon I was coming back to work with a French woman that I work with. We saw from a distance an old person picking up trash. He was pushing a cart. The French woman poked me, saying “You see that?” “See what?” “Over there right in front of you.” Only then did I see that this old person was a foreigner, carrying a bag, with long dirty hair. I’m a little short sighted and had thought he was someone picking up trash. That cart he was pushing wasn’t a cart at all, but a pram, with a little half-blood kid in it. Next to him was a Chinese girl, a slim young Chinese girl.

The French girl laughed: “What’s up with you Chinese girls?” She was laughing because we had just been talking about this topic over lunch. Actually I’ve seen and heard it many times before; the story of this kind of foreign guy and Chinese girl. I haven’t paid much attention but this pair before me were in a class of their own. This sweet Chinese flower and this old, ugly, fat, short, bald, shriveled foreign guy, and their little baby in its pram.

My French friend was doubled over in laughter (I don’t know why she was laughing like that). At that moment, as a Chinese person, my self-respect was deeply deeply hurt.

A few days later I decided to do three things. First, to let everyone know the ugly truth about foreign men. Second, to call to action all Chinese, so that we can make our women see that the world doesn’t revolve around foreign men. Last but not least, I have decided that to become a scholar, I will have to temporarily give up my day job. This will allow me to focus on my research. The topic? Chinese men in the eyes of foreign women. This way I’ll be able to give Chinese men who are looking for foreign women a helping hand.

My colleague and I made our first stop by seeking out those white women who live in China but have never had a Chinese boyfriend. We hoped to find out the reason for this. We also sought out those who had had Chinese boyfriends, or were married to Chinese men. They helped us with the good and bad points of Chinese men. I know that these kinds of laowai are few and far between, but luckily I know a few.

We also got these expat white female laowai to fill out a broad questionnaire. Through this scientific analysis led us to a picture of the Chinese male, and illustrated their top five Chinese men. We asked them to answer these questions:

Are foreign women interested in Chinese men? How do single laowai women want Chinese men to treat them?  How can Chinese men make themselves more attractive to foreign women? Which Chinese men do foreign women like the most? What kind of foreign woman likes Chinese men? How should  one approach a foreign woman in a public place? When did China become a paradise for foreign men?

Man with Chinese girls in both arms.

John is one such an example. Not long ago, I ran into him on the street. He was holding hands with a Chinese girl a half a head taller than him. He said that his Chinese girlfriend worked for a modeling agency. Actually if John hadn’t called out to me I wouldn’t have recognised him, he looked completely different to how he looked the last time I saw him.

John, 42, is American, 162 cm. He hadn’t graduated from high school so he had a hard time finding work in America. After drifting around Africa for two years, he heard that lots of Americans hit the jackpot in China so he went to Shanghai. When he first arrived in Shanghai, he was a stranger in a strange place, and only got a job at a small town in Jiangsu as an English teacher.

After a few months John wasn’t satisfied, so he headed back to Shanghai, staying in a 12 kuai a night hostel. That’s when I met him. I had gone there to find another foreign friend of mine for dinner. I saw them chatting and assumed she knew John, so I asked him to come along too. I only found out later that she’d only just met him.

When it came to ordering, John ordered something quite expensive. My friend asked him in English, “That’s pretty expensive, are you going to pay for it yourself?” John was like a school kid who has been caught doing something wrong and canceled it. Seeing his pathetic look I told my friend in Chinese that it wasn’t a problem, and told him to continue ordering.

After that night I got quite busy with work, and forgot all about John. Seeing him this time, he told me that he’d found work at a school in Shanghai. I haven’t spoken with his girlfriend, but could tell that she already has begun to look down upon Chinese people. Seeing her, I could not help but think she must have idea that her American John had to depend on others to survive. This kind of thing is too much like idol worship, obviously something humans created themselves, yet creating them and then going to worship them.

Once I was on a bus and saw your typical American slacker. He was with a Chinese girl, feeling her up right there on the bus. You could see that she really wanted to let him know how moved she was by the experience, but unfortunately her English vocabulary seemed to consist of only two words.

Chinese girl dancing with white man.

A taxi driver once told me that once he picked up a black guy from a bar. He got in with a Chinese girl on each arm. He assumed that they were both ‘professionals’ so didn’t pay much attention. That was until they arrived at their destination: the dormitory of one of the top research schools. He said he was really surprised at that.

According to reports there was a dying AIDS patient in a hospital in Beijing who admitted that in a few weeks in Beijing he’d had ‘relations’ with six Chinese women. An investigation had found out that all of them were high level intellectuals.

Such a group of foreigners are living in China. They can’t find jobs in their own countries, but come to China and can make a living, drink and get women just off their foreign identities. And all they do in their spare time is grumble about China. There are even consular workers who abuse their position to take advantage of Chinese women. Some even gloat in public that “With my signature I can get any Chinese woman.”

China, did you know about this? You’ve given laowai too much, too much, so much that laowai have come to look down upon you. So much that even foreigners themselves find it odd, calling [those ugly foreigners] white trash. I want to take this opportunity to warn those laowai to not feel too proud. All you have gotten are the bodies of Chinese women, bodies without souls.

Recently spreading on the internet is a joke about foreigners looking for Chinese brides: A 47-year-old foreigner registers at a matchmaking agency in China. For a long time, no one contacted him. Then suddenly on day a whole heap of inquiries are sent to him, which of course takes him by surprise. He asks around what happened, and it turns out that someone at the agency made a mistake: They’d written his age as 67 instead of 47.

Matchmaking agencies for foreigners also prove that the reason that Chinese women want to find foreign husbands isn’t love. Investigations have shown that the average difference between a Chinese bride and her foreign husband is 10.5 years. 13% of brides and grooms are from different generations, with a 20 year difference in ages. Apparently the record is a 54 year age difference. The American groom was an 82-year-old old man, while the Chinese wife was only 28.

As chance would have it, I recently saw a joke in an American magazine: An eighty-something old man accompanied his pregnant twenty-something wife to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor kindly tried to suggest to him whether [his wife's pregnancy] may have had some other cause, but the old man immediately refused to believe it saying, “Impossible. I’m capable of working miracles. Last time when I went out hunting with my wife and one of her male friends came too. I just pointed my umbrella at a deer and it fell down dead.” [I don't get it either - maxiewawa]

I don’t know if that Chinese bride will let everyone know the good news about her pregnancy, so that we can all share in a real miracle. She’s probably gained something in her marriage, but has lost something very precious: respect.

But actually the fault lies with those Chinese women who go around with foreign men. But they are mostly women who haven’t been overseas, who don’t have a realistic view of the world. This is why I’m taking the opportunity to tell them how things really are. If you’ve found real love, I congratulate you. My personal feeling is that no matter how far, how long or how fleeting real love is, it’s always worth chasing.

Even so, I have to give you a word of advice. Firstly, although the thing that most Chinese women want is a stable marriage, apart from a few exceptions, the divorce rate in western countries is around 50%, and in marriages between cultures there are even more reasons for instability.

Secondly, I am highly skeptical of whether today’s foreign men will really give Chinese women true love. The reason is because before you can have true love, you must have respect, and in the eyes of foreign men, the image of Chinese women have already begun to be ruined by the minority, having become: The world’s most promiscuous, most brazen, most devious, simple-minded, intellectually slow, stupid, “easy” girl. It’s hard to imagine a man giving true love to a woman like that. There’s one exception, which an American told me about, which is those foreigners who want their wives to be a three-in-one combination of maid, cook, and sex worker.

Maybe you’re just doing it for money. I get it, I’m not stopping you. But I just want to tell you before you give up your body that you should make sure of two things: one, that this foreigner you’re giving yourself up for really has money. Trust me, lots of foreigners in China don’t have two cents to rub together. Secondly, that he really wants to marry you, because if he doesn’t formally marry you, his money is his and you have no claim to it.

Maybe you just want to leave the country, again, I’m not stopping you. But once again, you have to make sure of two things before giving yourself up: one, that this foreigner really wants to go back to his own country. Although foreign countries have more money than we do, that’s a long way from heaven. Lots of foreigners don’t want to go home because they can’t find good jobs (some can’t even find jobs at all). You think they want to go back to the same crummy, lonely life? Secondly, make sure that he’s really going to marry you. Because if you don’t you won’t be able to get permanent residency in his country.

The daughter of a neighbor of a workmate married a farmer from a Japanese mountain area. This neighbor is always telling my colleague stuff like “We don’t worry about money any more, ten thousand, twenty thousand, it’s nothing.” But, dear neighbor, do you know if your daughter is really happy in Japan. Chinese value face over everything, and always bringing out the good points in people while overlooking the bad. A few years ago a Chinese TV station went out to that mountain village to interview this girl. She’d left the bright lights of Shanghai for this remote, cold little village. All I heard from her was disappointment, frustration and helplessness.

Maybe your reasons are sexual? In Australia there is a Ms. Shi who wrote an article saying “…. I have a girl friend who in China was already considered was quite open, a woman who has had abundant sexual experience. However, the first time she was with a western man, she still felt a kind of extreme “fulfillment”. Telling me about it on the phone, she was so excited that she was thinking of immediately marrying that westerner, whereas I rather calmly advised her that western men that are good in bed are common, that out of every ten western men, eight are great in bed while two are just so-so, that out of every ten Chinese men, two are just so-so while eight are awful.”

As soon as Ms. Shi’s article became widely known, Chinese men clamoured to defend themselves.The subject was in the papers for several months, with debate continuing so heatedly that apparently it made headlines in international news overseas. But this was a subject that did no favours for Chinese men.

Whether or not Ms. Shi was speaking of her own experiences, or if she was trying to represent  for all women, is unclear. I hope that my research can shed some light on the matter.

The subject of my research isn’t Chinese girls that have married foreign men, but the other way around: foreign girls that have married Chinese men, or white women who have had Chinese boyfriends before. I asked them straight out how Chinese men perform in the bedroom. The replied bluntly that they do well, one even used the word “perfectly”. One person’s reaction to my question was “What, don’t you guys have confidence in your sexual abilities?”

My research is ongoing, with the results of the research to be completely published afterward.

I also need to tell everyone that recent research has shown that women’s levels of satisfaction when it comes to sex isn’t dependent on the man she’s with, but on her herself.  Research has shown that if a woman is sexually repressed, the main reason is that she has some kind of psychological block. If she can get over this psychological barrier, she can have the same powers of reaction, and her physiological requirements can even surpass that of a man. Apparently the reason Miss Shi’s friend’s first time with a western man was so great was that she subconsciously threw off those psychological restrictions.

The newest research has found that men and women’s reaction to sexual stimulus is actually the same. For example, it used to be thought that men reacted more to visual stimulus, where women responded to tone and mood. It was thought that this is why men like to watch pornography. But an English scientist has found that visual stimuli, like pornography can also arouse women, even to the point of climax.

Of course, Chinese men can’t be said to have no responsibility in this. But I can tell everyone that Chinese men’s biggest problem isn’t physiology at all. Then what is it? Lack of sexual skill. The reason that those eight western men are great in bed, is that they don’t just marry someone from the same village. They have sexual counseling and STD clinics, and they are very open when it comes to sex. If there’s a problem they seek professional help. To give an inappropriate example, the cooking skills of an old lady who has cooked all her life is inferior to a young cook, so we can see how important professional training is.

A white man kissing an Asian woman.

Those hollering for the extermination of ugly foreign men are all getting worked up. Maybe, some readers reading to this point have already begun condemning those Chinese women. But slow down! I want to ask something: On the issue of what created these ugly foreign men, are you and every single one of us completely blameless?

Women who seemingly sell themselves for money can be found everywhere in the world. Americans know them as gold-diggers, with the only difference being that women like that are looked down upon in other countries, and only in China are they respected and envied. Surely this “laughs at the poor but not the prostitutes” society wasn’t made by these women?

An American Sinologist with lofty ideas of China’s history and culture came to China with her husband. But not long after she decided to cut her trip short and go home. Why? “Almost every day there were so many Chinese girls surrounding my husband, some didn’t even bother to conceal it in front of me. I think that going home is the best thing to do, for the sake of my marriage.” She asked puzzled, “I read novels from the eighties, girls who accidentally fall pregnant to their lovers would feel so shamed that they would commit suicide.”

I don’t get it either, they’re Chinese after all, how could we have changed in only twenty years?

I want to ask those foreigners, especially those Americans who get so much more than average Chinese, is it them? I can understand why the President’s visit would make the headlines while it was going on, but why is the announcement that he will be visiting at some time in the future such big news? Don’t forget that the more face you give someone, the more they look down on you.

I’m calling for action, to stop Chinese women from worshiping foreign men. Of course, I understand that my own personal power is negligible, which is why I’m asking everyone to help: If you know any Chinese girls that come into contact with foreign men, you must please forward them this post.

If you’re married to a foreigner, boldly stand up and tell your sisters that your life outside of China is lonely, boring, hard, and that you miss home. If you’re a parent, stop showing off your daughter’s new wealth, her position as a mistress, or that she’s married a foreigner.

If you’re a translator [Oh hello, he's talking to me! - maxiewawa. He is a "she". - Fauna], don’t show mercy. Our ability to glorify foreigners in translation is the first in the world, this itself an expression of subconscious worshiping of foreigners: No matter how you pronounce “America” it has no similarities with “mei” [beauty], and yet we insist on translating it as Mei Guo ["Beautiful Country"]. Look out our neighbours the Japanese. Their word for America is “Mi Guo” ["Rice/grain Country"]. Now isn’t that a lot better! No matter how imaginative you are, you would not mentally connect “Rice Country” to “Beautiful Country”, and at most just a place that produces food. [There's a sentence here about Marlboro that is not so funny when translated.]

If you’re a customs official or diplomat, don’t hold foreigners up as a shining example, as the saying goes, “Foreign news isn’t all important news”. Treat your own countrymen a bit better, foreigners only come and go. Don’t forget that the food you eat was cooked by Chinese people, the clothes you wear are made by Chinese people, and your salary is from Chinese people.

If you’re in the sports industry, stop helping Real Madrid earn money from Chinese, or at least stop inviting bastards like Mike Tyson to come here.

If you’re in the insurance business, you mustn’t treat foreigners any different, let them be worth the same as any Chinese.

If you’re in a key positions [government jobs], stop being greedy and engaging in corruption. You are the main reason for the problems in today’s society.

If you’re an economic scholar/expert, stop thinking only about how to protect those with vested interests, don’t just be a mouthpiece for those in power, put in a word for us ordinary common people.

If you’re in the legislature, don’t just think of “***P”. If mountains are leveled, water is polluted, air dirty, all is desert, morality bankrupt, compassion gone, harmony lost,  and people leave this world tormented by their disease, what meaning/significance/use will ***P be?

If you make money, do some good with it, earn some karma, and who knows maybe there really is a next life? Don’t let the old phenomenon of the rich wasting food and wine behind closed doors while the bones of the poor are frozen outside happen again.

If you’re a doctor, try and save a life, maybe there might be a heaven after all. Don’t let angels die under your watch.

If you work in the legal/law field, protect the dignity of the law. There are too many ghosts of people who have been wronged wandering around already.

If you’re a movie director, don’t spend money on frivolous things. Make a movie where the Chinese girl rejects the foreign man, or where the Chinese guy conquers a foreign girl.

If you’re in dentistry, recommend us a truly good toothpaste. let everyone know about some good toothpaste brands. Today’s Chinese people really need to grit their teeth [this is a joke, Chinese need "better toothpaste" because they need to "grit their teeth" but the deeper meaning of "grit their teeth" is more like Chinese people need to persevere and endure difficult things].

If you’re in advertising, stop using cliches like “regal”, “honorable”, “noble”, “successful”, “imperial”, “upper class”, and “luxurious” that make people sick.

If you’re a teacher/role-model, teach our next generation a class about “disgrace/having a sense of shame”. As kids, our mothers often warned us that our clothes can be old/worn-out/lousy but they can not be dirty; that one can be poor, but cannot have no self-respect. Wealth should not be ostentatious, power should not be abused, poverty should not be transferred; One’s skull can be crushed, blood can be spilled; Life is precious, love is valuable, but both can be given up for freedom. How can today’s students not know these sayings?

If you’re a Chinese woman, lift up

Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
2010
08.04

No 2588 Yan An West Road Shanghai, Shanghai, 201103, China

http://www.millenniumhotels.com/cn/millenniumshanghai/index.html

上海千禧海鸥大酒店

I saw the ad for Buy One Get One Free Buffet and went to try it out!.

Weekend Seafood Buffet Dinner @ O’Cafe

Dive into an oceanic meal of crab legs, fresh oysters, scallops, mussels, salmon, tuna and prawns… at the weekend seafood buffet dinner. Tantalize taste buds with an appetizer spread replete with fresh salad greens, sashimi, sushi and a hearty selection of soups. Then satisfy appetites with a range of barbecued meats and of course, don’t miss out delicious deserts that make a seafood dinner complete!

Promotion Period 1st July, 2010 to 31st August, 2010 Every Friday & Saturday

Book earlier to avoid disappointment! 6208 5888 ext. 71229 or email fnb@millenniumhongqiao.com

The buffet was very very good. I wenyt on a Sat for the seafood buffet and they had a pretty good amount of choices of foods. They also had a candy station for the kids. They also have a small play area set out for the kids.

I also went for a tour of the hotel, it’s my first time to the hotel. Shanghai has so many new hotels, it’s hard to get to them all.

Millennium HongQiao Hotel has the most spacious rooms from 40 square meters, the latest in room hi-tech facilities. All rooms have separate shower and bath. The Executive Club Room has 42-inch Philips televisions and complimentary internet access.

Located at the corner of Carrefour Gubei Store, 2 minutes walking distance to Metro line No. 10. A 10-minute drives to Hongqiao Airport, 40 minutes to Pudong Int’l Airport and 20 minutes to World Expo site, 30-minute to SNIEC via direct highway. Additionally, it is within close proximity to many consulates and shopping malls.

Be amazed by our vast International, Chinese cuisine as well as a Teppanyaki, great sounds await you at Chatz our Lounge. A well equipped Fitness Centre is available for your workout or if you prefer rest and relaxation then enjoy a stroll along the riverside and Garden or treat yourself to a relaxing spa or sauna treatment.

As venues go, our 840 sq. m. Garden Pavilion and 1,840 sq. m. of meeting space are ideal for weddings and a variety of business functions.

Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]
2010
07.27

The news is that the Shanghai  Obama Club has been closed but they are open again.  They are still doing the 10 drinks for 100 RMB.  The posh V.I.P /ktv rooms upstairs are open but the downstairs club has closed.

fun filled sexy girls in Shanghai

hot sexy and beautiful in Shanghai

Tel. 6082 5511
ADDRESS: 2088 Yan’an Xi Lu,
near Xianxia Lu
延安西路2088号, 近仙霞路
AREA: Hongqiao
METRO: 15 mins. walk from Yan’an Rd (W)

HOURS: Daily, 9.30pm-3am

CARDS: Local and international cards accepted

WEB: www.obamashanghai.com

The big Shanghai party rooms are a small club in it’s self.  The room big room min is 20,000RMB.   The room holds about 40-50 people comfortably and the sound system is of a full size club.  Oh!! other fee’s, the service staff demand a 500 RMB tip each, for that size room you get 4 service staff.  So add another 2,000 on top of the bill.  Shanghai high class private party rooms.  The rooms where people don’t want to be seen!!

Rating 4.00 out of 5
[?]
2010
07.08

just got back from the opening, am uploading pics to the gallery now. Thanks Jenny for the invite.

Apple will open its newest retail store in Shanghai, China on Saturday, July 10th. Today was the soft opening in Shanghai.

The 40 foot-tall glass cylinder is only the entrance to the store, which is located underneath. Apple report the Shanghai Apple Store will have 80 Macs, 100 iPods and 60 iPhones on offer for customers to play with, as well as the customary Genius Bar and China’s first Briefing Room for free business workshops. Sadly, no iPhone 4s will be on display (yet). They do not have any I pad either. what a shame. Apple plans on opening three stores in Shanghai and is considering more locations in other first and second-tier Chinese cities as well. The first Chinese Apple Store opened in 2008 in Sanlitun, Beijing but these new locations mark a strategy shift for Apple.

The Apple store’s new cylindrical glass tower to prepare for the store’s Saturday opening. The tower, which is surrounded by two large skyscrapers and a substantial circular wall of concrete, includes a spiral glass staircase leading to an underground retail space – just like New York’s. The store is very large and as big if not bigger than the New York Apple store.

It’s great the Apple store finally opens in Shanghai. Now the service for Mac’s and everything Apple will be so much better. The service in Shanghai sucked so so bad.

Rating 3.67 out of 5
[?]
2010
05.12

Expo bus intervals may be extended

Date:11/05/2010

Traffic authorities are considering prolonging World Expo bus intervals in order to carry more passengers on each coach and avoid wasting resources.

“The ground public transport system, especially the bus, has been underused,” said Sun Jianping, director of the communications, transport and port administration bureau.

Sun said traffic has been running “smoothly” since the Expo opened on May 1 as authorities were “well prepared.”

Yet, he remained cautious, saying that bigger challenges are ahead as visitor turnout has not reached its peak.”

Sun said the 42 Expo bus lines had transported about 313,600 people from May 1 to May 9. That number accounted for about 10 percent of the volume, 3.14 million, carried by public transport during the period.

Authorities said 16 direct routes, which connect city transport hubs to the Expo site, saw a daily passenger volume of no more than 20 percent of capacity.

The 16 routes carried 1,586 people on average a day.

Passengers suggested Expo bus routes add more stops. Some only have one or two stops.

Meanwhile, the Metro system has been the main mode of public transport for Expo visitors, Sun said.

Five stations near Expo entrances handled 1.13 million people from May 1 to May 9, or 36 percent of total turnout.

Meanwhile, officials also plan to open the 7-square-kilometer restricted area around the site to non-Expo taxis earlier to ease traffic at night when visitors leave the Expo site.

Only 4,000 Expo licensed cabs are allowed to enter the area at present to pick up passengers during the day. Non-Expo taxis can enter the restricted area only after 9pm.

Taxis handled 18.41 percent, or 578,600 visitors, of visitors going to the Expo. Authorities expected that taxis would only transport 5 percent.

Rating 3.67 out of 5
[?]
2010
05.12

On-site ticket sales boom

Date:11/05/2010

A total of 32,130 Expo 2010 tickets had been sold on site by 7:30pm yesterday on the 10th day of the fair, accounting for one fifth of total admissions on the day.

On-site sales included nearly 9,000 evening admissions, revealing an increasing number of visitors touring the site at night. Holders of evening tickets are allowed to enter the site from 5pm.

Ticket sales on site has started an hour earlier at 8am, the organizers announced.

About 155,800 visitors entered the site by 7:30pm yesterday on the 10th day.

The most crowded gates were still Shangnan Road, Gaoke Road W., Houtan, and Changqing Road. More than 20,000 visitors passed through these entrances yesterday.

By 6pm, 42 performances had been staged. Altogether 3,500 volunteers served on the site.

Rating 3.33 out of 5
[?]
2010
05.12

Prices easier to digest

Date:11/05/2010

The Expo 2010 organizer has brought down food prices at the Expo site to an average of about 38 yuan (US$5.57) a meal from 45 yuan and will continue to lower prices as more visitors come to the Expo, a senior Expo organizer said yesterday.

More than 80 percent of the restaurants are now offering mid- and low-price food, Lin Shengyong, director of Commercial Administration and Service Department of the Expo site told a press conference.

All the restaurants in the public areas of the site have promised to lower food prices and the organizer will supervise them for the Expo’s duration, he said.

The Expo bureau has reduced the commission from food companies at the site to 3 percent from 8 percent, to ensure they can still make profits after reducing food prices.

The bureau is also planning to reduce the electricity and water fees for the restaurants at the site.

In a further effort to cut costs, the food companies are allowed to choose raw-material suppliers rather than those designated by the organizer as previously planned.

The bureau and the city’s food-safety authority will supervise the entire food supply and service chain, Lin said. All food will be checked before being sent into the Expo site, he added.

The bureau has also installed 50 stalls selling breads (10 yuan for three) and steamed buns (5 yuan for three) across the Expo site. These stalls can provide 20,000 sets of breads and buns every day.

Lin also suggested visitors eat at restaurants on the lesser-used Puxi side of the Expo site. The Puxi site has about 8,000 square meters of catering areas, but more than 60 percent of them have had no businesses since the Expo opening, he said.

Almost all the restaurants at the Expo site have outlets at the Puxi site and many have good views of the Huangpu River, Lin said.

More than 70 percent of visitors to the Expo have had meals at the site since the Expo opening on May 1.

The Expo site has 130 restaurants, covering a total of 90,000 square meters. They can serve around 400,000 people every day. Participants have opened another 80 restaurants in their pavilions.

The restaurants stay open until the site closes at midnight.

By 7pm, the Expo attracted about 155,200 visitors yesterday, up from Sunday’s 144,000, the Expo bureau said.

Rating 3.00 out of 5
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2010
05.07

USING chopsticks should no longer be difficult for Westerners, now that a 14-year-old girl has invented a simple tool to help beginners conquer the pair of sticks.

Chu Mingming, from northeastern China’s Liaoning Province, is offering her invention as a gift to foreign visitors to the World Expo in Shanghai.

“Expats will find it a piece of cake to pick up everything with the gadget,” she said.

She hoped the invention will get more expats interested in the splendor of Chinese cuisine.

Users place their fingers inside a scissors-like pair of plastic clips that connect the sticks, making the two sticks feel more like an extension of two fingers.

Generally, people use four fingers to control a pair of chopsticks. With Chu’s device, they need only a thumb and forefinger.

“So it becomes much easier to control the chopsticks,” she said.

Chu started to make a sample tool about six months ago, using some glue bottles, eye-drop bottles and plastic price tags. When she was ready, she sent the model to a factory to make the first batch of 10,000 products, all funded by her parents.

However, the initial version of the chopsticks tool had some defects and she put them aside to create better ones, despite the huge cost.

“The first version of the device was prone to twist when the user tried to pick up food,” Chu recalled.

She revised the design to make it more stable and asked the factory to make a new batch of 10,000 at a cost of 6,000 yuan (US$878).

Chu has applied for a national patent for her device and the authorities accepted her application.

She brought all the products to the city with her mother on April 24, and had been visiting international hotels in the city and Chinese restaurants inside the Expo site, persuading employees there to take these little tools as freebies for foreign customers and guests. She had distributed 1,000 of the gifts by yesterday.

However, she didn’t always get the welcome she expected because some hotel employees regarded her as an annoying saleswoman.

“I felt heartaches when I saw her walk out of the hotel after being turned down, tears hidden in her eyes,” said Liu Xiaoyan, Chu’s mother, who has been accompanying the girl.

But Chu gets her confidence and optimism back when she talks to foreign visitors inside the Expo site.

“I like the device very much because it is so convenient and easy to use,” said Behnaz Toosi, visiting from Canada.

Toosi said she always had to ask for knife and fork when she ate in Chinese restaurants back in Vancouver because she couldn’t use chopsticks.

“Now that I have this little device, I can soon use chopsticks with a little more practice,” Toosi said, smiling and giving Chu a hug.

Kay Matysik, a German visitor, said: “She should sell it. This would become very popular, especially among Europeans.”

Chu said the praise from foreign visitors was a great incentive for her.

“Every time I feel tired and frustrated, I can always be inspired again by those friendly and warm foreign friends,” said Chu. “They made everything worthwhile.”

She was so busy promoting her free gifts and had not even visited a pavilion in the Expo site until yesterday evening.

“My biggest wish right now is that all 10,000 tools could be sent out to foreign visitors before the Expo closes.”

Shanghai Daily

Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]