Category Archives: China

China

What Starbucks Does To You

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I admit — in 2008, you knew me for my tweets (which sometimes included the unexpected full-length airing of city line announcements). In 2009, you probably knew me for my sentiment against the draconian “Green Dam” censorship software, because Auntie Beeb made a fairly big deal of that. In 2010, you knew me for the high speed trains — the last year before a clueless Sheng Guangzu unexpectedly slowed them down and managed, somehow, to let two trains rear-end each other.

(I’m a secret fanboy of Sheng Guangzu — you know, that bloke that did the tech tweaks to ultimately allow those two bullet trains rear end each other. These things come less often than alien intrusions, by the way. Note the irony in this sentence!)

In 2011, you knew me as nothing more than a reduced slave of the Starbucks empire. Here’s the thing: Tracy (that’s my wife) would go teach fellow students one-on-one and that’d desert me for two hours straight. I had to get stuff done — and too often it was at a Starbucks. They came out with the My Starbucks Rewards programme in late February this year, and after I realized that I got my stars with cumulative purchases (ie: I did not have to exceed CNY 50.— every time to get a star), I got in on the act.

In June 2011, I received my gold card thanks to unexpectedly huge tea consumption. (Much like @stinson, I don’t do coffee, although Tracy does.) At the end of the month, the Beijing-Shanghai HSR opened, shuttling us to Ji’nan, where I went into one of the more “recent” cities with a Starbucks. That basically made me Siren-addicted in Beijing, Tianjin, Ji’nan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Zürich, San Francisco, London — holy carp, 15 cities. I know I’m looking forward to the imminent arrival of Starbucks Harbin (the real one), a visit to Starbucks Kunming and hopefully, on the next trip south, Starbucks Wuhan.

68 stars for 2011 — 7 months on. And they say they’d treat me right on every visit. Well, guess what: I’m waiting for Tracy now and I’ve just missed out on the opportunity to register a CNY 20 tea purchase. But hey, I’ve 68 stars. I’m good for at least another year or so. And you’ve seen my fist shake at those idiot scalpers on shanzhai Chinese versions of eBay who have the nerve to sell, at inflated prices, My Starbucks Rewards cards with “just” 50 stars on them.

In the words of my chemistry teacher — they’d be flogged if they weren’t shot. So much for “preserving” our “socialist market economy”… heh…

China, Rail, Travel

David’s Statement Regarding Future Rail Travel

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The accident in Wenzhou on 23 July 2011 was a complete wake-up call to the rail world, especially in China, where demand for new express routes are and remain very high. Thinking of this holistically, there is every need for a passenger HSR system as this is the world’s most populous country and things need to get from A to B. The highways and freeways already have seen their cases of being overloaded: one needs not to be reminded to the miles upon miles of jams National Expressway 6 (the Beijing-Tibet Expressway) experienced last summer. (This same traffic rubbish repeats itself when the seasons start to cool every year — in autumn.)

Logically, when everybody is being shifted onto faster passenger tracks, the situation on the “regular” tracks can somehow improve. With an ideally all-weather HSR system doing its thing, the freeways would be rid of the cargo-laden snails. Holistically speaking, HSR has every right to exist in China.

But by no means in a shoddy way which eats upon the very ridership it depends upon! The Wenzhou crash reminds us that China’s biggest threats come from within. Nobody in the republic believes in those superstitious cults who threaten to take the People’s Republic apart. But the very republic can indeed be taken apart — and leave billions “naked”, so to speak — if the issues from within are not dealt with. Rail-wise, the biggest problem is terrible mismanagement in the rail system itself: an out-of-date Railways Ministry. In a modernized nation-state, this ministry should have long been incorporated into the national Transport Ministry.

The Railways Ministry remains one of the weirdest concoctions in the Chinese transport and government scene. It has its own independent courts (Railway Courts; only the forests are luckier, with their own Forestry Courts), a de facto autonomous police force, and complete control over just about all of the nation’s railways resources. The mainland is split into 16 bureaus and two rail companies (owned by the Chinese State), and the vast array of passenger service departments, maintenance departments and the ilk, kind of gives you an idea of why China still relies on over tens of thousands of ideogrammes. They are just about exhausting all the possible combinations. It is a unified rail empire with very loose management.

Because this very ministry basically controls everything rail-related, there’s no independence in this system. If crappy, sub-par material is used to make the HSR rails “come into being”, well, so be it. You want to launch an investigation into the rail system? Good luck. Former minister Liu Zhijun has been reported to talk people into accepting the HSR system without so much a chance or an opportunity to hear different points of views. With that guy fired, the new minister, Sheng Guangzu, overstepped his limits in terms of capacity of management by decreeing new HSR routes both offer G trains running at 300 km/h and D trains running at 250 km/h — a feat which requires massive changes in despatch and which might even be fraught with technical difficulties.

And technical difficulties did manifest itself upon the Wenzhou crash, indeed. More trustworthy reports tell of lightening paralyzing the control system on the trains, raising a red alert. Railway bureau staff just about had it. “Didn’t we have too much rubbish about thunderstorms forcing trains to halt for too long?” That kind of rhetorical statement precipitated in Despatch ordering the “hit” train to continue down the line — exactly when it should have been at the stop up the line, Yongjia, to wait for the all-clear.

Despatch then said: All clear, exit Yongjia. Worse: You are allowed to overrun red lights along the way provided you stick to a speed limit of 20 km/h. Train D3115’s autostop and positioning system was, as a result, cut. Basically, train D3115 completely vanished from the Chinese rail radars.

Which basically left the train behind it, train D301, fully unaware that train D3115 even existed. After leaving Yongjia at 20:24, train D301 also sniffed trouble, so it alerted Despatch. Despatch went: No probs; I know you might have communications issues, but go ahead.

With that — a blind (in essence!) D3115 crawling along and a D301 going at significantly faster speeds, the stage was set for train D301 plowing into the rear of train D3115 at 20:34. The fact that a rider inside train D3115 activated the emergency brakes made things worse, as train D3115 only made itself closer to the approaching (from the back) train D301.

Basically, it was a case of Chernobyl on rails: human error costing over 40 or 50 lives. (Don’t for a moment buy the “official version”. Oh, and people were buried alive. Just saying…)

If it was merely a case of human error, I’d have stopped short of slapping a self-imposed train travel ban. But the fact that railways propaganda minister Wang Yongping lied to the public and refused to face up to the facts got my goat. Hence a first ban on rail travel through to 31 July 2011. For the next nights, I got worse things on my radar: a train in northeast China apparently locked its ridership of 500 people firm on the rails for no good reason whatsoever. This, coupled with the rail authorities’ idea of “rewarding” those who come to terms with an early compensation settlement of CNY 500,000.— (in total), was enough to make me extend the ban through to 31 August 2011.

The ban will now be extended. It is not a “full” ban, but it will now preclude “for pleasure” travel on the rails. Every trip must have a firm, definitive purpose. Language teaching, academic or business activities, and IT meetings will now have precedence.

Basically, it turns the previous travel policy of “go on the rails unless this or that happens” around to “don’t go on the rails unless this or that happens”. It also limits travel on Chinese high speed rail to the following lines, which have been proven through actual rides to be either free of problems or of such political importance that problems are basically mitigated to a minimum:

  • Beijing – Tianjin (– Tanggu)
  • Beijing – Shanghai
  • Wuhan – Guangzhou
  • Shanghai – Nanjing
  • Shanghai – Hangzhou
  • Zhengzhou – Xi’an
  • Chengdu – Qingchengshan
  • Ji’nan – Qingdao

It basically excludes new lines until problems there have been kept to a minimum over the first three to six months.

Travel on D trains is also prohibited, as they have been the focus point of transport problems for too long.

The new travel policy also thaws the previous “flight freeze”. Where over five hours is travelled on a train, air can be considered an alternative. Trains, though, are to be taken to the last scheduled stop when a destination is reachable only by bus, provided that stop has transfer opportunities to the bus. Previous limitations on driving cars are lifted.

Basically, the new travel policy is less a prohibition and more a case of placing restrictions, and is as follows:

  1. The absolute “rail first” preference in the mainland of China no longer applies.
  2. All travel in China, especially railway travel, must be done with a stated, legitimate purpose and with the precondition that the purpose can be accomplished and is in actual fact accomplished.
  3. Travel, especially that by train, requires a letter of invitation from the other side verifying the need to travel.
  4. At no time is travel by D trains (动车) permitted. Cases regarding travel to and from Macao will be dealt with individually. This can only be permitted provided a hotel is booked inside Macao.
  5. High-speed railway travel (restricted to C trains (城际高速) and G trains (高速列车) is restricted to 350 minutes a day in a single direction, and is restricted to designated routes. Air travel can be used for travels beyond this limit. Cases where travel is needed to complete formalities with a return on the same day are to be handled on a case-to-case basis with more stringent requirements.
  6. Travel by trains may be restricted in the case of inclement weather.
  7. Travel in sleeper trains will not be restricted provided the above condition is met. But no travel is allowed in sleeper trains if they are operated by C, D or G trains. A trip in a sleeper train is not allowed to exceed 16 hours in total.
  8. Mileage kept will be for references only. Travels for the sole purpose of “advancing the meter” will be denied in full.

Trains are not restricted for travel inside Europe or Taiwan, as safety standards are markedly higher in these places. Travel bans also do not apply for suburban railways not operated by the railways ministry or on Ktt trains from Guangzhou East to Kowloon (Hung Hom) operated by the MTR.

These restrictions also do not apply for extraordinary, non-repetitive events where the need for travel is real and legitimate.

I have to say, it is not my intention to come out with such restrictive terms regarding rail travel. Thank God I have the homeland of my passport to count on for safer trains — Swiss Federal Railways!

China

David’s Statement of Chinese High Speed Rail after the Wenzhou Crash

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The last 12-24 hours have been a crazy one my end, with me being the “rail guy” that an increasing number of people “see” via my tweets and Facebook posts. For what it’s worth, this single, isolated case of a collision between two southbound trains in Wenzhou, southeastern coastal China, hasn’t had the oomph for me to shy away from the trains — and it probably won’t keep me off the tracks.

So far, I’ve taken Chinese HSR trains (plus regular rail trains) for over 200 times, racking up a mileage of over 30,000 km in the past four years (2008, 2009, 2010 and just over half of 2011). And while a crash is unfortunate, I still have to find an excuse to see me (and Tracy) airborne again.

I’ve been active in the conversation about the train crash on Sina Weibo, mainland China’s biggest microblogging platform. On 2 March 2011, at 10:38 Beijing time, if you were watching my Weibo stream, you saw this:

I’ve been on the Chinese high speed railway trains for hundreds of times, and I’m often in VIP class behind the driver at the front of the train. I can use that to assure that the Chinese HSR is safe, and I have nearly 20,000 km of mileage behind this to prove that it’s safe. Easy: if the HSR isn’t safe, along with the death of my driver comes my death as well! (我坐過百次以上中國高鐵，經常是坐在司機後的特等座的，我可以以此保證中國高鐵是安全的，總里程將近兩萬公里的我可以擔保中國高鐵是安全的。很簡單，高鐵不安全的話，司機死我死!)

Of course, since I tweeted that, I don’t deny that — David Feng doesn’t eat his words. But take a look at when this thing was posted: 2 March 2011. We are about four and a half months away from that period in time right now. Nobody can predict the future — it’s true. (Especially the weathermen. Beijing is due for an afternoon deluge and as I’m posting this at 14:49, I’ve yet to see the heavens open.)

So, it’s simple: I can’t go ahead and post stuff like “So and so will happen at so and so” unless I’m the one in charge. When I married Tracy, I posted the “MARRIED” tweet after we were married. What if there were last-minute red tape hassles? Thinking of it this way, I tweet with caution.

I’d like to delve back into the post about the Chinese HSR being safe (which I posted in March 2011): this statement was made out of personal experience — it in no way replaces official stances. The most that this tweet could have hoped to be was a personal statement of a non-affiliated individual “outside the railways system”. I fund all rail travel (at times, Tracy and family step in, but over 90% of my travels are and remain self-funded). If you think I’ve living off the rail ministry, who might be secretly reimbursing my travels, you’re free to Google it out for yourself: There are no secret cash affiliations between the Chinese railways ministry and me, David Feng. The most that there could have been is a simple-as-heck “carrier-and-passenger” link.

I also stated in the March tweet that “if the driver dies, I die as as well”. This bit I also kid you not. In much of the rail travel I did, I rode in the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity HSR, which uses almost exclusively CRH3C trains. (Germans may come to think of this train as the “Velaro CN” train.) On these trains, the front of the train is open for riders to travel in. Seats 1-8 in the frontmost carriage, right behind the driver, are considered VIP class. Riders are totally free to sit behind the driver and to enjoy life “right behind the controls”, where they are separated from the driver by only a glass window and a glass door.

Given where this VIP lounge at the front of the train is, let’s think of it this way: if there’s an accident, the driver would nearly certainly die. Given how close we are to the driver at that part of the train, we’d struggle coming out as one single part as well. Hence, the statement “if the driver dies, I die too” is not an exaggeration! I often travel in Seat 1, which is very close to the driver: I think we are separated only by mere metres.

And it is not like that I have been in that part of the train only once — or have only taken the HSR a few times. Through to 23 July 2011, my total mileage since 2008 has been 36,053.33 km over 215 rides. Only six of these rides, totalling not even 1,000 km, are outside the mainland of China. For the 13,668 km of travel I did this year, 63.3% were on high speed rail. That’s just about a third; it means two rides out of three are on those CRH trains that plowed into each other last night.

Although I am not the Number 1 rider on the Chinese rails (outside of rail staff), I do have a fair bit of miles behind me. Chinese trains have taken me to Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Chengdu, Qingdao, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Shanghai, Harbin, and places beyond. I think the only bits of China I’ve yet to touch are those in the west — like Xinjiang, Tibet or Lanzhou.

Despite being one of the most avid riders of the Chinese rails (I’m sometimes surprised by HSR attendants who just outright “know me” — those who go, “Do you ride this line a lot? I think I know you…”), I do not in any way control or own financial interests in the Chinese Ministry of Railways or any part of the Chinese HSR system. I’d also like to take this chance to go back to what happened last night, and state very clearly:

The incident of 23 July 2011 was one which was completely outside my control.

(I think that not even the minister of railways wanted to see this happen.)

Having said that, one incident involving casualties cannot be enough to completely shatter the Chinese railway safety record.

But an accident that has happened is an accident — period, and what’s next has to be improvements in safety and a tally of who was responsible for the crash. I think that a responsible railways ministry might want to take the time to do a little soul searching and do all possible to improve safety across the whole network. For those involved in “the making of” this crash (sorry to say it this way), my stance is simple: Punish, demote, and fire, as needed. I’m impartial on this — from the grassroots ranks to the highest echelons of the rail ministry, my stance is the same.

Like I said, one crash can’t drag a whole nation’s HSR down. I’ll still be taking trains to get from A to B. China still has some miraculously fast — and safe — trains running at 350 km/h — one of my favourites, the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity HSR, runs at speeds well over 300 km/h. That line counts me as a veteran rider. This crash won’t keep me away from my Rail First policy — I will still be considering the railways first, when doing domestic travel in China or within much of Western and Central Europe.

This is a fair lengthy blog post, and it has just about summarised my points of view regarding this crash. I leave this post as-is. Of course there might be those who might thinking that cherry picking and mixing and moulding parts of this post might be a cool way to distort truths. If that’s the case, well, I’ll let it be (and give the censors a day off) — but be forewarned: people who use this post to distort truths will bear all consequences and liabilities, including civil and criminal responsibilities.

Beijing

Moving Home!

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At about the same time that Tracy (my wife) and I have just completed our “real world” move just a week after being married (moving out so late is actually very common in this part of the world — here in East Asia), I’m also finishing a pretty big website move. I am merging all websites I have had since 1996 (does anyone who was “still there” then remember the old so-called “yaNet” website?) into a new website — this particular website. Most works are expected to be completed through late July 2011.

August 2011 will likely be an extraordinary travel month for both Tracy and I, so I’m fully making use of any “stationary” time in Beijing to get the more wired parts of my life together. The new website that you’re on will also, for the first time, feature full bilingual (Chinese and English) coverage on all pages. I think it’s a good idea because these languages all boast over a billion speakers each.

Finally, I will be progressively adding all Social Media links into the Contact page. There are a lot of websites I am member of.

This is the first blog post out of the new home, not far from Chaoyangmen. It’s an exciting new home with an interesting presence of Tracy’s pics, train tickets, train models, and Starbucks tumblers — as visitors to the new home might have noticed!

Blogging, China

The International Chinese: “My” Speech at the Chinese Blogger Conference

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It’s probably a bit odd for me to be writing about my own speech, as I somehow tend to see this as shameless self-promotion. Nevertheless, I’m doing my bit in telling those who want to be in the know the reason I did my International Chinese 2.0 speech.

We go back to April 2008. China was hit pretty badly time and again — Tibetan protests, coupled with a massive PR problem while the Olympic Flame was making its way across the world — got quite a number of Chinese united and going, quite simply, ENOUGH. “Love China” icons were all the rage, and it was at this time I started an article on this very site about whether or not we were ready for the “international Chinese”.

At first, I wanted the speech to be a display of “just” what locals and foreigners think, as well what sets us together and what unites us, plus a bit about my views of the year 2008 as an International Chinese. However, the first day of the Chinese Blogger Conference was quite enough for me to go right back to the drawing board and spend much of Day 2 redoing the entire prezo. (That was why you saw Zoe and Elliott, not me, at the blog helm on Day 2 here at CN Reviews.)

The redone version started on a much more personal touch: I’d describe a bit of me, my education in Switzerland, what I do, as well as a few of those classical @DavidFeng tweets before diving into what makes the Chinese or the foreigners tick (a la the original prezo). This was a good start as people would first get to know me before they got to know what I did or what I believed in.

For much more about the speech, I’ll let the rest of you take a drive around the prezo itself as I posted a (rather condensed) version of the speech on the Web.

Immediately after the speech, I felt quite a bit confused — even down at times. This was my first-ever speech at the Chinese Blogger Conference. Last year was my first-ever attendance at the event: did I jump the gun too soon? How could this near-silent guy last year become a “someone” this year? Are 14,000+ tweets your “admission ticket”? (I doubted that the moment I thought about that.)

Yes, I did get heckled online by about two people. One actually made more sense and said that it was stereotypical. But far more encouraging were the votes of confidence by virtually the entire Taiwanese delegation and Isaac Mao himself. More and more folks followed me on Twitter or befriended me on Facebook — and mentioned my speech.

I never wanted this speech to be something like a self-ad: I just wanted to make the audience aware that there are quite a number of people, Chinese by ancestry, who are doing their best to bridge the gap, however big or small, between China and the West. (This was pretty much what China 2.0 was all about.) And now that I’ve succeeded (somewhat) in doing this, I feel at least I’ve gotten something done.

Of course, there were also the constructive commentary on how the whole thing could have been better — more humor and more graphics were amongst the suggestions. These folks can rest assured that I’ve taken good note of their ideas and will be doing my best at improving future prezos.

I kind of felt bad myself that some people slept through the speech (as I wanted my bit to entertain people, not put them to sleep, although I had no problems with people actually dozing off), but hey, to all are granted the rights to listen, tune off, or even to doze off. The fact that Carol Lin really tuned in for this one, though, plus the added support I got after the speech, made it all the more worthwhile. Provided the audience and the organizers are OK with this, I’d love to do this again (of course, with a different title and a much-improved prezo) next year!

This post has been originally posted on CN Reviews.