Earlier in the week Beijing announced that it was going to start imposing price controls on key commodities in advance of Chinese New Year. Today, they laid down the law. According to Xinhua, it goes something like this: feel free to raise your prices, but make sure to send us an application for the price…
All posts in Expat Life
Happy Screener Season!
[UPDATE: Following the post, the comment from RandyG is an absolute delight. A must-read.] The not so dirty secret about China’s thriving pirate DVD industry is that – more often than not – the selection is rather thin, out-dated, of marginal quality, and heavily tilted toward bloody Hollywood blockbusters, films with “Shanghai” in the title,…
Just in time for flu season … No more quarantine forms!
According to Xinhua: Beginning next month, international passengers will no longer need to fill out a quarantine form upon entering China. If you’ve been an international arrival at any of China’s airports over the last four years, you know the routine: it’s the little white photocopied sheet (in Shanghai, at least) requiring that you disclose…
My Favorite Holiday
To all of my friends, no matter where you are – and what you’re eating! – I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!
Gisele, Walmart, and Me: The Declining Dollar Blues for Three
[with special guest appearance by Steve Buscemi] This weekend I had dinner in Shanghai with some expatriate American friends who – like me – earn most of their income in US dollars. It’d been several weeks since we’d last sat down, and in that time all of us had become roughly 1% the poorer –…
Applebees in China … Applebees in China?
[Alternative title: “Applebees in China: What the @#$%???”] Five years ago, the first Shanghai/China opening of a major American chain restaurant like Applebees would have been a significant event, drawing homesick American expatriates and curious, affluent Chinese. Under those ancient circumstances, atmosphere mattered more than actual quality, and Western-style restaurants frequently got away with serving…
Shanghai’s Youngest Playboy
This morning, while riding my apartment building’s interminably slow elevator, I noticed a puckish 12-year-old boy (I asked) carrying a basketball and wearing a Yao Ming jersey, khaki shorts, black socks, and a pair of Playboy gym shoes. After five years in China, I am no longer surprised or even interested when I see somebody…
An Olympic Air-Quality Heart Attack
The September 13, 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine has a very interesting and unsettling paper on the deleterious coronary health effects associated with physical exertion in polluted environments (I learned about the paper from an AP story which includes helpful analysis from outside experts). Specifically, the paper studies the health effects…
Saturday Morning in Shanghai: Brunch and an Air Raid Drill
At 10 AM on Saturday five Shanghai districts will have their (relative) peace and quiet shattered by a fifteen minute air raid drill. The timing is no accident: the sirens will coincide with a rally in Kaohsiung to support Taiwan’s bid for UN membership. The rally and the UN membership drive are being pressed by…
Oriental in Minnesota
I purchased several books during my recent visit to the United States, but none was more interesting (or cheaper) than this 63-page booklet, published in 1949 and found in the inventory of a small bookshop in Moorhead, Minnesota. Based upon that title, and that cover, I wasn’t expecting much. And, considering the sad state of…