Happy New Year!

The Year of the Ox is icumen in, in China and in the Bay Area. Our colleagues in China had the week off, although they couldn't resist the occasional peek at the blackberry.

San Francisco's Chinese New Year's parade is coming up next week-end. This one of those must-see events that never gets old (even when it's raining).

The parade has gone big-time in recent years with major sponsorship by Southwest Airlines. But it remains fundamentally a local event, with huge local participation and more cute kids than imaginable.

Its excitement factor is on a par with the Demolition Derby at the Carroll County Fair in my native rural county in Illinois.

Meanwhile, we're gearing up in Palo Alto for the Chinese-language version of NOW Magazine, in which we'll have some great interviews and some groundbreaking analysis provided jointly with one of the leading research firms in China.

Here are some great pics of the SF parade.

You can learn all about it at: http://www.chineseparade.com/

Merry Christmas!

It's the Orthodox Christmas, so I can therefore wish everyone belated good wishes. Returned to the US on Dec. 23, completely fried, then took advantage of my company's holiday holiday.

Back in the office Monday, Jan. 5 and now trying to get caught up. I placed a nice gift I received from my colleagues in Beijing on the Table of Honor in my office, put it right between an award-winning magazine I created years ago and a great picture of Babe Ruth that I treasure. :-)

Back to Hong Kong and Home

Sitting at Hong Kong airport, waiting for the long flight home. It was only 11-some hours in the air because we had a very large tailwind (and turbulence) that propelled us back to San Francisco as quickly as one could hope for.

Will be reporting in more detail after Christmas. Thanks for accompanying me on my trip, and Merry Christmas.

Shenzhen's Silicon Valley

The border area of Shenzhen was nasty, just like nasty border towns anywhere in the world. Reminded me of Juarez. But once we got about an hour away, we found this salubrious Silicon Valley-type area, with hundreds of thousands of workers, and even warm, sunny Bay Area weather on this particular December day.

The park looked to be modeled after Taipei's Hsin-Chu, although the local Chinese may never admit that. Hsin-Chu in turn was modeled after Santa Clara County. Wide boulevards, modern low-slung buildings, nice green areas and ponds, and not a place to eat (or buy something to eat) in sight.



These guys compete with Cisco, and have 40,000 people in the tech park here. They also have a nice green area, replete with pond.

Entering Shenzhen at LuWo Station

I flew into Hong Kong the night before meetings in Shenzhen. Mistake, because I had to use up my second (and final) entry from my limited-entry visa into China.

"One country, two systems" was the philosophy behind China's re-acquisition of Hong Kong in 1997. Duh, I should have realized the implications of this on entering into China.

Anyway, I took a fast train/subway system from Kowloon to the border. Walked across, and I was warned my many people to be careful in Shenzhen's LuWo station. "They cut some woman's hand off last week for her cellphone," "there are pickpockets everywhere", "you are are a foreigner so they will steal your laptop," and on and on.

I used to walk through New York's Time Square without fear in the bad old days, and the only real fear I've felt in recent years was when I foolishly attended an Oakland Raiders game. But everyone had me spooked about LuWo, so I stuck my wallet in my suit jacket, took the strap off my laptop case, tried to look big, and practically ran all the way from the station to a hotel where I met my colleague.

Really, there was no problem. The only trouble we had was with the world's nastiest cab driver (see below).

World's Nastiest Cab Driver

Well, I always thought that San Francisco had the surliest, least helpful cab drivers in the world. I am always embarrassed by how badly my city treats its guests, and the cab drivers are at the forefront of this abuse.

But the guy in this picture, who took us from LuWo train station on the Hong Kong/Shenzhen border out to a meeting in a Silicon Valley-style technology park was the meanest dude ever. He didn't want to run the meter, but wanted twice the normal fare. After my colleague politely but steadfastly refused for 15 minutes, he tried to stop the cab and dump us out on the highway.

Then he got "lost" trying to find the place and then suddenly couldn't understand my colleague's Mandarin (since he spoke a different dialect as his first language). All this over about a difference in $4 in cab fare. I realize 30 yuan is not a trifle in Shenzhen, but I didn't think it was worth this sort of confrontation. Oh well, it was a nice day that day anyway. Felt like Bay Area weather there.