Design, inventions and ideas website
Let me introduce you a well-know website in China, Ixiqi.com, about design, ideas, cute toys, and some funny inventions. There is something like 1000 pages and I viewed more than 500, I cannot stop. So many revolutionary ideas, or.. useless ; You can see above some pictures of nice design. By the way, the website is in full chinese, if you don’t understand, you can translate the pages with Google translate.
Toothpaste heads
Funny earphones
Real time online China’s traffic maps
It’s so boring to get into the traffic jam, so in China we have as in other countries some services to get a real time map of the road in major cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin,..). I prefer the auto.mop.com.
Traffic map
McDonalds home delivery in China
Something is really great in China, you can call McDonalds, tell them what you want, and 30 minutes later a guy will ring at your door with food. This service work is all the major cities in China, if you’re closer than 5km for a McDonalds. Great, isn’t it?
So we just need to call the 4008-517-517 from any line (for the cultural point, 517 pronounced WuYaoQi is close from 我要吃 (WoYaoChi), literally, “I want eat”). Then they will ask if we want Chinese (1) or an English (2) operator.
For the first time, you should register your address to deliver, if you already did it, they’ll just remain your address. Then you just need to ask what you want.. Wait ~30 minutes and pay 7 rmb for the home delivery fee.
Enjoy :)
McDonalds 4008-517-517
About the chinese flag
In September 1949, the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference approved the proposal for using the red five-star flag as the national flag of the People’s Republic of China. The red color of the flag symbolizes revolution and the yellow color of the stars the golden brilliant rays radiating from the vast red land. The design of four smaller stars surrounding a bigger one signifies the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Flag China
The Bund of Shanghai reopened
The Bund of Shanghai (外灘) reopened Sunday after nearly three years of renovation designed to improve the landscape and facilities for visitors to the World Expo. The revamp increases the area for public activities by 40 percent, allowing local residents and the World Expo visitors to experience a more beautiful and functional Bund, which is famous for its aesthetic buildings built in the early period of the 20th century.
The Bund, Shanghai
Visit of the Ganlusi (甘露寺) in Zhenjiang
As many people may know, I’m in Zhenjiang (鎮江) for two weeks. This city is located in Jiangsu province, between Nanjing and Shanghai; near the intersection of the Yangtze River (長江) and the Grand canal (大運河).
With an urban population of ~600.000, Zhenjiang is small compare to Beijing or Shanghai, but it’s a big city compared to Europe cities. The local people are very kind with foreigners, and seems there is few of us here! We can feel this is a small city when the evening is coming; restaurant close very early, no place to stay and not so many distractions.
We went to the Ganlusi Temple (甘露寺), initially erected in The Three Kingdoms period (222-280 AD). The temple was destroyed by fire in the Yuan Dynasty then demolished again by war. The current structures were re-erected by a local authority in 1890 AD in the Qing Dynasty. (You can see the pictures on my Picasa)
Ganlusi (甘露寺)