http://www.chekim.com/blog My online scrapbook Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:47:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I saw Xiapu the 1st time in a photography magazine back at 2008, it was very special graphically and seems so remote a place that I don't envision going there one day. Then during 2009, I keep seeing photos of Xiapu in almost every issue of any photography magazine. Apparently ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2010/01/10/fujian-xiapu/ This is the 2nd year that Mary and I went to see the HSBC Golf Championship tournament at Sheshan International Golf Club, thanks to the free tickets (1000rmb each!) donated to us by Mary's awesomely well connected and pretty friend. Two things are different this year: the HSBC championship is ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/11/10/tiger-woods-at-sheshan/ The past week has been an intensive leadership discussion week for me. There was the visit of a Distinguish Engineer (DE) from Austin Texas during the first half of the week, and I had a classroom training at the second half of the week. Therefore, I had discussion on leadership ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/11/07/excellence/ The last time I went to Beijing was 5 years ago, during my first trip to China at Summer 2004. Though I can't say that I was deceived during that trip, it wasn't so fun in general. We were a big group of +20 people and we were stuck together ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/10/18/old-beijing-new-olympic-city/ When Desmond asked if I would be interested in going golfing at St-Andrews, Scotland, together with Henry and Graham. I didn't hesistate long before agreeing to participate, and I never looked back. That was around the end of May. Then at the beginning of June, Sandra (from Scotland) helped us ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/07/28/scotland-golfers-paradise/ We went to Shan Xi between the 25th to 28th of June, with CK, Rebecca, Kathy, Roger, Max and Estelle. For 4 days of trip we did really lots of things, made a lot of mileage on a "bread car" [面包车] including driver. We basically went from middle of Shanxi ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/07/22/trip-to-shan-xi/ As a regular reader of the InformationWeek magazine since 1995, as well as several other publications such as InfoWorld, ComputerWorld, Network Computing, Resellers News, etc, I've read hundreds of issues of world CIO ranking, CTO ranking, Top 100 CIO, CIO of the Year, you name it. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/06/01/global-cio-50/ Summer is officially here, since yesterday! All the sudden temperature rises to higher than 30°C, Sun light is stronger than ever. The major sites in Shanghai, such as People's Square and Lujiazhui, have been throughoutly decorated, probably for the Spring and Summer, but most likely as preparation for the Expo ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/05/10/colorful-shanghai/ The major automobile industry exhibition hosting alternates between Shanghai and Beijing every year. Two years ago it was at Shanghai but I didn't go. So this is my first time to the major Shanghai auto show, after last year's mini show. Actually, the biggest exhibition here wasn't cars, but female ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/05/04/13rd-shanghai-auto-exhibition/ Following the trip from Sanqingshan, we drove about 70km to Wuyuan and stayed there for 3 days 2 nights. This was my second time to Jiangxi Wuyuan [江西婺源], last year was also during this season of omnipresent yellow rapeseed fields. With the freedom of driving, our aim this time was ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/05/04/second-time-to-wuyuan/ Mount Sanqingshan [三清山] is a very special mountain located at the north part of Jiangxi province, roughly 200km away from the much more famous Huangshan [黄山] mountain in Anhui province.  At the end of March, Max, Miles and I travelled together to visit this mountain for the first time. We ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/05/03/mount-sanqingshan/ As the first long trip of 2009, we hesitated between Guilin and Lijiang. I asked a colleague who came from Guilin, she told me that end of February isn't pretty at Guilin because the paddle fields are still yellow instead of green. Then I asked around and everyone seemed to ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/04/27/trip-to-lijiang/ A gallery inside the Tianzifang [田子坊] alley is where I first saw a photo of Fujian Tulou [福建土楼] a year ago. It picked my curiosity very much because of the round shape large scale building and the contrast of gray roof tile with omnipresent red lantern. At that time I ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/02/04/fujian-tulou/ Every new year break is a moment of reflection and self evaluation, as well as a moment of day dreaming of wishes for the coming year. After a tragic year 2008, I suppose everyone's wish is to recover from the deep hole, be it physical or financial. The same applies ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/02/02/persistence/ I've been observing air quality and visibility at Shanghai for the past couple of months, trying to find a moment where I can go out and take some wonderful shots of Shanghai skycraper. Here's a collection of some shots taken during December 2008. Click here to see the whole album. http://www.chekim.com/blog/2009/01/23/shanghai-skyline-again/ Did you know? By 2010, India will surpass Japan in purchasing power parity By 2020, China will surpass the U.S. in purchasing power parity By 2041, India’s economy will be twice as big as Japan’s By 2041, China will become the world’s largest economy Asians comprise only 5% of the U.S population, but … 15% of ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/11/17/did-you-know-that/ After a failed attempt to organize a team building trip to Anji [安吉], I decided to go there by myself two weeks ago, actually with Ctrip tour [携程]. The Anji region is famously known in China as the capital of bamboo, but since China produces the best and most of ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/10/31/anji-bamboo-capital/ Although it might appear, from the absence of blog post during July and August, that I was sticking my ass to the office chair during the whole Summer, it was actually not exactly the case. I did have a few outings during Summer, though short but still worth while. The last ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/09/22/3rd-imported-car-expo/ It's been exactly a year since my last visit to hometown Montreal, and I'm about to return for another visit next Monday. I've been working at IBM Shanghai -- precisely IBM China Systems & Technology Labs (CSTL) -- for a year and a half now. I'm starting to forget how ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/09/20/tic-2008/ It was another bloody Sunday just passed, or black Monday if you ran out of blood at Sunday, that brought the US and world financial markets in really deep deep shit. One would expect that the big bosses at Wall Street, with an army of financial experts, tons of Ph.D ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/09/16/bloody-sunday-at-wall-street/ At the mid-August, I took a weekend trip to a small island at Shandong province, called Lingshan island, with 2 colleagues and many friends. It was one of those cheap fare trip, tour bus, villagers' room, local food and very basic toilet with no practical shower. But it was fun ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/08/28/shandong-lingshan-island/ Since my first day to China, I've always wanted to shoot lotus, since there was no lotus at North America. At beginning of August I went to Century Park for a short photo session. I was expecting lotus and sunflower, but it turned out I was too late, sunflowers were ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/08/20/lotus-at-century-park/ Last month I was pleased to participate in an outdoor model photography session organized by IBM Photo Club. We went to Shanghai Daning Lingshi Park [上海大宁灵石公园] with around 50 IBMers. There were 6 models hired by the organizer, I guess 2 of them are semi-professionals, while 4 others are simply ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/08/13/model-shots-ibm-photo-club/ Ancient style floating village is gaining big popularity in recent years as touristic attraction, since the unknown village of Zhou Zhuang [周庄] made popular within China by now deceased artist Chen Yifei [陈逸飞] and known to the world after the shooting of Mission Impossible 3 with Tom Cruise. Wuzhen [乌镇]] is ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/06/29/wuzhen/ 坐在家楼下的星巴克边喝咖啡边看《摄影之友》时，看到外面两个小子在派广告卡。过一阵子后他们坐下来休息，有位看上去像他们老大的老头子竟然给他们烟抽，看他们老少一起抽烟实在有趣，可惜当时没有相机，只能用手机把场景拍下来。后来看到他们还在那边混，赶紧回家拿相机，不久之后又看到那老头子给小孩抽烟，可是小孩却拒绝了。可怜呀，小小年纪就要出来混啦！ http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/06/22/xiao-hun-hun/ It wasn't so long ago that Japanese fashion photographers would not use Japanese models for their top fashion shooting or for promoting luxury goods, they prefer to use western models with caucasian looks instead. That was during the 70s. At that time "Made in Japan" didn't sound any good as ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/06/22/china-fashion/ Sometime taking good portrait doesn't require much effort and preparation, sometime great effort and preparation don't result in good portrait. Last week it just turned out that Mary returned home earlier than usual from a formal party, she was nicely dressed with proper styled hair, so she asked me to ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/06/07/in-the-mood-for-love/ I can't believe I haven't written any blog for more than a month, it's been a crazy month at work... Two weeks ago I went to Nanjing with a few friends, my first time to Nanjing actually. As a once glorious capital of China during the beginning of Ming Dynasty [明朝], ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/06/07/nanjing-trip/ When we were the Sick Man of Asia, we were called The 'Yellow Peril'…… When we are billed to be the next Superpower, we are called 'The Threat'…… When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs (Opium, etc....) to open markets……. When we embrace Free Trade, You blame us for taking away your ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/04/24/poem-published-by-the-washington-post-by-a-physics-professor/ Last month I took a trip to Xi'an, Shaanxi province, at the central north of China. Visiting China without seeing Xi'an is like going to Egypt but haven't seen the pyramids, or going to Cambodia but not seeing the Ankor wats. I've always wanted to visit Xi'an since my first ... http://www.chekim.com/blog/2008/04/20/the-cradle-of-chinese-civilisation-xian/