Play the Game of Life
Ryan Petersen's Blog

Somehow a convenience store is just not that convenient when the owner falls asleep in the aisle.

Labels: china, my favorite posts

The dearth of good English reading material is a complaint often heard in China. Many of the bookstores only carry the classics of the English cannon: Figuring the books will never grow out of date, the managers can just leave the same box of books on the shelf indefinitely. Although the books these stores offer can be great, they are often overpriced and don't provide enough depth of selection. A more attractive option is to find e-books on www.gutenberg.org, save them to your USB stick and get them printed at a local copy shop. For less than a dollar you can own physical copies of classics like the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the Wealth of Nations, the Prince and thousands of others.

Labels: china

Despite its beauty, Dian Chi, just a few miles south of Kunming, is widely regarded as one of the most polluted lakes in China. That must put it in contention for most polluted body of water in the world. Nobody told the boy in the video below.

Many years ago, a similar lack of information led a group of us swimming at Lake Anza, in the Berkeley hills, to suffer a massive outbreak of one of the weirdest rashes ever seen in those parts. May we hope this child enjoys better luck...









If you are not in China and the video doesn't work, use this link. For those of us in China, Google Video playback is not yet available.

Labels: china, my favorite posts

Cars like this are so commonplace in China that we run the risk of taking them for granted. Let's start a series on funny Chinese vehicles: send over any pictures you'd like to add to the collection!

Labels: china

 

Labels: china, photos

At $120 per month, this new apartment is a bargain, even if the washing machine is a bit strange:

(Google video playback not yet available for those of us in China. Anyways, users in China most likely have already had comparable experiences with mysterious home applicances.)

Labels: china

Google Earth released a new version yesterday which includes updated satelite imagery and improved rendering technology. Kunming is now visible in relatively high resolution for the first time. Beautiful.

For those interested in learning more fun ways to use Google Earth, check out the following resources:

Earth.Google.com - The homepage for this magnificent program
BBS.Keyhole.com - The Official Google Earth Community
OgleEarth.com - A leading blog about Google Earth
Gearthblog.com - Another great blog about Google Earth

Labels: china

Late last year we developed a partnership with a Polish company to bring massage chairs from the Back Rub Hub to the European Union. Today the company's founder sent us an e-mail to announce that they have officially launched a new Web site to market the products, Masuj.pl (this means "massage" in Polish). They've just ordered another container of 85 chairs, so we are obviously very pleased with the growth of this partnership. Hopefully this will continue to develop to the point where we can someday meet the gorgeous Polish model on their Web site.

Labels: business

Tonight I finally completed and launched the bilingual Web site for the Shanghai Bo Ai Children's Rehabilitation Center. The non-profit center was China's first NGO dedicated to providing modern rehabilitation and education services for children with cerebral palsy. During my first six months in Shanghai I lived with the center's founder, Gao Yali. Her story and the way she carries herself are true inspirations for me, so I am pleased to be able to donate this Web site to her center.

Labels: china

In case you were wondering where China gets all that rice from...

These pictures were taken by Michy (pronounced just like the Mouse) on our bike trip two weeks ago.

Labels: china