我現在人在中國大陸，正在因為無法辦法連上Facebook而在感受盜汗、噁心、發抖等戒毒症狀。

我詳細的所在地是常熟。常熟在哪裡呢？在上海外郊，開車兩小時處，在跨過長江的蘇通大橋旁邊。我服務的公司在這裡有個據點。我第一次來的時候，真覺得這是個荒涼的地方。往地平線看去，只能看見混著空氣污染的滾滾黃塵。這裡的夕陽，是我看過最美的，因為空氣污染的關係，落日顯得特別的紅、特別的大。

這幾年來，常熟改變真多：蓋了好幾棟星級旅館，蓋了個表演場（「縱貫線」這個熟男樂團還來表演過），馬路也從碎石變成水泥，再變成柏油。路邊的公寓一棟接一棟，別墅區旁邊還挖了小河，種了很多柳樹。雖然馬路上還是看到很多很窮，而且很沒有交通sense的村民（例如騎三輪車在快車道上逆向行駛），但是似乎大家都變比較有錢了。

我昨天晚上在常熟市內與幾位外派大陸的公司弟兄們一起餐敘，體會他們的辛勞，順便跟他們道別。我們討論到一個話題，那就是「大陸經驗」。他們覺得，大陸這裡，雖然大家講的都是中國話，長得都是黃皮膚、黑眼睛，可是腦子裡想的，是完全不同的觀念；台灣人面對大陸人，就是面對一個外國人，並不是如很多人認為，像同祖宗的兄弟。一位弟兄甚至認為他們，因為文化大革命，禮義廉恥的觀念都得重新培養。台灣管理的一些理念，到這裡幾乎不管用。世界真的變平了嗎？

說到這裡，我今天看到一篇書評，在批評「世界是平的」這本書。說真的，我這本書沒有看過，我覺得看封面，大概就可以知道他裡面在寫什麼了。另一本這樣子的書，就是「藍海策略」，這本我也沒看過。由於這兩個概念好像滿簡單的（歡迎讀者們挑戰我這個假設），所以我實在不了解為什麼有人要花好幾百頁來印刷這些概念，或是有人要花好幾個小時來讀完。

原來我不是唯一一個這樣認為的人，上面那篇書評，把「世界是平的」的這本書，批評的一無是處。他批評作者把一個很簡單的、大家都知道的概念，用很爛的文筆，掰了好幾百頁。我實在很少看到有人寫書評寫到罵髒話、甚至質疑是否還有神的存在。

可是這本書為什麼賣的這麼好呢？是否像是大前研一在他的「低IQ時代」這本書中所說的，大家都喜歡讀簡單的概念，讓自己覺得很聰明？！說到大前研一，他實在也沒好到哪裡去，我看過他的幾本書，大概重點只有十頁，自我陶醉的敘述、例子，以及鄙視他人的批評，可以填滿剩下的版面。唉，至少大前研一的書往往還有新穎的論點啊。

我覺得世界沒有變平，純粹只是變了。當初存在的一些屏障，不論是交通、溝通、金融，如今被新科技打破；由於溝通的便利，甚至有些文化的隔閡都被打破了（例如全亞洲都知道周杰倫─不知道是好事還是壞事）。但是還是有些無形的屏障被慢慢升起。例如，各國家成立經濟特區，像是東協（我一直很好奇有沒有國家願意成立西獨），或是反傾銷的訴訟。由於網路的便利性，以及某些國家的興起，讓很多人自己可以陶醉在自己的小圈子內，就像蘿莉控的人可以與其他蘿莉控的人討論萌妹，認為陳致中嫖妓的人可以跟圈內的其他的人互相說服；由於某些人自願的狹視，或是不自主的被蒙在鼓裡，這些人的自我回饋，讓他們在思想上變得更加孤立。還有，「有」跟「沒有」的人，他們的生活形式差距越來越大：我親眼看過大陸貴婦在香港用路邊攤買水果的方式在買LV包，也看過農村裡面赤腳光屁股、在人行道路邊尿尿的小朋友。

我手中拿著一罐冰的可口可樂，看著在旅館門口停的一台閃亮的BMW M4，世界沒有變平，純粹只是變了。

以上照片是我在九寨溝拍的，放在Flickr。

今天這篇文章，應該只有短短的而已，因為我要秀我去澳洲度假的照片！就像這隻撫媚的袋鼠一樣（啊，他是公的！），我過了一個很輕鬆的禮拜。

如果你覺得無尾熊很可愛，想抱抱看的話，全世界現在只剩下昆士蘭州可以抱。你可以去一個叫做Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary的地方，很靠近布里斯班市。

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary很靠近我的母校，昆士蘭大學。昆士蘭大學是用七彩的砂岩建造的，有著南半球最長的直線建築物（這不知道有啥好驕傲的）。

其他的照片，點進來看吧。

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我很愛玩，在讀書的時候，常常把打工的錢一口氣花完，跑到一個地方去玩。玩的時候又盡興拍很多照片。所以啊，當我參加旅行團時，都會覺得拍照的時間都不大夠。現在，有間公司叫Photours，由兩個專業攝影師成立，專門辦給愛拍照的人的旅遊。

新聞來自Springwise。

The following image is me, stuck in Shanghai, slouching in a couch, trapped by the mother of all snowstorms. The past two days had been frick’n freezing interesting, and it all culminated in the delay of this flight to HK. It was truly lucky of me to encounter the most severe snowstorm in the past 50 years here in China.

Check out Tim Ferriss’s blog on how to learn a new language quickly.

I can speak 4 languages relatively fluently (Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, Japanese), and can program two more (PHP, C), but I have never thought of learning a language like what Tim Ferriss has suggested. When I try to speak a language, I think in logical blocks. I connect distinct units of language (such as verbs and nouns, in a spoken language, or even variables and keywords in a programming language), and try to construct logic out of the combination.

My first solo backpacking adventure was to Japan, and this was after 3 years of on-and-off Japanese learning. I am still quite rough at the language, but I discovered that it didn’t require much language ability to survive in a foreign country. I learned French for a year, before I embarked on a journey to France. I was totally useless, but still survived. Now I believe one only needs to learn the following phrases in order to survive (please note, I say “survive”, not “get by”) in any country.

• Hello
• Thank you
• Sorry/ Excuse me
• Help…(with a pathetic expression helps)
• Where is…?
• Do you speak English?

The rest is just sign-language.

Tim Ferriss is an unique fellow. I also recommend his book The Four Hour Workweek. It’s quite inspirational. After reading the book, I realised that my new company, Yabbyland.com is essentially a tool designed to allow people to easily outsource daily chores to make life easier, as suggested by Tim.

Tim, I hope your blog makes it to the Technorati 1000 soon.

I am writing another post from the China Airlines lounge at CKS airport in Taipei.

I am going to the US again. This time it’s to Kingsport, TN. It’s gonna take 3 flights to get there.

I sooooooooo don’t want to go….

Come to think of it, I didn’t want to go to San Antonio earlier this year either.

What a week it had been. I am now on the second week of my trip here. Chang Shou is actually not as bad as I had previously thought. It’s not a desert. The town is almost as busy as some of the most busy cities in Taiwan. The streets are clean (not because the Chinese here have better habits, but because they have more paid street cleaners).

A rather interesting thing I noticed here on the streets is electric bikes. They run on electricity, and cruise in almost complete silence. I think they are much cooler than the traditional bikes, but they have a limitation on distance (30-40km) and speed (40-50kph). Watching them moving about, it’s almost like they are drifting.

I am on the way to China, again!!! I am now at HK airport, on my way to Shanghai, and then on to Chang Shou, where one of our factories is based.

This time, I am slightly less bored than previous trips, due to the nature of the journey. I am here to investigate whether the operation is going smoothly… I am almost becoming a company investigator, digging out problems all over the place. I wish I could also implement solutions to try to fix them though.

Sigh… The biggest issue now in Taipei is the loss of talented staff due to the incompetency of our management. I wish something could be done about this, through more HR interventions or through better review processes for staff and their superiors. I don’t think the company realizes, but I feel this is a major issue that is slowly undermining the company’s competitiveness.

I had just returned from a trip to Indonesia. This was meant to be a business trip visiting one of our factories. I had the opportunity to witness the chaos of Jakarta. Indonesia had suffered tremendously from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which sent its currency to plunge in value 5 fold. From the people that I had spoken to, the past few years saw many companies going bankrupt, and had put my company’s local factory in much hardship also.

My impression of Jakarta is an endless traffic jam. From the number of new motor bikes on the streets, I think this country is in recovery. However, its lack of infrastructure, such as roads, is limiting its development (and this is pretty much the same scenario with other SE Asian countries like Phillipines). I hear that corruption in governmental posts used to be rampant, is reducing, but is still not good enough. To make things worse, the somewhat xenophobic and anti-Chinese sentiment in this country is scaring potential investors away. So, it’s stuck in a slow pace of advance, which the rest of Asia (especially China, India, and now Vietnam) marches on.

I took the weekend off to go to Bali. Its serenity is in stark contrast to Jakarta’s chaos. The beaches are one of the best that I had set foot on. In my opinion, the waves are just perfect to surf in; not too big, not too small. The rainforests are natural, and the people are friendly. However, Kuta, where I stayed in, was way too commercialised. Surf clothing stores lined the streets. Australians with very little clothing on walk around drunk, with a beer bottle in their hand, singing rugby war cries. I hope tourism, the hand that feeds this place, doesn’t slowly exploit its beauty to death.

I hate to say this, but I hope the bombing was a wake up call to the foreigners to be more sensitive to local cultures.

My gallery is here:

I am now in China. I am here for a business meeting.

I caught an afternoon flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong, and then caught a boat from HK to China. The town I am in is called Hu Men or Tiger-gate (虎門), in Dong Guan, Guang Dong. It’s just like any other city in SE China. Busy, with no character. It’s raining outside, with lots of fog. There is a martial arts competition going on on TV, and they wear really bad costumes. It almost feels like I am in a bad film noir set in China.

I met a guy on the boat here, and we talked about his business. He runs a small clothing store, and he’s here picking up the latest fashion. This area in China is famous for its clothing manufacturing.

After the discussion, I had a new business idea.

The business idea involves a tailored-made clothing business (or maybe bespoke or custom-made fashion). I would set up a store and cute sales people to measure customers’ dimensions, send them to a design center with experienced tailors, and then the clothing specifications can be sent over the internet to factories based in China. A production line produces these tailored made items, before DHL’ing them to the customer.

Just another idea.