Forbes: Shanghai, Beijing as world’s top emerging business centers
It was not surprising to see Forbes suggest that Shanghai and Beijing ranked highest in their recent survey measuring which cities are poised to become major global business capitals.
They used a neat picture from Shanghai’s World Financial Center - under construction when I was there in April and basically the opposite of my picture from below the Jin Mao tower:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeduck/2419944285/in/set-72157604613298418/
Jin Mao remains one of the top ten tallest buildings in the world but is still dwarfed by the Shanghai World Trade Center with the massive square opening to stabilize the building in high winds. The opening was originally designed as a huge circle but after initial approval of that spectacular design, Chinese officials decided it looked too much like the symbolism of the flag of Japan and insisted on a new design.
Wen Jiabao interviewed by Zakaria
Wen Jiabao is the Premier of China, making him one of the most influential international figures of this generation. Today on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS - one of the best shows on TV, we are hearing from Wen Jiabao on several topics of extreme relevance to the global community.
I can’t compliment Zakaria enough for a journalistic style that does two things I’d argue are necessary to get *access to people* while at the same time getting real rather than canned insights. First, he’s polite, which gets access and creates a relaxed atmosphere where real dialog can take place. Second, he asks the *big* questions in a way that brings us real insights into the thinking patterns of the key political and thought leaders he interviews.
Rather than summarize things here I want to link to CNN’s GPS page where I think they will post the interview, because anybody with an interest in where things are going should be paying very close attention.
Much of the current debate in this country about China (as well as many things) takes a sort of cartoon form, where people are stuck on oversimplifying a handful of complex talking points like China’s economic relationship to the USA and China’s Tibet policy (which in my view could largely be solved by shifting treatment of Tibet to an autonomous region like Hong Kong, a relationship that is working fairly well).
Asked about the prevailing economic philosophy who did Wen Jiabao quote? None other than Adam Smith, suggesting that the free hand of capitalism should be balanced by Government regulations to keep things fair and orderly (FYI he’s right that Smith was an advocate of some regulation and application of “morality” to free markets - a historical point often lost in debates here over free market virtues).
What’s Wen Jiabao reading? Stoic Marcus Aurelius apparently is one of his favorite philosophers, a thoughtful but sometimes ruthless Roman emperor who advocated social responsibility and internal progressive social reforms even as he persecuted wars and treated some dissenters ruthlessly.
Beijing Olympics Coverage basically rocks - so stop whining!
I’m really tired of people criticizing the technology behind the Olympics coverage, which has been spectacular on almost all fronts given NBC’s unprecedented “all events online” approach.
Sure it’s unfortunate / frustrating to have some events delayed - especially here on West coast, and I’d guess NBC will change some of this for 2012, but the idea, for example, that CNN should not report results without a “spoiler” note is just asking too much.
Noted over at TechCrunch today:
Beijing China Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China is one of Beijing’s top attractions for both foreign and local folks who come here to pray and play cards.
China. Beijing. Temple of Heaven 842
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
I’m watching the Women’s Marathon at the Beijing Olympics and they just ran through the Temple of Heaven, one of the big Beijing attractions where the emperor, and now regular people come to pray.
The architecture there is a lot like that of the Forbidden City, and although the Temple of Heaven is a large area it has far fewer buildings than the Forbidden City.
Kudos to China’s Tourism Marketing folks (ha - maybe the same as their Olympic folks?) for getting Beijing attractions in front of billions of people.
Beijing Meridian Gate, Forbidden City Entrance
Meridian Gate, Forbidden City Entrance
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Meridian Gate guards the Forbidden City and is directly across from Tianenmen Square in the heard of Beijing. Although the gate offers a great view of the square, I’d recommend you go on in to the Forbidden City since packs are not allowed on the gate and it’ll take you some time to check bag, tour the gate, and uncheck your bag.
Beijing Olympic Village … 4 months ago…
Olympic Village … 4 months ago…
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
The Beijing folks are such amazing capitalists that they were literally selling off the Olympic Village housing complex as luxury apartments in April - about four months before the Olympics!
The Olympic area is to form a new upscale residential area for Beijing, which has grown out many miles via concentric rings of development that began at the “center” of Beijing at Tiananmen Square.
Beijing Olympics Coverage = Awesome
OK, so I’ve got Gymnastics on the TV and Table Tennis early rounds on the computer. HUGE kudos to NBC and Microsoft for providing such a superb streaming and downloadable video environment - this is definitely NOT your father’s technological Oldsmobile Olympics.
Effective with Beijing we are seeing how powerfully technology can cover major events. In this case the coverage was very expensive, but as these technologies mature and bloggers become more adept at webcasting we can expect a lot of visibility where there was little before.
Cool.
Erick at TechCrunch has a problem with the coverage and is calling NBC lame, but he’s very wrong about compatibility and lameness. Bob Kostas’ deadpan nonsense notwithstanding, NBC rules.
Olympics Opening Ceremony Fireworks Coverage Faked - sort of…
Wow, when I first read this I thought it was a conspiracy theory but the UK Register report appears true. Some 55 seconds of fireworks during the opening ceremony were computer generated. The fireworks *really did happen* and presumably looked very similar to the clip, but fearing they could not film this in all it’s spectacle NBC spent about a year creating the fake clip.
Of course this would be crazy if the fireworks did NOT happen, but given that they did it clouds the issue of misrepresentation. ie they didn’t do this to “fake us out”, rather to better represent a reality that would have been hard to capture in real time. Still, I don’t like it. When you fake something like this it is incumbent to present it as a simulation or animation. Not doing so raises a lot of credibility questions, which are particularly unsavory for the main reporting agency in the world’s top sporting event.
Sheesh - I was prepared to be very complimentary of NBC ever since I heard their great presentation at CES Las Vegas where they talked about Beijing coverage. C’mon NBC - let’s provide transparency in coverage and distribution and everybody can be happy!
Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony
Wow, I just finished watching the opening ceremony (recorded) which was absolutely spectacular. It was fun to see the Birds Nest having just been there a few months ago, though I just missed getting a tour of the insdie by having to leave a few days before it was open for visits.
China’s presentation went off flawlessly and in super spectacular fashion with a historically unprecedented, stunning and breathtaking blend of technology, humans, and history. Wow.
NBC = Not Broadcasting Cleverly
First I want to say how I really appreciate the fact NBC is going to place all of the Olympic sports content online - a real boon for those of us who follow sports like Table Tennis and Badminton. Those sports don’t make prime time NBC TV - in fact historically they are simply left out of the TV coverage.
But reading in NYT about how they spent much of the past few days keeping the opening ceremony offline makes me wonder how well they thought this out. I really love watching the opening ceremonies - even the boring parts - and for the audience that would have watched this online live I think they could have targeted some great advertising - for example I would have been happy to sign up for “Olympic Specials” and give more demographic info than I normally would do in exchange for the privilege of a real time or short delayed webcast. As an advertisers how would you like it if NBC offered you the ability to slice and dice your audience according to a survey you helped produce?
As it happens my daughter’s play conflicted with the first few hours of the ceremony, so I’ve taped them on media center and will watch them tonight or later. But you can bet your bottom NBC dollar I probably will FF through most if not all of the ads - in fact through the boring parts and ads which I would have *had* to watch if they’d let me see this live on China’s 8/8/8
I can’t help but think NBC’s approach was shortsighted. Why squelch all the videos they could find rather than work to provide us with coverage of one of the the greatest events humanity has to offer at the time we want to watch it? In this case wouldn’t choice have been more profitable?
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People need to stop whining while the quirks of social media effects on global events get worked out. Overall the coverage by NBC has been nothing short of spectacular, with real time multiple event coverage online and off. Sure it would be nice if everything was live, but Beijing’s time is very inconvenient for most TV watchers.
People have been whining about tape delays when they could be watching online, and now this absurd idea that CNN should be *delaying the reports* to conform to the NBC delays not to mention the people who are over there *watching the events live*. You want them to shut up until you see the show? Sheesh - do you want me to use a tube TV, too?