Category Archives: china

Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Search Engine Strategies in Xiamen, China

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OK, it’s time to start getting excited about several events I’ll attend in 2008 – China SES in Xiamen, The Computer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the Web 2.0 Conference from WebGuild in Silicon Valley. More about China later as I start to plan that trip with my two table tennis pals, one of whom was born in Beijing. Here’s a great recap of Rand Fishkin‘s experiences last year at this conference.

CES Las Vegas is the world’s most super gigantic humongous computer show. Bill Gates is the keynote this year.

There will be amazing new product launches and thousands of exhibitors hawking the latest and greatest electronic gadgetry. I expect at least a few new amazing Google phones based on Android SDK and literally thousands of neat new gadgets for hands on investigation. Hopefully Scoble and Podtech will host another Bloghaus at the Bellagio. I’d read about CES Bloghaus 2007 last year and it really sounded like the happening place to hang out during the conference as a gathering point and 24/7 watering hole for bloggers.

I’m already getting a lot of emails and some phone calls about setting up press appointments with the CES Exhibitors. For many this is the key place to build the buzz for new product launches. I’ll hope to report on the neatest things I see in travel and tourism as well as anything amazing that really stands out.

SES China 2008 in Xiamen

CES Las Vegas 2008

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

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Manns Chinese Theatre

Originally uploaded by Jon_W.
Hey, you won’t see us in this picture because I *erased* about 50 pix I took here and along the walk of fame today. Thanks to Jon_W for taking a better pic than mine anyway!

However we really were hanging near Hollywood and Vine today at the Mann Theater complex, where people dressed up as movie characters are walking around.  It’s near the middle of the “Walk of Fame” with hundreds of sidewalk stars for stars of stage, screen, TV, and music.
In the courtyard of Mann’s are the hand and footprints of Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, the cast of Star Trek, and many more.

Across the street is the El Capitan theater. Today was the premier of Disney’s “Meet The Robinsons” and there was a red carpet and a lot of press but we couldn’t recognize any of the people going in, though I’m SURE they were, like, like, so famous!

China’s Mega Dam – Three Gorges Dam Project

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Don’t miss the Discovery Channel’s fascinating inside look into the history and construction of the Three Gorges Dam project on China’s Yangze River.     This massive project is the largest public works project in human history.   It will create a 400 mile long reservoir so massive that it may actually affect (very slightly but measurably) the rotation of the earth.    Three Gorges Dam is displacing over a million Chinese who live upriver from the Dam, though it appears that in many cases they’ll be relocated to better housing at higher ground.   36,000 square miles will be inundated as the river above the dam slowly rises.    Although some measures are being taken to preserve historical monuments an incalculable degree of historical and human emotional treasure will be lost from this dam.

The Mega Dam special gives some incredible insider looks into the control rooms of the power generation and shipping lock facilities as well as a brief look at some of the computer controls, which appear to have  very intuitive graphic interfaces.

A critic quoted in the film suggested that the benefits of the dam are effectively shipped off to big cities and larger farmers at the expense of the million plus Chinese who are getting displaced.     However other aspects of the story do not seem to support this vision because it appears that the relocated cities are generally of higher quality than those they are replacing.  One advocate suggested that this would be hard on the old relocated folks, but for the children the relocation would bring better health, education, and opportunity.

Discovery Channel Mega Dam Web page

Xianglu Grand Hotel

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The Xianglu Grand Hotel will be the venue for SES China, to be held in Xiamen China in May of 2007.   The English website for the Xianglu Grand is here.

Major website SEO problems notwithstanding, the Xianglu Grand looks like an amazing hotel.   One of china’s largest and finest this huge hotel in Xiamen is a five-star hotel project by Xianglu China, a business consortium for petrochemical, synthetic fiber, and real estate.   This appears to be the first Xianglu group’s venture into the hospitality industry.

The Xianglu Grand is located in the Huli District and overlooks Hubin, a scenic part of Xiamen.   The hotel is minutes from the Xiamen Gaoqi Airport and very close to Xiamen shopping and attractions.

There are several restaurants including a steakhouse and buffet and a 24 hour lounge.

I’m tentatively planning to go this year having missed last year’s Nanjing event which was the first of it’s kind in China.   There’s a great search marketing tour that surrounds this event and it looks like a lot of fun and perhaps good structure to bring to a first trip over.

Hong Kong Harbor

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Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor is very high on the list of places I really, really want to visit. It is one of those spectacular and legendary places where an entire culture unfolds before your eyes.

New York Times travel reports today that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel is the place to stay in Hong Kong, but at about $560 for a harbor view room I think this other New York Times frugal travelers approach to Hong Kong is probably more my speed.

Photo Credit: Hong Kong Tourism Board

There’s still time to give to a charity for 2006!

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The Kim Family Search Discussion continues here and approaches 4000 comments!

I just learned that one of the charity causes I support has matching funds that might expire unused. It’s called Blessing Hands and helps fund school for poor kids in China. Here’s the form to donate this year and get your donation effectively doubled, adding to the already great charity ROI projects like this attain by helping those in really poor countries.

Another great charity is KIVA at Kiva.org these are actual *loans* rather than money you simply give. I’d heard of KIVA but only decided to get involved when Adam Lasnik showcased a project on his blog that looked great. Thanks Adam!

Lastly consider NetAid.org which works to alleviate extreme poverty in 3rd world, mostly through water, health, and education projects. Here also you get to pick the type of project to support and learn a lot about the situation.

Why am I not listing US Charities here? I do believe in supporting your local neighborhood, schools, city, and local charities for the obvious reasons. However as a business guy I really believe that you should also look to the places where you get a very high return on investment whether it’s running your business or helping out other people.

Here in the great USA we have a lot more disposable income and affluence than in most other areas, so it’s easy and painless to have a huge impact on the lives of those in the third world by making even modest donations. It’s neat to know that your money has maximum impact in places where even a hundred dollars can wind up saving a child’s life.