Visa Wins Big at Olympics

by Josh Lew on

Visa wanted to use the Olympics to get its foot firmly in the door in Beijing. The results are good so far. The credit card giant has been almost as dominant as the US men’s basketball squad.

Visa started preparations well before The Games. They helped over 200,000 merchants become Visa-ready and installed nearly 90,000 ATMs country-wide.

So who is plopping down the plastic in China’s largely cash-based society? Americans, who else? Visa claims that nearly 20% of the revenue on the first day of the Olympics came from consumers from the US. Japanese were the second largest group of users, accounting for 13% of the day one total.

Visa is using the Olympics to get itself in good position for the future in China. But is China benefiting from the wider use of plastic? Small and medium-sized retail businesses are probably seeing immediate results with the souvenir-happy tourists who have descended on Beijing. Visa claimed that there were $10 million worth of sales on day one alone. That’s $10 million dollars into the local economy.

Talk about laughing all the way to the bank. China won’t be laughing in the future when it finds that domestic credit card debt is on the rise, but for now, unlike the Olympic events themselves, in the credit card game, everyone is a winner.

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Bring Chinese cooking to your kitchen after your travels

by Jamie Rhein on

If you are traveling from China and want to replicate some of the tastes at home, Jen Lin Liu, author of Serve the People: A Stir-fried Journey through China, has some tips.

She presented them in a very speedy cooking lesson segment on The Today Show that I caught yesterday morning. Lin-Liu is a Chinese American living in China who moved there to learn more about Chinese cooking.

Here’s what Liu said. For spices, the staples are salt, pepper and sugar. Sugar is an important ingredient because it balances out the salt and pepper. Liu said it’s a yin and yang kind of thing.

Also there are two kinds of soy sauces that she uses: light and dark. The dark is actually a lighter flavor than the light, but both are used-from what I gathered, in the same dish.

Her main utensil is a meat cleaver which she uses for everything-even paring apples. As Liu demonstrated, the cleaver is handy for picking up food and dumping it into the wok for stir-frying. She also uses it to smash vegetables, a technique that releases some of the flavor. A spatula is used for turning whatever is cooking.

The corn starch that is used to thicken the sauce was put into the meat marinade.

One question that came up was the way Chinese food tastes different in the United States, than in China. One reason she gave was that the ingredients were fresher in China. People go to the fresh market every day and buy only what they will cook that day.

My husband’s greatest pleasure when we lived in Singapore was going to the market in the morning on Saturdays or Sundays. He would come back, arms full. Unlike me, he loves to cook.

One thing I enjoyed about this segment and Jen Lin Liu’s brand of cooking is that it looks easy to replicate. The cook book just came out just last month. I’m tempted to buy it. After all, I think we already have a clever tucked back in a kitchen drawer somewhere. I’ll recognize it when I see it.

Here’s a link to the video where Liu demonstrates her techniques.

Don’t like the look of a neighborhood? Build a wall around it.

by Grant Martin on

You have to give the Chinese credit for trying to clean up Beijing during the 2008 Olympics. Their methods, while borderline authoritarian, have resulted in a significantly cleaner and friendlier looking China — the perfect reflection of a global economic superpower that should be hosting the games.

Several weeks before the games, officials attempted to curtail pollution by shutting down or constraining many of the factories in the region. While air quality has still been poor — one out of three cyclists in a recent race had to drop out because of the conditions — rain and cooler temperatures are now helping the conditions improve.

Other measures taken have had broader, more ominous impact among the resident population. At the same time that factory pollution cuts were mandated, residential vehicle traffic was also halved to cut down on emissions. Commuters were forced to take other transportation to work and trains and buses hemorrhaged with passengers as millions of Chinese jockeyed through Beijing trying to get to work.

In another district of the capital, developers decided that a particular neighborhood reflected poorly on the image of the country. Their solution? Build a wall around it. Despite the fact that multiple businesses and storefronts faced the street, an eight foot wall was erected around the region, blocking out the questionable content and creating a cleaner, more “tourist friendly” look.

Take a look at this brief video put together by the Boston Globe. Would you be happy with a wall like this in front of your storefront? .

Kids-eye view of the Olympics

by Abha Malpani on

Scouring through what the blogosphere is saying about the Olympics, I came across a blog written by a 12-year old in Beijing. His name is David and he is National Geographic Kid’s correspondent for the Olympics.

He’s an American child who has been living in China since he was two; he moved to Beijing last year from Suzhou.

The blog is straightforward and has that wonderful child-innocence about it. He writes clearly and does a great job being informative. His posts so far break the Olympics down to basics where he talks about things like: The different cities where the games are being held and why, the mascots, and getting around in the city during the games.

What makes his posts interesting is what he chooses to share, and of course, that they are written from the perspective of a child thrilled to be at the Games. Certainly a novelty in the blogosphere and worth keeping a tab on.

Olympic Games opening, Chinese style: The wow factor

by Jamie Rhein on

Wow! Wow! Wow! I could go on.

Even though today’s news brought the missive of the out of character stabbing of an American tourist in Beijing, the opening ceremony of the Olympics was certainly in character.

It was amazing–and I only saw the last bit. That’s one detail about traveling; world events swirl about in the periphery until a thought passes through, like, “Didn’t the Olympics start today?” and the TV is flipped on to the right channel. I remembered the Olympics just in time to catch the finale.

The NBC TV commentators were as amazed by the ceremonial hoopla as much as I was– maybe even more. Even though they expected a spectacular showing from China, the result was brilliant.

As Matt Lauer asked about the opening, “Is it usually this way?” Bob Costas said, summarized in a word, “No.”

The synchronized acrobatics and dance routines in the final clips before the credits rolled were versions of performances I saw at the school where I taught in Taiwan– X 100, of course. Once a year there is Field Day where the entire school day is given over to athletic competitions. Each grade also performs a synchronized performance that takes hours of practice.

To see what can be done with hundreds of school kids who pay attention is astounding. I wasn’t surprised to see what can be done with adults. Still, the result was a spectacular feat of skill and wonder.

My favorite part, hands down, was gymnast Li Ning’s trip around the top of the stadium while he was suspended by cables. As he held the torch aloft, making perfectly executed running motions, a scroll screen unfurled to show a video montage of the torch’s trip around the world.

At the end, he lit the torch by lighting a fuse which carried the flame to the main torch that burst into flames. This was followed by a fireworks display like no other–several mimicked the shape of the Olympic rings.

As I said to my friend who was watching it with me, “Can you imagine, the group of people sitting in a room thinking up ideas for what could be done to light the torch? Isn’t it fantastic that someone came up with this? Isn’t it great what people envision?”

I’m a sentimental sap though. My husband thinks I should be in “Up with People.” If one puts cynicism aside, and forgets that perhaps governments stage events to show off might, to focus on those with the creativity to orchestrate such pleasure, the world does look brighter.

This video clip from the The Wall Street Journal On-Line gives an interesting overview of what the Chinese were thinking and doing on August 8 before the opening ceremonies started. Getting married and having babies were part of the activiites. It finishes with a bit of the fireworks. I wish it showed Li Ning.

Sometimes, it’s good to feel a bit of wonder and leave problems aside for a moment or two. Just call me Mary, as in Mary Sunshine. For a wonderful slide show, check out this link from The New York Times. Li Ning is number 12.