Postcards from China » In The News http://blog.chineseoutpost.com An American who taught in China in 1993-94 returns for a visit in 2006 with his native Chinese wife and their two pre-schoolers. Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:36:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Jake Ludington Reports from ‘DEMO China’: MVox DUO Out of the Bag http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/09/08/jake-ludington-reports-from-demo-china-mvox-duo-out-of-the-bag/ http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/09/08/jake-ludington-reports-from-demo-china-mvox-duo-out-of-the-bag/#comments Sat, 09 Sep 2006 04:37:28 +0000 Mark Baker http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/09/08/jake-ludington-reports-from-demo-china-mvox-duo-out-of-the-bag/ Jake Ludington used to be a contributor at Chris – Pirillo’s – Lockergnome, back before both Jake and Chris moved here to the Seattle area. These days, Jake publishes at his own site, Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab: “Audio and Video Answers for your Digital Lifestyle”.

Earlier this week I ended up back at Jake’s site after a long hiatus (I guess I haven’t had any digital problems lately that–I shudder to type this–couldn’t be solved by YouTube). There, I found that since my last visit he (1) has started learning Mandarin Chinese and (2) is in Beijing this very week reporting from the ‘DEMO China’ conference.

To quote Jake:

Like the DEMO conference here in the United States, DEMO China represents a showcase of some of exciting new companies. This is the first DEMO ever held outside the U.S. and I’m documenting all the companies presenting over the course of the three-day event.

And to quote Jake’s quote of the DEMO China site:

DEMO China showcases a market with explosive growth potential – the People’s Republic of China. With growing support from VCs, numerous successful tech companies in China are now publicly traded on the NASDAQ, including SINA, SOHU, NETEASE and BIDU. And there’s much more growth ahead. New technology companies are launched everyday in this booming market. DEMO China will screen the entire country for the Annual Top 70 companies.

The conference ran September 6-8, and Jake has posted just a handful of entries in his DEMO China blog so far, but I rather suspect he’ll be adding more as time allows.

In my favorite post, “Mvox Duo Wearable Voice-Dialing Communicator,” Jake reports on a technology that its creator, Silicon Valley’s MVox Technologies, apparently doesn’t want you to know about yet if you live in the United States. Says Jake:

In a rather dramatic introduction, Mvox walked through a demonstration promising to throw out all your existing wired communication devices and replace it with a hands-free voice activated solution for dialing, talking, and communicating (in the demo they called Yao Ming). The Mvox DUO is both a Bluetooth headset and hands-free car kit with speaker phone. The speaker phone capability allows it to double as a portable conference room phone and it integrates with VoIP over Bluetooth, assuming your computer is Bluetooth equipped….

[A]fter the company found out I was American, they wouldn’t let me take better shots because they haven’t announced the device in the U.S. just yet. Someday, companies need to remember that the Internet has no borders. (emphasis mine)

A couple other posts you China-looking techies and marketers and wireless experts might like (Hi, Karl!) include:

And since I’m trying harder to follow the “Each Post Must Say Something Unique, Not Just Copy, Paste and Link” rule of blogging:

The Mvox DUO doesn’t look like a Star Trek communicator so much as it does one of those theft-prevention devices clamped to clothing in certain mid-scale department stores:

Photo by Jake Ludington

]]> http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/09/08/jake-ludington-reports-from-demo-china-mvox-duo-out-of-the-bag/feed/ 0 Sex and Shanghai’s ‘Chinabounder’: Pimple-Faced Geek in Denver, or Traitor in Our Midst? http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/31/sex-in-shanghais-chinabounder-pimple-faced-geek-in-denver-or-traitor-in-our-midst/ http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/31/sex-in-shanghais-chinabounder-pimple-faced-geek-in-denver-or-traitor-in-our-midst/#comments Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:57:01 +0000 Mark Baker http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/31/sex-in-shanghais-chinabounder-pimple-faced-geek-in-denver-or-traitor-in-our-midst/ This story has more twists and turns than back-to-back American Bandstand and Soul Train classic rebroadcasts.

First there’s the risable “Sex and Shanghai” blog itself (foreigner writes about alleged sexual trysts with ex-students).

Then the indignant Chinese backlash (Chinese professor’s call to unmask and expel the author ‘Chinabounder’).

Then the ‘Sex and Shanghai’ blog goes limp, taken offline “except by invitation only.”

Yesterday I suggested my skepticism over Chinabounder being who he claimed, and necessarily doing what he claimed, or even being where he claimed (back home in Denver, I suggested, which a commentor further speculated to “pimple-faced geek in Denver”.)

And now, reported via Danwei.org, an AP story headlined “Chinese Internet users hunt author of racy blog, but alleged authors claim a hoax” takes this a step further:

…a person responding to an e-mail to a contact address on the site said the authors were a group of performance artists who had fabricated its content as an investigation into online vigilante behavior.

“We did not anticipate quite the level of anger this would raise,” said the message, which said the authors behind the cyber name “Chinabounder” included a British man, an Australian woman, two Chinese men and a Japanese woman.

Already being skeptical of whomever is behind ‘Sex and Shanghai’, I don’t know if I buy that this was started as “an investigation into online vigilante behavior.”

If it is a serious investigation, and not a mere attempt at juvenile provocation–like reports of a young foreigner scattering change at a Beijing bus stop hoping to get Chinese people to chase the coins like hungry beggars–then there had better be a formal publication of findings in the pipeline.

Otherwise, here are a few observations and predictions:

First, Chinabounder, or someone claiming to be Chinabounder, has posted comments on at least one other blog. I noticed them on this post at John Pasden’s Sinosplice from back in May. If Chinabounder has commented elsewhere, then John and the owners of those other blogs could compare notes and report back to us whether Chinabounder’s posting IP is in Shanghai or not. (Or in Denver, perhaps.)

Second, Chinabounder is obviously in touch with the China Blog-osphere. He (or they) were reading Pasden’s Sinosplice Life blog at least as far back as May, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Chinabounder (or at least one of the “performance artists”) has posted there before under a different name.

Third–this enters further into the realm of pure speculation–I have noticed echoes of Chinabounder’s criticisms of China on other blogs under different user names. Chinabounder’s blog is offline now and I can’t find the exact reference, but one day I read a Chinabounder gripe about China that used many of the exact same phrases used by someone who comments regularly at Richard TPD’s blog. I’m not going to say who that poster is, and though it’s possible, I don’t mean to imply that they’re necessarily the same person, only that this “performance artist” group has perhaps sometimes “borrowed” from commentators elsewhere to create the fictional Chinabounder’s rants.

But my overall hunch at this point: Someone knows. Someone in the China Blog-osphere not currently known to be associated with this whole ‘Sex and Shanghai’ thing knows. I am by no means suggesting it’s John Pasden or Richard TPD just because I’ve mentioned their blogs in this post, but Someone Established in This China-Blogosphere Knows. Maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s a blog author we know by a different name, maybe it’s someone who overheard something at the Shanghaiist 80′s Happy Hour. Who knows. Could be anyone.

But someone knows and isn’t telling.

And with a virtual lynch mob at the IP gate, that is perhaps not a bad thing.

Because if there’s anything Chinese hate worse than reading about some of their “wayward girls” doing the nasty with “ugly foreigners,” it’s being baited by foreigners who are trying to elicit their “arrogant” and vitriolic responses in order to ridicule them.

Related: ‘Sex and Shanghai’ Backlash in Machine Translation

]]> http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/31/sex-in-shanghais-chinabounder-pimple-faced-geek-in-denver-or-traitor-in-our-midst/feed/ 14 ‘Sex and Shanghai’ Backlash in Machine Translation http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/29/sex-in-shanghai-backlash-in-machine-translation/ http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/29/sex-in-shanghai-backlash-in-machine-translation/#comments Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:55:55 +0000 Mark Baker http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/29/sex-in-shanghai-backlash-in-machine-translation/ Angle #1 Background

1. There’s a blog kept by a fellow allegedly from England who graphically chronicles his alleged sexual conquests of Chinese women in Shanghai, many of them his former students.

2. Blogs hosted on Google’s blogspot (as ‘Sex and Shanghai’ is) were until recently inaccessible in China.

3. Once ‘Sex and Shanghai’ became accessible in China, some Chinese people discovered it.

4. One of these people, Zhang Jiehai, a professor of psychology at the Department of Sociology in the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, is calling for an all-out witchhunt to unmask and expel the semi-anonymous writer of ‘Sex and Shanghai’.

5. Roland Soong, a dual Hong Kong/USA citizen who often provides English translations of current Chinese articles, news stories and blog/forum entries, has translated Zhang Jiehai’s diatribe.

6. Lots of Chinese (mostly the young male variety, I guess) began leaving blog comments that threaten the ‘Sex in Shanghai’ blogger’s person, relatives, and so on.

7. The ‘Sex and Shanghai’ blog is now closed except by invitation only, at least for the time being.

There are a few different spins on this story going on…but I’m not 100% sure why. Until there’s a video-taped ass-kicking, hidden Web cam rendezvous, police raid, attack on an embassy, exclusive interview with one of the blogger’s conquests or something along those lines, it’s all just mild titillation. (Think National Enquirer.)

Why would I say that?

Because it’s nothing new, that’s why.

It’s just that this version of this story is being blogcasted and people can play along at home.

(And if anyone thinks that it’s all significant because “It’s the first time anything of this nature has ever played out via the Internet and blogs!”…then my-oh-my, you really do need to get out more.)

So…slightly more interesting to me today (though I’ll try to blend these two stories)….

Angle #2 Background

I recently decided to try out Google’s Chinese-to-English machine translation tool, and to see how it compares to what Altavista’s Babelfish online machine translation tool spits out.

And just for kicks, I decided to use Zhang Jiehai’s essay for the comparison.

Here, side by side for your convenience, are the first six paragraphs of (1) Zhang Jiehai’s “rout the garbage foreigner” essay, (2) Roland Soong’s translation of the same, (3) the Google Translator tool’s take on it, and–in last place, as you’ll see–(4) the Altavista “Babelfish” translator’s feeble spit-out. (And don’t miss my closing comments and external links down below.)

Original from Zhang Jiehai (张结海
Roland Soong’s ESWN Translation
Google’s Translator
Altavista’s Babelfish



今天我怀着无比愤怒的心情告诉大家一个外国流氓的故事，并号召各位国人同胞一起行动起来，将这个外国流氓清扫出中国。

 Today, with
tremendous anger, I will tell you the story of an immoral foreigner and I
call upon all Chinese compatriots to get together and kick this immoral
foreigner out of China.		 Today I tell you
with a very angry mood foreign hooligans story, and called on all citizens
to go into action compatriots, the Chinese foreign hooligans cleaning up.
 Today I have the
exceedingly indignant feelings to tell everybody a foreign hoodlum the
story, and summoned fellow people compatriot goes into action together,
sweeps clear this foreign hoodlum China.



事情的经过是这样的：几天前，一位网友告诉了我一个在上海的英国人的博克。我看了以后震惊、气愤、恶心______，看了他的博克之后，我只有一个念头：是可忍，孰不可忍？一定要把这个垃圾找出来，把他赶出中国！！！


 

 

 This is how it is:
Several days ago, a friend told me about a blog run by an English man in
Shanghai.  I read it and I was shocked, angered and disgusted … after I
read his blog, I had only one idea: This is intolerable and this piece of
garbage must be found and kicked out of China!!!

 

 What happened is
this : A few days ago, a Website visitor told me a symbol of the British
people in Shanghai. After I read shock, anger, nausea : :, read his
enormous, I have only one thought : can forbearance, everyone can
forbearance? We must find out the refuse, he expelled from China! ! ! 		This is how it
happened: Several days ago, 网友 told me in Shanghai’s Englishes 博克. I will
look at later to shock, indignantly, am disgusting… … After Looked at
him 博克, I only have a thought: Is may endure, 孰不可忍? Certainly must discover
this trash, expels him China! ! !



他在博克里，用极其淫秽、肮脏的语言记录了他－－一个在上海的外教－－利用教师的身份，在上海玩弄中国女人的过程，而这些中国女人大部分竟然是他的学生；与此同时，他又极尽所能侮辱、诋毁、歪曲中国政府和中国男性。


 

 

 In his blog, he
used extremely obscene and filthy language to record how he — a foreign
language teacher in Shanghai — used his status as a teacher to dally with
Chinese women, most of whom were his students.  At the same time, he did
everything that he could to insult, debase and distort the Chinese
government and the Chinese men.

 

 He Bokeli by
extremely obscene, recorded his dirty language — one in Shanghai Waijiao —
teachers using the identity of the Chinese woman in Shanghai with the
process, which has been his most Chinese women students; At the same time,
he also committed to insult, slander, distortion of the Chinese government
and Chinese men. 		He in 博克 in, with
extremely obscene, the dirty language recorded his – - to teach in
Shanghai’s outside – - to use teacher’s status, played with the Chinese
woman’s process in Shanghai, but these Chinese women majority of
unexpectedly were his students; At the same time, he to the utmost can
insult, slander, twists the Chinese government and the Chinese male.




他在博克的一开始是这样描述他在上海的生活的：?所以，你们看，这个星期六我和Star在一起，星期天我和Yingying在一起。中间我通过MSN和Cherry联系，打一个电话给Rina，用SMS挑逗Tulip。Susan我给她发了一封Email调情，并通过Wendy的博客向她求爱。?

 

 

 His blog began this
way to describe his life in Shanghai: "Therefore, you see, I was with Star
on Saturday and I was with Yingying on Sunday.  In between, I contacted
Cherry via MSN, I telephoned Rina and I used SMS to flirt with Tulip.  I
send Susan an email to flirt with her, and I professed my love to Wendy on
her blog."

 

 He is in the
beginning of this symbol in Shanghai described his life : "So you see, this
Saturday me and Star together, and I Yingying Sunday together. Intermediate
I and vulnerability through MSN links to a telephone to Rina, using SMS
flirting Tulip.Susan I sent her a letter of good can achieve flirt, and
through the Boke Schwartz to her task. " 		He in 博克 as soon as
starts is describes him like this in Shanghai’s life: "Therefore, you
looked, this Saturday I and Star in same place, Sunday I and Yingying in
same place. Middle I through MSN with the Cherry relation, make a phone call
to give Rina, teases Tulip with SMS. Susan I sent Email to her to flirt, and
wooed through the Wendy abundant guest to her."




这个垃圾在博克里公开宣称，他纯粹只是为了玩弄这些中国女学生。他说，?我们不谈爱，不谈婚姻，甚至不谈住在一起?他竟然有一次厚颜无耻地说，?我已经厌倦了她，X（女性生殖器）是X，我留着她只是为了以后再玩弄她。?


 

 

 

 This piece of
garbage openly declared in this blog that he was only dallying with these
female Chinese students.  He said, "We don’t talk about love, we don’t talk
about marriage, we don’t even talk about being together."  Once, he was even
shameless enough to say, "I ‘m tired of her already.  A c*nt is a c*nt.  I
keep her just so that I can play with her again."

 

 

 The garbage in
Bokeli publicly declared that he simply playing to the Chinese female
students. He said : "We talk about love, about marriage, or even about
living together," he even has a sense that "I have tired her, X (female
genital mutilation) is X, I left her just to play with her later. " 		This trash in 博克 in
publicly declared that, he purely only is for play with these Chinese female
students. He said that, "we do not discuss the love, does not discuss the
marriage, even did not discuss he unexpectedly has in the same place" time
impudent and shameless said, "I have already been weary of her, X (feminine
reproductive organ) was X, I will be keeping her only am play with her again
for later."



这位垃圾的拿手好戏是，用及其淫秽、黄色的语言描绘中国女性的身体和他们做爱的过程。比如，?我亲爱的婷婷，你有一个极好的、漂亮的身体；我无法停止想念你漂亮的皮肤，你可爱、光滑、柔软的乳房，你性感、光滑、精致的小腹，你甜美、优雅的大腿和手臂_____哦，当然，在你的两腿之间，你是多么的漂亮，多么的性感，多么的完美！		 This piece of
garbage’s favorite show is to use obscene and pornographic language to
describe the bodies of Chinese women and how they made love.  For example,
"My dearest Tingting, you have a very good and beautiful body.  I cannot
stop thinking about your beautiful skin, your lovely, smooth and soft
breasts, you sexy, smooth and fine waist, your sweet and pretty legs and
arms … oh, of course, you are so pretty, so sexy and so perfect between
your legs!"		 This activity is
the garbage, and use of obscene, pornographic, the female body and the
Chinese language as they make love process. For example, "my dear graceful,
you have an excellent, pretty good; I can not stop miss you beautiful skin,
you lovely, sleek, soft breasts, you sexy, sleek, refined lower abdomen, you
sweet, elegant in the thigh and arm : : Oh, of course, in between your legs,
you are how beautiful, how sexy, how perfect! 		This trash
specialty is, with and its is obscene, the yellow language describes the
process which the Chinese feminine body and they makes love. For instance,
"my dear Ting Ting, you have extremely good, the attractive body; I am
unable to stop thinking of your attractive skin, you are lovable, smoothly,
the soft breast, your sex appeal, smooth, fine lower abdomen, you
delightful, graceful thigh and arm… … Oh, certainly, between yours two
legs, you is the how unattractiveness, how sex appeal, how perfect!

My own conclusions:

  1. Zhang Jiehai’s diatribe is absurd, and pardon me for stooping this low, but if he were gettin’ any himself, he wouldn’t care one iota about the ‘Sex and Shanghai’ author’s escapades.
  2. I find the overtly sexual content in the ‘Sex and Shanghai’ blog to be pretty boring, really.
  3. I’ve had doubts all along–still do–whether the tales in the blog are entirely true, and even if there’s truth involved, whether they’re current. Maybe the author was in Shanghai, did have some similar experiences, but is now fictionalizing them (and his own persona) back home, say, in Denver. Admit it, it’s possible….
  4. After running several comparison tests of various Chinese sources–this one shows it enjoying only a slight advantage–it’s clear that Google’s machine translation ability has far outpaced Altavista’s.
  5. Lots of the Chinglish diatribes by angry young Chinese commenters on the ‘Sex and Shanghai’ blog read like they were translated using Altavista’s Babelfish tool.
  6. The following are phrases from the machine translation versions that I want on t-shirts:
    • Certainly must discover this trash, expels him China! ! !
    • “my dear graceful, you have an excellent, pretty good…refined lower abdomen.”
    • Susan I sent her a letter of good can achieve flirt, and through the Boke Schwartz to her task.”

    And my favorite:

    • I have only one thought : can forbearance, everyone can forbearance?

OK, click away:

Update: Get it while you can: ‘Sex and Shanghai’ via the Google Cache

Related: Sex and Shanghai’s “Chinabounder”: Pimple-Faced Geek in Denver, or Traitor in Our Midst?

]]> http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/08/29/sex-in-shanghai-backlash-in-machine-translation/feed/ 5 “American Express Travel” Misdirects, Strands U.S. Intel Employee in China http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/13/american-express-travel-misdirects-strands-us-intel-employee-in-china/ http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/13/american-express-travel-misdirects-strands-us-intel-employee-in-china/#comments Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:18:16 +0000 Mark Baker http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/13/american-express-travel-misdirects-strands-us-intel-employee-in-china/
  • China is “quite relevant” to me and my life. Read this blog if you need more details.
  • I used to work for one of the world’s largest “corporate travel management” conglomerates.

    These are the reasons I’ve chosen the headline for this entry that I have.

    If you don’t have the background yet, my headline answers the question I asked yesterday, in response to this AP story.

    I seem to have found the answer in a Tacoma News Tribune story, “Travel nightmare made in Taiyuan,”which the rest of the folks commenting on Mr. Nelson’s experience hadn’t run across yet.

    As you read what other bloggers, pundits and those commenting on their sites are saying, however, you’ll notice that several other headlines and angles are possible with this story, such as:

    • AP Editors Approve Story Unfit for Print
    • AP Writer Pens Xenophobic Drivel
    • Intel Employee’s Foibles in China Fuel Fire of ‘Inept Americans Abroad’ Mythology
    • Despite Help from Chinese Good Samaritans, U.S. Business Traveler and AP Writer Greeting Him at Airport Paint Disparaging Picture of Modern China
    • Intel Leaves U.S. Employees Unprepared for International Travel
    • Taiyuan Brothels Exhibit Tenacious Customer Acquisition Policies

    There may be something to each of these angles–for me, it’s discouraging to see such an emphasis on the perceived “negatives” of Mr. Nelson’s Taiyuan adventure (dog meat, spitting locals, cockroaches, smell of sewage), as well as what can be perceived as an American traveler’s lack of resourcefulness (slept in his clothes, spent hours wandering around seemingly lost, unable to find sustenance apart from “boiled squid” and alleged “dog meat”).

    In fact, Mr. Nelson has received quite a drumming on some China-related and travel-related blog sites, such as Shanghaiist and Peter Neville-Hadley’s “Away on Business” travel blog. And while I wish the original news stories made him look a bit more resourceful, I’m going to say the following in his defense.

    He’s an Intel engineer of some sort, not a “China Expert” or even a seasoned traveler, necessarily. It is likely not part of his job description to “speak Chinese” or “be able to extract oneself from a foreign, unfamiliar location and return to the U.S. on one’s own resources.”

    U.S. corporations routinely send employees on brief jaunts to foreign offices without “cultural preparation” because the expectation is that (1) they’ll be met, hosted and chauferred by other employees or partners whose job it is to do so and (2) they’re being sent for meetings or technical work or training…not impromptu cultural survival.

    In short, this was not Mr. Nelson’s fault. His employer and the travel company it has contracted with are responsible for his travel arrangements. Nelson and other business travelers shouldn’t have to stop and wonder whether their next scheduled flight will erroneously land them in Timbuktu. Or Taiyuan. No, that responsibility has been outsourced and paid for.

    Mr. Nelson even called the travel company that created his itinerary to double-check the next leg of his itinerary and was assured that all was well: Get on the plane; it will take you to Taiwan.

    It didn’t.

    Which brings me back to my headline and the initial cause of this unnecessary drama.

    The company that’s making money from Mr. Nelson’s employer (American Express Travel and Intel, respectively, as we glean from the AP and News Tribune stories) made the following blunders:

    First, American Express Travel booked Mr. Nelson a hotel room in Taiwan, where he should have been going next, but booked his flight to Taiyuan.

    As one Shanghaiist reader pointed out, however, the airport in Taiwan, “in the neighboring city of Taoyuan…sounds almost exactly like Taiyuan” to some ears.

    But because too many city and place names are similar or the same, travel agents are typically trained to deal with airports and cities in terms of their three-letter codes, not their proper names. (ORD for O’Hare. PEK for Beijing. SEA for Seattle and SeaTac. And so on.)

    Taiyuan’s code is TYN.

    Taipei’s Chiang Kai Shek airport, in the neighboring city of Taoyuan, is TPE.

    Yes, they both start with ‘T’, but….

    The second American Express Travel miscue: In Hong Kong, thinking that the ‘Total Flight Time’ on his itinerary looked too long for a Hong Kong to Taiwan flight, Mr. Nelson called the travel agency and was assured (a different employee or the same one, we don’t know) that his itinerary was correct, and that after a pit-stop in Fuzhou, he’d hop right on over to Taiwan.

    Those of us familiar with Chinese history, politics and contemporary affairs would know, of course, that there are no direct flights from Fuzhou to Taibei. American Express Travel apparently does not.

    The third American Express Travel error, which the AP and News Tribune stories don’t address, but which I realized after just a few minutes of further research:

    Instead of leaving Mr. Nelson essentially without help and helpless in Taiyuan, they could have…uh…just referred him to their American Express Travel/China International Travel Service affiliate office in Taiyuan.

    Yes, unfortunately, you read that right.

    And so to close:

    Dear American Express Travel,

    Just a note to let you know that you have an AMEX/CITS affiliate office in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China (TYN).

    It’s been in your network since December of 2002.

    In case another of your managed corporate travelers is ever stranded there and calls you for help, you can refer them to this affiliate at: Shanxi CITS | CITS Building | Pingyang Road 38 |Taiyuan | (86351)4062090 | wss126@hotmail.com.

    This contact information, in case it’s not in your records, can be found on http://cits.net/travel/tc.jsp, which is easily found via a quick Google search, and which also announces that:

    On December 03, 2002, China International Travel Service Head Office and American Express entered into a new and exciting partnership to develop the growing leisure travel market in China. American Express Travel Service Network International (TSNI) will expand its existing network of travel offices in China by appointing CITS as the only lead franchise partner, to identify and acquire like-minded partner agencies to join the fastest growing CITS-Amex Leisure Travel Service Network.

    Yes, it’s a “leisure” travel branch, but I suppose they could be bothered to help out the corporate travel colleagues on the other end of the phone.

    And a final tip, as Mr. Nelson suggested to the News Tribune: “Some protective methods need to be put into place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

    Have a Nice Day!

    Mark Baker

    ]]> http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/13/american-express-travel-misdirects-strands-us-intel-employee-in-china/feed/ 3 Did “American Express Travel” Strand an Intel Employee in China? http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/12/did-american-express-travel-strand-an-intel-employee-in-china/ http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/12/did-american-express-travel-strand-an-intel-employee-in-china/#comments Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:18:09 +0000 Mark Baker http://blog.chineseoutpost.com/2006/04/12/did-american-express-travel-strand-an-intel-employee-in-china/ I became aware recently of the story of an Intel employee (a fellow Washington State resident, at that) who was expecting to take a flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan, but because of what the AP story reporting this snafu calls “an apparent booking mistake,” was routed instead to Taiyuan, an “industrial base” city in northern China.

    You can read the entire story on the Web sites of USA Today, the Seattle PI, or Examiner.com (or just Google “Flight Across China Leaves Man Stranded“), but here are some main points:

    • Eugene Nelson was visiting several Intel sites in Asia on a business trip
    • He was expecting to fly to Taiwan, but was on a flight instead to Taiyuan
    • When he got to Taiyuan, it took him five grueling days to make an escape (read the story via one of the links posted above for those “harrowing details”)
    • His itinerary apparently included no flights out of Taiyuan
    • He didn’t have enough cash on hand to buy a ticket and ATM machines wouldn’t honor his American Express card
    • He doesn’t speak Chinese and had a difficult time getting assistance
    • He had a valid entry visa to mainland China (if he didn’t, but was still allowed to board a flight to the PRC, then we’ve got an even bigger story on our hands here)

    I became aware of this story via a posting at the blog site Shanghaiist.com, where Mr. Nelson and the AP writer behind the story have have been getting skewered by a blogger and a number people leaving comments on the blog. I’m not coming to Mr. Nelson’s defense here per se, and I’ll even say that it’s probably a good idea to double-check the details of one’s itinerary even when on a whirlwind business tour in a foreign land when the places and names risk blurring together after awhile.

    I am going to make some speculations about “the story behind the story,” however….

    The news story reports that Mr. Nelson’s wife, Michelle Chewerda, “was dumping money into her husband’s debit account and working with the travel company [emphasis mine], which she said was less than helpful at times.”

    The story continues:

    “When I was talking to the guy from American Express, (he said) ‘It says right here on my paper that they take American Express right out there at the airport,’” Chewerda said. But if that were the case, she noted, her husband “wouldn’t have been there for four days.”

    “It seems odd, but they’d end every conversation with ‘Have a nice day,’” Nelson said.

    American Express officials contacted Wednesday by The Associated Press either declined immediate comment or did not return calls seeking comment on Nelson’s journey.

    What the story doesn’t make clear is that we’re apparently talking about two American Express companies or divisions here, the AMEX card company and the AMEX travel company.

    Intel is a big corporation, and I’m sure that they provide a professionaly managed corporate travel program for its employees, and all this suggests that Intel is using the American Express Travel program for its employees’ business travel needs. (Why else would Mr. Nelson’s wife be on the phone with American Express Travel instead of, say, Travelocity or Orbitz or Expedia or an airline?)

    It’s possible that Mr. Nelson himself made his travel arrangements online and made the booking error himself. Or perhaps an assistant or Intel’s internal corporate travel manager sent him to the wrong city. Or it may have been an American Express Travel agent who made the erroneous booking.

    And that’s the “story behind the story” question for me, which the AP article doesn’t address:

    Whose blunder sent Mr. Nelson to the wrong city?

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