Sometimes these dot coms are even clones (exact look-a-likes) of each other. For example check out this side by side comparison of twitter.com and komoo.cn.

twitter.com

komoo.cn

I’ve compiled a list of similar China and US dot coms in the table below. Let me know if you know of other major dot coms and I’ll add it to the list!

Beijing has plenty to offer to visitors – ancient cultural landscapes, ultra modern skyscrapers, hopping nightlife, amazing Chinese cuisine, opportunities to interact with people who grew up and live in a very different world from you, etc. Having lived here for a while now, what do I think are the “must see” or “must do” things in Beijing?

The Great Wall at Simatai (密云司马台长城)

No Beijing visit would be complete if you don’t see the great wall! The great wall at Badaling is most popular and touristy – I’ve never been to Badaling, however from what I’ve heard you’re better off avoiding it because of the crowds and hawkers you will encounter there. Besides, the great wall at Badaling is so heavily restored… some people no longer consider it the “real” great wall.

Simatai is much more authentic, less crowded and regarded by most as superior to the circus that is Badaling.

Forbidden City (故宫) and Tiananmen Square (天安门广场)

The Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties – it’s hard not to be awed while walking around the huge and ancient complex. Don’t forget your camera! There’re plenty of vantage points from which to take cool pictures.

Tiananmen Square is south of the Forbidden City. It’s a big square (duh) – personally I did not find it super interesting but I guess it’s cool to walk around one of the most politically-charged squares in the world : ) There is extensive police presence (there may be many more plainclothes officers too) so think twice before you engage in any silly pranks. I have heard that the flag raising and lowering drills at sunrise and sunset are pretty cool to watch.

English Corner (英文角) at Renmin University (人民大学)

Overdosed on historical/cultural plces and crave some direct interaction with local Chinese? It’s hard to think of a better place than the English Corner at Renmin University. Every Friday evening from around 7pm onwards, the Chinese gather here to practice speaking English with each other. Shy? No worries – any person that speaks good native English (or looks like he/she can speak good English) is very popular here.

Afunti (阿凡提) Dinner-show

It will be a memorable night at Afunti – over a Xinjiang-style dinner of juicy kebabs and beer, you will be treated to a visual feast of kung-fu moves, belly dancing and much more. If you’re lucky you may become a part of the performance.. and even walk away with a prize!

Afunti is usually packed – definitely call in advance to make a reservation: 6527-2288. The address in Chinese is 东城区朝阳门内大街后拐棒胡同甲2号  (朝阳门北小街的西侧). If the taxi driver does not recognize this address, call the restaurant and have the restaurant staff give the driver directions.

FYI it is a few hundred meters east of the “Dongsi” (东四) station on Beijing Subway Line 5. However I do not recommend walking from the subway as it’s not a short walk and the restaurant is easy to miss as it’s not well signed / hidden in a small alley.

Walk Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷), the drum tower (鼓楼) and Houhai (后海)

Nanluoguxiang (literally translates to “South Drum Alley”) is a quaint hutong with interesting small restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. A big plus is that it’s not super commercialized, touristy and loud (yet. I hope never ever) like Lotus Lane (荷花市场), the Worker’s Stadium area (工体西门) and Sanlitun (三里屯) for example. Nanluoguxiang is a great place to chill with friends in the evening/night. Tell the taxi driver to drop you off at the south end of this alley/street – 南锣鼓巷的南侧 (地安门东大街和南锣鼓巷的交叉).

Walk north through Nanluoguxiang for about 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) until you hit a major road/intersection, Guloudongdajie (鼓楼东大街). At the intersection turn left (head east) and walk for a few hundred meters until you see the drum tower – it will come up on your right, you can’t miss it. Feel free to explore the area around the drum tower… I think you can even go inside for a fee.

South of the drum tower is a big (3-way?) intersection. Walk south along the major road that heads south – Dianmenwaidajie (地安门外大街). Cross over to the west side of this road as soon as possible. As you walk south, look out on your right for Yandaixiejie (烟袋斜街), a little alley with restaurants, bars and shops. You should see a gate/arch with the 烟袋斜街 inscription at the entrance of this alley. There will probably be lots of other tourists walking in and out of this alley so it should be quite obvious when you get there.

Walk down this alley and you will eventually see a big lake, Houhai (后海).  From here it should not be hard to find restaurants or bars to go to, or stuff to do – for example you can rent boats on the lake, or do a hutong tour on a rickshaw, etc.

Dashanzi 798 Art District (大山子798文化艺术区)

This is a cluster of art galleries situated in an old abandoned military industrial-factory zone that was code named 798. Don’t forget your camera – the juxtaposition of art and abandoned factories is.. hmm, unique?

Other things to do

• See the crazy new architecture in the city, for example: Bird’s Nest (鸟巢), Water Cube (水立方), CCTV Tower (中央电视台新主楼), National Theatre (国家大剧院), …
• Eat Peking duck
• Haggle at the Silk street market (秀水街) or Panjiayuan (潘家园)

Remote software development is an order of magnitude harder: formidable obstacles like language, timezone and cultural differences are thrown into the mix. That said, remote software development has attractive benefits such as: lower labor costs, greater availability of good engineers and the potential to do development 24 hours per day.

Planning to do remote software development in China? A couple things to keep in mind that can increase your project’s probability of success:

Have bilingual and proactive individuals in your team
 
Some people on the remote team (at a minimum, the project managers) need to be highly bilingual – able to fluently converse and write in English and Chinese. These people must be able to pick up on the linguistic and cultural nuances of both languages – if not, it is excruciatingly difficult to build rapport and an effective partnership with the remote team. You want proactive individuals who take pride in their work and persistently drive issues to resolution; it’s all too easy for issues to fall through the cracks (intentionally, or not) when working remotely.

Be especially S.M.A.R.T.

Most of us have heard it’s important to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-framed. A no-brainer isn’t it? How many people/teams practice SMART in reality? Not many. Perhaps local development teams can survive without SMART discipline. However when working with remote teams it becomes a necessity - goals, issues, work items, tasks, etc can only be communicated precisely and effectively by being SMART. For example which of these two statements do you think is more useful?

• Please finish the shopping cart module soon.
• Please finish the shopping cart module (including coding, manual testing, passing all automated test cases and performance profiling) by 6pm this Thursday.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Communication is the lifeblood of a project – starved of communication, a project rapidly withers and dies. Differences in language, timezone and culture conspire to make communication with your remote team as tedious, slow and awkward as possible. You need to come up with a formal communication plan and strategy. For example consider enforcing communication processes and practices such as: regular 1-1s with key team members, regular demos of the latest build of the software, reporting (machine generated? and/or more subjective but agile written reports by your project manager?), all-hands meetings, requiring written summaries with SMART action items after every conference call, etc.

Keep the project/component as isolated as possible

Ideally, the local and remote development teams should work on completely independent components of the software project. Every overlapping area between the local and remote components is a potential source of friction and misunderstanding. Managing overlapping areas properly require non-trivial effort and time. In reality there will inevitably be overlapping areas of development – you must proactively design and implement a plan to manage them: perhaps the shared interface needs to be fully defined before coding starts? or the local team can finish their component first, then the remote team can plug in their piece later?
 

I love the buzz, the opportunities, the energy

These are exciting times for China. A few years ago she become the third country on the planet to launch a human to Space. Her red hot economy – already huge by any standard – is growing at double digit rates and seems on track to be the world’s biggest economy in the not too distant future. The country is a gigantic construction site.. they are building new stuff everywhere. The number of mobile phone users in China already surpasses the entire population of the United States. It won’t be very long before the number of Internet users in China passes the same threshold. and so on.

Beijing, the capital of China, exemplifies the superlative transformation that the country is undergoing. 3 new subway lines are scheduled to open in the next few months (in time for the Olympics). Tech startups are mushrooming in Zhongguancun, arguably the “Silicon Valley of China”. Crazy looking buildings that look like alien spaceships are shooting up across the city. When the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway is completed in a few years, travel time between the 2 biggest and most important Chinese cities will be halved, to 5 hours. A sense of hope and excitement about the future is in the air.

I love the food

I never knew fat could taste so good until I ate Dongpo pork ( 东坡肉) in Beijing! While I always sort of knew there were many different types of Chinese cuisines, only in Beijing are they all so accessible in one place. Xinjiang lamb kebabs, Cantonese dim-sum, Spicy Szechuan, Yunnan pineapple rice, Hakka toufu, etc are all a short taxi ride away. Chinese food here is definitely way better than the “Americanized” Chinese food in the US : ) Once in a while I miss fortune cookies though…

I love that Beijing is hosting the Olympics this year

A palpable sense of Olympic frenzy has gripped the city. It’s impossible to walk around the city without encountering at least one Olympic countdown clock. Not a day goes by without some Olympics-related news in the local papers. To reduce dust and pollution apparently most, if not all construction in Beijing is supposed to pause or finish before the Olympics. I think a good number of new buildings will be completed in the next few months – the city will certainly look and feel very different from today.

I love the crazy architecture

From top to bottom, left to right: Linked hybrid, National Theatre, CCTV tower, Water Cube, Bird’s Nest

I love the yellow wine

Believe it or not, yellow wine (HuaDiao 花雕) is served by warming it up in ginger (gives it a spicy flavor) or dried plums (sweetens it)… great stuff. STAY AWAY from the Chinese “white wine” though (BaiJiu) it’s very nasty.

Next time I’ll tell you what I hate about Beijing…