garynbcDiary · 日记

Shen Zhen Day 4

Previous 3 days were exhausting because we had to rush around therefore we decided to go easy on our 4th days. We wanted to go buy some more stuff so we head down to "Dong Men" again. Liping had to exchange her phone she brought at "Hua Qiang Bei" because she had difficulties connecting to TV function.

Polo Ralph 水货版

I would like to clear some lights when buying stuff from China. There are just too many replica products selling in China and people should be careful when selecting your purchases.

Basically cheaper branded clothes and bags can be classified into 3 different qualities:

水货: This can be the most expensive as it is tantamount to the actual product being sold in the actual retail stalls. Some were flawed and rejects being isolated for disposal. People sneak out is rejects. (This type of stock never display in the shop, it had to keep at the separate storeroom and shown upon request)

A货: This is excellent replica with 1:1 imitation and includes many minor detail on the actual products. Sewing methods were the same too. The end product looks almost similar with naked eyes and many people cannot differential this with the actual product.

"断带货": The name derive from the product almost always broke. It shabby imitation with interior quality. People can tell just by looking. They are very cheap also. Another example is the brand name had been deliberately changed but made looks the same. etc Nokia and Nckia

Upon reaching the crowded Dong Men, many "promoter" approached us and advertise their service and product, ranging from manicure, hair dressing, image makeover, photo shoot and many other cosmetic enhancements. We had already intended to cut our hair yesterday, so we just follows one with the image makeover and photo shoot. I think its the price that makes us really tempted. 20 RMC for 2 enhanced photo shoot and with costume to choose from some more. $4 Singapore dollar equivalent.

End up, I got a cut, wash, blow dye for 70RMC which is about $15 equivalent. Liping did a strightening and highlight at 70PMC. Happily we walked out with a new image. I guess because we know no one is Zhen Shen that's why we were so courageous to change our image.

My new "Ah Nan" hairstyle.

At night back in hotel, we walk around Shan Shui hotel and decided to sing KTV. Because 18RMC person with buffet food plus free 3 hour singing session. Tell me how to resist this tempting.


p/s: Other links (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7)

Photo Ablum

Shen Zhen Trip day 3 ( Hong Kong )

Third day 09/09/09, cross over to Hong Kong, took KRC change MTR, wait here wait there. Made it looks like forever like that. Reach Hong Kong around 11pm at Mong Kok. Headed to Women street and Fa Yuen Gai, shop and eat, shop and eat, really cannot stop down.



Smelly DoFu

Wong Da Sin Temple is a reputable temple in Hong Kong. It was known to answer to prayer for believer. It was so famous we had to go try the wishing joss stick. The 上上 or 下下签.



I offered my joss stick whole heartedly, then went in to ask for 4 questions:

Study
Love
Family
Health

Which I got 4 tickets of story which can be decipher by Feng Shui Sen Seh. I couldn't recall exactly, but you can read the picture of my 4 tickets. Translated it should somehow be like this:



Study (季扎挂剑) 下下签

Ji Zha a general with a sword named "pei yu chang" initially intended to give the sword to another general. Unfortunately, Ji Zha had went out for a trip and came back to find the general had already passed away. Due to respect and promise seek, Ji Zha hang the sword on the tree.

Deciphered as: Study wise will meet with unforeseen circumstances. The expectation and accomplishment is on stakes. 自古以来,圣贤一再地教诲我们,高迈的志节往往是表现于内心之中。就像季札,他并没有因为徐君的过世,而违背做人应有的诚信,何况他的允诺只是生发于内心之中。这种「信」到极处的行为,令后人无比地崇敬与感动。
一个人成败的根源,源于我们内心的诚与敬。(source)

(It is a bad omen as my result will be releasing soon, hence I brought "fu" to pray to Wong Da Sin and hope for evasion for this misfortune)



Love (东施效鼙) 中下签

Dong Shi is an ugly women who envy "Xi Shi" a one of a kind beauty. Even thou Dong Shi is ugly and coarsely behaved, she likes to imitate other people a lot. Beauty "Xi Shi" had a chest pain one day, therefore she frown her eye brown and pressing on her chest, but her beauty did not blemish a bit albeit of her sick face, she still attracted attentions. Dong Shi imitated her thinking that was the thing that made up Dong Shi beauty but turn out becoming uglier than ever before.
比喻不知道人家好在哪里,自己不顾是否具备条件而胡乱学样 (source)

Decipher as: Do not try to imitate or impress. Be oneself. Moreover many had many factor which contribute to the result, it shall not be superficial.


Family (姜公封相) 上上签

The success story of "Jiang Gong" being rewarded a advisory post. Good. Family will be healthy.


Health (苏秦不第) 中下签

"Shu Tai" attempted to go for annual scholar test during August, unfortunately the cloud had covered the moonlight which was usually the brightest. He wished to borrow power to blow wind and reveal the moonlight

Decipher as: Health is related to study and vise verse. Will meet 小人. Had to overcome this with great mind power and everything will be smooth.

Thanks for bearing with me and still showing interest to read on. As Dao You said: 一命, 二运, 三风水, 四读书, 五积德. 中国文话远远流长,就有他一定的道理. I remained skeptical but still taking caution on what it deciphers.



After Temple trip, headed to Victoria Harbour to watch the symphony of light show. Also walk along the avenue of star. Found Andy Lau's hand print and took some picture of it.

The night view of hong kong harbour was more than spectacular. It was a well worth experience.
I shall let the video and picture do the talking.







Symphony of Light
2 mintues 09 seconds


p/s: Other links (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7)

Photo Ablum

Shen Zhen Day 2

Day 2


We went easy with our trip today. Coach brings us on a half day city tour. First to Shen Zhen historical museum which we learnt more about Chinese mythical creature, Pi Xiu (貔貅) which aspiciously known as to "prevent evil" and "attract wealth". We brought each an jade pi xiu which cost RMC2980 initially, which we bargained to RMC400. Roughly around $60. Personally, I think one of the pixiu had "yuan" with me. 黄金有价,玉无价。Only 有缘人 can appreciate it. So $60 is cheap or expensive, its very personal. For me, I am happy to pay then its okie already.



After lunch, we head into 华强北 to shop for electronic. It was world wide recongized as an electronic paradize. Really see until we 眼花缭乱。If you want me to describe it in Chinese 成语,人水马龙,人山人海,传流不息。 能走过,不能错过,要就快,不要等礼拜。We spent 3 hours shopping in a mall, 2 stories, bargaining for cheap china phone. Not for the weak hearted, cause the people there super guai lan, if you don't want to buy, don't ask. Or you stand the chance of people pointing you middle finger. I unleashed my 三寸不烂之舌, slashing the shop owner instead of being slashed. That's 跳楼价!!!


Dinner, buffet below San Shui Hotel
Delicious level 5/10
Cost : $11


Taken while walking back to hotel from MTR. Walking dangerously on the road.
Then head back to hotel and rest early.


Day 1 memorial


Day 2 memorial


p/s: Other links (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7)

Photo Ablum

Shen Zhen Trip Day 1

Finally after the crisis of almost canceled trip, we were ready to set off for our 7 days Shen Zhen trip.


Took the 7:05am flight and flied for 3.5 hrs. Reaching at Shen Zhen airport at around 1pm.


Our coach picked us to hotel while he talked non stop in his van. All I did was watching outside the city and embrace the excitement for exploring this foreign and beautiful city.

"Shen Zhen had a 6:1 women, men ratio respectively." said Dao You

"Song!" I said


Checked in and settle barang barang and before we even realized, it almost 4pm. Took a cab to near by "Dong Men" to shop for the remaining of the night.


Dong Men Ding basically is the replica of "Si Men Ding" in taiwan. See, China don't only replicate LV bag and Nokia phone, they were to the extend of replicating culture and places of interest from other place.... So basically recce for price so that I can prepare to bargain from tmr onwards.


China cigarette selling at 10 RMC. $2 Singapore dollar equivelent!!!!


Lunch, Duck Blood Fen Shi
Delicious Level : 9/10
Cost : $1.60

Dinner, Shao La
Delicious Level : 7/10
Cost : $20
Al carte and Hot pot


Return back at around 11pm, surf net, watch Cable TV and spent the night planning for the next few days. Too tired....

Slept early on day 1. Peaceful night


N82 "no gateway reply" fix

Sloved my N82 "no gateway reply" error!

After browsing the net for some time Ive found a fix for the "No Gateway reply" message when trying to access the internet!

Its also fix's the BBC iPlayer! (Atleast it did on my phone!)

I dont know if its already been posted?

Ok so here goes!

ENSURE YOUR WIRELESS CONNECTION IS SET TO PRIORITY:1 on your n82

1st) On your phone go to..

menu tools settings connection Wireless Lan Options Advanced Settings

Disable "Automatic Configuration"
& Disable "Power Saving"

2nd) On your phone go to..

menu tools settings connection destinations Internet

On your wireless network Name (PRIORITY:1 obviously i dont know what that may be)

options edit advanced settings IPv4 settings options Change

all the detais can be copied from your computer. To find them on your computer go to Start Run

Type "cmd" in the run box
when you get the command screen type "ipconfig/all" here you will get all the settings.

The settings the phone needs is

1.Phone IP Address (enter your computer IP address, changing the last two digits to a number about five or six higher than than the original IP, for eg if my IP was 123.654.768.34 id put the ip in my phone as 123.654.768.39 to stop IP conflict)

2.Subnet Mask (copy the same code from the computer to your phone, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING)

3. Default Gateway (copy the same code from the computer to your phone, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING)

4. DNS Address (Usually called "DNS Servers" on your computer! copy the same code from the computer to your phone, DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING)

ENSURE ALL NUMBERS ARE IN THE CORRECT PLACES BEFORE AND AFTER THE "."

Then exit all, Turn off your phone and turn it back on again! And all should be up and running!!

source

Preparation for departure to China

"Lai Liu Ha"

OMG, first thought of the creature made me think of super big parasite. Looks bacterial to me. In Cantonese "Lai Liu Ha" means "squirt urine prawn". I suppose it is succulent enough to make you squirt urine or maybe the prawn squirt urine at people ;D Anway, I will try all sea food during my hong kong trip. I will shop and eat till I drop.

Okie, I researched in depth into Shenzhen and HongKong, making sure that all "must see" places are included in my itinatary. I only included 1 pair of clothes in my packing list, the whole idea of packing little and then buying a lot.

Couple days ago, I risked the chance for cancelling the whole trip, due to some parenthetical objection. I was blessed as I managed to convince. Well, I had the whole branch of well intentions to start off with what!!

Places to visit:
  • Window of the world
  • The victoria peak
  • Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
  • Arena of Star
  • Symphony of Light at Victoria Harbour
  • Wong Tai Sin / Men Mo Temple

Foods to eat:
  • Squirting urine prawn
  • Scoporio fried
  • Chou Do Fu (authentic smelly Dofu)
  • Curry Fishball
  • Local Dim Sim
  • Po Lo Bun
Things to buy will be an exhausting list. It's Hong Kong and Shen Zhen we are talking about!! I will pack preferably 0kg there (hand carry my backpack), hence leaving me 20kg of allowance when coming back to Singapore!!

C901 vs N82, who is better?

Today a heated competition between my favorite camera phone N82 and another skeptical 5mp shooter with Xenon, the C901. If you missed my N82 vs Zn5, please revisit the link. As I had lost my previous N82, I am using another N82 which somehow I think it didn't perform as well as my previous set. Nonetheless, for people who are interested, read on....

Macro Mode

N82 with flash, macro

N82 low light condition, macro

C901 with flash, macro

C901 low light condition, macro

I think we had a clear winner. N82 had always handled its macro mode extremely well, with or without flash. I tried playing with a lot of macro shoot with flash on, it always give me a clear and correctly exposed images. Unlike C901, after testing with a lot of macro shoot, it almost give me 100% over exposure.

* Take note that during my previous review, the zn5 auto weaken the flash when macro mode is detected. *

Document mode


C901 document mode with flash

N82 document mode with flash

C901 document without flash

N82 document without flash

As anticipated, C901 will almost give you definite overexposure when shooting >15cm with flash on.

Low Light Conditions

C901 auto, flash off

N82 auto, flash off

More or less the same except c901 appeared to be brighter

Complete darkness
You will start to appreciate Xenon flash when you are in complete darkness or extremely low light area. Led light flah can only take portrait distance. Let's see how this two camera performed in total darkness...

C901 with flash in total darkness

N82 with flash in total darkness

The two pictures were cropped to 100% to see how both camera phone handled noise level. Both almost the same, but C901 always tend to have yellow saturation in all pictures and N82 slightly blue.

* zn5 had stronger flash and can lit up further area *

Indoor shot

C901 auto, without flash

N82 auto, without flash

Another 100% crop for comparison on noise level. Without flash.

Another C901 low light flash off

Another N82 low light flash off

Night Mode


C901 night mode on

N82 night mode on

I am not a professional reviewer, hope this visual comparison helps in people who deciding which good camera phone to buy.

In my opinion,

C901

-Faster focusing time
-Always over exposure in macro mode
-Shutter shake problem (blurry images)
-Yellowish output

Click here for more c901 image example I took.

N82

-Focusing time slower than C901 but still consider fast in my opinion
-Some image stabilization, no shutter shake problem
-Very good Xenon flash, never exposure before

Click here for more N82 image example I took.