The new Shanghai Pudong International Airport Terminal 2, which has advanced facilities and modern design, went into operation on March 26, 2008. It was conceived as a world-class airport, and one of the largest airport buildings in the world, with capacity of 60 million passengers annually.

Today, I’m very exciting as I have the opportunity to travel using this new Terminal.

The 2 terminals are actually connected by 3 indoor corridors (500 meters long) and free shuttle service every 10 mins, from 6am to 9pm. It will take about an hour for international transfer and probably 45 mins for domestic transfer. You should be able to get to your boarding gates by following the signs. It’s pretty easy, and you are advice to allocate additional time for departure.

Facilities

Bank & Currency Exchange

Books and Magazines in different languages are sold here!

Terminal 2 is much larger than the old one, has 4 floors. There are some dining and shopping services, hourly charged hotel rooms and gym facilities at the very top floor, while the other floors are quite standard. Third floor is for International departures, 2nd floor for domestic departures and baggage claim is on the ground floor.

At the middle point of the Central Path to Terminal 2, there is an exit for the Airport Shuttle Bus.

AIRLINES

The following airlines are moved to the new terminal building since April 29th:

• Air China (CA)
• Air India (AI)
• Aeroflot Russian Airlines (SU)
• Air Macau (NX)
• Air New Zealand (NZ)
• Alitalia (AZ)
• All Nippon Airways (NH)
• Asiana Airlines (OZ)
• AeroSvit Airlines (VV)
• British Airways (BA)
• Cathay Pacific Airways (CX)
• Cebu Pacific Air (5J)
• China Southern Airlines (CZ)
• Deutsche Lufthansa (LH)
• DragonAir (KA)
• Emirates (EK)
• Finnair (AY)
• Shanghai Airlines (FM)
• Garuda Indonesia (GA)
• Malaysia Airlines (MH)
• Northwest Airlines (NW)
• Philippine Airlines (PR)
• Qantas Airways (QF)
• Qatar Airways (QR)
• Royal Brunei Airlines (BI)
• Royal Nepal Airlines (RA)
• Singapore Airlines (SQ)
• Thai Airways (TG)
• Turkish Airlines (TK)
• TransAero Airlines (UN)
• United Airlines (UA)
• Virgin Atlantic Airways (VS)

THE DESIGN

The Interior was designed based on the concept "People Oriented", which adopts scientific approach in its construction to meet the demand for airline companies, "People oriented, providing convenience for passangers to the utmost extend. The organic sculptural design for the new terminal creates a loose-fit and sustainable building offering transparency and good views, fully utilise natural lighting with flexible spaces. And of course, all factors like flow design, environment, facilities layout and even transfers on ground transport are taken into consideration.

Leafy Ceiling Design

Popularity: 37% [?]

Today, my company received yet another legal letter from a reputable design software company, lets call it company A. The legal letter seems to hint that we are using pirated copies of their software. We received a legal letter from this company back in FY2005 as well. My company is an internally recognized world leader in our field. Back in FY2005, our top management from China site were pretty upset over this incident. The IT department did a complete physical check on every computer (about 200pcs) at our company. Finally we found that one employee downloaded a copy of the software via the internet onto his PC. We settled the issue by paying a huge sum of money to them. To prevent this issue from happening again, our IT department bought a sophisticated software to monitor if there are any additional of illegal softwares. In additional, our IT department will conduct quaterly checks. This time, we are very sure that we are not using any pirated copies of their software.

After some market survey, we actually discovered that this is an industry norm in China!! Some software companies hope to generate commissions by sending out legal letters to potential customers. They would accuse them of illegally using their copyright software without paying. It is surprising to note that in some companies, their sales team is much smaller than their legal team. This strategy would probably work for small customers. However, for multinational companies, it is absurd to send such letters. Multinational companies like ours, may actually spend a lot of effort and resource to clarify this issue. At the end of the day, the whole matter would most probably leave a very bad impression on the customers. The worst case scenario is that the customer might counter-sue the software company.

To make matters worse, we discovered that some software companies like company A based their suspicion on very vague data. Distributors of their software would make cold calls to potential customers on the pretext of conducting market survey. In the survey process, they would like to pry data and make their own conclusions. Based on these conclusions, they would submit their case to the software company to issue the legal letters. Small design company who uses pirated design software need to take note on this. If you are so unlucky to receive these legal letters, they will force you to pay a huge sum of money. And surprisingly, this money are their commissions by sending out legal letters to companies who they think might be using their software.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Do you? Beijing Olympic games is around the corner, the Chinese goverment has conduct to check foreigners residency papers to bolster security of the country.

According to Shanghai Public Security Bureau, the Exit-Entry Administration, foreigners in Shanghai should carry their passport at all times as Police carry out increasingly frequent random checks; failure to produce your ID can lead to a fine or detention. Make sure your passport is in a minimum validity of six months, and a valid Chinese Visa.

You are also required to register your place of residence with the local Public Security Bureau within 24 hours of arrival. Chinese authorities are now actively enforcing this requirement. If you are staying in a hotel, registration is done on your behalf as part of the check-in process.

Has anyone been asked to show your passport in Shanghai recently? So… I need to carry my passport everywhere I go!

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/

Popularity: 17% [?]

The moment we are all waiting for is finally here! The Olympic Torch has arrived in Shanghai today after 3 days delayed (the week’s official mourning period) from the originally expected date.

The relay in Shanghai is kind of special because some of the torchbearers are SiChuan earthquake rescuers who just came back from the quake region. It started off at Shanghai Museum at 8:10 a.m. this morning following a one-minute silence tribute. Too bad, I don’t have a chance to catch a glimpse of this sacred flame as today is a working day.

Popularity: 14% [?]

This is a warning from the apartment management. All residence are require to leave the apartment building.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It has been 2 days since the 7.8 magnitute quake happened in Sichuan province. We were in Shanghai when we heard about the earthquake. My sister was working as an Expat in Chengdu, Sichuan, when it took place. We were extremely worried about her safety as we could not contact her after the quake occurred. All communication broke down and only partially recovered 2 hours later. She said the commercial building she was working in was shaking violently. Everyone was hiding under their desk. After the shaking stop, they immediately climb down the stairs out into the streets where it was safer. At night, she did not return to her apartment fearing aftershocks might cause the building to collapse. Most of the people were sleeping on the streets and in parks.

At the roadside…

Ground floor of office building…

Sleep inside the car…

This tragedy will be a real test of the chinese government’s ability, especially since the Olympics will take place 3 months later in the capital, Beijing. So far, we have been impressed by the government’s prompt response. On the first day, chinese premier, Mr Wen JiaBao flew to the hotzone of Sichuan to direct the rescue efforts himself. Unfortunately, rescue efforts have been slow due to the rain and landslides. It was very sad to hear that many children and students were trap in the debris as the schools collapse.

Despite all the despair and confusion, there have been instances where rescue efforts prevail over the testing conditions. A group of tourists were saved from cable cars left hanging 50 meters above ground due to the brave efforts of rescuers.

It is during times like this that the best of humanity is on display. The story of a nurse helping expecting mothers recover from the trauma is especially touching as her own child is still missing. The scene where the chinese premier harshly instructed the army to step up rescue efforts after visiting quake victims was equally touching as well. A volunteer chose to put aside his grief of losing his wife and son in the earthquake to help others in need.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Our childhood super hero, Superman was spotted taking Shanghai Metro. He probably saw the news about bus exploded in Shanghai here and here, and thinks the public transport aren’t that safe. So he decided to take the subway instead and make sure the ordinary commuters are safe! Ha….




Picture credit: ChinaTravel

Popularity: 12% [?]