Plane / Airport:

    When you get off of the plane, you'll (obviously) have to go through customs.  The line can be long, just like anywhere.  After this you'll pick up your bags and proceed into the main airport area.  At this point, change some money into Pesos.  I would not change too much as things are relatively inexpensive, and you can get more if needed at the plant ATM machine.  There should be greeters who will ask you what hotel you're going to.  If you don't get asked by a greeter, proceed outside and to the left, across the street where there's a thin building where the hotel shuttles depart from.  Simply find the right person carrying the Diamond sign, and you're good.  If you don't see someone, ask another greeter and they'll find you the right guy.  They all seem to know eachother.  For the shuttle, have them bill your hotel so you conserve cash.

    Money:

    As mentioned, there are ATM machines at the site.  I use these as they are convenient and nearby.  Tipping is not necessary or always expected (unlike the US).  Generally speaking, to change money at the hotel is more expensive as they charge a higher-exchange fee.

     At the site:

    The drive from the hotel to the site will be about 45 mins there, and depending on the time you leave almost as much as 1.5 hours coming home due to traffic.  Make sure you know when your bus leaves,  I would make friends with a fellow hotel guest and make him your "bus buddy".  The bus should drop you off at the employee entrance.  You will need to put on shoe-covers unless you're bringing your clean-room / indoor shoes.  These covers can be given to you as you enter, so expect to receive them.  When you arrive, ask to be taken to the IT/MIS area.  It's hard to describe the turns / directions from where you'll be entering, so this is easier!  The site is very busy given that it does all of our FAB now.  You'll be amazed at the pink uniforms of the women and the blue of the men.  Also, you'll feel tall as well as Philippine women are very short.  Think of how tall I feel when I am there!!!  Everyone takes a mid-morning break, even the IT folks.  Lunch time is around noon, just like SZ and the cafeteria is OK to eat at.  Sometimes people do go off-site.  The typical IT work-day goes until past 6 easily, however as you're on the bus, that's when you'll be leaving.  This is kind of convenient as it prevents one from staying very late!!!

    Food:

    I think your room includes a breakfast, so take advantage of this!  For lunch, you'll probably be eating the cafeteria.  For dinner, as you'll be at the Diamond, I am not too famliar with restaurants around this hotel.  There's one delicacy of the philippines called balut.  I've never tried it.  ask about it....

     Fun things to see / do:

    Intramuros downtown is an interesting site.  It's the original Spanish fort from many years ago.  It's not far from the Diamond.  Shopping at the Greenbelt (this would mean a taxi ride), Tal volcano is popular too (this is near the plant actually -Garth went there I think), Walking along the bay near your hotel is OK as long as you're with someone. I took an interesting day trip to Corregidor island (site of some major WWII action). If interested ask at the hotel.

     Returning to the airport when you leave:

    You should have the hotel arrange a car for you to the airport when you leave.  Make sure you have them bill it to your room.  The driver will let you off outisde then you'll go through the first security screen.  At this screen you will need to show your ticket and / or itinerary so have it ready.  After you check-in, you will proceed to customs.  There is an exit-fee you have to pay which I believe is 750 pesos, so make sure you have this in reserve before you depart for the airport.  You pay this to the customs agent who checks your ticket and passport.

     General advice:

    Like any big city, there's bad parts and good parts.  So this means there's bad people and good people.  So, use your best judgement and don't get lost at night after drinking too much or something like this.  This is kind of common sense stuff.  One rule is only take hotel OK'd taxi's.  If you go out, don't jump into a taxi that isnt' OK'd by the hotel.  If you'd like to go out, you can have the hotel make sure the taxi will stay for you while you shop or eat.

     THAT'S IT!

     HAVE A GREAT TRIP!!!

    P.S.:  Sincerely thanks my US workmate/friend for so detailed travelling hints and advice.  Even though for some reasons (security concerns), i didn't go Intramuros downtown and greenbelt for shopping, as well as Mall of Asia, things in the Philippines have gone all so smoothly.  Because SAFETY is always the TOP priority for me, before i go somewhere or do something there, i must make sure it is SAFE! 

P.S. I was too busy to write anything about my trip during the past two weeks i stayed in the Philippines. This is why it has been so late to post sth here sharing with our friends. In the next few days if i have time, i would like to share more about my impression of the Philippines.

This is indeed a sad day in our chinese history. A 8.0 magnitude Earthquake hit wenchuan,chengdu,western China and tremors from the quake were felt not only in most of cities in China, but as far away as Thailand and Vietnam. Some neighboring cities such as Jiangyou, Tianpeng, Guangyuan, Mianyang and Chengdu received extensive damage and continuous aftershocks. Hence nightmare started…

Wenchuan

A county of Chendu, epicenter of the earthquake, where is approximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) away from the city of Chengdu. It is the most widely happened disaster since there was an earthquake in our Chinese history, and more than 100,000 square kilometers area has been deadly destroyed, including Wenchuan’s nearby counties Beichuan, Maoxian, Lixian…

Losses

>> Everything is destroyed in the epicenter and its nearby counties. Direct economic loss reachs 190 billion or even more.

>> killed at least 32,000 people so far is confirmed, but officials have said that the final toll could exceed 50,000, because many bodies were buried under the concrete and missed.

>> More than 200,000 people were injured or deadly injuried.

>> Around 10 million people have been affected, millions became homeless.

>> Far-reaching psychological impact / shock on everyone who suffered from this disaster.

Mourn for the Dead!

The state department announced:

3 Days from May-19^th to May-20^th , are set for the whole country to mourn for the DEAD.

Chinese WEB SITEs are all grayed...

Today, millions of people in China and overseas observed three minutes of silence at 2:28 p.m. as they mourned the many killed in a deadly earthquake in Sichuan Province a week ago. At that moment, we all stood up and faced to the northwest, mourning for the Dead in the earthquake for 3 minutes in our office, with turning off the light.

P.S. In the past one week, too many people, too many stories, too many things I have been really deeply touched by. Every evening as soon as I get home, I turn on the TV to watch the live-news and tears always come into my eyes so easily…Regardless of the bad weather, rescue people worked hard days and nights. Reports show a heart-breaking destruction of the city, bodies, cries and the strong and persistent help form the rescue people, from the government. I felt the pain, I cannot do anything else except donating some money and express my best wishes for those rescued, wish them get recovered as soon as possible. Pray for the Dead! God is always with them.

----舒婷 

我如果爱你——
绝不像攀援的凌霄花，
借你的高枝炫耀自己；

我如果爱你——
绝不学痴情的鸟儿，
为绿荫重复单调的歌曲；

也不止像泉源，
常年送来清凉的慰籍；
也不止像险峰，增加你的高度，衬托你的威仪。

甚至日光。
甚至春雨。

不，这些都还不够！
我必须是你近旁的一株木棉，
做为树的形象和你站在一起。

根，紧握在地下，
叶，相触在云里。

每一阵风过，
我们都互相致意，
但没有人
听懂我们的言语。

你有你的铜枝铁干，
像刀，像剑，
也像戟，
我有我的红硕花朵，
像沉重的叹息，
又像英勇的火炬，

我们分担寒潮、风雷、霹雳；
我们共享雾霭流岚、虹霓，
仿佛永远分离，
却又终身相依，

这才是伟大的爱情，
坚贞就在这里：
不仅爱你伟岸的身躯，
也爱你坚持的位置，足下的土地!

Ode to The Oak

By Tin Shu

If I love you--

I will never be a trumpet creeper,

Clinging to your body to highlight my height;

If I love you--

I will never be a spoony bird,

Repeating the monotonous song for a green shade;

Nor a spring,

That brings perennial cool solace;

Nor steep peak, That increases your highness, reflect your eminence.

Even the sunlight.

Even the spring rain.

No, all these are insufficient!

I must be a ceiba standing right beside you,

As an image of tree, I stand with you.

Our roots, clinched underground,

Our leaves, touched in the cloud.

When each gust passes by,

We nod to each other,

But nobody,

Can understand our words.

You have your copper branch and iron body,

Like a knife, a sword,

As well as a halberd;

I have my big red flowers,

Like a heavy sigh,

And a valiant torch.

We share coldness, storms and thunders;

We enjoy brume, mist and neons,

Seems we are part always,

But we are together forever.

Only this can be called a great love,

The loyalty is right here:

Not only your manful body I love,

But also the place you hold, and the land under your feet.

 ============================End=======================================

P.S.: Somewhere i got to see this very famous (i heard) chinese poem (the only thing written in chinese on my blog) and felt it is so beautiful and impressive,which i have been really touched by...Somebody reminded me that I should have studied it during my middle school time, though i can't recall any from my memory. Maybe i was unable to understand its real meaning at that time and thus it didn't impress me at all. No wonder, i forgot it!  But for now, when i am reading this poem time to time,everything gets into my mind deeply and seems, it has been inscribed onto my heart...Therefore, i post it on my blog to share good things with friends...

    This is a drizzle holiday, so i just stayed at home and only sometimes, went out for shopping or jogging or some other activities for relaxing. Time flows so slowly this time and i feel so boring all the time, which only i know exactly what the reason is. Friends in other nearby cities were calling me for gathering, but i know it is not the right time, hence i took some excuses to reject their invite. I've been trying my best to use any possible ways to let myself not always concentrate on sth in my mind, though the job is overwhelmingly tough. However, tough is tough and no matter how tough it is, i know i gotta do it, gotta be on the way moving forward unhesitatingly, no choice!

    Sth has been past, though sth will still remain there, forever! There is a saying that says, "To the world you are just one person, but to one person, you may be the whole world!", i do understand what is in.

    Steven's DAILY report: (just for TODAY)
>>Got up at 10am, then went out for shopping after breakfast.
>>Got back from shopping at 12:20am, and then lunch cooking started.
>>I had lunch at 2:10pm and afterwards hanged around internet until 3:30.
>>Wearing my sportswear, i started hiking at 4pm, which lasted for 4 hours without any break on the 20KM-long way (along the coast). I enjoy hiking so much particularly when i feel boring or depressed for sth. It seems this is the best way to do a self-adjustment, to ease pressure and to exercise my body as well...
>>Be back at 8pm, I felt so comfortable and light-hearted (hope i always could be...), after a shower.
>>Supper finished at 9pm and then got online, to check if there is any messages that may surprise or excite me...(Nothing special...hehe...)

    Hiking PATH:
    Sth gets in my mind again, but i am very clear that yesterday will never get back and today is still gonna be yesterday as well. Tomorrow is coming and another day has to be started... 

    Praying for ... and wishing things will be all going better and better...    

    I watched the TV-Live for this BIG event, from the very beginning to the end. There are a total of 120 torchbearers, including famous movie stars, athletes, billionaires, politicians and common citizens.

    The 8-hour relay celebrated the torch's return to Chinese soil after a 20-nation tour often disrupted by embarrassing protests. About 3,000 polices were sent on the way where the torch runners passed by, to make sure no one blocked the flame, which is to tour the nearby casino city of Macau on Saturday.

    In such a rainy day, there are still large number of people gathered on the way, with red flags waving in the hand, to wait for the torch runners passing by. Tens of thousands of them heeded the government's call to wear red to express their support for the torch. They all looks like so exciting, full of joy and happiness, being absolute proud of the BIG event of Beijing 2008 Olympics. After the relay, as one of the HK main leaders praised the turnout, saying people created an "ocean of red that has washed over Hong Kong.". Personally i think this is the result that the HK government anticipated and wanted, which is to take this good opportunity to show that the residents of the former British colony have become more patriotic since the city was handed back to china 11 years ago. Because the central government has complained before that Hong Kongers need to
do more to show their love for the motherland.

    There was a little trouble at the beginning, a small crowd of pro-Tibet, democracy and human rights protesters appeared and one of them even took out lion-flag, but immediately overwhelmed by one large group of torch supporters, they confronted the pro-democracy activists, yelling "running dog", "traitor" and "get out!". One heckler said: "Do you think this is Paris?" and eventually the pro-Tibet and human rights protesters are forced to seek refuge in police vans, which were surrounded by about 80 polices to avoid the situation might be getting worse.

    Olympics is just Olympics, should not be mixed with Political issues or linked with Politics, i think.

 I hope life treats you kind
 And I hope you have all you dreamed off
 And I wish you joy and happiness
 But above all this I wish you love
 And I will always love you
 I will always love you
 I will always love you
 I will always love you
 I will always love you
 I will always love you
 I will always love you
......

 This is what SORRY looks like ::)

Bad SPELLING ::)

My PRIVACY please ::)

LOUD enough for you?  ::)

What a BAD judgement!  ::)

Police HARD at work  ::)

I'd rather HOLD it ... ::)

Pile UP - ::)

This is going to HURT - ::)

Forget something - ::)

Let me EXPLAIN - ::)

Tattoo of The Year! ::)

Latest Grill Accessories, these are a MUST-HAVE... ::)

Positive proof of global warming... ::)

 P.S.: The above i posted is from a mail my friend forwarded to me, just feel very funny and made me smile and hope it will make you smile as well...

Today is the first day of the lunar new year of 2008--Spring Festival, which is the most important chinese traditional festival with a very-long history. Let me sending my best wishes to all for a prosperous year of 2008, stay in health,peace and happiness...

This winter is quite cold even in such a warm city in the south, snowstorm hit many provinces like Guangdong,Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Anhui...A direct loss of more than 50B RMB has been caused...   

This snowstorm happened in a very busy transportation time, last for a 20-day long or even more in some region. A lot of cities were freezed entirely, high way was closed, airport was closed and even train line was unable to run due to the destruction of electricity supply system caused by ice weather. Too many on-the-way people were stranded on bus or train on the wild high way or railway, where only ice could be seen and what they could do is just desperately waiting  and trembling with a very starving stomach in the ice world.

Too many stories i heard during the past half a month, a 12-hour trip could even become 12-day trip, a bus on the JZ high way couldn't even move forward for one step within 2 days and 2 nights. At the railway stations, long distance bus stations and airports, handreds of thousands of people were waiting for departure. Along with the approaching of Spring Festival, bad news came again and again from the weather forcasts, but more and more people were arriving from all directions. Long distance transportation system faced a tremendous pressure, which i think they never faced before particularly in Guangzhou railway station where caused two deaths from trampling of overloaded crowds. 

The bad situation was really far beyond of our imagination, which then aroused the central government to attach big importance to this issue. Premier WenJB flied to Hunan for two times in a 3-day short time interval, then the anti-ice movement was truely started in Southern China. That is a nation wide operation and collaboration, any useful or possible resoures or forces were put in the very wide-distributed and most-demanded snowstorm-suffering regions. Handreds of thousands of troops were sent to high ways, airports and bus stations, to try their best to fight against the ice and to maintain everything could back in normal and run smoothly as soon as possible. For the mass-destruction of electricity supply system, our government manoeuvred any possible resources (manpower and electicity facilities) from province to province, to try their best to repair large number of electricity facilities so as to bring light to every affected family before the new year. In order to ease the pressure of the transportation, local government tried their best to persuade people to give up their go-home plan. Everybody who has bought a ticket would be encouraged to return the tickets with no charge. But still, most of the people were not willing to give up, no matter how long they have to wait , how cold the weather and how hard the trip would be... In their mind, only two words "Go Home!", nothing could stop them...

Like those who could not get home for spending the festival with their families, I cancelled my Go-home plan and can't spend the festival with my parents this time even though i promised my parents to go back months ago. On the new year's eve, i called my mom, i could feel she was a little disappointed and i felt so sorry in my heart since I haven't been with them for Spring festival for three years already. I spent the new year's eve with three of my colleagues, though the feeling was much different from staying with my family. As a chinese, i know exactly what the Spring Festival means to chinese people, i know why our chinese people wants to go home so eagerly before the festival comes, no matter how difficult their trip would be. Yesterday morning, i went to the railway station to see if possible i could get a ticket for any of the next few days, but i was told "no ticket within 4 days to my hometown", return to dormitory with kinda disappointment, seemed losing sth...

Lying on the bed after lunch, i checked into my blog, which has not been updated for very long time since its last update (2007-07-01). I don't even have a glimpse at my blog for quite long and i noticed at some messages or comments that some friends left weeks or months ago. I think i should post sth new on my blog, should let my friends to know i am still living in a very good condition, just be busy and probably it is the very reason i seldom have update or maintain my blog like before.

Finally, my appreciation to all of you, who has ever supported me, ever passed by my blog... Wish you all the best in the Olympic year of 2008!