This photo and the photo from the last post are both from the area within Shanghai known as the French Concession. I don't think there were ever actually many French people living there - but there were Russians and other Europeans once. Anyway, it is heavily European influenced and looks quite beautiful.One unusual Chinese characteristic very noticeable at my work, is the perceived importance of turning electrical things off to save money. It starts off with things like photocopiers and printers, which are constantly turned off as the Chinese staff walk past them. That's kind of bearable, but it still means that I have to get up and turn the printer on and boot up the computer connected to it nearly everytime I print something - 5 minutes of wasted time...
Then there's the lights - lights are never used, unless its absolutely necessary. At times I'm working away at work in the dark, but if a couple of dollars can be saved by turning lights off then, that seems to be the preferred approach.
But it gets worse. If you leave your desk for 30 minutes or an hour, someone will come along and turn your computer off - even if you have documents up etc. Now in winter, it's really cold - probably no more than about 10 degrees in the office... the Chinese staff will turn on the faulty old airconditioners (that cut out at 18 degrees) to warm the place up (read: blow luke warm air around the room for a short while), and then turn them off again. Probably about two bursts every hour of about 10-15 minutes. Consequently, I wear a heavy millitary jacket, scarf and about 3 layers of clothes at all times in the office. I do take my beannie off just so I look a little less 'outside'...
Everything is about turning stuff on then off... on then off... saving money? Who knows. I tried to find information on the internet about how turning lights on and off and booting computers up 3 or 4 times a day is not good use of energy, but, I don't know if that's still the case - computers have improved a lot in recent years...
So this is just one thing, I think I'll have to live with...
3 comments:
I really like how you put photos on your blog for most posts. I think my blog could do with a photo or two but i'm too lazy or i'm at work and don't have the photos handy...
I think your harddrive is more likely to crash if you turn your computer on and off a lot but I'm not sure of the facts.
yeah thanks - it's a conscious decision to upload photos. Partly because I can't seem to upload photos to flickr lately.
I really like Blogger as a site - they really seem to have it all sorted out - photos upload fairly quickly and generally, they provide a good, user-friendly service...
I generally try to turn things off - and I know that leaving things on standby for long periods (ie overnight) like TVs, DVD players, computer monitors, etc uses a lot of power.
I'll always turn off my PC and monitor when I leave work and am constantly amazed at the number of people who do neither.
But there is such a thing as taking it too far - like turning off your PC when you go to lunch or a meeting. The 64Kw question is where's the dividing line. I dunno - but if I find out, I'll let you know.
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