Free calls abroad for Shanghai Daily readers
Date:2008-09-10
Shanghai Daily has teamed up with Rebtel to offer our readers exclusive free minutes to call abroad.
Rebtel is a new international calls provider who are slashing the costs of calling from mobiles. The concept is simple: you give Rebtel phone numbers from another country, and they give you back a local number to call for a low price.
Sign up now for your free minutes.
Undercover tests
Shanghai Daily reporters tested Rebtel services for calling from Shanghai to the UK in Europe. After an initial registration process we found the calls provided by Rebtel to be well worth the effort. At $0.18 (1.25 yuan) a minute the calls were as cheap as most phone cards, and when calling from a landline the calls were extremely clear. The best feature however was the convenience factor – we were able to pick up our normal mobile phone and call a friend abroad from the phonebook without having to worry about costs, or go through the lengthy dialling involved with phone cards.
“The hardest part is getting people to understand the concept,” says Winbladh, Rebtel CEO. "it’s difficult to grasp that you can just call a local number for a person abroad. But once people start using the service and store that number in their phone, it becomes very sticky as it’s so convenient.”
How things look different in the US
Date:2008-09-08
Editor's note: Metro reporter Rachel Yan has been in the US for a six-month journalism training program. Let's follow her to catch a glimpse of the country.
It has been three weeks since I arrived at this little American town for a six-month journalism training program.
The Missouri Journalism School, which is part of the University of Missouri in Columbia, was the world's first journalism school and is gearing up for its centennial celebrations this week (September 10-12).
Like other US universities, Missouri ?students and staff refer to it as "Mizzou" ?delights visitors with its campus with red-brick buildings, tall trees and green spaces.
But what really sets this journalism school apart is the variety of courses, both practical and theoretical, in all sorts of media. Students have a choice of five or six different reporting or reading courses for newspaper, radio, TV, Websites or converged media.
After taking several classes, the course that impressed me most was not a project-based curriculum but one that seemed especially relevant to me as a visiting Chinese professional.
The lecturer for the course I chose was called Y. Volz. I began thinking to myself about the sort of background a foreigner needed to be lecturing in Chinese media studies to American students who have little knowledge about this remote Asian country?
But I was very wrong. After the first class bell rang, the teacher appeared in the classroom and Y. Volz turned out to be a young lady with an Asian face, black hair and, typically Chinese-accented English.
What’s in a name?
Date:2008-09-04
She got the idea from friends who are keen...
Tags: baby name Shengchenpazi
The 19th issue of e-magazine is out now!
Date:2008-08-29
The issue has 9 sections: Cover Story, Macro Economy, Finance, Biz Feature, Air, Real Estate, Auto, Metal and Energy and Technology, which have been re-typeset in the magazine.
Our e-magazine is specifically designed for business readers and is mainly based on issues discussed in the Business Insight pages of Shanghai Daily.
Officially launched in January 2007, the magazine is published every month and is free to download during its trial.
You can download the magazine via PDF files from our Website (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine/). or you can subscribe to our Insight Newsletter by typing in your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the front page. The readers on this list will be e-mailed when a new version of the magazine is published.
Who is your Olympic hero?
Date:2008-08-26
We interviewed nine people in our newsroom. Each has their own top three Olympic athletes and their own reasons. Let's see who gets these medals!
Yan Fei
Print designer
1. Constantina Tomescu/ Romania/ women's marathon
(The 38-year-old champion is unusual and respectable.)
2. Michael Phelps/ USA/ swimming
(Eight golds!)
3. Matthew Mitcham/ Australia/ diving
(Winning in last dive by earning four 10s. Fighting until the last minute to gain the victory and that's sporting spirit!)
Gu Yan
Admin
1. Liao Hui/ China/ weightlifting
2. Zhang Xiangxiang/ China/ weightlifting
(Two nice guys with solid characters.)
3. Chen Yibing/ China/ gymnastics
(He is cute.)
Wu Jiayin
Opinion writer
1. Matt Emmons/ USA/ shooting
(He showed Olympic spirit even though he lost.)
2. Guo Jingjing/ China/ diving
(She showed her best and kept a high standard no matter how tough the competition was.)
3. Du Toit / South Africa/ marathon swimming
(She lost her left leg and participates in both the Olympics and the Paralympics.)
Nancy Zhang
Copy editor
Newsroom wilts as Liu limps out of hurdles competition
Date:2008-08-18
Everybody in the newsroom was astonished when Liu Xiang, defending Olympic Champion and megastar, quit in the first round of the men’s 110m hurdle competition in Beijing today.
Ahead of Liu, members of Shanghai Daily watched Dayron Robles of Cuba win his heat and American Terrence Trammel get injured in his race, and looked for Liu’s debut at the Bird’s Nest.
As Liu warmed up, copy editor Marc Tessier thought something was wrong with the hurdler.
“He was warming up and after completing a couple of hurdles, he went down on the ground on his hands and knees. He looked like he was in a lot of pain,” Tessier said.
The expression on Liu’s face said it all as his gingerly walked back to the starting blocks. And after a false start, Liu limped into the tunnel and we knew that his Olympics were over.
Disappointment sucked all the enthusiasm out of Shanghai Daily’s newsroom just like it did in the National Stadium.
Newsroom’s view on Olympics
Date:2008-08-15
The Beijing Olympics has made Shanghai Daily newsroom exciting for the past week. The TV sets in the office are always set on live broadcasts of the games and the moment China wins the gold medal, the whole newsroom bursts into cheers.
Deng Kajia, our online editor, watched the opening ceremony in the office with several colleagues. She gives high marks to the show, “The part to show the culture of ancient China is fantastic. One of my foreign friends from London, the host city of 2012 Summer Olympics, told me that Beijing has left all the past host cities behind in the opening ceremony.”
Vivian Yang, the newcomer who works for the newly-launched Shanghai Daily Sunday, is deeply touched by Chinese gymnasts. “The two Olympic team golds are really impressive,” said Yang.
Orange Zhou, from the Marketing Department, has been an Olympic couch potato, “My TV set has never been used so frequently.” She thinks so far the Chinese men’s basketball team and women’s volleyball team play much better than she expected. She predicts that China will gain more than 40 gold medals. However, there are lots of maybes in games, and maybe the biggest is Liu Xiang. “Liu is in so many ads and sometimes I think he is too commercial,” said Zhou.
Wang Yong, chief of the Opinion Department, thinks whoever the winner is, wherever he/she comes from, we should applaud for them, because “true gold medals come from a sporting heart.”
“I do respect such athletes like Lee Bae-Young from the Republic of Korea,” said Wang, “He folded under 184kg in the 69kg-class clean and jerk on Tuesday after his legs cramped in pain. But He tried his best right to the end.
“The moment he fell to the ground, the audience applauded him. He was a hero.”
Newsroom cheers for India's first gold
Date:2008-08-11
Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra won the 10-meter air rifle competition today, winning India its first Olympic individual gold medal.
Bindra finished with 700.5 points to edge out China's Zhu Qinan who had 699.7 points for the silver.
India's hockey team had won eight gold medals in field hockey in Olympic Games between 1928 and 1980.
Shanghai Daily's international editing team includes staff from India and the newsroom was just as excited about the victory as they were at China's silver success.
Lancy Correa works on the Shanghai Daily's sports desk and he followed the shooting action with interest this morning.
"I watched Bindra's last four shots on the newsroom TV," Lancy said. "I am very, very proud. We have expected this gold medal since 1980."
When the result was known, Lancy immediately received phone calls from his Indian and Chinese friends, and congratulations came from all over the world via the Internet, one friend in Dubai sent him online greetings.
Lancy will be busy covering the Olympics till midnight. "Of course I want to have a party with my Indian friends to celebrate our first Olympic gold medal. But maybe it should be kept until after 1am," he said.
