PSFK Author:
Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai)

With less than 100 days before the start of the Olympics in China, the whole country and especially Beijing is gearing up for an eventful summer. To chronicle the run-up to the 2008 Games, Siok Siok Tan and her students at the Beijing Film Academy have created a film examining the lives of Beijing’s citizens. “Boomtown Beijing” is showing world-wide, with proceeds being donated to the Library Project.

Check out the trailer for Boomtown Beijing:

[via OneManBandwidth]

For those who can’t find a local coffee shop with Wi-Fi Internet access in Hong Kong, PCCW offers phone booth that are set up for paid Wi-Fi access. PCCW, the largest telecommunications provider in Hong Kong, has set up more than 400 paid access points throughout the city and a majority are housed in phone booths.

[via Virtual China]

URBN Hotel is one of a slew of new boutique, designer hotels that have popped up in Shanghai over the past year. These boutique hotels typically offer personalized tours of the city, tai qi, cooking and Mandarin classes, along with a luxurious room experience.

Opened in December of 2007, URBN separates itself from the pack as it is China’s first carbon neutral hotel. In addition to implementing energy savings and recycling throughout the hotel, URBN offsets their carbon footprint by purchasing credits “to neutralize its footprint by investing in “green” energy development and emission reduction projects in China. Hotel guests can also choose to purchase carbon credits from the program to offset their flights.”

Last weekend, URBN held a small eco-fair for small companies and organizations to promote and sell their services and goods. While we could not find any literature mentioning the carbon neutral initiative in the the ultra-hip lobby, we hope they are staying true to their promise.

URBN Hotel

With an estimated 350,000+ millionaires in China, the country now ranks #2 in Asia behind Japan in this measure of wealth. Advertisements for jewelry, watches and other luxury goods line the streets in major Chinese cities as companies look to cash in on the boom in East Asia riches.

Telegraph reports that Switzerland-based luxury goods retailer Richemont, whose companies include Cartier, Montblanc and Piaget, posted a 16% growth in sales in the year to the end of March. Richemont’s sales were driven by the Asia-Pacific region which grew by 21% compared with 12% in the Europe and 3% in the Americas.

Telegraph: Asia Sparkles for Richemont

Asia Scout Network point us to commuters in Taipei, Taiwan who are using their mobile phones to make traveling a bit more convenient. Mobile phone users attach a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip to their mobile SIM card and transportation fees can then be charged via the Easy card system, eliminating the need to buy and carry a ticket for each trip. The system can be used to pay for Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), buses and parking fees.

Asia Scout Network: Easy Cell Phone

In a country as regionally diverse as China, it is vital for companies to tailor their offerings to local demands. Guangdong province is the manufacturing center of China and as such, attracted the largest number of migrant workers looking for jobs in factories. To keep in touch with family, the tool of choice for migrant workers is the mobile phone.

In a great example of localization, service provider Guangdong Mobile is offering free weekend minutes to migrant workers. Each weekend, migrant workers are given 15 minutes of free long-distance calls under the “Appreciation to Guangdong” program.  And for those lacking a mobile, they can come to one of Guangdong Mobile’s ‘Communication 100 Service Halls’ to make their free calls.

Guangdong Mobile also plans on arranging traveling vehicles from which migrant workers can make calls and will build service centers to provide free internet service for migrant workers.

[via YouMeiTI]

While many of the most prominent energy efficiency projects have taken off in Western countries, efforts to reduce energy in Asia may be even more crucial as it has solidified itself as the factory of the world. We have previously covered Nike’s eco-projects and now we find Nike driving an energy efficiency effort in Asia. The first phase of an Nike project to identify the biggest energy saving opportunities has now been completed for their footware suppliers.

According to “Nike’s Energy Efficiency Update 2008,” there were three key findings:

• Energy-efficiency opportunities were dramatically different between the two contract factories. This finding ruled out the opportunity to take a “cut and paste” approach, requiring Nike to conduct energy assessments for each footwear contract manufacturing factory, prolonging this phase of the work.
• The complexity of footwear manufacturing infrastructure is staggering, containing more than 15,500 motors, 10,000 light bulbs, 6,000 sewing machines, four separate compressor farms, six separate chillers and many large boilers.
• Additional work by an energy-efficiency expert is necessary to develop a “blueprint” for implementing energy efficiency within individual footwear contract manufacturing factories. which can be easily applied to implementing energy efficiency within footwear contract manufacturing.

Nike is planning to layout their energy-reducing goals for pilot suppliers May 31, 2008.

Nike: Energy Efficiency Update 2008

[via Sustainable Life Media]

Mobile is king in China with an average of four mobiles for every computer. So it makes sense that a lot of innovation in the China market is currently focused on developing applications which can be used on-the-go.

China Web Review 2.0 points us to Mobile Monday Beijing Peer Awards (Mobile Monday is a monthly gathering of mobile enthusiasts held around the globe). The start-ups that placed in the top three offer some insight into the direction of mobile services in China:

3rd Place: PangHuLu
PangHuLu is a mobile RSS reader and soon-to-be mobile blogging platform. They offer a group of tools which make your favorite websites and blogs more easily read via the mobile phone.

2nd Place: Daav.cn
Daav is attacking a serious problem in the current Chinese mobile market that we have covered before– SMS Spam. They track your contact lists and usage behavior to build a personalized spam filter for mobile phones.

1st Place: Tokiva.com
Tokiva offers a suite of mobile applications, but cheap international calling (a la Skype) is the standout application. You have to install the Tokiva mobile client first, but you can then call any international number. Tokiva re-routes the call, calls the dialer back and immediately patches through the call with the other party on the line. Tokiva also allows for integration on your Facebook page to call through the web.

[via China Web Review 2.0]

In today’s world of instant gratification, consumers don’t have the time or patience to wait around for what they want. This trend is especially pronounced in Hong Kong, the bustling city that has long attracted bankers, traders and maybe most famously, shoppers.

Next Great Thing points us to Hong Kong’s new “Delay No Mall” which caters to the multi-tasking consumer who wants to get everything done in one location. The mall features tons of the coolest global brands, bars, sleep pods and a tattoo parlor spread over 2 floors.

Benjamin Lau, co-founder of the mall, explains the name:

It means to do the things you want to do right here and now. To play right now, to create right now, be active right now…it means no more delay.

Also, check out Delay No Mall’s “rush hour picnic” ad campaign video, which shows 3 trendy young kids setting up an impromptu picnic in the middle of a crowded intersection during a pause in traffic.

Next Great Thing: Hong Kong’s Delay No Mall