About Beijing and China

Walking in alley in central Beijing.
China is a country at a threshold of change: its economic growth is unbroken, and next year, in 2008, it will host the Olympic Games in Beijing. The consequences are quite apparent: in many places in Beijing there are large construction projects. Several subway lines are being built, and the status of the construction sites arises doubts if these lines can be completed in time for the Olympics. The conference hotel was quite near the main Olympic Stadium, which has an interesting structure, like a bird's nest. Around the hotel many roads are under (re-)construction, dust is in the smoggy air.

Construction of the Olympic Stadium for the 2008 Olympics.

Construction and high rise apartment buildings in Northern Beijing.

Road scene in Northern Beijing.

Possible source of internet connection problems?

Road traffic has increased in the past few years, and the once dominant bicycle traffic has been overtaken by the car traffic (literally).

Road traffic jam.

Beijing has many modern / contemporary looking buildings; around our hotel was a whole array of highrise buildings with apartment complexes. But a large part of the population still lives along those Hutongs, these small side roads with their one or at most two-story buildings in traditional style. Many of these areas around the Hutings appear impoverished, and Beijing seems to be ashamed of them somewhat: there were whole quarters being torn down and replaced by either "gentrified" versions, or by completely new buildings, shopping centres, parks. When I walked or biked through a few of those Hutongs, some looked a bit like slums, but others had a dignified appearance of centuries of tradition. It is a pity that this appearance is slowly dying out.

Small Hutong in centre of Beijing.

Near the Drum Tower, north of Beijing Centre.

Near a food market, east of Forbidden City.

Small shops at alley in Beijing.

During my stay in this one week there was no rain fall during the days, but the sky always had been in a thick haze. Sometimes it appeared as one could only see a few 100 m. The reason for this smog is said to be the increased car traffic, industrialisation, and dust from construction.

Half-destroyed buildings in one of the small Hutongs.

Torn-down building. There are many such sights in Beijing, where these traditional buildings are replaced by modern shopping malls. A shamefull end of centuries of tradition.

Recent scandals re. tainted food and unsafe products have tarnished the image of China as a booming economy of the future: the image of its products is very bad, but the officials are trying to clean this up. But overall there seems to be an attitude that anything is allowed which can bring a profit. Tourists anyway appear to be "fair game", as they bring into this country their (our) well-filled wallets, and anything goes to get the content of this wallet. One example is the operation of illegitimate taxis, seemingly tolerated by the "real" taxis and standing in the same queue in front of hotel exits. These "fake taxis" usually have a sign on top of the car which looks like an official taxi sign, but without writing or lights. They have a meter inside for calculating the fare - but the meter runs about twice or three times as fast as the ones or regular taxis (which charge 2 RMB per km, and which have a red sticker about this on their windows - the fake taxis have no such sticker). So in general I do have a feeling of caution towards anything that is offered in Beijing to me as a tourist - it is very likely that any offer is fake and would result in me getting cheated. But I am confident that by next year, Beijing and China will have cracked down on these practises, as this is about their reputation - and also about a lot of money and business from tourism and international trade.



Overall, this was a fascinating opportunity to have a glimpse into China and Beijing during this short stay. I will visit there again, if I have another opportunity.

About the HCI Conference Series

This was the first time I attended this event. In 1999 my colleague Sundar from RSC had participated in the HCI while it was held in Munich - we had a joint paper then. In 2001 my colleague Joshua McGee presented our joint paper at the HCI conference in Geneva. In 2003 I had submitted a paper, but due to a short-term arranged at my employer at that time, I was not able to travel - what a pity! And now in 2007, this was the first time for me to attend this conference. Its positive side is at the same time also its negative side: the vast array of topics makes it possible to get a great overview of current trends and developments in the whole Human-Computer Interaction area, from automated system intelligence to user ergonomics. This also means that a participant can only attend a fraction of presentations, which is unfortunate as there are plenty of interesting talks and topics. The relatively benign review process also means that papers of a lower quality are accepted.

Overall, I think that the approach of the conference organisers is right: being inclusive and making this conference to a networking event, where the whole HCI community is welcomed. This allows to get contacts to many different experts and learn about the many different aspects of current HCI research.

In Beijing

On the bicycle in Beijing.

I decide that it would be a great idea to rent a bicycle and drive through the inner city of Beijing. When searching the web, I come across the web site of the "Bicycle Kingdom". If I had found out about it earlier, I could even have reserved a bicycle per web form on that site.

On Sunday morning, 8am, I call the store to find out about the rental possibilities. Yes, they have bikes available. But they would not be able to bring them to the hotel, as they only do this for hotels within the 2nd ring road. Our hotel is just outside of the 4th ring road. Ok, I could go directly to the rental location and pick it up. The person to whom I talk speaks English very well. He recommends to print out the directions from the web page. Since I do not have a printer with me (mote to myself: next time bring also a portable printer.), I just take a picture screenshot of the address in Chinese Characters, which I would show to the taxi driver.

So I take a taxi to the Oriental Plaza, a large Western-style shopping mall near one of the main shopping streets. The Bicycle Kingdom is a bit hidden and can only be found by someone specifically knowing it: The entrance is through the lobby of the North Garden Hotel. Down with an elevator into the 4th basement floor. There along a dark corridor, a sign on the wall indicates "Bicycle Kingdom". The owner welcomes me, remembering that I called. The bicycle is ready: a nice city bike with a basket in the front. Costs 100 RMB for the day, and I leave my ID card as a deposit. A lock is also included, so I could park the bike when I would want to walk.

As I want to turn north into the pedestrian zone of the Wangfujing Dong street, a policeman waves that I cannot go there. No bicycles, not even pushing. Ok, then I will go south. Visit the Temple of Heavens. Then ride further along those wide alleys with their wide bike lanes. As I finally want to go to the Tian an Men Square, where a lot of people seemed to gather, policemen again wave me away: no bicycles are allowed. Ok, then not.

A Gate in the park of the Temple of Heavens.

South of the Tien an Men Square.

Later I return the bicycle and walk along the Wangfujing Dong Street. There are large shopping malls, but also markets. I decide to buy a few souvenirs and try to haggle. This works quite interestingly: the seller types the price into a calculator and shows it to me. I take the calculator, erase the amount, and type in my own amount that I offer. Then it is the sellers turn to type again their amount, now reduced by 10 RMB. And then I type my amount, going up slightly. In the end, when we both arrive at the same number, the sale is done.
Somehow I still feel that I have been ripped off, when I carry my purchases away...

In the Wangfujing Dong Street - contemporary shopping.

On a side street there is a large food market, with freshly prepared food items. I am not hungry, and also I am quite sceptical, after all the warnings and scandals regarding food in China. But many things look quite appetising, and many people buy and eat them - so it may not be that bad as recently frequently reported in the news. I see a stand with very interesting items: Scorpions and a variety of strange bugs, grilled on skewers. Maybe I try one of those when I am in Beijing next time...

Only for the very courageous: traditional snacks.

As I walk through the tree-shaded allees, I feel getting tired. One of those motorized Rikshas passes by, the driver waving friendly at me. I friendly refuse. But then I think that it might now be a bad idea to get a little rest and go with one of those. So as the next one passes by, I make eye contact and indicate that I would like to go with him. As he slows down looking at me and waving, he gives a demonstration of his driving skills: while slowing down, his motor ricksha bumps into a parked moped which he had overlooked. Not any damage seemed to have been done, but the woman driver of the moped starts argueing with him, and the engage in a lenghty and loud dispute about this incident. I keep on walking... Another riksha comes up, and after a brief negotiation ("five", and he shows five fingers on his hand) I get in the back. That is nice, although the enclosed cabin feels a bit too tight in this sweltering humid heat. As we arrive at the destination after a few minutes, I get out my 5 RMB note, but he angrily shakes his head and shows the five fingers of his hand. I confirm, "five", show also 5 fingers on my hand, point to the 5 RMB note. He keeps waving his hand, and I guess that he meant 50 RMB. Well, I cannot much argue here, 5 RMB would have been quite cheap indeed. 50 seems a bit high... I guess these details should be negotiated at the beginning of the ride, with a clear understanding of both parties. Maybe it would be better if I had paid directly in the beginning?

From the back fo a motorized ricksha.

In the evening, I get slightly hungry. Should finally try the famous Beijing Duck, but when I go to the hotel restaurant, they do not have it on their menu. What a pity! I am too lazy to go out, and rather prepare for the departure in the next morning.

The Great Wall at Badaling

In the morning, at 8:00, the tour to the famous Great Wall started at the convention centre. The tour guide talked about the history of the wall, but then began mentioning some art work and specific processes. I suspected that this would mean we visit another factory. And right, on the way we left the Badaling Expressway and stopped at another of those factories, this time one for vase and cloisonne making. In principle I do not mind, to see such facilities, to get a bit of an impression of various manufacturing techniques. But these visits seemed much of an integral part of these excursions, with the goal to extract some money from us tourist. Probably remnants of the state-run production system, with provisions for the tour guides who bring the customers.





The expressway is quite full - many people want to go to the Great Wall. Traffic moves slowly. Mountains appear in the haze, and the road begins to climb. At a pass, we can already see the wall covering the hill crests. Then we exit to the car park. Despite being in the mountains, the temperature is still hot and humid. Everyone is on their own, since it would he hard to keep everyone together, with their different climbing capabilities.





The wall towards East looks quite empty, but the wall to the West is filled with people. It also looks much more steep, more interesting, and so I decide to go there. The wall an the buildings do not look very old, they must have been renovated not too long ago. Walking slowly upwards, 45 degree uphill on steps. Many people stop constantly, I prefer to walk steadily. But after 200 m height, at an altitude of 487 m, below one of those watch towers, I have to stop. The heat is getting to me, my legs begin to tremble, and I feel how my blood circulation threatens to break down. So I sit for a while, drink another bottle of tea, then head back down again. No need to die for climbing higher! I was already way beyond the "certification" point where the vain people could buy a little certificate that they had climbed the wall. Naturally I bought one too.





Afterwards our group is heading for lunch at a nearby restaurant: shared dishes on large tables, each for a group of 10 people. And again the opportunity to buy mementos and souvenirs, as the restaurant seems to be within the store.



The next stop in the afternoon are the Ming Tombs, with their excavation of underground burial places. Quite interesting, but mostly for those deeply interested and knowledgeable in Chinese culture. Very tranquil garden on top, obeying the principles of "Feng Shui".



At the parking lot a strange scene: an old man and an old woman collect plastic bottles in large plastic sacks - they probably get a fee for collecting these. They seem to argue about the right to collect the bottles, and suddenly they go at each other, hit each other with sticks and bottles. I decide to be impartial and give none of them my empty tea bottles.



As I walk out of the park into the area of souvenir stands, two women obnoxiously bother me (who would have thought that women can be bothersome…?): one wants to sell me post cards, another one T-shirts. I do not really want to buy anything, and with a friendly smile decline, as I usually do. I know, this is their livelihood, and so I try to remain friendly - I might eventually purchase something. But they really try hard, even blocking my way. Finally the one with the cards gives up while the one with the T-shirt still follows me. She offers me a T-shirt for 10 RMB. I continue to walk, then I think that maybe I should just buy one, as a souvenir. Ok, I nod, and get out my wallet to give her 10 RMB. Immediately she waves the other woman - why this? I really will not buy any cards! As I have my T-shirt and am leaving, the woman with the cards has caught up. Suddenly the woman from whom I just bought the T-shirt, screams "you gave me only one - I need ten". And she waves a 1 RMB note in front of me. What a jerk! I definitely know I gave her a 10 note - that was the only note of that kind, and it was blue. The one-note is green, and I am confident that I have not confused them. She keeps screaming, while the other woman comes quite close. Now I see their game: while I would be distracted to clear up the "confusion", the woman with the cards would try to steal something from me - they both are quite close and try to grab me. I shout back to them that I have given a 10, not a one, and that I will not pay anything else. I walk fast towards the bus, and finally they turn away.

What a scam that is! I should go right away to the police, to one of those ubiquitous officers in uniform, but I am too lazy to go through that hazzle.
Tired and exhausted I arrive back at the hotel - and fall asleep.

Excursions to Sights in Beijing

At this conference, also a series of tours had been organized for the participants, providing excellent opportunities for informal networking among the conference participants and at the same time to learn more about the Chinese culture. Several groups left in a couple of busses, and Andreas Holzinger recommended one particular tour guide because he was very entertaining. Andreas had not promised too little - Yiang Lee was very entertaining and upbeat indeed.

The busses stopped somewhere near the city centre, then we walked to the south entrance of the "Forbidden City", the old emperors' residence. It was hot and humid, and I bought a bottle of cold tea at every possible opportunity, of which there were plenty. A vast area is covered by the squares and buildings of this palace area, and the many visitors distributed themselves in the huge empty places.






After the end of the tour, our bus already approached the hotel, but then turned back one block to stop at a silk factory. There, we could see the various steps of silk production, from the cocoons to final silk bed blankets. Another guide explained this process, and afterwards every participant could buy some things, either bed sheets, blankets, or other silk products. Since I do know nothing about silk of fashion in general, this was all lost on me. I could not judge the prices, but they seemed a bit expensive to me: somewhat cheaper than in Europe, but much more expensive than appropriate for the average salary here in Beijing ($200 per month).



Another tour led to the "Summer Palace" at the Western outskirts of Beijing, where the Chinese emperors had build a large garden estate. Again similar temples, palaces, in the same style as the Forbidden City. A nice lake in the centre, with boats cruising on it.






The finish of this your ended in a pearl factory, where explanations about different types of pearls were given, together with the opportunity to purchase pearl products and other souvenirs.

HCI Conference: My "Main" Presentation

My own session is the first one in the morning. I had been asked by the conference organizers to chair this session "Gesture Recognition" - not sure why me and not anybody else from that conference. Yesterday I had already checked where this session room is: 2-F, on the 1st floor (= ground floor, they use here the US system for naming floors). Since there are 24 parallel sessions, some of those larger exhibition halls in the convention centre have been subdivided into smaller rooms. I have a map from the conference booklet, but the way down seems weird: one staircase seems to lead to a dead end, so I go back and take the main stairs. From there, a sign points through a dark dungenous hall, with damaged floor and very little lighting, to that other subdivided exhibition hall.

The entrance to the room 2-F seems to be the furthest away from everything; I hope that not too many would be discouraged by the strange location of this room and the early time of the session.

But at 8 am about 15 people actually attend this session. Just to be on the safe side I try my laptop on the projector - and the image is shifted. What the hell? This never had happened. I try to get tech support, there is one of the conference assistants sitting around the corner. When she comes into the room, someone had already fixed this, and the first presenter could give his talk. So I assumed that the fault was with the projector - the laptops would have to be set to 800x600, I was told. When I as the 2nd presenter connected my laptop again, with the new resolutions settings, the same thing happened again: only the left half of my slides was visible. So I quickly changed the order of the session, accepted the offer of a memory stick from that friendly conference attendee, put my presentation there, and presented as the 3rd presenter on the laptop computer which had been provided by the conference. This worked ok. (Note to myself: next time prepare memory stick with presentation, just in case).

Interesting talks in my session, about gestures and multimodal interaction.
In the following break I visited the exhibition room. Tobii showed their eye tracking system, also another company (Seeing Machines) showed their individual setup of stereo eye tracking. One company from Austria, g-tec, showed a system for controlling a computer through the brain, by measuring voltages around the head.


I met a former colleague of mine: Prof. Axel Schulte, now a chair of the department at UniBw Munich where we both had worked for our PhD in the early 1990s. A nice opportunity to catch up after so many years.

An Evening in Beijing

In the morning, before the sessions, I had taken a short walk outside of the hotel and had found a large shopping centre. Bought a few bottles of water and tea. Unfortunately I did not find any sparkling water - only the plain type. So I decided to get tea instead - is very refreshing, with lemon inside, and tastes good. On the way I notice many people in uniform. Parking attendents, but also police. They stand at every corner, patrol the traffic, and probably make sure that nobody gets the idea to start a demonstration. They look suspiciously at me, as I walk with my camera and GPS around...

In the evening, after the first day of conference presentations, I was not quite sure what to do: I could prepare for my second presentation which was to be held the next day (Thursday morning), or I could take it easy and do a bit of sight-seeing. I noticed that many groups met in the hotel lobby, planningto go out - so I decided to do that too. I could have joined one of them, but I wanted to be back early, and so I was going to rush a little - others would just have slowed me down, and so I decided to go on my own.

As I walked out of the hotel, I realised that I forgot my GPS in the room. Should I go back and loose another 10 minutes? The sun was already setting. Well, without the GPS I would feel lost - also I wanted to geo-tag the pictures I was going to take, so back to the room, take the GPS, then down again.

At the taxi stop there were no taxis anymore, but a long line of people waiting for one. Well, I did not want to wait, so I proceeded further north up the road, where I had been in the morning - I would just stop any empty taxi that drove by. And there was already one! I waved, the taxi stopped, I entered. I was not quite sure where I wanted to go - my mind was set on the city centre. My former classmate from high school whom I had just met at the reunion a few days ago, Roman Scholl, had told me that there would be a great view from the Grand Hotel near the Forbidden City. So I would just go there. But I did not want to repeat the problem on the way from the airport re. the hotel name, so I would just go to a place nearby. When I mentioned "Forbidden City", the driver did not understand. So I looked at the map to find something near-by. Ho about the Tian an Men square? He should know that one. But when I said that I wanted to go there, he got serious and said "no". Then waved me out of the taxi. Ok, so much for that. Obviously it is not accepted when a foreigner wants to go to the place of the 1989 massacre...

Again I am on the hot street, the sun already almost at the horizon. Another try for a taxi. One stops. I say that I want to the Jing Shan Park, which is just north of the Forbidden City. Must be close to walk from there. He understands, but says "traffic jam", and indicates that the park is closed ("park off"). Ok, maybe somewhere else? In principle, it does not matter to me where I go, I just want to be out and see something interesting. But how to convey this intent to someone who does not understand English? I thought I just show him my map of Beijing, from thatr nice eyewitnes travel book that I bought in the morning when I left Leeds-Bradford Airport. But he looked very confused when he saw the map - it was only inb English, and he did not seem to recognise anything on it. He suggest to go to the "Summer Palace". Well, ok, he must know. Drives along the motorway, with its 4 lanes in both directions. But this seems to lead out of the town, towards West. Where is this summer palace anyway? He shows me a book, with a schematic map, and the Summer Palace was way out at the Western end of the city. That is not where I wanted to be at night. I ask him to return to go to the Jing Shan Park. He could not understand, why I wanted that, and I was not able to tell him. After a few arguments back and forth, he made a U-turn, but kept saying that the park is closed. I made hand gestures that I would walk - by walking with my fingers over the dashboard - and he seemed to understand it now. He was wondering about my GPS which I had placed on the dashboard to capture the route - I explained him the functions, and he was delighted! He noticed the speed on it, the time, and I told him about the altitude. He laughed fascinated as he saw the little track of the route we just had driven. Unfortunately I did not have a map of Beijing as background, so my tracks are the only thing shown on the display. At least I had marked the hotel, so I knew where to go back to.

He asked me where I was from - US? No, I said "Germany". He did not understand, gave me the book with a list of embassies. I found the one from the "Federal Republic of Germany" and pointed to it. "Ah", he understood and said the name of Germany in a way that I have never had it been said before, and that I also do not remember now anymore. He then mentioned "BMW". Then we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of various German car brands. Well, I mentioned the brand, and he drew the symbol of it with his finger on his steering wheel. "Audi", and he drew 4 rings. "Mercedes", and he drew a star. Ok, we could communicate!

All this interaction happened while he drove through the busy city streets, across intersections, turning left, then right, changing lanes, following bicycle rikschas fully loaded with furniture, ... Somehow I was not sure if he would drive me to the Park where I wanted to go... we went way too much Eastward. He had turned from the major 4-lane road into a smaller 3-lane road, and suddenly we went away from the 90 degree grid on a diagonal road, wiht only one lane in each direction. Very shady, trees overgrew the street, people walking busy on the sidewalk or in the street. Small buildings, 1 or 2 story high. Little shops, a lot of renovation, building. Less cars now on the road. Where would he drive me? Well, I would have the log of it on the GPS... But I was wrong: as we approached a very imposing looking Chinese building, he mentioned something, and I could actually identify it on my map: the Drum Tower. From here it would only be 2 km straight south to the centre. I asked him to let me out, I would walk from here. He drove into a side street. The whole trip cost about 4 Euro.

Finally I could do a bit of walking. Very imposing looking tower. From there I went the nest street south - it would lead straight to the (closed) park. But as I was walking, I noticed a very interesting little side street, under a gated entry. I hesitated a little - the street was narrow, with old small buildings at the sides. Wouldn't it be dangerous? Well, there were so many people walking, and they actually looked like they were just enjoying the walk. So I decided to go into this street and see where it would lead.

Small old buildings, Chinese pagoda-style roofs, some facades painted colorful. Many little stores. Some central-European-looking tourists, they looked familiar, maybe from the HCI conference? As I walk deeper and deeper into the quarter, the street becomes narrower. A very strange stench at one of the intersections. Then crossing a bridge over a canal - and there is a whole lake! This is the Quian Hai. Many restaurants are along its bank, and people walk back and forth, looking for a good deal on food. Looks quite delicious! But I am not hungry, and I would prefer to eat in a company with others. So I walk on, until the south end of the lake, at the road Di'An Men Xi Dajie. Then I return on the other bank of the lake, completely going around it.

Meanwhile it has gotten dark, and I just took the pictures with the last daylight. Now I would just go back with a taxi. Should be easier this time, as I have taken a sheet from the notes paper in the hotel - with its name and address on it, in Chinese letters. And it worked - I waved the first free taxi (recognisable at a little red LED display that hangs on the rear-view mirror), got in, and was back at the hotel in 15 minutes.

A nice evening excursion!



(more pictures are on Flickr (geo-tagged).

First day at HCI Conference

This HCI conference is huge. This has the advantage to be able to get in contact with many people in the field. Of course, this also has the disadvantage that one cannot attend all of the many parallel sessions. There are usually 24 parallel sessions - full of interesting talks. I guess, I will have to study the DVD with all the papers later, to get the most out of this conference. Unfortunately I did not bring a DVD reader with me - is not built-in in my light laptop. The morning sessions included topics of interfaces, AR/VR, human-robot interaction, and many other related issues or ergonomics and human factors.

There were also several exhibitors: Tobii showed their eye tracker, a few companies showed some demos of automatic interaction through face tracking, and several publishers displayed their current program. In the foyer there were 370 posters - some of the poster wall, howerver, were empty, due to the presenters not being present.

One of the afternoon sessions was chaired by my friend Marc Fabri, about "Emotions in HCI". Interesting perspectives and investigations. Also Marc himself gave a talk about his PhD work on emotional avatars. One software glitch: the laptop just displayed the avatar head - no GUI of the messenger app showed up. Looked still quite nice, these two heads just nodding around on the desktop - there must be an application for this!

The last session this day was chaired by Prof. Andreas Holzinger, about Future Interfaces in Technology-Enhanced Learning. Quite a relevant topic, also considering our Leeds Met focus on eLearning. I gave there the 2nd talk: it had actually been prepared by my student Johannes Christian, but he was unable to attend the conference. The session went well, everybody kept their 15 min time - Andreas made sure that the session ended in time, as he had to go on to a board meeting right after the session.

Opening of the HCI 2007 International Conference

On Tuesday evening the 2007 HCI International Conference opened with a keynote session, chaired by Michael Smith. After a welcome address by the President of Tsinghua University and by the HCI chair Prof. Constantine Stephanidis, who advertised the 2009 HCI conference in San Diego, the keynote speaker Prof. Takeo Kanade from CMU in Pittsburgh gave his keynote speech. I knew him since the mid 1990s from his work on robotics, as I once visited CMU in 1995 when I still wa working on autonomous road vehicle systems. He talked about several of the projects he was involved in, ranging from "Matrix"-style image capture for sports (EyeVision, for CBS Superbowl) to motion capture and ergonomics studies. His latest interest is in "Quality of Life Technologies" for elderly and disabled.
His talk was followed by a brief overview over the HCI activities by Microsoft Research Asia, given by Jian Wang, head of the MS Research Asia lab in Beijing.

After that, Chinese artists performed dances with lion and dragon costumes, and the audience could eat at a buffet dinner.





The music there was quite loud at times, which made it difficult to conduct a conversation. Nevertheless I met a couple of colleagues, among them Marc who had arrived a few days earlier and had already seen some of the great sights of Beijing. I also met Prof. Holzinger, the chair of the FUITEL session where I would give the first talk (which is actually the talk of my student, Johannes Christian - he did all the work and prepared the vugraphs, so I should give him credit here!).

Later in the evening I did more work on the presentations. Should have done this before travelling... but there had been not much time these past weeks.