The last regular meeting of the previous Beijing Macintosh User Group was in late 2008. The beimac circle has met in autumn 2011. Owing to major changes in the Chinese Apple (Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad) world, new directions are being charted for beimac circle. Initial plans are to redevelop it as a Beijing-based international Apple product user community, with plans to first serve an international audience, based both overseas and in China, and then to build it back into the local Apple environment.

The policies of beimac circle has remained largely the same as the groups that preceded it. We are interested in helping Apple grow healthily in Greater China, and we are also interested in linking Apple product users in China. Specific information about the further course of the development of beimac circle will follow before the end of this month. There are plans for an online meeting later this month.

Rest assured — our next meeting at the beimac circle is very soon!

The Beijingology Site Network will be merged into the new Tracking China web site with effect from noon (Beijing time) on 18 May 2012. Information about roads and freeways / expressways will be suspended or be updated at a later date, while information about Metros / Subways, trains and high speed rail will be kept. All information will be totally updated.

This notice also serves notification to City Weekend that David Feng does not intend to challenge the use of the Beijingology names in the City Weekend magazines. From David Feng, there is no intention of initiating or proceeding with disputes or name re-ownership procedures. The name Beijingology remains a neutral name, its name being first used on a large scale by David Feng, and has been since used by City Weekend. This fact will not be challenged by the user of the Beijingology name, David Feng.

At Tracking China, we will be happy to welcome all users to the new Beijing Subway line-by-line web pages, which will begin service at the same time (noon, Beijing time, on 18 May 2012). Thank you for trusting the Beijingology Site Network. We will be happy to continue serving you at Tracking China.

1. Preconditions

• No content shall be contrary to the regulation of the “Seven Noes”; this applies, in particular, with regard to content which is in favour of, or condones, smoking, intoxication, drugs, gambling, pornography, infidelity and treason, as well as content endangering family security, family relations, family fidelity, or any immoral, illegal or criminal content.
• No content shall endanger political or religious neutrality. No content may be posted, or activities be partaken, where that content or activity has strong political or religious connotations. No content may endanger political neutrality or non-participation, or show a significant stances which shall endanger political neutrality.
• No content shall be in violation of the national constitution, laws, regulations, or other legal instruments. No content posted may be illegal or criminal.

2. Internet Information Services and Presences Permitted for Service Resumption

• www.davidfeng.me
• www.trackingchina.com
• www.dearpassengers.com
• www.jionglish.com
• Personal accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Sina Weibo

Other items are as follows:—

3. Communications Duty

One-to-one communications or one-to-many communications with a designated and authorized audience must be responded to within 24 hours (72 hours on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; 96 hours in the case of illness) for electronic correspondence; or 72 hours (1 week in the case of illness) for postal correspondence.

4. Personal Career Publication Duty

It is hereby declared that main personal career involvements will, in future, be mainly composed out of railways, language and cultural involvements.

5. Other Items

• This announcement has been posted in the English and Chinese languages. In the case of discrepancies, the English version shall prevail.
• This announcement will be posted on www.davidfeng.me as well as personal presences on Twitter, Facebook, and Sina Weibo.

As declared by
David Feng
in Beijing
on the 1st Day of May, 2012

一、前提

* 各言行須遵循「七禁令」，即不准發表讚揚或容許吸煙、酗酒、吸毒、賭博、色情、叛逆，及危害家庭安全及從事不忠不孝等行為與各不道德違法犯罪言行。
* 各言行須保障政治與宗教中立，不得發表或參與政治或宗教濃度較厚之任何安排，不得有不當之所謂「左」或「右」之主張或任何危及政治中立和政治不參與之內容。
* 各言行須於當地國憲、法律、法例等範圍內進行，不得發表違法犯罪內容。

二、准予恢復之站點

* www.davidfeng.me
* www.trackingchina.com
* www.dearpassengers.com
* www.jionglish.com
* 本人於 Twitter、Facebook、新浪微博之帳戶

其它事務如下:—

三、通訊恢復義務

凡個人一對一或有限一對眾且本人為合法收信人之通訊，電子訊息應於收信 24 小時內（週六、週日及假日為 72 小時內，因病 96 小時內），普通信件應於 72 小時內（因病 1 週內）回信。

四、事業發展方面公告義務

本人今後主要發展事業包括鐵路旅行事業以及語言文化事業。

五、其它事務

* 本公告以英文與中文發佈，並以英文內容為準。
* 本公告應於 www.davidfeng.me 及本人於 Twitter、Facebook、新浪微博之帳戶發佈。

聲明人：馮琰
2012 年 5 月 1 日於中國北京

For the full two hours (which is quite a bit when you think about it), our live show will go through the amazing stories of my 120,000+ km of train travel, 2,200+ Chinglish shots, as well as my travels in nearly 20 countries and territories. I’ll also do a bit of “multilingualism” over the airwaves.

You can listen in online on at Top FM 101.8 — either in Beijing at FM 101.8 or over the online airwaves. It marks my first “real” debut on CNR — I’ve already been interviewed separately at the recent HSR travel conference in Beijing.

We’d love to have your company!

在現場直播的兩個小時當中，我們會把我的 12 萬多公里的旅行故事，2,200 多張中式英文，在將近 20 國家和地區的旅行，以及 10 門語言作為節目的多樣故事。

FM 101.8 歡迎在北京直接使用收音機直接收聽，亦可以於國際網路站點線上收聽。此次為我本次參加中央人民廣播電台之現場節目，此前我曾於北京高鐵旅行大會接受同台採訪。

歡迎大家及時聆聽!

They are getting rid of people who are just a mere inch outside of the policies a certain “central organisation” (as they say here) subscribe to. If they’re not getting rid of these people, they are at least making their lives hell. They are firing people who invite the president over and guarantee that everything is doing great. And they are stripping people of their ranks who have tried (with all measures, sane and insane) to fight “bad people” in the big cities.

And then I wondered:
All the censoring… and demoting… and firing… and stuff like that:
Why with all this negativity?
What is with all this negativity?

I remind myself of things I’ve read. Which, in random bullet form, appear like this:

• Be confident. Don’t repress people because otherwise you’d appear anything but confident. Censorship is a giveaway that you’re not self-confident. Believe in yourself (but don’t be arrogant either!).
• Aesop’s Fables… Be like the sun. Get the guy to take off his jacket because you’re accommodating. The wind may be tempting — as in, an attempt to get people to harken to your line using brute force may be tempting. But it isn’t… it did not work with Aesop…
• Lotay Yang. We met in Beijing and Shanghai — my wife Tracy co-hosted Lotay along with me. It was hard to fit a negative adjective to Lotay because he’s not deserving of that, and it doesn’t come with him. I don’t think I had a moment which I felt down. Humans are not gods, but there are humans who, when you’re with them, inspire you to do things you thought you couldn’t really pull off. Lotay’s one of these fine folks. (I’m posting this straight from the bottom of my heart — in China, you might do this to please someone whom you then strike a big, fat biz deal with — but the way I think is Swiss, and in the Western world, you speak your mind, free from other considerations — as long as they’re not evil!)

Lotay tweets a lot. I have a hard time keeping up, but in the brief moments I do catch up electronically with him, I have been inspired by his positiveness. I have then asked myself questions. Questions like:-

• When one of these crazy Beijing drivers gets the better of you, do you bang into him (even hit him or kill him), or take down his license number, or just — let it be?
• If someone wants you to retweet something, will you not do it just because you have (or you think you have) bad blood with just one person that’s mentioned?
• Do you treat people the same — but to such extremes of “equality” that when you are mad at people, you are as “equally belligerent” to a farmer as you are to the president of a nation?
• Have you ever been treated so bad that you feel like creating a “sh#t list” of people and then record every single mishap they have done to you?
• Do you coerce people?… or do you talk them into doing things without making them feel bad?
• When you get your train tickets at the Beijing South Railway Station, do you kindly request (with a smile) a countryside guy (probably from the poorer interiors of China) to stand in queue — or do you “come down upon him” like the operator of one of those tanks in the square?
• When the railways start running slower, do you call the present minister an SOB or do you find ways to ameliorate the situation?

I’m hoping that I’ll answer my questions I just posed in a more positive manner from today onwards. Of course, I have been inspired by many positive people. My wife is one. Lotay is another. I think there are a lot of people that can make it to the list.

I’m not expecting 100% miracles, but as long as I have a resolve to be “less of a prick” (as one of my classmates in my teenage years would say), I think I’m a bit closer to being on the right track… I don’t consider today an “epiphany”: more a case of: OK, I’ve gotten my thoughts together — now less of the old and more of the new.

Of course, there are a few principles I’m keeping to:

• To “piss less people off” (if you must say it this way), I’m remaining neutral politically and religiously. I have never belonged to any political organisations in China, Switzerland or anywhere and I’d love to keep it this way. In the same vein, I don’t subscribe to religious convictions but as long as a religion is accepted as right and proper, they’ll be afforded respect my end.
• My stance against intoxication, tobacco, gambling, drugs, porn, infidelity and the endangering of families remain. I personally believe that these aren’t for me and for my family. As she is part of the family (of course!), the wife subscribes to the same. However, my friends are on more lenient terms. I’ve friends who drink and smoke, or goes to casinoes, and that’s OK — as long as my family isn’t dragged into this. (I don’t unfriend or unfollow people online just because they did a post on, for example, alcohol or gambling.) Still, I prefer to keep my distance away from those of less good character, and it is of course certain that I won’t count drug traffickers, criminals, or porn stars amongst my circle of friends. Everyone has their own principles and I think we ought to respect that.
• Finally, a solid principle of my career is that everything I do must be to the benefit of society at large. It won’t be a sin for me to get rich, of course, but I can’t live in a luxury castle while not caring about poor kids in, say, sub-Saharan Africa. That’s just not me. I don’t live to get rich or famous, but when one or both happens, I share the goodness — I don’t huddle all those microphones together, so to speak, and by no means egoistically — but I hand them out to people with legitimate needs to get better.

The problem: The whole system.

As of late, the world’s largest “migration” of sorts — the Spring Travel Peak Travel Season — is in full swing. Thankfully, photo ID is required to get a ticket. This means that those with legitimate needs can get around with a valid ticket. High speed rail has been doing exceptionally well this year, helping get riders to destinations faster and packing in far more riders than regular rail.

Apple needs a similar “real ID” system for at least select new products such as the iPhone. It needs to set up a blacklist (similar to that at the railways) of scalpers, and deny iPhones to them. It needs to give iPhones out to end users, not scalpers. Only a “real ID” system would work here.

The police must be harsher still as well. In a capital where social stability is of paramount importance — indeed, the capital of the world’s most populous country and the second largest economy worldwide. The legislature would do well to enact anti-scalping acts to put the scalpers out of business. On wider topics, we need to make it economically better in such a way that scalpers find that their “biz” just won’t work any more.

We can’t stand here doing nothing. Apple and the whole system, so to speak, have a job on their hands. As the founder of the beimac circle community, and one of the major leaders there, we have to put the interests of the user base at the top.

但是無論自己持有何種證件，我依然非常明確，我就是華人，也就是說我就是龍的傳人，炎黃子孫。認同自己是中國人，是自己要做的第一件事。自己持有瑞士的身份並不和做中國人衝突；中國人相當看好瑞士的巧克力、雪山、軍刀、手錶、列車等。

三句不離本行啊：列車就是這裡的連接點。作為從京津城際鐵路開通以來鐵路旅客列車里程就要破五萬公里的我，不能再傻乎乎「為坐車而坐車」了，必須結合自己自身的優勢，為民眾辦點大好實事。近年來，重點外媒如英國廣播公司（BBC）、CNN 等，先後就中國、北京和交通等對我進行了深度採訪與合作。五萬公里的里程不能只留給自己「炫耀」著用。「為人民服務」雖然說的大一點，但是歸根到底使用自己最熟悉的外語，為外賓解決「交通難」、「溝通難」，絕對是我能做，也是樂於做，的一件事情。

外賓需要翻譯，而更需要的就是關於中國的最真實的故事；外賓想知道那趟列車從哪個車站、哪個站臺出發；更想知道一條高鐵線沿線的城市及其故事。我會在我「三十而立」之年，以我外語和旅外生活經驗，結合自己對鐵路和旅遊、文化的興趣，把交通旅客信息和文化旅遊故事作為我的主要事業，為國人辦點實事，解決「中國沒有專門資深鐵路和地鐵旅行網站」這個「老大難」問題，並作為中國人，為外賓介紹中國旅遊的精粹。我堅信，我一個人的堅定不移的力量會改善中國的外賓溝通難這個問題，也會讓外賓「如魚得水」地「轉悠」整個大中國。

這種為民眾服務不是我這幾年才想到的什麼「新事物」，早在十五歲我就是在國外的國際學校無條件、無償幫助老師們、學生們，整理教師等。我不是世界上任何政治團體的成員，也不信奉什麼宗教或者什麼主義等等；我願意幫助人的原因純在於我本人天生個性。我堅信，自己絕對能做好自己幫助外賓的事業，絕對能將中國的高鐵旅行信息和文武故事傳遞給全球。我有一個任務，那就是充分利用自己的外語優勢，幫助國人解決外賓的「溝通難」。

I’m starting the year with a little bit of Chinglish here — ”Set Up the Environment For Continue Really Grasp Solid F***” is 創造環境，真抓實幹 — or basically, “Enter Work Mode”. The new year will start on a high speed note for me as I board Train G41 to Langfang, where I’ll get my first Starbucks tea fix in Langfang. That’s how I do work: with a bit of tea, trains (no planes, at least not for Chinese domestic travel), and a lot of work — to get crackin’ with. Here’s what I have in terms of my plans for the new year:

• A great majority of my work this year will be to get stuff regarding trains up to speed. I am looking ahead to my 50,000th kilometre by rail around Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), which is my excuse for my first e-book debut, where I will take travellers around 50 major Chinese train stations and their cities they’re in. I will remain in the Metro and Subway worlds as well because this has been what I started keeping track of five years ago. I will also launch the Dear Passengers international travel community, which will at first be an online community in English for international travellers on Chinese railways.
• I will continue to be involved in the tech world. The new beimac circle group will continue and will be ready for a full relaunch on 02 March 2012.
• My Chinglish involvement remains unchanged as well. I’ve around 2,200 pics to start the year already. I’m guessing there’s a healthy majority I still yet have to chronicle.

Finally, I’m also giving the family more time this year, and I will remain active online. Some of my more “dormant” commitments, such as Quora, LinkedIn and RenRen (China) will see a fair bit more activity this year. Personally, I also aim to be more responsive when it comes to email, and more importantly, I’ll take days off this year on a regular basis to exercise. I’ll dump the laptops at home and rely on my iPhones and maybe an iPad as well.

I don’t know if this is the kind of thing I’m allowed to say in a year where “the world is supposed to end”. Me, personally, I don’t buy that. Not if at least the Hong Kong part of the Beijing-Hong Kong HSR opens late 2015…

Have a great new year!