SBS PopAsia - Our 1000 song analysis

SBS PopAsia is a program on internet radio and TV that we have become obsessed with. We love the cultural difference of the music, the boppyness of the tunes, and the ability to get some crazy songs.

So yes, THANKYOU SBS POPASIA!

As a result, we decided to undertake a statistical analysis of 1000 songs played on the internet radio station from 17 Feb 2013 to 1 Mar 2013, to see how it worked. We found some things out:

1. SBS PopAsia? Nup, it's SBS PopKorea




Wow do they like K-POP! (We've defined K-POP as any pop by Korean artists) J-POP just edged out C-POP into second, in the latest round of the Diaoyu/Senkaku battle.

But very limited pop from anywhere else! Can we have some more variety, SBS Pop Asia? Or at least some more C-POP and J-POP?

2. It's surprising what's played most..

 
Not Humanoids, I Got A Boy, Break Down or Furisodeshon. Well done to CN Blue! If the survey had started one week later, Gong Gong would surely have won.





3. It's not surprising which singers/groups are played most

So if we were to tell you that K-POP was three-quarters of the songs played, and then asked you to pick which two groups were played the most, what would you say?



Correct! This also shows how reliant J-POP was on Kyary for their plays. How about some more Perfume?

4. They do play a large number of songs.



164 different songs were played, 46 of which were only played once. Some of the more regular songs did seem a little over-played though. Seven songs were played on average every three hours (or more often), which was a bit wearing after a while!

5. Songs come and go



It's interesting watching that some songs like I'm Sorry can keep their popularity throughout the month. Tried to Walk lost their popularity over the period. Crayon had been out for a while, starting slowly in the charts before regaining its popularity!

Exploring in OZ: NSW South Coast

This past weekend saw the celebration of Australia Day – Australia's main national holiday. One of the great things about Australia is that a holiday means a public holiday, even if the day itself falls on the weekend. Andrew and I have been exploring the greater Sydney area over short trips so this seemed like the perfect chance for another part!

For this trip we took the train a couple hours south to the South Coast. We stayed in Wollongong but travelled to several places from Kiama in the south up to Thirroul.

We started our trip with Nan Tien Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere.

Nan Tien Temple was lovely and peaceful – despite the many tourists. It is located in Unanderra, just south of Wollongong. They have a huge tract of land with various rooms of worship, a little museum/shop, living quarters, a pagoda, ponds, and some pretty hills. They also do a very solid Chinese vegetarian lunch. We would recommend this as an interesting and pleasant stop for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

We also went swimming the evening of our first day. This turned out to be a very wise choice as rough weather would prevent us from swimming again this trip!

The second day we headed off to the Wollongong lighthouses. The lighthouses were nice and their point had a nice view of the waves.

We also went to the Wollongong Science Centre & Planetarium. It seems that a lot of people visit hands-on science centers only when they are children or when they have their own children, and I think that they are missing out. Science centers can be fun and interesting for everyone! Our favorite part was the planetarium show. We also liked seeing a births and deaths map of the world and playing with a big Soma Cube set.

Our third day had continual rain and rough seas, which was perfect for our trip to the star attraction: the Kiama Blowhole! The Kiama Blowhole is a naturally-formed hole in rock by the shoreline that means when a wave is big enough the water is propelled up and out:

The weather was miserable but it was a great sight! Afterward we warmed up with some sandwiches and hot chocolate before dripping our way back to Wollongong.

We checked out the local culture with dinner at the Steelers (local rugby league team) Club. Their Chinese restaurant was great and we had a spicy 铁板牛肉!

On our final day the rain finally broke and we could walk outside without getting soaked! The surf was still too rough for swimming, but we had fun walking along the beaches and seeing what the big waves had done. We had a great time and did not let the rain get in our way!

Australian animals in the wild (of the ACT)

Last weekend, we took up Reece and Amy's kind offer and went and spent the weekend down in Canberra.  When they asked us what we wanted to do on the weekend, there were two things on our mind.

"Molly really wants to see Australian animals in the wild"

Sure! There's definitely emus around..

and there's plenty of black swans on the lake..

if we are really lucky we'll see a platypus.

(You could see it better in person, but its right on the other side of the lake, slightly right of centre)

We'll have to watch out for snakes..

(Brown snake - 2nd most venomous land snake)

but what is really amazing is seeing kangaroos hopping through the bush.

"That was great fun, thanks. How about we play some games like in the old Beijing times?"

Sure!

Amy starred on the darts, but Reece had an awesome moment, racking up a PB with 3 triple-19's - 171.

Amy mid-throw at Molkky.

Thanks for a great weekend Reece, Amy, and Maddy!

Wine tasting party

To celebrate our one year anniversary, Molldrew decided to hold a blind wine tasting, an idea borrowed from our friends in the Agriculture Department at the Australian Embassy. Everyone was asked to bring a bottle of wine. We then covered up the names of the wines and went around tasting them!

The evening was great fun, aided by our friends bringing along a diverse selection of wines. It was great chatting with friends and acting like we were wine experts!

The results were:

In the red wines category:

1. #20 Smithbrook Pemberton (AUS) - Cab Sav 2008 (Average Rating: 2.67 out of 5)
2. #14 Pirramimma (AUS) – McLaren Vale Petit Verdot Vintage 2008 (2.58)
3. #12 Trapiche Varietals (ARG) – Malbec 2010 (2.27)
4. #8 Windy Peak (AUS) - Pinot Noir 2011 (2.17)
5. #17 Georges Dubduef (FRA) – Merlot Pays D'oc 2009 (1.73)
6. #11 Chateau Mrjosse (FRA) – Bordeaux (1.36)

The French reds took a pounding. And the top rating red was provided by... surprise, surprise, Anita!

In the white wines category:

1. #15 Fiorella (AUS) - Moscato 2011 (3.88)
2. #16 Lindemans (AUS) - Porphyry Blanc (3.43)
3. #6 Arrogant Frog (FRA) - Sav Blanc 2011 (2.83)
4. #9 British American Tobacco (ANZ) – Pinoy Chardonnay 2009 (2.70)
5. #2 Stoneleigh (NZ) – Sav Blanc 2011 (2.63)
6. #21 Olvine (AUS) - Little Wine Company - Viognier 2006 (2.14)

Nice to see the French make a good recovery there! However, if you want to keep most people happy, choose Moscato.

In the other wines category:

1. #3 Fresita (CHI) – Sparkling wine with handpicked Strawberries (3.27)
2. #1 Stone's (AUS) Original Green Ginger Wine (3.12)
3. #13 Golden Drop Mango Wine (AUS) - Sweet (2.50)
4. #5 Golden Drop Mango Wine (AUS) - Medium (2.31)
5. #7 Egervin (HUN) - Debroi Harslevelu – Med Sweet white (1.28)

The Fresita was a crowd favourite. It was the only wine fully consumed on the night.

The Green Ginger Wine was a nice pick by Catherine, as it was the most divisive wine of the night. Most people either loved the ginger flavour (and gave it 5 stars), or hated it (and gave it practically nothing).

The big disappointment of the evening was the Hungarian wine, the notorious #7. Hungarian wines stormed the Australian Embassy wine tasting, but this one really didn't make the grade.

In the others category:

#4 Wildbrumby Schnapps - Pink Lady Apple Liqueur (3.91)

Very tasty and a nice way to end the night.

Which then led us to an interesting question.. Did people like more expensive wines? To this we turned to statistics..

It seems that spending more money on wines did not have much of an effect on the average person's enjoyment. Our group seemed to prefer the cheaper white wines to the more expensive red ones.

Thanks everyone for coming, it was a really great time!

China’s housing bubble: moving towards logic

It begins as it always does. With someone getting a little extra money.

So they think, what do they do with it?

Well in China, they could put it in the bank, but interest rates are lower than inflation.

They could put it in the stock market, but the only people who make money there are insider traders.

Sending it overseas to invest is difficult to say the least, due to China’s control of the capital account.

Well, it would be nice to upgrade to a better apartment they say, so they decide to buy a new house to live in.

Marvellous! So they buy a house, and their similarly rich friends also buy houses. Suddenly house prices are rising and the market is looking good.

And China's rapidly growing economy means people are making more money! But what should they do with that?

How about investing in property? Don’t worry about renting it out, rents are low, and renters will just spoil the place. Buy property and hold onto it purely for price gain.

Well prices are still rising, and there’s a great apartment deal across town. Luxury apartments (expensive, but high returns expected), 20 minutes from town, right next to the subway station. It looks a steal. They buy in.

It is a steal. Prices keep rising and they quickly amass a fortune.

Up and coming families then get jealous of others' wealth. The luxury apartments 20 minutes from town are very expensive now, but there’s some nice ones 40 minutes from town, a 20 minute bus ride to the subway.

So they pool their money together, take out a loan for the other 50% of the property value and buy in.

And they make money too! The loan is quickly paid off, and the family is rejoicing in riches.

People are making more and more money. And there are still no good investment options other than property.

So they keep pouring more money into luxury apartments. They take out a 50% loan and buy a luxury apartment where? Oh who cares where! They all make money. Some even buy properties in the middle of the desert... (http://molldrew.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/lost-city-of-ordos.html)

Ordos, housing for 1.5 million people, Population: not that many

And so, China builds a property bubble where the richest buy luxury apartments built purely for capital gain.

So the bubble continues on and on. But what happens if the dream ends? What happens if people start getting scared that luxury property prices are going to fall?

Well that's where we are now. The central government saw the bubble emerging and instigated a slowdown. This pricked the confidence of the housing market. And the impacts are noticeable, with the Real Estate Climate Index in China now at a lower level than during the Global Financial Crisis.

But is this a bad thing? Well strangely enough, probably not.

For starters, this housing downturn is unlikely to trigger a financial collapse like the US one did. Most housing loans are only for 50% of the house value, so house prices would need to drop at least 50% for most buyers to be tempted to default on the loan. This would only occur in the worst type cases.

Some developers will likely go bankrupt and owe banks money. But, with China's big 5 banks making combined profits of around US$100 billion over the past year, they can afford to lose out on some loans.

The advantage of the downturn is that it helps people think logically. A downturn reminds investors that they can lose money on housing. This will make people think less about luxury apartments and more about what to invest in to make a solid return in the future.

So, do good housing projects still exist?

Yes. The interesting thing about this housing bubble is that there is still strong demand for Chinese housing, as this recent paper by the Reserve Bank of Australia ascertains. (http://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2012/pdf/rdp2012-04.pdf) However, demand is coming from middle-income families who want a house to live in. These people can't afford the already-built luxury apartments, but are interested in smaller, cheaper apartments with reasonable access to utilities.

Previously developers shunned middle-income housing because it didn't make the same profits as the luxury apartment bubble. However, with profits in luxury apartments disappearing, their best source of revenue will become medium-cost housing.

So strangely, by aligning what developers build with where the owner-occupier demand is, this housing slowdown could be the best thing that could have happened in China.

Disclaimer: This blog reflects my personal views and does not reflect those of any organisation I am associated with.

Exploring in Oz: Southern Highlands

Molly and I first met through our mutual interest in exploring Beijing. As we have detailed in previous blog posts, we would like nothing more than going out to the middle of nowhere in Beijing and seeing what was there.

Such trips were a wonderful way to get away from it all, and to get a good feel for where we lived. So when we came to Australia, we thought, why not try to keep up a similar exploring spirit here?

So far we've been urban exploring (more on that at another time), and hosted a Sydney version of the Amazing Adventure Race.

What we are trying to do now is to explore more of New South Wales on short trips. This is an account of our trip to the Southern Highlands.

Map showing location of Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains (Blue Mountains to be discussed in later post)

Getting to the Southern Highlands by public transport is a surreal experience. They haven't electrified the rail line, so from Campbelltown onwards you catch a diesel single-decker train.

The journey down was gorgeous as the wattle trees were in full bloom. I wasn't aware how common wattle trees are in the Southern Highlands until this journey but they are dotted all along the train line.

Our first stop-off point was the quaint town of Bowral.  Bowral is famous for its historic buildings, cafes and its cricket museum.

The town was cosy and sitting in cafes was a lovely way to wind away a few hours.

The cricket museum was full of historical facts and some fun exhibits..

Trying out a cricket training technique used by Australia's best batsman. 

A few more interactive exhibits would definitely add to the museum.  I would love to see a bowling machine so you can face cricket balls sent down at the same pace as the bowling greats.

After the museum, we climbed the nearest hill to get a look at the town. The small country town setting really stood out from up above.

On the Sunday we went up to Trainworks, the Rail Transport Museum in Thirlmere.  Amusingly the rail museum is not at an active train station (We had to walk 3.5km from Tahmoor train station to get there). Trains now use a alternate track that is less hilly.

As we went on a Sunday we were able to take a 50 minute steam train ride, which was good fun!

The museum was very interesting. A wide variety of trains and train maps..

Sydneysiders, what's going on with the yellow line? All those extra stations!

The most interesting fact we learned was that steam engines rarely shut down between trips.  If turned off, steam engines will need several hours to 'boot up' to be ready.

Definitely worth a look, and overall it was a great weekend away!

Favourite cheapish hotels in China

This is a rough guide of our favourite hotels from our travels around China.

Firstly I should start with we are not that picky. We like hotels that are cheap, clean, well located, and have easy internet access. Anything else is a bonus.

We have only included hotels we liked. If we thought they were okay, we left them out, thinking you would be better off trying a random one on CTRIP or ELONG.

Take our advice as trying to help, but at your own risk.

Beijing

Home Inn Dongzhimen

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/beijing-hotel-detail-15701/home-inn-dongzhimen

Location, location, location. Right next to major subway station, bus terminals (to the Great Wall etc). Sanlitun and some tasty restaurants (our Sanlitun food guide) are just a walk away.

Chengde, Hebei

Bifeng Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/chengde-hotel-detail-26028/bifeng-hotel-chengde-city

Short walk to the glorious Chengde Mountain Resort, our room had mirrors on the ceilings. Tip: Don’t be late with your time of arrival. We were 30 mins late and the receptionist seriously considered cancelling our booking! Note: the entrance is around the side/back from where you would expect.

Chengdu, Sichuan

Home Inn People’s Park

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/chengdu-hotel-detail-25389/home-inn-people-park-branch

Next to the charming People’s Park that is lovely for a sit-down for a pot of Sichuanese tea. The café in the hotel does a good beef noodles.

Dongsheng, Inner Mongolia

Hongye Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/ordos-hotel-detail-67559/hongye-hotel

A great stop-off point for viewing the wonders of Ordos.  The hotel has close bus connections to Ordos, and if you walk east, you can find the heart of the city, with charming restaurants and a big public square.

Guangzhou, Guangdong

Guang Dong Bai Yun City Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/guangzhou-hotel-map-21179/guangdong-baiyun-city-hotel

A little noisy next to the train station, but near the wonderful Yuexiu Park, which I can walk around for days.

Hong Kong

Silka West Kowloon

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/hong-kong-hotel-detail-22613/silka-west-kowloon-hotel

If you want a step up from Chungking Mansions, this is the place. Cheap (for HK), close to the subway, and a moderate walk to sites including the Temple Street Night Markets. Great breakfast.

Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan

Youu Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/jiuzhaigou-hotel-detail-76483/youu-hotel

This quirky hotel/hostel is pretty, with interesting furnishings, friendly English speaking staff. Short taxi ride to Jiuzhaigou.

Kashgar, Xinjiang

Seman Hotel

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1152622-d505759-Reviews-Seman_Hotel-Kashi_Xinjiang_Uygur.html

This oddly named hotel has some great qualities. Nicely located, a wonderful restaurant with healthy safe-to-eat food, and they organise trips to the Himalayas and bordering countries.

HOWEVER, nearby is a Pakistani restaurant that is recommended in some guidebooks. As seasoned Chinese travellers, we went there, had the meat dish and were VIOLENTLY ill for 2-3 days, and remained sick for a week.

Qingdao, Shandong

Starway Hotel Qingdao Beer Museum

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/qingdao-hotel-detail-44002/starway-hotel-qingdao-beer-street

Well located for the Beer Museum, an extensive street market and vendors who will happily sell you beer in a bag, this hotel is cheap and has great service.

Sanya, Hainan

Huaxin Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/sanya-hotel-detail-46323/huaxin-hotel

5 minute walk to beach, fresh fruit in the room each day. Yum! Note: Staff very inexperienced about registering foreigners to stay.

Shanghai

Starway Jiaxin Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/shanghai-hotel-detail-43903/starway-jiaxin-hotel-shanghai

This isn’t a hotel for someone who wants to be in the centre of Shanghai. It is about 15 minutes from the centre, right next to two train lines. What I particularly like about this hotel is its surroundings. Walking around nearby will take you to a wide variety of restaurants. (Fast food close by, Chinese different cuisine if you go further) Avoid hotel breakfast.

Turpan, Xinjiang

Name unknown

Go to the Turpan bus station, and on Lao Cheng Xi Lu go west 100 metres. The hotel is on the north side of the street, roughly opposite the market entrance.

Good air conditioning (a must for Turpan’s 45C summer), cheap (RMB150/night for 2 rooms shared by 5 people), and well located opposite the main markets.

Xiamen, Fujian

Gulang Villa Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/xiamen-hotel-detail-2337/gulang-villa-hotel

Relatively expensive yes, but Gulang Villa Hotel is located on an island with a lovely European village-feel. Surrounded by fish restaurants, it is a great place to get away from people (in winter at least, it’s probably packed in summer!)

Yangshuo, Guangxi

Yangshuo Regency Holiday Hotel

http://hotels.english.ctrip.com/yangshuo-hotel-detail-19950/yangshuo-regency-holiday-hotel

Well located, stunning views out your window and a solid breakfast.