1. 决定价位​

第一个决定，是购买万元以上的车还是万元以下的车。万元以上的车，大的品牌也就是 10-15 个，都是国际品牌（欧美，台湾），基本都是碳纤维的车架。万元以下的车，国内品牌甚至互联网上的品牌就很多了，用的材料铝合金比较多。

我建议第一辆车的价格在 1-3 万元之间，先培养骑行习惯和兴趣，慢慢再升级。

公路车圈子里有个说法，一个男人需要的自行车的数量 = N - 1 。N 等于家里的自行车多到老婆要跟你离婚的数量。我现在仍然只有两辆车，全家和谐。

我的公路车，是闪电 Specialized 的 Aethos Composite，是一辆性能比较均衡的车，据说适合爬坡。但对我来说，其实主要还是骑平路，环湖，环城比较多。这辆车可以参加大环赛，但我也不会去参加骑行比赛，就是跟朋友们相约骑车而已。

这辆车的特点，是它的贝壳色 - 有点淡淡的樱花粉，但又不是粉得辣眼，有点乳白，甚至有点淡紫，我一见入魂。

2. 选择公路车的种类​

决定了价位后，下一步要想清楚买什么种类的公路车。有几类车，属于高阶玩法，建议在初级阶阶段先避开：

• TT bike (Time Trial)。这是铁人三项的用车，速度极快，逼格极高，入手极难。新手就不要考虑了。
• Gravel bike (瓜车)。有种说法，瓜车才是自行车的终点。的确很诱人，但是需要较高水平才能驾驭。瓜车可以驾驭多种路面，前叉比较宽，可以用比较粗的轮胎，有减震的设计，可以骑泥路和碎石路。可以在购买第二辆车的时候再考虑瓜车。现在公路车（万元以上）的性能非常好，从上海骑到西藏，横穿欧洲，环台湾，环海南岛，完全没有问题。
• Endurance bike。这种车在欧洲很多，因为很多人需要每天骑几十公里上下班，或者做 bikepacking （这是骑行的另外一个终极目标）。它需要装比较多的行李，车架需要更加能承重（可能需要换成钛合金），适合各种天气，而不是一味地像公路车这样追求减轻重量。但对初级车手来说，还不需要考虑这些。

3. 寻找线下公路车店​

在网上研究各种品牌，容易看花眼。最简单，最高效的方式，是找几家离家最近的公路车品牌店买车。

线下品牌店对骑行非常重要。购买的时候，现场看车，验车的体验是难以替代的。网上说得再好，线下店没有卖的，也没有意义。而且，车架的颜色也很重要，通常是店里有什么就买什么 - 这跟买车的道理一样。

开始骑行后，会经常需要去店里购买零部件，升级，维修，保养。很多线下店会组织每周的骑行活动。这些活动，会逐渐成为骑行生活里有机的一部分。店里的销售，技师，和领队，都是学习骑行，提升技能最好的老师。一家历史悠久，在骑行圈内众人皆知的线下店，是新手入圈最好的良伴。

线下店，有的是一线大品牌的专卖店，有的是服务多个品牌。有能力在全国一线城市广泛铺开线下网络的，也只有闪电 Specialized 和崔克 TREK（类似于汽车里的奥迪和BMW）。

4. 选择品牌​

这是最激动人心的环节。在万元以上的档次，高端品牌选择如下：

Specialized, TREK, BMC, Colnago, Cervelo, Pinarello, Canyon, Scott, Cannondale, Factor, Bianchi, Look, Cube.

Specialized 和 TREK 在国内拥有最广泛的基础。出去参加业余车友的骑行活动，40% 是闪电，40% 是崔克，然后是其他相对比较小众的品牌。如果不知道买什么品牌好，从闪电或者崔克入手是最容易的 - 在不同的价位都有合适你的车型。

公路车的核心技术含量都在车架。这个技术仍然是欧美领先。国内比较好的一线品牌有瑞豹和喜德盛。台湾的捷安特 Giant 很早进入大陆，但因为有很多比较入门级的车型（譬如，各大公园里可以租的自行车），所以品牌的逼格就低很多了。台湾的另一个常见的品牌是美利达 Merida，也比较经济实惠。

国内骑公路车的风气开始并不久，在疫情期间爆发了一波，现在趋于平淡和真爱。不可否认，对于很多人来说，骑行是件相当装逼的事情，大家都比较追求品牌。在凌晨五点的各大骑行俱乐部门口骑行队伍整装待发的 moment，就是一个大型装逼现场，大家互相 check out，看车架，骑行服，头盔，锁鞋，轮组，轮胎，等等。如果是闪电线下店组织的活动，绝大多数车手都是骑闪电 - 当然，很多领队也不介意其他品牌车的加入 - 正好从竞争对手里把客户抢过来。

我参加过很多次这种活动，包括全天的去江浙山区里的骑行活动。说实话，很少见到除了上述这 13 家欧美品牌以外的车。

如果只是跟朋友们一起骑行，也不需要太在乎，自己骑得开心就好。最后，骑行届也是看双腿实力的，有人如果可以把捷安特骑得虎虎生风，拉爆 Cervelo/Pinarello 的话，大家也是很佩服的。

在欧洲，骑行已经是大部分家庭生活的一部分，反而没有那么讲究品牌，什么实用就骑什么，有很多我从来没听说过的品牌。

5. 第一辆公路车需要买什么​

选择好了品牌，就开始选车了。

在万元以上这个价位，几乎默认全部都是碳纤维的车架 - 足够轻。钛合金的车很少，主要见于 endurance bike，适合长途旅行。有的商店会搭配铝合金做前叉或者后叉，来降低价格。通常，整车应该在十公斤以下。

注意这么几点：

• 直接买整车，不要零装。直接开始骑，找到感觉后再慢慢地根据自己的喜好更换零部件。
• 先不要买高性能的档次，从基础款开始。传统车里，奔驰有 AMG，奥迪有 RS。自行车里，闪电有 S-Works，崔克有 SLR。我的这俩 Aethos，如果升级为 Aethos S-Works，价格大概提升5万元。店里的销售会根据对你钱包的判断，有时直接劝你一步到位购买 S-Works/SLR 档次的车。对于新手来说，没有必要直接上10万元的公路车。
• 公路车是没有脚撑的。在店里，千万，千万，不要问“有没有脚撑”，会直接进入社死状态，被店员的白眼淹死。公路车追求越轻越好，脚撑是完全没有必要的，而且对骑行有危险。脚撑有价值的场景，是平时在城里骑行或者上下班。但这种情况，就不需要几万元的公路车了，买辆复古钢车或者 Brompton 就可以了。
• 公路车是没有车锁的。这个问题，问都不要问 - 显得你的认知太过初级。几万元的公路车，信仰的是，车在人在。不会有人把公路车锁在路边跟共享单车停在一起的。
• 显然，公路车也是没有货架的。公路车追求的是极致的速度，任何这些有实际用途但会增加重量的部件都不会出现在有自我追求的公路车身上。
• 先不用买锁鞋。锁鞋是下一步。对于新手来说，先开始骑最重要。穿戴锁鞋并不难，但是适应它有个过程。一开始没有必要给自己添加难度。

好了，买好了车，可以发朋友圈了。恭喜入坑！这个时候的你，还是骑行圈比较青涩的新人（虽然你两鬓的灰发和眼角的皱纹无情地出卖了你江湖大佬的彪悍资历），因为你跟新车的合影里还没有全套的 Rapha，或者 PNS，或者 MAAP。

没关系，我们现在开始循序渐进地升级打怪。

6. 公路车骑行升级顺序​

建议按照这个顺序来升级你的公路车技能树：

1. 没有穿锁鞋的新人在骑行俱乐部里是没有尊严的。虽然穿了锁鞋，也未必是骑行大佬。但不穿锁鞋，一定是骑行菜鸟。有规律地骑行了3-6个月之后，开始穿锁鞋是必经之路。不用担心会零速度摔跤，我从来没摔过。穿锁鞋比你想象中要容易很多。穿了锁鞋，骑行效率会提高 20-30%，速度可以提升 2-3公里/小时。除了提速，锁鞋有很多益处，可以纠正骑行姿势，可以降低打滑风险（尤其在摇车的时候）。而且，只有穿了锁鞋，才能开始做 fitting。换锁鞋，需要去店里把车的曲柄换掉。
2. 在2区心率范围内可以经常地骑40-50公里后，就可以考虑安装功率计了。要想有效地在长途骑行中，尤其是上坡下坡平路之间合理分配体力，功率计是必须的。不同的骑手体重不一样，年龄不一样，路段不一样，速度也不一样，唯一可以做公正比较的数据，就是单位时间内输出的功率（更精确的，是功率除以体重 - 功体比）。功率计比较贵，好的需要大几千甚至上万，最普通的国内品牌也是小几千元。安装功率计，得去店里找技师。
3. 穿了锁鞋，安装了功率计，有了一定的骑行经验，就应该做次 fitting 了，有专门的店提供这种服务，从几百到几千的服务都有。飞艇老师会根据你的身材，骑行体态，做出各种测量，提供专业的建议，调整车架，坐垫，脚踏的角度，斜度，高度。
4. 现在的你，均速可以骑到 28-30公里/小时，如果想再上层楼到30-35均速，则可以考虑把轮组（通常基本款都是铝制的）升级到碳刀轮组了。这是另外一个让人眼花缭乱的世界，大概需要3-5万元。

我的追求没有那么高，仅仅是到了第三阶段，止步于碳刀轮组。两年前我跟着俱乐部骑崇明岛，80公里的均速骑了28公里/小时，对我而言这个成绩足够足够好了。我现在的理想，也就只是跟老朋友们一起环个湖，圈个岛，绕座城，稳定在2区心率，偶然在3区里挑战一下短距离的爬坡，4区心率是绝对不想碰的（太累了），比赛是完全不参加的（太危险了）。

希望这个攻略可以帮助你早日加入骑行江湖，吹吹海风，听听山涛，享受户外乐趣。

选择这三天的酒店是第一个挑战。酒店需要彼此之间间隔大概 100 公里左右，周围有比较多选择的餐饮娱乐服务，而且尽可能贴着湖边。太湖周围有苏州，湖州，宜兴，无锡这四座城市。从苏州出发，第一个比较热闹好玩的景点是湖州（以著名的骨骼清奇的喜来登酒店为标志），但它离苏州只有 60 公里。下一个网红咖啡馆是 1314（“一生一世”），在湖州和宜兴之间，距离到苏州是正好 90 多公里，但它周围没什么像样的酒店，荒凉得很。我只好选择一家离太湖骑行道还有好几公里的宜兴酒店作为 Day 1 晚上的落脚处。

Day 2 的酒店肯定是在无锡了，但无锡很大，占据了太湖的整个北面，酒店的选择太多了。宜兴跟无锡之间，太湖的西北角有个马山半岛（上面有人定胜天的典范灵山圣境）。如果完全贴湖线，白描马山，会多出起码 20-30 公里。我选了在无锡东部的一家酒店，离宜兴酒店 80 公里，留下白描马山的余地，而且离太湖不远，可以很快回到环太湖道。

第三天又回到苏州，仍然是头天入住的酒店。这天的骑行距离不好规划，高德地图无法展示完全贴湖的骑行道，而且这一段会经过太湖的两个“耳朵” - 西山和东山。白描这两座山会各自添加 50-70 公里的骑行距离。我们还是量力而为，这次就不走东西二山了。

我规划路线 + 酒店需要的所有信息和数据，都来自于小红书 + 大众点评 + 高德。小红书基本上就是中国版的 Reddit，但是数据不开放，进入不了大语言模型的训练机制，很可惜。如果有 AI 工具能打通这三家的数据库，将给我节省大量时间。Deepseek 给我的建议颗粒度太粗，达不到我的要求。

所以，人类领队还是有价值的。

第二个挑战，是托运行李。我们希望做到自给自足，不要依赖很多骑行俱乐部会提供的保姆车后勤服务。有三个选择，要么我们完全走 bikepacking 路线，把三天的行李都通过车头包，车尾包，横梁包放在自行车上；要么用顺丰的同城快递服务；要么就用滴滴的接送车服务（司机把车送到下一站；我们轻装上阵骑行；行李全部放在从上海开来的 SUV 上）。

第一个选项很快就被排除了。我发现即使三个包 - 车头，车尾，横梁，全部用上也装不下秋季里三天的骑行衣服和随身行李。我们得以后买专门的带后架的长途公路车才有可能解锁 bikepacking。第二个选项似乎行不通。同城快递没有 100 公里这么长距离的，而且还是跨城。最后，还是采用滴滴接送车的服务，把三人所有的行李都放在车上，早上从酒店出发的时候约司机来把锋的 SUV 送到晚上入住的酒店。骑到了酒店再从前台拿车钥匙。滴滴司机通常希望接收方 - 酒店前台留一个手机号码，但前台通常只愿意留一个固话号码。这个问题倒也不大，滴滴这个平台的司机还是很让人放心的。我们在千岛湖骑行也是采用这个办法。事实证明，这是最稳妥效率最高的方式。

Day 1 的天气还有热，离开酒店时28度，大阴天，没太阳。出发了！

跟半年前骑行千岛湖的稚嫩状态相比，这次我们三人都进化了不少。昆的踏频稳定在 75次/分钟，有氧巡航速度慢慢提升到 25-26 公里/小时。青买了崔克自行车，直接入手真空胎，锁鞋和棒棒糖。锋的破风和跟骑的技巧已经很娴熟了。我们三人可以轮流领骑破风，保持一个紧凑的队形。

更加令人欣喜的是，这次我们的队衣几乎都小了一号。青从 3XL 缩到 2XL；昆的上身从 3XL 缩到 2XL。我们用的还是淘宝上思帕客店（Spakct）的定制服务，提前预订好秋季的长袖和长裤。Spackt 的服务不错，可以在上衣添加队名 - Team Chirus。

在外骑车，队服很重要。一个人提速追赶上前面的骑手没什么了不起，需要整个服装统一的车队用 peloton 沉稳坚毅的节奏以坦克大军碾压过境的姿态超过前面的车队，才可以把逼格拉满。

去太湖之前，说实话我对太湖的路况和景色没什么太高期望。千岛湖颜值无敌，路况上佳，绝对是长江三角区天花板。太湖名气太大，是骑行圈必须打卡之处，但很多人爆胎，而且我可以想象很多湖边美景都被没落的房地产公司垄断，有可能会骑很长的公路，未必能贴湖骑行。

但实际上，这次环太湖 300，几乎有 70-80% 都是完全贴湖骑行。太湖绿道的长度和质量超出我的预期。虽然很多绿道明显是逐渐废弃失修了，没有跑步的人，旁边也没有蓬勃发展的小区，但这些绿道对于公路车来说足够好了。没有人气小区，就没有送货的快递小哥，就没有市区里无处不在的电动小摩托，更加没有散步的小孩和老人。鲜衣怒车，不亦快哉！

我本来准备铁头一路顺着大路骑到底，多亏锋提醒一句，我们怎么没有贴着湖骑？看到苏震桃公路边有条通向湖边的泥泞小道，我们就过去探探路，来到了湖边的草梗路。这里几乎空无一人，只剩下空荡荡的太湖和杂草渐生的绿道了，非常适合放无人机。

青新买的大疆 Flip 无人机排上了用场，手忙脚乱一通操作猛如虎，Flip 开始跟着我们飞了。Flip 规避障碍物的功能有限，跟着青飞的时候，青一旦超过我，Flip 愣头愣脑地直接就撞在我背上。这个无人机攻击有点防不胜防啊。我们路过一个（违章）开过来的SUV时，虎虎生风的 Flip 差点跟车迎面撞上，司机都看呆了。

南太湖大道边常有流动的咖啡摊。我们在这里歇脚补充一下热美式。老板说他在这里摆摊已经十二年了，同时期去年的生意是现在的三倍。我问他，骑手都去哪儿了？他说，去年很多骑手来自上海，今年来自上海的车队少了很多，据说有不少人去开滴滴了。希望他的咖啡摊能继续摆下去。骑行的乐趣之一，就是可以随时停下来，看看风景，跟当地人聊聊天。这样的路边咖啡摊，我们后来还遇到了很多。

路过七都双塔，中午时分来到湖州著名景点喜来登酒店。这个酒店真是够抽象（丑）的，一个毫不遮掩的铜钱矗立在湖边，把湖边生生地割裂成一个所有人必须绕行的旅游区。一位后面追上来的孤独骑手在月亮广场饶了一圈，寂寞地在 7-11 店前开始啃面包。我们三个咂着啤酒，把头盔，锁鞋，手套都脱下来，彻底放松了一下。

过了湖州，下午沿着湖边绿道向宜兴继续骑。一个小伙子跟了我们一段，借着停车找路的时候，过来问我们有没有修车工具，他的车头把松了。

我大喜过望，马上从犀牛车尾包里拿出洛克兄弟的工具包递给他。这个防雨车尾包在四月份千岛湖骑行的大雨中立了大功。这次因为行李都是放在车里请司机送到下一站，其实未必需要它这个显眼包，但我还是带上了。在领队的自我修养里，怎么能不带上全套的修车工具呢？我的修车工具里包括一块砖头一样重的电动打气泵和所有口径的扳手。我一边骑一边琢磨，怎么还没有人爆胎呢？

现在终于排上了用场，耶！其实小伙只需要一个扳手把车头把拧紧就行，但好歹也是让我的工具包刷了一把存在感，没白带。小伙就是湖州本地人，经常在这段骑行。后来我需要打个 Zoom call，青和锋就在旁边等我，在湖边跟当地大爷聊天 - 他们对小巧敏捷的无人机很感兴趣。小伙话不多，也不急着冲到我们前面去，就在路边坐着看着夕阳逐渐坠入湖里，可能想跟我们一起骑吧。我的 call 打完，天色渐晚，他也就跟我们分手了。

秋天太阳落得早。过了 1314 咖啡馆，湖边暮色昏暗，散步的路人越来越少，渐渐地只有我们三辆车，和无数的蚊虫！青在后面大声喊问，这么多的虫子，是因为我们骑在湖边还是因为到了晚上？我说我也不知道，没在这种情况下夜骑过。虫子扑面而来，必须带上骑行墨镜，但这样又影响视力。左边长草丛生，更远处省道 230 的大卡车呼啸而过，右边是黑沉沉的太湖。我们三人没法说话，月光下咬牙猛踩。

后来终于在一个三岔口转上国道 104，开始前往宜兴酒店最后几公里的爬坡。一旦离开湖边，回到公路旁，蚊虫就完全消失了。可以从容摘下墨镜，在明晃晃的路灯下骑行。以后知道了，晚上不要在湖边骑行，景色全无，蚊虫无数。

终于骑到了宜兴的丁山国际大酒店。第一天骑了 114公里，超额完成目标。锋和青在第一天就打破了自己以前的 PB (personal best) ，各奖一个鸡腿。当地的老母鸡尺寸惊人。它每天也得踩单车么？

吃完饭去市区找了家 KTV 唱歌。现在似乎所有的 KTV 都有K米点歌，可以在微信小程序里直接点歌。也就是说，KTV 的前端千变万化，各自有获客渠道和硬件 buff 加持，但后端用的其实是都是同一套系统（“API”）。用户在不同的前端（KTV 店）里点的歌在后端（K米点歌小程序）里都可以看到。

第二天清早就开始下雨，一场硬仗开始。青和锋这次都带了防雨衣，但是没有买骑行背心。在雨中穿着骑行背心，就是妥妥骑行大佬 pro 范儿；一旦穿上雨衣，就变成老年人骑游团（是“骑游”，不是“骑行”，差别很大）了。没事，能不淋雨就好。

在爆胎事故频发的省道 230 上左转来到丁蜀太湖绿道，完美避开轰隆隆的大货车。这一段路比较荒凉，连绿道都不算，就是沿湖的沥青路，但是路况极好。我们很快就把“养生巡航 25公里”的队规抛在脑后，疯狂飙车。以紫砂壶出名的宜兴似乎是个比较工业化的城市，靠近太湖这么好的地方，竟然完全没有开发网红打卡景点。

雨越来越大，这时候我的 Rapha 锁鞋雨套就发挥作用了。当初被其颜值吸引，冲动入手后一直没有用过，觉得太张扬了。在这样的雨天，如果没有雨套，锁鞋会完全湿透，而且跟锁踏衔接的地方容易打滑，不舒服而且不安全。昨天沉重的工具包帮助骑友，今天骚包的雨套遮雨防滑，物尽其用。

在 S230 骑了一半距离，我们在一个公共车站停下来歇歇。两个骑手，一黑一白，车轮连车轮，飞一般顶着大雨从我们身后疾驰而过。

过了一会儿，其中一位黑衣小哥折回来了。

爆胎了么？是啊！

你同伴呢？他就这么绝尘而去了么？我们不是一起的啊，就是在路上碰上的。

这位黑衣小哥从湖州开始，准备一天内完成环太湖 300 公里。他每天上班通勤都是来回 35 公里，经常在湖边骑行，但环太湖还是第一次。以他这样的经验值，他竟然不怎么会换胎补胎。这也不奇怪，我骑行恐怕近万公里了（闪电加上小布），但补胎方面仍然是菜鸟水平。

青则不一样了。他最近为了从北京坐高铁来苏州，买了专业的需要拆两个轮子的自行车包，刚刚把拆轮子的流程突击补习过。我虽然自己动手能力很菜，但是见过很多次猪跑，也可以帮一下。我们俩加上黑衣小哥，三个臭皮匠就开始换胎了。锋的感冒还没有完全好，正好在长凳上美美睡上一觉。

这个过程花了一个小时。三个人都似懂非懂，但磕磕碰碰地在青的带领下，还是完成了换胎补胎的全流程。我在后轮外胎上摸到了两跟铁刺。如果外胎的异物没有被找到，很容易发生换了内胎然后新内胎马上又爆掉的问题。两年前我在日本濑户内海骑行的时候就遇到这个情况。这次学乖了。

青从此从青总摇身一变，化身青师傅。可以直接在路边摆个摊帮人补胎了。宜兴的旅游业不怎么发达，需要他这样的人才。

后来又碰到一位雨中拦路求助的骑手，典型的爬坡手身型，车也很帅，但是运气不好，两个胎都爆了。他的需求比较独特，希望跟我换内胎。但我的胎跟他差别太大，气嘴规格不同，想换也换不了。他太太开着一辆保姆车给他提供后勤，车后座上还有一个小孩，看来是全家出动帮助爸爸出来参加比赛了。我们祝他好运，继续前行。

一路往北在雨中骑完 S230，在分水村吃完午饭，下午就沿着马山半岛的环太湖大道骑行。中间终于碰上了几个车队，都是参加比赛的。但总体来说，这两天遇到的骑手数量远远低于我的预期。难道太湖周末不是人满为患，挤满了江浙一带所有想刷圈的俱乐部车队么？看来小红书的世界跟实际还是有一定距离。

在马山半岛湖边的一家咖啡摊继续休息。摊主小方姑娘说她预订的公路车很快就要到了，很向往马上就要开始的骑行生涯。她说自己入了好几个坑，希望公路车这个坑不要太深。我说，你没有去搞精品民宿吧？没有，那个坑太深了，深不见底，进去后我就出不来了。那就好。骑公路车很开心的，三两好友一起出行，一路上克服各种困难，遇到各种有趣的灵魂。

小方竟然有卡瓦斯口味的咖啡！我刚刚在南疆喀什之行品尝过，这不就是在奥兰多环球影城哈利波特城堡喝过的 butter beer 么？那必须尝一尝。这时候路边一个黑影一闪，似乎有点眼熟。

小方还有个功率强大的音响，放的是粤语老歌。音响里传来面对面看着你的眼睛不再追寻你的背影，小方问我这是什么歌，我脱口而出这是张学友的《风的线条》，我大概有35 年没听过这首歌了，没想到在太湖边上一个00后小姑娘的咖啡车旁再次邂逅。

在马山碰到了不少单飞的兔子。我遇到兔子就热血上头，想把他们抓回来，青和锋就在后面开始摇头。有两个车队疾驰而过，我尝试提速跟了一下。都是 38公里的巡航，太猛了，难怪他们骑整圈太湖可以达到 30 公里的均速。前面的车队在上坡前，后面的几个人似乎听到了我花鼓的声音，回头看了一下。或许有点意外，这大哥竟然跟上来了？然后他们就摇车上坡绝尘而去了，留下我慢慢喘息等着青和锋赶上来。

前面一个黑影停在路口，那不就是我们帮忙补胎的小哥么？看来他的胎是没事了。小哥跟我们骑了一段，说我还得赶路，得先走啦。你赶快去吧，祝你好运！这里离湖州大概还有一百多公里，已经是下午五点多，他将还有漫长的一天。

晚上住在无锡东的维也纳酒店。第二天骑了90多公里，小雨大雨几乎就没有停过。吃完饭去打台球，青的黑八技术炉火纯青，绝对进攻流，完全不需要考虑防守。但牛在几乎逢⑧必进，神乎其神，简直就是黑八小王子，看得球馆教练目瞪口呆。打台球跟骑公路车有个共同点，都需要骨盆前倾，重心前移。虽然这天晚上输给青够呛，但这个领悟对我第三天的骑行颇有裨益。

第三天天晴了，终于不下雨了。从维也纳酒店往东，离开无锡，很快进入到苏州境内，又回到了太湖边。在望亭湖边的咖啡摊照例补上美式咖啡，在望亭合影。

这一天的太湖骑行很惬意，一路沿湖就行，不需要找路。中间路过网红餐厅 Third Cup。服务有点拘谨，但是蒜香面包和咖啡相当地道，小山头可以俯瞰太湖全景。

路上经过游人熙熙攘攘的西山和东山。这两个“耳朵”是苏州上海骑行圈经常拉练的地方。如果白描一圈，各自都是 50-70公里。这次我们的小目标仅仅是 300公里，就不去挑战自己了。如果环太湖加上马山，东山，西山，可以达到满格的 500公里。

整个太湖快要骑完，都没有碰到什么陡坡，连个练习摇车的机会都没有。千岛湖相比之下起伏的坡度要高多了。进入了苏州市区，就离开了太湖湖线，重新回到充斥着小摩托，互相抢道，喇叭乱响的世界。

回到了苏州的第一天酒店花间亭，正好是五点钟，雨点开始滴滴答答。这家酒店最惊艳的一点，是旁边二十米就有一家闪电 Specialized 店！青提前预订了三辆公路车的清洗服务，每辆 98元，良心价。这三天风雨里骑下来，车已经脏的不成样子。青要装车上高铁，我和锋要把车放在车上 4+2 回到上海，如果没有这个洗车的服务，还相当麻烦。

这次骑行，零摔车，零爆胎，零事故，感冒宝宝恢复一枚，帮助骑友两位，捕捉兔子🐰 N 只，目睹集团车队四五批，咖啡采样无数，完美收官！

下一次 Team Chirus 的骑行，应该去哪里呢？欢迎建议！

Originally published on herbertyang.xyz/blog

1. 小布带上新干线完全没问题。

2. 小布进车站需要用袋子罩上。

3. 从新宿=>河口湖的新干线或者大巴都需要提前几天预订。

4. 从河口湖回新宿的车票更加难买，因为车次较少。 坐火车的话，可以先从河口湖坐列车去大月，再从大月去新宿，车次会多很多。

5. 坐在新干线最前面的车厢，可以看到富士山逐渐出现在铁轨前方。

6. 要想看富士山清澈的山顶，需要在十点以前到达河口湖。十点以后就开始有云雾缭绕在山顶了。

7. 绕湖骑行的时候走逆时针。

8. 河口湖北面有个地方可以走到湖边，边上有芦苇，樱花树，是拍富士山的绝佳机位。只有在湖的北面才看得到富士山。

9. 在北线从河口湖骑到西湖的中间，有一段上坡比较陡，大概8-10度，但是六速的小布还是可以骑上去的。除了这一段，整个五十公里主要以平路为主。

10. 湖边并没有专门的自行车道。自行车跟汽车共享车道。日本的司机还是比较照顾自行车的，都会稍微往右开一点。

11. 带把车锁。新仓山浅间公园 (Arakurayama Sengen Park）非常值得一游。走上四百米的台阶，会有一个完美的机位，拍出五重塔 + 樱花（得到四月份） + 富士山的明信片复刻场景。可以把自行车锁在台阶下的停车场。

12. 富士吉田市 (Fujiyoshida)是著名的“天梯小镇”。要拍出名闻遐迩的网红照，最佳机位在 Shimoyoshida Information Center。这里正好是个拐角，可以拍到背景为富士山的街景。最佳时间为傍晚华灯初上时(5点钟以后）。

13. 在富士山脚下的五湖里，山中湖风景最美。但从河口湖去山中湖有 16 公里。

14. 如果时间充足，可以去大名鼎鼎的忍野八海。骑小布去忍野有点难度，因为中间需要翻一座山，坡度颇高。

15. 最优的路线大概是，早上在新宿坐首班7点的新干线，9点到河口湖站。骑快点可以在三小时内，完成河口湖和西湖两个湖的环骑，总共30公里，大约12点回到河口湖。在河口湖吃过午饭，然后在2点前骑到山中湖。一个半小时完成山中湖环骑。4点前可以到忍野八海，在忍野拍照骑行一个小时，然后预留一小时时间骑回富士吉田市，赶上落日的余晖拍完天梯小镇的街景。这个方案里没有时间去浅间公园，但是可以涵盖忍野八海和山中湖。

Originally published on herbertyang.xyz

在几周后2024年10月19日华师一附中汤逊湖新校址的94届校友返校庆典上，也许我们很多人会想起——在30年前武汉的那个炎炎夏日的上午，青春逼人的我们在母校旧址千家街的教学楼前摩肩接踵嘻嘻哈哈拍摄毕业照的情景。

光阴荏苒，如白驹过隙。三十年弹指一挥间。94届的同学们，你们还好么？

还记得，中午食堂前饭盒大军波澜壮阔的百米赛跑么？

还记得，午饭后全员学习《一生何求》的天天唱么？

还记得，黄鹤楼下，阅马场旁，呼朋唤友打桌球么？

还记得，学校广播里开始无限循环播放《同桌的你》么？

还记得，高考结束后，大家各奔东西前，在学校跟 Ta 见的最后一面么？

我们收集了当年九个班的毕业照，并尽可能按照图片上的站位把大家的名字标注出来。希望在10月19日的武汉聚会上还能再见！

高三（1）班​

56人，班主任：洪楚

赵飞、刘高泉、刘炜、朱巍、吴明宸、肖毅、朱琪、赵榛、祁寒、郑宇鹏、张璞、刘恺、张剑、张胜、钱铮铁、杨欣凯

彭艳、危嵩、邱睿、李将、李成、汪浩、张垠曦、杨云海、刘征、周畅、钱雪丰、高云、华涛、张可为、陈川、同学

何川、冯哲、张琪、江琛、方青、尉蔚、祁雯、孙静、钱清洋、杨敏、珠丽尕、毛可、吴琳娜、王铃、王莹、周天雪、程璇纮

黄松生（数学）、汪适成（英语）、胡国华、尹一冰（化学）、李水生（校长）、洪楚（班主任，语文）、程华（政教处主任）、李农（体育）、张大田（物理）、彭攀

高三（2）班​

55人，班主任：余世平

叶颢、屠凯、赵明、朱峰、熊浩权裕海、颜磊、程国栋、毛冰、陈广业、蔡威、孙建平、谢民、漆昌伟、冯康、沈伟、刘燕翔、罗浩、罗凌云

王治、黄维海、方先进、文勇、陈迎、汤宏斌、蒋进、徐浩、李帆、张剑、孙亚昆、陈国强、王灏、杨晟

赵涛、王琤、罗慧、冷黎霞、赵丽虹、董静、詹彤、陈玲、王赟、王航、陈薇、吴兢勤、江玲、张鸣、胡敏、陈凌云、韦玲

陈轶洁、许莹、李琴

高三（3）班​

55人，班主任：袁书荣

王琦、张奇峰、吴谊恒、胡炜、熊雄、张东、陈丹、吴敏、赵胜、罗仕中、杜辉、叶青、阮烨、林峰、毛君、彭炜、杨鹏、彭浩

郭峰、陈思佳、王晓彬、刘迎曦、李宁、容梦扬、孙超、桑茂、吴刚、李晓东、乔炜、曹晓光、梁兵、夏天、骆飞、张继来、余虓

谢洪燕、陈小利、覃莺、李婷、陈淼、万为、商燕、鲍明丽、章霓、韩燕妮、吴可佳、罗凌、王征、罗苹、李岚、邹黎、刘沫真、辛勤、陈佳

老师、胡国华（语文）、袁书荣（物理，班主任）、洪楚、李水生（校长）、郑用珂（数学）、尹一冰（化学）、王肖华（英语）、程华（政教处主任）、李农（体育）

高三（4）班​

50人，班主任：严育开

刘墩倩、陈超、梁栋、邹炼、鲁亮、彭翔、徐飞、许庆、李显辉、明朝蓬、潘雪峰、万立冬、常城、程涛、毕小强、王云山、杨振、韩剑峰、严国伟、密凯

高汉松、余江、郭颂、孟华东、徐建林、凌东、李海波、彭松、向荣、阮志龙、李名峰、涂晓威、曾卫、沈若峰、程继志、付维康、王文海、庄盛明、陈静、高燕、白岚

杨细瑛、杨洁、张佳佳、邬江帆、郭少华、李丽、贺韵琴、窦飞鹏、朱敏洁、李晶、刘杰锋、鲍艳、董媛琪、王静、罗文、陈敏、付文静

高三（5）班​

49人，班主任：袁汉杰

宋珂、骆恩恩、刘靖、徐光、章小华、胡俊哲、刘炜、麦森、徐波、王端、石方震、刘阳、袁磊、杨浩、辛浩、章胜勇、刘幼炬、许克峰、吕非

仇龙、王怀宇、姚昶、王浩、余浩、王滔、柳颢、黄演强、蔡润梁、徐畅、张泉、陈晓波、朱里、詹冶、胡大雄、陈贤斌、何海、陈伟

石春薇、黄媛、鄢祥、吴筠、徐凌、张燕、汪帆、吴先丽、徐光莹、邓翚、叶隽、李隽、杨静、刘娟、苏铁芬、吴静、汪静

喻剑薇

高三（6）班​

53人，班主任：阮经济

张耀尧、周夔、张彦、王瑾、余旸、黄健、张俊、陈楠、陈伟、屠强、刘坤、彭勇、陈东、范雄飞、殷翔峰、李鹏、王隆达、章衡、徐小龙

蔡鸣、杜志俊、余正䖑、李涛、周胜钢、江昊、蔡祁鹏、蒋绍宗、黄海瑛、齐飞、杨昆、谭彬、马宁、柳戟、陈杰、沈翔

肖隽、洪旻、陈竞、张瑜、周峻岚、孟红娟、蔡靖波、朱媛媛、唐艳、孙隽、刘亮、林洁、张萱、徐亚琴、谢敏、冯汉忠、袁勇

王峰、袁书荣、老师、胡国华、阮经济、李水生、洪楚、程华、李农、汪兆龙、王肖华、黄宁

高三（7）班​

53人，班主任：程敢

郭伟、孔锐、胡劲松、王铛、王皓明、李霖、王正盛、沈欣、殷乐、尹慧明、郑群英、定帆、欧光朔、熊鲲、刘军、陈海航、方萌、罗晴、孙玛琳

黄昆、唐威、詹建军、张弛、袁丁、陈斌、夏昆、卢轶、潘晓雷、刘翌、肖柏杉、徐耀华，胡瑛、宓展、洪霞、尹红、朱谱莹

杨晋、陈璟莉、程瑜锋、陈静、傅艳、张悦暄、曾丽华、尹喆、高晴、王慧、杨益、张玮、胡廉、周兴

刘吟、彭亦梅、老师们、代鹰

高三（8）班​

58人，班主任：王铁松

舒畅、莫旻、姚可、廖威、宋鹏、叶俊、王曙东、邹阳、张晟、刘杰、刘璃、廖小波、徐毅春、岑林

郭汉蓉、杨璇、丁莹、杨敏、夏丹、江丽、宋小红、鲁莺、朱艳、郭艳、宁菱、陈源

刘立、张屹、柳莺、张岚、吴芳、王璇、陈文、吴理芳、江南亚、刘崇颖、毛丽莎、潘攀、方立、卿江秀

曹晶、陈莺俐、陈玉红、胡永芳、胡琼、杨薇、赖辉、陈亚妮、彭璟、赵燕、胡琦、张蓓、马达

高三（9）班​

56人，班主任：王淑芬

张骏驰、黄俊、陈登攀、邓国平、熊毅、穆啸、傅军、刘俊、张峻、程巍、吴新颜、王锴、冯海涛、卢起超、陈果

杨波、邓集珣、曾炜、黄云飞、洪继宁、孙小波、鲁路、李纪军、应超、韦路、周波、石磊、 李威、 李炜、 刘立峰、 宋海

王宓、刘兮颖、魏敏、江浩、黄文、鲍周晶、衡量、王韦、柳春燕、胡创、肖菁、王茜、袁静、汪洋、成勤、牟岚、张敏

老师们、 胡以迪

张慧、王莹、徐琼、胡宁莉、傅振仪、张英、胡艳霞、万美、朱静、徐小清、王霞、石丹

欢迎继续报名！

微信公共号原文链接

召集令​

武汉华师一附中1994届的各位同学们，

光阴荏苒，如白驹过隙。

弹指之间，我们离开千家街的华师一附中，走向五湖四海千行百业，已经有三十年了。

你想不想，

• 看看今天的华师一附中，在新校区的新气象？
• 拜访当年的老师，敬一壶茶，回首当年校园往事？
• 跟老同学们重新恢复联系，桃李春风一杯酒，江湖烟雨十年灯？
• 交流养生心得，育娃经验，事业方向，移民趋势？

一别多年，还记得当年的 Ta 吗？

回来吧，这个秋天，我们在武汉重聚，庆祝我们相遇相知相识的三十年，共同展望未来仍然可以共同度过的三十年。千家多少事，都付笑谈中。这是个难得的机会。

日期

2024年10月18日 - 10月20日

地点

武汉市江夏区滨湖路16号荷田大酒店

日程安排​

10月18日，第一天​

14:00 - 22:00，入住酒店。在酒店大堂

14:00-16:00/19:00-21:00 有筹委会同学接待，发放流程表，T-shirt，祝福卡。

18:00 - 24:00，自由活动，各班小聚会

10月19日，第二天​

08:30 - 09:30，在华师一附中新校区会议厅集合

09:30 - 11:30，参加校方参加的庆典仪式，校领导/学生代表发言

11:30 - 12:00，集体大合影

12:00 - 13:30，学校食堂午餐

13:30 - 15:00，部分同学参加在校高三学生的座谈会，大部分同学回到荷田大酒店

13:30 - 16:30，筹委会协调酒店提供以下娱乐选项

• 运动馆：网球，羽毛球，匹克球
• 指定区域：狼人杀，掼蛋，斗地主

13:30 - 16:30，各班节目排练，音响灯光测试，直播连线测试

16:30 - 18:00，自由组合走红毯合影，背景墙签名

18:00 - 22:00，在荷田大酒店的晚宴厅，参加年级晚会（提供晚餐 + 酒水饮料），各班表演娱乐节目

10月20日，第三天​

08:30 - 10:00，早餐，湖边散步，合影

10:00 - 12:00，分论坛座谈会

• 西医/中医养生
• 子女教育规划
• 移民生活分享
• 理财和创业
• 往事复刻
• 摄影和旅行

12:00 以后，自由时间，大家自行组团活动

如何报名？​

感兴趣参加的同学，请完成下面几个步骤：

选择套餐​

点击下面的付款链接，选择适合你的选项：

套餐说明​

1. 套餐 A 不包括如下需要各位同学自理的费用：

• 从常住地来返武汉的交通费用
• 在武汉当地的交通费用
• 酒店的房费（筹委会已经从酒店拿到统一折扣的优惠协议价格）
• 除了 10/19 午餐（学校食堂），晚餐（酒店宴会厅）以外的餐饮费

2. 套餐 A 收取的款项需要涵盖如下的活动费用：

• 活动酒店的定金
• 酒店宴会厅以及相关设备的租赁费用（10/19 晚 + 10/20 上午）
• 10/19 在活动酒店宴会厅的晚餐费用
• 10/18-20 嘉年华活动的宣传物料费用（易拉宝，横幅，手册，名卡等）
• 10/18-20 活动现场照片，视频的拍摄（专业摄影外包团队）
• 送给受邀请退休老师们的礼品费
• 电子相册的制作
• 纪念文化衫 T-Shirt 的制作费用

3. 活动费用说明：

• 微信付款小程序由筹委会成员，高三（1）班的联络员冯哲同学管理。
• 10/18-20 活动结束后，如果从同学们缴纳的500/100元活动费里，还有剩余款项，筹委会将会以1994届同学会的集体名义全部捐赠给华师一附中校友基金会。
• 海外同学如果无法使用微信支付，请找国内同学帮忙。付款小程序里同一名用户可以购买多个套餐，帮助海外同学实现垫付。

完成问卷​

完成了付款后，请点击下面的链接，完成一个2分钟可以完成的小问卷，提供筹委会需要的额外信息。

参加接龙​

参加年级微信群里的接龙，汇报进展。😁

联系​

如有任何问题，请联系各班联络员：

感谢对这次活动的支持！

希望这次金秋聚会，不光是对过去少年时期的一个回顾，更多的是开启一段我们未来共同前行的新旅程。

衣不如新，人不如旧。在这个喧嚣动荡的时代，幼时结交的感情，弥足珍贵，历久弥香。

Here's a guide that can help you get started to grasp some basic concepts and get your hands dirty in this exciting world of Web3, metaverse, blockchain, and some of the most advanced Internet technology innovations.

Challenges of Learning Blockchain​

We shall first reckon with the challenges before the deep dive. Learning about blockchain/crypto is not easy. Everyone is talking about it. Every media is tossing around buzzwords like Web3, metaverse as if the future has already arrived and you're going to miss the train. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion about it with very divided views. People from different blockchain camps diss each other and everyone thinks his/her chain is the greatest.

Blockchain is a very complex subject that weaves together sophisticated concepts from economics, investment, finance, mathematics, cryptography, software, the Internet, and even sociology. There is an overwhelming amount of information available that's hard to keep up with. It's an Amazon jungle with a large variety of sub-ecosystems all vying for supremacy with their own drumbeat.

There are many notions in blockchain that are hard to fathom. For one, many are still trapped in the debate on why Bitcoin is worth so much and why it's not another Tulip Mania. Some say blockchain is a database, but some say they don't use a database anymore; some say it's a continuously growing network with smart contracts, but some say they don't see how to interact with these smart contracts. And ... why are those jpeg photos worth half a million dollars?

Also, information decays very fast in the blockchain. What you read three months ago may have already become obsolete now. The trending topics for the moment seem to be rotating at a lightning speed. Just when you think you've got a hang of something, that thing is no longer hot and something else has taken over the airwave. It's all very tiring and confusing.

How To Do Research​

Don't panic.

With all the above challenges, the below few suggestions could help you ramp up fast.

First, get on Twitter. Everyone in crypto is on Twitter. Social media networks have come and gone in the last 20 years, but Twitter has remained to be the best hub for intellectuals and KOLs in tech - it's certainly the largest. Instagram is for photo influencers. Reddit is an acquired taste with too many trolls. Facebook is for birthday reminders. Linkedin is a train wreck with few new features or improvements in the last ten years. Wechat and Weibo have a massive user base, but the cost of high-quality information discovery is too high. Most of the original content nowadays either comes from Twitter or can be easily found on Twitter. Try to read the source, not the second-hand Google-translated version.

Second, when you run into a blockchain project, always ask the question "Which blockchain is this dApp built on?". The blockchain industry consists of several major tribes - or what we call ecosystems. Every ecosystem is built around a Layer-0 or Layer-1 protocol. Each ecosystem has its own legions of crypto funds, developers, node providers, wallets, games, NFT collections, NFT marketplace, and decentralized apps (dApps). The embedded technology from the Layer-1 blockchain network dictates how the dApp shall be built, what kind of business model it may adopt, and how to do its go-to-market. When a dApp adopts an L-1 blockchain, its growth will follow the rise and fall of the ecosystem of this blockchain. Think about Game of Thrones. You don't fight for two different houses.

Third, do not make the naive assumption that Ethereum equals blockchain. Ethereum is an influential protocol that has gathered a huge amount of assets and almost all the crypto developers and OGs cut their teeth in the early days of Ethereum. However, there are many other blockchain protocols that are growing fast and chipping away at the market share of Ethereum. Bitcoin ecosystem still lords over all other blockchains, for becoming the alternative standard of the store of value. Ethereum ecosystem is the dominant force where most of the NFT series are minted. Solana, Avalanche, NEAR, Polygon, Algorand, Binance Smart Contract (BSC) follow the footstep (and to a varying degree, its code) of Ethereum and try to become a better version of it. Cardano does things in their own way, in hard mode. Polkadot and Cosmos are Layer-0 networks that try to connect multiple chains. The Internet Computer Protocol ("ICP") developed by DFINITY has expanded the boundary of the blockchain industry significantly, if not the Internet. Arweave and Filecoin are two major IPFS networks that try to do distributed storage. If you come across an L0/1 blockchain that's not from this list, it's too small to matter (critical mass is important in crypto) or too early to consider (a blockchain protocol becomes meaningful only after launching its mainnet).

Fourth, always apply the first principle by asking these two questions: 1) "Who are its customers?" and 2) "What value does it bring to its customers?". This is the only way to validate whether a blockchain protocol or the many dApps built on it can bring value to society. You will find that many blockchain protocols or dApps are created to support another protocol. In the same vein as you would try to find a natural person through layers of BVI/Cayman entities, keep tracing up the chain until the end customer becomes an average Joe in the street. Try this exercise and see how many dApps/L1 blockchains can actually bring you to a real retail customer Joe or enterprise customer Smith. If such a customer or use-case scenario cannot be found, then this dApp/blockchain is built on layers of mirage. Mirage is rampant in crypto.

Last, while it's natural to ask a few friends who seem to be closer to the crypto industry to get started, nobody is any wiser and you should do your own research (DYOR) to draw conclusions in your own method. It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a neutral voice in this industry. People are often too knee-deep in a camp already to tell you something objective - including myself. Read the white paper, conduct due diligence on the team, and observe how they conduct themselves on Twitter. Only after you commit sufficient time and effort to do this research with brutal intellectual honesty, the path to truth or faith (always in relative terms in crypto) may then reveal itself to you.

Where to Start on Web3 and Crypto​

First, start with Twitter. The following IDs will usher you into several interesting realms.

• Elon Musk The one that moves the market
• Vitalik Buterin Creator of Ethereum
• Dominic Williams Founder of DFINITY
• Lyn Alden One of the best working economists today, especially on inflation
• Matthew Ball Prolific writer on Metaverse and Gaming
• Naval Ravikant The Yoda that utters words of deep thoughts
• Balaji Srinivasan Crypto intellectual tour de force
• Wu Blockchain Crypto news from China and the world
• Odaily China Crypto News One of the few remaining crypto media outlets that still report out of China
• Chinese Crypto Twitter Hall of Famer A widely followed list of 63 prominent Chinese KOLs in crypto

Podcast provides the best fresh content on crypto. Below are my favorites. Be careful about your dosage. They can be very addictive - for sheer high-quality speakers and contents that could induce a high level of stress, anxiety, and FOMO.

• Bankless Weekly crypto news, one of the best in the business
• Techmeme Daily crypto/tech news in usually 20-minute segments
• Lex Fridman Podcast Best interviewer on technology with all-star speakers like Elon Musk, Charles Hoskinson, and Neal Stephenson
• Tim Ferriss Podcast Best interviewer in general with speakers like Jamie Foxx, Naval, Vitalik, and Nick Szabo
• Unchained Podcast by Laura Shin Twice-weekly podcast on all things crypto

Books unfortunately don't age well in crypto. By the time a book is published, most likely it's already obsolete. A few can either withstand the test of time or provide rich enough historic background that would still be helpful today.

• The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking Saifedean Ammous' seminal book on Bitcoin to answer the most frequently asked question in crypto
• The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum Camila Russo's book vividly captures the early days of being wild when Ethereum was created. Fun read to understand the origin of crypto's culture and key players.
• Snow Crash Neal Stephenson's famed sci-fi novel published in 1992 introduced the concept of metaverse.

Reading whitepaper is the right way to sink into blockchain. We like it hard-core.

• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 It's a masterpiece that should be enshrined in US Library of Congress. An uncanny amount of wisdom is condensed in this 9-pager doc.
• Ethereum Whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin in 2013 Vitalik introduced smart contract to blockchain, that forever changed the face of the Internet.

Newsletter is another good venue of good content. This is the best times for writers, people who can articulate their thoughts and build an audience with their narratives. Writing is the easiest way to establish credibility and gain respect. Most people I follow are writing on either Substack or Ghost. I used to subscribe to 20+ newsletters - I still do, but I just don't have time to read them anymore. Crypto is moving too fast. Between Twitter and Podcast, I get 90% of what I need to know.

Where to Start Researching on DFINITY and ICP​

It's important to read from the right sources. DFINITY's official website is your jump-off point, where you will find all things DFINITY and IC. DFINITY's Twitter account has the latest information and official announcements. ICA Dashboard from Internet Computer Association provides real-time statistics about the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) network. DFINITY's Developer Forum is where the engineering team of DFINITY discusses issues, bug fixes, product features with IC developers and users - this is the best place to conduct your due diligence on DFINITY.

Read up the updated IC Whitepaper here: The Internet Computer for Geeks (v1.1), which was just released on Jan 27, 2022. The previous whitepaper was written and published in 2018, way before the launch of IC mainnet ("Genesis") on May 10, 2021. A lot has changed since then. It's a 45-page pdf doc and written by some of the best cryptographers and software architects in the world.

DFINITY's channel on reddit is another great place to observe how DFINTY team engages the IC community. It speaks a lot to DFINITY's ethos, vision, and capabilities. In particular, Diego from DFINITY wrote this excellent MEGATHREAD: Technical AMAs that points to all 9 AMAs from DFINITY's R&D team during May to Aug 2021 after Genesis. Each team in the R&D organization took turns to field questions from developers. It's a fantastic learning experience.

Youtube has some very good videos on DFINITY and IC. Three series are fairly up to date and most useful. Inside DFINITY by founder Dominic Williams is a good start. Community Conversations hosted by Liz Yang is a treasure island. Coding with Kyle by Kyle Peacock teaches you how to build a site on IC.

This Medium article DFINITY in 2021: A Year of Developer and Community Growth on the Internet Computer rewinds 2021 and highlights key accomplishments in IC's ecosystem building. Another Medium article The Internet Computer Community Adopts 25 Proposals for Future Crypto Innovation indexes 25 proposals that were adopted by the IC community toward the end of 2021, each of which came with a detailed scope and technical elaboration. A technology team's capability and commitment are best validated by its ability to deliver milestones along its roadmap consistently. DFINITY has a very comprehensive and ambitious post-Genesis roadmap for 2022 and beyond. These three Medium articles collectively would give a full picture of ICP's past, present and future.

DFINITY Showcase highlights notable projects in the ecosystem of the Internet Computer. Explore true Web3 dApps in NFT, Social, Games, Metaverse, DeFi, Infrastructure, Enterprise and Productivity. Try them out yourself before drawing conclusion on what blockchain can or cannot do or publish your "first impression on Web3" article.

Besides the above sites/articles from the DFINITY team, my own Twitter ID @herbertyang is a good spot to keep track of the latest happenings and growth of DFINITY and IC ecosystem in Asia. My pinned tweet is a thread of threads that chronicle all the major events by DFINITY team or key players in the IC community. If someone would like to conduct a due diligence background check on DFINITY/IC, want to know our key activities since Genesis, find out which are the rising star projects that have the potential of becoming the next Web3 unicorn, or which crypto investors we like to partner with, this digital garden of forking paths has all the answers for a dedicated seeker.

At the time of writing this article, we don't run any social media site/group on Wechat or Weibo. If you see something in Chinese that labels itself with a prefix of "DFINITY", "Dfinity", "IC", or "ICP", keep in mind that they are NOT managed by the DFINITY team, but by independent third-party community members. Some of them have excellent contents that complement our official social media/site very well; some of them are done with poor taste that makes us cringe, if not want to send them a cease-and-desist letter right away. Don't place your blind trust in someone simply because they claim to be the "official" channel of DFINITY. There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation on Wechat and Weibo.

How to Try Out ICP​

If you're a developer, start out with smartcontracts.org to download the IC SDK and go from there.

If you're not a developer but an Internet user or investor, you can start your ICP journey with this onboarding flow:

1. Register an Internet Identity anchor/account at identity.ic0.app, which is created and managed by DFINITY. This is your passport to authenticate your identity in all the ICP dApps. You can do this on your iPhone or Windows phone. It's free to register an Internet Identity ("II") anchor/account. You can register as many II accounts as you like.
2. Login to your NNS (Network Nervous System) account. NNS site is also created and managed by DFINITY. It's the official (hot) wallet that can manage your ICP token, transfer ICP, stake ICP, participate in the NNS governance (NNS is a DAO), and manage your canisters (in a similar fashion as you would manage your AWS dashboard). Get the Principal ID from your NNS account. This is the wallet address that can be shared publicly for you to receive ICP token. Login to NNS requires authentication by Internet Identity ("II").
3. Get some ICP tokens via means that are available to you in a manner that's allowed in your local country. Once the ICP tokens are in the custodian wallet of your exchange account, transfer them to your own wallet, which is identified by the Principal ID in Step 2.
4. Return to your NNS dashboard. You shall see the balance of your account has been topped up. The transfer is almost instantaneous within 1-2 seconds. No need to pay any gas fee other than the transaction fee charged by your exchange platform.
5. You can do many things with NNS wallet, but not for buying NFT. You need a third-party wallet for NFT. Two wallets are most popular for ICP holders for NFT, Plug and Stoic. They are developed not by DFINITY but by independent IC developers. Sign up for both of them and transfer some ICP tokens to your new wallets.
6. Explore some NFTs at Entrepot, the largest NFT marketplace for IC, a sort of Opensea for Ethereum. Buying NFT on IC is instantaneous and you pay NO gas fee. IC uses a "reverse gas model" that would give you the same user experience as traditional Internet, where the developer bears the cost of up-keeping a site and users pay no extra transaction fee like the gas fee in the Ethereum ecosystem.
7. Explore a few SocialFi dApps in true Web3 fashion, DSCVR (reddit on IC), distrikt (Linkedin/Twitter on IC) and OpenChat (WhatsAp/Wechat on IC).

Desirable Qualities to Excel in DFINITY and Web3​

First and foremost, you need to have a passion for technology and how it will change people's lives. Without this passion, you're just doing a job by taking orders like a bot. Many work in technology but only a small cohort of people actually think about it, talk about it, write about it and act on it, 24/7, non-stop. If you're a technology enthusiast, you will have a reputation by now and you know it.

Second, you need to have strong intellectual curiosity with an insatiable desire to keep learning and a strong ability to pick up new stuff. In crypto, nobody is an expert, and everybody is learning, all the time. The technology evolves so rapidly that the only sustainable competitive advantage in the long run for an individual or a team is how quickly it can filter the right information, unlearn what's no longer relevant, and acquire new knowledge frameworks and skills.

Third, you need to have a strong belief in decentralization and how it will transform the society for better. The core spirit of the original cypherpunk sub-culture and the present blockchain industry is about establishing trust efficiently and effectively in an increasingly decentralized world from a technological perspective (at least to me, this is agnostic to religious belief or political systems). If you can't pass this, you will have a hard time appreciating the power and beauty of blockchain, let alone Web3.

Fourth, you need to have a high level of conviction. Others could give you the spark or plant some seeds, but this conviction must be developed organically and internally. Debates among various L1 blockchains sometimes sound like religious wars. In traditional industries, you rarely see this and can sleep with comfort knowing that most industries have a legitimate reason to exist and persist. In crypto, the rise of one L1 blockchain may very well signal the demise of ALL other L1 blockchains. A lot is at stake. You must constantly challenge yourself, am I living in my own echo chamber, or is my believed network going to prevail and prosper? If you think you've got the answer, think harder and stay vigilant.

Fifth, you're an optimistic contrarian, not a cynical conventionalist. If your first question to a startup founder is, what if Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, or Facebook launch the same product as your startup, then you might as well stay in Big Tech and carry on with your life. Not saying you're beyond the point of salvation, but it will consume too much effort on both sides to turn you around.

Proof-of-Commitment​

Since the entire blockchain industry was created to solve the problem of trust, let's game on, carry forward that spirit, and be more tactical about how we can get to know each other more.

Creating a rapid feedback loop is a good first step. In traditional industry, a complete feedback loop between vendor and customer or between business partners is often a long and winding road. In crypto, everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is on full display on Twitter. You don't have to be a Twitter aficionado to signal to people what you like, what you support, and what you want. There are other ways to signal of course, but Twitter is the fastest way and the least that anyone can do.

Please refer more developers to apply for DFINITY's Developer Grants Program. As a non-profit foundation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, we don't do revenue. We exist to promote the technology of the Internet Computer Protocol and work hard to drive mass adoption toward 35 million developers in the world (about 7 million in China alone). Everything we do is to attract more developers to use the SDK of ICP to build their next Web3 decentralized app. Many people come to me and offer intent for collaboration. This is what we want. Other things are just work-in-process or building blocks leading to this. This is the end goal.

Make warm intro for us. ICP doesn't aspire to create a better version of Bitcoin or Ethereum or AWS, it aims to reinvent the entire Internet as we know it. We need to reach out to a very broad spectrum of constituencies and audiences. I'll be hard-pressed to think of any segment that would be largely insulated from the future expansion of ICP. We can always use a warm intro to cultivate a new relationship that could help us penetrate into a new community or strike a partnership.

Last but not the least, you can also apply to DFINITY's Community Awards Program to leverage your resources and contribute to the growth of the ICP ecosystem. You don't have to be a programmer or know a line of code. You can be an artist, a community volunteer, a translation expert, an event ninja, a BD veteran, or just about any role in any capacity, small or large, public or private. You can do your day job at Company XYZ, and moonlight for IC, and receive grant awards. This Medium article by Mike Hunte of DFINITY shares helpful Tips on Writing the Best Community Awards Program Grant Application. If you end up joining DFINITY one day, you will be doing all these tasks (in turbo mode). This is a good way to size up yourself and get your hands dirty before you ape in.

Thank You​

It's a long read but hopefully a solid rope to help you get started. This website is deployed 100% on ICP. Its front end is built in a Gatsby framework based on React/JavaScript. The code is compiled into a Web Assembly binary file as a smart contract. The smart contract is deployed to a canister hbc6w-gqaaa-aaaag-aagdq-cai on one of the 30+ subnets that are connected by Chain Key Cryptography to form an ever-expanding blockchain network that provides the storage and computing power to keep this site on. Since this is a simple single-page site with static contents whose states will not be modified by readers (you), it has only Query call, no Update call. Query call is currently not charged by the node providers (independent third-party data centers) for ICP, so my cost of maintaining this site is only for storage of the deployment files, which is about 11.5MB. Given that the storage cost on ICP is estimated to be $5 for 1GB per year at present, my cost of upkeeping this site is about $0.06/year. You can view this article/site on PC/Mac or mobile phone.

ICP is the first and so far the only blockchain protocol in the world that can host the front-end of a web application (so that users like you can interact with the smart contract behind), enable smart contract (every web application/site is created as a smart contract) and provide distributed storage and compute power (like a decentralized AWS).

This is the future of Web3.

Stay In Touch​

• DFINITY Developer Forum
• About DFINITY Foundation
• ICP Dashboard
• DFINITY Team
• Developer Grant Program
• Community Awards Program
• Developer Center
• DFINITY on Twitter
• DFINITY on Facebook
• DFINITY on Linkedin
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Hi @xiaobing ,

Here’s the memo that summarized what happened. Apologize for the long wait and appreciate your patience.

Executive Summary​

This memo follows up to the original post titled “My NNS has been stolen, Please help me” , that first appeared on Oct 14, 2021 at DFINITY’s official forum by user @xiaobing (hereafter referred to as “OP”) . It’s gathered 99 replies with 1.6K views involving 17 forum users as of Dec 14, 2021, and has caused a lot of anxiety and question marks from the IC community regarding the security measures of the NNS. OP is now planning to submit an NNS proposal to regain access to the neuron he used to own, which has staked 32,000 ICPs for 8 years. This planned proposal, if successfully submitted by OP and adopted by the community, will be the first of its kind for the IC ecosystem, setting up a precedent where the owner of a stolen account tries to recover through decentralized governance. It is drawing a lot of interest and attention from the community. This memo shares the efforts by the DFINITY team to help OP gather facts and the investigation findings from the DFINITY engineering team. It aims to shed some light on the possible causes of this incident. In short, the result from DFINITY’s investigation suggested that:

• This was not caused by any bug in the Internet Computer/ Network Nervous System
• OP’s computer was most likely hacked and the hacker very likely had physical access to his laptop and Yubi-key

The Stake​

OP lost access to his Internet Identity (“II”) account 171674, which has staked 32,000 ICPs in one single neuron for 8 years on the NNS (as of Oct 2021 this was valued at roughly $1.5M). Based on third party explorer ic.rocks 1 and the principle ID OP still keeps, the ICPs are still intact in this neuron - so regardless who now takes control of this neuron, the ICPs locked up in the neuron have not and will not move in the next 7+ years. OP has currently no access to the neuron and it’s not clear who is the current owner.

The History​

OP registered this II account in July. He bought 2 Yubikeys, directly from yubico.com 1. Yubikey is not available in China, so OP had the Yubikeys shipped to Hong Kong and asked a friend to bring them into China. Both Yubikeys are of the same model (likely to be 5C Nano) that can be directly plugged into a laptop.

OP used 3 methods to access this II account including 2 Yubikeys and 1 seed phrase. He used a digital camera (not a cell phone) to take a photo of the seed phrase and hand-wrote it down on a piece of paper. This piece of paper was locked up in a safe.

OP accessed this II account on 4 machines (2 Windows and 2 Macs). There were two known users who had access to this II account, OP and the manager he worked for (hereafter referred to as “BOSS”). BOSS is the owner of the company, which has a portfolio of crypto tokens and employs a small team of engineers. It’s beyond the capability of DFINITY to differentiate which specific action was carried out by OP vs BOSS. This memo would assume by default OP was the one that executed all activities mentioned, though in reality OP and BOSS might be the owner of different actions.

On a Friday in August (hereafter referred to as “Incident Day”), all of a sudden OP’s Yubikey no longer worked. OP tried the other Yubikey and the seed phrase. None of them worked. His last successful login was about 2-3 days prior to the Incident Day, on one of the Macs. OP went to DFINITY’s official forum and created the original post on Oct 14.

Initially the NNS could still recognize the II account 171674 and prompted him to use the Yubikey/seed phrase. At some point later, OP found that the error message on NNS had changed. NNS could no longer recognize this II account and would just say “Unknown Identity Anchor” without even prompting him for inserting Yubikey. It seems that whoever is now controlling this neuron has removed all the 4 devices that OP used and also changed the seed phrase.

The Investigation​

@Fulco , Support Specialist from DFINITY, tried to help out OP on the forum and maintained a continuous dialogue to help him find recovery solutions. Fulco even created a custom-made script to help him verify the account details. Many other engineers and leaders in DFINITY’s R&D team have been involved behind the scene that led to the eventual conclusion of the investigation.

@zire (Herbert) , Director of China Operations for DFINITY, reached out to OP to help. A first phone call between Herbert and OP took place on Oct 20, 2021 where basic facts were gathered and a meeting was arranged in Shanghai for Oct 28, 2021 in DFINITY’s local office. OP and BOSS traveled to Shanghai and attended the meeting with Herbert in person. @PaulLiu , Staff Engineer from DFINITY’s R&D team, dialed in via Zoom from the US.

In this first Zoom call (that involved both OP and BOSS), many scattered details mentioned above were confirmed. Additional details worth noting are: 1) OP and BOSS took comprehensive security measures around their office. They appeared pretty tech savvy in terms of handling crypto assets. 2) There was another incident of losing crypto tokens at the end of 2020 in the same office, for a different coin. Based on the description of OP and BOSS, it appeared that the account was not secure in the first place before being given to them. They were using a hardware wallet, but the wallet short-cuited. On the next day the tokens got moved to a Binance account and they couldn’t get it back. Paul pointed out that it might not be caused by a hardware malfunction but sounded like hacking by an insider.

Herbert/Paul let OP/BOSS know that DFINITY would escalate this issue internally and try to deploy engineering resources to see if we could recover the II account’s operation histories from block backups. There could be 3 possible outcomes from this analysis:

• Case A. It shows that their recovery key never matched anything;
• Case B. It shows that their recovery key matched something in the history but later there wasn’t any operation to remove it and somehow it just ended up like this with no more access for OP;
• Case C. It shows that their recovery key matched some record in the history, but later it was replaced.

Case A would call OP/BOSS’ credibility into question out right; Case B would suggest a potential bug in the NNS; and Case C would suggest that, somebody hacked the account, either knowingly or unknowingly, and this person could be just anyone, as far as DFINITY can tell.

During the following few weeks, DFINITY engineers analyzed the history of transactions on the blockchain to understand all changes related to OP’s identity anchor. The conclusion is:

• On Jul 12, an initial recovery phrase was added, as was a second web authentication device “Tiger-backup”.
• Both the initial device and “Tiger-backup” were used frequently until Jul 26.
• On Jul 26, “Tiger-backup” was used to delete the existing recovery phrase and replace it by a new one.
• Both the initial device and “Tiger-backup” were used frequently until Aug 14.
• On Aug 14, the new recovery phrase was used to remove both the initial device and “Tiger-backup”. A new recovery key was also added.
• Since then, there were three sequences of transactions: 1) the recovery phrase was used to add a new device; 2) the new device was used to log into the NNS frontend dapp; 3) the new device was removed right after. The last transaction occurred on Oct 27.

It could be established that:

• Someone is still controlling the II account. There is no data that can pinpoint who that person is.
• The current owner uses the new recovery phrase.
• The new recovery phrase was added from the device “Tiger-backup”
• Case C (from the above) is what happened

On Nov 11, a second Zoom call was arranged among Herbert, Paul, OP and BOSS. All joined the call remotely from their respective offices.

Paul shared the investigation result from the engineering team and let them know that both Case A and B were categorically eliminated. Paul also pointed out that it was highly probable that the person would have physical access to both the laptop AND the Yubikey. Paul/Herbert also highlighted to OP/BOSS that beyond this point, there was nothing more DFINITY, as a technology contributor to the IC ecosystem, could further do to verify who is the rightful owner. Though OP/BOSS would very much want to provide all the paperwork to prove their identities, legitimacy and even transaction history, playing the role of courtroom judge is beyond the scope and responsibility of DFINITY. The NNS is not a court of law and more importantly, DFINITY is not a judge.

OP/BOSS agreed with the result and suggested that this account might be stolen by an insider who used to work for the company. OP/BOSS said they would go back to check the video surveillance. In the meanwhile, OP/BOSS still want to submit an NNS proposal to recover their account. If OP/BOSS can gather enough votes in favor of this proposal, technically speaking this is not entirely impossible. Herbert/Paul also pointed out that, while DFINITY would be happy to provide general technical guidance to OP/BOSS, if the same assistance will be provided to all other IC users fair and square, it cannot be involved in drafting this proposal per se. The proposal would have to be written and submitted by the ICP holder him/herself, not the DFINITY Foundation.

Thank you for reading this long memo. Appreciate your attention to this matter and all the suggestions so far.

Here's the original post that was published to DFINITY's Developer Forum.

在疫情蔓延的2020年，小布彻底地改变了我的生活。

Brompton（国内称之为“小布”），是一个具有44年历史来自伦敦的全手工制作的折叠自行车。COVID-19开始的时候，出于卫生安全考虑，我开始骑共享单车上下班，尽量避免坐地铁（人太多）或者自己开车（停车难）。骑多了以后，很快遇到几个问题。我们住的小区周边到了上班高峰时共享单车很早就被抢空了，几乎得走到700-800米以外的地铁站才能找到单车。上海的共享单车主流品牌有好几个，但质量都比较差。刹车，座椅，车把，经常出问题。有一次我2-3公里的路程上不得不换了三辆车，很浪费时间。几百块钱成本的共享单车，也无法顾及到太多的人体工程优化，骑久了会腰酸背痛。而且，这些单车毕竟是大众共享的，每天放在外面日晒雨淋，也干净不到哪里去。真要讲究卫生，追求效率的话，共享单车不是一个长期解决方案，还是得骑自己的自行车。

住在Palo Alto的时候，几个朋友总是叫我周末去骑自行车。对于班里的欧美同学，骑自行车是顺理成章的活动和传统。我想起需要买车买骑行服就觉得太麻烦，似乎为了骑个车投入的时间精力太大。虽然呼朋唤友在风景如画的280上纵情驰骋，然后在roadhouse啸聚山林大快朵颐啤酒炸鸡谈天论地是件美妙的事情，但使用场景还是太狭窄了。不管是出于健身还是社交的目的，公路车只是选项之一，还有很多其他选择。

六城转提醒我除了公路车，还可以考虑折叠自行车。这对我是个新颖的概念，折叠自行车。。。是个什么？

光阴荏苒，如白驹过隙。一转眼离购买小布已经过去了一年多。我住在浦西，主要的活动区域都在长宁区，普陀区，静安区，徐汇区。小布已经融入到我生活里的每个场景。每天骑小布上下班，见客户，跟朋友喝咖啡喝茶聚餐，参加行业活动，买菜买水饺，理发，去税务局报税，带板凳去兴趣班，学习功夫，上足球课，跟布友聚会夜游上海，这只是日常。大的活动包括，坐高铁去桐庐的富春江边骑行，去无锡太湖环湖骑行，去千岛湖亲子骑行，参加环法自行车中国站上海滴水湖62km的挑战赛。

现在已经把小布安利给很多位位朋友（不算六城转），还有几位在pipeline里。为方便起见，特把常见的问题整理如下。

骑自行车有什么好？​

首先，这是最卫生的生活方式，尤其在疫情蔓延的年代。公共汽车，地铁，出租车，共享单车，都会触及到其他人。只有骑自己的自行车，才会一劳永逸地解决这个问题。其次，这是最健康，最高效的生活方式。开车，不管自己开还是坐司机的车，是件很无聊的事情，没有锻炼的效果。走路，从交通的角度，效率太低，耗费的时间太长。而且，骑车很环保，对环境没有任何污染。最后，骑车通勤效率高，很多时候门到门的时间比开车或者打车还要短，因为完全不受堵车的影响，可以以极高的精度控制出门时间。

为什么不就用共享单车呢？​

共享单车的质量无法保障。对经常骑行的人来说，从安全或者舒适的角度，都达不到要求。如果每天骑行45-60分钟，在生命1/24的这段时间里骑的车又破又旧又脏又难看还经常换来换去，是多么地无趣。当然，共享单车是适合大众消费者的。有的人喜欢穿Uniqlo，有的人喜欢穿Lululemon，青菜萝卜，各有所爱。

为什么不骑公路车？​

骑公路车（大轮），是完全不同的场景。如果你有一堆朋友都骑公路车，经常周末骑个50-100公里，参加铁人三项或者各种比赛的话，当然公路车是合理的选择。如果你喜欢城市生活，而且住在市区里，那折叠自行车会方便很多。公路车不能折叠，无法带进写字楼商场餐厅，在马路拉起速度一溜烟是很帅，但是去不了什么地方，在市区中看不中用。停车也是个麻烦，几万元的全碳车，你会放心停在过道上跟各类共享单车摩托车放在一起吗？

很多布友同时也骑公路车。二者并不矛盾，还是取决于你的使用场景是什么。

为什么在折叠自行车的品牌里选择Brompton？​

在折叠自行车的世界里，Brompton是全世界最好的品牌。其他的常见的品牌还有Birdy, Bike Friday, Alex Moulton, Dahon (“大行”)。AM帅得亮瞎眼，但实在太贵了，一辆车十几万起价，属于应该被挂起来的艺术品。而且，从理论上说，AM只不过是一辆可以折叠的自行车，其实并不算是“折叠自行车”，折叠起来非常，非常不方便，不实用。Birdy的品牌逼格跟Brompton在同一级别，但在国内很少能见到，缺乏核心粉丝用户的群体，而且，折叠起来不如小布方便 - 小布可以在几秒里被折叠/打开。Bike Friday几乎在上海没见过，也没怎么听到被人提起，按照我们这个行业的黑话，叫做缺乏生态。最常拿来跟小布作对比的，是台湾产的Dahon。大行的数量比较多，在路上常能见到，它的品类也比较丰富，便宜的几千元，贵的也是上万。从外表上来说，大行的横梁是直的，小布是稍微弯曲一点。那么区别在哪里呢？

我没有骑过Dahon，不好对比。这么说吧，小布是宝马/保时捷，大行是丰田/本田。都可以骑，都可以折叠，目标用户不同，大家可以按需自选。

除了这些卓越的功能性特点以外，小布最大的特点，就是颜值高。

她实在太漂亮了。

在国内/上海骑小布方便吗？能进地铁吗？能过黄浦江吗？能进办公楼吗？能进商场吗？​

上海是非常适合骑自行车的城市，大多数马路都有自行车道（不像杭州，无锡或者武汉），而且在以肉眼可见的速度修建越来越多的专门骑车的绿道。从我过去一年多一个重度用户的经验来看，总体而言，去大多数地方都很方便。高德地图有专门的自行车路线，一般都比较准确，也更新及时。有一些马路，譬如南京西路，是不让走自行车的 - 但是跟南京西路平行的几条马路都可以骑，所以问题不大。

我几乎没有被任何办公楼/商场的保安拦在门口过。如果有保安问，在他面前折叠起来他就明白了，这无非是一件可以拎在手里的行李箱。听说有个别的写字楼连折叠自行车都不让进，譬如恒隆广场。上海的商场品类繁多，避开这几个钉子户就可以了。

上海的官方规则里折叠自行车是不能进地铁的 - 虽然经常听到布友仍然把小布拐带进去。这个问题不大，因为既然是骑自行车的话，其实没有太多场景非得要坐地铁。实在骑车不方便，就打车好了，把小布折起来放在出租车后箱里。

黄浦江是不能骑自行车过江的。要骑车过江，只能做轮渡。这一点上海是欠缺考虑了一点，但我的活动半径主要在浦西区域，所以影响不大。

小布有多重？拎起来方便吗？折叠起来方便吗？可以上自动扶梯吗？​

二速的小布大概是13公斤，六速的小布稍微更重一些，大概14公斤。男生女生拎起来都没有问题。因为小布可以作为拖车折叠，所以如果需要搬运的距离比较远我就直接拖行了，几乎从来不需要手拎小布超过50米。

小布的折叠举世闻名，实在是一件让人叹为观止的艺术，非常方便，十五秒内可以完成。它有三种折叠的方式，没有亲眼见过的人会非常难以想象这是一个什么样的物种。

在商场里上下自动扶梯都没有问题，稍微注意一下前后的尺寸就可以了。

小布多少钱？在哪里买？“国布”是什么？​

小布是个神奇的品牌，基本款式只有一个，13,900元，不分男女，但是在颜色，变速器，车把上有区别，而且还经常出各种联名限量版。基本款的材料是钢，还有钛合金版，起价19,150元。在中国只有三家小布的直营店，分别在北京，上海，沈阳。上海的直营店最近搬到静安嘉里中心北楼一层了，直接面对Lululemon。

Brompton的版权最近到期了，国内厂商开始做自己的小布 - “国布”。国布会便宜很多，而且颜色比较奔放。

会不会被小偷偷车？ 需要给小布上锁吗？为什么没有自行车支架？​

不用担心。小布应该无时不刻地跟随在你身边。在高端自行车里有个说法，车在人在。你去大多数地方，都可以把小布拎进去，何必需要锁？这么好看的车，当然不会把它停在无人看护的地方了。

有位骑公路车的朋友的说法深得我心，既然是装逼，就要装到底。如果用支架的话，逼格全无（真正的原因是，支架完全没有必要，而且增加不必要的重量）。

骑小轮车，会不会被人笑话？骑小布会影响我的职业形象吗？​

正常的自行车/公路车是24寸的大轮，小布是16寸的小轮。有人可能觉得，骑大轮车看起来雄壮威武，骑小轮车似乎比较柔弱甚至偏女性风格。一开始我也有这个想法，不过很快就打消了。小布的灵魂是“骚”，体现的是大都市里的灵活，张扬，腔调，特立独行和不拘一格。小轮才显得灵动，大轮在城市里反而显得笨拙甚至用力过猛。而且，小布的车身长度其实跟公路车差不多，所以，看起来落落大方，并不显得窘迫。其他的折叠自行车因为车身比较短，看起来就真的跟土拨鼠一样了。

Brompton是标准的英伦风度，默认情景是穿着西装领带骑着小车去参加董事会议。每年在伦敦举办的的BWC (Brompton World Championship)对着装有严格要求，需要尽量走英式复古风。大家都是穿着西装短裤，彩色袜子，彩色帽子，彩色领带骑着自己的小布来参赛。

小布走的是复古路线，所有的配件都可以换成更加精雕细琢的文艺范 - 这也是个无底洞。改装的诱惑是难以抗拒的，譬如这个绿色的意大利牛皮座椅Selle Italia:

骑小轮车快吗？转弯方便吗？​

小布轻松碾压所有的共享单车，不亚于大部分的公路车。小布可以参加大多数的公路车竞赛，虽然得冠军不可能，但也不会落后太多。我五月份参加环法自行车中国站的滴水湖62KM挑战赛，以2小时14分完成比赛，均速27公里。总共大约2,000名选手参赛（绝大多数都是闪电或者Trek这样的公路车），包括了国内众多成名高手，我最后排名是1,045，几乎打败了一半的公路车。骑小布我的最高时速可达40公里，再往上就不一定稳得住了。公路车当然会更快，如果在平路上短距离比赛，任何公路车一提速都可以把小布拉爆，但这个比较意义不大。在长距离的竞赛里，最关键的还是耐力，在公路车上要一直保持30公里以上的均速也是不小的难度。在市区里骑车，因为过红绿灯需要走走停停，公路车的瞬间提速几乎没有什么作用，最后还是老老实实跟小布一起等绿灯。另外，小布轮子小，在小空间里腾挪要比大轮车更为方便。而且，小布的座椅高度可以自己随时调整，更加适合在市区里骑行。公路车为了速度和省力，坐垫都架得比较高，给腿最大的空间，但这样人得像虾米一样弓下来，在闹市里骑，其实看起来颇不自然。

有没有大轮子的折叠车？​

有20寸和24寸的折叠车，但我觉得这样的车就太大了，意义有限。拎起来也重，放在车里也勉强。折叠车考虑16寸就可以了。

平时骑车需要带头盔吗？会不会很麻烦？​

平时在市区里骑行我通常不带头盔，比较麻烦，而且因为速度并不会太高，也没有必要。如果骑比较长的距离到郊区，还是会带上头盔，更加安全一些。

下雨怎么办？​

小布的配包是个大学问，建议在市区里经常骑行的话配一个完全防水的包。我通常在包里会带上一件完全防雨的骑行雨披，在真正的大雨里使用，这样雨披可以为人和车都挡雨。中等雨就穿一件Patagonia的雨衣，比穿雨披简单。小雨的话就披上一件薄薄的皮肤衣，稍微挡几滴雨就可以了。

小布可以放在车后箱里吗？​

Tesla Model-3的后座里可以放两辆小布，一个竖着放，一个横着放。Tesla Model-Y里放两个小布当然绰绰有余，甚至还可以放一辆非折叠款的儿童车（譬如Early Rider)。

小布适合什么样的人？它的精髓是什么？​

上海有几个小布微信群，大概有几百米布友。大致目测的话，男女各占一般，老中青各个年龄段都有。小布适合住在市区，喜欢品质生活，喜欢探索城市，喜欢呼朋唤友，喜欢泡咖啡店网红餐厅的人。对于住在郊区出入都是司机开车的人，小布可能过于清新了些。

布友对自己的小布都有一种病态的迷恋 - 你在其他公路车骑手身上是看不到这一点的。布友到了一处网红景点，先把小布靠墙拍照，再折叠起来拍照，再从不同角度，用不同景深来凸现小布的各处细节。小布也的确是上照，任何破旧的墙角铁门，红墙瓦房，前面摆辆小布顿时就蓬荜生辉，逼格逼人。布友跟自己的小布之间，有一种难以莫民的归属感和依赖感。

骑小布可以去什么地方？​

上海的浦西还有很多老洋房，骑着小布穿街走巷是很惬意的。浦东的滨江大道是上海最有名的自行车道，从北段的北墙到南端的南墙，一共22公里，沿途都是公园，草坪，休息站，可以一遍骑车一遍尽享黄浦江景。苏州河的南北两岸也是骑车的高频路线，尤其到了靠近外滩有好几座大铁桥，是布友打卡圣地。在上海以外，几乎每个城市都有很好的专供骑车的绿道，杭州，苏州，扬州，宁波，南京等等。从全国来看，太湖环线，千岛湖环线，海南岛环线，台湾环线，青岛湖环线是几个最常见的骑行高赞路线。在疫情蔓延以前，欧美很多布友是骑着小布周游世界的。在国内也不乏有布友从上海骑到西藏。小布虽然定位为都市出行，但它的性能及其优越，质量非常可靠，公路车可以去的地方，它都可以去。

有哪些小布的网站可以关注的？​

• 小布官网：https://www.brompton.com
• 小布国内公共号：BromptonBicycle小布服务号
• 小布微信小程序：Brompton折叠自行车
• 微信公共号：神骑瞎侣
• 微信公共号：小布折叠车
• 微信公共号：小布与咖啡店

购买小布有哪些选项需要考虑？​

小布卖得超火，有时下了订单得等好几个月。如果不想等的话，走进店里，有什么就买什么。首先要选择二速，三速，还是六速。在上海这种平缓的城市里，二速就足够了。但如果以后想去江浙一带的景区譬如千岛湖骑行的话，还是需要六速。有了六速基本就可以上天入地，无所不能了。第二个选择是车把，有三种车把：S-把是平的，比较像公路车的骑法，得把背弓下去；M-把弯起来一点，适合大多数人；H-把稍微高一些，适合个子比较高的人。通常都是选择M-把。最后也是最重要的，就是选择颜色。小布有十几万种颜色的搭配，让人目眩神迷，这几乎是它相对于其他品牌最独特的地方。小布官方每年会推出几种新的颜色，譬如活力橙（我的），邮政绿（六城转的）。这些颜色在当年卖完后以后就不会再出了，只能通过二手交易市场买到。布友们聚会，第一件事情就是叽叽喳喳地点评其他小布的颜色。一辆颜色卓然不群的小布会往往引来布友们垂涎欲滴的眼神。我觉得，在购买第一辆小布时不用为颜色过于纠结。

因为，最让你心仪的小布，永远是下一辆。

More COVID-19 outbreaks have been reported in multiple cities in China in the last few days. A few cities went back into shut-down mode, again. Delta variant seems to be spreading fast. Is the worst yet to come? It's anyone's guess.

Chris Dixon​

Patrick O'Shaughnessy is booking some stellar guest speakers for his booming podcast. He's got a deep voice that projects authority and maturity, making him a natural host, even though his knowledge in the crypto space is somewhat limited.

Chris Dixon is a partner from Andreessen Horowitz, leading its newly raised $2.2 Billion crypto fund. This interview is an introductory primer on blockchain, good for people who still need to clear basic concepts. Dixon likened the current blockchain to the early days of iPhone and App Store, when the most innovative developers were flocking to build apps even though nobody would imagine this mobile platform still in infancy would one day create super apps like Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and Wechat. I also reminisce June 29, 2007 when I bought my first iPhone on its release date in an Apple Store in Santa Barbara, California while attending a friend's wedding. It couldn't do much yet but just looked gorgeous. The only thing I could do was to slide the bar on home screen from left to right and that was enough to dazzle the entire room of guests.

Dixon led A16Z's investment of DFINITY. DFINITY has been saying a lot how a blockchain-enabled Internet Computer would disrupt the incumbent cloud computing players like AWS and Google. Interestingly, Dixon's stance on this is much less aggressive. Without making a direct reference to DFINITY, he doesn't think blockchain will replace AWS but supplement it. With recent mega round of Solana, maybe A16Z has just made too many investments in the crypto space and it's become too difficult an act to balance multiple competing narratives?

Dixon recommends three white papers, Satoshi Nakamoto on Bitcoin in 2009, Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum in 2013 and Makerdao in 2020.

CZ Zhao​

CZ Zhao has quite a rags-to-riches story in founding world's largest crypto exchange Binance. He was frequently featured on various podcasts in 2018 and 2019. It seems that since moving to Singapore, he's appeared much less for media interviews. The Wolf of All Streets is not a first-tiered podcast by any stretch but it has the most recent podcast interview of CZ in May 2021. It's a good starting point to meet and hear from CZ, who is now a larger-than-life major influencer on Twitter for crypto.

Similar to many Chinese in my generation who moved to the west after teenage years, CZ has a bit of accent in his English. He speaks fast and sometimes rambles slightly, but you can tell he's sincere and doesn't try to smooth-talk his way out of things. The host Scott Melker was easy on his famed guest. His questions were not thought-provoking but mostly softballs. No matter how CZ answered the question, good or bad, the host would wrap up with something cozy and hold CZ for a soft landing.

Holing up in crypto haven Singapore, CZ goes to bed at 2-3am and rises at 9am. He does 20-30 meetings of 15 minutes interval throughout the day. That's quite a hectic schedule! It would look very much like the daily schedule of a Level 10 VP in AWS. CZ's role seems more like a Chief Firefighting Officer than a CEO one. Binance's management team has seen much turmoil, from the disappearance of his co-founder He Yi, the mysterious ousting of Binance US CEO Catherine Coley, to the quitting of Coley's successor Brian Brooks after only 3 months. This paints an interesting comparison to Vitalik, who as Ethereum's chief spokesperson and thought leader, doesn't seem to get involved in the day-to-day coding or development of Ethereum 2.0 that much. Vitalik also spent a good chunk of time in Singapore in recent months. He even had the pleasure to finish the 45-hour audio book of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the entire series of Hardcore History of Dan Carlin. For visionary pioneers like CZ, he has been bogged down by too many meetings. His team needs to alleviate him from those mundane tasks.

CZ also cuts his own hair. With reported $1.9 Billion wealth, he can live a little. Singapore is a nice place to chill. Since Balaji, Vitalik and CZ are all in Singapore, do they meet for coffee or hang out for happy hour drinks?

Spencer Glendon​

Spencer Glendon of Woodwell Climate Research Center and Rebecca Henderson from Harvard spoke about climate change in this podcast episode. After running Wellington Management, one of world's largest asset management firms' research division as a managing director, Spencer changed gear into climate change and joined Woodwell to become a research fellow. Both from Harvard, Glendon and Henderson shared mutual respect and bounced off each other quite well on a variety of topics on sustainable leadership.

A lot of CEOs have come to Glendon for advice on what their firms can do to battle climate change. For a start, Glendon sends out a monthly newsletter Solstice Letter. His team has been working on Probable Futures site that provides an interactive map of the impact of climate change. His Woodwell Institute, is also worth a look. It's said to be the ground zero of climate change research akin to Silicon Vally in the early days of Internet boom.

Robert Mile's Children (Dream Version) would be a fitting song to close out this week. Future is coming at us in high velocity, though its exact shape or form still remains to be seen.

Until next week.

You must be surprised why you're getting this email and ... what a blast from the past!

Many of you used to subscribe to the mailing list of my personal blog "The Good the Bad and the Curious". I cannot be certain which of you were actually on that list because Mailchimp, the top mailing list provider, deleted my account.

Since moving back to Shanghai in 2018, I haven't found much time to write. One reason was that my job demanded too much time in meetings, doc writing, and interviews; the other reason was that I didn't figure out an elegant method of creating multiple and complementary narratives for different personas of myself. This website is linked to my real-life identity that at times may become target of scrutiny so I had to very careful.

Mailchimp has this policy to delete an account after 24 months of inactivity (didn't know that before). So I lost the original mailing list that included emails of some of you that I know in real life, as well as emails from some total strangers who had been a fan. What a shame.

So I did something you may or may not fancy - I unilaterally added your emails to a new mailing list. This is part of the bigger project, where I migrated the original https://guizishanren.com, generated by Python-based Pelican, to a self-hosted Ghost site. A lot of articles from 2012 to 2018 are yet to pop up here as this migration continues. I just need to do a lot of tedious copy-n-pasting and format-cleaning. When the old contents are re-released, your inbox will be oh so quiet. You will only receive a newsletter for new articles from this point onward.

This is a bit of an awkward exercise. I don't want to call this my BFF list but I do have to gauge how much potential interest the receiving party has on me. Being friend is one thing. Receiving his rambling in inbox is quite another. By adding your email into this list, I'm making a very presumptuous move. Please bear with me.

If you don't want to receive articles from this blog, just click the unsubscribe button. No hard feelings - I subscribe to around 20 newsletters and the bar is getting increasingly higher for contents that would find their way to my inbox. If you are interested as before, stay on and I appreciate the support. If you find this blog interesting and would recommend it to another friend, all the better.

There will be subtle differences from this "fork" going forward. The contents will be more geared toward what readers are interested in and less about what I want to get off my chest, which I reckon was probably an issue in the past. Recent learnings from thought leaders like Naval and Balaji made me realize that emails and collection of emails (mailing list) are the only meaningful social foundation (before public/private key pair goes mainstream) we can ever have, in this fast disentangling world. It's not cell phone number, not website domain, not browser bookmark, not Linkedin URL, not Facebook page and certainly not WeChat. A friend used to say I should position myself as a dinner party host. I'm taking his advice to heart and deploying that online on this site. Added features include a Commento-enabled comment box where you are welcome to leave comments, even anonymously.

My friends and audience in real-life are always mixed bags of Chinese and non-Chinese, so this site will still be written in both Chinese and English, as before. I'll move off a lot of other more technical articles to other sites I created recently that use pseudonyms. I'm creating online pseudonymous personas that are completely separated from my real-life identity. In those parallel universes (avoiding the buzzword "metaverse" is a real challenge), I can speak freely without worrying about being judged unfairly because of who I am, what I do and whom I know. To make sure these few worlds are strictly mutually exclusive to each other, I need to carefully allocate articles to different baskets that accentuate the related personas. What remains in this universe of The Good the Bad the Curious are things that are only meaningful or interesting by knowing me as a person in real-life. I want to build a platform that grows purely based my ideas and contents - the much fabled thousand true fans if not many more. It will be interesting to see which universe will get there first, this one that's tied to my identity in the physical world, or the other one(s) that talk about very different topics all together. I will not make this easy for you by giving away my other pseudonymous identities. I would rather you run into them on your own course serendipitously. That would be a lovely chance encounter.

Thank you for staying with me through all these years.

Increasingly more friends are getting interested in crypto and would like to learn more about it. In this part of the world, there is not a lot of publicly available information on this subject. What is easily available on social media is often associated with scams that target "chives" (韭菜 in Chinese or noobs who don't know any better). Information abounds, but good quality content is hard to find. So I compiled a list of content sources where you can start learning about it and stay up to date in this fast changing space.

News sites​

To get into the flow and receive relevant news from reputable sources, these three Wechat public accounts (微信公共号) are the best so far:

• 橙皮书
• 吴说区块链real
• 链闻ChainNews

There are many other Wechat public accounts that try to feed into the insatiable curiosity and interest from general public on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Defi, etc. I find that these three accounts collectively provide solid breadth and depth on crypto industry with consistently quality updates and analytics that are sufficient for beginners and practitioners. It would not be a bad idea to read all the articles from them in recent six months.

Social Media​

Follow some influencers on Twitter and Weibo. Don't waste time on Wechat Moments (朋友圈). It's an echo chamber that adds very little new information. On Weibo,

• 万卉Dovey
• BillTheInvestor
• 硅谷王川

... are good jump-off points that can lead to discovery of other interesting KOLs in China. Twitter is the basecamp of all things crypto and blockchain. This is where things are happening in real-time and dialogues are taking place that shape the future of ... the society.

Newsletters​

Subscribe to newsletters. Traditional centralized media is increasingly giving way to decentralized, independent media that is often in the form of newsletters written up by KOLs in the know.

• ConsenSys | SIGNAL
• Messari | Unqualified Opinions
• The Pomp Letter
• 1729
• The Daily Gwei

Podcasts​

Listen to podcasts. The best long-form interviews are usually only available in podcast. My favorite podcast app is Castbox instead of Apple's default one. Tim Ferriss' podcast is not exclusively about blockchain/crypto, but his three below episodes with legendary Nick Szabo, Vitalik/Naval, and Balaji are required listens for everyone in this industry. They are intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking, spectacularly.

• Bankless | Legitimacy with Vitalk Buterin
• Into the Ether
• Unchained
• a16z Podcast | All About NFTs
• The Tim Ferriss Show | #506: The Episode of Everything with Balaji
• The Tim Ferriss Show | #504: Vitalik Interviewed by Naval
• The Tim Ferriss Show | #244: The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency - Nick Szabo

Follow L0/L1 Protocols​

Follow the social media of top 20 cryptos. Every noteworthy platform has its own token now and everyone is trying to grow its social media presence on Twitter, Telegram and Discord, besides its own newsletter subscriber base. The best way to get unfiltered news is to start from the source. Here's the cohort of top 20 by market cap as of May 24, 2021 according to coinmarketcap.com. Protocols outside of top 20 would have a hard time gaining critical mass adoption.

Read Books​

Generally books may not be the best medium to go deep into crypto as the industry is evolving too fast for writers to keep up with, but a few books have been holding up pretty well and are still very relevant in 2021.

• The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking by Saifedean Ammous
• The Infinite Machine: How an Army of Crypto-hackers Is Building the Next Internet with Ethereum by Camila Russo
• Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps by Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood
• Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain (2nd Edition) by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Whitepapers​

Last but not the least, read the original writing from the creators.

• Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Whitepaper
• Vitalk Buterin's website
• Dominic Williams on DFINITY and The Internet Computer

This should be enough to get one started in crypto and blockchain, a journey that is full of creativity, audacity and excitement.

Shanghai entered into summer time decisively this week with sustained high temperature and occasional drizzle. Gossamer begin to drop from Phoenix trees in the French Concession district, forcing many people to wear mask or even carry umbrella to avoid inhaling it. A lot of people are taking this week off to extend the 3-day national holiday of May First to enjoy vacation trips or spend time with family. It's a slow week of recuperation and paying off technical debt.

Protonmail​

I made a few changes in my technical stack. Protonmail is in and Gmail is out. While Gmail's functionality has remained almost stale in the last ten years, Protonmail offers much better encryption and streamlined domains management. At one point I toyed with the idea of hosting my own email server to avoid emails being scanned by Google for advertisers. That's a bit too heavy-handed though so I settled with Protonmail's service, paying $10+ a month now for its Professional Plan that allows for 1 user + 5GB + 5 addresses + 4 domains. Compared to my Gmail plan where I have +100GB storage space, this seems puny. If I can maintain a zero inbox and delete emails diligently (and by default), 5GB should actually be enough to go around. Gmail's generous storage has little value to me when I not only am forced to expose personal data to greedy advertisers but also have become a target of tireless spammers.

Gitlab​

Gitlab is in and Github is out. Since I picked up programming more than 10 years ago, I've become obsessed with writing in Markdown with version control. There are important personal things I want to keep track with, such as continuously evolving CV, bio, resume, sitemap of various web properties and projects, as well as repos of my coding projects. I used to put them all on Github in mix of public and private repos paying a few bucks a month. Github is a great platform and community, but why do I want to expose my data to a centralized third party when I can handle that on my own? On a sunny afternoon I installed a local copy of Gitlab server on my Synology NAS and it was much easier than I thought. I should have done this much earlier ... duh! My NAS is configured for RAID 10 redundancy so I feel pretty comfortable that my code base and personal data can be stored there safely and more importantly, privately.

Ghost​

Ghost is in and Pelican is out. In an earlier post, I explained how I migrated from static site generator Pelican to Ghost, which allows for much more dynamic and closely integrated workflow with Stripe and newsletter. So far Ghost looks pretty robust with a responsive development team and passionate community. Static site generator still has its charm - [DFINITY](https://dfinity.org/'s demo of Motoko language uses Gatsby that has React Native as the front-end engine. Growing an audience through newsletter is all about engagement though - Ghost is giving me enough trinkets to do just that.

In a casual chat, a friend mentioned that he knows David Bowie. What he said confirmed some of the suspicions about Bowie but that's all fine with me. I couldn't help but re-watching the duet of Comfortably Numb between David Bowie and David Gilmour. What Bowie brought to this legendary song is just incredible and a stroke of pure genius. He used a very particular pitch that created magical chemistry and mashed perfectly with the original tone of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

Until next time.

I've been blogging for about 15 years since the early days of blogger.com and mySpace. For the hours I spent in content creation, probably 80% went into the actual writing and at least 20% went into finding a good tool and fine-tuning it. While writing and sharing comes to me more or less naturally, it's been a continuous challenge and sometimes struggle to find the best blogging platform.

After blogger.com and mySpace got acquired and inevitably fizzled out, I started using Wordpress and hosted my blog on a VPS. Wordpress seemed easy enough with its famous 5-minute installation guide. Very quickly my Wordpress blog became bloated though. There are too many things under the MySQL hood that are hard to control. There are too many layers of frameworks that are convoluting and dependent on each other. Wordpress is still widely used today and proven very useful for users with little to no technical background, but I outgrew it a few years ago as I picked up Python and CSS from my startup days. I thought I could do more with my blog and didn't want to be constrained by Wordpress' limited functionalities. I switched into Pelican, a Python-based static site generator that enables writing in Markdown and generates static web pages. The next few years saw the biggest output of my blogging journey fueled by the simple and yet powerful Pelican. Embolden by my rudimentary knowledge of Python, I tinkered with all kinds of parameters in Pelican configuration file and developed a Git-based deployment workflow. It was streamlined, deterministic and elegant.

Yet my writing subsided significantly in the last 2-3 years and I wondered why. Maybe the work became too consuming? Maybe I was handicapped by my real-life persona? Or maybe I craved more from the audience and felt the good old blog has become too monotonous?

[Balajis](https://balajis.com/' recently launched 1729.com was a wake-up call for me. In A Newsletter That Pays You to Make Newsletters, Balajis unabashedly proclaimed that:

It's not obvious, but if you want to live forever you should start a newsletter ... That'll mean technological progressives from around the world, running a thousand individual newsletters, constantly pushing for technology in general and reversing aging in particular, writing like their lives depended on it. In other words, blog or die!

It struck me that there is a major difference between a blog and a newsletter. While the line might be blurring and many use two notions interchangeably, a newsletter goes beyond just sharing what interests "me" the author as an aspiring hobby and strives to build an audience with vested shared interests in an interactive fashion. Ultimately it builds a narrative that supports the author or influencer's beliefs and values as traditional media companies gradually give way to the rise of decentralized self-media outlets. Also it's now possible to do pseudonymous monetization. In rear mirror I focused too much on getting things out of my chest rather than creating a two-way feedback loop with people that resonate with my ideas and perspectives. It's time for a change.

Once the conceptual positioning is clear, selecting the right platform is not difficult. Pelican can be integrated with Mailchimp as well to send out newsletter. It can work with commenting tools like Disqus too with no problem. It can support decent SEO effort. It can be integrated with Stripe too if I try hard enough, I guess. That being said, Pelican as a framework seems too simple to handle these tasks if not slightly inadequate. It generates a static web page fine and anything beyond that would take a lot more substantial effort that doesn't seem worth it. The community of Pelican bloggers hasn't grown that much in recent years either. Writing in Markdown used to be cool and novel, but that's now a standard feature in many blogging platforms or note-taking tools such as Roam Research.

The choice was narrowed down to Medium, Substack and Ghost. Medium was red hot a few years ago and sat on the tip of the pyramid in Silicon Valley's version of the new Maslow's hierarchy of needs (along with driving a Tesla and meditation). It seemed that at one point everyone around me was writing on Medium. The paywall it introduced was a big turn-off though and I gradually moved away from reading articles behind its paywall. For a committed paying user it's probably still a good platform to discover good contents. But for writers, Medium owns the readers and determines who gets to read what in an utterly centralized fashion. Circa 2021, this feature along is sufficient to kill the incentive for an aspiring writer. If I'm going to spend that much effort creating my own content, I want to own my audience, 100%.

Having just raised $65 million Series B with a valuation around $650 million in early 2021, Substack has become a dominant player in this space and attracted many celebrity writers, such as Bill Bishop of Sinocism. Substack borrows the playbook what works well for Medium by removing all the heavy-lifting work (like Stripe integration and running a newsletter) for writers to allow them to focus on content creation. It goes one step further by allowing writers to own their mailing lists (Medium doesn't). For all these it charges a 10% fee from revenues collected from subscribers. It's probably good value for money for many writers, but I don't want to pay 10% for hosting my newsletter. I don't want to pay anything at all.

So it boils down to Ghost. It seems to be able to do all the things Substack does as well and offers a self-hosting option for those who are able to use its open-sourced code on Github (37.4K stars). I'm already paying for VPS service from Linode and hosting a Ghost blog seems straight forward enough. This seals the deal for me.

I'll share more in later posts on hosting multiple Ghost blogs on a single VPS instance, selecting the best comment framework, and creating multiple Commento systems for different blogs on the same VM. It's fairly quick to set up. There is a large variety of mobile-friendly themes to choose from. The integration with Stripe and Mailgun is walk in the park.

So far, writing on Ghost is a breeze. The journey continues.

Until next time.

On March 7, 1082, iconic Chinese poet Su Shi[1] went to Sand Lake in the southeast of Huang Zhou[2] to buy some lands with a few friends. On their way back, it started down pouring. Su Shi immortalized this chance encounter with a poem[3]:

Calming the Wind and Waves

Listen not to the rain beating against the trees

Why don't you slowly walk and chant with ease?

Better than saddled horse I like sandals and cane, Oh, I would fain.

In a straw cloak, spend my life in mist and rain

Drunk, I am sobered by vernal wind shrill And rather chill

In front I see the slanting sun atop the hill

Turning my head, I find the dreary beaten track

Let me go back!

Impervious to wind, rain or shine, I'll have my will.

A natural born optimist, Su Shi at this very moment effortlessly achieved the ultimate cool admired by all Chinese intellectuals that came after him. Unlike his peers, he maintained his composure and feared nothing. He was not intimidated by rain or wind, or the lack of saddled horse. He toyed with what came at him and carried on with having fun with them. He was comfortable with what he got and tried to make the most out of it in a game spirit. He carried himself with supreme confidence, while at the same time staying vigilant to his surroundings with a keen sense of what's happening around him. He was determined to march forward and wouldn't be deterred by the legacy. He's got grit.

Huang Zhou at the time was hardly a chosen destination by Su Shi's preference. He was demoted and banished from the capital city and cast away, due to political differences with the ruling power. It was a low point in his illustrious political career. Somehow Huang Zhou became quite a source of inspiration for Su Shi during his four-year stay there. Among all 2,000-plus poems and articles in his life, about one third came from the Huang Zhou era. Su Shi did more than just walking and singing in the rain with only a straw cloak. He turned an adversity into opportunity, carpe diem, and lived his life to the absolute fullest.

That, is the spirit of 1082.

1. Su Shi (苏轼/苏东坡, 1037 to 1101), legendary Chinese polymath, poet, writer, politician, calligrapher, painter, pharmacologist and gastronome of the Song dynasty. Su Shi is revered by many to be the greatest Chinese artist ever lived.

2. Huang Zhou (黄州) is known as Huang Gang (黄冈) today in Hubei province, China. Huang Gang enjoys a reputation in modern China for producing astounding high percentage of International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) world champions.

3. The English version above by Xu Yuanchong of Peking University seems to be the best. Here's the original Chinese version.

   定风波 莫听穿林打叶声，何妨吟啸且徐行。 竹杖芒鞋轻胜马，谁怕？一蓑烟雨任平生。 料峭春风吹酒醒，微冷，山头斜照却相迎。 回首向来萧瑟处，归去，也无风雨也无晴。

That podcast didn't happen. Chinese accent was not a thing yet then, and it was hard to focus on pursuing something like this in Beijing, or anything in Beijing at all. Also, podcast was still in its early days. There wasn't a huge audience for it. Good programs were limited. I used to tune in for A Prairie Home Companion and NPR's It's Politics! in Boston. Both shows seemed fairly remote to the bustling life in Beijing.

Fast forwarding to 2017 in Palo Alto, CA, I find myself spending 30 ~ 60 minutes a day listening to podcasts. Thanks to a very handy LG Electronics Tone Pro HBS-750 Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headset, I listen to podcasts during running, walking, driving, waiting, and washing dishes. It's become an indispensable daily routine for me.

The technology hasn't changed all that much, but the amount of high-quality content available nowadays through podcast is astounding. There is not a week that goes by without me hearing about some new podcasts popping up from well established news outlets. Everybody who can book famous guests is doing his/her own podcast show now.

Here's a list of my favorite 14 podcasts with recommended episodes to get you started:

The Tim Ferriss Show​

Ferriss deconstructs the success formula for world-class performers of all walks with hard-core long-form content. As a startup founder, I've learned a great deal from his very insightful interviews. He produces the ultimate self-improvement show that rules all other self-improvement shows. He is a social phenomenon and wonder to behold who has an uncanny ability to find common ground with any guest. Sometimes I get turned off with the ads and feel he tries too hard to relate to the guest, but it's hard to look away from his epic interviews of Kevin Kelly and Jamie Foxx.

Featured episode: #118: How Philosophy Can Change Your Life, Alain de Botton.

State of the Union with Jake Tapper​

When President Obama jokes about you at White House Correspondents' Dinner, you have arrived (the irony is unintended...SAD). Jake Tapper is one of the best interviewers now on networks. His clout was evident in 2016 election, when he routinely interviewed major candidates every Sunday. It was unreal. He demonstrates first-class journalistic skill in asking the right question and getting meaningful answers from his interviewees (unless your name is Kellyanne Conway, who clearly lives in an alternative universe with alternative facts).

Featured episode: Tim Kaine, Rudy Giuliani and our expert panel on Oct 8. Witness how Tapper destroyed Giuliani two days after the infamous Hollywood Access tape broke out, when Giuliani was the ONLY human being willing to defend Trump (even Chris Christie gave up at that point).

NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour​

I get my weekly pop culture fix from Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson and Glen Weldon. Being effortlessly funny with enviable chemistry, they're such a fun trio to listen to. There are many podcast shows on entertainment. This is easily the best. Other shows either try too hard to be funny, or wonder into meaningless rambling about the hosts themselves. Linda's team gets that balance, just right. In general I trust their taste in movies and TV (Glen plays Final Fantasy XV. Checked.) and get off on their jokes a lot.

Featured episode: The Fate of the Furious, Plus Clapbacks and Feuds.

NPR: Politics Podcast​

I probably spend the most time with this podcast. The team from NPR does an awesome job covering every major story on capital hill. Most podcasts, in radio station's tradition, have multiple chairs. This is where professional radio hosts outshine amateurs, as it takes a combination of science and art to have multiple voices forming a clear discussion. Nobody does this better than NPR. This show stands out for several things: 1) You can just feel the energy and passion of this team talking about things they love. The spirit is infectious. 2) Ron Elving is a national treasure. 3) A nice personal touch from their "can't let this go this week" segment.

Featured episode (every episode with Ron Elving): Weekly Roundup: Thursday, April 27, A shutdown deadline deferred as the 100th day approaches.

The Daily (The New York Times)​

Most episodes from The Daily are around 20 minutes. This is very convenient for me as I often can't commit 40~60 minutes to finish an episode, which is the standard length for most podcasts. Michael Barbaro from The New York Times gets me started everyday on major news with short interviews of journalists from The Times.

Featured episode: Friday, May 19, 2017, The latest revelations from the Comey memos and from James Comey’s confidant, who talked on the record — and on tape — to The New York Times. Guest: Michael S. Schmidt.

The New Yorker Radio Hour​

I got to know David Remnick from his AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY on November 9, 2016, a historical moment for which many years later, many of us will look back and wonder, where I was, and what I was doing then? I became a fan immediately. Remnick is better at writing than talking, as his voice carries a sense of eagerness that his statue in the media doesn't need necessarily. That said, he's David Remnick after all.

Featured episode: 56: Leonard Cohen’s Last Days and Donald Trump’s First Term.

The Axe Files with David Axelrod​

Three years ago when I listened to Axelrod's podcast for the first time, I didn't know who he was and thought he was a bit rude sometimes to his guests, as he had a tendency to cut them off at slightly off timing. I know who he is now and understand why he can get away with it. He basically carried Obama and sent him from Chicago to the White House. To be fair, he's no professional radio host. That explains his occasional off-timing in interviews. Axelrod's podcast on CNN has an interesting theme - how they got here? He interviews heavyweights and discusses their transformational journeys to understand how they became who they are today. Those interviews are fascinating.

Featured episodes:

• 114 - Thomas Friedman
• 108 - President Barack Obama
• 99 - Steve Kerr

a16z​

Surprisingly, good podcasts on technology are hard to come by. Some are just too long and taking themselves too seriously with illusional self ego (This Week in Tech), or just doesn't know how to talk. Many are painful to listen to. a16z from Silicon Valley's top VC Andreessen Horowitz is the best I've tried. Domain experts, from analysts to partners of Andreessen Horowitz, talk about the latest trends in technology, and get to pretty good depth. The host is not a technical person but she does a reasonable hosting job of steering discussions into the right direction.

Featured episode:

• When Humanity Meets A.I. with Fei-Fei Li
• Tech and Entertainment in the ‘Era of Mass Customization’ on Netflix.

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy​

When the host David Barr Kirtley starts speaking, you can tell instantly he's a geek. He's got that geek's wonky voice. After finishing up voluminous episodes from Tim Ferriss religiously, David Kirtley's voice is a refreshing change, and kinda cute. Kirtley's hosting is not nearly as smooth as those from NPR or Ferriss, but it's a special type of charm to listen to one geek interviewing a few other geeks.

Featured episodes (does it get any geekier than these two?):

• 253. Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
• 183. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (with John Joseph Adams, Matt London, Rajan Khanna, Jordan Hamessley London)

##Soundings from the New York Review of Books

The podcast from the prestigious New York Review of Books, which sits at the peak of Mt. Olympia for American literal intellectuals. Its founder and editor Robert B. Silvers just passed away in March 2017. It doesn't seem to have a regular schedule. President Obama was invited to interview Marilynne Robinson last year, a rare honor for an American president.

Featured episode: President Obama and Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation

The Monocle Arts Review​

This list would not be meaningful without something from Monocle. They have a sprawling lineup of podcasts now, from The Monocle Weekly, Culture with Robert Bound to The Monocle Arts Review. Only Slate can rival its comprehensiveness, but Monocle is so much cooler.

Featured episode: Film round-up, Venice Biennale and Damien Hirst

The New Yorker: Politics and More​

The New Yorker’s executive editor, Dorothy Wickenden, in her cool composure, hosts insightful interviews. She doesn't necessarily chase the story of the day, as it's an obligation for many other around-the-clock podcasts.

Featured episode: Michael Anton and Robin Wright Talk to David Remnick about Trump’s First Trip Abroad.

The New York Public Library Podcast​

I wish I could spend more time with this show. They have great speakers doing public talks in New York Public Library, with a mature and sophisticated audience asking live questions.

Featured episode: Paul Krugman on Fake News, Lying Candidates, and What Public Intellectuals Need to Do

NPR: Fresh Air​

Not every podcast I listen to is about politics or entertainment (yeah...right). Fresh Air is more varied, like its name suggests.

Featured episode: Best of: Alec Baldwin on SNL / Trans Punk Rocker Laura Jane Grace

Apple's native podcast app is fairly bad. I use overcast app for podcasts.

松梢藏远山[^1]，晨辉跃阑干

窗外风渐歇，堂内琴正酣[^2]

凌客[^3]心力憔[^4]，黑白键气豪

湖畔[^5]问天下，浥尘[^6]志更坚

My friend LYZ has responded with a much better one, as usual:

凌客远来烽烟倦

瓜舍[^7]湖畔暂偷闲

松影琴声浮云淡

浥尘一曲且悠然

1. Paul and Goblin的院子里有两棵树，左边一棵是松树，右边一棵也是松树
2. Paul and Goblin's elder son is playing Bach
3. 凌客 = Linkqlo
4. 充满挑战的一年
5. Lake Oswego
6. 来自王维七言绝句《渭城曲》之“渭城朝雨浥轻尘”, P&G 老大的中文名
7. Paul在江湖上人称九瓜

房子是个很奇妙的东西，往往第一眼就让人一见钟情。我们在康桥镇住过的这套公寓是由工厂厂房改建而成的loft。阳光从顶层天窗里跨越金戈铁马的层层横梁洒入空寂的大厅，四周廊灯微泛黄光，森然而略有凉意。

客厅里的面积虽然不大，但层高达7米，中间配上近3米的玻璃窗，摆炷香就可以拜佛了。

为了配合公寓不同寻常的比例，我们专门选择了狭长型的家俱，譬如沙发前的茶几和餐桌。餐桌极窄，适合小规模四人聚餐，鼻子碰鼻子，眼睛瞪眼睛，菜碟都得错开摆放才放得下。

那时我们刚刚从法国回来，很多照片跃跃欲试，想跟以前的西藏，圣托里尼一争雄长。为了公平起见，遂在楼梯上做了个简单的相廊。

相廊从一楼的客厅延续到二楼的书房，那个时候我的工具还没有进化到vim/MOU/Sublime，书房里的设施也很简单，唯书和沙发而已。

三楼是卧室，窗外隐隐传来Kendall Square的喧嚣，麻神理工神经叨叨的学生们又要开工了。

我们经常走去公寓旁秀丽的查尔斯河畔散步。点点白帆在河面上掠风而行驶向海湾，挥汗如雨的大学生们在皮划艇上奋力吆喝，金色晚霞抹在河对面波士顿市中心的层层高楼，夏季的查尔斯河生机盎然。

公寓旁的Kendall Square有家艺术影院。到了周末，我们站在一群白发苍苍的老爷爷老奶奶中，安静地排队买票，听听大家的吐槽和分享，逐渐接触到了《老男孩》里爆裂阴沉的朴赞郁，《春夏秋冬又一春》里禅意绵绵的金基德，和《色·戒》里忍无可忍无需再忍的李安。

离公寓更远一点，就是北美华人第一膜拜圣地 - 哈佛广场。这里的一家电影院里，每个周六晚都播放同一部电影《Rocky Horror Picture Show》，来自全世界各地的死忠粉在电影院外cosplay的场面能把无辜的路人吓个半死。

更偏僻的一个小巷里，有一家Brattle电影院，每年的2月14日都播放同一部电影《卡萨布兰卡》，粉丝情侣们不光在看电影，还会随着鲍嘉默念每一句铭心刻骨的台词。

很怀念那个在康桥镇风和日丽的日子。我们精心打造的工业化路线，在后来朝阳新家里峰回路转，发生了很大的变化。

The six habits of a highly likely technology noob:

1. Your have more than ONE personal email addresses and your friends are always confused which one to use and spend countless hours verifying and re-verifying if you have received that missing email.

2. You use work email address for personal emails.

3. You still use XXX@yahoo.com for email (except if you're from Taiwan or Japan originally).

4. You have more than TWO mobile numbers in one country and your friends are always confused which one to call you at and they often end up not calling you at all out of frustration and confusion.

5. You have more than ONE WeChat account. You forgot how to delete the first one and you keep your two WeChat accounts in the same chat group and confuse the hell out of everyone else.

6. You still don't have your personalized URL on Linkedin, so your Linkedin URL reads like an unrecognizable random character string.

How many have you been hit on?

在湾区呆了两年，我常去的中餐馆（不在这个名单上的餐馆，要么离Palo Alto太远，要么我很少去）。其他亚洲口味（马来，印度，越南，韩国，日本，泰国，Asian fusion）中值得推荐的餐馆改日另荐。

Palo Alto 地区​

赵师傅, Chef Zhao Kitchen, 2180 W Bayshore Rd, Ste 120, Palo Alto, CA 94303, (650) 485-2221。上海正宗本帮菜。

苏杭小馆, Su Hong Eatery， 4256 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306，(650) 493-4664。江浙风味，家常菜，店小客多。

大四川，Da Sichuan Bistro, 3781 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 849-2000。四川风味，店面很小，环境可称低劣，但口味正宗。

大班，Taipan, 560 Waverley St Palo Alto, CA 94301, (650) 329-9168。粤菜馆，中餐馆里难得的高大上级别，服务，口味，环境，价格，位置，都在Palo Alto首屈一指，适合商务宴请。

鸭子阁，Peking Duck Restaurant, 151 S California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306, (650) 321-9388。口味一般，勉强及格，主要胜在厅足够大，桌子足够多，位置离斯坦福最近，而且，所有的人都知道鸭子阁，因为她在女娲补天的时候就存在了。

Palo Alto 以南​

Michelle’s Pancake House, 19060 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 517-9886。台湾风味，猪肉白菜馅饼呱呱叫，百吃不厌。

上海乔家栅, Shanghai Garden, 20956 Homestead Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 517-9812。上海风味，周末的豆浆油条很不错。

同同水饺，Tong Dumpling, 10869 N Wolfe Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 725-8166。北方口味，专攻各式水饺。

三好拉面, QQ Noodle, 10889 S Blaney Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 253-5858。西北口味，油泼扯面 + 酸辣哨子面！减肥小有所成后报复性午餐的良选。

Shanghai Flavor Shop, 888 Old San Francisco Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086，(408) 738-3003。小笼包非常地道，号称美国西海岸第一。

小肥羊, Mongolian Hot Pot Little Sheep, 19062 Stevens Creek Blvd, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 996-9919。北方火锅，鼎鼎有名的地球人都知道的小肥羊，超级火爆，做好排队准备。

麻辣小站， Spicy Station, 10118 Bandley Dr, Cupertino, CA 95014, (408) 366-1088。周黑鸭！世界杯必备！店面很小，主要是个take-out场所，但服务很好，生意兴隆，鸭头鸭翅鸭脖相当销魂。

Palo Alto 以东，东湾​

食神，Food Talk Cafe, 43755 Boscell Rd, Fremont, CA 94538, (510) 668-0898。店小客多。

韶山冲, Shao Mountain, 43749 Boscell Rd, Fremont, CA 94538,(510) 656-1638。湖南风味。

吃香喝辣-重庆江湖菜, Newark Cafe, 35201 A Newark Blvd, Newark, CA 94560, (510) 713-0128。四川口味，辣，辣，辣！烤鱼和麻辣香锅很不错。

三好拉面，QQ Noodle, 416 Barber Ln, Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 894-9171。西北口味，油泼扯面 + 酸辣哨子面！这家离斯坦福远一些。

清真一条龙, Darda Seafood Restaurant, 296 Barber Ct, Milpitas, CA 95035, (408) 433-5199。算是西北口味，羊肉，大盘鸡等。

Palo Alto 以北，三藩以南​

Cooking Papa Restaurant， 这家比Mountain View那家更大更有名。粤式早茶，隔窗观水，风景宜人。人极多。

Joy Restaurant, 1489 Beach Park Blvd, Foster City, CA 94404, (650) 345-1762。算是台湾风味为主吧，临近三藩湾，适合饭后在一箭之地的堤坝上散步。（春天堤坝上的野花很美）

Everyday Beijing, 637 S B St, San Mateo, CA 94401,(650) 373-7878。京东肉饼！北式早点。

采蝶轩，Zen Peninsula, 1180 El Camino Real, Millbrae, CA 94030, (650) 616-9388。离旧金山机场(SFO)非常近，粤式早茶，服务效率很高，店面气派恢弘，适合婚礼庆典。

三藩​

御厨园, Z&Y Restaurant, 655 Jackson St, San Francisco, CA 94133, (415) 981-8988。湾区最正宗的川菜馆，排队时间最长，人气最高，名气最响。

岭南小馆， R&G Lounge, 631 Kearny St, San Francisco, CA 94108,(415) 982-7877。岭南小馆的成功，基本上可以写进HBS案例了（我正在写）。路过旧金山的朋友，如果只有时间去一家餐馆的话，不是岭南小馆就是御厨园，这是湾区中餐馆里的泰山北斗，一时瑜亮。

If you are a native Chinese, please skip.

If you are a fan of General Tso Chicken, please skip.

If you are not a native Chinese but aspire for good Chinese food once in a while, read on.

When you walk in a Chinese restaurant, whether in the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles or Hawaii, you might fancy ordering like a native Chinese and get something really authentic, not invented-in-America kind of Chinese food (such as General Tso chicken or Beef & Broccoli). The challenge is, it's very difficult to navigate through a Chinese restaurant's menu as no one really understands the English portion of it. Chinese would just go straight to the last two pages that are written entirely in Chinese (so called "Chef's Recommendations") to order (and speak in Chinese to the waiter/waitress). If you don't read Chinese, this option is not available to you.

Well, unless you read on ...

Here's a cookie-cutter guide of ordering authentic dishes in a Chinese Sichuan style restaurant (known for spicy food). It borrows the menu from Da Sichuan Bistro at 3781 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306. You can either just show the Chinese characters to the waiter/waitress, or just give her/him the ID numbers. You will find these same dish names in Chinese in almost any authentic Chinese Sichuan restaurant.

Chinese dishes have very funky English translations and most of them don't make any sense (many sound just utterly terrifying) as nobody reads them anyway. My English comments are not meant to be a literal translation but explanation of what it is.

The numbers in brackets are the corresponding IDs from Da Sichuan, if you don't even bother with showing the Chinese characters.

It goes without saying that they are ALL very delicious. This guide is not meant to cover 100% of what's available out there, but what I'd like to recommend to my non-Chinese friends who might have been deprived of the real joy of tasting quintessential Chinese delicacies. If you can order any of the below dishes, you'll win instant respect and admiration from the waiter/waitress with a look, "well this Lao Wai knows what he/she is doing".

Appetizers​

• 红油抄手, meat dumplings, spicy (306)
• 口水鸡, chicken, salty (101)
• 夫妻肺片, beef & ox tripes, spicy (106)
• 蒜泥白肉, pork, spciy (109)
• 川北凉粉, bean jelly, spicy (111)

Fish​

• 水煮鱼片, fish, spicy (F510)
• 醋溜鱼片, fish, non-spicy (F512)

Pork​

• 干煸肥肠, pig intestine, spicy (P109)
• 鱼香肉丝, shredded pork, spicy (P102)
• 回锅肉, sliced pork, spicy (P104)

Beef​

• 水煮牛肉, beef, spicy (B112)
• 葱爆牛肉, beef, non-spicy (B102)

Chicken​

• 重庆辣子鸡, chicken, spicy (625)
• 三杯鸡, chicken, non-spicy (available in Taiwanese restaurant)

Lamb​

• 孜然羊肉, lamb, spicy (P705)
• 葱爆羊肉, lamb, non-spicy (P701)

Vegetables​

• 虎皮青椒, green pepper, spicy (V117)
• 干煸四季豆, green beans, non-spicy (V110)
• 麻婆豆腐, tofu, spicy (V103)
• 红烧豆腐, tofu, non-spicy (V104)
• 清炒丝瓜, luffa, non-spicy (V114)
• 青椒土豆丝, shredded potato, spicy （V116）
• 清炒空心菜，water spinach, non-spicy

Rice & Noodle​

• 担担面, narrow noodle, dry (N108)
• 牛肉炒河粉, wide noodle (with beef), dry (N403)
• 榨菜肉丝面，minced pork noodle, soup (N112)
• 炸酱面, Beijing noodle, dry (N116)
• 扬州炒饭, fried rice

Drink & Beverages​

• 青岛啤酒, Qingdao beer
• 王老吉, non-alcohol

With that, now you can walk into any Chinese Sichuan-styled restaurant, with this web page on your cell phone screen, and proceed to place your order with absolute confidence and effortlessness.