Wang Jianshuo's blog is one of the most popular in China, attracting some 50,000 visitors a day. He's been running his blog, or web log, for the last two years, and has been featured in the New York Times, the BBC and MSNBC. He works for Microsoft in China, and says the popularity of his blog has turned him from an ordinary person into a reporter. "It's just like a daily newspaper. Every day it should be updated, because tens of thousands of readers are expecting it, and you just can't stop." So every day when he finishes his work at around midnight, he spends at least half an hour writing his Blog.

Wang says making the Blog keeps him attentive during the day. For example, during SARS last year, he kept up to date on the SARS crisis by quizzing taxi drivers about what they had heard, and he says the experience forced him to keep on thinking, exploring and recording what he experienced. He also says his blog has brought him into contact with interesting people from all over the world who have in turn given him ideas for his blog. A reader from the USA suggested he visit every Starbucks in Beijing and report about the experience, which is exactly what he plans to do.

The first Blog dates back to 1998 and the first pages were generally reviews of other websites. But blogs have come a long way since then, and now includes links to other websites, comments, news, diary, photos, poems and fiction.

It is estimated there are between 500,000 and 1 million bloggers today worldwide, and although still insignificant compared with the 300 million internet users, the bloggers' influence has already exploded.

Wang Jianshuo's blog has been running since Sep, 11 2002. He writes in English, and targets foreigners who he thinks has little access to information in China.

"In China, its rare to find information about daily life that foreigners can understand. In my Blog, I attempt to provide this kind of information, from the viewpoint of a local, which will attract these people."

Wang says communication is more important than everything else, and says he once posted an article and several pictures about Shanghai Pudong Airport, which attracted a large number of visitors. Now, if you search for information about Pudong Airport on Google, the first result back is his posting. He has also put up posts on taxis in Shanghai, SARS, the new train from Beijing to Shanghai, and trips to Beijing. And wherever he goes, he bring his digital camera with him. According to Wang, being personal in your blog is the key to success. Among his readers, he gets most responses from an old lady from California. She once told him that without his blog, she would never care about problems in Shanghai. But now as everything that happens in Shanghai influences someone she knows, she feels very differently about the city and its challenges. 

(CRI August 20, 2004)