It must be that price has gone up substantially in Zhongshan Lu.

2 years ago when I was there, there was hardly a need to negotiate price..

That pool is still empty of people.

Are you back in Nanning now? If so, how are the naps?

The pool's hours are rather limited (closed more often than open), but I've been swimming nightly, and it is quite pleasant.

Yes, I'm here again. I'm trying to get a lot of things accomplished before it becomes "insanely hot" (we've already crossed the threshold between "hot" and "seriously hot"). I almost never take naps myself, but I'm pretty good about respecting the custom (i.e. if I think of something that we need to do during nap time, I make a note to myself, and wait until after 2 before even sending an email about it). An unsurprising effect of the napping tradition is that people don't seem to sleep very much at night. I notice this a lot more now that it is warm because they are out and about until 2a on a regular basis.

So employees nap on company time so that they can stay up late every night and still come to work on time in the morning? That's a nice implicit subsidy for their social life.

I guess if you don't send emails during nap time, they assume that you're napping too?

Nap time is NOT company time. It is something they are legally entitled to.

I don't care whether or not they I assume I'm napping too; I simply seek to avoid "why did you send out that email at 1p?" questions.

Does it mean Nanning has 4 rush hours daily - morning to go to work, noon to go to siesta, afternoon to return from siesta and evening to return from work? Or are bedrooms provided at work?

People nap at their desks, and are quite skilled in this regard (I think I posted a picture way up thread).

Now, Guilin Station is supposed to become passable for high speed trains on 1st of July. Trip time for high speed train 13 and a half hours for Beijing-Nanning.

That's kind of cool, I guess... especially since it takes 26 hours to get to Nanning from Shanghai by train (even with that insane duration, I've been tempted a few times because flying that route is so supremely miserable).

Being a foreigner, how do you buy train ticket in China, especially in advance?

I usually ask my Chinese colleagues to get me tickets from the official site, but when they aren't around, I use Ctrip (very easy).

Wouldn't you need the ID verification in order to buy train tickets? You mean Ctrip could bypass that?

Your friend/colleague just needs to enter your passport number and name on his account on the official site. He can then buy it for you and all you need is your passport and the reservation number (which he will receive by text message and mail i think).
Then just go to a train ticket office and hand them your passport and that reservation number. Works like a charm

You are just barred from using the automatic ticketing machines, that only works with Chinese IDs AFAIK.

I dont have any friend nor colleague in China. Case closed.