[{"content":"I came across an old photograph.\nIt was taken around June 1993, in Beidaihe, Qinhuangdao.\nThat year, I was fifteen. My father was forty-two.\nAt the time, he was general manager of Chengde’s livestock products company. He had organized a staff trip to Beidaihe, and I went along.\nIn the photograph, I am sitting by the sea with diving goggles and a green swimming ring. My father is beside me, smiling at the camera. Waves wash onto the sand, and the beach behind us is crowded with holidaymakers.\nI have forgotten many details of that trip: where we stayed, how many days we spent there, even who took the photograph.\nWhat I do remember is that it is one of the few photographs of my father and me together.\nIn 2003, my father died of an illness. He was only fifty-two. Just ten years had passed since the photograph was taken.\nToday, I am considerably older than my father was in that picture. With a child of my own, I have gradually come to understand more of the life and responsibilities of his generation.\nWhen I was young, my father always seemed so much older than me. Only now do I realize that the father in the photograph was younger than I am today.\nThirty-three years later, the old photograph had faded. Restoration brought color back to the sea and made my father’s face clear again.\nTechnology can restore an image, but it cannot turn back time.\nIn the summer of 1993, waves washed onto the beach at Beidaihe.\nMy father sat beside me.\nWe were both still young.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/beidaihe-summer-1993-with-my-father/","summary":"Technology can restore a photograph, but it cannot turn back time. In the summer of 1993, my father sat beside me. We were both still young.","title":"The Summer of 1993: My Father and Me in Beidaihe"},{"content":"One morning, I was waiting for a ride-hailing car at the entrance to Shuiliugou. As I looked down at the car’s route on my phone, I felt someone gently touch me on the left.\nStartled, I instinctively moved away. I turned and saw an elderly woman.\n“Excuse me,” she asked softly. “How do I get to the bus stop for Hospital 266?”\nHospital 266 was the old name for what is now Hospital 981. Hearing that familiar name, I thought she was probably local.\nHaving seen so many negative stories online involving older people, I was still a little wary and looked her over.\nBlack cloth shoes, gray trousers, a pale red top, an old cloth bag over her shoulder. Everything was clean and tidy, though washed almost white with age. White fibers showed through the red fabric of her top, leaving it a faint pink.\nHer hair was loosely gathered, but not untidy. I noticed that her eyes were cloudy and pale. She seemed unable to see the way ahead clearly.\nMuch of my wariness faded.\nBut I genuinely did not know which stop she needed. It was the day of our group’s quarterly meeting, and I had plenty to prepare at the office that morning.\n“Huoshenmiao is just ahead…” I said gently.\nShe interrupted: “The traffic booth at Huoshenmiao?”\nI paused. In my memory, that traffic booth belonged to my primary school days.\n“No, the bronze statue of the Kangxi Emperor up ahead. Turn right at the junction. There’s a large bus stop not far along. Go that way and ask again.”\n“Thank you. May you prosper and live a long life. May you live to a hundred.”\nAI-generated illustration, not a photograph of the event.\nMy heart ached.\nLooking at this elderly woman asking for directions alone, I thought of my family, and of my future self. We all grow old.\nShe moved slowly forward, testing each step, apparently still murmuring something. I watched from behind, full of conflicting feelings.\nAhead stood a parking barrier on the pavement. She was getting closer and was about to walk into it. Cars were also driving along the pavement beside her, at no small speed.\nI could not bear to watch. I hurried after her and guided her away from the barrier and cars. She seemed unsure what to do, struggling to follow as I helped her move. After some maneuvering, I finally brought her close to the tactile path.\n“Thank you. May you prosper and live a long life. May you live to a hundred.”\nShe was navigating today’s streets, one tentative step at a time, using memories from decades ago. Her repeated wish was simple and solemn. Perhaps it was the most generous expression of thanks she could think of.\n“You’re welcome. Take your time.”\nI walked back, turning every few steps to look. She was still moving slowly away, testing each step.\nAt the office, I washed my hands repeatedly. I am rather particular about cleanliness; washing after physical contact is a habit. Even afterward, the image of her tentative steps stayed in my mind.\nI had not taken her to the bus stop or made sure which bus she eventually boarded. I had only helped her past one obstacle immediately in front of her.\nA little help, within my ability.\nYet I could not put it out of my mind.\nWe usually walk too quickly to notice the parking spaces on pavements, the barriers in the way, or whether a tactile path continues unobstructed. Or the older people who walk a little slowly across a road, only to be hurried along by repeated car horns.\nI often pass these very places. Only after taking those few steps beside her did I understand how hard even a short stretch of pavement could be.\nWhen we talk about an aging society, we eventually have to face these concrete questions: Where can someone wait for a bus? How can they get past an obstacle? Can they cross before the light changes? How many such moments does someone who cannot see clearly encounter on a single trip outside?\nI also remembered the provisions for people with disabilities that I noticed while studying for my master’s degree in Japan. Their purpose now felt more concrete: to let someone with poor sight or limited mobility go out alone with a little less worry.\nThere was still much to do that morning. Yet her words, “May you live to a hundred,” kept ringing in my ears.\nI hope that when we grow old, when we walk slowly and cannot see clearly, we too will be able to make our way along the street without fear.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/a-helping-hand/","summary":"She was finding her way along today’s streets, one tentative step at a time, using memories from decades ago.","title":"A Helping Hand"},{"content":"Near Huoshenmiao in central Chengde is Mashi Street, a fairly narrow road lined with shops and busy with pedestrians. Tucked into this lively part of the old town is a small restaurant I often visit: Laofangzi Tavern, whose name means “Old House.”\nIt is a modest place with an unassuming frontage: gray brick walls, a red sign and a few lanterns by the entrance. The decor is simple, but everything is clean and tidy. Unless you know the neighborhood, you might walk past without giving it much thought.\nYet this little restaurant has been here for more than twenty years.\nThe food is the first reason I like it.\nPeople in Chengde are familiar with traditional liu dishes, cooked and finished in a thickened sauce. Dishes such as liu roupian and liu sanyang depend on careful heat control, the right sauce consistency and flavor. Laofangzi’s versions have a distinctive local character: rich, satisfying with rice and equally good alongside a drink.\nChicken stewed with mushrooms is another homestyle dish we often order. There are also some interesting choices, including green chilies stir-fried with preserved eggs, braised small pomfret and various clay-pot dishes, all worth trying.\nThe Sichuan dishes have left an impression on me too.\nThe laziji, chicken cooked with dried chilies, is especially authentic. Finding good Sichuan cooking in a little restaurant focused mainly on northern Chinese homestyle food was a pleasant surprise.\nThe owner is another reason I keep coming back.\nHe is friendly, welcoming and easygoing about the small things. Rounding down a bill, letting guests bring their own drinks, helping prepare ingredients they have brought, or keeping an unfinished bottle for their next visit—he takes it all in stride. When friends get caught up in conversation and leave a little late, I have never heard him complain.\nNone of these things is remarkable on its own, but together they make you feel at ease. A restaurant has a business to run, yet it is often these small gestures that make spending time there so comfortable.\nOver the years, this has often been the place I think of when meeting friends.\nThree or five of us can order a few dishes, have a drink and catch up, or simply enjoy an ordinary meal. The prices are moderate, the atmosphere relaxed, and there is no need to make an occasion of it.\nWhen friends visiting Chengde ask where to find local cooking, I sometimes suggest Laofangzi. I have brought several groups here, and they have all spoken well of the food.\nOf course, Chengde has plenty of good restaurants, each with its own specialties. Laofangzi may not be the best known, and it is hardly fine dining. But it has qualities of its own: honest cooking, consistent flavors, an easygoing owner and a comfortable place to eat.\nI have always felt that getting to know a city means looking beyond its famous sights to the little restaurants tucked into its streets and lanes.\nA city’s flavor is often found somewhere less conspicuous.\nChengde has changed a great deal over the years. New shopping centers and restaurants keep opening, and the old town is being renewed too. Yet a place like Laofangzi, serving customers for more than twenty years, still has a place of its own.\nIt cannot represent all of Chengde’s food, but it is one of the tastes of Chengde that I know well.\nWhen time allows, I would like to write about more of the small Chengde businesses I regularly visit. No rankings or elaborate restaurant tours: just places where I have eaten or spent time, and which I feel are worth remembering.\nAfter all, a city is worth remembering for more than its landscapes and historic sites. There are also the meals in its backstreets, and the familiar faces that make you want to return.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/chengde-laofangzi-tavern/","summary":"A small restaurant in Chengde’s old town, with more than twenty years of everyday warmth, familiar flavors and a welcoming owner.","title":"Laofangzi Tavern: A Taste of Chengde Tucked Away on Mashi Street"},{"content":"During the holiday, I spent a night at Muyunshe, a hot-spring retreat opened by a friend in Qijia Town, Longhua County.\nCompared with the livelier hot-spring resorts along the roadside in Qijia, I actually prefer this place.\nThe property covers five to six thousand square meters, with gardens, vegetable plots, tents, hot springs, barbecue areas, and even a basketball court. Everything is spread out naturally, with plenty of space to slow down.\nI stayed for one night and headed home the next day.\nOn the way back, I passed Kuanguang Supermarket’s Lishui store and stopped to wash the car.\nThat was when I noticed that the benefits for Gold Members had been upgraded again: the member car-wash area now has a second bay.\nThat means much less waiting.\nWhile waiting, my family and I did a quick calculation.\nThe Gold Membership costs 188 yuan a year, with 30 yuan returned, so the effective cost is 158 yuan.\nMembers can use the car wash once a week. Spread over 52 weeks, that works out to only about 3 yuan per wash.\nAnd this is not just a quick rinse.\nThe whole process takes a little over ten minutes and includes two rounds of foam, high-pressure rinsing, liquid wax, and air drying.\nOnce you factor in the equipment, water, electricity, consumables, and maintenance, three yuan clearly does not cover the cost.\nIf this were a dedicated car-wash business, the economics would make no sense.\nA professional car wash needs to make money from washing cars, ideally with additional services such as waxing, polishing, or interior cleaning.\nThe core service itself has to be profitable.\nA supermarket works differently.\nCar washing is not Kuanguang’s main business.\nThe once-a-week design is easy to understand: it gives members a reason to come back to the Lishui flagship store every week.\nThe car gets washed, and the customer is already there.\nOnce you are at the supermarket, there is a good chance you will go inside and pick up fruit, vegetables, milk, household goods, or something else you need anyway.\nFor a retailer whose core business is fast-moving consumer goods, whether the car wash itself makes money may not be the most important question.\nIts real value is that it adds convenience around the core business and creates another reason for customers to return.\nSo some services that look obviously “unprofitable” can make perfect sense once you look at the entire retail model instead of judging them in isolation.\nIt also made me think about a familiar consumer reaction.\nA lot of people see the words “annual membership fee” and immediately think:\nI have to pay just to join? No thanks.\nBut the picture can look very different when you calculate the value another way.\nA typical car wash might charge 300 yuan for ten washes and throw in two more, which works out to around 25 yuan per visit.\nBy contrast, if you already shop regularly at Kuanguang’s Lishui store, the car-wash benefit alone brings the effective cost of each wash down to about 3 yuan.\nThat is roughly one-tenth of the price of a regular car wash.\nThree yuan does not even take you very far on a shared bike these days.\nOf course, the benefit only matters if you actually use it.\nThe worst kind of membership is one that makes people spend money simply because they want to “get their money’s worth.”\nBut if you already need groceries, already visit the supermarket, and already wash your car, then benefits like these are worth paying attention to.\nWorking inside a retail company, I have seen this logic firsthand.\nMany of these services are not designed to generate profit on their own.\nParking, car washing, member events, loyalty points, rest areas, and other add-on services all follow a similar idea:\nMake the customer’s visit easier, more comfortable, and more worthwhile—and give them a reason to come back more often.\nThe retailer gains traffic and goodwill.\nThe customer gets genuine convenience.\nIf both sides benefit, why not?\nThis is one membership perk that is genuinely worth using.\nAfter washing the car, I parked it in my underground garage at home.\nSince I did not expect to drive for a few days, I pulled out a disposable transparent car cover and put it over the freshly washed car.\nWithin moments, something looked wrong.\nThe engine was still hot from the drive, and the body still held some moisture from the wash.\nThe transparent cover quickly began to puff up.\nIt looked like I had wrapped the whole car inside a giant clear balloon.\nI watched it for a few seconds, then removed it immediately.\nApparently, even “protection” can be a bad idea if you rush it.\nHaha.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/supermarket-membership-car-wash/","summary":"An annual membership costs 188 yuan, with 30 yuan returned. Use the weekly car wash regularly and it works out to roughly 3 yuan per visit. What looks like a loss on paper can make perfect sense in retail.","title":"A Three-Yuan Car Wash—and Why the Math Actually Works"},{"content":"During this National Day holiday, I found myself tinkering with ZISAI again.\nI had only meant to fix a few things that had been bothering me. Once I started, though, it was hard to stop.\nThe homepage, hero image, logo, navigation, Hugo, PaperMod, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, DNS, CNAME records, 301 redirects… I worked through them all, right down to a small problem with sharing pages on WeChat.\nLooking over the site again this morning, I finally felt that this round of work could pause. Most of the problems I could currently identify had been addressed.\nA small problem worth following through The most memorable issue turned out to be sharing a webpage as a WeChat card.\nThe page opened normally. Sending its URL directly worked too. But sharing it from a browser to a WeChat contact produced a red exclamation mark. Stranger still, posting it to Moments first and forwarding it from there worked.\nI tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Eventually, the trail led to the sharing image. The file was too large. After I compressed it, sharing worked again.\nThese days, I have gradually settled on a habit: use WebP for web images where suitable, with a quality setting around 82, while checking that they still look right. Q82 is no magic number. It is simply a balance that currently feels comfortable to me: smaller files, with little visible loss.\nI may forget the number one day. I am less likely to forget the process of tracking down the problem.\nTechnical details are often like that. The answer may fade; the way you found it stays.\nWork is a mission; ZISAI is self-directed I spent much of the holiday sitting at my computer. From the outside, it probably looked much like being at work. It felt quite different.\nWork feels more like a mission. It brings goals, deadlines and collaboration, and a sense of purpose drives me to deliver.\nWith ZISAI, nobody tells me what the site should look like or when it needs to be finished. If the hero image feels wrong, I change it. If the logo is almost right, I adjust it again. If I do not understand a problem, I try a few more things.\nWhether to do it, when to do it and how far to take it are my decisions. I enjoy that freedom. I often feel more creative with fewer constraints. There are still standards and expectations; they come from me.\nMaking something of my own As the work went on, it began to feel less like routine website maintenance and more like making a piece of work I could call my own.\nShould an image be a little softer? How large should the logo be? Is there enough space on the page? How can Chengde’s character appear naturally? Does the button feel right in that position? Is a few dozen extra kilobytes worth it?\nEach decision is small. Together, they create a sense of coherence.\nIt reminds me a little of woodworking, or editing photographs. Other people may not notice exactly what changed. I know, though, and I keep thinking it could be a little better.\nAt that point, technology becomes part of the work itself: code, images, structure, speed and detail all belong to the same whole.\nTwenty-eight years later I started ZISAI in 1998, when the internet itself felt new. Forums, chat rooms, webpages and servers—everything invited exploration.\nTwenty-eight years later, the technology has changed completely. Now I tinker with Hugo, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, WebP, Open Graph images and countless frontend details. The website is very different from the one I began with.\nYet something seems unchanged. When I see a problem, I still want to understand it. When something could be better, I still want to improve it.\nPerhaps what has lasted is the habit of trying to make things a little more complete.\nTime passes. That impulse remains. There is no assignment and no deadline. I simply want the site to come a little closer to the version I have in mind.\nA stopping point, for now This morning, I looked through the site once more. Most of the issues I could think of had been handled.\nOf course, a website is never truly finished. I will keep writing and making changes. But this stage can come to a pause.\nBeing able to immerse yourself in something is an ability. Staying interested in it for twenty-eight years says something about you, too. I have kept going with exercise, English, Japanese and information technology in much the same spirit.\nKnowing when to stop is probably another ability worth keeping.\nSo this round of rebuilding ZISAI during the 2026 National Day holiday ends here, for now.\nThis afternoon, I am going to the hot springs.\nThe computer is closed.\nAs for the next problem—I\u0026rsquo;ll wait until it turns up.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/national-day-zisai-rebuild/","summary":"During the National Day holiday, I rebuilt ZISAI once again. Work carries responsibility; this website runs on personal curiosity. Technology, design and small details became part of something I wanted to make well.","title":"ZISAI at 28: Technology Changes, Habits Stay"},{"content":"A few days ago, I had dinner with some friends I have known since childhood.\nSomehow, the conversation turned to the elephant slide inside Chengde’s Mountain Resort.\nYour browser does not support the video tag. Almost at the same time, several of us said:\n“You remember that elephant slide, don’t you?”\nOf course we did.\nAs soon as it came up, images that had grown hazy seemed to return all at once.\nThere used to be a children’s playground in the resort Many younger people may no longer know that the Mountain Resort once had a children’s playground.\nThere was a moon rocket, an elephant slide, seesaws, spinning chairs, a rolling drum…\nA zoo stood nearby.\nFor children growing up in Chengde then, the Mountain Resort was much more than the “imperial garden” in our textbooks.\nIt was our everyday park.\nWe went on school outings and weekends. When relatives visited, we often took them there too.\nA few jiao—a few tenths of a yuan—and a few bags of snacks were enough to make us happy.\nAsk people of my generation what they remember most about that playground, and I suspect many would give the same answer:\nThe moon rocket, and that elephant slide.\nThe zoo’s animals could keep us talking for ages too. Which animals had been there? Where were their cages? Which ones frightened us most? Perhaps we could slowly piece it all together in the comments.\nWe lived close to the resort I attended Nanyingzi Primary School.\nChildren in Shuangqiao District did not have an endless choice of destinations for school outings. The Mountain Resort was probably one of the most frequent.\nAdults entered to see historic sites. For children, it was an entirely different world.\nWhere could we run? Where were the animals and slides? Where could we buy snacks? Those were the things that mattered.\nEven Wenyuan’s Lion Grove garden holds a particular memory for me. I remember our school collecting donations toward its restoration. I cannot recall the exact year or amount—perhaps one or two yuan.\nLooking back, that may have been the first time I understood that old buildings have to be protected by each generation in turn.\nLater, the playground gradually disappeared In 1994, Chengde’s Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples were inscribed on the World Heritage List.\nMore people came to know the resort through that status. It belonged to Chengde, and to the world.\nThe playground equipment, zoo and other facilities that did not fit the role of a heritage site gradually disappeared.\nFrom the perspective of heritage conservation, that was inevitable. But as a child of Chengde, I still feel a little regret.\nSome things, once gone, can never be found again.\nThat elephant slide was one of them.\nI wanted to “make it” again Over several evenings, I began searching online.\nI looked for old photographs, went through saved images and tried hard to remember how it had looked.\nThere was not much material. Many details had to be pieced together from memory.\nSo I tried reconstructing the scene with AI: first the elephant slide, then its surroundings, bit by bit.\nIn the distance was what was then the youth palace, in the palace area of the Mountain Resort.\nIn the flower bed stood the statue many remember of Song Zhenzhong, the young martyr known as “Little Radish Head”: a small child holding a butterfly in both hands, quietly watching other children play.\nLooking back, that too seems a kind of tribute.\nCloser to the viewer stood the elephant slide, its surface worn and mottled by countless children.\nTo make it the focus, I placed the slide in the foreground. The proportions and location may not exactly match the original. What I wanted was for someone to recognize it immediately:\n“Yes. That’s it.”\nFour or five hours for fifteen seconds Turning the still image into video brought a new set of problems.\nAI would alter people’s movements and the shapes of buildings. The slide changed, the statue moved, and children’s hands and feet developed all sorts of strange distortions.\nAfter generating the video, I brought it into Final Cut Pro and adjusted the details frame by frame.\nThe finished clip lasted only a little over ten seconds. Finding references, reconstructing the scene, generating the video and editing it took about four or five hours.\nI posted it on WeChat Channels.\nI had only intended to record a personal memory. I had not expected the views to rise so quickly.\nWe had all remembered the same place What moved me most was the comments.\nSomeone had played there as a child. Someone remembered the moon rocket. Others recalled the zoo, or school outings to that very spot.\nAn eighty-year-old viewer left a long recollection too. His childhood belonged to another era, yet he spoke of the same familiar things: school, teachers, outings, a few coins, a few bags of snacks.\nIt struck me that this little playground connected several generations of Chengde children.\nThose children now live all over China—in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen—and overseas. Some have retired, some still work, and some have grown-up children of their own.\nYet when the elephant slide reappeared on a screen, decades seemed to compress into a few seconds.\nFor a moment, we were children again.\nPerhaps this is another interesting use for AI Discussions of AI usually revolve around efficiency, productivity, replacement and transformation. Making this video made me see another kind of value:\nIt can help us see things that have disappeared.\nScenes never properly photographed, never captured in high resolution, or barely documented at all can gradually reappear through a few blurry photographs, some words and people’s shared memories.\nThis is not historical footage, and should never be treated as such.\nBut it can be a reconstruction of memory.\nWhen the picture begins to move, perhaps we recover more than a slide: an afternoon, a school outing, a few coins’ worth of snacks, a parent waiting nearby, and a childhood that once seemed as though it would never end.\nYour browser does not support the video tag. Today, the Mountain Resort is a World Heritage Site visited by people from around the world.\nFor many people from Chengde, it has another identity too. It is the park of our childhood, the destination of school outings, the shared backdrop to generation after generation of children.\nWherever we live now, even thousands of miles apart, that resort and those gardens still connect us across time and distance.\nSome places disappear, yet never leave our memories.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/chengde-elephant-slide-childhood-memory/","summary":"A playground once stood inside the Mountain Resort. Recreating its elephant slide brought back memories shared by generations of Chengde residents.","title":"Do You Remember the Elephant Slide in Chengde’s Mountain Resort?"},{"content":"🌬️ IT is like air: you may not notice it, but you cannot do without it “IT is like air” is more than a figure of speech. It describes everyday reality. In many businesses, you barely notice IT at work. Without it, however, business cannot run smoothly.\n🏢 Invisible does not mean unimportant Air is invisible, yet it sustains life. IT likewise supports every part of a company’s operations:\n🖥️ Systems run quietly in the background, moving orders along, updating inventory and processing payments and settlements. 📊 Data flows between systems, giving decisions direction and a basis in evidence. 🔗 Networks and security help protect operations from disruption and threats. When IT fails, a business is like a person deprived of oxygen: it struggles to breathe, let alone survive.\n💼 From a cost center to an engine of value Traditional businesses often regard IT as a cost center because its value is less visible. It does not bring in revenue directly in the way sales does. During digital transformation, however, its role becomes critical:\n🤖 Automating processes saves labor costs. 📈 Decisions informed by data improve operational efficiency. 🛍️ Technology makes new retail experiences possible, creating opportunities for growth. At this point, IT becomes a catalyst for growth.\n🌱 Unseen value can have the deepest impact Air is invisible but everywhere. IT makes little noise, yet supports the whole operation. A company truly understands technology’s value when it recognizes IT as something it cannot do without, even when it cannot see it.\nIT’s mission is to give a business the ability to keep “breathing.”\n💡 Perhaps\nYou may not thank the air every day, but it is always there. A company may not talk about IT every day either. In a world without it, everything would grind to a halt.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/it-like-air/","summary":"Invisible systems keep orders, inventory, payments and decisions moving. IT’s purpose is to give a business the ability to keep breathing.","title":"IT Is Like Air: You May Not Notice It, but You Cannot Do Without It 🌐"},{"content":"ZISAI was born in Chengde in 1998, when dial-up access, static HTML, email, chat rooms and forums shaped many people’s first experience of the internet. From a local information site to an online community and a personal blog, its tools and formats have changed, while recording and sharing have continued. These saved images show interfaces, features and design styles; they are not a complete development timeline.\nBeginning in 1998 I began building ZISAI in 1998. Connections were slow, pages relied on text and simple pictures, and building a website meant writing HTML and working out many features myself. Local websites offered both information and a new way to discover the internet and exchange ideas.\n1998: Early pages The designs were simple, but publishing and conversation already mattered. Technically basic by today’s standards, they retain the character of the early web.\n1999: Content and user features As more people went online, navigation, content organization and user management developed. Registration and participation brought a stronger sense of community.\nPortals and online communities At the start of the new century, personal homepages, email, forums, chat and images became central to websites. ZISAI followed this development too. The images below follow the years in the saved material to show webpage forms; they do not establish when each feature was first launched.\n2000: Personal homepages and services Before social media, a personal webpage was an important way to express yourself. Having your own page could feel like a real achievement.\n2001: Forums and community discussion Forums were among the liveliest places on the local internet. Discussion of life, technology, literature and the city turned screen names into real connections.\n2002: Online conversation Chat rooms explored real-time interaction. What seems ordinary today was an important introduction to online social life.\n2003: Images and multimedia Improved connections made richer images and multimedia possible, providing more ways to show Chengde’s scenery, local life and users’ work.\n2004: Operations and commercial experiments Local websites explored advertising and information services. Beyond coding, their builders faced server, bandwidth, maintenance and operating costs.\n2005: Video and multimedia experiments Online video was far less common because of bandwidth and technical limits, but it already suggested how internet content would change.\n2006: The Web 2.0 era Participation, sharing and interaction became important directions. Users increasingly created content alongside site administrators.\n2007: Interests and communities Shared interests brought people together. Photography, literature, daily life and local culture connected online discussion to everyday experience.\nChanges brought by mobile internet After 2008, smartphones, mobile networks and social platforms gradually changed how people found information and communicated. Traditional portals and forums faced new competition; fixed-width pages began giving way to mobile layouts.\n2008: Exploring mobile access Mobile devices encouraged a fresh look at screen sizes, page structure and access efficiency.\n2009: Content organization and recommendations As information multiplied, helping readers find relevant material became an important design challenge.\n2010: Traditional communities face change Social networks changed forum habits. Keeping local communities active and regularly updated became a long-term task.\n2011: Interfaces and user experience Page layouts, user centers and interaction design became increasingly important as web technology advanced.\n2012: Access across devices With computers and phones used side by side, responsive design and website search received more attention.\n2013: Community features and information management Traditional communities continued exploring more convenient ways to organize information and support interaction.\n2014: Looking back at the early internet As the web became mobile, early design styles became digital memories in their own right. Familiar pages, forums and screen names preserved a generation’s youth.\nAfter 2015: From website to personal blog Around 2015, I gradually shifted ZISAI toward personal records and sharing, rather than a local portal and community. It increasingly held technical practice, career experience, reflections and memories of the city.\n2015: The personal blog stage The format and audience changed, but the website remained a place for independent thought, free expression and practical technical exploration. Earlier ZISAI focused on a city and its internet community; today it records the relationship between one person and changing times.\n2026: Reorganizing ZISAI In 2026, I undertook a systematic rebuild using Hugo and a customized PaperMod theme, revisiting page structure, historical content, images and site identity. Speed and appearance were only part of the purpose: I also wanted to organize accumulated writing, images and public records, preserving useful history. The tools have changed from handwritten HTML to static generation, Git and cloud deployment. My willingness to spend time maintaining the site remains, both a technical habit and part of life.\nAbout these historical images The pictures come from previously saved and organized site material. Early records are incomplete, and the precise creation dates, original page addresses and versions of some images still need checking.\nImages follow the years and order of the original material. A year label is not necessarily the actual screenshot date. Some images may be later compilations, reconstructions or illustrations. Feature launch dates that have not been independently verified are not presented as established historical facts. Original pages, web archives and other reliable sources will be added as they become available. These pages are worth keeping. Presenting them faithfully matters more than constructing a perfectly complete timeline.\nContinuing Twenty-eight years passed between 1998 and 2026. The internet moved from dial-up to high-speed networks, and from portals and forums to mobile apps and AI. Many familiar websites disappeared as new platforms emerged. ZISAI has changed too. As long as the domain and words remain, its stories still have somewhere to be kept.\nLandscapes in words. Time leaves its traces.\nZISAI continues.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/posts/zisai.com/","summary":"ZISAI began in Chengde in 1998. These preserved pages trace its evolution from a local internet website to a personal blog, keeping memories of Chengde, the internet and a personal journey.","title":"ZISAI: Web Memories from 1998 to Today"},{"content":"Technology practitioner · Retail digitalization professional · Founder of ZISAI\nHello, I am Shen Nan (沈楠).\nI am Director, Vice President and CIO of Kuangguang Holdings Group Co., Ltd., with a master’s degree in informatics from J. F. Oberlin University in Japan. Over more than thirty years, from a military communications unit to a telecommunications operator and then a retail business, I have worked with networks, software, data and the people who use them.\nIn 1998, I began building what became ZISAI. I still maintain it today, writing about technology, retail, Chengde and small things in everyday life worth keeping.\nI enjoy coding and understanding concrete problems. The names of the technologies change, but my approach remains simple: understand a problem, break it down, and solve it with technology that is as simple and reliable as possible.\nDigital contact card (Chinese) · Email · GitHub · Short biography · Career and records\nWhat I focus on now Retail digitalization and AI: bringing systems, data and AI into real business, with attention to stability, efficiency, cost and results. Infrastructure and practical technology: cloud platforms, IoT, data security, disaster recovery and software development, while continuing to write code and maintain systems myself. ZISAI and local internet history: organizing old addresses, pages and public records so traces of Chengde’s early internet can still be found. Writing and everyday observations: starting with concrete questions about technology, business and life. About ZISAI Founded in 1998, ZISAI has passed through the eras of portals, forums, chat rooms and blogs, and from desktop and broadband internet to mobile internet and AI.\nToday, zisai.com is my personal digital space. I write about:\nTechnology: software, networks, servers, Hugo, Go, AI and practical work. Retail: digitalization and business observations grounded in specific problems. Chengde: the Mountain Resort, Rehe, the old city, internet history and local memories. Life: travel, cars, exercise and questions that arise in ordinary days. The past: gathering personal and urban memories before they fade. Not everything worth recording has to be a major event. Much of what makes up a life consists of small things that seemed ordinary at the time.\nLandscapes in words. Time leaves its traces.\nTechnology and life I still enjoy writing code and exploring new tools. My interests include Go, Python, SQL, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Hugo, cloud computing, virtualization, network and information security, IoT, data analysis, large language models and AI.\nMy approach is simple:\nUse the simplest possible logic to solve complex problems.\nAway from technology, I enjoy walking, driving trips, music, keeping fish, growing orchids and quietly tinkering with my website.\nI started ZISAI in 1998. Today, I can still spend hours adjusting a page, an image or a few lines of code. Technologies and tools change. Curiosity and the habit of keeping a record may well remain.\nI also enjoy travelling. Over the years I have visited Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, including diving in Sabah, hiking in Reykjavík and running in Sydney. Seeing the landscapes and daily lives of unfamiliar places is another pleasure outside work.\nMarathons and exercise I have taken part in full and half marathons, including events in Chengde and Beijing.\n15 October 2016 — Chengde International Marathon: 42.195 km, net time 4:28:21, my personal best. 29 October 2017 — Shijiazhuang (Zhengding) International Marathon: 42.195 km, net time 4:52:48. Other events: half marathons in Chengde and Beijing; historical results have not yet been located. Screenshots of my marathon results (Chinese). The two full-marathon results can be checked on the China Marathon official website.\nTalks and exchanges I share experience from telecommunications, infrastructure and enterprise digitalization at retail and internet industry events. Recent talks include:\n2025: Regional Retail Digitalization: IT as a Driver of Innovation and Change, at the FMCG digitalization forum of the China Retail Digitalization Annual Conference. 2026: Digitalization and AI for Businesses in Lower-tier Markets: Choices and Implementation, at the ninth Retail Digitalization Annual Conference and Digital Intelligence Ecosystem Forum. For exchanges on regional retail digitalization, enterprise AI, infrastructure, data security or local internet history, please email me.\nShort biography For conferences, events or interviews:\nShen Nan is Director, Vice President and CIO of Kuangguang Holdings Group Co., Ltd., founder of ZISAI, and a master’s graduate in informatics from J. F. Oberlin University in Japan. He has worked in telecommunications, internet and software technology since the 1990s, entering retail in 2014. His work focuses on enterprise IT, retail digitalization, infrastructure, data security and AI applications. He began ZISAI in 1998 and continues maintaining the site and writing today.\nCareer and records The following sections retain my career history, technology projects, roles, recognition and public references. Project descriptions and personal memories are my own account; linked third-party records allow readers to compare sources.\nFrom communications to the internet My work with technology began in the 1990s.\nIn 1993, I joined a military communications unit, working with radio, single-sideband (SSB) and double-sideband (DSB) communications, computers and data transmission. Before internet access became widespread, connecting people and computers often meant radios, serial ports, modems and point-to-point links.\nAround 1995, I began writing point-to-point communications programs in C and exploring BBSs, dial-up networks and early online communities. After 1997, I turned to the web, online information services and early internet applications.\nIn 1998, I joined a telecommunications operator and started the website that became ZISAI. The internet has been a continuing thread through my work and life ever since.\nZISAI and Chengde’s early internet ZISAI began in 1998 as a very small website.\nAs broadband spread, it grew to include a portal, forums, chat rooms, blogs, a flea market, software downloads and audio and video services. For many of Chengde’s early internet users, it became part of a shared memory.\nAround 2001, I was developing and maintaining these services with PHP, MySQL, C++, ASP and Pascal. They included the ZISAI forum, online chat rooms and blogs, a flea market, FreeICQ local instant messaging, the MUD Xia Ke Xing, and local broadband media services.\nIn 2002, I developed Rehe Fengyun (热河风云), a multiplayer online game with a local cultural setting.\nThese projects may look simple today, but they document a local internet’s transition from dial-up to broadband. They were also my first sustained experience of building and operating internet services from end to end.\nI am gradually organizing old addresses, pages and third-party records that can still be verified. See Internet heritage, the former Fantasy Westward Journey community (Chinese) and the former CCTV Chengde Mid-Autumn webcast site (Chinese).\nTelecommunications, broadband and data centers From 1998 to 2014, my work at a telecommunications operator expanded from computers and data communications to broadband networks, business systems, internet data centers (IDC) and internet operations.\nI worked on or took responsibility for ADSL business systems, network operations systems, broadband streaming services, data center services and internet content partnerships.\nBetween roughly 2003 and 2006, I helped introduce and operate local server groups for games including 科洛斯, 坦克宝贝, NetEase’s 梦幻西游 and 大话西游. Several server groups were named “避暑山庄”, after Chengde’s Mountain Resort.\nAs online game account security became a growing concern, I also designed and developed a dynamic-password authentication system to improve account protection.\nAround 2009, my work increasingly involved IDC, ICT and internet infrastructure. I helped bring relevant business activities of companies including Tencent, Youku and Alibaba to Chengde. This experience gave me a more systematic understanding of networks, systems, data centers and high-availability architecture.\nFrom telecommunications to retail digitalization In 2014, I left the telecommunications operator and joined Chengde Kuangguang Holdings Group as Vice President and CIO, later also becoming a Director.\nThe business environment changed, but the questions were familiar. How could systems become more stable? How could data create practical value? How could online and offline operations connect? How could fragmented systems work together? How should security, performance, cost and business efficiency be balanced?\nFor more than a decade, my work has centered on enterprise information systems, retail digitalization, infrastructure, data, security and software development. It has included e-commerce, stored-value cards, business intelligence, hyperconverged infrastructure, cloud platforms, IoT, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, the WeChat ecosystem and AI.\nSelected technology projects Year Project Work and technologies 1998– ZISAI Portal, forums, chat rooms, blogs and a flea market; now maintained as a personal website. Web, PHP, MySQL, Hugo. 2001 ADSL service order system Independently developed a system for receiving and routing broadband service requests. ASP, SQL Server. 2002 Rehe Fengyun Developed and operated a local multiplayer game rooted in Chengde’s culture. Pascal, network programming. 2003 Chengde broadband streaming platform Video-on-demand and streaming services for broadband users. RealServer, Linux, PHP. 2003–2006 Local online game server groups Helped build and operate Chengde server groups for several online games. Linux, IDC, network operations. 2006 Dynamic-password authentication Designed authentication mechanisms for online game accounts. C++, security authentication. 2016 Hyperconverged and hybrid cloud infrastructure Consolidated servers, compute, storage and virtualization into a group-wide platform. VMware, Docker, Kubernetes. 2016–2021 Omnichannel electronic stored-value cards Card management, electronic redemption and transaction security, including dynamic QR-code encryption in Go. 2020 ESRS health check-in system Participated in developing a commercial-site health check-in and data management system to support pandemic prevention at stores and other organizations. C++, MySQL. 2023 Group-wide IoT platform Connectivity and monitoring for cold chains, energy, environments, equipment and security. Python, MQTT. 2024 Core data disaster recovery Cross-system and cross-device backup and recovery for core business data. High availability and disaster recovery architecture. 2025 Kuangguang digital management platform An integrated platform for retail operations, data and management; selected as an annual outstanding retail digitalization practice by the China Commerce Association for General Merchandise. Also received the Digital Technology Innovation Award at the 2025 China International Digital Economy Expo. Data platforms, distributed architecture, AI. 2025 AI staff assessment system Explored using large language models to assist with assessment data analysis, evaluation writing and feedback. A technology journey spanning more than thirty years 1993–1997: Radio and computers. From SSB and DSB radio to computers and data communications. 1998–2001: The internet and the web. Joined a telecommunications operator, began ZISAI, and worked with Perl, ASP, PHP, MySQL and C++. 2002–2008: Broadband, communities and online games. Developed Rehe Fengyun, built chat rooms, forums and streaming services, and worked on game servers and security authentication. 2009–2014: Data centers and telecommunications operations. Worked on IDC, ICT, data communications, internet business introduction and related operations management. 2014–2020: Enterprise systems and cloud architecture. Built retail e-commerce, card systems, BI, virtualization, hyperconverged infrastructure and enterprise cloud systems. 2021–2024: IoT, data and security. Continued practical work with Go, IoT, enterprise and payment security, WeChat and core data disaster recovery. 2025 onward: AI and retail digitalization. Began applying large language models, data analysis and AI to real business situations. The names of the technologies keep changing. My curiosity and interest in using them to solve practical problems have stayed with me.\nEducation I studied at J. F. Oberlin University Graduate School in Japan and earned a master’s degree in informatics in 2021.\nStudying abroad let me revisit more than twenty years of practical work through research and academic inquiry. It also strengthened my preference for starting with small, concrete questions that can be observed and tested. That approach shapes how I write on ZISAI today.\nProfessional and community roles Current roles Director, Vice President and CIO, Chengde Kuangguang Holdings Group Supervisor, Chengde Kuangguang Supermarket Group Member, Digital Technology Application Committee of the China Chain Store \u0026amp; Franchise Association Member, Digitalization Committee of the China Commerce Association for General Merchandise Vice Chair and Executive Chair, Chengde Internet Association Chair, Chengde Federation of Internet Industry Trade Unions Council Member, Chengde Police Association President, Shuangqiao District E-commerce Association, Chengde Earlier experience Department Section Chief, China Unicom’s Chengde branch Secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee, China Unicom’s Chengde branch Service in a military communications unit, 1993–1997 Recognition and industry experience Recognition over the years has included National Outstanding CIO; the Digital Technology Innovation Award at the China International Digital Economy Expo; communications-industry QC group activity assessor qualification from the China Association of Communications Enterprises; Hebei “Knowledge-based Employee”; the Chengde “Shen Nan Innovation Studio”; and Chengde honors for young skilled professionals, science and technology work, commerce expertise and science communication.\nThese are part of the record. But I am more inclined to remember the systems built, the code written and the feeling when a problem was finally solved.\nPublic references These links are retained from the Chinese profile. Most sources are in Chinese; project descriptions and recollections remain distinct from third-party records. An event date may differ from a page’s publication date.\n2013: Hebei News recorded my participation in community activities as Secretary of the Youth League Committee at China Unicom’s Chengde branch. 2016: Chengde’s commerce bureau listed me in its first pool of commerce development experts, as a senior software engineer and systems architect at Kuangguang. A separate report recorded my participation, as a group representative, in a school donation activity in Huangdi Township, Longhua County, on 21 April. 2018: A Mettler Toledo industry interview discussed centralized IT management, electronic shelf labels, online/offline integration, the Kuangguang Huiyun app and multiple retail formats. Chengde’s cultural heritage bureau also published a report on the city’s first internet annual conference on 8 November 2018, recording a speech by me as general manager of Chengde Kuangguang Information Technology; the actual event year still requires verification. 2020: China’s national and Hebei science and technology associations recorded work on ESRS. I led a technical team of internet association members organizing its development, rather than developing the entire system alone. A report dated 27 February described Win32/Win64 clients, Access/SQLite and MySQL databases, and Go/Python server technology, with more than 500,000 identity check-ins across over ten organizations in Chengde, Beijing and elsewhere. Hebei’s profile also recorded my founding of ZISAI. 2023: The Chengde Federation of Internet Industry Trade Unions was established on 22 December; the linked records cover its establishment and my role as chair. Another report recorded my participation in an arbitration and contract-related exchange at Kuangguang on 8 June. 2020–2026: China Commerce Association for General Merchandise records cover pandemic-era online/offline integration and membership practices in 2020, conference participation in 2024, the 2025 and 2026 talks listed above, and the platform’s selection as an outstanding digitalization practice. The platform also received a Digital Technology Innovation Award in 2025. 2026: A September Chengde Daily interview discussed Chengde’s business environment, chain retail, local commerce and services for residents. Sources and further reading 2026 | Chengde Daily interview 2026 | Ninth Retail Digitalization Annual Conference 2025 | Digital Technology Innovation Award 2025 | Outstanding retail digitalization practices 2025 | FMCG digitalization forum 2024 | Retail conference speaker introduction 2024 | Retail digitalization committee membership 2024 | Chengde government chronology: internet industry trade union 2023 | Chengde Arbitration Commission exchange 2023 | Baidu Baike: internet industry trade union 2020 | China Association for Science and Technology: ESRS 2020 | Hebei Association for Science and Technology profile 2020 | Chengde science and technology association report 2020 | ESRS development and deployment 2020 | CIOs and pandemic-era online retail 2018 | Mettler Toledo industry interview 2018 | First Chengde internet annual conference report 2016 | School donation report 2016 | Chengde commerce development expert list 2013 | Hebei News: Youth League activities China Marathon: race results Baidu Baike: Shen Nan GitHub: Mythflair Personal experience (Chinese articles) A note from the past: career memories Giving young people a chance: a NetEase partnership Huawei training in Hangzhou, 2008 Reflections through the years: an IBM meeting in Xiamen Thirty years of an engineer’s life Reflections on the Shiji customer conference Some pre-2013 recognition and experience survive mainly in paper certificates and historical files, which are still being organized.\nContact ZISAI: zisai.com GitHub: Mythflair Email: shennan@zisai.com If you once visited the original ZISAI, or share an interest in technology, Chengde, internet memories or the small questions of everyday life, you are welcome to get in touch.\nUpdated 19 October 2026, aligned with the Chinese profile. Organization names and titles are descriptive translations.\nAutumn 2026 | A Life Update This year, I have gradually found a rhythm for writing and sharing. ZISAI is where I keep my everyday notes and reflections; on my WeChat public account, I share a selection of them with a wider audience. Some pieces begin simply as a way to think something through. Reading them again a while later, I can also see how I have changed.\nIn daily life, I have become more deliberate about making exercise part of my routine. Walking and doing some strength exercises help me set aside time to look after myself outside work. I ran marathons when I was younger; these days, I care more about whether I can sustain these small habits over time.\nAs my children grow up, I am also coming to understand my role as a father anew. While I still have the ability and resources to help, I want to support them as much as I can, giving them more paths to choose from. Which path they take is ultimately their decision.\n","permalink":"https://zisai.com/en/about/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTechnology practitioner · Retail digitalization professional · Founder of ZISAI\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHello, I am \u003cstrong\u003eShen Nan (沈楠)\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am \u003cstrong\u003eDirector, Vice President and CIO of Kuangguang Holdings Group Co., Ltd.\u003c/strong\u003e, with a \u003cstrong\u003emaster’s degree in informatics from J. F. Oberlin University in Japan\u003c/strong\u003e. Over more than thirty years, from a military communications unit to a telecommunications operator and then a retail business, I have worked with networks, software, data and the people who use them.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"About Shen Nan"}]