Archive for October, 2005

Toodou article in Telegraaf

Today Holland's biggest newspaper, De Telegraaf, published an article about Toodou.com. I got lots of phone calls and emails today because of this, it's amazing to see how many people read it. Traditional media still seem to rule, at least in Holland!Also just got off the phone with a reporter from Dutch radio program Radio Online. This is a weekly program on Dutch Radio 1 about the internet and online activities. They plan to interview me on Tuesday in their program, but because the program is...
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Shanghai Telecom

On Saturday morning the internet connection at home suddenly stopped working. So we called Shanghai Telecom, and we were told that they would look into it and call us back. Well, by midnight we still did not get a call back, so we decided to call again. They forgot about it, but they would check right away. According to them nothing was wrong, so it was our fault. Nice to know of course, but it did not help much. So I started checking our equipment and that revealed that our router, that we got...
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Strange drinks

The Indian Times reports that export of fine Scotch whiskies has gone to an all-time high (source: China Digital Times). Why? Because Chinese mix it with green tea and ice cubes, and then drink it. This is not the only 'strange' drink you will see being poured in Chinese bars. Red wine is a good example: many Chinese do not really like it, but ordering an expensive bottle gives you face. So what do you do? You add some ice cubes to start with, and if it is still not drinkable you can poor some...
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Shanghai Marathon

For the past weeks I have been training quite a lot for the Shanghai Marathon. Not easy to fit the training schedule into my busy work schedule, but I have managed with early morning and late-night runs. I feel much better now that I am back in good shape, and feel I can do a lot more work in the same time. And while running I always have many new ideas.The race will take place on November 26, so still 5 weeks to practice. One of the biggest drawbacks of living in a city like Shanghai is that...
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Bird flu

I am not too afraid of bird flu, at least not in the current stage of the 'outbreak'. The media are overreacting once again, it reminds me of what happened during SARS. The moment some humans get infected in Shanghai most foreigners will probably flee China again to 'safer' places. SARS was just a big blown-up media event, and I feel that is what happening to bird flu as well. As long as the virus does not mutate into a human-to-human virus I don't really see what all the fuss is about....
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Kunshan

This morning I visited the Foxconn plant in Kunshan (Jiangsu province). This was a very interesting visit for me, as the plant is one of the biggest labour-intensive plants that I have visited in China. In total the Kunshan plant has a workforce of 38,000 people, which would be the equivalent of a small town in Holland. I went to the plant on a 'educational trip' with a group of China Bay clients, so we hired a small bus to drive there. Too bad that the bus also included a tour guide, who kept...
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McKinsey into podcasting?

This week McKinsey presented a study (China's looming talent shortage) that concludes that the quality of China's university graduates is not good enough to move from manufacturing into services. I do agree with them on this, and I think it mainly has to do with the education system focusing too much on memorizing instead of thinking about a subject. But that is not the main reason for this post. What I noticed on the article's main page, is that the article can also be downloaded as a zip-file...
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Bird flu screening?

Yesterday I flew from Sanya to Shanghai, and on the flight I was reading the Shanghai Daily. It opened with an article saying that all travelers to Shanghai would have their shoes sterilized and that people would be checked for bringing poultry to the city. I was wondering what procedures would be in place at Hongqiao airport upon arrival. Would the SARS screening stations be in operation again? These were basically computers that measure the body temperature of each passenger and show the...
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Toodou.com in the New York Times

Gary Wang with whom I founded Toodou.com, had an interview with the New York Times earlier this week about our site and podcasting in China in general. Today it was published. Because it is premium content, you cannot view it at the NYT site without a subscription, but we put the article online here.It seems that our servers are not able to handle the sudden increase in traffic, so if the link is not working try it again...
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Roland Berger off-site in Hainan

In Sanya on tropical Hainan Island today. My wife has an off-site here from her company (Roland Berger Strategy Consultants) and spouses are also invited. We are staying in the 5-star Holiday Inn Beach Resort, a nice place on the Yalong Bay beach. A good room on the executive floor with a view all over Yalong Bay. The last time I stayed in this hotel was about four years ago when the hotel was still in its soft opening stage. What I still remember from that time is that the staff tried so hard...
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New design for Shanghai World Financial Center

The Shanghai World Financial Center, the future highest building in China, will not get the beautiful round hole at the top of the building, as was originally planned. After Chinese complaints that the top looks too much like the Japanese flag, the (Japanese!) developer changed the design to a rectangular opening. To save face of course other reasons were put forward.Yahoo News:The developer's president Minor Mori explained the change by saying that during lengthy planning delays in the...
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F1 Shanghai

Sunday I watched the Shanghai Formula One race, the last race of the 2005 season. We were invited by Xue Qin from Guanchi / Flirting Pictures, a top local TV commercial production company in Shanghai. She gave us excellent tickets: Row 1 just behind the finish line! The seats were really amazing, being just a few meters away from the cars when they drive by at speeds far over 300 kph is quite an experience. She also arranged that our driver could park right outside the Grandstand, and because...
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Matchmaking party

Looking for love in Shanghai? Next weekend there will be a matchmaking party in Zhongshan Park, the Shanghai Daily reports: "MORE than 4,000 people have signed up to participate in the Shanghai's biggest matchmaking party in Zhongshan Park on October 22, Oriental Morning Post reported. About 8,000 love-seekers are expected to join the event. The five-hour marathon meeting is open to singles between 20 and 45, with at least a high school education. Each participant has to pay 100 yuan...
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"It's like being in a video game"

Jacques Villeneuve about hectic China: "It's like being in a video game."I am so used to the sounds, traffic and lots of people that I don't really notice it anymore, but it is actually a good...
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Chinese SMS scam

A couple of days ago I heard of an SMS scan in Beijing, that now also has started in Shanghai. The trick is based on the fact that some ATM's in China can be used to transfer money, and many people do not know this. What happens is that swindlers send out a fake mass SMS saying that a certain amount of money has been deducted from the person's bank account for a purchase at a shopping center. It also mentions a phone number to call in case of questions.Some people call the number and are...
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Dan Dan Mian

Note to self: while eating dan dan mian concentrate on eating that, and do not do anything else.What happened? I was having lunch at the Wanchai restaurant between our office and the Four Season's hotel. I ordered a bowl of dan dan mian (spicy Sichuan noodles in a red chili soup - my favourite dish), and while enjoying this the Ferrari F1 team left the Four Season's Hotel. Because we were sitting on the second floor at the window, we had a good view of all the activity going on (many people...
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Digital entertainment in China

I wrote the following article that was published in today's China Daily (CEO Round Table section).China Daily CEO Round Table Toodou.com...
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Restaurant review: Epicure on 45 – Shanghai's latest revolving restaurant

In the past years several revolving restaurants have been built in Shanghai, among others in the Ocean Hotel, the Jin Jiang Hotel (new tower), the Novotel Atlantis and the Sofitel Oriental in Pudong. The latest one is Epicure on 45, the restaurant on top of the new Radisson Hotel on Nanjing Lu/People's Square. The building where the Radisson is located was built several years ago, but had been empty ever since (does anybody know why?) until Radisson decided to put a hotel in there.The location...
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Birthday flowers

Birthday flowers Originally uploaded by Marc van der Chijs. Having my birthday today, and these flowers were just delivered to the office. Thanks Qi, they are beautiful!How old I am now? Just count the...
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Shanghai Formula One tickets not selling well

F1 racetrack Shanghai - Approach to Hongqiao airport (Shanghai) Originally uploaded by Marc van der Chijs. The Shanghai Daily reported today that the ticket sales for this weekend's F1 race are not as good as last year. The promotor for the race thinks that about 110,000 people will attend the main race, compared to 150,000 last year.I am not sure whether announcing this is a smart move. The reason is that in China you are normally able to get cheap tickets right before an event starts if...
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