Archive for January, 2006

Fever

It's the same thing every time I have vacation, or at least when I reduce my workload and also do some things other than just working: I manage to get sick. Yesterday night I went to get a foot massage and it was much more painful than normally. So I told the masseuse to take it easy, but even though she applied less pressure it still hurt a lot. I suddenly realized I might get sick... And yes, that happened.After driving home I went to bed straight away. I had a bad night with strange dreams....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Spring Festival 2006

Last night we celebrated Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival, as it is also called) with Qi's family. We watched the CCTV Spring Festival TV show, a combination of stand-up comedians, songs (modern and traditional), dance and short sketches. Even though China becomes more modern, it is still a must for most people to see this program, and it has the highest ratings of all programs on TV. It's not really my kind of program, so during the show I could catch up on several magazines that I did not...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

De Stentor

My parents were visiting my grandmother this morning, and my father was reading her newspaper there. She subscribes to a regional paper, De Stentor, that my parents do not subscribe to. To my father's surprise he suddenly saw a picture of me and my wife in it with an article about our life in Shanghai. I had totally forgotten about this article and had probably also not mentioned it to my parents, so it was a surprise for them to see it. If the article is available online I will put a link...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

SMS

I am amazed how many SMS messages people are sending tonight, to wish everyone a happy year of the dog. My wife received 13 messages just during dinner (in about one hour), for a total of 30 messages until now. Note: it is only 8 PM, most messages will be send after the new year starts at midnight. I am not as popular, only 6 messages so far...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Travel exodus during Chinese New Year?

This morning Qi and I took a plane to Beijing. Because of all the horror stories in the local press about overcrowded stations and airports and long delays, we were prepared for the worst. Our taxi picked us up at 10:20 AM, and the ride to the airport was very smooth. We arrived withing 15 minutes, no traffic jam whatsoever, such a ride normally occurs only late at night. At check-in all counters were open, and there were just 3 people in front of us. Within 5 minutes after arrival we were...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Fireworks sales

Yesterday afternoon I came across this fireworks shop on Weihai Lu, two blocks from the China Bay office. Most of the fireworks were sold on the sidewalk, and a salesman with a cigarette (!) hanging from his mouth was serving the customers. I observed it for a while and noted that most people buy huge amounts of fireworks, nobody bought just a few fire crackers. And nobody warned the salesman that cigarettes and hundreds of kilo's of fireworks could be a lethal combination. In Holland sales...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Restaurants

It's just over 24 hours before the Year of the Dog will start, but the sound of fireworks in Shanghai has already started, even though it is officially not allowed set off fireworks here. Qi and I had dinner at Cameo in Xujiahui tonight, one of the latest Italian restaurants in town (they opened in November). It's located on the corner of Hengshan Lu an Tianping Lu. From the top floor you overlook Xujiahui park and a large part of the city. Every couple of minutes we saw beautiful fireworks,...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Coincidence

Yesterday I was looking at a new office for one of my businesses, and I took a picture on the street to show to my colleagues. In that picture someone is crossing the road, but I did not pay much attention to him. I cross the road as well and suddenly bump into Thijs Bosma, a Dutch friend of mine who is doing several projects in Shanghai. Later when I look at the pictures I find out that he is the one who crossed the road on the picture. What are the chances of this happening in a city of 17...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Tourist scams

The Oriental List had an interesting post by its moderator Peter Neville-Hadley about scams in Beijing he recently encountered or heard about. His post (which is unlinkable):Nothing new really, but it seems recently there's been an upsurge inthe number of hapless visitors to Beijing who've been taken off for a'tea ceremony' by strangers met in the Forbidden City or in thestreet, and found themselves with a bill for in excess of Y3000.Perhaps it's just an upsurge in the numbers reporting it.In...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Beijing has 97 mobile accounts per 100 people

Pacific Epoch reports that in Beijing there are 97 mobile phones per 100 people. That seems like a pretty big amount to me, anybody knows how this compares to Europe or the US?They also report that for every landline number in Beijing, there are now 1.5 mobile numbers (9.5 million landlines to 14.7 million mobile numbers). But those figures are actually not comparable, because it is often very difficult or impossible to get extra landlines. Most businesses in China therefore use extension...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Annual parties

This week is the week of the corporate annual parties in Shanghai. Most companies organize a dinner for all employees to thank them for the hard work in the Year of the Rooster, and to look forward to the Year of the Dog that will start on Sunday.Last night Toodou.com had its annual dinner at a hotpot restaurant on Zhaojiabang Lu. It was a fun dinner, with lots of meat, noodles, mushrooms, tofu, vegetables and beer. There was only one big hotpot, so everyone was fighting for the food when it...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

BusinessWeek articles about Toodou

This week two articles published in BusinessWeek discuss Toodou.com. The first is an interview by Frederik Balfour with Gary Wang about the company, censorship and the future of Toodou.com. The second is an article by Bruce Einhorn about online self-censorship in China, in which he talks with Gary and with Jack Gu from Podlook. Too bad I won't get the print version anymore, since BW decided to cancel its Asian edition two weeks...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Fireworks ban in Beijing ends

On December 31 I missed out on fireworks in Shanghai, because the government had banned it. But it seems I will be more lucky this coming Saturday, when I will spend Chinese New Year in Beijing. The government has decided to lift the ban on fireworks in Beijing. The maximum is now 30 kilograms (!!!) per person, should be enough for me.From the Shanghai Daily:"BANG!"Firecrackers will explode once again in Beijing, frightening away evil spirits on the New Year...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Shanghai Jazz Orchestra

Friday night Qi and I went to the first public performance ever of the Shanghai Jazz Orchestra, a big band in Shanghai's 30's and 40's style, in the Shanghai Art Theatre. Since 1949 China did not have any big bands, so this was the first time in almost 60 years that a big jazz band played in Shanghai. In the 1940's Shanghai was China's New Orleans, and the best performances took place at the Paramount (still an entertainment venue, next to Jing'an Temple). The Shanghai Jazz Orchestra is trying...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

On-board wifi

Air China has announced that it will start offering wifi on its international flights starting tomorrow. Not for free, but USD 26.95 is not too bad if you can work for a couple of hours while flying to Europe, Australia or the US. KLM is still not offering it, the only thing they currently offer is sending emails and SMS through your personal video screen (for a few dollars per mail). Not being able to offer wifi soon might cost them potential business customers.Several airlines flying from...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Kidnapping Mercedes-Benz taxi's

The Non-Violent Resistance blog had a great post last week about Mercedes cabbies in Hangzhou. They were not allowed to raise taxi fares (just like Mercedes taxi's in Shanghai), so they loose money. So what do you do then? Here is the story: Hangzhou, the scenic capital city of Zhejiang Province, introduced more than 100 luxury Mercedes cabs starting in February 2005. Along with many other amenities, city government treats the Mercedes cabs as part of the city's glorious "face", and forbids...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Busy week

For the first time in a very long time I did not post anything for a week on this blog. The reason? I was very busy and just did not find some quiet time to write down some thoughts, even though I came accross several interesting articles (I might post some of them later).I was in Holland for a couple of days earlier this week. Had some good meetings in Hilversum and Amsterdam, and also went to the IPAN new years drink in Amsterdam where I met lots of interesting people fromt the Dutch internet...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Volkskrant article Toodou.com

Dutch newspaper 'De Volkskrant' has an article about Toodou.com on page 4. I did the interview with foreign correspondent Hans Moleman before Christmas already, but did not know when it would be published. By coincidence it is printed on the day that I flew back to Hollland. I could not find the article online, but if you want to search for it the title is 'Nieuwe Chinese hit:...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Wifi on board of KLM?

I am writing this blog entry while on a KLM flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam. The flight is excellent: I booked economy class but got upgraded to business. So I am sitting on the upper deck enjoying the spacious seats. After becoming an entrepreneur I almost always fly economy, but I have to say that business class makes such long flights (almost 12 hours) much more enjoyable and much more productive. I slept for a couple of hours, read two Dutch newspapers and three magazines, plus prepared a...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Toodou.com NY Party

Friday night we organized the Toodou NY party in our offices in the Si Hang warehouse on Suzhou Creek. Lots of people showed up to toast with us to the new year. We had prepared 30 liters of Gluehwein (hot red wine with cloves, cinnamon, orange and lots of sugar), and most guests seemed to like it a lot. Next to that we also had set up several...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>