Archive for June, 2006

Xiangyang market to close tomorrow

Over the years I have taken many visitors to Shanghai's Xiangyang market. It is the biggest market with fake products (think Ralph Lauren polo's, Mont Blanc pens and Rolex watches) in Shanghai. But it will close tomorrow. Not because of the fact that they sell fake products (nobody seems to care about IP rights), but because a developer bought the place and will put up a hotel there.I had a meeting close to the Xiangyang market today, and decided to take one last look at the small shops. I was...
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Ringtones

When calling people on their mobile phones in China you often don't hear the phone ringing on the other end of the line, but you get a personalized 'ringtone'. You can choose your favorite song for this, and of course China Mobile earns good money for the songs that you install. I find it quite annoying that I have to listen to these songs when calling people, but I guess lots of people love it, otherwise the service would not exist.Two weeks ago I called my wife, and was surprised that she had...
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Product quality complaints

Do Chinese like to complain? Generally I would say no, they seem to be quite happy compared to the average Dutch or German citizen. But if it is about product quality you cannot fool them. If a Chinese person buys an electric article in a store you can make sure that he or she wants to test whether it works before paying. You don't even have to ask for it, the store clerks take the article out of the box and plug it in for you. And if a product does not work as expected you can make sure...
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WordPress unblocked?

One of my favourite blogs is that of Robert Scoble. However, since he started using Wordpress a couple of months ago I could not read it in China anymore without using a proxy. Just now I clicked by mistake on a link to his blog and to my surprise it started to load. Slowly, very very slowly. After about 4 minutes (serious) the page was there. I then checked Dave Winer's other blog on Wordpress, and that also loaded (just as slow). Is China finally unblocking...
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Delays

The weekend in Macau was great, but we had some bad luck with the flights. Both the flight to Macau and the flight back were delayed. Especially the flight last night was not a lot of fun. We were supposed to fly at 6:10 PM, but only boarded around 7. Fifteen minutes later the pilot announced that he had some 'bad news'. We had missed our slot and air traffic control would not let us depart until 10:20 PM... Most people on board did not really react, which I found strange. But then I realized...
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Macau wedding

Qi and I are in Macau (or Macao - both spellings are used) for the weekend because one of Qi's best friends from INSEAD, Josie Zhao, is getting married here. Josie is Chinese, and Mark (her husband-to-be) is Portugese-American and they both live in Hong Kong, so Macau (as a former Portugese colony and now part of China) is an excellent location for the wedding.I had not been to Macau since 1998 or 1999, and the place has changed completely. Especially the waterfront next to the ferry pier is...
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Shanghai airport lounge

Today my flight from Shanghai to Macau was delayed, so instead of waiting at the gate I decided to go to the business lounge. I have a Platinum Elite card from KLM, and that gives you worldwide access to KLM lounges, even if you do not fly KLM. Over the past years I have often used this when I wanted to avoid the crowds, or just to drink a cup of coffee. But it seems that KLM is cutting costs: the lounge at Pudong Airport refused to let me in, because KLM changed its policy. Only by paying RMB...
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Leeuwenhosen in Shanghai

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a Chinese commercial for a board game that supplied the players with orange pants. It turns out these pants are so-called Leeuwenhosen from Bavaria beer, for Dutch soccer fans. During a walk through the city I spotted the game (and the pants) at several places already. Thanks for this unexpected support for the Dutch team...
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McDonald's drive-thru restaurants

McDonald's made a very smart deal yesterday: they signed an agreement with Sinopec (China's leading oil and gas station company) to set up drive-thru restaurants at their gas stations. Drive through restaurants are a novelty in China, I heard there must be one McDonalds drive-thru in Shanghai, but I did not find it yet. Also the other fast food stores in China like KFC or Pizza Hut do not use this concept so far, but with the increase in car ownership they will likely also enter this part of...
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1Bib.com website live

Last week I wrote about 1Bib.com, a Guangzhou-based car comparison website. The site has gone live a few days ago, so if you live in China and are looking to buy or sell a car check it...
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Orange weather alert

It is suddenly getting pretty warm in Shanghai, even though it should be the raining season now. When I drove back from a lunch meeting today the temperature was 37 degrees, so luckily our office has a good airconditioning system. The Shanghai government even issued a Orange Weather Alert today because of the high temperature. No idea why they call it Orange, maybe because Holland plays its last group match at the World Cup...
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Soccer in Brown's

The past days I spent in Shanghai and Beijing with Peter and Reinout from Spill Group, so limited time to write entries for my blog. Of course we also had time for other things than just business, and on Friday night in Beijing we watched the Holland - Ivory Coast game in Brown's. I did not know the place before, but had received a mail from the Dutch Club in Beijing that this would be the best place to watch the game. Although we had some trouble locating it (an obviously drunk Australian with...
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Are you an England supporter?

Then this is the product for...
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1bib.com

Sunday we took the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, a two hour ride through Shenzhen, Dongguan and the Guangdong countryside (factories, factories, factories - this area is literally the factory of the world). We had a meeting there in the afternoon with Yanik Cantieni and his girlfriend Lian. Yanik is a long-time friend of mine who is working for DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart (he used to work in HK before that). Lian also used to work in DC headquarters, but last year she decided to become an...
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Saturday afternoon hike

Saturday afternoon we went for a hike on Lantau Island. After an outdoor brunch on the square in Discovery Bay we changed clothes and set off for Mui Wo. It's not too far (about 1-2 hours), but although most of the hike is along the coastline you have to hike over one pretty steep hill. I loved the walk, the nature on Lantau Island is beautiful and the views over the sea fantastic. The weather was not great, overcast with a bit of occasional rain (and 30 degrees Celcius), but not too bad for a...
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Discovery Bay boat ride

This is my first post ever from a boat! We are on the fast ferry from Central (Hong Kong) to Discovery Bay, and there is free wifi on board. Not too fast, but compared to internet speeds in Shanghai still pretty decent. It's a nice boat ride, the sea is calm and the views are great. Right now we pass by Disneyland, which is right on the waterfront. Not many private boats out today, probably because of the bad weather yesterday (the rain storm continued until last night, and I got soaked on the...
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Bad weather in Hong Kong

I am in Hong Kong today. Luckily I am in meetings the whole day, because outside the weather is extremely bad. Just received this announcement:BLACK RAINSTORM WARNING SIGNAL SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ISSUED BY THE HONG KONG OBSERVATORY AT 11:15 A.M.THE RAINSTORM WARNING SIGNAL IS NOW BLACK. THIS MEANS THAT HEAVY RAIN HAS FALLEN OR IS EXPECTED TO FALL GENERALLY OVER HONG KONG, EXCEEDING 70 MILLIMETRES IN AN HOUR, AND IS LIKELY TO CONTINUE.BECAUSE OF SERIOUSLY FLOODED ROADS AND INCLEMENT WEATHER...
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Dragon Air price discrimination?

This afternoon my secretary booked two tickets from Shanghai to Hong Kong, one for me (a foreigner) and one for a Chinese national. When I looked at the prices I noticed that they were different: I pay more for the same ticket on Dragon Air than a Chinese! I could not believe it, this reminds me of China in the 1990's when foreigners could officially be overcharged. But this law changed years ago, and now there should be one price no matter where you are from. Is Dragon Air breaking this law in...
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China Daily plagiarism

During the past week I exchanged a few mails with Sam Flemming about podcasters on Toodou that got famous because of their video's, because he planned to write about it on his blog. Today I found an article from the China Daily on my RSS reader about the same subject. I felt it was quite similar to Sam's article, and when I checked it, it tunrned out that Sam was the author. I did not know that he also writes for this paper, but did not think further about it. But just now I looked at his blog,...
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