Archive for October, 2008

Dunkin' Donuts further delays opening of its first Shanghai store

Dunkin' Donuts was supposed to open today in Shanghai, so after lunch I decided to drop by at their store. But when I got there it turned out that the store was still not open, despite the fact that last Sunday their employees told me it would open today.I went into the store and talked to two of their managers who were on site. They told me that it would take 'maybe 3 weeks' before they would open. They did not explain why. The store seemed ready to go to me, the only thing still missing were...
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Finally! Dunkin' Donuts in Shanghai opens this week

It took about 6 months longer than originally planned, but Dunkin' Donuts will open its first store in Shanghai this week! The location: on Fuzhou Lu close to Hubei Lu, a five minute walk from People's Square.Yesterday I went over to take a look at the store and they almost finished their decoration. The store had a sign saying that it was not open yet, but because I could see fresh donuts on their shelves already and there were a lot of staff walking around in Dunkin' Donuts outfits, I decided...
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Vasque Gore-Tex China Trail Tour – Hangzhou 30K Mountain Run

On Saturday I got up very early to particpate in a 30 km mountain trailrunning race. My driver picked me up at 4:50 AM and we drove over to Hangzhou in less than 2 hours. I had my breakfast in the car and then managed to sleep for another hour or so. The start and finish of the race was next to the Hangzhou stadium, and at 7 AM it was already quite busy there. I picked up my start number (no. 23) and prepared my running clothes. Despite the sudden cool temperatures (only about 15 degrees early...
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Eventful weekend in Shanghai

My weekends are never boring, there are always lots of things to do or events to attend. This weekend for example started off early with a cocktail reception for the Dutch Design Exhibition. Spil Games was one of the sponsors/exhibitors so I went to reception, which started at 4 PM already. A bit too early for my liking because we normally work until 6:30 or 7 PM (also on Friday), but I guess they copied the Dutch habit of going home early on Friday :-).I walked around the Dutch Design...
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We launched our first Chinese mobile game portal: shouji.game.com.cn

I am a big believer in the mobile internet in China. I think that eventually the number of mobile internet users might surpass the users who go online on a computer, currently it's 80 million mobile internet users out of 260 million who go online in total. I especially think that mobile games could be a huge market in China, because entertainment (and not information) is still the main thing that people are looking for online. Therefore we now launched our first mobile game portal in China at...
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Happy! Happy! Happy!

This morning my wife and I went to ParkwayHealth in Shanghai (the former WorldLink) and we got some very exciting news: My wife is pregnant again and the 7-week old fetus seems to be in good health!It was a bit quicker than we expected because baby Scott is only 9 months old right now, but we are extremely happy. The estimated date of birth is May 31, 2009, so we still have a long way to go. And the fetus still has a long way to grow, today he/she is just 1.19 cm tall but already has a...
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M1NT soft-opening party

Last night I was invited to the M1NT Shanghai soft opening party with my wife (full disclosure: I am a shareholder of the club). I was still quite tired from my Japan trip because I only arrived in China in the afternoon, but we decided to go anyway. And I am glad we did, because we very much enjoyed it. The club is not completely ready yet, for example the restaurant was still an open space (should be ready for the Grand Opening in mid-November) and the roof terrace with jacuzzi will not open...
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Japan and the Tokyo Game Show

Last week I spent 3 days in Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, and for some meetings with online gaming companies and agencies. A short trip, but absolutely worth it. Especially the Tokyo Game Show and the things I heard during the meetings gave me a lot of inspiration for opportunities that still exist in Japan, but also ideas that can be used in other countries in Asia. Japan is so close to China, but it's a whole different world.It already starts when you arrive at Narita where you have to take...
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Inspiring view from my hotel room in Hong Kong

Just now I took this picture from behind my desk in my hotel room in Hong Kong. I love the view, it's always very inspiring. On the one side the green mountains (you cannot see them in the picture) and on the other side the Hong Kong skyscrapers and Victoria Harbour.Right now it's still a bit foggy because of the heavy rainstorms over the past 36 hours, normally you have a much better view of the New Territories mountains in the back. At night the view is even more spectacular when all the...
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Running in a rainstorm

Today Marcel and I did another run, this time section 3, 4 and 5 of the Mac Lehose trail. Quite a challenge, especially after the intensive run yesterday. And the low pressure area caused by typhoon Higo made sure we did not stay dry today...After an early breakfast with my wife at the Brunch Club in Soho, I took the MTR to North Point where Marcel joined me. From there we set off to Sai Kung by MTR and minibus, followed by a taxi to the start of section 3. Section 3 and 4 are the most...
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Hong Kong Island run

Today my Trailwalker team went for a run on Hong Kong Island to train for the big event on November 7. Just over 1 month to go, so the training becomes a bit more intensive now. Over the past weeks I did not really train in the mountains, because there are no real ones in either Shanghai or Holland, and that did not make it easier for me today. Likely the trainings this weekend will also be the last mountain runs that I will do before the actual trailwalker, so they are quite important to me.I...
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Typhoon Higos – a direct hit for HK or not?

I arrived in Hong Kong today for two days of intensive training with my team for our 100 km Trailwalker race next month. But yesterday I got an email from one of my team members, saying that a typhoon with strenght 8 would hit Hong Kong over the weekend. I checked online and indeed it looked like a direct hit (picture below is from Thursday):I was a bit concerned because that would mean running in the mountains would be out of the question (too dangerous with falling trees and potential...
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And another mistake for NRC's ePaper…

Yesterday the NRC newspaper for the iLiad contained not one but three files: the normal Thursday newspaper, Wednesday's newspaper and a letter of apology. What had happened? The Wednesday paper that was sent out to all ePaper readers was a bit strange, to say it in a nice way. Lots of articles were about a journalist that was retiring, and from the articles it seemed like he was a combination of a god and an alcoholic at the same time. The way he did his work as a bike racing sports journalist?...
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