Shanghaied Weblog

The Cool Docks (老码头) and Greek restaurant Mythos

Last night I had dinner at Greek restaurant Mythos at the Cool Docks in Shanghai (老码头, Lao Ma Tou, literally "the old docks"). I had not been to the Cool Docks before and had actually not even heard about it before. Why? I guess they did a terrible job at marketing the place since it opened last year. If people don't talk about it or don't write about it on the Internet, others won't know about it.The place itself is great however, it reminds me very much of Xintiandi. It also consists of...

Tudou.com announces partnership with the China Film Group for the 2009 Tudou Video Festival

After last year's big success of the first Tudou Festival in Moganshan (see my blog post), there will be another one this year. The festival, that sets Tudou apart from its competitors, will be held on April 18 in Shanghai. For this year's festival Tudou.com partners with the China Film Group Corporation, the most prestigious film production and trading organization in China. As Tudou's press release from today says, this is a very significant milestone for Tudou: symbolically, the partnership...

This Saturday: pre-SXSW party at M1NT Shanghai

This week Christine Lu of the China Business Network is in town again and every time she is here she manages to organize a great party. This time it's no different: on Saturday February 28 there will be a pre-SXSW cocktail at M1NT Shanghai.Never heard about SXSW before? It's the abbreviation for South by Southwest, a huge film, music and interactive festival in Austin, Texas (website). This year China's tech sector will also be present at the interactive festival, and one of the aims of this...

China Entrepreneur – a must read for (future) entrepreneurs in China

Laurie Underwood doing the introduction of the book launch eventOn Thursday I attended the book launch of "China Entrepreneur" by CEIBS professor Juan Antonio Fernandez and Laurie Underwood. This is their second book together after publishing China CEO in 2006. For this book they interviewed 40 international entrepreneurs in China (among others myself, hence the invitation), capturing their insights and experiences about how to successfully set up and run a business in China. I am quite...

A fabricated interview is not a smart idea

When I started my entrepreneurial career after leaving Daimler China in 2002 I among others had a consulting company that advised foreign companies on doing business in China. One of our competitors was Dezan Shira and I admired the company for the way they seemed to be growing and for the political connections that its founder Chris Devonshire-Ellis seemed to have. I never met him, but at that time he was for me the personification of a successful foreign entrepreneur in China.Because I moved...

Construction companies: Spil Games Asia will NOT move

Monday afternoon it suddenly started, I received a call from a construction company telling me they heard that our company would move and that they were interested in designing and constructing the new office. I told them they had the wrong information, but they insisted their source was very well-informed. An hour later the boss of the company called me with the same story, seemingly trying to pressure me to admit that we would move our company in the near future. He even said he knew how...

M1NT Shanghai roof terrace

Today was a beautiful day in Shanghai, not only did we have a blue sky but temperatures went up to 26 degrees around lunch time - see the screen shot below from Yahoo Weather. I had an excellent lunch at M1NT again, Dan Segall is doing a great job as the new executive chef at M1NT. With 4 people we decided to order all 12 different items on the lunch menu, and all of them not only looked impressive but also tasted fantastic. Because of Dan's fusion cooking talent M1NT has quickly become my...

Holiday in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi

It's been a while since my last post. Not because I am getting tired of blogging (not at all!) but because I have been on vacation for the past 2 weeks. First I spent a couple of days in Beijing for Chinese New Year. It was freezing cold so among others we went skiing in Shijinglong, one of the many ski resorts north of Beijing. For some pictures see for example here, here or here. We also visited the ice sculptures in Longqingxia and we went bathing in an open air hot springs north of Beijing...