Yesterday I spent a leisurely Sunday in Shanghai, and maybe the things I did might inspire others as well. I started off by sleeping late, always a good start of a lazy Sunday. Then we went to the new Hyatt on the Bund (199, Huangpu Lu – on the North Bund) for a very nice brunch. The hotel just opened, and the staff did not really know the word brunch yet… They initially sent us to their Chinese a la carte restaurant. However, on the second floor there is a huge lunch/brunch buffet, with a Chinese section (incl. dim sum), a Japanese section (incl. fresh sashimi) and a Western section. And of course I should not forget the dessert section (incl. pancakes and many kinds of ice cream). All excellent quality. There were not many people yet, but once the brunch buffet becomes better known you might have to make reservations. The only negative thing is that you don’t have a view from the restaurant, not sure why they did not put it on a higher floor.

After the brunch we drove over to the new lifestyle and design center in Hongkou, in the former slaughterhouse, called 1933. There was a design exhibition going on, so we could check out the whole building. Amazing architecture, a bit Gaudi style. Very un-Chinese, and worth to check it out. If you are in the design or creative industry and looking for an office, this might be a good place to go. Very special and sure to impress your clients. Several bars and restaurants will open in the building soon, among others one run by David Laris. Address: 29, Shajing Lu. Some pictures can be found here.
The last part of the afternoon we spent at Taikang Lu. This street has changed a lot over the past year or so. Not only has one side completely disappeared and is now a construction site, but also a lot more of the backstreets are converted into bars, boutique shops, art galleries and coffee shops. It’s worth to check it out and have a coffee here (for some pictures see here). This is how Xintiandi should have been, because here the houses are still real (but you also have the occasional smell of communal toilets…). And of course food and drinks are a lot cheaper here than in Xintiandi. The only problem is the parking if you come by car, because there are no official parking spaces in the area. You can park on Taikang Lu, where there is enough space, but it’s officially not allowed and most of the cars that parked there on Sunday afternoon got a parking ticket.

Sunday we drove to the Sheshan Golf Club to watch the HSBC Champions 2007. We met Thijs and Joan there, who had driven up with Joan’s car. After watching a bit of action on the 9th hole, Joan and my wife headed for the HSBC Hexagonal Suite overlooking the green on the eighteenth hole to have some food and drinks. Thijs and I walked around a bit, and then also got hungry. We had member tickets, so could even enter the club house and have lunch there in the Players Lounge. Not sure if that was actually allowed, but we just walked into the lounge and enjoyed their buffet. Only problem was that they did not serve any alcoholic drinks for the players, so after lunch we also went over to the HSBC VIP suite.

The food in the players lounge was good, but at HSBC the food was even better (catering by the Ritz-Carlton as I later found out). They also had an unlimited supply of good wines and beers, so we watched the action from the balcony while sipping a glass of champagne. Life could be worse. After a few glasses we decided to stay there and enjoy some more food, instead of following the players around the course. That turned out to be a good choice, because the tournament ended in a double play-off on the 18th hole, so we could see it all from the best viewing point on the course. Thanks for the nice afternoon Joan & HSBC!

This weekend I managed to keep my plan not to work much on weekends anymore. Because of a schedule filled to the brink, that was not too difficult.

On Saturday I was in Beijng, where I attended the first Foo Camp in China (pictures). As usual this Foo Camp was organized by Tim O’Reilly and his team. About 80 people participated in this unconference. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, it basically means that it’s not a normal conference where you listen to speeches, but a seminar where everybody is involved actively in every session. There was no schedule, but at the end of the opening session everybody who wanted to discuss something could sign up for that. The board was filled in no time.

For me the event was interesting not only from a business perspective (Got to know an interesting start-up with an idea I totally believe in, and even learned some new things about online gaming in China – thanks Frank!) but also from a personal perspective (meeting interesting people, and talking with smart people about things you normally do not talk about too much).

China Foo was not just about tech as many people think, but you could talk about everything that you are passionate about. I had a good discussion with Paul Denlinger about the whole global warming problematic, and we both agree that this is underestimated by most people. Why are people so passive about it? Do they not realize what is happening, or do they just not care? Things can get out of hand very quickly, but most people just sit and wait. I am worried about this. Paul sent me an interesting article today, read it if you are interested in this subject. One small part I want to point out here: About 11,000 years ago the earth went from a warm, wet climate to a cold, dry climate within 3 years (results from the Greenland ice coring experiment). Think about it, a complete climate change in just 3 years. Can the collective power of the people -through the internet or other technologies- still do something to avoid this?

After China Foo I took a plane back to Shanghai (yes, that might be a cause of Global Warming), because I was going to meet Gary and Bill for drinks. Finally a flight without much delay. And it was my last flight in the next 2-3 months, because I don’t want to miss the birth of our baby. Nice to know that I don’t have to travel for the next couple of weeks!

It seems every flight I am on recently has problems. A few weeks ago I was not able to fly to Guangzhou because of a cancelled flight, and yesterday and today I am encountering similar problems.

Last night I flew Shandong Airlines with two colleagues from Shanghai to Jinan. Everything went fine, until we approached the airport. There was heavy fog there, and after circling for about 20 minutes the announcement came that we were diverted to Qingdao. Well, better to divert a flight than to land in unsafe conditions, so no negative comment here. However, things changed a bit once we arrived in Qingdao. The official announcement was that we could leave the plane and would be informed later about what would happen. So we took the bus to the arrivals hall, and then… nothing. No airline representatives, no information, nothing. Because it was 11 PM we decided to curse Shandong Airlines and take a taxi into town to check if there would be any trains going to Zibo (our final destination).

Also Qingdao was foggy and the highway to the city was blocked. The taxi driver of course had no clue how to get to the city without using the highway, but he called some friends who helped him out. In Qingdao we found out that the main railway station was under renovation, so we had to take a train from another station. And of course that was pitch dark when we arrived. The first train would leave about 7 hours later. We then took a taxi to a hotel and tried to get a few hours of sleep. Although I was tired this was not so easy. First I had to kill two cockroaches in my room, and then I realized that it was very cold because the heating was not working. The room was quite filthy and to top it off it was located next to a busy road.

The next morning we got up at 6:30 in order to get to the railway station on time to buy tickets. That part worked out, but the 2-hour train ride turned out to be 3-hours. I tried to get some sleep, but the train was completely full and quite noisy. Next to that some of my neighbours were of the local farmer type, smelling badly and constantly spitting out their sunflower seeds. Gross. Anyway, we finally arrived in Zibo just before lunchtime, about 17 hours after we left the office in Shanghai. The meetings there went very well and very efficient (time pressure can be good), so at least that part was a big plus.

But when I arrived at the airport for my next flight early Friday night, I was unpleasantly surprised that it was among many other flights that was delayed. How long? “We don’t know, but around 2 hours.” Huh? Either you know or you don’t know. Anyway, my Friday evening will be spent on a airport. It’s cold here (no heating before November 15) and almost too dark to read. And of course no way to get online, or to even just recharge my laptop. Flying in China is not always a pleasure…

Update: I finally arrived in Beijing around 10:30 PM, with a 3 hour delay

It took a bit longer than planned, but our Tibet bike ride documentary has been finished. The total length is 90 minutes, spread out over 6 episodes of 15 minutes each. The episodes will first be shown on Tudou, before syndicating it to other media. The episodes are mainly in Chinese, with Chinese subtitles. An English subtitle version will follow later, and for foreign audiences I will put that on YouTube as well.

The first episode is now online on Tudou.com. It was put on the site earlier this morning, and has been viewed over 33,000 times already. This episode shows the preparation for the trip, and introduction of the bike riders, the arrival in Lhasa and the first two days of the bike ride. The first day was still relatively easy, but I had a major headache due to the altitude (you can see me half passed out in a chair at the end of the day). The second day shows the ascent of our first mountain pass over 5000 meters. Even my mom features in it, as we called her with a speaker phone when we were on top of the mountain. Good memories, especially because you don’t feel the pain and lack of oxygen while watching it. Enjoy the show!

After a rather hectic work week I was totally fed up with work on Friday evening. Most of the time I really like my work, but sometimes you hit these periods that it’s a bit difficult to motivate yourself. Coincidentally, Spill Group Asia had planned a karaoke evening with the whole team, and that was a good way to unwind a bit and ‘sing’ the stress out of me. Several of our former colleagues also joined, something that would not happen quickly in Holland, and we had a nice crowd in our private karaoke room. Thijs and I made fools of ourselves of course, because we were the only ones without any singing talent, but that’s part of the fun. The best part was when we loudly sang a song, and only afterwards found out that they microphone had been turned off by one of our colleagues… Pictures of the evening can be seen here.

Saturday morning I felt a bit better, and I went through my emails. But after an hour or so I had enough of it, and decided to quit working for the weekend. Normally I spend at least several hours behind my laptop on both Saturday and Sunday, but I think I am going to change my working habits. From now on I might check my mail, but I am not going to spend much time working on weekends anymore. Just enjoy the days off, do some sports, study Chinese and spend time with my wife (and very soon with our first baby!). Let’s see how long I can keep this up.

We had a pre-natal class on Saturday, and that’s where we spent 6 (!) hours. Quite interesting though, learned lots of things about the final stage of pregnancy, the birthing procedure and about taking care of a newborn baby. I never knew that you might have to change diapers up to 12 times a day… And breastfeeding is not a 3 times per day affair, but will happen every two hours or so. Also fun to meet other couples that will give birth around the same time, and listen to their (quite similar) stories.

After pre-natal class we did some shopping in Grand Gateway, I made one business phone call (was already planned before), and then turned off my phone to watch a DVD. We started watching ‘Lust, Caution’ (Se, Jie), Ang Lee’s newest blockbuster that was released this week. But we got the censored Mainland China version, so stopped watching after about 15 minutes. We’ll watch the rest when the Hong Kong version is available in our DVD shop. We then watched the beginning of Walt Disney’s Ratatouille, before preparing some dinner. During dinner we watched the rest of the movie, which was actually quite entertaining. The story line was fun, and the animation was extremely well done.

At night I met up with Gary and Yang Lei (and later also Tudou.com colleague Michael and his wife) for a few beers in the new Blue Frog in Xujiahui (Tianyaoqiao Lu/Xingeng Lu). I did not stay too long, because I was still tired of the week, and was in bed by midnight.

On Sunday morning we slept in, had a small breakfast and then went to check out Gymboree on Huaihai Lu. After that my wife went for brunch with some INSEAD friends, and I went to Hong Kong Plaza computer mall. Did not see anything interesting, so decided to walk over to Xintiandi to have a coffee and a poached egg sandwich. And that’s where I am sitting now, outside on the terrace, watching the crowds walk by. Very relaxed. And no more emails until tomorrow!

On Beijing’s famous Silk Market you see mainly foreigners buying fake brand name clothing. Most of them are tourists, who know the place from their guide books, or who are even taken to the fake market in tour groups. But also expats are a big group of buyers, especially the ones that are still relatively new to China. The Silk Market opened 22 years ago, and is still going strong, although the location was changed in 2004 from the small cosy alley behind its current location to a big new building without any atmosphere. I admit that I also used to buy products there when I was still living in Beijing. But somehow it feels weird to wear fakes and I prefer to buy the real stuff now. The quality of the originals seems to be better, and wearing something like a fake watch feels very cheap (but it’s a good way to test if you like the watch, I bought at least one real watch after trying the fake one out for a few days).

In Shanghai the famous Xiangyang market was closed last year June, and most of the stalls moved to different locations in the city. The vibe that the Xiangyang market had on a Saturday afternoon is gone, however. Even on weekends it’s not very busy in the new locations, such as the Yatai Xinyang market below the Science and Technology Museum in Pudong. Did people quietly decide to switch to real products, or is it just that they do not know how to find the new locations? Whatever the reason, it seems closing the market was a good way to fight pirated clothing, bags and watches.

And not only Shanghai, but also Beijing is doing something against fake clothing it seems. This time it’s not the government that removes a market or punishes traders, but the Intermediate People’s Court. According to the Shanghai Daily, this week The North Face won a trademark infringement lawsuit against the owner of the Silk Market (This place has an owner? I always assumed the building was owned by the government). But the damages awarded were not that impressive, just USD 5300. However, I think this ruling is significant because it shows China is starting to do something. It is actually already the second law suit that the Silk Market lost, because in September Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada won a joint lawsuit that awarded the companies about USD 2500 each. Is this the beginning of the end for fake clothes in China, or are these just exceptions to the rule that nobody really cares?