One thing I do not like about Chinese hotels is the fact that the “Do not disturb” sign is often totally ignored. You put the “Do not disturb” light on or put the card on the door, but the cleaning lady will walk into your room anyway in the morning. It happened to me several times in the past already (but, to be fair, also once in a 5-star hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia), and this morning it happened to us again. Luckily the cleaning lady first rang the doorbell. Trying to explain that we put on the light because we do not want to be sleep a bit longer does not help, she only said “I am sorry” and moved on to ring the bell of our neighbours (I could not see if they also had their sign on).

After a flight of over just two hours from Shanghai our plane landed in Guilin, the former capital of Guangxi province. The airport is (like most airports in China) located about 30 kilometers out of the city, so we took a taxi to our hotel. All taxi’s are metered, which spares you the hassle of negotiating a price. The young driver immediately tried to strike up a conversation, and within a few minutes the conversation turned to a sales pitch for cheaper tickets for boats and shows that he could arrange. Bad luck for the driver, because I never buy anything in China without checking prices at more than one other location first. Especially not when I am not even sure what I want to do during my vacation.

The hotel we stayed in, the Guilin Bravo Hotel, was a typical 4-star Chinese hotel. A bit older already, with staff that did not speak much English, but good enough for me. There are a couple of other good hotels here (including even a Sheraton, right on the river), but none of those has an outside pool. One of the things I like to do during a holiday is spend at least a few hours with a good book at the pool, so that was the key selling point for this hotel.

At night we walked to the river and has some Guilin food in a local restaurant (two meals including beer, soft drinks and tea for less than USD 3). Very tasty, and more spicy than I has expected. Note to self, when back in Shanghai find a good Guangxi food restaurant. The meal was followed by a foot and leg massage in the parlour upstairs of the restaurant. My legs were a bit sore from an extended run in the hills the day before, and this was exactly what I needed. The masseuse gave my legs a ginger treatment: she prepared some muddy-looking ginger paste that she put all over my lower legs, and put hot towels over them. First I did not feel much (but I smelled the ginger!), but soon it got warmer and warmer. After about 20 minutes I asked her to take if off, because I felt my legs were on fire. My soreness was gone though.

After the massage we walked along the river and decided to take a river cruise. At a small shop on a street corner I bough two beers for during the 100-minute boat ride, because I expected they would not sell beer on board (which turned out to be correct). The cruise, called “Water System in Guilin” in English and “Two rivers, four lakes” in Chinese was amazing. At first I was not too impressed, because the 20-person boat also had a tour guide who decided to use a megaphone to explain all the things we were seeing. But once we went off the main river into the canals of the city the outdoor deck was opened where I did not hear her, and had a much better view.

Guilin started this cruise in 2002, and it seems a winner among Chinese tour groups. I did not see a foreigner on any of the boats, although there are quite a lot of them here on their way to Yangshuo. Maybe the English name “Water System of Guilin” should be changed? I loved the cruise, especially the part over the canals and lakes of Guilin city. Beautiful pagoda’s and classical Chinese structures (surely rebuild, but that does not matter too much), and everything very nicely lighted. It was not cheap: at RMB 150 per person it was equal to the price of 10 dinners in local restaurants, but well worth it.

… we got married today (pictures!). On 9-9 we did the registration, and on the 10th we had a big party. Time flies, but my wife and I look back at a very nice first year of our marriage. An exciting year, that started off with a honeymoon in the Philippines, and later included trips to among others Hong Kong, France, Italy and Holland. Workwise it was an extremely busy year for both of us, but it was also quite succesful. A year ago Spill Group Asia did not even exist yet, now it’s a fast-growing company with some great gaming sites and we even have our own game development team. Toodou received two rounds of funding during the past year, and was voted one of the Red Herring Asia 100 companies. Gary has managed to grow the company to over 40 staff. And now Qi also spends a lot of time there building Finance and HR. Let’s see what the next year will bring us, I plan to make it even more successful – both businesswise and privately.

To start it off, Qi and I decided to have a “second honeymoon” during the next week, to relax a bit and spend a lot of time together. I try not to be online too much, therefore expect some lighter posting over the next couple of days.

Today we went live with several new functions for our Chinese flagship site game.com.cn. We decided to add some interactive features to the gaming site, and more will follow soon. One feature we added is a rating system for games. If a user is logged in, he/she can give a game a rating of between one and five stars. Based on this we calculate which games are the highest rated games on our site, and we can publish a ranking.

Another feature is that you can leave comments about the game (they can be seen right below the game). For example, you can tell other users some tricks that you found out about or whether you like the game (or not). You can even upload screen shots of your high score, so others can try to beat that.

The site also includes a BBS (forum), where users can discuss about all kinds of gaming related topics. Several threads were already started this morning.

But most important is probably the points system that we introduced. At this point you can get points by among others logging in and registering, by providing more information about yourself, by inviting friends to the site, and by rating and commenting on games. For the BBS you get points for posts that you make. In order to encourage people to participate in discussions we give away nice prices to users with the highest scores during one week or one month.

If you can read Chinese, give it a try. We tested the system for a week already, but there may still be some bugs. One known bug is that the site has some problems with Firefox and Safari, but we are working on that. Please let us know if you find any other bugs (I might give you some bonus points :-). Happy gaming!

What do you expect when visiting a gaming company? A silent office with white walls? No, I feel that does not work in this industry. Spill Group Asia’s office is therefore quite lively with among others a recreation room where you can play a game or watch a DVD. And now we also have some great graffiti on some of our walls!

Thirty years ago the Rugby 7’s started in Hong Kong, and became a huge success there almost overnight. In its first edition already teams from 7 countries competeted against each other, and this year’s event had 24 participating countries and 40,000 spectators. The event is so big now that hotels in Hong Kong raise their prices during the Sevens, and it’s very difficult to find a room during the weekend of the event.

Last year, Shanghai also started organizing its own 7’s. And this weekend the second edition of what is officially called the Guiness Shanghai International Rugby 7’s will take place. The event is much smaller than the HK version, with 15 teams competing; most of them from China, including one from the People’s Liberation Army. The tournament will take place this Saturday from 9 AM – 5 PM, and Sunday from 10 AM – 4 PM, at the Shanghai Rugby Football Club on Biyun Road in Jinqiao.

In order to attract more people, the entrance is free for Chinese but not for foreigners (they pay RMB 30). A bit strange in my opinion: although RMB 30 is probably less than a beer at the event, principally I feel it’s not right to use different pricing for foreigners and Chinese. Try to do it the other way around, free for foreigners and an entrance fee for Chinese. The whole of China would fall over you (the Chinabounder effect I would call it now 🙂

But segregated prices aside, I hope the event will be a big success and that it will grow into HK-like proportions in the following years. For this weekend 1500 supporters are expected to drink beer and cheer for the teams, if they manage to attract that amount of people I think they are on the right track. Enjoy the games!

Most of my Shanghai-based weblog readers probably know that the title of this post is the name of one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. And those not in the know, now know it as well. A Future Perfect is located in a small lane just off Huashan Lu (close to the Hilton Hotel). Not easy to find, but that did not seem to be a hurdle for the place to quickly become one of the most popular restaurants in town. For some reason I had not eaten here yet since it opened last year November, but now I finally managed to go. And I was pleasantly surprised, both by the ambiance, the menu and the prices.

A Future Perfect is a combination of a restaurant and a boutique hotel, located in a quiet lanehouse that was completely remodeled. The design of the place is trendy, almost futuristic. I loved it. There is a courtyard in the back where you can dine alfresco, or just have an after-dinner drink. Because I did not make a reservation, I was lucky to get a table (note to self: book in advance next time I go).

The menu in itself is worth a read. The names of many of their menu items are creative and inspirational, and some really made me laugh. No spoilers here, take a look yourself. The menu is pretty extensive, with lots of fish and meat, to pasta dishes and (if I remember well) even some burgers. The wine list is not a simple list of reds and whites, but they are categorized by the kind of food you are ordering. Great if you are not a connaisseur, or if you just want to try something different – now you know it will fit your food without having to ask the staff.

The food itself was simply great. Sometimes these designer restaurants look great, but their food is just so-so. A Future Perfect manages to combine a great design with excellent food. And even the service was quite OK, something that is often a problem in Shanghai. All in all a nice evening out, for a very reasonable price (dinner for two, starter and main course including two glasses of champagne and two glasses of red wine for around RMB 600). Anything negative? Well, the parking was a bit of a hassle. In the small lane you can park your car, but it is almost impossible to turn around. And avoiding the other cars turned it into an obstacle course. Next time I’ll either park at the Hilton or come by taxi – because I certainly will come back.

Ever tried to buy a Lonely Planet guide for China in China? Forget it, buy it before you arrive in China, because you cannot get it here. I was at Chaterhouse in Times Square last night to stock up on some English books for an upcoming vacation, and was browsing through the hundreds of Lonely Planet guides. I have several old China guides from them, but the last one is at least 4 years old. Because of the unbelievable development of this country, that is probably similar to 20 years in a European country, so I decided it was time for a new edition.

But I could not find the China guide, so I assumed it was sold out. Then I looked for the Beijing guide, and did not find it either. The Tibet guide maybe, as as preparation for next year’s bike trip? No luck. I asked the shop assistant, and he explained to me that in China it is not allowed to sell the Lonely Planet guides for China, Beijing and Tibet.

I never heard this before, but it’s probably true. Of course this is not very unusual because more foreign publications are banned here. But on my way out I noticed that the Shanghai Lonely Planet was on display near the entrance. Interesting, so this guidebook is available for sale. I wonder why?