The busy 2 months has gone by and I finally find some time to write my blog again. What happenend these 2 months? I have been traveling around China for work. First to Yiwu and Guangzhou, then I had to do a lot of preparation for the trade mission of Heemskerk, our state secretary in Holland. The goal of this large multi-sectoral mission is to promote mutual trade and investment between China and the Netherlands.
Your Op was assigned by the Dutch consulate Shanghai to organize the matchmaking program for the companies joining this mission in Shanghai. On the matchmaking day in Shanghai, these companies were matched with the commercial contacts (agents, importers, wholesaler or end users) in order to broaden their network and increase their opportunities in the Chinese market. It was quite a lot of work, but at the end we were able to find the right match for each company. A trade dinner was organized on the 16th of November in the Okura hotel. It was an evening with lots of food, speeches and networking. The evening ended with a debriefing to give feedback about the matchmaking. It was very exciting for us, since we were curious to hear how it all went. The reactions were all positive and people had a good day in Shanghai. It gave us lots of satisfaction to the hard work we have done.
For now, the end of 2009 is almost near. We have great plans for Your Op 2010. With the World Expo coming up, Shanghai will be put in the spotlight from May till October 2010. Let's see what 2010 will bring.

After a couple of weeks in Holland, I am back in Shanghai again. The first couple of days in the Netherlands felt weird and uncomfortable. I really had to acclimatize myself; the jetlag, the people, the surrounding. I guess China has gotten in to me. China and Holland are just 2 total different countries. I was walking to the bus to get to work this morning and I was looking at the way people where dressed. I couldn't find one person who was dressed very outstanding or colorful; no trend, no different styles in the crowd. Why is this?
One explanation is that China as a country didn't really stimulate differences. To be different was something "bad". China wasn't really in favor of that, so people where not exposed to different styles and thinking. But you can see the changes in China nowadays. More and more Chinese has their own opinion, styles and thinking. Shanghai is developing new trendy neighborhoods with nice and interesting stores. That's one thing I like about Shanghai; every time I come back I can find some new changes.
October holidays are near. This year, we have a holiday break of 8 days!! The celebration of the national day and the mid-autumn day falls in the same period. This holiday is the longest holiday. If you can choose, do NOT come to Shanghai-since the city will be packed with tourist. Everywhere you go in China, it will be busy busy. My plan was to escape China, but I was too late to book the tickets. Now my plan is at least to escape Shanghai for a couple of days. Try to catch some breath near Hangzhou, between the bamboo forest and the different lakes and natural reservoirs. Still making a plan ;)

YES! Finally I can get on my blog again. China didn't unblock it, but I found a way to get through the Great firewall. Proxy server! A proxy server works as a middleman between the web browser and an end server. When you try to access a website that is blocked, the firewall basically says to your internet connection, “Sorry, but you cannot go there.” So instead, the“proxy,” who is allowed to go there, fetch the information for us whether it’s a blog, video, or whatsoever. So now, I can get on facebook, twitter, youtube and my blog without any troubles. One big disadvantages, many pop-ups appear. This makes it sometimes annoying, but fortunately we can put the system on and off. Hopefully the China government is not reading my blog and find out about these proxy servers. That's why, better not write down which proxy server I am using ;) Anyways, I don't think the government cares about the small percentage who is passing by these firewalls. They are more interested in censorship for its local citizen.

As I have mentioned last time, the weather has been changing a lot. But actually now it has not been changing that much. It is only hot hot and hot. Yesterday was 40 degrees Celsius!! Even in Shanghai, it has not been this hot before. That's why I will take my Friday afternoon off and head out to the swimming pool. :) There is a big swimming place with many slides just outside the city center, in Minhang district. So it should be great fun. I got invited to go, so of course I couldn't refuse.

Last but not least, an update on the building which felt down...now I know who did it ;)

Blocked by China

My weblog has been blogged for months in China. I was thinking, they will unblock the blogspot soon, but unfortunately….. It is taking too long, so time to take action! I gave my sister my confidential password and ask her to help me put this online. Hopefully, I can make the people outside of China happy now, because I know you all miss my blogging so much ;)
So many things happened and so many new things to tell. One strange thing happened last weekend in Shanghai. A 13-story building with apartments just keeled over and fell down. Everything was almost finished and it was part of the “lotus riverside” community of 629 apartments and which 489 were already sold. Some people were already living in the other same constructed buildings 20 meters away. But the authorities confirmed that these apartments are safe to live. How can a 13-store apartment building just fall down like that? Authorities are still investigating. Hopefully they will get some good results and make sure it will never happen again. I was thinking to buy a house in Shanghai, but not really sure about it now.
The weather in Shanghai has been changing a lot these days. Yesterday it was nice and cool, today it is warm in the morning and rained like cats and dogs in the afternoon. The “Yangmei” season just started and this means also the rain season began. The season of the plum rains or, misleadingly, intermittent drizzle is a special meteorological phenomenon of the middle and lowland areas of the Yangtze River. Usually, the plum rain season starts in the middle of June and ends in early July which will last for about 20 days. The climate during this season is characterized by continuous rain and hot temperatures. So I guess you all will know how I feel right now; wet and hot!
The weekend I should have time to relax and hopefully the weather will then be less wet and hot ;)

I am fascinated by a book which I am reading since last week. This book is called China Road, a journey into the future of a rising power, from Rob Gifford. It is a nice journey along route 312, the Route 66 of China. He speaks Chinese, meet local people and gives his opinion about China's religion, politics and the fast developing economy.
His journey starts in Shanghai and while he is on the road heading to the west, he meets garrulous talk show hosts, tragic prostitutes, yuppies, drivers, peasants, AIDS patients and Tibetian monks. His book bring me now in Tibet, where he tells the stories of poor tibetans farmers and tibetans children who are trying to study Chinese very hard and pray for a better living for the future. The Chinese are on one mission in China: science and progress. Get them out of their "barbarian" way of living and throw their own civilization to them. "Revive the nation through science and technology"!
While he is on the road, Rob Gifford described the things he sees on the road. He finds the following propaganda on the roads: "one child less will save 3000-5000 yuan" or "speed up road construction. speed up the development of the west. There is no copper in roadside cables. Thieves will be severely punished"
Another interesting story is when he meets a prostitute and talks with her about the reason why she is doing the job she is doing. He expected a sad story how she had to leave school, because she didn't have money. Something like; I must do this or won't be able to eat! But then he says (quote of the book): "but there is a dangerous tendency for everything in modern China to be given an economic impetus, as though financial pressure is the only reason anyone ever does anything. We often fail to see that Chinese people are living, breathing, loving, hating individuals, who do things for complex psychological reasons, just like Westerners."

movie experience

Since buying dvd's in China is so cheap (5 to 10RMB), the movie theaters in Shanghai are not very packed. Also me, I never consider to go to the movies, even though I love the experience; sitting in a big sofa, big screen movie and 2 hours of total relaxation.
For Chinese new years, I received 2 free tickets from a supplier. This was a good reason to dig into the movie theaters again and see what is on the screen. After browsing on the websites, I understood why people are not going to the movies. Did you ever heard of the movie "Two Worlds"?? See the image below. Doesn't it look like a movie from the eighties, where we still want to find E.T. and E.T. wants to find his way back home?

Besides the fact that there is not a lot of good movies on the screen, the price is also not encouraging. This movie cost 60RMB-80RMB, 6-8 times as much as buying a DVD. Understandable that people will buy a dvd instead. After a good search, I finally found a movie which was worth to go: Valkyrie, with our one and only Dutch actress Carice van Houten. It was Friday night and about 10 people also had the same idea. So we had lots of space and not much of noise (very rare in China!). After the movie ended, I was still relaxed in my chair. Around me people were already up and queuing at the exit door, as if they were in a hurry. Even the "ayis" where inside the theater doing the cleaning. The movie just finished 5 seconds ago!! After I was kicked out of my chair I was wondering if I will ever go back to the movie theaters again in China.

Times flies when you are having fun! Last weekend I have discovered some new places in Shanghai. More than 4 years in Shanghai and still you find some new places you have never been before. Saturday an American friend of mine was in town again and we decided to gather together with a group of friends. We started at the Thai house, which was a restaurant inside a Chinese compound. It was not really a restaurant, but just some tables inside a residential apartment building. It felt like eating at home, but then with many people around you. The place was pact! My question was; how do people find this place?
After a good Thai dinner we went for some wine. Winebars has been popping out in Shanghai for the last 2 years. The first year I lived in Shanghai, not one winebar could be found in the city. Even getting some nice bottles of wines was difficult. Nowadays, having a winebars in Shanghai is challenging and in almost every convenient store you can find some OK foreign brand wines for about 80RMB ( which is cheap for China). The place we went is called Cuvee, tucked away in a small alley of Kang Ding Road. This place is a new urban development project in Jing'an, transformed from an old Church. The moment you get inside the alley, you can't imagine you are in China. With an Belgian Bar and another lounge bar Exit next to the winebar, this alley is a new gathering place for winelovers in town.

It is always good to go back to the Netherlands. Not only will your mind put everything in perspective what is happening in China, but it also gives a new view about how things works in the Netherlands. You find out that things which is common in the Netherlands is not all that common as you think. One example which everyone has to deal with everyday and my all time favorite subject is; food. For living in Holland so many years, I have been eating lots of bread and drinking milk my whole life. In China bread is not that common and the milk is different from the milk in the Netherlands, so I haven't continued my Dutch feeding rituals in China. Once back in the Netherlands, it was strange to me to eat bread every day again, especially the lunch. I packed 6 slices of bread for take away for my lunch. I was thinking; that's it? that's only for lunch? I caught myself having the Chinese thought ( Chinese would think it is an insult to only have bread for lunch). In China we would go out for one hour and enjoy an extended lunch. 6 slices of bread seem so little now. And about the milk, why does Dutch people always have milk on the table? It all feels so strange to me now, but at the time when I was still living in the Netherlands, this all was so common. I guess when things are more integrated in to your personal life, you will not notice the weirdness of it anymore.
After two weeks of being in the Netherlands, I came back on the 15th day of the lunar year, the last day of the Chinese new year. I tried to take some rest and recover from my jetlag, but the fireworks all over Shanghai kept me awake. At least now I can say that I have also celebrated Chinese new year ;)

It is one thing to be interviewed by Vrij Nederland and another thing to have my pictures taken, but who expected my face on the cover?!! Shocked! Happily I didn't had my eyes closed ;).
Last weekend I went to do some shopping for my trip back to the Netherlands. It is always the same riddle for bargaining. Actually I still enjoy the game of bargaining. Especially when they start giving me many compliments about my looks and how smart I am ;) hehe..
One example:
me: "how much does it cost?" vendor: "because we are both Chinese, I will give you a good price.180RMB!" me: "what? 180RMB? This is not a Chinese, friendly price? Give me a lower price!" vendor: "so, how much do you want to pay"? me: "50RMB". vendor: "that low? No, I can't do that". me:"I can't go lower, I always pay this price, this is my final price". vendor: OK, because you are so beautiful, I give you a lower price, 80RMB! lowest price". me: OK, because you think I am so beautiful, I add 5RMB more, 55RMB!" vendor: No way, 5RMB extra? That's it? Please? What about 90RMB? You are so nice and tall!". me: OK, because you think I am so nice and tall, I add 5RMB more, 60RMB final price!" Vendor: Ahhhh, only 60RMB? OK, last price 80RMB, we split in the middle". me: "Nope, my last bid was 60RMB, only because you think I am so beautiful ;) ( walking away already)". Vendor: "ok ok, come back, come back...60RMB then, you are a good bargainer" me: "thank you for all your compliments ;)"

Chinese people are preparing for Chinese New Year now, which starts on the 26th of January. Trains, buses en and flights are overbooked. Did you now that during Chinese New Year, this is the biggest human migration globally? 23 million people will be on the road to gather together for the Chinese New Year's eve dinner with the family. I will also be on the road and will be in the Netherlands from the 23rd of January!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR~YEAR OF THE OX

A New Year has just begun. In China, Chinese people don't really celebrate New Years, but this year it has been a little bit different, cause government announced a 3-day holiday for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd to be a national holiday (actually the 3rd is a Saturday, but China still see this as an extra off day, don't ask me why! )
It is actually very interesting how China government arrange the national holidays. Since the beginning of 2008, the Chinese government decided that people shouldn't have the 3 golden weeks ( Chinese new year in Feb, May day in May, Labor day in Oct) anymore and that more spreading of the holidays would be good for tourism, the Chinese economy and spreading of the migrants who all wants to go home during these weeks. So one day they just decided to change this. They announced that people should also celebrate "forgotten" festivals as moon festival, dragon boat festival and Qing Ming. I guess this is a good step, cause many young people don't know much about these Chinese fest.
In December, when I was trying to book my ticket for Malaysia I was thinking about the national holidays for 2009. Last year only the 1st of January was a national holiday. After searching for more info about the holidays, without any luck, I assumed that the government will just do the same as last year. Mistake! In China, don't just assume! (I try to tell myself that everyday :) ) At the last moment, exactly the 11th of December, the Chinese government announced in the newspapers the holidays plans for 2009! The 2nd is also a day off!! Couldn't they let me know early? No actually they can't. In China things are decided at that moment, very rapidly and without any warning. Always expect the unexpected, even till the last moment. So this time again, China keeps me on my toes!

p.s Chinese New Year start on the 26th of January