China signed contracts for the purchase of 60 high speed trains from Siemens, and 70 Boeing ariplanes over the past days. The first 3 trains from Siemens will be imported, the remaining 57 will be built in China. This gives China plenty of opportunity to learn how to produce these trains themselves. The vice minister of railways does not even try to hide that by saying (quote from the Shanghai Daily):” It’s a small part of the construction of China’s high-speed railway. China will design and build its own 300-kilometers-an hour trains later.” China is still investing heavily in its overcrowded railway system.Over the next 15 years a total of 28,000 km of railway will be built. The total investment will be about 200 billion EUR, and this is more than China can currenlty afford.

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to get my bandage changed. The doctor still remembered me, not that many foreigners go to local hospitals I presume. My ankle was feeling much better, but I was surprised to see that it was still swollen and blue below the bandage. I asked the doctor once again about running, and now he told me I should not run for the next month. Until then I should be very careful not to hurt the ankle again.

That means my marathon plans for next week are definitively off. I will probably still pick up my start number, but I am not sure if I will even be able to watch the runners if I cannot participate. Feeling a bit depressed because of not being able to run. The daily 1-2 hours on the treadmill had become a bit of an addiction, and suddenly stopping all activity is more difficult than I imagined.

The pain did not get any less, and my foot started to get bigger and bigger, so I finally decided not to be stubborn and go to a nearby hospital (the YueYang Hospital, part of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine). As I have written before on this blog, Chinese hospitals are always an interesting experience, and this time it was similar.

Upon arrival in the hospital you have to queue for a ticket to see a doctor. I had to walk (or actually more ‘hop’) to the traumatology department, at least that was what the English sign said. I don’t think my ankle gave me a trauma, but it may have been a mistranslation, or a non-English speaking worker just missplaced the signs. Whatever, inside there were several patients being treated. Wounds were being cleaned all around me, not a prety sight. I only had to wait a few minutes before a doctor came. I took off my sock and was surprised to see that my foot had swollen even more and partly turned blue. The doctor thought there might be a fracture (broken bone), so he sent me to the X-Ray department. So Catherine, my colleague who went with me, arranged a wheelchair and pushed me there (and she lost control of the wheelchair twice – once I ended up in some potted plants – but that is a different story).

Upon arrival it turns out we had to pay a fee first, and had to go back to the main building. This took a few more minutes, but then I was allowed in. The room was a concrete bunker with an old X-Ray machine in the middle. It all looked a bit scary, especially the electricity lines that were laying uncovered on the floor! Pictures were taken quickly and 10 minutes later we were with the doctor again (quite efficient). He looked at them and told me nothing was broken, so I was quite relieved. Then he wanted to tape my foot, but we first had to pay for the material and the Chinese medicine that he put on my foot. So Catherine had to stand in line again. Total costs for consultation, x-ray and medicine was about EUR 16. Not too bad, in a foreign clinic in Shanghai that I went to once you have to pay USD 80 just to see a doctor.

Because I could hardly move I needed crutches, but the doctor told us they did not provide those in the hospital. The only way to get those is to go to a store and buy them, so that was my next mission. I was lucky, because the first store I went had them, and even a size which (just) fit me. Price: only EUR 14 for a new pair!

I trained very hard for the past weeks for the Shanghai Marathon. For the first time no real injuries, at least no injuries that lasted more than a few days. I was feeling great and was ready for the race. But what happened last night? After leaving the gym I slipped on the stairs (3 steps only) at the entrance and sprained my ankle. It hurt a lot but I did not want to give in and actually tried to run a bit on it. Not smart, afterwards it got much worse and I could hardly sleep at night from the pain when the blanket touched my foot. This morning I could not take more than a few limped steps.

So what should I do now? My wife wants me to go see a doctor, but I don’t really want to go. Well, the doctor might give some advice, but going to see a doctor takes always so much time in China. A quick internet search gave me lots of information already. I will wait a few hours to see how things go. If I still cannot walk I might go to get some crutches.

The worst thing is that I might not be able to run the marathon. Many weeks of intensive training for nothing… That’s probably another reason why I do not want to go to a hospital: they will advise me not to run, and that’s something I don’t want to hear right now.

This sign I noticed in the Sanlitun diplomatic compound in Beijing: You are not allowed to blow up your car! Not sure if it is a temporary sign (Mr. Bush will visit Beijing this week) or whether it has been here longer already. Or does it mean something else?

Just flew back from Beijing tonight, where it was a lot colder than in Shanghai (running in shorts and t-shirts early in the morning is not recommended – I got a bit of a cold because of that). The reason I went over was because I was asked to give a presentation at Vok Dams yearly trend.lab. Vok Dams is a German live event marketing company (the leading one in Germany actually), and they organize so-called trend.labs in Germany, the US and China. These are seminars in which the latest trends in marketing and PR are discussed with an audience of mainly marketing people. I talked about trends in online marketing in China, and enjoyed the giving this presentation and the questions people had. Anybody interested in this subject, feel free to contact me (note: am quite busy this week, so answer may take few days).

After the seminar was over I visited a friend of mine, Tobias, who was just appointed CFO of Mercedes-Benz China. He has 90 people working for him. When I was still at DaimlerChyrsler in Beijing we had a total staff in the whole company of about 90 people! The company is really growing.

After meeting Tobias I met up with Olle, who is in charge of business development Asia Pacific at Red Herring. I knew Olle from several years ago, when I just left DaimlerChrysler and he was part of the EU-China management program. I met him a few times in Beijing and Shanghai, but lost touch with him. But because of the publicity around Toodou he contacted me again, and we had an interesting talk about start-ups in China, and Toodou in particular.

At night I had dinner with another friend of mine, Carlo Crosetto and his wife Susanne. Carlo is the new CFO of Beijing Jeep (or actually Beijing Benz Daimler Chrysler as it is called now that they also start producing Mercedes-Benz passenger cars). My wife was supposed to join, but she could not make her flight from Shanghai on time due to work, so she was just in time for dessert. We had a last drink at their house and then went back to the hotel. My wife had to finish a presentation, and continued working until 5 AM, while I got some sleep.

Saturday I went for a long run and went to the spa in the Kempinski. A nice and relaxed day. Qi worked the whole day (consultants do not have an easy life!). At night we were invited for the German Ball. Qi missed the beginning because of her work, but she was just in time for dinner to start. Met many former colleagues and friends, although most people have in the meantime left China. Only the ones who are really making a career still seem to be here! We were invited by Vok Dams, who were also one of the sponsors. In case they read it: Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast at Kempinski, and then we packed our suitcases. We went for a a walk along the Liang Ma river and in the Sanlitun diplomatic compound. It was beautiful weather, but a bit cold. I visited my old tailor, he still recognized me although I had not been there in 3 years (Rong Xin Tailor, above the Friendship supermarket on the northern part of Sanlitun Street – north of the Spanish embassy). After the walk I took a cab to the airport. Qi stayed in Beijing for meetings. All in all some good days, some new business ideas and meeting lots of old friends.
note: the terrorist threat in 4-5 star hotels (see post below) as mentioned on the American embassy site seems to be based on unreliable sources – at least according to the Chinese government. In the hotel I did not see any change – no additional security and people could walk in and out even through the side- and back doors.

One week ago my Apple Powerbook became incredibly slow, so I took it to the Apple store for a check-up. They told me it was a hardware problem and they only do software. So I went to the hardware center where they checked everything and then told me it is a software problem… Back to the store again where they would reinstall my operating system. This would take a few hours, but when I called them that evening they were still working on it and told me to come back on Friday. I came back around lunchtime, but they told me they were still not finished. This surprised me, but I decided to keep calm. On Saturday I picked up my laptop and I was told that the hard drive was broken and has to be replaced. This was very strange, because the computer was checked just two days ago and it did not show any problems with the hard drive.

So on Monday back to the Apple hardware center again – this is the only place that is closed in China over the weekend! It was my last day of warranty, so I was just in time. After some discussions they told me it would take about 2 weeks to get back my computer, because a new HD had to be ordered. This part is not available in China, I was told. Hard to believe, because they are produced here, but OK. Two hours later I get a call: Sir, your hard disk is damaged because of coffee, so there is no warranty. Excuse me? Coffee on my HD? I am 100% sure that I never ever spilled coffee on it. I told them this, but they said there was coffee inside the case! Suddenly I started to suspect the Apple store. The HD was working fine when I entered, then it took them two days to install the OS, and suddenly the hard disk fails completely. Maybe there was another reason it took so long? Problem is, I cannot prove it.

But that’s not all. Shortly after that I get another call: Sir, the HD is not the original HD, you replaced it with another one. Well, I may know a little bit about computers, but certainly not enough to start opening my laptop and replacing a HD. Because the computer has never been repaired before it must probably have happened when I bought it in Hong Kong last year. I won’t say the store’s name (yet), because everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but it is a store that claims to be Apple’s worldwide best store about 5 years ago.

So I call the store, and finally get through to someone who is able to understand my problem. This person says he will look into it and call me back. Of course he did not call back, so I call him the next day. He is not in (I was actually told by his colleague that he was sitting on the toilet!) but would call me back right away. After one hour still no call, so I call him again and manage to get him on the phone. No apologies about not calling back, but only the remark that ‘your Powerbook was custom-made, and in China they do not sell custom-made Powerbooks’. Well, that does not help me much, so I ask him to get in touch with Apple directly. He promises to do that and call me back. That was two days ago…

I am very angry at Apple’s service in China, it seems their presence is too small to have normal service centers and the service they provide is terrible. And I have the distinct impression that their store in Hong Kong has been cheating me – at least they give the impression by not calling me back. Not sure what to do now, but I won’t leave it at this. I bought an expensive top-of-the-line 12” Powerbook a year ago, and am not going to accept lame excuses.

One thing is for sure already: if I don’t hear from Apple this week I am going to make the switch back to a new Windows laptop, at least they provide normal service in Shanghai. My computer is an essential part of my business, and I cannot afford to be without it for so long. I am using an old Sony Vaio laptop now, and that is not an optimal solution. To be continued…