On Saturday morning I got up at 9:30 AM to watch the Chongming island cycling race on the Sports Channel of STV. Marcel Ekkel is helping the Marco Polo cycling team, and he had told me the first leg would be live on TV. The program did indeed start at 9:30, but the first full hour was completely dedicated to speeches from government officials and dance performances by local school children. The cyclists had to participate as well at the beginning of the performance by riding over the stage, so they had to wait in their racing outfit for an hour before they were allowed to start (it was only around 12 degrees!).

The race finally started around 10:30. STV’s presenters were explaining the audience everything about cycling, likely most had never watched this before. They also said that when a TV station was able to cover a cycling race they are considered a top-tier TV station, because it is a difficult event to show on TV. Well, then STV is not a top-tier TV station: they only had fixed camera’s (no mobile ones on motorcycles like in the Tour de France) and missed all the interesting events. The presenters announced for example that there would be sprints at the end of the 3rd, 6th and 9th lap, but none of these were shown on TV. Let alone that the results were announced.

But the worst was still to come: at 11:40, so 2 hours and 10 min. after I started watching, the presenters suddenly announced that they would now start another program because there had not been enough time scheduled in the planning. So I missed the finish of the race… First they show an hour of boring dances and even more boring speeches, and because of that they do not have enough time to show the final part of the race. A top-tier TV station? Come on guys, do your homework before you plan to broadcast another cycling race.

I am having some trouble keeping my eyes open this morning, after the 1st Toodou Party last night. Luckily a large mug of Starbucks Coffee does wonders.

The party was a big success, with even more people than during the first two parties (Graffiti Party in November & Life is a Game Party in January). This time there was a rock band playing in the office. The band “Limit” played a mix of its own songs combined with covers. The covers even included two Beatles songs, a strange combination.

An interesting mix of people showed up, from fellow bloggers (Shanghaiist) and podcasters, current & ex-colleages from my current and past ventures, to TV presenters and even friends from overseas (Marcel Ekkel from Hong Kong). Of course all the regulars were there as well, such as producer Matthew Peregrine-Jones (working in Shanghai again), film director David Verbeek, and of course Thijs Bosma (whenever there is a party in Shanghai you’ll find him :-). Even Sierk Vojacek and lawyer Wen Li came by around 11 PM (after a meeting – on Saturday night!) – nice to see you here Sierk.

As usual at this kind of party most people leave before midnight. We continued on for another hour with Wodka and Dutch Corenwijn (a lethal combination as Marcel found out the hard way), before dragging ourselves into a taxi. Once again a great night in the Toodou office. Thanks everyone for coming!

Some pictures can be found here.

The Shanghai Daily reported today that over the past 10 years Chinese women have become both taller and gotten bigger chests (the word breast was carefully avoided).

The chest circumference of Chinese women increased by nearly 1 cm in the past 10 years, the Beijing College of Clothing Technology found out in a recent study that focused on changes in figure for Chinese women. The study also found that Chinese women are 0.5 centimeters taller than in the previous period. These changes are mainly due to better food and more exercise.

The average height of 6000 women in China’s North measured 162.82cm and their average chest circumference was 83.54cm. Because Northern women are generally taller than woman from Southern China the average figures for China as a whole will likely be a little lower.

These figures are especially important for the underwear industry in China. This is a fast growing sector, and according to the report sales of underwear in China will hit more than 60 billion USD in the next five years.

That seems like a very high figure to me, because it would mean that the average person in China would spend almost 50 USD per year on underwear! In the big cities this could be true, but in a country where most people still live in the countryside this is very hard to believe.

After a beautiful day yesterday with 26 degrees and a (relatively) blue sky, today the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees and the blue sky became grey and rainy. That normally means lots of traffic jams, so I decided not to drive to an appointment on the other side of town, but to take the subway. I got in at Xujiahui station and was lucky to find an empty seat, next to a middle-aged woman. The moment I sat down she looked at me for a split second, and suddenly realized I was not a fellow Chinese.

So what do you do then if you are not used to foreigners? You are terrified to sit next to such a strange creature and get up right away! At least that’s what she did, giving me lots of extra space. I felt a bit awkward but decided to react in a Chinese way: by totally ignoring the situation.

Most foreigners in China assume that the worst that can happen to them if they break the law, is that they are kicked out of China. But that is quickly changing.

Last year an American was thrown into jail for several years because he set up a huge fake-DVD trade between China and the US (and when he gets out he will be tried in the US as well….).

But also for smaller offences, such as hitting a police man while you are drunk can have serious consequences. And Indian guy found this out the hard way. He hit a police man on the nose, thereby fracturing his nose bone. The result: The Shanghai no. 1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to 6 months in jail today. (source: Shanghai Daily)

On Sunday morning the Shanghai Jazz Orchestra played for a full house in the Shanghai Concert Hall. It was a very special concert, because not only it was broadcasted live on Chinese radio and TV, but also because conductor and band leader Rolf Becker had composed several works from W.A. Mozart for a big band! The reason: this year is Mozart’s 250th birth year.

The result was absolutely unique. Imagine the beginning of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik being played by the strings, and then suddenly the big band kicks in on the same tune. Amazing. The Chinese presenter asked the audience twice for its opinion (by clapping their hands), and almost everybody loved the combination of classical music and jazz.

But Rolf even went one step further by also putting some latin influences in this. One of the percussionists (Felix) grabbed the microphone and literally jumped off stage into the audience singing and dancing. I had never seen something like this before, and the stunned (mainly) Chinese audience neither. But Felix got a big round of applause for his daring performance!

If you would have liked to see this concert but missed it, you have a second chance. On May 7 the Shanghai Jazz Orchestra will perform this concert again in the concert hall in the Shanghai Center (Ritz Carlton Hotel) on Nanjing Xi Lu. And if you also want to see some of the performers in a different setting: every Friday night after 10 PM they play a combination of latin and jazz in the J Z club (Fuxing Lu / Ulumuqi Lu).

Right after the Rolling Stones after-party Marcel, Samuel and myself went to Babyface to see DJ Tiesto play. It was a ten minute walk from Xintiandi, and it was nice to be outside for a few minutes to cool off. The tickets for Tiesto were quite cheap, only RMB 220 including his latest CD! So it was no wonder that Babyface was overcrowded. When we came in Tiesto (or Tijs Verwest, as his real name is – he is Dutch) had already started his set.

After some intelligent dancing (dancing through the crowd to the front) we managed to get right in front of Tiesto. It was quite an experience to see him work – being the best DJ in the world is not a simple task. But he seemed very relaxed, dancing behind his turntables and smiling at the other guys next to him when he once again managed to do his magic music tricks. This guy is really, really good at what he does. I am not a big dance fan, but he got me into a trance as well (the lack of sleep, beer and whiskey may have helped as well).

The crowd here was quite different from the Rolling Stones, with an average age of early 20, and a lot more Chinese. I don’t think many people went to both concerts, especially not in one night. But I loved it, completely different music, completely different performances, but both great fun.