I have a nice apartment in Shanghai, but certainly not as luxurious as the expat compounds that I used to live in while working for DaimlerChrysler. So to my surprise I noted a Maybach that was parked right in front of the entrance to my apartment building. Did one of my neighbours win the lottery?

Just came back from a meeting at the Four Seasons hotel, next to the China Bay office. Outside two TV crews were waiting (Shanghai TV and Oriental TV) and at the entrance a new Bentley was parked (very nice car by the way). I was observed by three doormen while walking in, and inside several staff with ear pieces were nervously walking around.

I wonder what famous or important guest is staying here. Even in October when Michael Schumacher stayed here and in December when Tom Cruise lived here, there was less security around.

My RSS reader automatically picks up stories on the internet that are related to online gaming in China. This morning I saw a headline that said “Online casino tips for Chinese players“. Because online casino’s are banned in China I was curious about the article and clicked on it. And to my big surprise I see an article about youxi.cn in which I am describing the game portal as an online casino!

I have no clue what happened here. I do interviews every now and then, but I have never used the words gambling or casino in relation to youxi.cn. Youxi.cn is a pure casual gaming website, with free games that you can play whenever you feel like it.

Maybe an editor was in desperate need for a story about China and decided that by rewriting the youxi.cn press release he could have some sort of a scoop? Or an overactive intern misinterpreted the press release and added some spice to it? In any case they did not do any research, because one click on youxi.cn would have shown them that it is something completely different from an online casino.

Next month Toodou.com will have the 1st anniversary of its website. On April 15, 2005 the site officially went live. Only one year, it seems like a much longer time.

To celebrate this we will host a party at our office at the Si Hang Warehouse on Guangfu Lu. More details will follow later, but it will certainly be a party to remember. And it will likely be the last Toodou party in our current office, so if you are in town make sure to drop by on Saturday night, April 15th.

I am in Hong Kong at the moment on a business trip, and did not find enough time to post on my blog yet. Over the past days I had some excellent business meetings here for Spill Group Asia, and I have lots of new ideas about how to build up our business in this city as well. Also I set up the holding company for Spill Group, and that is moving forward quickly as well.

What I noticed about Hong Kong is how expensive it is compared to Shanghai. A decent meal in an non-Chinese restaurant is problably twice as expensive, and a 5-minute ride from the Airport Express to my hotel set me back more than a 30-minute ride would in Shanghai. But I always enjoy this city, it’s lively and has a great mixture of European and southern Chinese culture (especially Soho, where I tend to spend most my nights).

A nice thing is how quickly you can be out of the city and in real nature. I was talking to Marcel Ekkel, and he told me that many of the expats here do not realize that. Just take the MTR a few stops on HK Island, walk for 10 minutes and you are in the middle of a beautiful scenery. Mountains, lakes, and dense vegetation. HK has many trails, so you won’t get lost easily (at least not on HK Island, the New Territories are different).

This is something I definitively miss in my current hometown: Shanghai is a great city to do business, have good food, go out and live a pretty decent life, but there is just no nature. Even after driving for one or two hours you are still surrounded by houses, factories and roads. This gets on my nerves sometimes, and that’s why it’s good to travel a bit every now and then!

I wrote before about the Shanghai tourist tunnel, the somewhat tacky tourist atrraction that takes you from Puxi to Pudong in a small carriage surrounded by sounds and lights.

It seems that not enough people are using this means of transportation, not completely unlogical considering the current entrance price of RMB 30 one-way. So a plan has been developed to turn the attraction into a normal means of commuting. Of course, this means the price would have to be reduced drastically.

I think this is smart, because there are no efficient ways of crossing the river from the Bund to Pudong. The ferries land too far from the main attractions in Pudong (although there is a ferry landing next to the river promenade – but it was never put to use as far as I know), and the subway is no alternative because there is no station close to the Bund. So the only current option is finding a taxi and crossing through the crowded car tunnel.

If this plan indeed becomes reality I hope they will keep the current display of lights and sounds!

I always thought that pharmacists know a lot about the medicine they sell. But it seems that this is not always the case in China for conctraceptive drugs: The Center for Reproductive Health Technical Instruction and Training in Shanghai conducted a survey among 100 pharmacies and found that only 9% of the pharmacists knew that morning-after pills are different from regular contraceptive medicine!

This has of course some negative effects on women who buy these products and get a wrong advice. The Shanghai Daily writes that this lack of expertise has contributed to an outrageous rate of failed contraception. Another survey shows that over 90% of the teenage girls who sought abortion had directly bought morning-after pills in pharmacies. But over 80% failed to prevent a pregnancy, because they took morning-after pills in the same way as the contraceptive pill…

Over the past years many of the old buildings along the Bund have been turned into entertainment venues. It all started with M on the Bund, but many have followed since. Among them Bund 18 with shops, a top restaurant and a bar with huge terrace, and 3 on the Bund with the Armani flagship store, an art gallery, a spa and many good bars and restaurants. The buildings used to be dilapidated, but are now back to their old grandeur. The Bund looks much better than just 2 years ago.

But now the Shanghai government is planning to interfere in the naming. Why? Because the official streetname is not Bund anymore, but has been changed to Zhongshan Road after 1949. According to the bureaucrats this would be confusing. Furthermore, according to Liu Bo, deputy director of the city’s Place-naming Authority: “The Bund is the name of a signature historic area, and people can’t use it without government permission.”

Confusing? Zhongshan Road is much more confusing to me, because this road runs around half Shanghai. And who of the target customers does not know where the Bund is? I think most of them have no idea that the Bund is officially called Zhongshan Road. Even in taxi’s I normally say Waitan (Chinese for Bund) instead of Zhongshan Lu, because Zhongshan Lu is confusing.

But as usual with this kind of proposals I don’t think much will change. I predict that after one week we won’t hear about this proposed regulation anymore, and in two years all venues will still use their current names.