Several foreign companies have been the victim of fraud in China according to the Dutch embassy website. What happened is that these companies receive a proposal for a large order from a Chinese company that they have never done business with before. They are then asked to come to China to sign the contract for this order. Once in China they need to pay for dinners, presents and some ‘administrative fees’. But after that the Chinese partner suddenly disappears, or after the business person is back home he is not able to contact the Chinese party anymore.

I am not surprised about this, although it certainly is the exception rather than the rule. So many foreign companies seem to think that doing business in China is just like doing business at home. But although some aspects are the same, this is not a country where you will sign a contract during a first trip, and certainly not if you get to know a company over the internet.

I heard several similar stories over the past years, and I always wonder why these foreign companies do not prepare themselves a bit more in order to make sure that they are not being fooled. It is not so very difficult to check out your business partner in China, and some advice before or during negotiations can save you tons of money and frustration. My company China Bay (www.china-bay.com, email: info@china-bay.com) can help with this, or you can ask your embassy in China to provide you with names of consultancy or law firms that provide this kind of services. Don’t be afraid to do business in China, just be well prepared!

The Rolling Stones plan to give a concert in Shanghai next month. There will be one show on April 8, on the Shanghai Grand Stage. Prices for the 8000-people event range from RMB 300 to RMB 3000. The last time the Stones planned to play in mainland China was in 2003, but then the concert was cancelled because of SARS.

A villager from central China whose daughter was murdered 6 years ago, kept her body in a refrigator for all that time. He felt the criminal responsible for the murder did not get enough punishment, so what do you do then? Simple, you travel to Beijing with the corpse and tie it to a 10-meter high billboard in the Chaoyang business district during the Monday morning rush hour. After 2 hours (!) witnesses called the police, who would investigate the matter.

Update: sina.com has some pictures (via Shanghaiist)

Shanghai has a total of around 1000 hidden traffic cameras aimed at speeders, according to an article in today’s Shanghai Daily. That seems a huge amount to me, even though the city is very big. The most famous camera is the one on the road from Hongqiao airport to Yan’an Lu where taxi drivers slow down to about 20 km/h in order to avoid a fine, and after that speed up to 100 km/h again. But during my travels through the city I have only seen very few others, so they must be hidden very well!

I wonder if the article is confusing speed cameras with normal cameras that record the traffic flow and what’s happening on the street. I am aware that most big roads in Shanghai have cameras that allow police to see what’s happening all over the city. Last year I visited Guangdong Radio, and in the studio we were shown part of the system: you could name a road or intersection and with one click you were shown the cars and people there. You could even zoom in! Since then I have noted these cameras all over the place, so I think that these are the cameras that the Shanghai Daily mentions.

China will relax its regulations for night flights reports the Shanghai Daily. Bad news for residents living close to airports, but good news for travellers. Flights are now allowed to take off or arrive from 6 AM in the morning until 2 AM at night. But the change will likely not affect schedules for the next 6 months, because these have already been made. Hopefully there will finally be late night flights from Beijing to Shanghai, so you can have an (early) dinner in Beijing and still make it home at night in Shanghai.

The stated reason for the change is that the fleets of Chinese airlines are increasing rapidly, and more timeslots are needed. The other reason mentioned is that there have been ‘recent years of safe operation’ (the ban for night flights was originally introduced because of safety reasons). Years of safe operation? The last plane crash in China was only 15 months ago (China Eastern from Baotou to Shanghai)!

Last night Qi and I decided to try out the only Surinam (South American) restaurant in Shanghai. The restaurant is called Sweet Fajalobi – The taste of South America, and is located on 362 Shaanxi Bei Lu, just north of Plaza 66 (taxi: Beijing Lu/Shaanxi Lu). It’s a two-storey restaurant, with a small patio in the back. The atmosphere is relaxed, with South-American music (not too loud), and small tables with a candle on it. There is also a bar, with Hoegaarden (white beer) on draught. The walls have pictures and art from Surinam on it.

The menu was very interesting for me, because it contained lots of Dutch food items (Surinam used to be a Dutch colony until 1975). I am not a big fan of Dutch cuisine, as it is generally quite boring (potatoes, meat and vegetables), but there are some things that I like to eat every now and then. And this restaurant has some of them on its menu. I started with two appetizers: ‘kroket’ (made of chicken meat) and ‘broodje vlees’ (with meatloaf), both things that I’d eat as a snack in Holland. It was the first time for me to eat kroket in a restaurant in China (mainland China that is, in Hong Kong I think I had kroket once in 1998 in a Dutch snack bar on Lang Kwai Fong that has since disappeared). Broodje vlees was different from what I expected, but likely the Surinam version of this is different from Holland. Other Dutch menu items included for example bruine bonen (kidney beans) and zuurkool (sauerkraut, cabbage).

The Surinam kitchen has influences from many different cuisines, not only Dutch, but also Indonesian, Indian and Chinese. The menu reflects this with sateh and nasi goreng from Indonesia, curries from India and several Chinese dishes. The restaurant has several set menu’s, that are very reasonably priced (88 kuai for 3 courses). Our total price amounted to RMB 268 for 3 appetizers and 2 main courses plus drinks. The taste was very good and the service excellent, and I will certainly go back here soon. The restaurant is also open for lunch. Reservations: 021-6271 3300

Just came accross a user-generated content site that shows events worldwide, upcoming.org. After checking the events for Shanghai, I decided to sign up. In total Shanghai has 204 users and I hope it will be more soon. This is the kind of site I like, because you come accross events that might not be announced in other places. If you are bored (does not happen to me too often 🙂 you just log on and see if there is anything going on in town. The site has RSS feeds for events in different cities, making it even easier to keep up-to-date. The events for Shanghai can be found here: http://upcoming.org/metro/cn/sh/sh

Two years ago I was the producer of a film for a Singaporean real estate company about Chengdu. In total I spent about 2 weeks there (for location scouting and the actual production) and I really liked the city. It’s very relaxed, a bit laid back actually, with lots of parks and two rivers crossing the town. But it also has all the comforts of modern life such as good hotels, bars, restaurants and even two big Carrefour supermarkets stocked with foreign products.

A hidden gem, because it’s not a city where many tourists go. The only ones I met were people on their way to Tibet (flights to Lhasa leave from Chengdu) or people looking to see panda’s (there is a big panda reserve in the mountains north of the city). But that might change, because KLM is planning a bi-weekly direct flight from Amsterdam to Chengdu.

A KLM spokesman said: “KLM views China as one of its most important growth markets. With the introduction of this new service we are matching words with deeds to connect an entirely new region to Europe, and via Schiphol [airport], with the rest of the world”. Flights will start on May 28 this year, and are operated by a Boeing 777.