Sometimes I really wonder whether the editors of Chinese newspapers are making up some of their stories. Today was one of those times, when the Shanghai Daily carried this story:

A man whose anonym is a Zhao Tong, has received two brain operations to rid himself of his virgin complex, Shanghai Evening Post reported today.

Zhao, 28, had the second operation yesterday, because he wants to marry his girlfriend but can’t get rid of the thoughts of her not being a virgin.

After the operation, he felt light-headed and was disorganized, but said he now doesn’t think about his girlfriend’s “un-virgin” status as much as he used to.

Pan Jiyang, a psychological doctor at the Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Hospital, said the complex is caused by some biological factors.

Zhao Zhenhuan, the dean of the Guangzhou Brain Hospital, said that treating mental diseases by brain operation began in the late 1980s in China. In the United States, only when pharmaceutical treatments don’t work, can patients receive brain operation.

Early Monday morning I took a taxi from the Sheraton to Beijing airport. When arriving there the driver told me the price was RMB 80 and I paid him (in Beijing taxi’s, especially the more expensive taxi’s at 5-star hotels, the meter is often out of view). Then I asked him for the receipt, which he reluctantly gave to me. Normally I do not really check the receipt, but because he did not automatically give it to me I took a closer look. I turns out that the total amount was only RMB 63. That’s the sort of thing that ticks me off: don’t try to cheat me, even if it’s just for a few RMB. So I point it out to the driver and he says that I agreed to the price. I agreed to the price? I asked him how much it was because I could not see the meter and then paid him, that’s not agreeing on a price. Then he said he did not have enough change, thereby undermining his first argument.

A loud verbal fight outside the taxi started, and soon we had many people around us. The driver then decided to give me back an additional RMB 15 (suddenly he had change!) and hoped I would leave. But I did not, because I felt he should learn a lesson not to try to overcharge foreigners. So I wrote down his taxi license number and his license plate. The driver knew he would be in serious trouble if I would report this, so he tried to bribe me with RMB 100. I told him I didn’t want his money, and left the scene. I did not report him, but I think (or at least hope) he learned his lesson.

A few hours later at the exit of Shanghai airport a goodlooking young lady in a business suit was asking foreigners in good English to follow her to the taxi stand. Because she was dressed like a business woman even I thought for a moment that she was part of a new airport system with different taxi stands. But when I saw her walking in the direction of the parking lot, I knew she was just one of the touts trying to get foreigners into overpriced illegal taxi’s.

Not much later I was at the front of the official taxi line, and was directed to the first taxi in line. Next to it were three drivers and they seemed to discuss who could ‘take me for a ride’. I wanted to get into the first taxi, but the second driver told me to go to his taxi. Fine with me. So I get in, and he makes a sign with his hands to show him a card where I want to go, assuming I am a tourist. The other drivers stand next to his open window nosy to find out where this guy can take me. Too bad for the driver I tell him my home address in Chinese. When I also tell him the shortest way to get there, he seems really disappointed. Bad luck for him, no possibility to rip off a foreigner…

Last weekend I spent in Beijing, and on Saturday we went skiing in Huaibei. The German Centre organized a trip there, and Qi and I decided to join. I knew several people on the trip already (among others Jeroen Berghuis from VOK DAMS and his staff, and Leif Goeritz who is a former colleague at DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart and now managing director of the German Centre Beijing), but most people had arrived in Beijing after I left the city in 2002 so they were new to me.

The trip to Huaibei took just over an hour, except for a small traffic jam close to Huairou there were no delays. Huaibei is located close to Miyun, if you travel by car you should drive to Huairou, then in the direction of Miyun and follow the signs from there. You cannot really miss it, because it’s the only snow covered area you will see from the main road. Look for the resort on the left the moment you pass the Great Wall.

Huaibei Resort is not very big. 5 lifts, of which two chair lifts, and only one somewhat interesting downhill run. I always like rides in chair lifts because you have a good view and it’s very quiet. But not here, every single pole where the lift passes has loudspeakers with music on it to entertain the guests… Also the lifts were very old and rusty, we assumed they were second hand from Eastern Europe. At the top of the chairlift the lift operator was sound asleep in the sunshine. I later talked to two guys who thought that this was only the middle station, and did not leave the lift. The operator did not notice anything and kept on sleeping.

It was not as crowded as I had expected, and on the longest run there was hardly anybody. Except for our group there were only Chinese, and most of them were beginners. It was fun to watch some of them show off by going downhill full speed without making any turns or braking (because they did not know how to brake), and then falling at the end in order to slow down.

If you plan to go here, you don’t have to bring anything except for gloves and socks. Everything else can be rented. But make sure to spend some additional money on renting good ski’s. Mine really sucked, they were too short, were not waxed and probably around 20 years old (second-hand from Japan). There is a bar/restaurant at the place where the lifts start, that sells reasonable quality food. You can sit outside on wooden benches, watching the skiers and the slopes. Minor disadvantage is that the music is horrible (synthesizer covers of old Western songs) and a bit too loud.

The nice thing about Huaibei is that you actually ski right below the Great Wall, because the resort was built at the place where the road passes through the wall. Although I have been to the Wall tens of times, it is still a nice sight. A nice day trip if you live in Beijing, but not a place you want to go to every weekend (except maybe when you are a beginner).

On Friday night I was in Beijing where I had dinner with Carlo Crosetto and his wife Susanne. Of course my wife also joined, she was on a project in Beijing anyway. Because Qi did not want to have Chinese food again (she had Chinese food the whole week already – and I always thought Chinese like Chinese food!) we opted for Assaggi in the Sanlitun diplomatic compound area.

I had not been here for several years, but it did not change too much. We had a table on the top floor at the window, but it was so dark there that we could not even read the menu. So we moved to the table in the middle. I ordered a Tsingtao beer because I was thirsty, and the rest went for a bottle of red wine. But because my Tsingtao beer did not arrive in time, I also started with wine. After10 minutes my beer was still not there, so I ordered it again. But also that did not help, I never got it (but it was also not on the bill).

It was not very busy, even though it was 8 PM on a Friday night. Later on it filled up a bit more, but it was never completely full. The food was OK, but not excellent. We started with a big plate of mixed appetizers, but (as Carlo put it) it was not made with love. Just some cold cuts on a big plate, nothing special actually. The polenta that we also ordered as an appetizer came after we finished the big plate. A little late…

As primi piatti I had a seafood risotto which I enjoyed. My secondi was sliced beef with parmesan cheese, but instead I got a beef tenderloin. I was quite surprised, but decided not to complain (this was my second choice, so it was not too bad). The ladies both had king prawns, that tasted great (I had to help Qi to finish her plate). After this I was quite full and could not even think about a dessert anymore! It was a nice dinner with interesting conversations about work at DaimlerChrysler and life in China. Too bad the service did not completely live up to our expectations, but I still enjoyed the evening.

Strange weather in Shanghai. After the warm weather on Tuesday (I read in the Shanghai Daily that it was 22.2 degrees Celcius, the warmest Valentines Day ever in Shanghai) it suddenly turned cold again. I just walked over to the Four Seasons Hotel and it was snowing outside!

It seems like every young urban Chinese has a camera phone, and is taking pictures everywhere. Where will this lead? Well, Japan is normally one step ahead of China, and there the latest trend is to take a final picture of the deceased at a funeral. The Sydney Morning Herald reported this morning:

Japan’s obsession with camera-equipped mobile phones has taken a bizarre twist, with mourners at funerals now using the devices to capture a final picture of the deceased.

(…) At one ceremony several people gathered round the coffin and took out their phones to photograph the corpse as preparations were made to begin a cremation, she was quoted as saying.

(..) “Some can’t grasp ‘reality’ unless they take a photo and share it with others … It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased,” social commentator Toru Takeda told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

On Wednesday a new law came into effect in Shanghai, allowing only cars that comply to EURO-1 emission standards to drive on the elevated highways. Many cars that are 5 years or older might not fulfill these standards. Cars that fulfill the requirement get a sticker that they should stick on the windshield, which enables them to enter the highway. So what do you do if your car does not meet the standard?

Chinese see money in everything, so the moment this measure was announced businessmen started to produce fake stickers. The Shanghai Daily did some investigative reporting (that’s already news in itself) and contacted a seller of these stickers. The product cost RMB 380, quite pricey, because as the seller said: “We spent a lot of money making the printing plate for the fake stickers”. The paper finds that the copy is excellent, but that it won’t be able to pass a laser pen examination.

However, the chances of being caught are small: because the government failed to tell people to put the sticker in a designated place on the windshield, the police has already difficulties enough just to determine whether a car has a sticker or not. Of all the people they stopped on the first day because they did not have a sticker, half actually turned out to have the sticker on the windshield but not in a clearly visible place!