It was a relatively clear day today, and I decided to take some pictures from my balcony and out of my windows. The top picture is a picture of the almost-finished Tibet Hotel. Construction companies have been working on this building for years, but each time they had to stop because of (I assume) financial problems. The hotel is as good as ready now, but I do not see much activity on the site. In the background you see the 262 meter tall Grand Gateway towers.

This picture is the outdoor swimming pool and little park with ponds in our compound. The pool is only open 3 months a year. Next to the pool is a high-end Balinese Spa, with private rooms with jacuzzi’s and sauna’s. Open to the public, and well worth a visit (but much more expensive than regular massage places like Dragon Fly).

The World Financial Tower, China’s tallest builing for now, is almost finished. It towers above the Jinmao Tower. To the right the Oriental Pearl Tower can just be seen.

The Xujiahui Cathedral, the largest church in Shanghai, built between 1905 and 1910, partly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and now being restored.

Innovative advertising: a company erected a huge bottle in front of Grand Gateway during Chinese New Year. The bottle consists of LCD screens that show advertising or TV shows.

Some more pictures taken from my apartment this morning can be found here.

Last night I was invited to speak for MBA students at CEIBS, the China Europe International Business School. I heard a lot about the school over the years, but I had never actually visited the campus in Pudong.

The school started in 1994 and has grown quite a lot over the years: in 2007 a total of 542 EMBA students and 164 MBA students graduated here. Even though the education is in English, I expected that there would not be too many non-Chinese studying here. But it turns out that actually 30% of the MBA class are foreigners. The school is not only the number one MBA in China, but also the number one in Asia, according to the Financial Times.

Before my talk I had dinner with Maria Fleuren, who is a Dutch MBA student here. She interviewed me a few years ago for a study about user-generated content, while in her previous job at Dutch TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), and it was interesting that she now landed here. She showed me around campus, and we talked a bit about her experiences during the MBA program so far.

The talk I gave was about entrepreneurship in China and success factors to grow a business here. I also talked about the differences between setting up and running a business in China versus doing this outside China. Nothing theoretical, but based on my own experiences over the past years with lots of real life examples. The session was interactive, so people could make remarks or ask questions during the presentation. The students had some good questions, and a few of them also seemed to think about setting up their own business in China (next to or after their MBA).

I enjoy giving this kind of talks to either students, scholars, entrepreneurs or other business people. I like to interact with smart people, and their questions force me to think about things that I often did not really think about.

I am not sure if I ever blogged about this, but one of the things I still hope to achieve is to teach at a university in the future. For me the ideal situation would be teaching part-time to motivated students, while at the same time writing a book. Giving a talk to MBA students like last night, reminds me once again of the fact that discussing interesting topics in front of a group is something I really enjoy.

Picture above: CEIBS Campus in Shanghai, from CEIBS website

The almost-finished finished World Financial Center (that I can see from my study while writing blog entries) is currently the tallest building in China, at 492 meters. Right next to it is the long-time number one, the Jinmao Tower, the one with the Grand Hyatt Hotel in it. But it looks both of them will get an even taller neighbor.

A new project, the Shanghai Center, will start construction before the end of this year. The tower will be 112 stories tall, and at 580 meters will be 72 meters higher than the current number one in Asia, Taipei 101. However, it is not as high as the beautiful Burj Dubai (still under construction), which estimated height may be over 800 meter (it’s height is still kept secret). The Shanghai Center will be built on the former driving range on the south side of the Jinmao Tower. The final design has not been decided upon yet. In typical Chinese fashion the building will be built in record time: in 2010 it should be finished already!

Update: This post was originally called “Shanghai get tallest skyscraper in the world”, but as commenter Remco points out below, the Burj Dubai is much higher. I assumed China’s official news agency Xinhua would gets its facts right (see this link), but that is not the case. Therefore I adjusted the title and content of this post.

All national and provincial comprehensive museums in China stopped charging visitors entry fees this year. But the measure has some unwanted consequences according to the Shanghai Daily. Suddenly huge crowds appear in the museums, making it difficult to appreciate the art. The museum in Jiading district attracted about 20,000 visitors during Chinese New Year, although normally just 100-200 people would visit.

Big crowds is one thing, but another is there behavior. According to a quote in the article, the Shanghai Art Museum “was just like a wet market during the Spring Festival”. Kids were playing and running in the halls, and other people were shouting loudly. Indeed not the best way to appreciate art masterpieces. But I would not be surprised if the uneducated security guards are much happier in such a merry environment, and do not do anything to stop the nuisance caused by the crowds.

Because the free entry to museums was announced in a state government notice, it is not something museums can change themselves (The Shanghai Art Museum is an exception and will start charging again after the Spring Festival). From now on most museums are only able to charge for special exhibitions, and it will be hard to call the normal collection a special exhibition. Therefore a recommendation, do not visit a museum during weekends or national holidays anymore, but try to stick to working days where there won’t be much of a change.

Last week was Valentine’s Day, and Grace and I decided to celebrate with a nice dinner outside our home. Since Scott was born we hardly ever get out of the house anymore together, and it was only the second time since his birth that the two of us had dinner in a restaurant. We made reservations at Jade on 36, on the top floor of the new wing of the Shangri-La hotel, overlooking the Huangpu river and the Bund. We were not the only ones making a reservation and first we were told no tables were available before 9:30 PM. But they called us back and we managed to get a table at the window at 8:30 PM, but only after scanning and faxing a copy of our credit card (both sides) to the restaurant. I found this a bit ridiculous, but we had no choice if we wanted to secure a table.

The restaurant location is excellent for a romantic dinner, although the views were not as good as usual: because of all the winter problems in China over the past weeks the government had decided that energy had to be saved in Shanghai as well, and all lights on the Bund were still turned off. The same measure that they also take in summer when temperatures are above 37 degrees. The winter problems are over already, however, but the government probably forgot to give instructions to turn the lights on again. Anyway, the view was still nice and it made the ongoing Chinese New Year fireworks over the city even better.

The evening was wonderful. The food was amazing, the chef had done an excellent job in designing the Valentine’s menu. A few of the culinary highlights: The dinner started with a dish called I Love Me, which was a strawberry that had been injected with cola, covered with truffels and parmesan cheese and served on a small hand mirror with chocolate around it. After you ate it you saw yourself in the mirror, hence the name. The next dish was a combination of 3 kinds of foie gras (amazingly put together, see below here for a picture of the dish), followed by a Boston Lobster with liquorice caramel and lime. The next two main dishes consisted of a Lotus Turbot followed by a lamb cutlet with truffel. Then the desserts started, first a chocolate brulee, then a ‘flower’ dish (see picture) and the last dish… I forgot… I ended the evening with a double espresso.
I was impressed not only about the unusual combination of ingredients, but also by the creativity that was put into the dishes. Absolutely top! Chef Paul Pairet is amazing, and the combinations he dares to make are excellent. His innovative style is called Avant-Garde cuisine, and I love it! See for a description of his creations and dishes in the current menu here (pdf). Of course the total dinner was not cheap, but the location and the creative and innovative dishes make the experience totally worth the price. If you live in Shanghai and have never been here, give it a try as soon as you can. Of course this is the same if you just visit Shanghai, and do not want to have Chinese cuisine every night, or want to have food that you won’t easily find outside China either. Bon Appetit or Man Man Chi!

If you travel by car in Shanghai, the by far nicest view you can have is when you drive down from Yan’an elevated road to the Bund. In the lefthand curve you have a magnificent view of both the Bund, the Huangpu river and the Pudong skyline. Most first-time visitors to the city are stunned when they see this, and even I am still impressed each time I drive that stretch of road.

But by the end of this month the nice view will be gone. Actually, the view will still be there, but the curved road will be dismantled. This is part of a bigger plan, where a 3.3. km long tunnel will be built below the Bund from Yan’an Lu to Hongkou. With typical Chinese speed the tunnel will be ready in exactly two years (just in time for the WorldExpo 2010 in Shanghai, surely no coincidence). During that time, however, the whole area is likely to become one big traffic jam. Not good for all the restaurants and stores on the Bund, I suppose.

What will also disappear, although just temporarily, is the 100-year old Waibaidu bridge at the end of the Bund over the Suzhou creek. The bridge will be completely dismantled and then transported to a shipyard. After maintenance the bridge will be put back into place in about one year. Quite an operation for an old bridge, but at least it’s better than demolishing it and building a new bridge. The Waibaidu bridge is part of the Bund for me, so I am glad they do it this way.
Photo Waibaidu bridge (creative commons): Kramchang

If you are a foreigner in Shanghai it’s relatively easy to land a small role in a film or TV commercial. Most foreign crews filming here only bring their main talents from overseas, so when foreigners are needed they look for them locally. A few years ago even I have been in some TV commercials, just because I thought it would be fun. Well, fun it wasn’t, you had to show up at 6 AM, it was always cold and the main part of the day would be spent waiting and waiting and waiting. And sometimes they would even cut you out of the final version…

But if you don’t mind all the waiting, there might be an opportunity for a bigger role than that of an extra. National Geographic is planning to shoot a documentary later this month, called “Legacy of China”. For that they are looking for speaking roles, for both foreigners and Chinese. In this case only for males (sorry ladies…). For Westerners, the requirements are that they can have either an English or French accent. For Chinese males it would be a bonus if you understand English.

Casting director is Robert Vicencio, who you might know from Tudou parties. He is the magnificent singer (among other he was a star in the musical Miss Saigon in London) who performed at at least 3 Tudou parties over the past years. He is also the founder and CEO of AskBenny.cn.

The casting will be held tomorrow already (February 15) at the AskBenny Casting House in Shanghai, Rm. 1705, 1280 Fuxing Zhong Lu (????1280?????1705?).
MALE WESTERNERS : 11:00 – 2:00pm
???? ? ??11????2?

MALE CHINESE : 2:30pm – 6:00pm
???? ? ??2?????6?

More info? +86 1350 1875 454 or RobertVicencio (at) gmail (dot) com
If you want to give it a try, good luck.

Last week the Casual Connect convention was organized in Amsterdam, a big conference (1200 participants from all over the world) focusing on the casual games industry. Of course Spill Group was one of the main sponsors, as the biggest Dutch casual gaming company. I attended last year, but this year I decided to stay with my young son, so only Thijs Bosma represented Spill Group Asia in the Dutch capital. The conference was a big success, with big gaming companies such as Microsoft, Real and Popcap attending. It was also an excellent promotion for Amsterdam.

However, during the 3-day event the head of Casual Connect, Jessica Tams, announced that next year the convention will be held in Hamburg. The reason? A lack of cooperation from the City of Amsterdam and from Bgin, the Benelux Game Initiative. A bit strange, because Amsterdam tries to get international conventions to the city and also supports gaming initiatives. Reinout te Brake, Spill Group’s chief strategist, decided that this was too important to just let it happen, and started a campaign to try to keep Casual Connect in Amsterdam.

This weekend he started with an email to all people related to the Dutch gaming industry, and he followed up with an article on the well-read Dutch blog Marketingfacts. Twitter was also used as a tool to spread the word. Suddenly things went quickly and Sunday night a representative of the City of Amsterdam already called Reinout. Amsterdam-based newspaper Het Parool picked up the news, and also Amsterdam TV station AT5 reported about Reinout’s campaign.

And it seems to have effect. At least 3 other Dutch new media/internet related conventions (BrightLive, TheNextWeb and E-day) now plan to put their resources together and organize a 7-day event in March 2009. Discussions about this with the government are planned already. If it is still possible to keep Casual Connect in 2009 in Amsterdam is not sure yet, but because of Reinout’s involvement it seems more and more likely that the event will be back in 2010.

If anybody has ideas or wants to support the initiative to keep Casual Connect in Amsterdam, please get in touch with Reinout <reinout (at) spillgroup (dot) com> directly or contact me.

Photo: Paul van Heel