Friday night we watched the Da Vinci Code in the cinema in Xintiandi (ticket price was 88 RMB per person, you can buy 11 or 12 DVD’s for that on the street!). Although most reviews seem to be negative we loved the movie. But if you had not read the book, you would really have to pay close attention to what’s happening, and you might miss out on a lot. Because part of the movie was in French (and some parts even in Latin), and subtitles were all in Chinese I had to concentrate hard to understand it.

The nice thing about the movie is that after watching it you suddenly start seeing symbolic things everywhere. For example,why was the movie ticket 88 kuai (8 is the Chinese lucky number, so this is double lucky)? And also you suddenly start noticing anagrams: at the car dealer on Saturday I came across this “Monks go in” sign

Shanghaiist is one of Shanghai’s leading weblogs, with lots of information about everything that is happening in town. Shanghaiist writer Peijiin has now also discovered Toodou and wrote a funny piece about it today. You can find the post here.

Yesterday I bought a new car, and in order to drive it in Shanghai you need to buy license plates for it. Because so many people are buying cars here nowadays, these are quite scarce. Each month the government allocates a certain quota of new plates, and then there is an auction once a month where you can bid on them.

The auction was coincidentally also yesterday, and we participated in it. You have to submit a price between 9 AM and 3 AM by mobile phone, and the top bidders will get the plates. Because I did not want to run the risk of not getting a plate, our dealer helped us to estimate the winning price. At 2:40 PM he told us we would surely get the plate if we would bit a little over RMB 38000. And that worked: we paid RMB 38300 for a license plate, just RMB 600 over the lowest winning bid of RMB 37700. I love how things work in this country!

After some cold days (18-20 degrees) because of typhoon Chanchu, summer has now really arrived in Shanghai. This weekend the high will be around 30 degrees, and although next week will be a bit cooler (around 26 degrees) I don’t think it should get below 20 again in the next couple of months.

Tonight we were planning to go to the Louis Jadot dinner in Club Jin Mao (87th floor of Grand Hyatt), but I think we will change that for a light dinner and drinks in the garden of Sasha’s or Cotton’s. I heard there is a new trendy bar/lounge/restaurant (and soon hotel) in Shanghai, Pier One that needs to be checked out. The place, located on Moganshan Lu, is supposed to have a nice terrace overlooking the Suzhou Creek, so that’s an option for later as well.

Every year millions of people stroll along the Bund to enjoy the scenery of the river with the Pudong skyline in the background. And most take pictures there as well there, so it’s a great location to put up some billboards. And that’s what happened: judging from old pictures the first billboards went up in the mid-90’s, and now they cover a large part of the riverside in both Pudong and on the New Bund area (in Hongkou, the area you see on your left when you stand at the Bund). But now the government plans to tear them all down, because they spoil the landscape and because they ‘can fall over in heavy winds’.

For me the billboards have become part of the scenery, and they actually add something to it. The Coca-Cola, Philips and Kodak ads have become an integral part of the view. They show what the new Shanghai is all about: business! And can they fall over in heavy wind? I have not heard that happening once over the past 10 years, but maybe I have missed that.

But that’s not all, because the government will replace the boards with ‘scenic lightning’. And that’s where I am getting nervous: scenic lightning in China normally means putting up blinking Christmas lights. Please guys, don’t spoil the view by installing flickering bright and colorful lightning all over the place! The horrible 100 meter video screen on the Aurora building is already bad enough…

Today several Dutch journalists came to Toodou’s office to learn more about our company and website (from newspapers Trouw, De Volkskrant and Financieel Dagblad). I gave them a presentation about the companies’ background, how it developed until now, and what we expect from the future. Of course also here the question of censorship came up, but this time only how Toodou makes sure that no ‘prohibited’ films end up on the site.

Then Vega then gave an run-through of the site, showing some of the highest-rated and most-viewed films. And of course he also showed his own latest film, a short one about his dog that he shot yesterday with his mobile phone (nice film by the way, Vega).

Because of the bad weather Shanghai’s traffic was a nightmare today, so the meeting started about an hour late. Because of that we had to cut the interview short: I had to run to another meeting and they had to get ready for a flight to Guangzhou. They were a bit worried that their flight would be cancelled or delayed. The reason: there is a pretty big typhoon hitting China’s East coast and it’s approaching Shanghai (I can already hear the wind howl around my 28th floor apartment).

On Tiananmen Square one of the eyecatchers is Mao’s portrait on the Tainanmen Gate on the north side of the square. According to the Shanghai Daily the original painting is now put up for sale by a Beijing auction house. It seems that this portrait hang on the gate in the 1950’s and 60’s, but was subsequently replaced by copies. The auction price is expected to be around USD 150,000.

One thing is a bit strange though. The paper mentions that the size of the picture is 91 cm by 68 cm. I cannot imagine that originally such a small picture would have been hanging on Tiananmen Square, because the current one is at least several meters tall. Is this is a mistake by the newspaper? Or, because so many products are fake in China, is this maybe a fake as well 🙂 ?

This morning a team from Dutch broadcaster VPRO came to the Toodou office to make a program about the company. A journalist from Dutch magazine “De Groene Amsterdammer” also joined them. They did an interview with Gary about the company, and they talked with me about the contents of the site and my experiences in China in general. After having lunch with them in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (lunch for 5 for RMB 25, about USD 3), they went to the house of one of our most famous podcasters for an interview. I did not join them there, but understood that went very well.

As usual when talking to foreign journalists the topic of censorship came up. This is such a big issue outside China, but for most Chinese (and for us) it’s really not a big thing. That always seems to be a surprise to the people we tell this to. And of course if you want to do business in a country, you have to play by the local rules; so if you don’t like it don’t do business there. That’s the same in every country, not only in China. And every country has some sort of censorship, even the ‘free’ US.

I told them on camera that I feel foreign media show China in a very negative way, and that because of that most people have a totally wrong perception of what’s happening here. Chinese people are just as happy (or probably happier) than the average Dutch person. It’s a pity that most media always seem to focus on negative issues. And because of that much of the Western world still underestimates this country. Just wait 15-20 years, and see who will be the world’s leading super power. It could very well be China.

The program will air in Holland on June 11. Not sure when the article in De Groene Amsterdammer will be published.