Last night we celebrated Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival, as it is also called) with Qi’s family. We watched the CCTV Spring Festival TV show, a combination of stand-up comedians, songs (modern and traditional), dance and short sketches. Even though China becomes more modern, it is still a must for most people to see this program, and it has the highest ratings of all programs on TV. It’s not really my kind of program, so during the show I could catch up on several magazines that I did not have time to read during the past month.

Around 10 PM it started to get difficult to understand the program because of the noise of all the fireworks outside, and around 11:45 we all decided to watch the sky instead of the screen. Until 12:30 AM I watched the fireworks from their balcony. They live on the top floor of an apartment building, and it was an amazing sight. The sky was quite clear, so we could see several kilometers in to the west, east and south. The sky was continuously lit up in red, yellow, green and white colors from all the fireworks that were set off. The sounds were like being in a war zone, and it was impossible to talk to each other because of the loud bangs.

After watching the fireworks the family decided to make jiaozi (dumplings) by hand. This is also a Chinese tradition. They prepared several big plates of jiaozi, and were finished by 2:30 AM. Many Chinese traditionally stay up the whole night during the first night of the New Year to make sure the Nian (a monster) cannot come into their house to bring bad luck, but luckily Qi’s family did not follow that tradition. Sleeping was not easy though, because the lightning of fireworks went on the whole night. And people are still setting off fireworks while I am writing this (it’s afternoon now). The jiaozi were great by the way, much better than the frozen ones that you buy in the supermarket. I just had a big plate of them for lunch, and likely will have a lot more during the next days.

My parents were visiting my grandmother this morning, and my father was reading her newspaper there. She subscribes to a regional paper, De Stentor, that my parents do not subscribe to. To my father’s surprise he suddenly saw a picture of me and my wife in it with an article about our life in Shanghai. I had totally forgotten about this article and had probably also not mentioned it to my parents, so it was a surprise for them to see it. If the article is available online I will put a link here.

I am amazed how many SMS messages people are sending tonight, to wish everyone a happy year of the dog. My wife received 13 messages just during dinner (in about one hour), for a total of 30 messages until now. Note: it is only 8 PM, most messages will be send after the new year starts at midnight. I am not as popular, only 6 messages so far 🙂

This morning Qi and I took a plane to Beijing. Because of all the horror stories in the local press about overcrowded stations and airports and long delays, we were prepared for the worst. Our taxi picked us up at 10:20 AM, and the ride to the airport was very smooth. We arrived withing 15 minutes, no traffic jam whatsoever, such a ride normally occurs only late at night. At check-in all counters were open, and there were just 3 people in front of us. Within 5 minutes after arrival we were checked in, so that was a good start.

Because I heard that Hongqiao airport changed its taxi system, I went to check that out (I did not fly from here anymore after they implemented the changes last month). I remembered reading in the Shanghai Daily that they now have 10 places to find a taxi (instead of previously 2), but I only found one place, and the second one had disappeared. Strange. But at least now there are three lanes for taxi’s, so theoretically boarding should go faster (this always was the bottleneck). I’ll find out in a few days when we get back.

We arrived at the gate 20 minutes before departure, and it turned out that all passengers were already on board. So we went in as well, and found that the B-747 was almost completely empty (less than 20% of the seats were occupied). Not long after we entered the doors closed and for the first time ever on Air China we were on our way before the scheduled departure time. The flight went perfect: I fell asleep during take-off and woke up not long minutes before landing. At 13:20 we were in Beijing, exactly 3 hours after leaving home in Shanghai. This is an absolute record for me.

Were we just lucky? Both Shanghai and Beijing airport were relatively quiet, even though I would expect this would be the busiest day for air travel. Well, I don’t mind, I hope the trip back later this week will be just as easy.

Yesterday afternoon I came across this fireworks shop on Weihai Lu, two blocks from the China Bay office. Most of the fireworks were sold on the sidewalk, and a salesman with a cigarette (!) hanging from his mouth was serving the customers. I observed it for a while and noted that most people buy huge amounts of fireworks, nobody bought just a few fire crackers. And nobody warned the salesman that cigarettes and hundreds of kilo’s of fireworks could be a lethal combination. In Holland sales outlets for fireworks need to take special protective measures, but in China they just put it all on the street. And this shop is not selling it illegally, but is officially licensed (see the red banner above the fireworks). I wonder what the requirements for licensing were!

One thing I do not understand: why are sales of fireworks allowed in Shanghai, but setting them off not?

It’s just over 24 hours before the Year of the Dog will start, but the sound of fireworks in Shanghai has already started, even though it is officially not allowed set off fireworks here. Qi and I had dinner at Cameo in Xujiahui tonight, one of the latest Italian restaurants in town (they opened in November). It’s located on the corner of Hengshan Lu an Tianping Lu. From the top floor you overlook Xujiahui park and a large part of the city. Every couple of minutes we saw beautiful fireworks, which made the dinner and the view even nicer than it already was.

If you like good Italian food you should try this restaurant out. We started with a glass of champagne, then foie gras and a combination of appetizers, followed by black pasta with spicy shrimps. The Californian Chardonnay we ordered fitted well to this. If you like a modern location, good service and food, a nice view and moderate prices (foie gras for less than 100 RMB, pasta for around 80 RMB) you should give it a try for dinner. They don’t have weekend brunches yet, but the manager told me that will start in a few months.

It was not my first good meal of the day, because this afternoon I already had a good lunch with all the China Bay staff (total 8 people) in La Seine. This restaurant has an appetizer and dessert buffet, and you can choose a main course. For prices between RMB 88 and RMB 138 not a bad choice. I had a sea bass filet (RMB 138), an excellent dish. During lunch I discussed with David (my business partner) that the first time I met him was about 3 years ago in the same restaurant. At that time I was trying to find investors for a company, and he was a potential investor. Interesting how things change, because now we run a (different) company together.

And last night I had dinner at Zin (Dan Shui Lu, in the park next to Yan’an Lu). Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Shanghai office had its annual dinner here, and as a spouse I was invited as well (thanks!). It was my first time in Zin, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised, both by the food (a buffet dinner with good wines) and the surroundings. The interior design is quite modern, but the combination of this with an old dark villa (is it an old villa? I am not sure actually) fits very well. In summer you can sit at the front balcony, or in the back on the deck over the small creek. A very special location. Shanghai is almost getting too many nice restaurants, and it will be more and more difficult to decide where to go.

Yesterday I was looking at a new office for one of my businesses, and I took a picture on the street to show to my colleagues. In that picture someone is crossing the road, but I did not pay much attention to him. I cross the road as well and suddenly bump into Thijs Bosma, a Dutch friend of mine who is doing several projects in Shanghai. Later when I look at the pictures I find out that he is the one who crossed the road on the picture. What are the chances of this happening in a city of 17 million people?

The Oriental List had an interesting post by its moderator Peter Neville-Hadley about scams in Beijing he recently encountered or heard about. His post (which is unlinkable):

Nothing new really, but it seems recently there’s been an upsurge in
the number of hapless visitors to Beijing who’ve been taken off for a
‘tea ceremony’ by strangers met in the Forbidden City or in the
street, and found themselves with a bill for in excess of Y3000.
Perhaps it’s just an upsurge in the numbers reporting it.

In these circumstances, refuse to pay. In some cases heavies will
suddenly appear, in which case keep your nerve and still refuse to
pay. Start shouting for the police (knowing ‘jing cha’ will help, but
‘police’ will do–just do it loudly and attract as much attention as
possible). In most cases the situation will start to improve fairly
rapidly. Paying even a tenth of this sum is far too much.

If you are intimidated into making payment, use a credit card. I’m
assisting someone at the moment who is attempting to have the charge
to his card annulled, and I hope to report later whether he has had
any success. At the very least the credit card company ought
subsequently to be treating other charges of large sums at this
location with scepticism, and eventually will refuse charges to
foreign cards.

Get a name card for the premises if you can–these are usually
sitting next to the till (NB: getting a receipt for whatever you do
pay won’t help–these usually carry only the name of the relevant tax
bureau). Failing that, do your best to get name, address, and a
detailed description. Post widely on the Internet to warn others.

Sad to say, but especially in popular tourist locations, anyone who
approaches you in a friendly manner, and particularly if they speak
English, should be regarded as a scam artist until proven otherwise.
Mentions of going somewhere for a drink (large bill will appear),
taking a taxi ride (immense charges), needing a tour guide (high fee
and massive skimming off restaurants, shopping, etc.), or going to
see an art show (mass-produced art at 100 times the proper price,
with heavy pressure to purchase) should have you going the other way
as rapidly as possible.

I certainly noticed that the number of these scams had risen
dramatically when I was in Beijing at the end of last year, and had
spread from Wangfujing and Liulichang into the malls themselves, and
into Tian’an Men Sq, where I was pestered three times between Tian’an
Men Dong metro station and the National Museum (the new name for the
to-be-combined History and Revolution Museums). The third time a
pretty girl accosted me (a particularly delicate and sweet one, at
that), I told her straight away that I knew she was a cheat. I
mounted the stairs to the ticket office to check some details about
the museum, and when I turned away found the girl had followed me and
was standing next to me.

“What?” I said. “Don’t you understand Mandarin? Go and bother someone
else.”

She stood looking at me for a moment, then with a sweet smile leant
in very close and whispered a reference to the genitalia of cows
whose true meaning cannot be given on a family mailing list.

The contents of the Oriental List are still not available on the internet, you can only receive the information through the internet mailing list.