Tomorrow night Toodou.com will have its New Year Party. As mentioned in an earlier post the theme will be Gluehwein & Gaming. For the gaming part Gary managed to get his hands on an Xbox 360 (one of the very few in China). We will project all games on a big screen, so you will have the best gaming experience ever. In combination with many liters of steaming hot Gluehwein it will be a night to remember!

I finally received a reply from Google today for my email about shutting down my mail account twice over the past week, and they even apologized for what happened. It also included a list of things that you are not allowed to do with your Gmail account that I would like to share:

- Receiving, deleting, or popping out large amounts of mail in a short
period of time
- Sending mail to a large number of recipients in a short period of time
- Using 3rd party file-sharing or storing software in your account 
- Logging in from multiple locations in a short period of time
- Using your account for purposes other than email

Too bad they do not give maximum amounts of data traffic, that would
make it easier to avoid another shutdown in the future.

One of Shanghai’s major tourist attractions, the Xiangyang market, will definitively close this year according to today’s Shanghai Daily. The market, that mainly caters to tourists, sells the same fake brands as Beijing’s Silk market: From Lacoste and Ralph Lauren to Cartier and Burberry. And not just clothes, it also has shoes, watches, bags, and even Callaway golf clubs. I don’t like the place too much because of all the touts running around trying to lure foreigners into buying things they do not really want to buy. You cannot walk through it without people pulling your sleeves and following you while screaming “watch, DVD, bags” in your ear. But it is fun to watch tourists being ripped off while they still think they made a very good deal. Some people pay up to RMB 250 (EUR 25) for a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, that can normally be bought for RMB 30 without negotiating too hard, and still think they made a good deal. The best are US tourists that pay in USD, the moment they start to bargain in USD they can be assured to pay at least 4 times the going rate.

Although rumours have it that the market will re-open in Hongqiao, the newspaper writes that there is a chance the market will be rebuilt on Longhua Road, but without the fake articles. Yeah right, who believes that? It reminds me a bit of the Silk Alley in Beijing that was torn down. Six months later it re-appeared in a new building next to the original Silk Alley. If the government does not allow fake clothes to be sold such a market will be doomed to fail. Knowing Chinese business men a little bit I expect that another market will suddenly appear in another downtown place. Just pay the right people some money (or a share of profits) and you’re back in business.

In October 2004 I subscribed to the Far Eastern Economic Review. Only a few weeks after I subscribed I was informed that the magazine would cease to exist in its current form (due to more information being readily available online), and that I would be receiving a monthly magazine with more in-depth stories. The new magazine was not what I expected it to be (in-depth articles: yes, but too long and boring for me to read in my spare time), so I have cancelled the subscription in October 2005.

In November 2005 I then subscribed to BusinessWeek’s Asian Edition. And what happens? They close down as well a few weeks after signing up. I still have almost two years left on my subscription, but am not sure what to do now. They offer to give you a refund for any unmailed issues, or they can apply the refund to a subscription to the global edition.

I don’t really know what the difference is between the global edition and the Asia edition (probably not that big), but I was thinking about continuing my subscription anyway, because I like BusinessWeek’s way of reporting. But I need a few more details, such as if there is a difference in pricing between the two editions, and how long delivery would take to China. The letter I received did not say anything about this. Luckily they provided a phone number in Hong Kong (and an email address, but I want an answer right away, so I won’t use that), that I called this morning around 10 AM. But who do I get on the line? An answer machine: “Our offices are open from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to blablabla…”. It is probably a public holiday in Hong Kong, but that is no excuse. In such a situation where all current subscribers get a letter with a phone number in it, you have to make sure someone is answering the phone!

So I decide to go online and find the details there. One of the reasons BusinessWeek is not continuing its overseas editions is because more of its content is available online now. But that sure is not the case for this information, I surfed all over the site, but did not find it. Even worse, I get referred to the same phone number again! Does this magazine take itself seriously? If you are going to tell your customers that you close down an edition, you know that people need more information in order to decide what to do. You have to be prepared, and this magazine surely is not. This is a good way to ensure your customers will not re-subscribe to the global edition.

I just realize that today exactly ten years ago I officially left The Netherlands to work at Mercedes-Benz AG headquarters in Germany (later this became DaimlerChrysler). Since then I have not lived in Holland anymore. My original plan was to work for Mercedes-Benz for a couple of years, and then move back to Holland. But I sort of liked living abroad, and spent the past 10 years working in Stuttgart, Jakarta, Beijing and Shanghai (before that I already lived on the island of Curacao, in the USA, Belgium and France). And no plans to return to Europe soon.

New Years Eve was nice and relaxed. Qi and I first went to see the New Year’s Concert in the Shanghai Center Concert Hall. We almost did not make it on time: the government had decided that Dec. 31 was a normal working day (people get in Jan. 2 and 3 off in return – I don’t like it at all), so there were no taxi’s to be found, and once we had one we had to endure Shanghai’s traffic jams. The concert by the London Mozart Players featured several Mozart pieces (among others Le Nozze di Figaro and the Ouverture to Don Giovanni), but of course also the Strauss classics such as The Blue Danube and the Pizzicato Polka. The final was the Radetzky March, and to my amazement the mainly Chinese audience also started clapping to the rhythm, just like in Vienna.

When the concert was over we had some cocktails in the Long Bar (right below the theater), before heading back home. From the bar we could watch the audience scrambling to find taxi’s. Once most were gone our drinks were finished, and went over to the Ritz-Carlton hotel to get a taxi. At home I had prepared cheese fondue with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin champagne, a great combinaton! We watched the movie ‘Bewitched’ while keeping an eye on the clock. At 12 AM we went outside to watch the fireworks, but that was rather disappointing. Inside the inner ring road (where we live) fireworks were apparantly banned, so we could only watch them in the far distance. A big difference from Chinese NY 2004 when I thought a war broke out at midnight, so much firework was suddenly lighted (I still have footage from that, I should probably upload it to Toodou).

2006 had a good start: I woke up around 9 AM refreshed and ready for a new year! Gmail is working again, and both my Apple Powerbook and my BenQ laptop seem to be working fine. Already got some work done this morning, and now I am going to prepare a brunch with croissants, banana bread, french bread, several french cheeses, and scrambled eggs. The espresso machine is already heating up!

2005 was one big roller-coaster ride for me, lots of changes, lots of action, ups and downs, and never a dull moment. I enjoyed the year, but it was certainly not always easy. Being an entrepreneur means taking risks and working (sometimes extremely) hard on things you believe in. This is not always easy to combine with a normal private life.

On the private life-side the beginning of 2005 was difficult when Qi had an operation, but luckily everything turned out well. Shortly after that I proposed to her and we had a wonderful wedding in September. I am happy that she always supports me, and does not complain too much about my working hours. We had some great vacations this year, on Koh Samui and in the Philippines. I realize more and more how important these trips are to look at your work and daily life from a different perspective.

Sportswise I finally ran my first marathon, although with an injury (that has still not gone away). I hope to keep the habit of training regularly, I feel I can accomplish a lot more when I am in good shape.

What will 2006 be like? Hopefully just as exciting, but hopefully also with a bit more time for my friends and family. I plan to keep doing lots of sports, but am not sure of a second marathon yet. The plan to ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu on my mountain bike still stands, and I have started training for that already. Vacation wise I don’t know, but I hope to spend next year Christmas in Europe. In China, I miss the Christmas and NY atmosphere. Workwise there are many new exciting projects and ideas, and I am currently in the process of deciding on what to focus. I’ll keep you posted.

I want to wish all my readers a healthy and happy 2006, xin nian kuai le!

This picture I took last weekend in the Longhua Cemetery. It seems like someone took his mother out for a walk around the place, but got tired of it. So this person stopped the wheelchair next to a monument, threw a coat over her head and walked off. The mother did not seem to mind, maybe she was asleep? I could not check that out because the coat covered her face. 15 minutes later she was still there. Funny or sad?