Yahoo started its own podcasting site a few hours ago (http://podcasts.yahoo.com). Although this will be a competitor for Toodou.com, I am actually glad to see this, because more people will become familiar with podcasting. In the end Toodou will benefit from this. Furthermore, Yahoo focuses only on audio, and Toodou is doing both audio and video (video is bigger than audio, it’s about 60:40 right now). Toodou also takes it a step further by building a community around it where you can rate and comment on the podcasts.

I tried out the new site and it works pretty good. Podcasts are searchable by tags (like Toodou), and you can add additional tags as a user. When you subscribe to your first podcast you need to download a small file that will automatically put your podcasts in your preferred program. I use iTunes for my audio podcasts, and it worked perfect. The search for podcasts also worked very well, and you get to choose between series or episodes. I noticed and downloaded an interesting podcast series for people who want to learn Chinese (search on ‘chinese’), chinesepod.com. Very basic, but fun to listen to if you want to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese (and for free). This is the kind of program that will make podcasting big!

I realize it is a Sunday night now, but for me it feels like the middle of the week. Not a jetlag but a National Holiday-lag. Why? This weekend was a working weekend in China. Each of the 3 official holidays (Spring Festival, May 1, and October 1) give Chinese 5 days off in a row. But in order to compensate that people have to work either the weekend before or after the vacation. This time it was the weekend after the holiday, so I spent the weekend in my office. Got lots of work done, as not many emails or phone calls came in, I suspect that most people took an additional two days off. The good thing is that I caught up with all my emails and other things that were waiting for me after my honeymoon. Also managed to upload all pictures from my wedding to www.flickr.com/groups/chinawedding (many people sent me there pictures, thanks!), and my honeymoon pictures to www.flickr.com/photos/chijs.

This is the view from our new office. On the forefront the Suzhou Creek, which has been cleaned up a lot during the past years. In the back the new Radisson hotel and the Marriot hotel, both on People’s Square are visible.

This is what the office looks like right now. It is still a big mess, with many years of dust and dirt on the floor. But Chinese workers can do wonders in a few weeks, and hopefully the warehouse will soon be a good place to work hard and to relax.

Toodou.com keeps on growing, and our current office is getting too small. In the next weeks we plan to hire about 10 extra staff, and therefore we will move our office to an old warehouse on the Suzhou Creek. The location is great, close to the subway and about a 10 minute walk to People’s Square.

The building is called Si Hang (Four banks, as it used to be a warehouse for 4 banks). I learned that it the building is famous for a battle that was fought here during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937 (the Chinese army fighting the Japanese invaders). There is even a museum in the building (on the 7th floor) about the battle. Should you ever plan to visit the museum, feel free to come by. Our office will open by mid- to late November and is at the far end of the 5th floor.

After a few days without Skype and being able to read my own blog, things seem to be OK now. Skype started working again on Thursday, and last night I saw my posts coming into my RSS reader. I was talking to some people outside Shanghai, and they had no problem with Skype, but they were also not able to read my blog. Strange. Maybe the government decided to shut some sites down just for the National Holiday? Or, more likely, there was a problem with Shanghai Telecom and nobody was able to repair it due to the National Holiday. Anyway, things work again and that’s what counts.

I am back in Shanghai after a great honeymoon. When I checked my weblog last night I found that it did not load. But loading it using a proxy was no problem. Ergo, my blog is blocked in China, although I can still upload. Welcome home!

Then I tried to use Skype. My wife told me that she could not log in, but my Skype seemed to work fine (I had not logged off from the Skype application in days, only hibernating my computer). I called our home number with SkypeOut to see if it worked, and the phone rang. But when I logged off and tried to log on again I could not start Skype anymore. I hope it is just a temporary glitch. I read the reports that SkypeOut would be blocked in China, but not that the whole application would not work anymore. This really angers me. I use Skype intensively, both privately and for my work. If it suddenly does not work anymore I have a serious problem.

On Sunday we went to visit some friends (Josie and Mark) who are living in Discovery Bay. Although I have been to Hong Kong many times I had never been there, and it was an interesting experience.

Discovery Bay is a luxurious community on Lantau Island (not far from Disneyland – you can watch the fireworks every night!). Cars are not allowed in Discovery Bay, and you can only get there by ferry (25 minutes from Central) or by bus from other parts of Lantau Island. DB consists of many low- and highrises around the coastline and the beaches, with a central area with restaurants, shops and the ferry terminal. It looks a bit like a resort, but one where people live full-time, and is a huge contrast to the crowded city. Because there is a ferry several times per hour (after midnight less regular) it is a good alternative to living in the city.

DB has its own club with swimming pools, tennis etc., and there is a marina with some very nice yachts. Residents get around in golf carts (that apparently sell for around EUR 60,000 (!) because they are limited and need a license) or by walking or biking. You can literally start hiking in the mountains from your back door. I had a one hour run in and around the community and was impressed. There is still a small fishing village next, and from there the hiking trails start. Within a few minutes you are in the middle of nature! After my run I had a short swim in the sea to cool off. I loved it.

During the afternoon we took a small ferry from DB to Peng Chau where we had a one hour hike to the top of Finger Hill. The view from there over the surrounding islands (and Disneyland) is great. Peng Chau is still very laid back, and still is a bit like Hong Kong 50 years ago. Also here no cars, but that probably also had to do with the fact that there are no real roads, but only foot and bike paths.

Just before 7 PM we took ferry back to Central, and half an hour later we were shopping again in downtown HK. Should I ever decide to move to HK, then I will certainly consider living in Discovery Bay.