When I travel I always look for great places to run and I have favorite runs all over the world. In New York I always try to run the Central Park loop, in San Francisco I run along Embarcadero early in the morning and in Palo Alto I try to run the Dish Loop, above Stanford University. The Dish Loop is not only one of the most scenic runs close to Palo Alto, but also one of the most challenging: there is hardly a flat part during the whole run.

On Saturday morning I was in the Bay Area so I did the loop once again. I normally drive my car to the corner of Serra Boulevard and Stanford Avenue, where there is good parking and easy access to the trail. There are other entrances as well, but for me this is the easiest.

The dish loop is about 5.5 km (plus an additional 500 meters from the entrance to the loop) and the whole loop is paved. It’s a very popular place not only for runners but also for hikers, so you won’t be the only one there. But my experience is that if you go before 7 AM (the loop opens at 6:30 AM) it’s still very quiet. Not only that, it also gives you the chance to see the sun rise above the Bay, an incredible sight. The down side is that it can still be pretty cold, especially during this time of the year when it can get close to freezing in the hills during night time, so you may want to bring a hat and gloves.

The views from the loop are great, you can see Silicon Valley below you with Stanford University in the front and the Bay in the back. On the West side you see the mountain range between the Pacific coast, often with clouds right behind them. At the Northern end of the loop you pass by a golf course, and of course there are the 2 dishes that gave the loop its name.

Right from the entrance you start to ascend, and it’s so steep that the first kilometer takes me on average about 8 minutes (it’s only uphill)! But once you reached the top you will mainly go downhill (with a few small inclines) for a while so you recover a bit.

If you are in the Palo Alto area and looking for a place to run or hike check out the Dish Loop. The road is closed to traffic, so it’s also safe for kids – just watch out for the mountain lions (at least that’s what the signs say). And don’t forget to bring your camera!

A quick post before boarding a plane from Shanghai to San Francisco, because I just heard that unitedstyles was named one of the most innovative companies in the world by Fast Company.

And not just in one, but in two categories: unitedstyles is the 3rd most innovative company in China and the #10 most innovative company in fashion. Fast Company is a pretty impressive publication in the fields of tech, business and design, so I am very happy with this kind of recognition!

Today is Valentine’s Day once again – loved by some, hated by others. But whatever you think of the day, because of it you can find a lot of new nice designs on fashion sites. One of unitedstyles employees designed a great mood board on Polyvore for Valentine’s Day that I want to share here as well. Thanks for making this Shen!

Like the mood board? Then also check out other unitedstyles mood boards on Polyvore.

If you live in Shanghai you know that this is not one of the healthiest cities in the world to live in. Not only does work go on 24/7 here (well, at least when you run your own business), but also the air quality is quite bad. It’s actually so bad that it’s very likely that unitedstyles will be the last company that I set up in China, and that I will eventually move somewhere else. I am sure I will be in China regularly for my investments and other business related issues, but at least I want my family out of here.

Nobody really knows how bad the pollution is, because the government data seems to be “adjusted” and data for PM2.5 (the smallest, most dangerous, particles) are not released. For sure downtown it’s much worse than out in the suburbs where I live and where unitedstyles has its office. But also there it can’t be too good. I hardly ever run outside where I live, for example, because I feel the air does more harm than sports does good. And if I do, like during the Shanghai marathon, I normally feel it in my throat for several days after the run.

Today Shanghaiist has an overview of how dangerous it is to live in Shanghai. Although they play down the risks a bit (by for example saying that the city may be gradually killing you, but that Beijing is worse), the article confirms that living here is far from healthy. It’s a pity there is not more data available, but I am sure that is something that will change soon: the government will install PM2.5 measuring devices this year, and because they may not be trustworthy, likely private organizations may also start measuring this.

So, should I move to Hong Kong then? No, probably not. It seems pollution there is not much better, mainly because of all the smog coming from Guangdong province. The School of Public Health publishes an index showing the effects of the air pollution there (thanks for the link Marcel Ekkel), and they do it in a pretty radical way. Not only do they show the actual and past air pollution index, but also the economic loss because of this and the number of premature deaths and hospital visits. Not a pretty picture either. I hope the government will start working on a solution soon. I am lucky to have the option to leave, but many people can’t do so.

I don’t mention Tudou a lot on my blog since I am not involved in the company anymore, but the latest Tudou news is quite significant, so I decided to share it here.

Tudou announced on Friday that it is launching an improved platform for Sina Weibo users to seamlessly share and upload Tudou videos. In case you don’t live in China: Sina Weibo is the Chinese Twitter and has over 250 million users, and mother company Sina owns a significant share in Tudou.

In addition, Sina Weibo users who are not registered with Tudou, but who wish to share their videos with Tudou’s users, will automatically become a registered Tudou user. Their user account names at Tudou will be identical to their Sina Weibo account names. Sharing functionalities enable users to sync comments and discussions on both platforms.

In the press release that was sent out about the deal Gary comments on this:
“We are building a more powerful video user ecosystem. The Internet’s core strength lies in creating and sharing information. Sina Weibo creates strong interaction between its users, and Tudou generates deep emotional connections between Internet users and content. Creating and sharing content is at the core of the Internet, and Tudou’s cooperation with social networking sites such as Sina Weibo is a powerful combination which will deepen consumers’ online video and sharing experience.”

An excellent deal for both Tudou and Sina IMHO. Tudou’s stock shot up after the news and ended up over 16% higher than Thursday’s close.

This afternoon I was talking to a colleague who told me that he felt that it was stil unusually quiet in Shanghai after Chinese New Year. I told him I had the same feeling, because there were hardly any traffic jams on the highways today. Chinese New Year’s Eve was last week Sunday, so 12 days ago, and most people should be back to work by now, but I wonder if maybe more people decided not to return to the big city.

I have no proof for this (well, except that Scott’s nanny decided to stay in her hometown), but it feels it is more quiet than other years. And high inflation plus more opportunities in inland China may lead people to decide to stay closer to their hometowns. I assume it will be much more busy again next week (the picture above was taken at 5 PM today from my office, normally a time with traffic jams), but I would not mind too much if people stay away a bit longer.

Delays are quite common when you travel by plane, especially in China or with Chinese airlines. Over the years I had many bad delays, including one 28 hour delay on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Shanghai (it seems the blog post about that one has been lost in cyberspace) and many 6+ hour delays because of air traffic control in China. You can’t change it, so I try not to get too upset about it, it’s just part of the deal when you fly a lot.

Last night we planned to take a 0:55 AM flight from Singapore back to China. The flight would get in around 6 AM, so I would just be home in time to wake up the kids, have breakfast with them and take them to school. But no, that did not happen, because the flight was delayed. Instead of leaving at 0:55 AM the flight would not take off until an expected 3:15 AM. During daytime a delay is a nuisance, but in the middle of the night it’s a lot worse I feel, especially when you are tired.

So what do you do in that case? Well, I went to the business lounge, found a good recliner, put on my sleeping mask and put in my ear plugs, and slept for 2 hours straight. I was sleepy after a day of meetings and was still a little jet lagged from the New Zealand trip, so I was asleep right away. I put my alarm to wake up on time (getting up after 2 hours of sleep was not too easy), found out that the flight was even more delayed and eventually boarded the plane around 3:40 AM.

The China Eastern flight that we booked was operated by an old Shanghai Airlines plane with terrible 1980s-like business class seats (a bit better than economy ones, but a far cry from what you normally get in business these days). But despite that I managed to fall asleep before departure already and only woke up around 8:15 AM, while we were starting our descent into Shanghai. All in all I had a decent sleep, despite the non-optimal situation.

The kids were not happy that Grace and I were not there to wake them up. We had talked to them over Skype video the night before, and they were very disappointed that we had not arrived yet. Scott even refused to get up until I would be there, because I had promised him that… Next time I probably won’t tell them that I will be back early the next morning, because I feel really bad about it.

Tuesday and Wednesday Xander and I were in Singapore for business meetings. I had not been to Singpore in almost 2 years (except for stopovers on the airport) and it was good to be back for a few days.

Next to the busy meeting schedule we also managed to see a bit of the city, especially because our meetings were scattered all over the place. During most of my recent trips I stayed in the city center, so I noticed that the city changed quite a bit since I last spent more time here (which was probably back in 2003 when Grace did a semester at INSEAD here, almost 9 years ago already).

My parents were also in town, so I had drinks with them at Boat Quay and of course my favorite Pepper Crab at Jumbo on the East Coast. The East Coast never changed, simple chairs and tables on a concrete floor next to the beach and excellent food (and cold Tiger beer!).

The area around INSEAD had totally changed. We had a meeting at Fusionopolis, and when we arrived there I realized it was right next door to the INSEAD campus. I think that in the old days there were just some fields around the INSEAD buildings, now there was a nicely looking building towering over the INSEAD grounds (see picture above).

On Wednesday after our meetings were over we had a late afternoon drink on Sentosa island with my parents. I used to like Sentosa a lot, but the place has become a kind of amusement park. It’s a pity, but I guess that’s what people want. The (man-made) white sand beaches were still there, but all of them now had bars with music and on the other side of the road there were all kinds of attractions to keep people busy, including among others the biggest indoor skydiving place in the world… It doesn’t fit to the island, but people seem to like it.

Also the Singapore skyline changed dramatically because of the addition of the Marina Bay Sands hotel and resort area. When driving into town from the airport it looks okay, but from other places in town it is just plain ugly. I decided not to take a picture of it but to only put the old skyline in the picture below!