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April 28, 2006
10 Things I do NOT miss about China
As a follow up to 10 Things I miss about China, here is my list of 10 things that I do NOT miss about being away.
People Spitting and Picking their Nose in Public
Bad Quality Western Food
Lunatic Taxi Drivers
Dvd, Rolex and Massageee hustlers
Pushing and Shoving for taxis, in shops etc
Chinese Customer Service
Menus (in Chinese only)
the Laowai stare as if I am from another planet
Slow speed of the WWW
Chinese Timekeeping and Punctuality
to be honest it was so much easier doing the list about what I miss and there were many more I could add, whereas the list above had me struggling for a bit.
Posted by shak at 1:45 PM | Comments (5)
April 26, 2006
10 Things I miss about China
It's 7.40am in London and I thought I'd do a post before heading out for the day, so here goes.
10 Things I miss about China:
90 minute massages at Dragon Fly for around £10
Real Chinese Food
Free WiFi in Coffee Shops
Maid to tidy up after me
Security Guards at the entrance to my apartment complex
Happy Smiling Faces
$2 a pack Marlboro Lights
Taxis everywhere (most of the time)
24 hour spas/bathhouses (jacuzzis/Hot tubs etc)
My Chinese Lessons
Maybe tomorrow or the day after I should the same but for the 10 things I DONT miss about China :)
Posted by shak at 7:39 AM | Comments (4)
April 23, 2006
Mission (part1) Complete, Back to London !
So here I am , Sunday evening looking out at the Shanghai Skyline whilst typing this post, I am all packed and I have flight tomorrow (Monday) morning at 11am headed for London.
Now some of you are probably wondering why I am off again and will I come back, and if so, when ?
So here's the lowdown, my stage 1 mission is complete, and my goals were:
1, Being able to speak Basic Conversational Chinese.
2, Get connected with people in the Online Marketing Industry.
3, First container of Goods to have left Shanghai port bound for London.
I am glad to say that in my opinion, I have now reached all these goals and I explain why:
a, I have continued my Mandarin lessons of 2 hours every day come rain or shine, and life is quite comfortable these days when it comes to the basics (getting around, ordering food, negotiating with suppliers, making appointments and general chit chat with local NON English speaking folk), however maybe some of the folk that know me in Shanghai can care to comment on how bad my manadarin is.
b, With the help of a few very connected folks in China and 1 or 2 in Mountain View, I can safely say that I am at max 1 or 2 degrees away from knowing anyone I really need to know when it comes to doing business in the Online/Search/Affiliate industry in China, at the moment this is an area I am not currently concentrating too hard on, however when the time comes I shall be sure to get involved on behalf of compaies back home.
c, I decided that I should take advantage of me being in China and the manufacturing industry here, so on Thursday a 20 foot container left Shanghai full of Exhibition equipment destined for my new UK company which will be up and running by 1st of June (fingers crossed).
So that's why I am going back, and I hope to be in UK for the next 3-4 months building the new business, especially the sales/marketing side of things.
I love living in China and am truly having the time of my life, someone summed it up as being a cross between San Francisco in 1849 and Silicon Valley 10 years ago, so I shall be back around July/August if all goes according to plan.
I hope to continue my Mandarin in London either with a teacher or as a language exchange with a Chinese student living there.
The posting here will be a bit quiet no doubt, however I am currently working on a report which I am looking to publish in the next 2 weeks or so, quite interesting even if I say so myself.
till next time friends, Zai Jian
Posted by shak at 7:00 PM | Comments (2)
April 20, 2006
Google in China , The Big Disconnect
I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading a lovely piece due to be published in this weekends New York Times Magazine.
Whilst NOT agreeing 100% with what's written, I must say it is a very well researched piece and answers many many questions regarding foreign internet companies doing business in China, and also gives you a glimse into what Chinese surfers are really doing when online.
Brin's team had one more challenge to confront: how to determine which sites to block? The Chinese government wouldn't give them a list. So Google's engineers hit on a high-tech solution. They set up a computer inside China and programmed it to try to access Web sites outside the country, one after another. If a site was blocked by the firewall, it meant the government regarded it as illicit — so it became part of Google's blacklist.
Thanks to Imagethief in Beijing for the tip.
New York Times magazine article
Posted by shak at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
China in the eyes of a tourist
I have been pretty busy last 12 days or so, as I have had 2 very close friends visiting from the UK, namely JP Jones (my ex tech director) and Shakeel Sadiq aka Shak2 (Managing Director of my new UK company).
They came, they saw and they just went back, so I will let you read their version of events instead, a very entertaining read indeed ...
JP and Shak2 in China (read from bottom up)
Picture Gallery
Posted by shak at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2006
Google official Chinese Name Launch
Last night saw the official name of launch of Google in China, it will be known as Gu Ge.
It was a huge event hosted in the grand ballroom at the Beijing Hotel, a stones throw away from Forbidden City, a lot of the senior folks from Mountain View were in attendance including Eric Schmidt, Omid Kordestani and Shona Brown.
Myself and a few friends were invited, and since we were in beijing anyway climbing the Great Wall, how could we miss such an important event in China.
Posted by shak at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2006
1 Billion Customers
So for the past 6 months or so I have been living in Shanghai, China's most developed city some would say with a population of between 16 > 20 million people.
Apart from Shanghai, I have visited Beijing, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Suzhou , Nanjing and Wuxi on day trips as such for various meetings.
Now like most people out there I had heard of these 1.3 billion customers in China waiting to buy goods and services over the next 10 > 50 years (dependant on what you read), However the more you read the more you become aware that only a small percenatge life a similar life to what Shanghai or Nanjing has to offer, and that 80 > 85% of the population lives in whats called Rural China.
So when an invite came from Laoban Daniel of ZimZone to come and experience some REAL China instead of the China Light we are living, there was no way I could refuse.
So last Friday, my flatmate and I flew to Hefei, capital of Anhui province, 55 minutes flight or 5 hours by train from Shanghai, the city itself boasts 1.5 million people but including surrounding areas totals about 4 million, this is what's known as a 2nd tier city in China.
Well what an amazing 2 days we had ....
We land at Hefei international airport, and the 1st thing that strikes me is that we are the ONLY plane in the airport, 3 minutes laster and we are being driven away to our Motel for the nite, which had been booked in the wrong place so we end up in eHomInn instead of the Home Inn chain we had requested (welcome to China)
A quick dinner in a local restaurant and then on to experience some nightlife in Hefei, 1st thing that strikes me is the price, everything seems 1/2 price of what we pay in Shanghai, 2nd thing that strikes me is the VERY VERY few foreigners here, in fact out of the 3 clubs we went to, I see 1 other Laowai. quite interesting that the best club in town is called "Beauiful Club", huge place with lots of signs and corporate identity all featuring a Typo (welcome to China, why fix it if its working), 3rd thing that strikes me is the friendliness of these people compared to Shanghai (we love Prada, Gucci, LVMH and Starbucks).
The night draws to a close with us having a burger at Novotel at 4am, the only place to get a decent burger or decent anything I think at 4am in Hefei.
Next morning we are collected at 8am for a trip to the countryside, and a 2 hour drive later we start seeing what the 85% people live like
and how they spend their spare time
Now we spent the best part of a day out here, and I must say it was an experience unlike any other, and so so different from the China which I am living in, as are most (not all foreigners) and even more surprising is the fact that a lot of City people I have spoken to younger than 30 have never been to such places, and looked at me in shock when I said I was going for a weekend break.
The people were so genuine, and even though there may not be any income coming in directly, the 1 family breadwinner working in the city is supporting anything from 2 to 10 people or more in some cases, but everyone believes in the cause "Today is better than Yesterday, and Tomorrow will be even better", by the way most people out here were 0 > 15 years old or over 50, not many youngsters or working age people, as they are the 1s chasing THEIR dream in the cities.
All in all a very interesting experience, and 1 that I'd recommend to anyone coming to China, obviously having local guides made all the difference, and allowed me to briefly see what real China is like.
The funny thing is that I was told this was the suburbs and REAL China was a few hours drive west ?
Hope you enjoyed the post, and apologies for the lack of posting lately, been a busy studying Chinese and drinking Vanilla Lattes in Starbucks.
(disclaimer: this post is intended for the folks back home, not for the 1 guy who has lived in China for a few years and wants to nit pick the tiniest detail of my post, if you dont like it, go teach another English class instead for $1,50)
Posted by shak at 4:01 PM | Comments (4)
April 1, 2006
Google Romance
Looks like Google are in the April Fools mood again ;)
Posted by shak at 7:33 PM | Comments (0)