I am ready for holidays

Damn, still one month to go until the submission of my thesis. I am fed up with it. I cannot read my sentences anymore. Time to look for some holiday opportunities afterwards. I really need some days off, especially before starting working at the end of this year!

Jeanette in Shanghai

Funny, my colleague recently told me that on his plane from Frankfurt to Shanghai last Thursday, there was also the German Pop singer Jeanette Biedermann.

And today i read on the internet news that she is being invited by a Chinese cosmetic supplier for some days here in Shanghai. Nice...

Rains and heavy thunderstorm

Holy, a heavy thunderstorm hit Shanghai today ending in heavy rainfalls which lasted at least for an hour. Streets were covered with rain. Impossible to get a taxi during this time.

Guandii, Dragon Club

The past days in Shanghai I spent with experiencing heavy nightlife. After all I have to admit that the Dragon Club in Fenyang Lu is probably the venue to be and to be seen in Shanghai. Forget about VIP Room or Bar Rouge. The both smart and good looking people seem to meet there on a frequent places. Most of them Westerners. However a small Chinese part is there as well. Not that I adore these kind of venues, especially if you take the RMB 100 (10 EUR) entrance charge into consideration, but the girls I've seen there and talked to are really top-class.

Ups, e-fellows follow-up

Surprisingly, I found myself published on the main homepage of e-fellows.

My last days in Shanghai

Well as always, there is also an end of this story as I am going to be back in Germany very soon.

e-fellows blog entry

Look what I've found here.

e-fellows just published one of my recent weblog entries.

China drops fixed exchange rate

After more than 10 years, the Yuan (The Chinese currency) is not anymore pegged against the dollar. 1 USD is today worth 8.11 RMB compared to 8.28 RMB during the fixed exchange rate period.

China is awaiting Taifun "Haitang"

How is this, what I just read on the net. A taifun called "Haitang" is approaching mainland China in the next hours.

The storm went over Taiwan the past days and damaged several facilities. However, the best story I read is this:

Thieves in Taipeh used the stormy winds to break into a shop of the international luxurious watch brand "Gucci" and they did steal watches in the value of about 50.000 Euro. .... Now we get to the point ... The police did notice the alarm sirene which turned on when the thieves entered the shop. However, the police didn't do anything as they thought the alarm signal turned on due to the heavy storms outside Taipeh! Ha, that's so typical for Chinese...they just sit and wait what happens next.

Here is the original text I gather from Spiegel Online:

"Diebe in der taiwanesischen Hauptstadt Taipeh haben den Durchzug des Sturms ausgenutzt, um ein Geschäft der internationalen Luxusmarke Gucci auszurauben. Wie die Polizei heute mitteilte, drangen die Räuber gestern in die vorsorglich verrammelte Nobelboutique ein und stahlen Waren im Wert von umgerechnet rund 52.000 Euro. Zwar funktionierte nach Angaben eines Gucci-Sprechers die Alarmanlage, doch ignorierte die zuständige Sicherheitsfirma den Alarm, da sie dachte, er sei durch den Taifun ausgelöst worden."

Doing business the Chinese way

Holy...this is just crazy. I was trying to find Chinese industry figures I needed for my thesis for three months now. Impossible to get to statistical yearbooks as the cheapest edition would have cost about USD 1,500. Definitely too much for a poor student.

Well while I was conducting some interviews with industry professionals, I had a chat with a Professor of Asia's #1 Business School here in Shanghai. After having had to invite him, his girlfriend and a former colleague from him for dinner last Friday, he kindly offered me to borrow his personal statistic yearbook! Here we go, I drove to the university campus today, to get the book and now I am confident to fill my thesis with up-to-date figures. Although to be honest, gathering and using statistical figures in China is nothing more than a lottery :-)

Relaxing foot massage

After I went to the supermarket yesterday I decided to look for a nice massage place to give my feet a little rest.

I had a look in Shanghai's yellow pages and I did find an address close to my home:

Green Massage
58 Taicang Lu (close to the Xintiandi)
Tel: 86-21-53860222
webpage

I can honestly recommend this place. It's a clean and friendly environment. The foot massage was excellent. For the 50 minutes programme, they charged about 88 RMB (8,80 EUR) which is literally speaking nothing compared to any massage salon in Germany or I suppose in the West generally speaking.

Bad news...

while I am taking one day off today due to my most recent influenza, I received a really bad news yesterday, which brings my short and mid-term perspective to collapse. I would like to write more but there are few persons out there who read this s**t making me feel uncomfortable.

City supermarket for western food

I was really fed up yesterday of dining the Chinese way. Don't get me wrong, I really do like the Chinese or Asian food in general. However, if you are eating it day by day, you are really anxious to get some "normal" western food, i.e. bread, smoked ham, grilled pork chops, salad with a nice balsamic dressing, SPARKLING mineral water, tomato/mozzarella and so forth...

The place to get all those stuff (apart from the large Carrefour and METRO retailers) is called City Supermarket.

There are few shops in Shanghai:

Times Square Shop
B101
No.99 Huai Hai Zhong Road

Shanghai Centre Shop
Shanghai Centre,
No.1376 Nan Jing West Road

Hong Mei Shop
No.3211 Hong Mei Road

New World Department Store Shop
B1,No.939 Huai Hai Zhong Road

I used to go to the Time Square Shop yesterday as it is the shop closest to my apartment. In terms of price level, well, yes it's more expensive than buying local food as everything is imported from the west. However, compared to western price levels, it's still affordable. Compared to the Oliver's shops in Hong Kong, it's definitely a good bargain!

Getting ill...

Arg....actually it was just a matter of time until my first cold here in Shanghai. Given the high temperature, humidity and all these A/C running at 100% I got a bad cold. However, I supose the flash point has been the boat return trip from Putuoshan to Shanghai last Sunday as we were sitting on the windy top of the boat.

Anyways, I cannot do anything but wait, see and hope that I am recovering quickly the forthcoming days.

Weekend on Mount Putuo

I just came back from my weekend trip to Putuoshan this morning. As there was no Speed boat available anymore yesterday, we needed to take the slow boat version which took us from Putuoshan to Shanghai in about 12 hours.

Anyways, the weekend was quite relaxing. Lying on the beach...delicious seafood and Karaoke in the evening...

Here is the link to the relevant picture gallery.

Traveling to Putuoshan

Hi, after days of silence, I just wanted to tell you that I am going to fly to Putuoshan over the weekend. Just to refresh my mind and getting some rest.

Blistering heat

"Hunderte Menschen in Schanghai wegen Rekordhitze im Krankenhaus. Klimaanlagen dürfen Luft nur noch bis 26 Grad abkühlen.

Schanghai - Wegen der anhaltenden Rekordhitze sind in der chinesischen Metropole Schanghai hunderte Menschen in Krankenhäuser eingeliefert worden. Meist ältere Menschen kamen bis zum Montag mit Hitzschlägen und Atemnot in die Kliniken der Stadt. Wie die Zeitung "Shanghai Daily" berichtete, fuhren die Krankenwagen täglich mehr als 600 Einsätze. Am Sonntag erlebte die Stadt mit 39 Grad Celsius den heißesten 3. Juli seit dem Jahr 1873." (AFP)
04.07.05, 12:59 Uhr

Gen's Birthday pictures II

Here we go. I just uploaded the pictures I took at Gen's Birthday party at Barbarossa last Thursday. Feel free to browse my picture gallery.

Germans are heading to advanced elections

I know, this has nothing to do with Shanghai or China in general. However a truly important event took place today in the German Budestag in Berlin.

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder just lost - as expected - his vote of confidence. What does it mean for Germany? Now, if German's Federal President Köhler is going to release the German parliament within the next 21 days, the way is free for advanced elections this fall in September. Let's wait and see if he is making this step.

Thesis - it's half time

Well, guys. It's half time now. 30 pages so far, but it's getting to a tricky point now, where making progress it's getting tougher. Fingers crossed that I am getting all pieces of information I need while I am here in Shanghai.

Gen's Birthday

Yesterday, Gen, one of my roommates had her birthday. Thus she invited us for some drinks on top of the Barbarossa bar in Nanjing Xi Lu. I took a few pictures which I am going to upload over the weekend. It's been fun although it's been tremendously hot and humid again.