Cultural differences in the office

So I'm in the office.  Lovely office it is, we moved in a couple of weeks ago.  Top class.  Now there happen to be a few of us in the office.  The chap next to me mind you, isn't the most cultured.  He coughs and sneezes in my direction without covering his mouth, and worst of all, he has a habit of spitting phlegm into the bin during the day.  Actually, he positions the wastepaper bin just under the right arm of his chair so that he can lean over and spit into it.  Kinda gross.

 

Now, what should i do?  Should I have a quiet word with him?  Some say that I have to accept that this is local culture, and so grin and bear it.  I'm not so convinced though - we are a french company, and regardless I thought Shanghai aspired to international personal habits, especially when it comes to spitting.

 

I've heard stories of how it can be worse out on our client sites, say in a manufacturing context.  Certainly with clients, I wouldn't be able to say anything.  But as to the behaviour of my colleagues, I think I expect more.  Particularly as we aspire amongst other grand things that our colleagues would be able to travel out and join our global consulting workforce. 

 

In the office, we've done some training on how to dress, how to blow your nose, how not to roll up your trousers in summertime.  There's more work on coughing and spitting to be done, and also clarification on whether it's ok to sleep at your desk or in your chair following lunchtime.  These things of course are done by the distinct minority.  But it's interesting because it's such a departure from what you could expect in a similar office back in the West.

 

Are civilised manners a western thing?  Or do they transcend nations?  Probably some of each, and as such, there's plenty of grey area, and not any simple ways of moving forward.

 

Another thing that is noticeably different is political correctness.  It's a sensitive topic in the UK, and ultra sensitive in the US.  Here though, it's quite different.  The secretaries are commonly referred to as 'mei nu'(beautiful girl) instead of their names, by the men and women in the office.  It's so common that I'm not sure if it constitutes a compliment or not.  I had one lady in the office actually trying to coach me to give more compliments to women in the office, about the way they dress, or look each day.  She said that it would make them happy.  Maybe.  Back home, if I did that I'd soon end up with a lot of enemies, or being asked to leave.  Worse still, my company would be liable to compensationary damages to the women I had caused uncomfort to.

 

My cousin also works in my company.  Soon after joining she had a colleague harrass her with flirtatious messages over MSN, and text messages late in the evening.  All this from a young married man with children no less.  She had to firmly tell him to back off and behave.  Be warned, ye attractive ladies.  China is not yet PC.

Tranquil Curry - Nepali Kitchen

Kim's favourite restaurant.  I can see why.  I didn't get as far as eating there, I more watched her eat. 

 

Beautiful small restaurant.  Very relaxing setting.  Tiny unassuming entrance - easy to walk past without noticing.  Perfect for a quieter date or a relaxing dinner amongst friends.  They have tables and chairs, but the fun seating is at the back of the ground floor or on the second floor, where you take off your shoes and sit on cushions.

 

The food seems like Indonesia meets Balti house to me.  You order from a choice of set meals, which consist of lots of little serving bowls of different meat/fish/veggie curries.  Apparently very tasty - certainly looked that way.  A set meal costs about 80 RMB.  A Nepali Salad special is about 30 RMB if I remember right, and that's almost a meal in itself.  Portions on the generous side.

 

It's near to Mesa Manifesto, Hotpot King, People 7, Shintori, at julu lu and fuming lu. 

 

Nepali Kitchen

819 Julu Lu near Fumin Lu

5404 6281

Latina - Brazillian Barbeque in Xintiandi

Brazillian BBQ. A meat lover's delight. Actually, there's a very good salad / veggie selection too, fruit, and an ice cream machine to help yourself to. This place is great if you don't want to even think about what to order, and don't want to wait for your food. You just get a plate, grab some salad stuff, sit, and the meat comes to you every few minutes.

This place is in Xintiandi, not far from Starbucks. They have terrace seating outdoors, but I like the second floor best, close to the buffet food.

The food quality was probably as good as a bbq like this can be without making a loss. I went to one terrible bbq before in shanghai, where the meat was fatty and tasteless. This was much better, and an awful lot more authentic. My favourites were the sausage, which was a Real Sausage (wow! hooray!), and the barbequed cinnamon banana.

The meat buffet is 129 RMB (8 pounds). Fruit juices and beers are about 40 RMB (2.5 pounds). With my Enjoy card voucher, I got a buy one buffet get one free deal, which saved me 129 RMB. Brilliant!

They also have a lunch buffet which is about 60 RMB if I remember correctly.

Charity - Shanghai Education

Here's another charity put forward by the British Chamber of Commerce.

They say that there are 40,000 children in Shanghai who can't afford tuition and fees for a good education. Shanghai Sunrise does a one to one educational sponsorship for children, and donates libraries to schools. It currently sponsors 640 children and has given 120 libraries, and is run entirely by volunteers.

The view from my ivory tower

Make no mistake, I live in a new high rise apartment.  Unlike most other modern compounds, ours is in a 'still developing neighbourhood', and as such is surrounded by low rise local accomodation, known to some as lane housing.  Inevitably, within a matter of months or years the local housing will be razed and replaced by more high rises.  Looking around Shanghai city centre, those around us are some of the poorest areas I have seen.  The houses, whilst architecturally sound and elegant, are packed close together, and have poor sewerage.  The shops, market and restaurants (other than the expensive restaurants on Huang he lu) are of a very low standard.

 

When we first arrived, looking around a 'food street' nearby, we witnessed a couple of fights.  Seemingly, the way it worked would be that a would be customer would get very upset with a stall owner, during the food ordering process, and a loud and threatening fight would ensue, usually involving the would be customer, seemingly a very desperate person, picking up something large and heavy like a large bit of wood.  Apparently these are daily goings on, I'm not quite sure why.

 

And in the last few days, there have been a couple of strange goings on in the street just opposite.  I think on the weekend on coming home, there was a crowd and a police car in the road outside our block.  Apparently there was some sort of family dispute, which resulted in the police trying to calm the various parties down over about an hour, and maybe 30 or 40 people standing around getting a good nosy in.  Martin saw the events unfold, and he says the people were pushing around the police as well.  I think the police are quite tolerant and understanding in this respect.  They can 'take' being pushed around and shouted out.  That kind of behaviour would have you locked up in a jiffy in the UK.  I'm not saying that the police Can be pushed around - I think if I shoved a police officer I would most certainly end up in a police station.  But they're certainly brave to put themselves into these situations.  I can see why the police don't really rush around the whole time now - maybe much of their job is not pursuing criminals, but solving household disputes.  I thought perhaps events such as this were the result of increasingly unhappy people, feeling the pressures of a difficult life. 

 

And in the middle of the night last night I heard shouting and glass being broken.  Over the space of about half an hour, I think I heard what sounded like 3 bottles being smashed on the floor.  There was a police car out there, and a fair amount of shouting.  I couldn't make out what it was about, but someone was clearly not happy.

 

I read in the news a few weeks back that Beijing government is seriously looking into the poverty gap between the seafront provinces and the inland provinces.  With significant unrest inland, it's posing a serious risk to peace.  Whilst China is booming, it's booming in a lopsided way.  With these recent events, I can feel the tension.  Even in Shanghai, where residents are lucky to be living in a prosperous city and are far more likely to find decent housing and employment, such struggles and discontent exists.  When I have time and my language improves, I look forward to heading inland one day to find out how the 'other side' live.

 

I do feel safe where I live.  I think the locals are very welcoming, as they know that we our fancy condos bring custom to their businesses.  The struggles I think are between themselves, within the hardship of their lives.  When I say hardships, I mean living in a house where the air is thick with the smell of urine.  I mean working in an open fronted restaurant in the day, chopping the meat on the street in the morning, and standing in the same spot in one's underpants at night, washing with a bowl of water, and then sleeping inside the restaurant.  I mean pushing a heavy cart around the streets of shanghai, looking to sell bags of popcorn.

 

Sure not everyone in shanghai lives like this.  Far from it.  But there are certainly levels of society here.  Many within shanghai are wealthy.  There are a fair number of toyota Land Cruisers, or Audi A6s around for example.  They cost serious money.  But the base level of living standard, even in Shanghai, is still much lower than any country citizen could regard as fair.

Enjoy Shanghai discount card - what are the Real offers?

I bought an Enjoy discount card some time back. It was recommended to me, and I thought why not try it out. The card itself offers 10% discounts at a number of places. The voucher book is even more impressive, but needs careful interpretation, as venues reserve the right to completely ignore whatever is written on the voucher.

If you're the kind that carries cards around with you, and can actually remember to produce the card, then it's for you. If you like to travel light or always forget like I do.... then maybe think twice. It makes perfect sense if you have a regular place on the list. But the list isn't at all extensive.

The card costs 300 RMB. It's quite easy to save 300 RMB off the card, but then remember that your friends save as much as you do - it may take some time before you personally recoup 300 RMB.

Also, what I didn't appreciate is that the card operates from April each year. So the best time to buy one is in April. So I've bought a card at full price which is only good for 6 months. Oh well, I can only make that mistake once. Of course any consultant could advise enjoy that they could boost their sales if they were able to release cards every month.... But then it's probably a one man company, with a very happy chappie laughing away somewhere busy counting money, who really couldn't be ars*d with optimising his/her sales...

My experience of the vouchers so far:
KABB, xintiandi
Voucher said: buy one main meal, get one free
Restaurant said: order any main meal and get it free (brilliant, even better!). one expensive grill dish, and everyone else ordered cheap pasta stuff.

Manifesto Bar, julu lu
Voucher said: 50% off overall bill, no limit
Bar said: As stated, but not including food or bottled drinks. Cocktails and soft drinks are definitely included.

Senses Wine Lounge, wulumuqi lu
Voucher said: 50% off bill up to 2000 kuai
Bar said: as stated, except for items already part of weekly special offers (mon wine 25 kuai a glass, tues wine bottles 30% off, wed and thur add a main course to a bottle of wine for 1 kuai). Brilliant!

Element Fresh, portman hotel
Voucher said: One free smoothie
Restaurant said: Buy one smoothie get one free

Readers, do you know of any other good special offers / Enjoy deals / variations from Enjoy vouchers?

A bit of chinese:

Discount Da3 zhe2 打折
Coupon You1 dai4 quan4 优待券 (as per my dictionary)
Favourable (price) You1 hui4 优惠
Special offer coupon You1 hui4 quan4 优惠券 (i think, but i might be making this up)

Cutting Corners - to cut or not to cut?

Corners well cut:

- Super thin plastic spoons, as used in canteens.  Fine for drinking soup, but with rice, the weight is too much.  The spoon loses rigidity and then wobbles around. 

- Super thin plastic disposable cups, as sold in Carrefour.  Fine for cold water, but hot water tends to disfigure the plastic in a worrying fashion.

- Hollow metal bike parts.  As issued by bike repair men, and as standard on my new Forever bike.  Parts such as bolts, and bike pedal bolts, are made of hollow metal, with the result that after a heavy period of use they shear and fall off.  Maybe I’m not gentle enough when I’m riding.

 

One cut too far…  (of course, these are isolated, rare incidents – not representative!)

- Hand towels in the office washroom dispenser, that tear when try to pull one down, if your hands are wet.  Doh!

- Bendy straws as issued with fruit juices and cocktails at the up-market 239 restaurant.  The plastic is so thin, that bending the straw in the way you’d expect to, leaks air in to the straw, rendering it useless.

- restaurants in their re-use of paper chopstick sleeves.  It’s worrying when you pull damp chopsticks out of these re-used chopstick sleeves.  It’s also annoying when we eat in such places and forget to bring our own chopsticks…

 

Notes for renters in Shanghai

I found the Centraline agency to be the most helpful when searching for a rental property.  They’re one of the few agencies to have multiple branches, all hooked up to a single property database.  For checking market prices, I found the http://rent.online.sh.cn website to be accurate.  Once you have the name of a building, it’s easy to see how much apartments tend to go for, so that you know you’re being offered a ball park rental.

 

If you’re busy, then I would suggest leaving the agencies behind altogether.  They don’t get many high value properties, haven’t seen many themselves, many if not all of their agents lack age, experience and professionalism.  My suggestions are Savills, a subsidiary of the UK company, and Candis, an independent lady from HK.  Candis gave the best service.  As well as speaking English and Cantonese, she forwarded me photos of apartments by email before taking me to see them.  Surely everyone has the common sense to do this I hear you utter.  If only.

 

The process of renting a property was an eye opener.  After we settled on a property, we had trouble ascertaining who really was the owner of the property.  A lady claimed to be the landlady, but the ownership paperwork showed a different name.  At that point in time, another agency was on the line, claiming to have the real landlord in front of them.  Who to believe?  The situation is that the lady had bought several apartments, but due to buying restrictions in shanghai, had put this particular property under her brother’s name.  In effect she was the owner and landlady.  But she wasn’t the legal owner.

 

We were surprised to find clauses missing from the contract.  Things like, what length of notice period was necessary if either party wanted to break the contract.  Without this, it seemed the landlady could kick us out with a day’s notice, albeit giving us a month’s compensation.  Also there were no clauses on landlord access, e.g. to show prospective renters around the apartment in 11 months’ time.  (don’t forget also, no incentive for your ayi to respect your privacy when that time comes – she’ll let people in).  There’s no concept of ‘joint and several’, if more than one of you is signing the contract.  And if you need fa piao (receipts, which add 5% to your rental price), apparently they can only be made out in the name which appears on your contract.

 

I didn’t see any clauses explaining responsibilities or procedures in the event of problems, such as a leaking bathtub, perhaps leading to a week without running water.  It was helpful that Centraline agency had bilingual contracts for us, but it took a long time to add additional clauses to the contract, no matter how simple they seemed to be.  On our contract, exactly how much needed to be paid on each of our quarterly payments, wasn’t clearly stated.  I think it was designed with monthly payments in mind.

 

The bilingual side of things was somewhat irrelevant, because the contract also stated that in the event of inconsistency the Chinese version was authoritive.  Also, we needed to have a translator there, because the Chinese was written in ‘old language’, or ‘lawyer speak’ – absolutely no chance of being able to read it.  And it’s got to be disconcerting when you have agents around you excited about clinching another high value deal, all of whom must be under 25 years of age, and telling you to ‘trust them’, and a translator with you who being a local doesn’t really understand why you’re being so cautious.  It’s because of course, us foreigners have been told over and over again – that we’ll be ripped off at every opportunity.  How can you blame us for being cautious?

 

New Buildings

The first clue, should be whether the lift has been boxed up.  Other than that, a gaze at the outside of the building, looking for curtains, air conditioning units, satellite dishes.  Low occupancy means renovations work.  Which means drilling and banging at 7am every day.  Every day.  7am.  Security is a distinct problem in such places.  Building doors are often left open, as workers come and go.  Security guards welcome all and sundry in, if they even notice you coming in.  Our building door has had teething problems – the hinging is of such poor quality and design that ever since they started locking it, it breaks consistently within a matter of weeks.

 

One good thing about new buildings – fast lifts.  Look to see where the lifts stop by default.  In ours, one waits on the ground, another on the 15^th floor.  So getting out of the building in the morning is real quick.  Listen for the acceleration when you call for a lift.

 

If you have security concerns, insist on having a peephole fitted to your door.  (That’s if you’re so lucky that you don’t have a massive iron gate as an additional door).  We’ve had workmen, salesmen, friends, security, all come knock on the door.  It’s all a bit eerie when you’re not expecting someone, and you know the local security is less than marvelous.  If you’re very security conscious, then check to make sure that the front and back doors are fitted correctly, with hinge bolts on the insides, and check to see if the doors self-lock on closing.

 

New apartments

A few things to check.  This hasn’t got much to do with China I suppose, but I didn’t really have much experience of renting before I came out here.  Check the quality of the furniture.  It might look Ikea like, but there are some very cheap look-alikes.  Wood veneer laminates are peeling off parts of our furniture, after a couple of months’ usage.  Tacky.  Curtains – all of our curtains look great, but are made of very thin material that doesn’t at all stop the light coming in.  Glare on the TV, and hard to lie in on the weekend.  Rushed fittings – the skirting board in my bedroom was fitted cold – now with heat expansion, it has bulged out from the wall.

 

General

Check out the air conditioning.  Is it central a/c, or individual units?  I’m led to believe that central is more efficient, and certainly less obtrusive.  Look to see how many and how large the a/c units are on the outside of the property.  Modesty on this front caps the number of guests you can have in the summertime.  Check how powerful the gas boiler is – can it handle two hot showers at once?  Check the insulation.  Are you going to have cold drafts coming through window cracks in the winter?  Is there double glazing?  How big are the gaps under the external doors?  Oh…. And check for mosquitoes…  In one apartment over suzhou creek, there were mozzies on the 26^th floor.  Maybe it’s the water.  Or maybe they’re completely unavoidable…. Shock horror.  Lastly, look to see if there’s an oven, or if the washing machine you have does a hot wash.  Not common…

 

Lastly…. Think about the price you’re paying.  At under 9k, our 3 bed property is in the good quality range, but not excellent quality.  It’s far from perfect, but at this price range it’s still cost effective.  Going up a quality level, life is better, but a considerable amount more expensive.

Restaurant - Bellagio Cafe (Taiwanese)

Taiwanese food. Surprisingly inexpensive - a great place to treat visitors without breaking the bank. Average cost 50 to 75 RMB (3 to 5 pounds) without drinks. Superb setting. Just outside Xintiandi (north east east of xintiandi), it's a great option if you're walking around xintiandi and fancy trying some taiwanese food.

I can't say I knew what taiwanese cuisine was before coming to Shanghai. It's all great though - stewed meat, fish, fried noodles, with some strong flavours (mushrooms & oysters) and some less strong flavours (taiwan sausage, pickled radish).

It's not a 'noisy chinese restaurant', but if you want a quieter setting, there's the option of sitting on the second floor. They set aside a good number of tables for walk-ins, so you're ok to reserve, or to just try your luck. It's also open ridiculously late (4am).

The Chinese name is slightly different - 鹿港小镇 (lu4 gang3 xiao3 zhen4), which seems to mean 'deer port small town'. Just as well they went for Bellagio as an english name rather than a literal translation eh.

68 Tai Cang Lu
太仓路68号
6386-5701

Photos of Shanghai Food

Found this online today. Great photos of appetising Chinese food found in Shanghai. The author yusheng has even written the names of the dishes and restaurants (in chinese), a description of each dish (english) and restaurant addresses (english). Fantastic!

Chinese Films

I've been struggling to find interesting Chinese films to watch. It's hard, having to rely on the DVD shopkeeper girls to recommend films to me. I found this list online, of the “100 strongest films of Asia”. The way they’ve compiled it seems pretty basic though – essentially picking out the big name films produced each year since 1935 or something. Still, it's a good base for me to start from, to watch some of the old classics.

The list on the web isn't quite up to date. In any case, here's a list of the films from this area I've enjoyed to date:-
- Eat Drink Man Woman - Taiwanese, Food culture & old people
- A One and a Two - Taiwanese I think, family culture
- Shower - Chinese, chinese village equivalent of the corner store vs. supermarket development
- Hero - Chinese, epic, traditional chinese values and kung fu culture
- Together - Chinese, countryside violin prodigy comes to the city(http://www.monkeypeaches.com/henizaiyiqi.html)
- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, epic
- House of flying daggers, kung fu romance - loyalty/love/betrayal/war story
- The Last Emperor - not even sure if this is in Chinese, but it's good history
- Farewell my concubine (classic)
- Raise the red lantern (fascinating - ancient family traditions and polygamy)

I'm also hoping to find films or TV series shot in Shanghai. There seem to be a few in Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong... but I'd love to see something shot here - a snapshot of Shanghai at some other point in time.

Here's another list - "best chinese films of the 90s" http://www.chinesecinemas.org/90slist.html

Shopping & Shopping Scams - the New World Dept Store

Department stores are fascinating.  Products are grouped by brand rather than function.  Which means to choose a television, one has to walk from the Philips section over to the Panasonic section, over to the Sony section.  The same for rice cookers, irons, telephones.  It’s impossible to do side by side comparisons, or for a salesperson to help you compare.  When you’ve chosen on one, you can’t stick it into your trolley and pay later at the cashier.  You have to take the item number, walk it to a cashier, pay, then return and collect your goods.  So if you buy 5 different things, you’ve got to go to the cashier, and return to each of the 5 areas to collect your goods.  Bit of a waste of time.

 

And so I was surprised and overjoyed when one time a saleswoman told me I didn’t need to pay at the cash desk.  I was buying a belt.  She told me that there was a discount on it, making it exactly 96 kuai.  Fair enough I thought, and I gave her 100 RMB.  She gave me the change, and I asked her for a receipt.  Amazingly, she burrowed around in a shoe box, and after a while, found a receipt she’d been keeping aside for exactly 96 RMB.  Genious.

 

Usually, what happens after you’ve been to the cashier, is that you go back to where you came from, and give them the receipt and counterfoil that the cashier gave you.  The salesperson keeps the counterfoil, and you take away the receipt.  Many people I guess don’t bother taking the receipt…. Which creates an opportunity for goods to be sold for cash, and a receipt still to be given.  Presumably such a practice creates stock discrepancies, which could be written off as shoplifting.

 

The belt I bought was pretty ghastly.  I’ve been looking for a simple, modest looking belt for some time.  They’re really hard to find.  Whereas a diamond crusted fake Gucci belt is relatively easy to find.  If you like wearing that kind of thing… great.  Belts, spectacles, cuff links and men’s leather shoes, I’m putting into a list of ‘things to buy abroad’.  

 

The department stores are good to walk around.  It’s good to wonder if they turn a profit – after all, who shops there?  How much margin leakage is there due to malpractice?  How well can they retain high value customers through their ability to deliver service?  And it’s hilarious to see the lookalike stores.  The Armoni store for example, in the menswear department, where the saleswomen will swear on their lives that the goods have just been shipped over from Milan.  If you’re in the New World, also check out the small ice skating rink they have, somewhere in the depths of the sports floor.  45 RMB for 90 minutes I think.  The ice is moderate, but the equipment looks pretty new.

 

Another funny event – we bought a basketball.  A reasonably upmarket store, we thought it better than buying a fake from the market, or from a university shop.  Sure it costed more, but hey, we figured that was the premium for buying real goods in the center of town.  Well, two days later the basketball went flat.  When we went back, the saleslady dunked the ball into a bucket of water.  Sure enough, it was leaking.  Oddly, it was leaking not just from one place, but from everywhere.  Hmmmmmmm.  She tried another ball from their stock – same problem.  She made a call to her boss, who refused to give us a refund.  She then had to go ask the department store management, who after a long wait, were able to give us a refund – hooray!  The irony is that in some instances buying fakes is better than buying real goods – because the real goods might sell so slowly that they are already beginning to deteriorate.

Bikes liberating, but still dangerous

I bought a couple of bikes from Carrefour supermarket, 201 RMB each. (about 13 pounds). You could probably add another 100 RMB of locks baskets and a bell, and later, another 50 RMB when I find a more comfy seat to go onto it.

I looked at Giant for bikes (way too fancy) and Decathalon (too far away), and in the end just plumped for these. I bought Forever brand - apparently one of the best. It's a heck of a better ride than the last bike I bought - (bought for 175 RMB in a shop near Fudan University). It's much heavier, but you can tell that all of the parts are of higher quality, and riding it at constant speed requires much less effort.

Cruising around town is just excellent. Especially once you find the little side roads that run parallel to the big roads, where cars are not allowed. Once you know these roads, you can get around quickly with the minimum of hassle. It's lovely taking these roads - just bikes and pedestrians.

Riding to dinner is great too. We headed out to a cantonese 'cha chan teng' restaurant last night, one of the xinwang chain. We passed at least 3 other interesting restaurants on the way. Bikes are great for that.

Safety is kind of a concern mind you. No-one wears bike helmets here. Kinda like the way most people don't wear safety belts in cars. I'm told bike lights are illegal, although I was able to buy a light in Carrefour and have it fitted (of the two i bought, one broke before first use).

Bikes tend to ignore red traffic lights. Cars of course can turn right on reds. So making some road junction crossings can be a little scary. And because taxis can pull over to the kerb side in front of you, one does have to be at least a little aware of what is going on around you.

I'd rather like to wear a helmet when I'm riding. I'm not going fast, but if someone opens a car door in front of my bike, or a taxi pulls in in front of me while I happen to be gazing at an interesting shop (or some eye candy), then I'm aware that i'm going to fly off the front of my bike and bang my head on something.

I think when I was young there was a time when bike helmets weren't quite the norm. Now I think they're fairly standard in the UK. I'm told that in Holland, where they ride every day, no-one wears them. But, I think in Shanghai I ought to.

I brought one over from the UK with me, but it seems to have gone missing. Curious, but unfortunate. I think i'll have to head to one of the specialist bike shops - Giant or Bohdi Bikes to get one. They have something in Carrefour, but they're more primitive - they look a little like hollowed out bowling balls.

This brings me to a major cultural difference I am ever so aware of here - perception of safety. People tell me that I don't need to wear a safety belt in the back of a car (you can't in the taxis here, they're all covered up). Taxi drivers assure me that I don't need to worry when I tell them not to drive at breakneck speed at night. Friends tell me that I needn't worry about taxis/bikes, because Shanghai traffic is very safe.

I'm not sure if it's because back in the UK, we're more paranoid about accidents. After all, many more things are guaranteed in the UK - you're never really going to go hungry. Maybe with less social security here, people have more to worry about than getting into a car accident. This said though, people are still conscious of dangers - a friend asked me if she had to worry about flying to London - worrying about the terrorist risk. I laughed - citing that whilst Shanghai doesn't have terrorists, it has some pretty wild driving habits.

Or maybe it's a lack of awareness. It seems few are aware of how Shanghai compares to other cities in terms of say auto deaths per capita. I'd love to find out... but then maybe my blog will be shut down afterwards...

HKU MBA ranked #1 in Asia

The below press release taken from University of Hong Kong's website. http://mba.hku.hk/latest.news/index.asp?doc=news8

It says that the MBA I'm studying has been ranked by the Economist as being the number one in Asia, and 45th in the world. Reading the small print, it says that we're second in Asia to INSEAD, but I can accept that. It's good to see - I'm somewhat fed up of people asking me "oh why are you studying that course, when CEIBS is better?". CEIBS has an excellent reputation in Shanghai. But it's good to see some documented recognition of the benefit that HKU brings to the table.

Press Release - 23 September 2005
HKU's MBA programme ranked the highest in Asia by EIU, the Economist
HKU's Faculty of Business and Economics ranked the highest in Asia according to EIU's 2005 rankings of MBA programmes in the world. The Faculty is the only school in Hong Kong and Asia that makes the top 50 on the list.
In its press release issued today, EIU specifically mentions that: "The highest ranked school in Asia and Australasia (excluding INSEAD, which has campuses in both France and Singapore) is the University of Hong Kong, in 45th place."

Professor Richard Wong, Acting Dean of The Faculty of Business and Economics, said "We are very encouraged by this international ranking. It is a recognition of the efforts we made in bringing quality business education to the world. We will build on our already strong regional ties and continue to expand our international network of collaboration."

The new ranking witnesses significant progress being made in the span of 3 years when the Faculty's ranking climbed from 79th in 2003 to 68th in 2004, and then making the top 50 in 2005.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the business information arm of the Economist Group, publisher of The Economist, has today released its 2005 rankings of MBA programmes and the Faculty of Business and Economics has been ranked 45th in its top 100 in the world.

The EIU rankings are based on independent surveys on schools and opinions of current students and recent graduates taking the following into consideration:
Career opportunities and advancement
Personal development and educational experience
Salary increase
Potential to network
For enquiries, please contact MBA office at 2859 1021.

Click here for EIU's 2005 rankings.

My weird habits

My friend Emily from Melbourne ‘tagged’ me with this.  A bit of fun methinks.  She passed it onto me, and I have to pass it onto 5 others.

 

I have to name 5 weird habits.  Freaky huh.

 

1.       Hoarding music but never listening to it

2.       Singing and humming all day long, especially when I’m waiting for a friend to answer the phone when I ring them

3.       Hahaha, excessive eyebrow movements when I’m singing in a performance.  Thanks for Patrick for that one, hehe

4.       Looking really serious when doing stuff like playing the cello, learning tennis, stuff like that.  It’s the look of concentration I have when I’m trying to learn something

5.       er this one isn’t so weird I think, but it’s definitely me – I smile a lot, especially to random people in the office at work, and online to my friends on msn.  I like to share smiles.

 

I’m going to tag a few online friends with this.  If your name is here, you should follow on the chain to another 5 people… and let me read about your weird habits!

 

Susan, my online Melbourne friend, who’s researching the movement of Chinese people around the globe (she has a fancy name for this, onomatopoeia or peapod or something)

 

Grace, my fudan friend, who’s doing CPA at the moment.  She’s one of my Shanghainese friends.  She’s a super considerate person, very thoughtful and generous.

 

Wang Jian Shuo, who first taught me about Shanghai.  Deciding to move to Shanghai without having been here wasn’t easy.  Looking at things like salaries, living costs, and how expats fitted in with locals… Jian Shuo’s mega-blog was a great help.

 

Micah, who’s been quietly following my blog ever since my first couple of weeks in Shanghai, while I was crashing at my cousin’s, and before I moved in at Fudan.

 

Ray, who I live with, and has SO MANY weird-ass habits that it’ll be a cinch for him to complete.  He’s an as brash as can be American.  I’ll write about him as and when I can hehe. He’s probably making lots of fun about me on his blog, especially because I can’t read it from within China.  

 

Thanks Emily J, I’m so happy that we haven’t lost touch with each other!

Fireworks in Pudong / Review - Megabite / Review - Big Bamboo

Last night we trouped over to Century Park in Pudong to watch October National Holiday Fireworks. I think this holiday is about National day, which was on Saturday. Anyhow, the whole country takes somewhere between 3 and 5 consecutive days off work, and generally travels.

I understand most people that can, escape Shanghai. There is then a massive influx of outsiders, who come to gaze at Shanghai's bright lights, and to my experience, raid Ikea.

It was interesting to see country folk on the metro, looking like crap, but with gold chains, Rado watches, and receiving text messages on flash titanium nokia mobile phones. Living in the countryside, they clearly have come into some money somehow.

Before we went to the fireworks, we ate at a food court in Raffles City, called Megabite. Raffles city is a mall on the east side of People's square. Conveniently, it's the kind of food that they put out display models for, and you can pretty much point at what you want to eat. Originally we wanted to go to Crossroads Cafe also within the food court, to eat singaporean food like laksa and mee goreng, but All American Ray was somewhat excited about not ordering from a menu, and pointed himself out some sort of rice and meat served up in a pineapple. Dinner for about 20 RMB.

Getting off the metro at the Science and Technology park (architecturally beautiful, i'd say if you were to visit the Century park, definitely stop at this metro stop for a wonder around the S&T park first), we proceeded towards the music & fireworks display. We had a fine view from the approach, so didn't bother passing the ticket barriers, and joined the 1000 or so other visitors to watch.

The fireworks were good, but not fantastic I'd say. They had a few big ones, but I missed the really big ones. The intention could have been only to impress those people who were in the middle of the park, having paid 70 RMB for standing room, or 150-180RMB for seated tickets. I hope I see a more impressive display along the bund one day.

Towards the end we sloped off to Big Bamboo, directly behind the Portman Hotel on nanjing xilu. Inside we played table football, darts, pool and shufflepuck, all for free. Admittedly we paid 40 to 60 RMB per drink - my pints of guiness came in at 65 RMB (4 pounds). It was a lot of fun playing the games with friends. Our bill came to about 100 RMB each, which isn't too painful, but then when I convert it back into pounds, actually it's a fair amount. To do this any more than one a week, one could easily blow off a fair amount of money.

It's easy to forget how hard it is to earn money over here. So it's all the harder when you go to an establishment where the prices are even more than they should be back home.

Big Bamboo is fairly unique in Shanghai. There are hundreds of the local equivalent though, be they Karaoke KTV clubs, or seedy wine bars. At both these types of establishment, they have dice games for you to play, and waitresses who double as game players whilst encouraging you to spend more. Somehow... I prefer to stick with my own company... but I seem to have to pay for the priviledge.

Restaurant review - Yong Fu Elite

Looking at the card, this place is a little confused. The front of the card says "fongfu elite", the back says "yongfoo elite", the address shows "yongfu road". Looking at their own website, you'll be even more confused - whilst talking for ages about how beautiful the place is, there are no photos.

These third party websites are a little more useful:
http://www.wallpaper.com/travel/476
http://www.iacworldwide.com/display_club.cfm?club_id=13

It's well worth paying a visit. I went with my cousin for a lovely long meal out on their terrace. Truly beautiful surroundings, apparently with an award or a mention from Wallpaper magazine. What used to be the old old British Consulate, after 3 years of restoration, it has beautiful grounds, and almost every area/room has been converted for us as coffee/relaxation/bar/dining areas. There are practically no customers, as befits the pricing scheme (dinner on the high side of life), but you are paying for a rest from the crowds, and a truly unique atmosphere.

The property is filled with really old chinese furniture and wooden pannelling. It's most relaxing to walk around on a cool summer's night, especially the garden, where they have sheltered bench swings (if you're not afraid of mozzies).

If you're going to eat, the basic set menu goes for 588 RMB (40 pounds). It's about six or eight courses of chinese food, served western style course by course. Good ingredients, well prepared (al dente asparagus for example), but nothing really to blow your mind.

Especially at this price and given the food isn't to die for, I'm not going to come back for dinner in a hurry. It did make for a nice 3 hour chatting lunch though - a great way to catch up in relaxed surroundings. Concieveably it would also be a nice place to take a few old friends to share a bottle of wine on a pleasant evening when a pub or a fancy bar doesn't suit.

Most of it is still open to the public, with some areas reserved for members only. Eventually they want to turn it into 100% members only, presumably once they get enough custom in.

Yong Fu Elite
200 Yongfu Road, near Hunan Road, in the vicinity of huai hai middle road
+86 21 5466 2727

Anything good on Chinese TV?

Now I thought I had problems with the quality of the UK's 5 TV channels, but here in China, we have something like 30 or 40 terrestrial channels. I understand Chinese TV stations are going on 'buying sprees' looking for soaps overseas to fill up their slots. I guess when you have this many people paying license fees, then you can afford to keep so many TV channels.

A problem for me is that only 12 or 13 of them are 'numbered'. The rest have chinese names or logos, which makes it a little harder for me to figure out what they are.

One I like is the Wen Hua channel, which has a lot of drama and music. And on CCTV9, http://www.cctv.com/english/ the english channel, they have a 15 minute mandarin teaching session twice a week (with daily repeats). You can watch it online too, I think I may have written about it before. And on one of the channels there's a daily shanghainese soap at about 8 in the morning, that woudl be good for anyone wanting to study shanghainese i figureOther than that, I'm a bit lost.

I've got my PC wired up as a TV recorder now. The idea is for me to leave it to record TV, and then I can watch favourite programs at my own (very slow) pace. I can rewind and replay TV to my heart's content this way, which is a great help for making sure I actually understand all or most of the words that are flying past. I use Hauppage's WinTV 2000. It has a handy function when playing back recordings, for replaying the last 10 seconds. VERY handy.

All I need now, is to know when the good progams to watch are. With I think 60 channels, it's too difficult to surf, and I'm a bit stuck when it comes to reading TV schedules.

Does anyone have any good suggestions for interesting progams to watch? Or ones that are good to learn Mandarin from? I'm thinking... people who speak slowly and clearly... interesting regular progammes, or things with beautiful people in them. Honestly speaking, if it helps keep my attention, then that's a good thing. The Chinese equivalent of Friends would be great.... What is it that people in their mid twenties watch here? Haha, I was told to look out for the 'blind date' program that's on on Saturday evenings, apparently that's a lot of fun.