Lupu Bridge

It was announced that there will be a grand fireworks display for the opening of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo the day before May 1. The fireworks display was to be held along the Huangpu River between Nanpu Bridge and Lupu Bridge. The official viewing point was at the Cultural Center while the other journalists and invitees positioned themselves in Bailanjing Park which is east of the Expo site.

What about the rest of the Shanghai locale who do not have any VIP passes to watch the opening itself? Many resorted to going to high-rise skycrapers like the Jinmao Tower or the JW Marriott Hotel along People’s Square. However, climbing these establishments costs money. Going up the Oriental Pearl Tower will cost you RMB 150. Another option is going up the Shanghai World Financial Center (I’d like to call the bottle opener.) which is only the third highest tower in the city. That will cost you another RMB 150. Jinmao Tower is cheaper at RMB 70.

But then, these establishments could only contain a number of people. For those who had no other options (no television, lives very far, low on cash…actually a niche group where we belong), a lot trooped over to the The Bund. It’s not exactly the best place to view the fireworks display. But boy, did we enjoy ourselves watching human psychology at work.

4.45pm We got to the The Bund to beat the anticipated crowd, and apparently a lot of people were thinking the same thing too. This niche group is actually bigger than I thought.

5.10pm We decided to eat dinner first at the Captain’s Bar along Fuzhou Road (perpendicular to The Bund which is along East Zhongshan Road No. 1. Lonely Planet cited it as having the best view of the The Bund. But you know, I’m always skeptical of these guide books.

The elevator ride is scary. (We were in the sixth floor).

The place looks dark and dingy.

But the food’s good. Though they have this policy that each person must spend a minimum of RMB 30 or else they’ll drag your butt down the rundown elevator again never to see the light of day.

My verdict: Well, you COULD try this place out. It’s a quaint little resto if you are in it for the view.

So anyway, back to the GRAND FIREWORKS DISPLAY.

The opening ceremony’s scheduled time was 8pm. The fireworks display will only start after the performances were over. But of course, we weren’t going to give up our seats in the already crowded veranda.

We even caught a Japanese reporter reporting live using Skype.

If only we weren’t in the wrong location…

Huge crowds have already formed down at The Bund.

A couple of minutes past 9pm, the fireworks have started. We can hear it. We can see the red lights. But we can’t see it completely. (Yup…we were definitely in the wrong place.) So we raced downstairs towards The Bund hoping to catch a glimpse of the display.

Crowds.

Crowds.

Crowds.

And more crowds.

Though it wasn’t a frustrating attempt (My friend did bring along his bulky SLR tripod especially for the occasion.), other people were probably getting a little bit crazier.

Some random photographer who's having the time of his life catching these crazy moments on camera.

Some resorted to climbing the walls blocking The Bund scenery tunnel.

It was the craziest thing ever.

Doesn't Shanghai have enough stairs anymore?

Apparently, not.

Getting home was a problem that night. No more buses were plying the roads. It was midnight for crying out loud. The police barricaded the metro entrances due to the huge number of people trying to get in. Illegal taxi operators were taking advantage of the situation by charging exuberant rates, while the legal ones were choosing which passengers they want to service.

Waiting

Blocked metro entrance

Lots of people still on the road even after 12. This was a stampede waiting to happen.

And as expected, lots of trash were left on the road.

In fairness to the dining establishments nearby, business was good. Very good in fact. And that’s an understatement.

Since it was a few hours before the official World Expo Opening Day, others thought they might strike it rich that night.

Well, the night did not end in vain at least for us anyway. We were still able to catch the Pearl Tower explode.

You just need to tilt your head a little to the left.

And we got to take a picture of the historical “1 Day Left” Expo Countdown marker.

Here are netizens’ reactions about that night’s event–

We waited 7:00pm to 10:00pm and all we got was the Pearl Tower exploding for 10 seconds. I wonder how many people were duped tonight also?

I waited 5:00pm to 10:00pm, am dying of dizziness already. And I didn’t see a thing. I think the number of people at The Bund was not less than ten thousand. The organizers didn’t even inform us thus wasting a lot of people’s time.

I’ve been standing here since morning. (Me: That’s stupid.) By 10.30pm, I was ready to jump in the river. National Bureau of Statistics, could you please tell us how many people were there too?

You don’t feel good?????? Do you know how many people went through the effort of organizing this? You must have no conscience whatsoever. Could you plan a better World Expo than this?

What a tragedy. What people are going to remember is how others felt repulsed by the huge turnout.

Hello?! You’ve been to The Bund for less than 2 hours. How can you estimate the number of people? If you can’t say, then please shut up.

What I don’t like is the news not even saying anything in preparation for the event.

It’s you being foolish. Obviously the grand fireworks display is at the Expo Garden. Why would you go to The Bund?!

You should have looked at the newspapers yourself. If you didn’t know any information about it, that means you didn’t read the news.

Oh, so all the 10,000 people weren’t thinking.

I’m getting sick with all this number discussion.

It felt like 2012. Seriously.

As 2010′s first show in the non-profit, volunteer-run island6 Arts Center located in Shanghai’s 50 Moganshan Lu art district, “Fakirs” opens on January 16th at 8pm and will explore visual research on paranormal studies. Circus acrobats, magicians, illusionists and artists will perform feasts of magic to animate the evening.

More exhibition info can be obtained at the island6 official website »

Date & Time

Opening Party:

8:00 P.M. January 16, 2010

Exhibition:

From January 16, 2010 to March 05, 2010

Address

2nd Floor, Building 6, 50 Mo Gan Shan Rd.,

Shanghai, 200060, China

中国上海莫干山路50号6号楼2楼

Cost

Free

photo: courtesy Sina

Confession:  I have an MBA, not always something to brag about having with Silicon Valley geeks.  But MBAs are still respectable in Shanghai, right?

This coming Monday night 12/7, Christine Lu (Cilantro Media, Affinity Ventures China) and I are pulling together a cocktail party for friends and the overall MBA community (no MBA needed to come, of course.  Can be aspiring MBA, current MBA or MBA dropout!).  The conversation I’d love to stir up is “putting passion into your career” because I’ve observed that the most successful people in their field have consistently cultivated and sustained a level of passion for what they are doing.

So I invited two friends to speak briefly about this topic to stir some conversation.

Click Here To Register!

1.  Why attend this event?

I asked two good friends to share their own experiences.  Both are great bridge-builders between the West and China, both have a strong sense of social responsibility.

Edwin Keh
SVP/COO of Walmart Global Procurement

Edwin’s bio:

Edwin joined Wal-Mart Global Procurement (GP) in March 2008 as Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer.  He is responsible for the operations of all GP regions/offices throughout the world.  Edwin has over 25 years of international experience in sourcing, retail and wholesale operations, and has been based in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States.

Edwin has been a long-term mentor to me, ever since we attended the same church when I was in high school in the L.A. area.  He often speaks about Walmart’s sustainability initiatives and he is speaking to Richard Brubaker’s CEIBS class the following day.

Peggy Liu
Chairperson of Joint US China Collaboration for Clean Energy (JUCCCE)

Peggy’s bio:

Peggy Liu is Chairperson of JUCCCE, a non-profit accelerating the greening of China through international collaboration on impactful programs (www.juccce.com). She was a Time Magazine Hero of the Environment in 2008, an adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative in energy and climate change in 2008, and named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2009. Prior to JUCCCE she has been a venture capitalist, an Internet entrepreneur, a management consultant, and organic gardener. She is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

I’ve known Peggy for a long time too, and have just been amazed by the traction that JUCCCE has gained in bringing together the clean energy and clean tech players in both China and the US.  She shared with me that the support she has gotten from executives, corporations, government officials, and NGOs has really been overwhelming and “magical.”  I feel a lot of that is because Peggy’s passion for bringing China and the US together on the issue of Clean Energy is so evident every single time I meet with her!

My goals for people who attend the conference:

• Get inspired by hearing about how other people leveraged their passion into great success
• Connect with a potential future business partner who shares your same interests and passions
• Expand your  network.
• Drink the free flowing wine and canapes provided at this glam location!

2.  When and Where is it?

Date: Monday 7 December 2009

Time: 6:30 to 8:30 pm.  The conversation with Edwin and Peggy will start at 7:00 pm

Location: Costes Pavillon (see SmartShanghai for map and information).  Costes Pavillon an opulent, exclusive restaurant and lounge located in the heart of Xintiandi, Shanghai, and the first expansion of the Costes brand outside of France.

Xintiandi North Block,
Lane 181 Taicang Lu,
near Madang Lu

太仓路181号，新天地北里,
近马当路

photo: courtesy Xintiandi.com

More on Costes:

• video of opening night at Costes with the glam beautiful set: http://costeschina.com/opening_party.html
• pictures: http://www.xintiandi.com/english/shop_detail.asp?sid=166
• map: http://www.smartshanghai.com/venue/4248/Hotel_Costes_shanghai

RSVP here: http://mbaconnect1209.eventbrite.com/

I’m arriving in Shanghai on Friday and will be attending my first Shanghai barCamp in China this Saturday, December 5. Have you heard about it? Its a community organized geek fest! (and I mean that in the most positive sense)

Its at the new community co-working space Xindanwei who has more information about the event here.

Click Here to Register!

How much does it cost?

Free!

What is it?

Quoting the Xindanwei site:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees should give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentations are scheduled starting the morning on the day of the event. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

When?

• Registration starts: 11:00
• Presentations start: 12:00
• Approx finish: 18:00

Where?

新单位|Xindanwei
Address: 4C, Building 4, “IIInShanghai? Hub”, No.727 Dingxi Road (near Niuqiao Road), Changning District, Shanghai 地址：中国上海市长宁区定西路727号映巷创意工场4号楼4楼C座(靠近延安西路) Tel: +86 13916925435

Public Transportation: Bus: Line 48、911、945、946 、71、127、925、936 Metro Line 2(Zhongshan Park) Metro Line 3(Yan’an Rd West)

公交：48、911、945、946、71、127、925、936 地铁：三号线（延安西路站）二号线（中山公园站）

Click Here to Register!

See you there!

The title sounds judgmental, but it isn’t in the least. It’s the truth and, more importantly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. I am, of course, generalizing the China Blogger Conference and all of the varied speakers, talks, and subject-matter presented over this weekend. While these have definitely included both foreigners and matters that both indirectly and directly affect foreigners both in and outside of China, the vast majority of foreigners will find this conference largely inaccessible and very distantly relevant to them. That almost all of the talks are made in Chinese is only the first, though arguably the largest reason.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong about that, that anyone is to be blamed, and that’s just the way it is. Writing for CNReviews, I have a naked emphasis on what I write about for the predominantly foreign audience we target, an audience we reason as having some basic desire to learn more about China and the Chinese people, so they can better understand both for whatever ends they themselves may have. I have an idea of what this audience may think, how this audience might react, and how I want to influence you. I hope I’m not clearing any mystique or exposing any secrets here.

The takeaway from CNBloggerCon for our audience is that it happens, that a group of Chinese people are bringing other Chinese people together to share, discuss, and promote that which matters to them, that their ideals, ideas, and motivations are being acted upon, that they’re not the sheep too many people too often dismiss them as. Here, they talk about charity, censorship, human rights, artistic expression, professional collaboration, internet phenomenon, and driving or contributing to the continued positive development of China, both online and off. Those of us who are here to see what could be shared with foreign audience are like the Chinese who hopped online to watch Obama accept the American presidency, beholders instead of participants, more eavesdroppers than the target audience. Nevertheless, we are impressed and moved, even if we knew there was no rational reason to feel otherwise.

This is what I can tell you, what I can offer you as a lowly blogger here on behalf of a blog that seeks to bridge China with the West, in hopes that you’ll remember, be impressed, and accord due respect. I won’t tell you about the backwater poverty-stricken schools too few of you could ever find. I won’t tell you about the pseudo-celebrity Chinese Twitterati too few of you could follow. I won’t tell you about the Chinese university students aiming to create a youth-oriented print magazine too few of you could read. But I can share some reasons for expanding our mindsets and our perspectives on mainland China, the Chinese, and what they’re up to.

If you don’t need the reminder, are already impressed, and already accord due respect, then you’re ahead of the game, and you are already a good participant in this ongoing and growing global dialog. Thank you. I need you, CNR needs you…even if and as much as you don’t need us.

For more English-language coverage of the 2009 CNBloggerCon, be sure to look for updates from Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei (China mirror) and Sky Canaves at the WSJ’s China Real Time Report.

Image credits: Former CNR blogger and Twitter Beast David Feng.

For CNR, however, Min Guo and I will be flying down to Guangzhou later today to attend this weekend’s 2009 5th Annual CnBloggerCon, for which CNReviews an official sponsor. As one of our past contributors, BloggerInsight‘s Xue Ying will also be there as one of the organizers.

While there are foreign attendees, CnBloggerCon is a home-grown affair, a gathering of mainland Chinese bloggers, entrepreneurs, academics, non-profits, and other people interested in China’s online space. In addition to fronting some cash to help make CnBloggerCon ‘o9 happen, we’ll do our best (read: I’ll do my best) to report on the conference’s activities, speakers, and shenanigans. This will be my first time attending so, frankly, I’m not really sure what to expect.

More: CNR’s past China Blogger Conference (CNBloggerCon) coverage.

In the past week, one of the headline stories on TV news has been the rehearsal of an extraordinary parade expected for this coming National Day holiday (国庆) on October 1st, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

According to Xinhua news on People’s Daily Online,  it is shaping up to be a much bigger show than the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony in terms of the number of people involved. It will also be only the 14th military parade since 1949:

President Hu Jintao will give a keynote speech, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the new China.

A military parade and mass pageant would follow, said a spokesperson for the 60th National Day celebration preparation committee of the Beijing municipal government Monday. The timetable for the celebrations is not yet available.

The military parade will highlight the achievements China has made in its defense sector during the past six decades and showcase its resolution to safeguard world and regional peace and stability.

The mass pageant would involve about 200,000 citizens and 60 floats, with the theme of “Motherland and I Marching Together”.

Beijing Review reported that five types of missiles will debut during the parade:

…including nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, conventional cruise missiles and medium-range and short-range conventional missiles, will be displayed for the first time at the highly anticipated military parade, said the expert, who asked to remain anonymous and has been closely following the preparations of the strategic force of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

I am not a fan of any kind of weapon, but I think this is going to be something fun to watch if you are not going out during the 8-day public holiday. Given that most of us are not in Beijing,  a member of the Tianya discussion forum posted a reminder and exhortation to the live broadcast director of CCTV:

The 60th anniversary military parade is very important to every one of us, so take good care of the live broadcast!  Don’t ruin it! ( 60年阅兵式对我们每一个人都非常重要，阅兵式的电视转播一定要注意呀! 千万别被搞砸了).

I guess most of us still remember that NBC made the Beijing Olypics Openning look better than CCTV.  No wonder!

Travel agents have gotten notice that Beijing is not open for tours during the first few days of the October 1-7 holiday. However, we’re not sure about tours from overseas.

If you are already curious (like me), we’ve included some additional images of the rehearsals below. A news report video, in Chinese, can also be viewed on Sina.

A few interesting speakers:

• Craig Halperin, Kung Fu Panda & X2
• Pierrot, Naruto & Bleach
• Wang Wei, Tudou.com

A full schedule of speakers and additional details on attendees, venture capitalists, etc. available here (in Chinese).

For those interested, limited seats or additional English information are available by contacting the below as soon as possible.

Have an event in China you’d like to promote? Let us know!

CNR’s here at TEDxShanghai, being held in the ever-fabulous M1NT*. What is TEDxShanghai, you ask?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds and has grown into a showcase for the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). TED has also become an online phenomenon with many of the best TED talks shared at ted.com helping TED fulfill its mission: Spreading ideas.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At our TEDxShanghai event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

So, our hope with covering TEDxShanghai will be to expand that small group to include you, sharing with you some of the ideas and discussion that are happening here at M1NT this afternoon. We’ll be live-blogging our notes, observations, and thoughts from the series of great speakers today as there’s both a solid wifi connection** and great speaker system today (bravo M1NT). Of course, our notes may be disorganized but we’ll try to organize and clean them up as we get the chance (during coffee breaks or whatnot).

If you’re keen, you can watch TEDxShanghai live via Tudou (embedded below in glorious live-streaming widescreen! …if it works). We just finished watching a spirited presentation by Hans Roslin’s you can also see here.

UPDATES:

• Stefano Negri: Preparing For China’s Urban Billion
• An Zhu (Andrew Yu): Travel Can Change The World

* Random celebrity gossip: Halle Berry and Clive Owen were both spotted at M1NT two nights ago as part of the Shanghai Film Festival after-party.

** UPDATE: Spoke too soon. The wifi went down during the event or, actually, was cut off to conserve bandwidth for live-streaming the event to Tudou. I did get access later on, but wasn’t able to “live-blog” as hoped for. Will have to organize notes and throw up some coverage posts later as with yesterday’s Barcamp Shanghai coverage.

Barcamp Overview

So what is Barcamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees should give a demo, a session, or help with one. All presentations are scheduled starting around 11:20 AM the day of the event. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

As you can see, it is basically a big pseudo-impromptu mash-up (I know, “mash-up” is overused). Think of it as an adult, more business-oriented version of an elementary school culture fair, where everyone is sharing something or another about themselves and what they’re doing. There is, at least with this event, a strong internet and tech focus however.

Our Coverage

A complete schedule of the presentations, submitted at the beginning of the event and then organized on the fly over lunch, is here. With three presentations running concurrently and unable to be at all three at the same time, CNR opted to attend the following presentations that suggested a strong focus and relevance to China:

1. Joining US/China Markets aka Casual Cross Border Bumping
   with Jenny Bai of The Red Connect.
2. Selling to China’s Youth Market
   with Renee Hartmann of eno/enoVate.
3. Social Games: Facebook, Xiaonei, Monetization
   with John Fan of Cardinal Blue.
4. Chinese Internet Memes
   with Lucas Englehardt of BloggerInsight
5. Payment In China: Payment Systems, Infrastructure, Habits
   with Toine Roojimans of Circle Pleasure (!)
6. The China Web
   with Gang Lu of OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup, OpenWebAsia Conference, and MOBINODE.com

We’re busy organizinig our notes, so stay tuned for more posts and updates coming up. In the meantime, if you’re on Twitter, you can capture bits and pieces of what’s going on through hashtags #BarcampShanghai, #bcsh, and the Geeks On A Plane #goap. CNR will also be covering tomorrow’s TEDxShanghai event and the Geeks and Glamour after-party, both to be held at M1NT.