About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

      I have a friend, let’s call him “Terry”, he is a legendary “mattress wrestler”. What is a mattress wrestler? A mattress wrestler is not a glorious title, luckily I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing this work of art. But as Terry has gotten older and more experienced with “mattress wrestling”, he’s accepted the challenge and taken on his new identity full throttle. Below is Terry’s definition of “mattress wrestling”:

Mattress Wrestling - Near wrestling moves and countermoves performed in attack/defense of one’s attempt to get into panties. It is safe and no one is ever seriously harmed in the act of mattress wrestling. (I will save the mattress wrestling concept/philosophy and stories for another post).

Terry is going to be our spiritual guidance counselor in the world of dating local women in China. His comical, borderline sad experiences will make most American men cringe, but also remember Terry is one of the unluckiest man alive on any side of the world that I know. Terry is also one of the only guys I know that can say “Only in China” everyday due to his unlucky and crazy encounters with Chinese culture.

Disclaimer: This story will elicit the following different reactions:

WTF!!!   <–U.S./Foreign audiences

HAHAHA <—Understanding sympathetic “been there done that” laugh from the Expat community in China.

Dating Tale #1 Transcript: (Content has been edited to PG, feel free to laugh, he doesn’t mind )

Terry says:                DUDE, I ran into some crazy messed up things again just 1 hour ago!!!
James Z. says:          Again?
Terry says:                So I ran into this one: http://www.*****.com/2440*

Terry says:                Did the usual messages and text and all that, and she wanted to meet me at Rouge out at the Bund, she said she will reserve a table there.
James Z. says:          Ok, and then what happened?
Terry says:                So she said if I got there first just tell the bouncer I am her guest and she  has a table. So i got there before she does and waited downstairs.

Terry says:                She walked right by me and did not recognize me
Terry says:                So I went up and I saw her walked out to out side patio
Terry says:                Ok. she must not even seen my online profile then, I said
Terry says:                So I got a drink from the bar and paid for it and walked around to scope out the place
Terry says:                So she texted me asking where I was. So I walked up to her and finally met her
Terry says:                She saw the drink in my hand she was like where did you get that?
Terry says:                I said I got it from the bar.
Terry says:                I said this place is cool.
Terry says:                She was like oh you should order the table service.
Terry says:                I said ok, may be later after I drink this.
Terry says:                She said “Oh, we have a table, let’s just order a bottle.”
Terry says:                I said may be.
James Z.says:            lol, TRAPPED! Come on now, you should’ve seen this coming during the text messages! You rook!
Terry says:                Then i sat my drink down and asked her where the Men’s room is.
Terry says:                I said I gotta go to the Men’s room.
Terry says:                Luckily, I scoped it out and the kitchen has a utility stair way exit by the Men’s room.
Terry says:                So I ran the hell down and went out the utility stairs
James Z.says:           lol OMG!
Terry says:                I got lucky and was able to get out in time, it was close.
Terry says:                Some night huh
James Z. says:          LOL why am I not surprised anymore, LOL.
Terry says:                I pushed it too far man
Terry says:                I should have not even gone in the bar.
James Z. says:          LOL, you got played like an instrument! hahahahaha!
Terry says:                But lucky thing is I scoped where the back door is beforehand.
Terry says:                Gold-diggers!!!!!!!!!!
Terry says:                Yeah man. The legend of mattress wrestling continues…
James Z. says:          LOL
Terry says:               digger defense (defensive strategies against gold-diggers, we should write a book)

Terry says:               You know what though; I was smiling the whole way when I was running down the stairs,

Terry says:               it was an awesome fun feeling getting into some crazy ass incident like this, LOL, only in China…
James Z. says:          Lol ! I need to blog this.

I’m getting a little embarrassed that so many of my posts here have been prompted by those fine folk over at China Law Blog and, embarassingly, this post won’t be an exception. Dan cited an article from Wednesday’s Shanghai Daily reporting that the number of credit cards in China have nearly doubled, up to 104.73 million in circulation nation-wide. That’s 1/3 of the United States population and just imagine how many credit cards those 300 million debt-ridden over-consuming Americans have…each!

While that news in of itself is squarely in the “hm, that’s interesting” category, it immediately reminded me of my night out at the movies the day before, where I went to watch Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda (功夫熊猫)…for the second time.

Now, watching movies in China on the big screen at a theatre or cinema (as opposed to watching it off a bootleg DVD) is still relatively expensive for most locals. On average, it costs 70-80 RMB per ticket, comparable to American box office ticket prices of 9-10 USD. Given that necessities like a filling meal can be had for under 10 RMB and the average monthly income (in Shanghai) is still 2000-3000 RMB, watching the latest screening is an exorbitant luxury. Therefore, as you can imagine, the cinemas here aren’t exactly packed even on weekends or when big blockbusters debut. Watching a movie here can be a very lonely experience. Compared to the lines, mobs, and subsequent front-row, whiplash seating often associated with watching the latest movie in the States, I often wonder just how the cinemas in China manage to stay in business with so little patronage.

Perhaps one method these cinemas use to stay afloat is by offering half-price tickets on certain weekdays, most commonly Tuesdays. It also brings bourgeois amusements within reach of the proletariat masses. Having lived in China for so long where I can purchase so many things for so little, I’ve become something of a cheapskate and now measure all Western prices by how many meals off the street I could instead buy in China. Just earlier this month, when visiting Los Angeles, I felt like a royal ass for thinking the Chipotle burrito I treated an old friend to was an extravagant sum of money. But hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? So, whenever I declare a movie to be worth more than a Bit Torrent download, I’ll go to the cinemas here in China and I’ll usually go on half-price Tuesdays because 40 RMB is still 50% better than 80 RMB.

Normally, even half-price Tuesdays rarely brings out the crowds. So imagine my surprise when I walked into massive lines at the box office this past Tuesday. At first, I figured it was all due to the awesome bodacity of pandas and kung-fu. After all, despite utterly ridiculous attempts to prevent the movie from being shown in China on the pretenses of it being from Beijing Olympics traitor Steven Spielberg and the culture-thieving, Sharon Stone spawning Hollywood, the movie has been very well-received in China. The Chinese were probably out in force to support a movie that paid homage to two wildly popular icons of Chinese culture. Great date movie too.

But the teeming crowds weren’t just out because Kung Fu Panda was promising entertainment…no, the teeming crowds were out because so many of them were armed with new-fangled Ping An Bank credit cards. In what can only be described as a fit of ingenious marketing, recent applicants for Ping An Bank credit cards are entitled to use their cards to watch movies at the cinema on any day for only 10 RMB a ticket. It is the perk of the century, single-handedly invigorating the cinema business with a deluge of movie-going masses clamoring for a taste of the high life.

I heard about this awesome deal weeks ago and despite strong entreaties from a friend that I apply for a card, I just haven’t been able to shake the probably unwarranted unease I feel towards applying for credit in China. It irked her to no end that she couldn’t apply because she already ruined her credit by being stupid while I could but simply refused to do so. Vindicated by the lines of people happily waiting to use their cards to purchase 10 RMB tickets, she slammed me with her incredulity yet again. My only solace was that there was only one ridiculously long line for those using Ping An credit cards and four very short non-promotional lines for the rest of us. Suckers.

Even so, we had to wait two hours for the next showing with any decent seats left. It was the closest the Chinese cinema experience has ever gotten to what I took for granted in the States, and the credit goes to pandas and Ping An Bank kung fu.

So, what do you think? Is the 10 RMB movie ticket promotion worth getting another credit card I don’t plan on using? 

UPDATE 07/15/08: Due to the unexpected overwhelming popularity of this promotional deal and the crowds of Chinese hoping to exploit it to the max, many cinemas have begun forbidding the purchase of 10 RMB movie tickets using the Ping An credit card until 5-10 days after new movies are released. The promotion itself was only to last for a year, and it is rumored that new Ping An credit cards in the future will move to a points-based rewards system instead of instant discounts. One card-holder stood in line for over three hours to purchase his 10 RMB tickets for Kung Fu Panda, a 1.5 hour movie. Fail.

After a long spell in Shanghai, and aside from a few trips to Hong Kong and Taipei here and there, I’m now writing from beautiful Los Angeles. Officially, I’m here to visit family and friends. Unofficially, I’m here to get a healthy helping of good old American mad-cow. Neither In-N-Out nor Claim Jumper will know what hit them (unless I can somehow make it to the House of Prime Rib).

Of course, I’m not here to bore you with my culinary misadventures in the States. Instead, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my random observations as I made my way out of Shanghai and transferred through Beijing before collecting my luggage at Los Angeles.

Part One: Shanghai Metro Pat-down

After the recent bus explosion fire that had quite a few Chinese friends wondering if the Shanghai Metro system was safe from those dastardly Xinjiang terrorists, I actually wondered: just what sort of security does Shanghai have to stop random terrorists from running into People’s Square and creating an unfathomable disaster. That is, other than the logic disaster of trying to board before letting people off…during rush hour. Rarely have I seen any reasonable security in Shanghai’s metro stations, and it honestly looks all too easy for someone with hidden explosives and malicious intent to just walk on in and obliterate the mob of humanity that uses the metro system daily. With the Olympics quickly approaching and Chinese domestic media scaring the populace with occasional reports of terrorism threatening to derail (heh) China’s rightful ascension to international glory, I thought they’d ramp up security or something. It never felt that they did…

…until I, of all the harmless-looking people in the world, rolled my luggage into the metro station this past Tuesday afternoon.

As I fumbled to stuff my 10 kuai into the ticket vending machine, a station attendant immediately and briskly walked over to me. At first, I actually thought she was coming to offer, gasp, customer service! Pleasantly flattered, I quickly tried to politely wave her off to let her know there’s no need as I understood how to use the machine. But no, she neither cared where I was going or whether I knew how to pay for fare; she just wanted me to open my luggage to show her the explosives I was surely hiding. Oh.

I, of course, complied. I set my luggage down and flipped it open. Interestingly, she didn’t seem too bothered by the brick-like bulk hidding in one corner of my luggage wrapped mysteriously in yellow graphing paper and a baijiu giveaway bag. I mean, national product or not, it could’ve been flammable baijiu, a fatty amount of explosive C4 plastique, or something equally dangerous, like 6 month F visas. No, instead, she poked warily at my Calvin Klein Escape deodorant. I quickly explained its purpose for masking unpleasant, women-luring, body odor. Confounded, she had no choice but to let me continue with my journey.

Four kuai ticket in hand, and suitcase zipped shut again, I quickly entered the station. I glanced back only briefly, you know, to make sure I wasn’t being tailed, due to my pleasing aroma, and made my way towards Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport.

Just heard from my local Chinese friends that “an explosion” killed three people earlier this morning on one of Shanghai’s public transit buses (Route 842). Many of them are speculating that this may have been a terrorist attack (by none other than those dastardly Xinjiang “splitists” of course) while some have even expressed a certain apprehension with using the Shanghai metro now.

Speculation aside, the official media and police insist that the Line 842 incidient was not an “explosion” and just a “fire.” Initial coverage by Xinhua said it was an explosion but has since been revised to the bus having caught on fire.

Original Xinhua quotation at Shanghaiist:

At least three people were killed in a bus explosion in Shanghai at about 9:00 a.m. Monday, according to fire fighters who rushed to the scene.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known. (more…)

A combination pool hall and bar lounge with dark and sleek decor, Racks is an impressive space. The mechanical bull by the DJ booth and bar is definitely a nice touch, but getting to the hidden-in-the-wall restroom brought back nervous People 7 flashbacks. As it is, Racks is located across the bridge from the G-Plus nightclub at the south end of Shanghai’s XinTianDi, where the old CK Why Not nightclub use to occupy.

Yeah, “why not name our club CK?” That’s a real forehead slapper.

Like Volar, Racks has a sister venue in Hong Kong and also promotes a certain members-only exclusivity. But if Volar Shanghai’s experience is of any indication, that’s a policy with its obituary already written.

The China Business Network and The Shanghai Business club hosted a “Joint Happy Hour” at Racks this past Wednesday, and Elliott suggested that I attend after twittering a pseudo-invitation out of the event organizer, Christine Lu. After an afternoon of plotting world China domination with the Regional Director of admanGo, Herman Yueh, I managed to convince him to come along. After all, we’re looking for a few good men and these sort of international-minded/expat professional mixers just might be a good place to do some network recruiting, especially after one gets fed up with local talent (more on this in a future interview piece).

We arrived fashionably late. Greeted by the vast and empty black expanses of Rack’s, we almost walked right back out the door. To be sure, a splatter of people for the event were lounging in the corner, but the relative emptiness (and vastness) wasn’t particularly inspiring.

I’m glad I forced us to stay.

We ended up spending about a couple of hours there, and while we didn’t meet an army of people, I did get to network with a handful of great individuals across different fields (FMB, international trade, publishing, expat services, logistics, chemicals, contract manufacturing, architecture headhunting, etc.). With that came ample discovery and discussion of various potential business opportunities, both for admanGo and my own travel start-up, adex360. As far as I was concerned, that made for a productive evening.

I never did end up meeting Christine Lu, which I felt would’ve been common courtesy due to her and Elliott’s twittering relationship. I recall recognizing her (from her Facebook picture) early at the event but later she was nowhere to be found, ostensibly busy interviewing for her video profiles. Too bad, quite a few of us were curious to meet her.

One last thing, and I hate feeling compelled to ask this but, did anyone at the event catch those two (questionably) stunning ladies? Someone tell me those two dolls were, uh, professional models (yeah) and not, uh, the stereotypical gold-digging Chinese huntresses that prowl Shanghai wherever relatively affluent foreigners with the scent of money can be found (of which XinTianDi is not unknown for).

Kai Pan, frequent CN Reviews commenter and Shanghai entrepreneur, joins CN Reviews with a guest post.  Kai also works in the advertising industry in Shanghai.  In my discussions with Kai, who grew up in California, I’ve learned a lot from his observations about life in China from his point of view as a Chinese-American, expat, and social critic! - Elliott

The 80,000-seat Shanghai Stadium played host to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Promotional Concert Tour last Saturday, replete with (mostly) minor celebrities providing wholesome entertainment to get everyone’s patriotic juices flowing. Hometown Shanghai Olympic athletes, Sun Wen (women’s soccer football) and Le Jingyi (women’s swimming) both made appearances, but commercial darlings Liu Xiang (110 metre hurdles world-record holder) and Yao Ming (really tall Chinese guy on the NBA’s Houston Rockets) were notably absent. Despite the hosts repeatedly emphasizing “80,000 seats” to the cameras, at least 75,000 members of the audience were also absent. 

Personal highlights for the show included watching the audience members that weren’t absent disregard their assigned seats to move front and center, and the excellent music video that accompanied pop-rock band Blue Garden’s performance…until I realized it was just a bunch of Warcraft III cut-scenes with their lyrics overlaid.

Nonetheless and with all sincerity, there were plenty of worthwhile performances and personalities. Nothing quite guilts you into being inspired like appearances by 2007 Special Olympics participants. Plus, my ticket was completely free.

Hell, I would’ve even paid the 5 RMB the ticket scalpers were asking for outside.

More:
- Sohu.com coverage here (video, Chinese).
- QQ.com coverage here (text, Chinese, distracting scantily-clad ladies in sidebar).

My friend Shirley Tao spent a day in Shanghai Century Park (世纪公园, Shìjì Gōngyuán) in Pudong today where the temperature is only 1 or 2 degrees Celsius. Why? Just to play with the snow. Here are some images from her blog. This is the longest snowfall in 16 years since 1991. I know a lot of people are suffering from the storm in South China, and yet I am saying that we should celebrate the snow. But these images will give you a different view of Shanghai in Winter.

Black and White || ©Shirley Tao

Such a big playground. Untouched snow is about 5-10 cm thick. || ©Shirley Tao

Snow Rolls, a lot of them! Don’t you think the snow is protecting the grasses which are now exposed to the air? || ©Shirley Tao

A father and a kid. They are so absorbed in making an artistic piece of a Shanghai Snow Man. This is my favorite. || © Shirley Tao

Cute! This reminds me a very famous bridge in Beijing called Lu Gou Bridge (卢沟桥, Lúgōuqiáo). The bridge is famous for a few dozen of stone lion scultpures on each of the balusters on the bridge. || ©Shirley Tao

Snow Fortune Cat? || ©Shirley Tao

“Hey, do you need some snow？I have some to share.” || ©Shirley Tao

Waiting… to meld down. || ©Shirley Tao

How to get to Shanghai Century Park: Take Metro Line 2 towards Pudong direction. There is a stop at this park.

NOTE: The copyright of all these images belongs to Shirley Tao, no commercial reuse. Please leave a trackback if you want to re-post any of them.