Well, this has been on the edges of my radar for a while but I’ve only just started paying serious attention. It seems the tension has been slowly rising between Hong Kong residents in the former British colony and mainland Chinese tourists.

I lived in HK for a few years in the late 90s and I know at that time, Hongkongers looked down on mainland visitors, feeling themselves far superior and frowning on the mainlanders bad habits, such as being very loud, throwing rubbish on the floor and spitting and urinating in the streets. But I genuinely thought that was in the past because HK now relies heavily on tourism specifically from mainland visitors to support the economy. Walk in to any luxury store in HK and the sales assistants will be fawning all over you if you’re from the mainland. Hong Kong residents get asked to stand to one side while the big spending mainlanders get served.

But there have been several news items recently that have shown that nothing has really changed, it’s all just been simmering below the surface. Firstly there’s the Locust World song which viciously attacks mainland Chinese habits such as “shouting, screaming, yelling”, “smoking like breathing in hell”, “and then their children defecate all over the floor”. (They’re comparing mainland tourists to those irritating and annoying insects). The song goes on talk about cheating and scamming, pregnant mainland women sneaking across the border to have their children in HK to get the HK ID card, and so on.

Not surprisingly this has infuriated many mainlanders and increased the tension.

A good example of some of the tension being unleashed can be seen in this recent incident on Hong Kong’s subway where eating and drinking is not permitted. It seems some mainland visitors were either unaware or deliberately ignored this rule and then a fight broke out after one enraged HK man and his girlfriend tried to tell the hungry mainlanders to stop eating and making a mess.

I suppose I need to tread carefully here. When I started my blog many years ago, much of what I was writing reflected many of the frustrations of the Hong Kong people. But on the other hand, the bad behaviour is by now means universal and I know many Chinese people who are equally appalled by the bad behaviour of their compatriots both at home and abroad. And just last weekend I was having a lovely dim sum lunch in a very up market Cantonese restaurant. The meal was spoiled only by the neighboring table who were smoking incessantly – two men and one woman, all unmistakably from Hong Kong!

But I do understand the irritation that many Hong Kong residents feel. It must be annoying for example, to go to a store to buy infant formula for your baby and find all the milk has been bought by mainlanders who are bring the milk back to mainland China to sell for a profit.

Let’s hope things calm down soon.

(Apologies to those inside China without a VPN, you won’t be able to view the video clips from YouTube).

Tommy's On Top, The Top Cat!

The bed gets pretty crowded these days so if you want a good spot, you’d better go early, or you might end up on the floor!

The way Chinese companies approach their names is quite different to western companies. Or at least I think so. I got an email from a company that delivers grocery products ordered over the internet and the company is called, wait for it – Good Service. I have several issues here. Firstly it’s a bit too generic. There’s no clue in the name what the company does. It could be an escort agency or a waste disposal company. And then there’s the modesty factor. I think it’s fine to claim you provide good service, but calling the company Good Service for me is a little tacky and at the same time, not very imaginative. It’s like Amazon calling themselves “Efficient Book Delivery Company”.

Anyway, if you’re interested, you can check out what Good Service has to offer on their website (http://goodservice.cn/).

Mint, chocolate and mango flavoured macarons

If you follow my Twitter feed, you’ll have seen that I bought some Ladurée Macarons while I was in London. They’re expensive and indulgent, but when, like myself, you only visit once a year, the cost doesn’t really come in to it. I think they were about 1.60 pounds each for something the size of a golf ball.

Continue Reading…

Quite a few of my friends have just returned from the new year break, having accompanied their girlfriends back to the home town to celebrate the new year with the family. But not every girl is lucky enough to find a boyfriend to take back home and the pressure from family members can be so immense that many girls (and sometimes guys too) resort to hiring an imposter to keep the parents happy and take some of the pressure off.

I wrote about this last year but I’ve been impressed by how well organised it has now become with people advertising on Taobao (Chinese eBay) and even some companies running competitions with the prize being a fake boyfriend to take home at new year! The pricing structure (according to this article on China Hush) also seems to be more refined with fees that specify “extras” that include drinking with the family (20 RMB per 500ml of beer). I’m trying to imagine the scene. The family are gathered round the dinner table and all the girl’s family are asking the “boyfriend” to drink more beer and the girl is saying “no, no, he can’t drink too much” and thinking “bloody hell this is going to cost me”!

Personally I don’t see how this works. I mean, do you have to hire the same person next year or just bring a different on home every year? And what if the parents and other family members ask for the guy / girl’s phone number or other contact details so they can stay in touch.

Anyway, I was so bored this year, I may decide to offer my services next year, just to get a free trip out of Shanghai and some free beer!

New year fireworks above Yu Gardens from WoAi's window

Well, my week of doing absolutely nothing has flown by. I am ashamed to admit I spent most of the time sitting on my sofa catching up on a few TV shows (Boardwalk Empire season two is highly recommended, especially if you enjoyed the debut season). It was everything I expected it would be – cold, boring and noisy.

New year is the only time I ever get bored. I actually don’t understand people who say they’re bored, because for me there’s never enough time to do everything I want to do. But new year is different, a special case, because many people are away or with their families, many places closed, or they’re open but quiet, meaning lacking in atmosphere.

But I won’t complain too much. In a way it’s nice just for one week in the year, to just do nothing. The ultimate break … from everything! And I don’t envy the millions of people who had to make the journey back to their home towns in less than ideal conditions (and for many of their poor foreign boyfriends / husbands who had to accompany their better halves back home). At least I got to spend some quality time with Tommy and Hui Hui which I’m very grateful for.

The fireworks seemed more subdued this year and hardly any buildings caught fire! In fact, there seems to be less and less fireworks each year. I wonder if it’s partly due to the increasing number of people who go away for the holidays now to places like Thailand, Burma and Cambodia for example. Or perhaps I’m just getting used to it now.

The one highlight of my week off was two very lovely evenings at the Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Both nights they were surprisingly busy (only bar seating was available). It’s worth a visit for the people watching alone. There seemed to be several mismatched couples (by which I mean, older man with stunningly beautiful, inappropriately dressed, younger girls) which is always fun to watch. The men invariably look like they’re trying too hard to impress the lady when it’s blatantly obvious she’s not there for the witty banter! My guess would be, the men spend the first few days with the family, but by day 3 or 4, they can “escape” for a few hours to see the mistress.

I have to say the Long Bar is one of my favourite places in Shanghai to sip on a cocktail while listening to their resident jazz band, which I’ve never actually seen before until this week. It does make the place slightly noisier than it used to be, but I’d have to say, in a good way. I believe the singer, Naomi, is sticking around for another 2 months so pop down and check them out (except Sundays) if you get the chance.

I’m not especially looking forward to resuming on Sunday morning, but I am happy that normality will gradually return and life can start up again.

So how did you all spend your week off?

View from WoAi's apartment window

And so here we are, the final half hour of the rabbit year with the year of the dragon waiting in the wings to take over. The Pearl TV Tower has turned red, like a Chinese lantern, to mark the occasion. I’m very pleased it’s finally here and the mad taxi shortages will soon be over for another year and the weather (hopefully) will gradually start warming up. This is I think my second consecutive new year stuck in Shanghai, so I think next year, however much it costs, I’m going to make sure I get away from the cold and the fire crackers. You may remember it was back in 2009 that I had the perfect new year break in Thailand.

I’m not too crazy about the 6 day work week followed by 7 days off followed by ANOTHER 6 day work week either. But I won’t moan too much as I risk being labelled a new year Scrooge. So in line with tradition, I’ll just wish you all a prosperous new year and hope you you’re all enjoying yourselves, wherever you might be this week.

Now, where did I put my ear plugs …

Best of friends

After all that fighting last week, we’re back to our lazy, laid back selves. And of course, the best of friends!

Waiting and wanting

So the iPhone 4S was launched in China at 8am this morning from Apple stores (and from midnight last night from China Unicom with contract). Much like every other launch in every other country, there were huge queues and the occasional scuffles. I saw three uniformed policemen this morning “escorting” a very angry man away from the Nanjing Road store at around 9am.

What was different though was the large number of people waiting in line to buy an iPhone purely so they could then sell it on at a profit once the stock has dried up, as it inevitably will.

According to Shanghaiist, crafty entrepreneurs had offered free breakfast and 100 RMB to anyone willing to stand in line to buy an iPhone in order to circumvent the limit of 2 phones per customer. Just another day in China!

It's my box, find your own!

It’s not all peace and harmony in the WoAi household. Here they’re literally at each other’s throats, but it’s all just horsing around to punctuate the long periods of lying around doing very little. They love each other really.