I Love China

Here’s another classic early WoAi “blog” entry from January 1979:

“Dad said we are not allowed to buy sweets anymore without asking him because we ate sweets just before lunch. The sweets were Tooty Frooties and Freshen-Ups”

I think it’s hilarious I felt it necessary to specifically mention what the sweets were that resulted in my dad’s candy crackdown.

Does anyone remember Tooty Frooties and Freshen-Ups? Rowntree’s Tooty Frooties were launched in 1963 and were chewy fruity sweets with a polished crunchy sugar coating and contained fruit juice and no artificial colours or flavours.  (Rowntree is now owned by food giant Nestle). I believe Freshen Up was a gum that had liquid in the centre that squirted out in your mouth.

In 2007, China overtook Germany to become the world’s 3rd largest economy, but now, it’s officially the world’s number two economy, having overtaken Japan (the second largest economy since 1968 – the year I was born) in quarter 2 of 2010. The US is still by far the world’s largest economy, but let’s see how long that lasts. China would need to expand its economy by another 200% to catch the current US level, which is 10% a year for the next 20 years. Of course that assumes the US economy doesn’t grow at all, which is unlikely, but it’s exciting to think that if I keep going to the gym, eat lots of vegetables and avoid breathing the heavily polluted air, I could possibly live to see China become the biggest economy in the world!

Wo Ai Zhong Guo!

Yes it’s back again after a successful first run, many of Shanghai’s top restaurants (and some of the not so top ones too) will be offering food lovers the chance to enjoy a three course dinner for a mere 238 RMB (or lunch for 118 RMB). Some of the restaurants that will be taking part include:

T8, Laris, M1NT, Moonsha, Hamilton House, Mi Tierra, Mesa, Kathleen’s 5, Rosso Italiano, JC Mandarin – Wine Bar and Grill, Shintori, New Heights, Nougatine, Whampoa Club, Sasha’s, Bistro Latitude, The Chinoise Story, JW’s California Grill and Wan Hao, Vedas, LAN, Peninsula’s Sir Elly’s and Yi Long Court, The Portman Ritz-Carlton’s Palladio, Gran Melia’s Acqua, Suntime Century and El Albero

It runs from 6th September to 12th September and sadly I will be away the whole week. If I was here, a few I’d love to try would include Sir Elly’s at the Peninsula Hotel, Laris and M1NT. Of course the quality of the meals depends entirely on how the restaurant wants to position it. You may remember my previous experience at the Marriott so big famous names are no guarantee of a good offer during restaurant week. I have dined at M1NT but not during restaurant week, although Beverly was lucky enough to get a table there during restaurant week last time.

Although not in Shanghai, Charlie Chan in Cambridge (next to Oddbins) will also be participating in Shanghai restaurant week, but of course, being England, the cost will be 238 pounds per person rather than RMB.

Bookings open TODAY so get your table secured quickly before all the top places fill up.

Around 65 to 70 percent of Americans are overweight and about one third of Americans are obese (having a body mass index above 30). That’s a pretty shocking set of statistics. I’m now starting to suspect Tommy is in fact American.

The longer I live in China the more I am thankful my parents made the decision all those years ago to move to England. I hear many stories of horrific experiences Chinese friends have when trying to apply for visas to travel abroad.

In the last month I’ve heard of two completely independent stories relating the the Canadian visa centre in Shanghai that I found shocking.

My friend is Canadian but his wife is Chinese and they have a young child who was born here. The list of complaints is quite long and started with the usual ones, such as being incorrectly informed of what documents needed to be presented, resulting in wasted trips back and forth. Fine if you are unemployed, more problematic if like most people you actually work.

When my friend’s wife returned to the visa office with the correct documents, they had to wait for 2 hours with the small child who understandably became restless and started crying as babies are known to do from time to time. The response to this by one of the Chinese visa centre staff was to mutter “I wish I could just slap that baby across the mouth to shut him up”!

Another friend also applied in July for a visa. She has family / friends there so the apllication was classed as “family visit”. For this the Canadian visa office demanded the following:

1. An invitation letter stating the purpose and duration of the visit (quite reasonable).
2. A list showing the number of people in inviter’s household (erm, okay).
3. A copy of the inviter’s citizenship or immigration status document (e.g. Permanent Resident Card – please copy both sides, Study Permit, Work Permit, etc.)
4. Proof of inviter’s income and financial situation in the form of independent, third-party documentation from a Canadian source which is reliable or easily verifiable (seriously??).

When my friend called the visa hotline, she was also told she needed the inviter to visit the visa office in Shanghai. Yes, in addition to providing the items listed above, they were suggesting the inviter fly from Canada to Shanghai to visit the visa office in person! My friend pointed out that this could not possibly be correct but the girl on the phone insisted this was a requirement. When my friend went to the visa office in person, she was told this was (of course) untrue and there was no need for the friend in Canada to fly over.

Throughout the whole process the visa centre staff seemed unsure of the process and constantly referred to the staff manual whenever they were asked a question.

In a word, it was a shambles and my Canadian friend wrote a strongly worded complaint letter to the consulate. Apparently one change has already been implemented as a result : people with infants no longer need to wait in line.

My friend eventually gave up on the friend visit visa and applied instead for a standard tourist visa, which is what you apply for if you know nobody there and just want to go travelling. Surprisingly, it seems easier to get a visa if you don’t know anyone there!

So both friends eventually got their visas so it has all worked out nicely. And this little story is nothing compared to the US visa application story I have lined up for you, so stay tuned!

I may have mentioned before my work involves statistics, which is why I am always interested when I read about some interesting statistics related to China. The numbers here are staggering and mind boggling and that’s why it’s so interesting living and working here. For instance, yesterday I read that there are now 800,000 dogs registered in Shanghai. One isolated statistic is pretty meaningless unless you give a reference point so people can relate to the number. So let me try and put that in perspective for you: the population of San Francisco is about 800,000 people. Yes, that means there are as many dogs in Shanghai as there are people in California’s 4th largest city. Imagine San Francisco inhabited solely by dogs!

I recently posted about the excessive force used by a Chinese police officer against a man holding a young girl at knife point in Guangzhou. There was much debate about the incident and so I thought readers might be interested in this police video from the UK which shows a 70 year old man who was not wearing his seatbelt being calmly chased (at 30 mph!) – within the legal speed limit – by a police car. But when the old man stops, what happens next is quite shocking.

I guess the difference with the Guangzhou case is that two of the police officers involved in the UK incident have been suspended.

I’ve heard some amusing stories about people’s experiences of the iPad in China. It does appear that many Chinese consumers want one, but they aren’t really sure why. In fact, they don’t seem to even know what it does!

Not long after the iPad was launched, a friend of mine changed her MSN tag to “I want an iPad”. A few days later, the tag proudly read “I just bought an iPad”. And the next day “does anyone know how to use iPad?”

Then yesterday I was talking with a friend of mine and she mentioned one of her friends recently bought an iPad, but after just two weeks, she’s trying to sell it because she doesn’t understand how to use it and doesn’t find it useful.

Much of China is still relatively poor, but in the big cities like Shanghai, it appears there are many people with more money than they know what to do with, so they spend most of their day thinking of new things they could buy and only AFTER buying will they work out if it’s something they actually need.

Perhaps they could follow in the footsteps of billionaires George Lucas, Michael Bloomberg, Larry Ellison, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who have just pledged to give away half or more of their entire wealth. I’ve often wondered, as I’m sure you have too, what it must be like to have 47 billion dollars and what on earth drives them get up and go to work every morning. How would an extra billion or two change their lives, and conversely, would their lives be any different if they had a few billion less? Obviously not.

So I have to applaud them then for making such a genrous gesture for charity. Mind you, I bet they all already have iPads!  Which reminds me, I didn’t notice Steve Jobs in the list of billionaires giving money away – shame on you!

Photographer Tom Carter will be showing his photographs and telling stories of his epic tour of China at Glamour Bar this Sunday, 8th August at 4pm. As a keen photographer myself, I will be there too, but out of respect for Tom, I won’t be signing autographs or answering questions about my amazing black and white street portraits! Many thanks to Kim C for informing me about this event.

If you want a taste of what the book is like, check out this link.

Details below:

1 COUNTRY, 56 CULTURES 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE, 33 PROVINCES 2 YEARS, 56,000 KILOMETERS A PHOTOGRAPHER AND HIS CAMERA

American photojournalist Tom Carter spent two years traveling and photographing all of China’s 33 provinces and autonomous regions, creating a rich portrait of this diverse nation. Join us for a fascinating afternoon, as Tom shares his photographs and tells the remarkable stories of his 56,000 kilometer journey through a China that still remains unknown to the wider world.

Glamour Bar
6/F, Five on the Bund
20 Guangdong Lu
near Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu

RMB 65, includes a drink; students, RMB 10

The iconic Peace Hotel in Shanghai opened in the late 1920s (then called the Cathay Hotel) and like Hamilton House and the Metropole Hotel (both on Fuzhou Lu), the Peace Hotel was built by British property tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon, the Donald Trump of 1920s and 1930s Shanghai. It was universally recognised as the best, most prestigious hotel in Shanghai in the 30s and was also for a while – at 10 storeys high – the city’s tallest building.

I first visited the hotel back in 1999. By then of course, it was a shadow of its glorious past – dark, dingy, depressing and in decline. The jazz band members were all in their 70s and you get the feeling they had been there since the 20s.

If you’re not familiar with the building, just look out for the distinctive copper pyramid-shaped roof, which is now green. This was the part of the building that housed Victor Sassoon’s private apartments and dining room back in the day.

The hotel closed in 2007 for a much needed 65m dollar makeover, but I’m happy to report that it finally re-opened just last week. Now two separate hotels – the Fairmont Peace Hotel occupies the north building and as the name suggests, is now a joint venture between Fairmont (which also runs The Savoy in London) and the Chinese Jin Jiang hotel group.  The rather oddly named Swatch Art Peace Hotel (I believe due to open soon) occupies the south building on the other side of Nanjing Road, and the two are now run as separate businesses.

I have yet to visit the newly opened hotel, but it’s on my list along with the nearby and also newly opened Peninsula Hotel which houses Sir Elly’s, supposedly one of the best (and most expensive) fine dining restaurants in the city.

Reports to follow, most likely after payday, unless anyone would like to sponsor me to dine there and then and write what’s certain to be a glowing review!

Fairmont Peace Hotel
20 Nanjing Road East
Shanghai,
China
200002