HONG KONG: work hard, but play harder

Arrived in Hong Kong I find myself this Saturday afternoon on the couch in Theo’s home. My head is this a bit dizzy from the endless bars and discos of last night. Theo made an effort to show me the nightlife of Hong Kong in one Friday night. He came far. I spent a small fortune and lost probably a few months of healthy live yesterday, but I feel no regrets. I can tell you from my own eyes that the Hong Kong night life is booming and great fun. However, I’m looking forward to a quieter Saturday night. I find my body also needs some time to relax and rest.

Tuesday night I arrived here in Hong Kong. Originally I needed to come here to extent my Visa, but as I wrote down in my previous posts I already found a solution in Shanghai. Luckily there’s where no problems with my visa application and I got my passport back on Tuesday morning – just in time to catch my plane to Hong Kong in the afternoon. Right now I have a six month business Visa with ‘multiple entry’. Until the 17th of May I don’t have to worry about my Visa anymore and can leave the country and come back without any problems. I was quite happy to find this beautiful little paper in my passport – Yeah!

My time here in Hong Kong is very nice and it's great to spend some time with my good friend Theo. I know Theo since primary school, but we actually became friends when we where 12 years – but still we go way back. Theo lives here with his wife Carol since two years and is enjoying HK a lot (no plans for leaving yet). Last summer on my first China trip I also came to Hong Kong – so it brings back memories of those days. However, last time I was here for holiday, now to do loads of work. I’m writing a report for de Baak in which I summarize my work of the last two moths in Shanghai and make an outline for thing-to-do the coming six months. It will be my blue print when making the steps towards a brighter future for my company. Changing your surrounding always helps my concentration – so it’s good to be away from Shanghai for a bit. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I spent the mornings and afternoons alone in Theo’s apartment behind my laptop, working on my project outlines. I got plenty of work done. Theo and Carol make long working days too, so this helps my motivation and I don’t really have to force myself to get started – which is good.

The motto of Hong Kong is: “Work hard, but play harder”, as I’ve been told by Theo. This means people make long hours in the office. Working until 7 or 8 pm is quite normal, but still people play harder: restaurants, bars, clubs, etc. etc. it never stops. And when you feel everything gets too much you can go hiking in the beautiful nature on the other side of the mountain. A life style that fits me well (not too different form the Shanghai style), so I can easily adept and enjoy this Hong Kong way of living. So next to intensive focus on work, there has been plenty of fun and games the last few days.

One of the highlights was the horse racing on Wednesday night. This is the only legal way of gaming in HK, so it is totally packed with enthusiastic gamblers …. When you arrive you’ll see a big stadium with thousands of people enjoying this game and try to make some money on a Wednesday night. When looking around you’ll see two kinds of people. Firstly people that walk around with magazines containing all the horse-information you can image. You hear their brains working out the strategy on which horse to bet next, and more importantly how much to place. And secondly, there are people holding a beer in their hands, paying hardly any attention to the actual race and place some random bets based mostly on their gut feeling or just a lucky number. I found out I belonged to the second group. I lost all my bets, but had good fun and enjoyed this new experience.

Ok, that’s it for now. It’s time to make a nice little walk and catch some fresh air. I’m in need for that. I will be here one more week – that’s a lot in China-time. Then I’ll enter my second period in Shanghai – wow! Time flies extremely hard …. …. ….. especially in a place like Hong Kong!

Dynamic times - going up and down

Every week I find my life is anything but stable here in China. Feeling very ‘up’ or feeling a little ‘down’. Since my last writing I have also been quite unstable, but that also one of the things that attracted me to China in the first place. I think it’s interesting! After my last writing I had an average weekend. I went out on Friday (clubbing) and Saturday (jazz concert). Saturday I witnessed a concert of Alain Caron - a Canadian bass-player. His technical abilities came from another planet – it was absolutely amazing. However, like many other technical specialists the interaction with the audience was limited. They just did their thing!

After being a bit ill the week before the two busy weekend-nights was just too much for me. Sunday I felt exhausted and wasn’t able to get anything done. Just walking around in the neighborhood and watch DVDs. It was just one of those days. I went to bed early, but Monday I was still not totally in my normal shape. However, together with ASI I sold my first training on this day. So, the business has started. I’m happy with this development, but I think I still have to do a lot work for ‘de Baak’ to make everything more solid. Next week I will be in Hong Kong and I will use my time there as a moment to reflect on the last two months and make a concrete outline for the coming months. It’s important to create a clear picture of where I want to go with my work.

Tuesday I had a better day and a nice evening beer with friends and my Chinese teacher Yoyo. This language keeps me busy and it probably will have my attention for the coming years. Wednesday the boys of Parcel International came to Shanghai. They came to Shanghai to investigate the possibilities to start their business here. We went to eat Hot Pot, which is a Chinese kind of fondue – in which you boil fish, vegetables and meat – very tasty. Casper and Pascal of Parcel International really enjoyed it, after we had some drinks at the Cotton Club (nice jazz and blues bar). I’m excited they are planning to come to China. All these people from Holland that visit Shanghai, make me give the feeling that I’m actually not really far from home. The world is really getting smaller and smaller everyday – it’s a beautiful and interesting thing to experience.

Thursday was definitely the best day of the week. I had quite a productive day at work and at night I visited an Italian bass-player that has his own studio in Shanghai. I played him the songs I’ve been working on the last few weeks. He was really impressed and he wants to record them. When I come back from Hong Kong we are going to start the recording sessions. I’m excited and can’t wait to get started. I already convinced a native English girl to help us to perfect the lyrics.

Friday afternoon I met Xiao Ben with some of her friends for a Friday drink. We are still on speaking terms. I’m always happy to see her, but I must admit it brings back memories of last year. I start to get the feeling I’m playing with fire here and my iced attitude on this subject is starting to show little cracks. So maybe it's time for a complete retreat (sometimes this is the best solution to a situation). However, I feel strong enough to keep my act together and I keep faith that things will progress in the good direction. Wherever that may be? Art of life is about catching the good waves, there’s no point in pushing the sea (this is definitely not correct in English, but you understand my point).

Saturday I went to see a Japanese Beatle-cover band. They played well and it was fun. In two days I’ll go to Hong Kong, if my visa situation is ok. I went to a visa agency last week to sort things out for the next period. They called me last Wednesday with the message that there could be a problem, but they will do there very best to get everything ready in time. I just keep a little faith. What more can you do in life.

A little ill

This last four days have been so-so. I have been feeling a little ill. I have a sore throat and also some signs of exhaustion. However, I’ve managed to get a lot of work done for de Baak – unfortunately not much else. It’s just been four days since I last wrote, so won’t make it too long. Not an awful lot have happened. Monday has been a working day. I worked until late and after strolled around in my neighborhood. I was a beautiful autumn feeling – a little cold, but nice. My house is located at a really busy cross-road, but the small side streets are very beautiful. I drunk a cup of tea in a nice bar and overlooked the streets with lots of people walking the streets. It was nice to see and it gave me a Christmas feeling - don't know why.

Tuesday I had my Chinese lessons at night. We put post-its everywhere in my home with the Chinese translations of the furniture – so I can never escape this language. Today a friend gave me two Chinese character books, so I can also improve my writing skills (a lot of space for improvement). After my Chinese lesson, I had a drink with my Chinese teacher Yoyo at Cotton’s. Cotton’s is a great bar with a beautiful garden. The garden is filled with heaters so you can still sit outside at night and enjoy your drink (in the middle of November)!! It's a five minute walk, so it's kind of becoming my 'stamkroeg'.

Today was an interesting day. Gabor from ASI and me went to give a presentation at Tebodin to explain which trainings we could offer them for their event next week. Tomorrow we will hear the results of the meeting. It was a nice and new experience and hopefully the first of many.

My time in Shanghai is going very quick. I’ll going to Hong Kong in only 11 days. After my return from Hong Kong it will only be 7 weeks before I’ll return to Holland for the first time. Time flies!! However I’m not half way, yet! It’s been 6 ½ weeks so far!

Ok, maybe it wasn’t very revealing! I probably have an early night …. I need it!

A beautiful rainy week

The weather is getting colder here. Since Wednesday I’m wearing a sweater and today I bought a scarf, so the summery feel has ended and we find ourselves totally in autumn, getting close to winter. My week here has been interesting and beautiful. After my short holiday to Chengdu I found it hard to get back in the working rhythm and the Shanghai life. I just wanted to be out there and enjoy the holiday live. So, Monday was not a very inspiring and I felt restless during the day. But I had a great diner with Frank Bijen and also got a new bike (borred it from a friend). So I’m cycling again.

Tuesday was a busy day with a few meetings, and at night Chinese lessons and a music rehearsal with Jim (sax) en Cathy (sax) at Jim’s place (5 minute walk). Wednesday was also fully booked with an extra music class. This was of course the historical day in which Obama became president of the USA. I had a breakfast at an American bar with Frank B. – together with over a hundred USA-citizens that were really enjoying this moment in history. Thursday again meetings for de Baak and I attended an interesting conference in the afternoon where I introduced myself to a few representatives of the International Business Schools. Nice people!

Friday was definitely the best day of the working week. I went to Tebodin (an engineering company that designs factories). They gave me a potential assignment – extremely small, but still fantastic and a good feeling! I also got a new agreement with de Baak. I’ll stay here at least until June (so they’re happy too with the sweet developments on the working force). Friday night I had a diner with Amy Wang. She is a very interesting girl and owns a management training company. I hope we can do some things together in the near future next to my collaboration with ASI – where I will be again tomorrow. So slowly I’m getting some ‘business’-friends here. Guanxi, guanxi, guanxi!!

My weekend has been nice. An Saterday morning in bed with ‘Prison Break’; band rehearsal on Saterday afternoon – we felt totally ready for our gig on Sunday; and a diner with Xiao Ben at night. She tried to make it nice, but in the end we both didn’t feel at ease and the whole feeling was a little tensed. Some of you probably can image this. We’re still searching for a (new) way to communicate - not easy (at least not for me). After diner we had a drink and she went home. I had a few more drinks and made an effort to introduce myself to the Spanish community here in Shanghai. They talked friendly to me, so in that sense I was successful - didn’t make it late, because I wanted to go to bed …. and sleep!

Today was the big day of my first gig!!! I was great!! I enjoyed a nice breakfast alone in a bar – where I study my Chinese (still slow progress). At four we went to the place where we played - outside on Yandang Lu. We just played for 20 minutes and I made so so so many mistakes, but I enjoyed it anyway – and I’m sure next time it will be a lot better. And like always the audience thought is was good! I was a beautiful experience and I can’t wait until our next performance on the 7th of December. After the gig my Dutch friends, Chinese friends and part of the Band joined force to have a celebrating drink. I laughed a lot tonight (today was the best day of this beautiful rainy week).

I will watch one more episode of Prison Break before heading to bed. My coming week will be busy (and hopefully interesting). In 2,5 week I’ll go to Hong Kong. My God, I not ready, yet!

Meeting Balkende and enjoyed a little holiday in Chengdu

In the plane going back to Shanghai after three very nice days in Chengdu. This city in the West of China is famous for its delicious spicy food. I must admit the food I ate was definitely great. Especially the food in the cheap street places was extremely good. So if you ever go to Sichuan province get your food at the street shops (you won’t regret it). Today we had malatang – very tasty (haochi). This dish is a hot boiling spicy soup in which you boil your meet and vegetables. Then you dip them in oil to ‘cool’ it down and it’s ready for your mouth. It is nice and I miss it already. It’s very similar to Hot Pot in Shanghai, so I will be alright (but I’ll probably never find it that good in SH). But I can conclude that the story about the delicious food in Sichuan turned out to be very true.

From back in Holland I know Meimei. She is a very nice Chinese girl, who lives in Norway, but is now in Chengdu for a couple of months to take care of her sick mother. She was so kind to have me as a guest and show me around town. I totally love it to be guided by a local: you go to all the good places, hear all the inside stories and get a better understanding of the local way of live. Meimei brought me to see Panda’s which was great (next to food Chengdu is famous for it’s Panda’s). It’s such a beautiful animal and we where in luck to see many baby-panda’s. Further we went to some nice old beautiful streets that resembled Xitiandi in SH. So also many bars and shops around here – stick to the winning concept (it works!). Meimei and I had a lot of fun and she also gave a lot of feedback on my Chinese – my pronunciation needs work (but she was impressed with my achievements so far). So, after three quiet days I’m hooked up to Chinesepod.com again. Let the language just flow into my brain (that’s my strategy and it worked out quite fine so far).

The three days in Chengdu went extremely quickly. We didn’t make it to the countryside to enjoy the beautiful nature that is surrounding Chengdu. No time! I just have to go back again. However, I’m very happy to have spent this weekend in another context /city. I want to see more of China now I have the chance. And after four weeks of Shanghai I felt I needed a little break. My time with Meimei and the Sichuan food were a perfect break from the busy Shanghai-life I’ve let the last four weeks. Now I on my way home to Shanghai – it doesn’t really feel like going ‘home’, but it will probably feel like that once I enter my apartment.

Last Monday to Thursday I worked in Shanghai. I get more and more control on my work and made scheduled a lot of meetings for the coming week. It’s time to go out again and connect to the business that’s floating through Shanghai. I’ve been here now over a month and done so many many things I can hardly imagine it’s just been a month. I spend quite some time the last two weeks on getting the strategy and projects for de Baak in focus, which is important to do, but doesn’t bring real results. Like always great results requires devoted preparation. Although I needed to spend many hours alone behind my computer, there’s always time if there’s a special happing. And this week there was definitely one special happing here.

The happing I’m referring to is the visit of your Dutch leader Prime Minister Jan-Pieter Balkenende. He and Frank Heemskerk were in town for two days. I joined their program on Tuesday. I went to a speech of Frank at the CEIBS and after I went to the opening of the Dutch Pavillion for the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. It was quite a formal meeting, but I was happy to attend. A lot of Dutch people were attending this happy moment, so I got a change to meet many new people. Like everywhere in the world you soon find that even though the networks can seem big and inaccessible at first glance, they are mostly quite small and very open. This is also the case in Shanghai and I start to be in a position were in can begin to connect the dots – a good sign. Event likes the Balkenende-one this Tuesday are a big help when you want to connect dots. I didn’t join the formal dinner of the politicians and other ‘official’ guest. Instead I dined whit a group of Dutch correspondents, which was very nice. We later joined the official party at the Cotton’s bar, close to my home. Around 23.30 hour the officials let to their hotel, and I tried of drinking and talking so went home. When I arrived at my house I found my bicycle stolen. Shit! It’s not all happiness and bliss here in Shanghai. But you can still find a nice smile here on my face. I’m ready for my second month here in the booming EAST.