Shanghai Summertime Starts

All is well and I’m back in Shanghai. I’ve got my new VISA and I am ready to start the Shanghai summer – I won’t go back to Holland in June as planned before (changed my flight to August). My three days in Hong Kong were nice. I got to see some more sights, but spend most time behind the computer screen – finishing the summaries of Harry’s stay in Shanghai and started with the outline for a Baak Shanghai brochure. Everything is really going well on the work field. The China project is getting more and more serious. As said, there will be a brochure, we started with the website www.debaak.nl/china (needs content badly, but it exists) and today I’ve looked at a potential office in Shanghai, so maybe no more working at home all the time. I think that a work space will be good, although I found it not hard to concentrate at home the last few months. Only in the beginning it was a little difficult for me, but I got used to it quickly. The secret is …. ‘Make sure you’re really busy, and the concentration will follow naturally’.

It’s great to back in Shanghai by the way. When I arrived last Wednesday Angie, Eddie and me celebrated by going to a Mexican restaurant, followed by a birthday party of Remko. Thursday I started working again directly and had a couple of meetings, including with Bencham (www.bencham.org) the Dutch/Belgium Chamber of Commerce and now ‘partner’ in some of our activities. Further I had a meeting on the Dutch Design Expo here in October (the plan is to also become one of the organizing partners in this big event in Shanghai (Harry will come back personally for this). Friday working also after a great evening, because we went to a restaurant with a big group – my friend JP (the singer of the band) told me that he will leave Shanghai (sad news). For him as for most people Shanghai is just a temporary thing (he has been here for two years).

Saturday music class and at night went to see Davide (the Italian bass player) perform. Next month I’ll have three concerts, but then there will be a big summer break until September. I’d love to get back on track with my recording with Davide (which has been ‘dead’ since TNM-trip) and also want to study all about the theory of music (I’ve downloaded some interesting books). My reading has been going well the last few weeks (so I confident to start with this soon). I finished a couple of books just now (“Dragons on your door” is a must-read for every China-entrepreneur) … still one more China-book to go and than I want to squeeze in some more Music Theory books.

The study of the Chinese language is also going very well now. My monologues finally really start to evolve into dialogues. Angie and I talk Chinese now about 30% of our time (that gives me a lot of practice time). I never expected to learn it so easily – just put some effort for a few months and it really pays off.

My blog, like the whole blogspot-site is blocked now in China, so I had enter my own blog via a special site. Now it worked fine, but it could be, that it will be difficult to write for me sometimes. So changes are that I cannot write very frequently in the coming weeks (for as long as this blocking of the site lasts). However, Harry asked me to also start a twitter on my experiences, so it will even be easier for you to get updates on the developments here. My parents are coming here for a week on Thursday, their first time to go to China – Great!

Hong Kong: experiencing the VISA run

At my good friend Theo’s house in Hong Kong I am writing this blogpost. I flew here today, because as I’ve written in my last blog I encountered some Visa-problems in Shanghai. My Visa was expired today and as I only heard five days ago that my application for renewal was refused there was no option for me, but to leave the country. Due to Harry’s stay in Shanghai last week I had not enough time to find alternative solutions. I just arrived a few hours ago in Hong Kong and tomorrow I am going to explore the answers to my Visa-problem. It is actually not bad to be back in Hong Kong again although it was unexpected. It is a great and dynamic city and of course my good friend Theo lives here, so I am not frustrated and enjoy the moment. However this Visa-case makes it clear that we need to get an official status as De Baak in China as soon as possible to make sure this won’t happen again. The time is right now too, because during last week when Harry was here we developed big plans for the Baak in China.

Harry’s stay in Shanghai was great, because it gave him an opportunity to see what is going on here in China and get a feel for the projects that we can develop here. For me it was good, because it gave me the commitment from the Netherlands to really start to get thing ‘on the roll here’. We will intensive the trips from Holland to China, the project with the Consulate will be realized, next to that we will develop a program on ‘Doing Business in China’ for managers, and lastly we will be a partner in the organization of the Dutch Design Expo in October in Shanghai. So there are many interested things planned for the coming months. I am very excited.

A few of the highlights of last week were eating with the CEO’s of the Dutch multinationals, a dinner at the Consuls home with a group of successful Dutch entrepreneurs, a visit to the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, a session some key players on the Dutch Creative industry in China and a diner with two Chinese Dutch entrepreneurs that want de Baak to facilitate trips for Chinese entrepreneurs to introduce them to the Netherlands/Europe. So, it was business wise an important week for me. Further the week was personally also very good, because Angie came back to Shanghai. She will stay now in Shanghai until September, which makes me happy (expecting to also be allowed to come back to the country). The weekend was also quite social with drinks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (there are so many nice people in Shanghai). To summarize it all, I was a great week with Harry, very happy to have seen Angie again, and got a visa-problem that made me fly to HK. To plans for me are to enjoy HK for a few days and then go back Home to Shanghai.

Goodbye Stefan, Welcome Harry

In the middle of Harry’s stay in Shanghai I take a few minutes to summarize the developments of everything here in Shanghai. Harry Starren is the CEO of ‘De Baak’. He’s my boss, a very inspiring and smart guy and I've found out these days that he’s quite funny too. So, I must say (at least to my personal opinion) that the vibes are good and positive. Two days ago Harry arrived here in Shanghai and we have three more days to go, before he goes (so actually we’re half way through). I joined him on some little sightseeing, but most of the time we find ourselves in offices or hotels to meet up with potential clients and partners here in Shanghai.

Next to some network meeting we went to a Benelux Chamber of Commerce event (we’re looking for ways to establish partnership) and already had a strategy meeting with CBC (partner in management training). But the most interesting meetings (I think) will be tomorrow and Thursday: Strategy session on creative industries in Shanghai (we want to be a partner in the Dutch Design week here in October), lunch will all Dutch CEO’s in Shanghai and a diner at the Consuls home with successful Dutch entrepreneurs. So I’m looking forward to the coming days. Next to introducing Harry to as much people as possible we need to develop the China strategy for the coming period (which implies the good news that De Baak wants to continue in China). It's great to spend this week with Harry and it gives me a strong foundation to build upon.

I started this week with Harry being a little tired, because of the previous week with Stefan in Shanghai. I had to work during the daytime to prepare for Harry’s stay (there were a few moments I joined Stefan on some cultural sightseeing), but of course all the evenings I spend with Stefan and we did lots of social activities with some of my friends. Stefan enjoyed his stay here very much, and I enjoyed his company a lot, but because of the dual program I felt like I never had that holiday to Thailand by the time Stefan left on Friday (so tired). A few of the highlights for me during Stefan’s stay: visiting the Lupu bridge which gave us a beautiful view on the construction of the EXPO 2010, the observatory of the Shanghai World Finance Centre (not cheap, Yuan 150,-, but def worth it), very nice diners especially at LostHeaven, Guiyu Hunan and ‘50% off’ Mexican food and lastly band playing at the Brown Sugar at Xintiandi. When Stefan left on Friday I was very tired of course and spend a rather quiet Friday night with Eddie the guitarist and his friend Mike (bass-player). Then Saturday was a total music day: play at the Basque afternoon bbq, than rehearsal at Jz School and at night a gig for the European Chamber of Commerce in the Jin Mao tower (Pudong). Sunday I woke up 8am to go the Pudong Airport to pick up Harry.

So since my return in Shanghai I haven’t been bored once (and even saw an opportunity to restart my Chinese lessons again this evening). The only bad news that my visa application was declined (maybe because of the Pig flu - dont really know), so I probably have to leave the country this Sunday to go to Hong Kong to get a new Visa – just while I planned to relax a little with Angie, who will come back to Shanghai tomorrow. I haven’t seen her since my flight to Thailand. So very great she comes back. Let’s see what happens on this Visa-situation. Keep u posted from wherever I am.

Thailand Paradise

After 8 days of complete relaxation in the Paradise called Thailand I’m back in Shanghai. My Dutch friend Stefan is here with me and he is my first ‘official’ visitor from the Netherlands. I’m very happy that he is here and although my holiday is really over and I have to get back to work now, it feels that it’s a ‘special’ time now my friend is here in China. We came just back yesterday evening. We had a nice dinner (fish Hot Pot) with Michiel and Rosalie and after I showed Stefan some of the buzzing night life here – which he was excited about.

Thailand was totally relaxing. I flew to Bangkok, where the riots had finished (thank god!). Thailand provides very easy traveling – everybody speaks English and the country is totally focused on the back packing tourist. In Bangkok we stayed at the backpacker’s area called Kausan Road. This area consists of a couple of streets packed with restaurants, bars, (night) shops and street stalls. I saw drunken backpackers everywhere on the streets and Thai lady boys walking around– definitely not Shanghai anymore. We survived the night without any problems, and decided to leave Bangkok for what it was and go to some quieter place. There was just time to see one big beautiful temple (there all the same anyway as I heard) before we took of in the night buss to the South.

The next day we arrived in Railay, which is a beautiful beach close to Krabi (South Thailand). Railay is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. It’s a total paradise, but a touristy one, although not packed with people (yet). Firstly, low session in Thailand has just started and secondly, Railay is not yet discovered by the masses. It probably will soon, and become the new ‘superstar’ of Thailand. In Railay Stefan and I had a nice and relaxing time consisting mostly of beaching (I totally got burned), swimming, eating and drinking. We both preformed some songs in the local bar, known as The Last Bar (and yes, it is the last one on the island).

We hooked up with a couple of Germans in Railay and joined them to Kao Sok, a place next to one of the National Parks in Thailand. We stayed in a beautiful Treehouse resort; where the houses were literally build in the trees. We had to very enjoyable days here that consisted of scooter driving, jungle tracking, swimming, canoeing and good food. The holiday was definitely short and although Thailand supposed to be cheap, I spend a small fortune. Right now (and especially after last night) I’m physically quite exhausted, but mentally I feel rested (that’s what holidays are for, right?).

Stefan is still on the bed, but when he is awake we’re going down town to make him a suit and do some sight seeing. Tomorrow he will be on his own, because I have to focus on the preparations for Harry Starren’s visit. He will arrive already next week. So again it’s time for business, it’s business time.