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Tomorrow I will go on a small holiday to Guizhou. I’m still finishing the last things at home. My sister is still in Shanghai and she will join the trip to Guizhou, where we are going to Angie’s home town and meet her parents – very special. The ten days since my last writing have been rather hectic with many social activities, some traveling (explore a little more of China with my Sister and Angie) and my work has also been rather busy – always just before you go holiday things get hectic.
For De Baak the progress is going steady. This week I was very productive so far. I had an interesting talk with the Victoria Univeristy, which brought much opportunity for De Baak’s China project. However in China I found that opportunities are easy to find – the difficult thing is realizing them. Anyhow there will be another meeting will the Victoria University in the Netherlands in August, so at least the follow up is quick (let's hope for the best). Further I made the outlinse for two Shanghai brochures de Baak will release in September. The frame is there, but I really hope it will be possible to realize everything within the 6 weeks we still have – everybody in the Netherlands is on holiday, so the progress is not as quick as I hoped.
I’m also preparing my activities for my month in Holland (16 Aug – 17 Sept)
. There will be a China breakfast, debate session and many strategy meetings. Further I have many companies to visit and potential clients to meet. De Baak will also have very unique international symposium on Dutch Leadership and Society “Who are we” on 09-09-09
in Amsterdam http://www.debaak.nl/en/events/whoarewe. I think it’s going to be a great event (very happy I will be there to attend it). This week I slowly started to announce it to internationals in my personal network. It’s strange to think that I will already be back in Holland within a month (it’s been over six months then since my last visit).Last week I made some serious progress on my new ‘working’ visa. I’m in the procedure to official register myself in China (no temporarily Business Visas anymore). Last week I handed in many official documents to the officials and it’s looking good. The first of six steps has been approved. I'm happy with this, because then I won’t have anymore unpleasant surprises as I had last May, when my Visa renewal was declined just before it expired. Things are getting more and more stable.
Because my sister is here I try to use as much of my free time as possible to g
o with her to some place outside of Shanghai. Last week we went to ZhuJiaJiao, which is a tiny old water town close to Shanghai. It’s quite beautiful and a nice day trip, but also very touristy, so you miss the real authentic feeling (positive effect is that there is a nice Italian coffee bar for these spoiled tourists). Last weekend we went to Nanjing, a former Capital of China (there have been many capitals in the long history of China – Beijing is relatively new – see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_capitals_of_China). Nanjing was nice and reminded me and Angie of our visit to Xi’an in April (without the Terracotta army this time, instead Nanjing offers the tourists a “purple” mountain). The cable ride to mountain was my personal high light and the visit to the tomb of the first Ming Emperor was disappointing to me (it was also too hot, walking there). I'm happy I had these chances to see already quite some places of the many this enormous country has to offer. Slowly I find my understanding of the Chinese culture and history is developing.
Yesterday was a very special day, because of the eclipse. Angie got the mor
ning off and we were invited by Clarisse and Daan to watch this climate wonder on their roof top, while having breakfast. We were with approximately ten people to enjoy this moment. The said thing was that it was raining heavily and very cloudy, so we couldn’t see the sun. It became dark and than light again quickly and I must say it still made an impression on me – I can understand that there are eclipse fan clubs. And a breakfast with friends is the best start of any day, so no sad face for me, because of that rain.
It’s already late. I’m going to start packing for tomorrow, a new side of China yet to be discovered.
It has been a quiet Sunday evening – outside it was raining, and we have watched a DVD. My sister arrived last Sunday (it’s been already a week) and is enjoying Shanghai quite a lot. So quite some tourist activities in Shanghai last week (although I’ve kept on working), and tomorrow we will make a little daytrip to one of the five water towns that surround Shanghai, this one is called Zhujiajiao. It’s always great to have family over it makes you feel very close to home (in the end Shanghai is only ½ a day flying – so quite close). My sister will stay here for 5 weeks … so enough time to enjoy, see a bit more of the country and finish her thesis.
As I have been on the look for a workspace/office next to my home I have been working at different places last week. Very interesting was my Wednesday afternoon flex working (or coworking – as they call it) at XinDanWei (literally translated: New Work Unit). XinDanWei
(www.xindanwei.com) is a ‘space’ for creative companies and people to come together and work or communicate. I’ve been there three weeks ago for a get together, when it was still under construction. It’s finished now and I must say that the decoration has been done really well. Last week I had quite some things planned so I was only able to work there for a few hours, but I will definitely come back here more often. The ‘space’ is founded by two ambitious women, and is also supported by Isaac Mao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Mao). I think Isaac is an inspiring figure in the Chinese creative industry scene in China. The vibes are good, and two of my friends will probably choose XinDanWei as their working space. So, it’s all good!
Further I’ve made quite some progression with the Entrepreneurship program. My relation with CBC also brought me some new potentials ‘good’ things. My Chinese teacher has returned from a holiday and after a marathon of homework I ‘officially’ made it from the ‘beginner’ to the ‘intermediate’ level, according to the title of the Book in this case.
A city like Shanghai makes you think about constant changes and developments. Personally I was stroke by this fact again last week in the LujiaBang Rd Subway station. A 
new Shanghai metro map was presented to me there. There will be two new lines close to my house (I think line 7 and 10), and they will be hopefully finish by the end of 2009. I was quite excited to see this, because it literally will bring ‘Jing’an Temple’, ‘YuGarden’, ‘XinTianDi’, and even more places less that 10 minutes traveling from my house. Shanghai gets smaller and smaller. If you see the current Shanghai metro map is unbelievable to imagine that the first metro line only was established in 1995 (background info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Metro). Now there are 8 lines in service (http://www.exploreshanghai.com/metro/) and for the EXPO there expect to have finished a few more. In 2020 there will be around 20 lines – My God! .... We have to admit that the Chinese are superior in thinking both BIG and QUICK. I like it!
Further I decided to soon divide this weblog soon in two parts – a personal one (which will be more or less be the same as these blogposts I’ve been writing so far) and a more ‘business focused’ part. I hope to establish this change soon (let’s see how quick it can be).
A very quiet Friday morning and I’m not able to concentrate on working activities. It’s close to lunch time and I’m still quite tired, so take this time to write you a 'Hello' again. The reason for my sleepy eyes is simple: no quiet evenings the last week (every evening was filled with going to bars, playing music or working overtime). And yesterday was the BIG birthday dinner of Angie, she turned 23. It was a very nice party and even though Angie just has been around in Shanghai for a few months she managed to invite over 20 people (so it was a lively dinner). A very happy day and I’m happy my stay in Holland has been postponed until August, so I was able to be her myself. Angie was also happy with the party and of course my present (an Ipod Touch)....
My work is not going to bad. It made some imported steps. I finally started with the realization of the Entrepreneurship program – from concept to a concrete project. Last we
ek I had meeting with different entrepreneurs to get them interested in to coach in the program. I have three coaches now (of the in total 15 I need). However the Program won’t launch until springtime 2010, so there is still time. But it’s not just talk anymore, so that’s always an important step. Further I made the outline for my stay in Holland in Augustus / September. The schedule I made it quite crazy – if it will turn out like this I will be very busy during my stay in the Netherlands. However maybe some program elements will turn out to be impossible to arrange this quick. Let’s see what happens.
Since recently I work one day a week at the office of Your Op (www.your-op.nl). I had big plans to start a collaboration with them, but this will only be activated a small level, however as long as there is space in the office I can use it for one day a week. Quite nice! So everyth
ing slowly becomes more and more structured. I even found time last week to give www.debaak.com/china a small update (including a summary of the TNM-trip of October (in Dutch)). Next to the development of my own projects it’s nice to see some of my friends are also developing their businesses or projects well. Last Thursday I went to a presentation of Michiel’s GO WEST project, The Changing Face of China’s Invisible Cities. I really like this project in with they write a book about the current developments of China’s the mega, but to the Western world unknown, cities outside of the East coast. Definitely worth to check out their website: http://www.gowestproject.com/ .
So all has not been going too bad, my Chinese Teacher is on Holiday in Germany and gave me an extreme load of homework (which I haven’t started to do – so this I need to give up some of my other weekend plans to start catching up). My sister will come this Sunday to S
hanghai and will stay here for a month – I’m looking forward to it. She needs to finish her Thesis, so we can sit behind the computer together (the modern 21st century live). Lastly my good friend JP (the now ex-singer of the band) has left to New York, he got a new job there. It’s a sad that people are leaving. I’ve been here only 9 months and I already seen some people leave and new ones come (slowly in some conversations I find that people are shorter in Shanghai than me). I can image if you’re here for more than 5 years you saw almost everyone come and go. Of course there is a small hardcore group here in the country that has been here over 15 years …. (so far I’m still on my way to complete my first year, which in the beginning seemed amazingly long).
Tomorrow I will go on a small holiday to Guizhou. I’m still finishing the last things at home. My sister is still in Shanghai and she will join the trip to Guizhou, where we are going to Angie’s home town and meet her parents – very special. The ten days since my last writing have been rather hectic with many social activities, some traveling (explore a little more of China with my Sister and Angie) and my work has also been rather busy – always just before you go holiday things get hectic.
. There will be a China breakfast, debate session and many strategy meetings. Further I have many companies to visit and potential clients to meet. De Baak will also have very unique international symposium on Dutch Leadership and Society “Who are we” on 09-09-09
o with her to some place outside of Shanghai. Last week we went to ZhuJiaJiao, which is a tiny old water town close to Shanghai. It’s quite beautiful and a nice day trip, but also very touristy, so you miss the real authentic feeling (positive effect is that there is a nice Italian coffee bar for these spoiled tourists). Last weekend we went to Nanjing, a former Capital of China (there have been many capitals in the long history of China – Beijing is relatively new – see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_capitals_of_China). Nanjing was nice and reminded me and Angie of our visit to Xi’an in April (without the Terracotta army this time, instead Nanjing offers the tourists a “purple” mountain). The cable ride to mountain was my personal high light and the visit to the tomb of the first Ming Emperor was disappointing to me (it was also too hot, walking there). I'm happy I had these chances to see already quite some places of the many this enormous country has to offer. Slowly I find my understanding of the Chinese culture and history is developing.
ning off and we were invited by Clarisse and Daan to watch this climate wonder on their roof top, while having breakfast. We were with approximately ten people to enjoy this moment. The said thing was that it was raining heavily and very cloudy, so we couldn’t see the sun. It became dark and than light again quickly and I must say it still made an impression on me – I can understand that there are eclipse fan clubs. And a breakfast with friends is the best start of any day, so no sad face for me, because of that rain.
