| | |
|
02 Jun 09
|
|
Blocked Hotmail a Hot Search in Google.cn The Chinese firewall had an active day. Twitter blocked, Flickr blocked, Microsoft’s new search engine Bing.com blocked.
In general the average Chinese user won’t give a a hoot. Twitter….. Flickr….. and that pancake search... |
|
23 May 09
|
|
Osteria Italian Restaurant - Less guests is better Clicking an ad I ended up at the website of the Osteria restaurant
I’m a bit puzzled by the fact that if I bring 7 or more friends I’ll be charged 10% more.
Still, I may try out the place one day, just with a small group though.
It seems... |
|
25 Mar 09
|
|
My Wife Wants to Divorce Me I just asked her if she felt less happy after US bank Lehman Brother’s went bankrupt in september 2008.
Yes, of course, was her answer. Since that moment my happiness index plummeted to very low levels. Before all was ok, also thanks to Lehman... |
|
01 Nov 08
|
|
Brand America, Chinese omelettes and running 1 km Weekly Snippets
Brand America
The Brand America is getting close to Sanlu status. Unfortunately it’s easier to change to melamine free baby milk powder than to an USA alternative.
Healthy Running
Chinese school kids have run 3 km since the mandatory... |
|
23 Aug 08
|
|
My Favorite Beijing Olympic Quote Yesterday, just before the football match Belgium - Brazil was about to start. The anthems had been played and the referee was about to start the match.
Behind me, on row 3, a little girl asked her dad, “Which one is China?”.
note: I had... |
|
08 Jul 08
|
|
Bill Gates Makes It To Baidu Logo Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and co-founder, who officially retired has made it into the Baidu Logo. Click the logo and you will get to his profile (in Chinese)
He is the second American who makes it to the top of the page of China’s most popular... |
|
05 Jul 08
|
|
Vertical Blogging in English ┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓
┃ｉ│ｌ│ｎ│ｐ│Ｃ┃
┃ｃ│ｏ│ │ｐ│ｈ┃
┃ａ│ｇ│ａ│ｅ│ｉ┃
┃ｌ│ │ｌ│ｔ│ｎ┃
┃ｌ│ｖ│ｓ│ｓ│ａ┃
┃ｙ│ｅ│ｏ│ │ｓ┃
... |
|
23 May 08
|
|
Is that water or alcohol? Entering the building the female guard looks at the big jug (5 litres) I’m carrying.
When I open the door, she asks, Is that water or alcohol?
I wonder what else they’re thinking and not saying
[...] |
|
20 May 08
|
|
Black and White Search Search engines in black and white for the 3 days mourning period that started yesterday with 3 minutes of silence on 2:28 PM.
3 minutes/days to think of the devastation the earthquakes in Sichuan have caused.
If you like to donate, I suggest you to check... |
|
08 May 08
|
|
Google and Kingsoft Launch Free Chinese Dictionary Google and Kingsoft launched today a free Chinese-English-Chinese dictionary.
Now go and read the Chinese bbs yourself to really find out what’s going on in China.
If you install it on a non-Chinese operating system you probably see a lot of weird... |
|
08 May 08
|
|
Olympic Flame On Top of the Everest The torch has made it to the top of the Mount Qomolangma/Mount Everest and was ignited by Norbu Zhamdu at 9:18am May 8.
It’s the first time the torch went that high. Let’s hope the rest of the journey will be in the same spirit.
... |
|
08 May 08
|
|
China Olympic Torch Relay on Google Maps Just noticed that Google maps is keeping track of the torch relay.
Check here for yourself.
[...] |
|
04 May 08
|
|
Element Fresh Dots And Staff Toilets The place is close, Nanjing Lu, the coffee is getting more expensive every time (regular Yunnan brew from 12 Rmb to 16 Rmb) but the terrace makes up for that.
There’s just one thing that keeps amazing me, and this is based on 4 years of... |
|
04 May 08
|
|
Shanghai Photo of the Week - 1 A new Sunday series with a photo of the week, taken from Shanghai Daily Photos.
Rabbit Art to be seen in the Ju’Roshine Life Art Space (169 Jinxian Lu, near Maoming Lu)
Advertisement: Find out more about China MyChinaStart Directory
... |
|
02 May 08
|
|
ZonaEuropa’s Title Tag Changed to EastSpitjWestNorth Update
Mystery solved, it was a typo and it has been corrected, see comment by ESWN.
While getting updated on the latest in China I visited the always very informative EastSouthWestNorth blog to read the translated essay by Huangfu Ping.
Suffering... |
|
27 Apr 08
|
|
David Braid and Matt Brubeck Go Listen To Jazz Just a very quick post before I’m off to Maneo for some brunch.
Last night we went to the show of David Braid and Matt Brubeck.
This afternoon they play in the Glamour Bar. If you like great jazz that borders classical music I suggest you to... |
|
07 Apr 08
|
|
Starbucks Likes You to Visit Their Website No matter how much I like Starbucks for their 12 rmb coffee of the day, how many people do they expect to type in this URL.
Source: ad in Cityweekend (Shanghai expat mag)
[...] |
|
07 Apr 08
|
|
Hertz Car Rentals China and Intellectual Property The irony. That was my first thought.
Then I checked a later issue of the Shanghai Daily and noticed that the same company is still advertising yet the mentioning of the website address hertz.cc has disappeared.
Whether Hertz complained to the Shanghai... |
|
16 Mar 08
|
|
What does a Talking Girl talk about? What does a Talking Girl talk about? And do they have non-talking girls as well?
Crossposted on Shanghai Daily Photos
Advertisement: Find out more about China MyChinaStart Directory
[...] |
|
29 Feb 08
|
|
Civic-consciousness Lessons on Shanghai TV We’re having dinner at a friend’s place. As seems to be a Chinese must the TV is playing it’s noisy wallpaper role, in this case the SMG cartoon channel as a kid is present. Chopsticking into Chengdu dishes the cartoons are given a break... |
|
28 Feb 08
|
|
Neo Restaurant Cafe Shanghai Wandering on Weihai Lu we ran into the neon lights of Neo Cafe.
Drinks
We only had some drinks. Prices are good actually. A Corona for 25 Rmb and a small Tsingtao for the same money. A strawberry slushy was 32 Rmb.
Service
Average. The waitress... |
|
27 Feb 08
|
|
Beijing Olympic Typos Typos happen and I’m sure I have contributed many to this world, most of them online I guess. In many cases it’s just that but in some cases, like important mails for example or titles of articles I try to make sure it doesn’t happen.... |
|
26 Feb 08
|
|
Bread Prices - Two Ways of Dealing With It Bread Prices - Two Ways of Dealing With It.
The price of almost everything has been going up in China, including the price of grain.
I buy my bread in 2 places and both shops have approached the price increase differently.
In the Portman bakery (inside... |
|
25 Feb 08
|
|
Citizen Cafe Shanghai Chances are you have never walked past the lovely Citizen Cafe as it’s tucked away in a small side street of Shanxi Lu, just before Changle Lu.
Neither did I but as I read about it in one of the local expat magazines it seemed like a nice place to... |
|
24 Feb 08
|
|
Haibao Advertising One of my favorite advertising methods in Shanghai is the advertising boat that pollutes my view when I have a coffee in Starbucks on the Lujiazui side.
As there seems to lack of number of advertisers a whole Haibao cartoon is shown these days. Haibao as... |
|
15 Jan 08
|
|
Expensive China Yesterday I was baffled when the sales lady at my local Alldays convenience store told me the price of a 5 liter water container. The day before it was priced more than 5% less. She said that all prices in the store had increased. It’s inflation... |
|
31 Dec 07
|
|
Historic Buildings Shanghai Sometime ago I saw this cartoon in the Shanghai Daily and I was positively surprised. It was the first time I saw a cartoon that was slightly critical of the way China is handling it’s historic sites in it’s constant drive to build new, ugly... |
|
26 Dec 07
|
|
Christmas in a Chinese Boarding School My step daughter is in boarding school, a Chinese boarding school.
She told us before that the school had decided not to pay any attention to Christmas as it’s a Western holiday.
Chinese students should be focused on traditional Chinese holidays... |
|
26 Dec 07
|
|
Chinese Online Shop Fraud I got a comment in an old post, the one about the Internet Police, about being ripped off by a Chinese online shop offering electronic goods for great prices.
I don’t know the exact details but I did a quick search to see what info is available. It... |
|
21 Dec 07
|
|
Shanghai World Expo Mascot Shows Teeth What is it with mascots? They always look like being drawn by a retard that is still watching season one of Sponge Bob, which is actually a cool cartoon character aimed at kids.
After the Beijing Friendlies that went through a name makeover and became the... |
|
20 Dec 07
|
|
CCTV.com gets Internet rights for 2008 Beijing Olympics There was a tender and no surprise CCTV, the national broadcaster who has already the tv rights, is the lucky one.
It’s unknown who else placed bids but even if any party did I’m pretty sure it was decided beforehand that it should be CCTV to... |
|
03 Dec 07
|
|
The Best Thing of Owning Your Own Apartment is .. … never having to deal with a landlord anymore.
We moved house, hence the slow posting.
[...] |
|
15 Nov 07
|
|
Coconut Paradise Thai Restaurant Shanghai My taxi took me through Fumin Lu and in a flash I noticed a sign with the name Coconut Paradise. I checked the net, read some reviews and we decided to try it the same evening.
Food
The Red Curry Chicken (60 Rmb) came last but ended up first taste-wise.... |
|
26 Oct 07
|
|
Maneo Restaurant Shanghai Brunch Brunching is one of my favorite activities on late Sunday morning. Last time we tried a Spanish brunch at Indalo, now we went to more of a Fusion brunch at Maneo’s on Tongren Lu.
Food
Instead of a buffet Maneo offers a big menu and you can choose as... |
|
22 Oct 07
|
|
Disguise as a Coal Vending Machine Have you ever dressed up like a vending machine when you were afraid someone was after your money.
They can do it now in Japan and, no, not just for Halloween.
As I don’t see many vending machines in Shanghai in the streets I was wondering what... |
|
16 Oct 07
|
|
Pasti Italian Restaurant Shanghai A couple of years ago already I went to Pasti on their old location. This spot is now occupied by Napoli while Pasti moved to a old villa only footsteps away. A lot more space and the food even better. I have been a couple of times now and even ordered in... |
|
06 Oct 07
|
|
Special Olympics Shanghai Statistics The Special Olympics in Shanghai are well on their way now and the first medal has been won on the marathon.
Some Special Olympics Stats:
Number of sports - 25 (see which ones here)
Number of participating athletes - 7,500
Seating capacity of Shanghai... |
|
02 Oct 07
|
|
Taxi and Bus Drivers Wearing Orange When I took a taxi I noticed the driver was wearing an orange shirt instead of the standard suit and I asked him why he had changed.
“All for the Special Olympics”, he said. He also asked which attire I preferred. I must say I like the suit... |
|
22 Sep 07
|
|
Car Free Day In Shanghai Today was the car free day in Shanghai. Traffic is the same as usual.
[...] |
|
21 Sep 07
|
|
Taxi driver Jimmy Jimmy Speaks pretty good English.
He’s been a taxi driver for some time now and is still young.
Jimmy also likes to talk, about football, about Feijenoord, the club from Rotterdam.
That’s a major plus for someone coming from that city.
As... |
|
20 Sep 07
|
|
The DVD-Alternative China TV Guide Autumn is coming and you need some entertainment. You have seen all the dvd’s they sell on the corner, including the ones that halfway change into being dubbed in Russian. The local channels aren’t really an option unless you want to see for... |
|
19 Sep 07
|
|
China Driving and Stats I only drove once in China, and that was already a long time ago. It was on a toll way between Kunming and Dali, it was dark and the only occasional traffic we noticed were trucks.
Well, if you noticed them at all as they all had broken rear lights. I... |
|
18 Sep 07
|
|
A Sandwich with Mafia Credentials The weird world of the classifieds keeps me alive while spending my time in the loo.
Today’s episode features a need for a good sandwich (And they can be hard to find I heard) as well as some real heavy hitter.
—-
Advertisement: Find out... |
|
17 Sep 07
|
|
Panda Cigarettes It’s been a long time since I published about China’s national pet the panda.
I haven’t seen any shagged out pandas lately, nor updates on the panda cam or important news like ‘Man bites panda’.
Even panda politics seems to... |
|
07 Sep 07
|
|
A Morning in Shanghai 6:00 Woken up by the sounds of a building that is being molested. The roof tiles are falling on the pavement. I peek outside of the window. Construction workers are having a great time acting as the localized alarm clock.
6:05 Put in earplugs and fall... |
|
05 Sep 07
|
|
Chinese Language Exchange Partner with 5000 years of History A sure way of getting a zero percent chance of ever starting a language exchange must be this classified.
And no, I don’t want to go into the the whole debate of how many years history China has. Last I read, it was 5 million years but that... |
|
05 Sep 07
|
|
Grace From China Telecom I spotted this advertisement of China Telecom in one of the expat magazines. Grace must be a lovely girl and I'm sure if I would have met up with here the first time I entered China life would have been different. |
|
05 Sep 07
|
|
Taxi Drivers in Shanghai - Stay Awake and Don’t Eat Imagine being a cabbie in Shanghai. You make long days, one day on, one day off and your salary has decreased over the last 10 years.
You also just survived the “spit sack” campaign that was intended to urge you to leave your phlegm in there... |
|
05 Sep 07
|
|
Buying an Apartment in Shanghai We have bought an apartment and originally I planned to write down the process. Catshanghai has done already an excellent job in describing the process.
The only thing I like to add is that fees for real estate agents are negotiable. Officially they are... |
|
05 Sep 07
|
|
international IP Phonecalls Getting More Expensive For a change I was listening to the Chinese news. Well to be honest, my wife was watching and I was playing the computer as I heard something about IP.
I said something smart or at least tried, “Nice, another propaganda item about how China is... |
twitter
blogs
china
thailand
japan
technology