March 2006 Archives

Last Saturday night (18th of March, 2006) some of my friends & I dusted off our flashy garments and attended the Shanghai Sunrise 10th Anniversary Gala Ball at the Pudong Shangri-La Hotel.

Shanghai Sunrise is a local charity that aims to support underprivileged students in the greater Shanghai region. Of course you can read more about them on their website. The Gala Ball was held to raise money to extend their current program to cater for University-aged students. Currently the charity supports primary and secondary students. And, they are always looking for more sponsors.

A good idea for a charity, and it was one we really wanted to support. In particular, as we were getting a great dinner and a good selection of drinks in the name of giving.

So, what was the night like? The location was grand, the food was tasty, the drinks came strong and fast. Knowing that your money was going to a good cause on top of the perks you received from the Shangri-La Hotel's hospitality made me feel conflicted. Both DaDan and myself spent well-earned money on our own tuxedos for the occasion (with a view to other events in the future), so we were definitely enthused about the Gala. I think we also recognised that this money perhaps would be better served on many other ventures such ranging from noble (i.e. student sponsorship) to the self-indulgent (i.e. trips home, holidays, gadgets, etc). So leading up to this night I had this conflicting feeling. At the Gala, we all had a lot of fun but I think we all quickly assessed that this wasn't entirely our scene. At this event, Shanghai's expat money and social circle was on display. Part of me felt dislocated from the night as I know that I'm not part of the established circle of middle/upper level of expats and their relocated families. A relatively primal thought I experienced was that I was a pretender is this crowd. I'm really a guy just starting to knock on the door of my work career like many other young professionals that are being attracted to this city. I'm not on big money, I work long hours, I commute, I'm competing with some extremely talented and hard-working people here. I haven't made it and I didn't have the means to sustain anything like the lifestyle I experienced that night. Expats like myself are more likely to be found in Cotton's, Senses, or Bar Rouge letting off the week's steam each weekend.

I also wonder what any of the student's that were sponsored (or waiting for a sponsor) would think if somehow they managed to see this event first hand. It was so lavish.

Tags: charity, China, dining, Pudong, Shanghai, Shanghai Sunrise

2006 shapes up as a year of visitation. Both Linda and myself will have family and friends dropping by Shanghai in the first half of 2006, starting next Tuesday when Linda's sister Jen arrives. Hence, we're trying to nail down the ultimate Shanghai tour - what we can do, where we can take people, and more importantly, what to skip over and avoid.

As we've already had a few visitors through Shanghai, we have already identified a couple of essential activities that we've seen our guest's have enjoyed.

Bicycling
As Shanghai is flat compact (well OK, dense) city, it is ready-made for cycling. Just ensure that your guest share the enthusiasm for Shanghai's traffic, or like Mel you'll find yourself wedged between lanes on Wuning Lu during peak hour. I can't praise cycling around this city enough. My favourite street to cycle down is Fuxing Lu with its resplendent trees reaching over the road. Very pretty and safe to ride on.

Wet-market Tour
There's always a wet-market to tour in your local area. With wet-markets disappearing in Shanghai (like our local one), its a good chance to show off more of the community aspect of Shanghai life. See the butchers at work slaughtering animals, sellers spruiking their vegetables and what-nots, and most importantly, just to see how life for some Shanghainese may be so much different to mine and yours.

The Old Town Half-Day Tour
Nanshi (Old Town) is another area of Shanghai that is swept up in the relentless re-development of Shanghai. So my recommendation is to see it while it lasts. My favourite part of this district is just wandering around the streets, observing the communities and people's lives. However, I find wandering without purpose troublesome, so throwing in a few highlights of your day spice things up. We start our tour from Henan Middle Road (Henan Zhong Lu) Metro Station. If we have a few extra hours to kill, we spend time around The Bund (Waitan) area, followed by a quick taxi ride down to Dong Jia Du Lu Fabric Markets. Here you can get your favourite garments copied, buy silks and cloth, or get something tailor-made. This can take anywhere between 1-3 hours depending on what you've chosen to do there. Then, a leisurely wander while heading north through the Old Town district, cross Fuxing Lu and you'll find yourself close to the Yu Gardens & Bazaar. This is undoubtedly Shanghai's premier tourist attraction so all the trappings of a central focus venue are there. For me, the highlights of this place are the Yu Garden, tea tastings at either the Mid-Lake Pavilion Teahouse or the Yu Stage Teahouse, tasty Shanghainese treats like xiao long bao from the various restaurants in the complex. After spending some time at the Yu Garden, we tend to head west towards the Dong Tai Lu Antique market area. On the way to this area, there's a few temples and other interesting sights to be had. Enjoy the walk. At Dong Tai Lu, you can buy any type of 'antique' so make sure you're not too gullible there. Similar items can be found at many Shanghai landmarks and markets. Following this, its a short walk the Xizang Lu (Tibet Road) Pet, Insect & Plant Market where you can watch cricket fighting. Then its over to Xintiandi, Huaihai Zhong Lu area for a well-deserved dinner in some of the better restaurants in town. And there's always a potential for a foot &/or body massage at some nearby places like Green Massage.

Massage and Foot-massage.
I'm not going to write too much about this. Everyone has there favourite place and style, but almost everyone agrees its a great way to wind up your day after being on foot. I'm a sucker for foot massage - and it can be hilarious, particularly if DaDan is there and he practices Chinese with the masseurs.

Day Tours by Bus From South Shanghai Stadium Bus Terminal.
Your ticket to the small water towns around Shanghai. Turn up, buy a ticket, and you're off. Just check when the last bus departs for Shanghai before you leave though.

Keep an eye out for Part II...

Tags: China, culture, cycling, expat, food, Nanshi, Pudong, Fabric Market, Dong Jia Du Lu, Puxi, Shanghai, wet market, Yu Yuan

Linda and myself just racked up 1 year in Shanghai. Time sure has flown by. We have both been talking about what our year was like here in SH, comparing and contrasting our personal & professional lives, and our ambitions for the year ahead.

We've met some great friends in our time here, as well as experiencing a totally different lifestyle to what we had back in Brisbane. Professionally, it has been a lot of hard work - and I've been spending a lot of down-time trying to examine where I want to go with that aspect of my life.

As its also 1 year - we'll soon be leaving ChunderLoo (Changde Lu) for slightly greener pastures near the Jiangsu Lu Metro Station where a much bigger apartment awaits. An apartment perfect for the hoardes of visitors currently knocking on our door. We have spent a lot of time in the past 2 weeks looking for a good apartment, and we're quite happy with what we've chosen. We'll be signing the contract this Friday night.

I am just about to finish my first Chinese language course - yes, terrible application to learn the language of the country I live in. I've been happy with my progress so another course is definitely on the cards in the coming months.

In sporting news, RD is 0-3 in the SIBL (a very good and tight game that went down to the wire), and Huangpu Stew notched up our first win (1-1) over Team Blue in the Monday Night Disc League (13-7).

And that's about it for now.

Tags: Australia, Basketball, Brisbane, China, expat, Shanghai, Ultimate Disc

Reign Design - Season 1, SIBL 2006
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

I have been talking about b'ball on and off during the life of this blog, but not really offering any details. So here's a new start to inform my loyal readers in line with the new SIBL league that started last week. Our team from Season II 2005 lost a few players, but we have recruited well and have obtained a bunch of monsters from the Shanghai community (measuring 2x6'3", 2X 6'4" and 1X 6'6"). Now instead of being guard-heavy, we're now forward and center stacked. This showed up as being a problem last week where we played our first game where it was quite scrappy, and primarily our lack of organization and our poor perimeter game was the cause of our down-fall. Plans have been hatched, and this won't be a problem for the rest of the season.

Our team falls into the category if 'only if we could train more' type of team. If anything we've been underperforming; not playing to our strengths nor really gelling as a team. A lot of this is due to how busy our team mates are off the court, essentially everyone of us either runs their own business, manages a group, or has super-full lifestyles. I know that I haven't really even felt comfortable on the court for a such a long time as I hadn't really played ball for almost 9 years. This feeling is starting to wane though. All I need now is a touch more fitness and some of the ball in hand. I'm feeling good about this season.

This entry was posted with flickr

Technorati Tags: Shanghai, China, expat, flickr

End Carriage - Metro Line 2
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Keeping in line with my decision to blog a little more often, I've decided in the true vein of constant blogging to resort to a filler post.

Metro Line 2 is getting super-popular. I have been travelling almost daily on Line 2 for almost 12 months now and I have noticed over the past 2 months that it is increasingly crowded. Luckily for me I have the rarified air at the top of the carriage to myself. But I am sure as the weather gets warmer, I shall rue the fact that I leer above the majority of the commuter's as spring's heat & the dormant smells of Shanghai start to stir.

But for now, I try and find that not-so-crushy space where I can steal a chance to study Chinese by either (trying to) listen in on a conversation, read my notes, or listen to everyone's favourite Shanghai Torrent Download - Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese.

Tonight on the way home I got to speak to one of my work colleagues, our company's doctor, and some chatty HR woman from another site in Shanghai. The topic came around to my Chinese study - brought up by my work colleague that has noticed me using a lot more Chinese in day to day situations. My knowledge was reeled out in the form of an impromptu examination/interrogation by my co-workers, to which 2/3 of the examiners were super-polite & encouraging and told me I was doing well, and 1/3 informing me that I was crap and I should give up.

The moral of the story is that you have to just love HR people. They are so encouraging.

This entry was posted with flickr

Technorati Tags: Shanghai, China, expat, flickr

Corporate Coffee 2006
See more images by timbeckenham at flickr.

Unlike another Shanghai blogger, I will remember this awesome occasion as it was the day on which I finally did not have to suffer from corporate coffee.

And who do I have to thank for this? A wonderful co-worker by the name of Qing. She definitely has some chocolate coming her way (of course Linda will have to take a substantial cut of that as well).

While my female co-workers got the afternoon off from work, us 'remainders' joked that we should have just kicked back drinking beers, watching football and eating pizza. Now, who's day was it again?

This entry was posted with flickr

Technorati Tags: Shanghai, China, expat, flickr

ground zero II
See more images by TommyOshima at flickr.

Most of my visitors to this site would have realised the 'big shine' I have taken towards the flickr website. Primarily it is a fantastic way to organise and share your photos with your friends. But where flickr truly excels is as a community portal. Pick a topic, and you can find immense photo collections on almost any topic. So if you're a foreigner living in a foreign land, its natural to expect that you want to explore your new home from the comfort of your own living room (on the occasions that you're not out meeting the locals, backpacking around, and taking photos that is). So when surfing around on flickr, and in particular with photos tagged with shanghai I came across Tommy Oshima's flickr page. This guy can take a great photograph - like the one highlighted here. If you've nothing else to do today, next week, or next month, I'd honestly recommend that you go and check out his photo collection. You won't be sorry that you did.

This entry was posted with flickr

Technorati Tags: Shanghai, China, expat, flickr

During the final days of Chinese New Year a group of us departed Shanghai to visit one of the tourist highlights of China - Huangshan (Yellow Mountain).

Lauren has written an entry about our trip, so repeating her fine words wouldn't really be so appropriate. She has captured both the joy, frustration, and ickiness of our short holiday. I am definitely[1] a fan of Huangshan and had a great time seeing some of the true beauty of China. When you live in your Shanghai bubble, its easy to forget that China just isn't bounded by the Huangpu River. I really want to go back there sometime when the weather is a touch warmer, when the water is running strongly, and the sky is clear. I'm now told that such a time is early spring. Maybe next year. I have designs for visiting Dali and Guilin now.

I could write miles about our time at Huangshan - but I'm not. The pictures both Linda and I took speak for themselves. I have posted quite a few photos on my flickr page which you can access by clicking on the thumbnails below. I've made a number of descriptions under each photo there, so that's perhaps the easiest way for me to stop repeating myself.

This was my first true taste of travel in China. Yes, I have been in China for almost one year now. I can assure you it hasn't been such a leisurely time. Well, I should clarify that - I haven't taken as much advantage of the leisure time that's been afforded to me. I am certain that in 2006 that I will be rectifying that issue.

[1] A Laurenism

Tags: anhui, China, huangshan, tangkou, travel, xi hai hotel

A lot has already been said to me about my choice of career and lifestyle - academic, scientist, computer enthusiast, techno geek. However my mindset is firmly entrenched in my self-view that was fostered during my teenage years where I played A LOT of sport. I am a jock that fell into a cool career in cutting edge science. Yes, I'm chuckling while I write this.

Chuckling as I have recently undergone a transition of self image through the past few months to come to terms with society's and my own disparate interpretation of the scientist. Yes, I have a blog. Yes I have a strong interest in Unix, I think Mac is an under-rated operating system by the wider public, I suffer from gadget lust, and of course, my science-nerd wardrobe.

Shopping in Shanghai is usually thought to be paradise for Westerners. Hit Xiangyang Market, a tailor, a fabric market, a corner store for what you want. Its China - its where ALL our clothes come from. You can find a huge variety of clothing, however I have been astonished to find that I am starting to find I am accumulating Polo Shirts, linen pants, and other comfortable office/lab wear.

Have I hit my 40s in Shanghai? Or have I found peace with my inner geek?

So what has this got to do with this post? Collectively, scientists have a pretty bad street cred. Most people think science, and they think of Albert Einstein circa 1950s - hair afray. Wacky looking. That, or Doc Neeson from 'Back To The Future'. The typical scientist dresses poorly, or at least with no sense of garment compatibility. And then there are the mandatory eyewear. Specs, horn-rims, coke-bottle glasses. I fail in this regard, however my colleagues at work are doing very well to support the stereotype.

Of the 15 people I work with each day, 10 wear glasses consistently, with 2 others for reading purposes. This week I am attending a training course where at least 16 of 21 people wear glasses. And then there's lunch at work - a sea-full of bobbing heads fronted by thin wire frames.

Most of my colleagues are either Mainland Chinese, so along with my mandatory Chinese-perspective questions I asked a few of my colleagues about this, and most of them blamed over-study, reading in poor light, reading tiny tiny characters on pages, or a joy of reading for their predicament.

I just think I'm surrounded by a lot of geeks. Like attracts like I guess.

My usual morning routine involves making coffee & breakfast, after which I turn to checking my email, and then reading various newspaper websites. I came across this article in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday this week.

Howzat! In a quick declaration, China embraces cricket - Cricket - Sport:

CRICKET is not a sport one normally associates with China, but the world's most populous nation has embarked on an ambitious plan to change that. China's sporting mandarins have dubbed it "the noble game", and with communist single-mindedness have plotted a five-year plan to become a cricketing nation. The Asian Cricket Council's media officer, Shahriar Khan, said China's interest in cricket was simple. It realised that the biggest game in Asia is cricket - a game that China's major rival in the region, India, happens to be rather good at. With China increasingly making its presence felt in the region, learning to play cricket makes good sense. "China very much wants to engage with Asia via this game - they've seen Sri Lanka, a tiny country of 20 million winning a World Cup, and with 1.3 billion people are thinking: surely, surely we can win this as well," Mr Khan said.

When I first arrived in Shanghai, I did a lot of research into the various sports and other activities available in this city. I did come across the Shanghai Cricket Club however as my sport participation leans towards ball sports I know that I'll be sticking with basketball and ultimate for the foreseeable future.

Given the shellacking Australia is receiving in South Africa at the moment - we hardly need any more competition. But I pondered, and though what an Australian vs. China Test Series could be named? The One Australia China Test Match Series perhaps?

Tags: Australia, China, cricket, Pudong, Shanghai, sport