Dynamic Tourism, China, Business

Day 4, February 20

Days 4 and 5 were both pretty busy with specific Olympics events.  Before I headed up to Vancouver, Mariska and I had bought Ice Dance (training) tickets for Saturday, February 20th, starting at 7am!  Although 7am didn’t happen, Jaime and I did make it there by about 9:30am and with 3.5 hours of women’s figure skating (training) and ice dance, I think we saw a fair bit and had a good fill of ice skating.   It was absolutely beautiful, particularly the couples, some with just incredible lifts and unbelievable poses.  The Canadian couple had a good performance, though I wouldn’t have picked them to win gold (which they did in the end).  Jaime and I enjoyed commenting on the outfits, synchronization, themes, and overall match to the music.  What were the Germans thinking in their costumes? Russia & US, boring! China, ugly! Hungary, cool 80s theme! The folk dance couples were cute too.

Late afternoon Eddie and I decided to press our luck and head down to Canada Hockey Place to try to get tickets to the Latvia-Slovakia hockey game for less than $80.  We succeeded!  Had great seats for $75.  We saw poor Latvia take a whoopin, but it was exciting to be in the crowd full of energy, cheers, and get great shots of the athletes and attend what would be my last Olympic event for this time around.

Day 5, February 21

My last day, and with a 5pm departure time, I wanted to see some of the National houses.  The first we went to was Korea, which was meant to be a showcase of Korean heritage, high tech, and winter sports as Korea bids for the 2018 Winter Games (along with Munich, Germany and France).  It was somewhat disappointing and didn’t have nearly the exhibits I expected, or even a very good showcase of the culture or bid location.

Next we went to the House which will be hosting the 2014 Olympics: Sochi.Ru or more familiarly, Russia. With the help of a friend, we avoided the 2 hour line and got in with Media passes.  That was pretty awesome.  The pictures of Sochi look stunning, and there was a good display of Russian culture, both positive and negative.  Watch my video on flickr to see a Russian culture music troupe.  That was the positive.  The negative was the coldness and the attitudes of the Russian hosts.  They were very unfriendly, only mildly helpful, and seemed to want to be rid of us as soon as possible.  And we were wearing media passes!  One would think they’d want to encourage people to come to the 2014 Games and thereby give a good impression of Russian hospitality, it didn’t work out that way.  Particularly as ‘media people’ we have the power to influence others’ thoughts and perceptions, therefore they should want to influence us positively–but just disappointing.

Vancouver did a superior job at hospitality, in terms of its people, efficiency of public transportation, positive energy, parties etc.  Even my mom’s friend commented, “Almost everyone I spoke with is going to go to the next olympics in Russia due to the fun and excitement they had in Vancouver.”  My response, did any of them actually go to the Russia House (Sochi.ru)?  If so, I think they may have a different perspective of what the Russian Olympics will be like.

Russia will have a big PR campaign ahead of it, but each host city always faces huge challenges and still manages to pull off a great, world-class event.  Regardless where the Olympics are held, in my 2 experiences thus far  (Beijing), they are fantastic!   I hoping my next Olympics will be Rio de Janeiro in 2016!!

See Vancouver Day 1, Day 2-3, or all of my Vancouver Olympics pics on Flickr.

Day 2:  February 18

After all the excitement of Day 1, Day 2 was a little bit slower.  In the afternoon there was a Canada Hockey game for which some Canada Hockey fans had organized a hockey Tweetup.  Yes, its just what it sounds like, lots of people on twitter sit around a big screen watching hockey, drinking, cheering, and tweeting.

Next was probably the highlight of that day: Vancouver Victory Ceremony.   The VVC is held at BC Place and includes the medals presentation and a concert.

First about the concert, throughout the Olympics each day was themed based on one of Canada’s provinces.  This means that there were special activities or performances provided by that province.  On the day we went to the Vancouver Victory Ceremony, it was Prince Edward Island Day. Therefore, the performers hailed from PEI; in this case, a boy band called Hedley.

The best part of the February 18th VVC, though, was the medals presentation.  As an American, I was proud to hear the national anthem played twice for our gold medalists on that day.  One gold medalist was speed skater Shani Davis, and the other–probably the most famous US winter athlete–snowboarder, Shaun White!!!  It was also cool for me to see the medal presentation of the Women’s 500M short track race that’d I’d seen China win the day before.

After that the 4 of us went for a late dinner at the Revel Room, man! was it hard to find a place to sit down and eat that didn’t have a 45min wait at 9pm.  Later we saw some of the anti-Olympics protesters on Hastings with the slogan, ‘Homes, not Games.’

Day 3, February 19

This was the first day that I didn’t have any scheduled events or official Olympics events to attend, but still managed to find fun stuff to do!  Because my friends had media passes for the BC Media Center, they invited us in to join the Wine Tasting of BC wines.  We tasted some absolutely fabulous ice wines, as well as official wines of the Olympics Games, namely the Sumac Ridge sparkling wine, which I subsequently bought.  If you’re interested in learning more about the making of the wine and our wine tasting, watch our video on UStream.

Also in the BCMC was the Stanley Cup.  I know some (Canadian) people would freak out at this comment and the below picture, but I was simply like, oooh what’s the shiny trophy with all the writing on it?  I’m not from a hockey family, and not from a hockey part of the country, I don’t know what to tell ya.

For dinner, we joined friends in a pub, talking about the Olympics, taking pictures with Quatchi (the Olympic mascot), and met more awesome Canadians.  Later that night, I met up with Jeff who I know from Shanghai to go to one of his friend’s houses overlooking what was Yaletown LiveCity.  That night was the (unbeknownstly to me) famous DJ, Dead Mou5 performing.  After that was a fireworks and water show.  Over the lake they turned on the fountains and then projected Olympics images onto the flowing water–that was pretty cool.

Full Olympics pictures on Flickr.  Day 4 and 5 coming up…

Yesterday was my first day at the Olympics and it was amazing!  The day started out with a photo walk around downtown taking pictures of the Olympic flame,

then down to Robson Square to see the Chinese gold and silver medal pairs figure skating champions do brief performances.  Canada’s national youth skaters also performed, with as man as 10 of them on the ice as once!  It was very awesome for me personally to see the Chinese team and to hear their introduction in Chinese as we all celebrate the Year of the Tiger (so they said).

Then we went to the British Columbia Media Center! And watch some snowboard half pipe on TV before getting some lunch at a pub in Gastown and watching hockey on TV.

Late afternoon I headed to the Pacific Coliseum as I was fortunate enough to wrangle a ticket to the Short Track Speed Skating.  At Wednesday’s Short Track was Women’s 500M quarterfinal, semifinal, and final–yes we did get to see the final, including flower ceremony.  In the end China won gold, and the home team, Canada silver!  It was also Men’s 1000M and Men’s 5000M semifinal relay.  In the relay 4 teams compete at once, each with 4 guys on the ice so you can imagine it was quite crowded.  But due to a disqualification, the final will be even more crowded: 5 team, 4 guys each!  What you learn when watching Short Track, is its not over till its over!

Inspiring event! Great day!  Full photos on Flickr. Keep reading, Days 2-3, Days 4-5, or the full post of Day 1 on VancouverAccess

I just finally read the Untemplater Manifesto (PDF download), which got me thinking about my own story and whether I fit the mold.  Some would say by virtue of the fact that I live in China (and moved there by choice) that of course not; however, I think it’s more complicated than that.

Through the end of college, I was on the templater path.  Through then everything was decided for me on the basis of the standard middle-class American lifestyle.  Played sports: check. Participated in Girl Scouts: check. Attempted to learn a foreign language: check.  Went to a good high school: check. Went to prom: check. Went to a top university: check.  Did I make any of these decisions? Really?  No, not really.  Although I did get to choose which university I went to, and I have to say, I made the right choice.

Then came college graduation and the first real decision of my life.  I’d been told, follow your passion. You have the world at your feet.  You can do anything you want.  Well they may say that and it may be true, but no one actually believes it.  And no one will actually give you the unconditional love and support to really do that.  Besides that, I had no idea what ‘my passion’ was.  I did, however, know that I had absolutely no interest in continuing down the template path and becoming a corporate slave and living a boring life.  I didn’t want to be average and I certainly didn’t want the average life of a just graduated young professional.  The idea of working for someone else my whole life, 2 weeks of vacation max per year, dating, marriage, kids repelled me.  I knew I would need out, sooner or later.

I chose sooner.

Within 3 months of graduation, I was on a one way plane to Shanghai, China with no further plan than 5 weeks of studying Chinese (on top of my 4 college semesters).  I came out to China hoping, like so many, to strike it rich, but mostly I came to just not live a template N. American life.

For the first 2 years or so in China, I studied Chinese, taught English, worked in a hotel, started a business, worked as a tour leader, traveled a lot, and networked a ton.  I was essentially the epitome of a young China-based job-hopping expat.  It’s not necessarily something I’m proud of, but it was a path, albeit a curvy one, I needed to take.

You may look at this and think holy cow, talk about a road less traveled; however, I’m increasingly doubting that.  Going out to China as a freshly minted college graduate, might seem unconventional, but even now it feels common.  Every week I get emails from people, ‘I want to come out to China and do _____’ (fill in the blank, usually English teaching) or I meet people like me 3 years ago, ‘I’m in China writing a blog, studying Chinese, I’m not sure what I’ll do next. ‘ The more I look around, the more I think, I’m on the same path as everyone else, or maybe I was one of the leaders on that path and now more people are following this ‘unusual’ path making it seem more common and mundane.

Then about 2 years ago I decided it was time to get some startup experience to build my knowledge base and learn that arena, so I joined a small internet company.  As time goes on, sometimes I look at my life and think, am I doing anything different than if I were in the States?  Company job. Commuting. Friends evenings or weekends. Looks the same. Seems the same. But certainly doesn’t smell the same.

What is different? I speak Chinese 70% of my day. I’ve done random jobs including modeling (something I always wanted to do), English conversation courses, writing bar reviews, etc. I went to the Beijing Olympics. I’ve been to almost every country in East Asia. I’ve met people from all over the world. I’ve organized tech events. I’ve seen the inside of China and its not always pretty. But perhaps most importantly, I’ve explored my passions and interests.

Moving to China may be the new in thing to do, and certainly takes guts, stamina, and patience, and with more and more people (trying to) doing it, it’s becoming more conventional.  However, the mere fact of getting away from the expectations of template American life, has allowed me to explore options, interests, passions, and what truly matters to me far beyond anything I would have been able to do in the US.  While I may not have ’struck it rich’ in China (yet), this experience to me is far more valuable.  Whether or not my life to this point has been a cookie cutter, having had the space to grow and develop means that into the future it definitely doesn’t need to be and I have the power and the wherewithal to manage that.

Now the challenge for me is to put that into an actionable plan.  But I know I’ll have the Untemplaters for inspiration along the way and I’ll keep in mind these lines from the Untemplater Manifesto:

You have to live one day at the time. You have to trust that as long as you bust your ass going after what you believe in, things will fall in place. The moment you start getting worried because you can’t see your future clearly is the moment where the claws of fear and boredom will get a hold of you again. In reality, no one can see the future clearly, but some think they can. Nobody knows what will happen, but the only difference is that untemplaters realize it, accept it, and make the best out of their time while believing in themselves and their vision.

Power to that! The Untemplater life awaits!

The Year in Review: 2009

January started out with a New Year’s Day flight from Phoenix to San Francisco, which included watching the USC Rose Bowl game as soon as I got off the plane in San Fran.  Then more game watching downtown with my awesome cousin Kelly and her friends.  The next day I grabbed my passport from Alec who I hadn’t seen since 2006, many thanks to him for getting my Indian visa.  That same day I caught my 1st transpacific flight of the year and headed back to Shanghai.

Back to work in Shanghai for a week, then birthday celebrations galore start.  I’m not sure how its possible but I managed to have 3 celebrations during the week of my 25th bday: dinner on the 13th with a few girlfriends, then co-party night with Sian, Sherry, and Yi, and finally birthday brunch.  Thanks for organizing that brunch, and every other one, Sherry!  This is was also the first time in 2.5 years in China that I really got on a work permit.

Late January, at the start of Chinese New Year, Sian and I headed off to India for a whirlwind 10-day trip around Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, and Jaipur.  India is an immensely fascinating country.

From February, as everyone got back to Shanghai from CNY, we started having more tweetups, including Twestival, where I met a lot of the people I’d only ‘met’ online, including @IrisJumbe and @PDKay.  At the SXSW Shanghai party at M1NT in late February I got to meet a lot more of my twitter friends, including those who don’t live in China and make better connections with them.  To round out February, I changed the theme on my blog to center around life-streaming, (which I’m now coming to hate…)

In March we had our first !talk! Chatfest and finally launched the open beta of the teaching platform.  Despite this, the !talk! situation was in somewhat of a flux, so after awhile I decided to work less hours there and spend more time on my multitude of other activities.  Since November of the previous year I was already teaching English a few nights per week.

With the start of spring, I still didn’t feel that my health had completely recovered from all the illnesses of the winter, so I decided I needed to take drastic actions (haha). For Qing Ming festival, I booked myself a week at a cleanse resort in Thailand.  It was a much needed flushing out of the system that kept me much healthier in the ensuing 8 months, especially compared to the previous 8.  Besides meeting some like-minded people during the detox, I also met some other awesome people at the #BangkokTweetup, some of whom have become really helpful to me recently.  This spring, I also got to connect with fellow Shanghai transplant Arizonan @Mark_E_Evans and another China-interested tweeter @lparsons, whose dream is to move to China–good luck to him.

Jane, me, Al and a pagoda

By late April / early May, when the Dragon Boat festival rolled around, Jai, Allison and I headed to Seoul for a 4-day weekend.  They say Seoul is a city with no soul, but I loved it and think that’s in large part due to our excellent tour guide, my long time friend, Irene.  Check out the DMZ tour, really interesting, including a step into North Korea.  Literally the day after I got back from Korea, I did my first set of factories tours in 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that gets produced in China!

In Late May, I spent a weekend in Hangzhou with Al & Jane, when they generously took me around to all their favorite sites and restaurants.  Tea plantations, China’s Grand Canal, Pagodas, and spicy wings, the spiciest food imaginable.  I was crying, literally.

As June rolled around I was just starting planning tech events for the Shanghai community and welcoming 妹妹 (little sister) for her summer in Shanghai.  Eliana arrived on June 3 to spend 5 weeks with me and exactly the day after she arrived, we set off to see the ‘real’ China.  The real manufacturing China, that is.  This was my second factory tripping of 2009.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China!

Around mid-June the Geeks on a Plane tour rolled through town to attend Shanghai Barcamp on June 14, and then celebrated the end of the trip with the Geeks and Glamour afterparty at M1NT.  It was awesome to meet entrepreneurs, VCs, and other twitter friends from the States including @DanMartell.

With Eliana in Pingyao

Throughout June and early July, Eliana and I went revisiting or exploring new parts of Shanghai.  And of course, we went to Beijing and saw the not-to-be-missed, Great Wall of China, Tiananmen, Forbidden City, and she went swimming in the Olympic Watercube.   I also got to see to see Ian, Leslie, Jeremy, and Jenny, and join yet another Tweetup to meet twitter friends in Beijing.  To check another place off my list, we took the train to the old walled city of Pingyao. At nearly the end of the trip, on the bus ride to the airport, my cosmetics case got stolen from my backpack A very sad day.  In this case, Eliana was the rock–thank you girl, I love you!

Just around the 3 year anniversary of my life in China, the internet went on lockdown in China and ever since then Twitter, Facebook, Twitpic, and since even earlier Youtube have been inaccessible, seriously hindering multimedia communication with the outside world.  Mid-July Eliana went home and I took my 2nd transpacific flight, this time to Vancouver.

On the bus from Vancouver to Seattle there was free wifi! And unrestricted access to twitter, facebook, youtube, which was like heaven until my laptop battery died and I realized my power cord didn’t work in N America… A busy 3 days in Seattle with my Dad and friends, Burt and Dawn: food festival, hiking Mt. Rainier, and the 4am launch of !talk! Marketplace for companies, but the weather was gorgeous, the food good and fresh, and the air clean and refreshing.

Next it was time to fly up to Alaska for my grandparents 60th Anniversary.  We went ATV-ing near Denali National Park, watched the sunset at 11pm, pet huskies, took the Denail Express train to Whittier, cruised on the Diamond Princess, went to Glacier Bay National Park, sea-kayaked in Ketchikan, went Geocaching, and had a good week of family time.

At Butchart Gardens, Victoria

For the first week in August, I reconnected with friends from China now living in Victoria and Vancouver, including Heike, Brook, Scales, KK, and Danielle, and made other new friends through them, include Mariska.  The Pacific Northwest from Seattle, to Vancouver and the Island, all the way up to Alaska has truly spectacular natural beauty, clear blue skies, snow covered peaks, stunningly colored flowers, green trees and grass, fresh healthy foods, all enough to satisfy me with what often seems lacking in the grimy urban grey of Shanghai.  Catching up with friends from China who are no longer living there really helped me to get perspective on life there and what is most important.  Getting on my 3rd and last transpacific flight of the year to head back to Shanghai, I was feeling very refreshed and refocused with resolutions for my life in China.

Back in Shanghai, I jumped head first back into activities related to tech, work, events, and, from all my discussions with friends who formerly lived in China, recommitted myself to learning Chinese.  I found a private tutor to work with 2 times per week, started reading Chinese magazines and newspapers, listening to ChinesePod again, decided to more actively seek out opportunities to practice Chinese including looking for new Chinese friends, and eventually more Chinese shows and movies.  I am listening to countless podcasts on entrepreneurship, as well as lectures on world history and geopolitics to start brushing up my knowledge for the foreign service exam.

With my September trip to Hong Kong to see Coni, Brenda, Amjad, Daniel, Stanley, etc, and Stephanie (who I hadn’t seen in 5 years, since USC), I finally gave into pressure and got an iPhone.  Podcasts, apps, Chinese dictionary with handwriting, plus GPRS allowing me to be chatting to someone through Skype while walking down Nanjing Road, I can’t believe I waited so long.  iPhone convert, admitted.

USC friends in Shanghai

By the time October holiday rolled around, my work permit was expiring, and still reeling from all the traveling I’d already done this year, with additional complications, I was compelled to spend China’s 60th Anniversary National Day in Shanghai, much to my chagrin.  (Randomly, I just realized the CCP was founded the same year my grandparents got married).  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I got to reconnect with another friend who used to live in Shanghai and was back for a visit: Matthias.  October and November were spent with friends who were in town visiting, including a week with that friend from Germany, Ian down from Beijing and his friend from USC, then in November Sean came back for a visit and the HSBC Golf Tournament, followed by Luke from Toronto (I met but hadn’t seen since 2006), who came to visit family and attend his sister’s wedding

In late October, USC opened their first office in Mainland China.  Also in late-October, I went to yet another manufacturing town, this one specializing in textiles for the Keqiao Tradeshow and also saw the canal town of Shaoxing.  A month later, Bryan, Vivianne, and I were off for a day trip to the Commodity City: Yiwu.  It’s amazing all the crap that’s produced in China! Since getting back to SH in August, my Chinese slowly showed signs of improvement after months of stagnation, I signed up to an internet dating site (thinking about it now, am I that desperate?), and I continued to spread myself over many different involvements.

With Mom at the Chocolate Hills, Bohol

For Thanksgiving, I met mom in the Philippines for my last international trip of 2009, bringing the total to 50 countries in 25 years.  Ten days in the Philippines renewed my health (after 2 brutal days of facing the Chinese hospital system just before the trip) and helped me to realize I was stretching myself in too many different directions.  This feeling was further brought home by another conversation in early December that’s been forcing me to take stock of where I am, where I’m going, recognize my passions, and figure out what I want out of life.  As 2009 draws to a close and I face yet another round of visa applications, I’m reading Think and Grow Rich (again) and Getting Things Done, and most importantly I’m reflecting on those issues and what they mean for me in 2010.  The most influential and memorable book I finished in ‘09 was The Go Giver–great book, go read it, especially if you do business or work in social!

Happy New Year!

Writing this made me realize there were a lot of photos from this year, I hadn’t yet put on Flickr, so if you didn’t click on any of the links above, go look at my photostream now, its been updated: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tofflerann/

Don’t forget, 2010 is the Shanghai Expo and among other reasons, a great opportunity to come visit me in Shanghai! I’d love to host you if you’re coming this way.

Check on the below chart, and the whole post from Gang Lu over at Mobinode.  Just like I mentioned in this post, Alibaba really is taking over the Chinese internet!

“Harmonize” is a very popular euphemism in China, as are its derivatives, “harmonious.” Consider this introduction to the Expo which uses “harmonious” no less than 3 times in 1 paragraph:

And if you’re a party cadre or the family member of a revolutionary martyr, you get discounted entry to Century Park (in English, no less, because you know, revolutionary martyrs only read English):

Then, of course there are just the misspellings (which has since been corrected),

and of course the seemingly mistranslated:

I always love an Unimaginative Journey and a Goodwill tour of Narcissus Queens…

However, I will give this one credit for the (perhaps unintended) play on the popular health food market in the western US (Trader Joe’s):

I hadn’t really thought about it…maybe I’m just that good at managing my time…or maybe I’m just not fully committed to anything…  I didn’t even realize it until my friend said something to me about it at lunch today: I do a huge variety of stuff here and I’m still trying to do more.  Here’s the list, I’m curious what you think…

(Nearly) Full-time job: italki
Part-time job: Talk English
Run my own business: Shop My Shanghai
My personal Blog (rarely): this one
New Tech Blog I’m starting with said friend: http://RedTe.ch
Study Chinese and prepare for HSK Exam (a priority)
Study for the Foreign Service Exam (target date: H1 2010)
Organize (mostly tech) events: Lunch2.0, BarCamp (soon to be more)
Create Content (besides above blogs) and connect with people online: Twitter & Flickr (@TofflerAnn), Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn

And yet I still find time to look for and evaluate new projects and business opportunities, hang out with friends, date, exercise almost everyday, read actual books offline, listen to lots of podcasts, travel quite a lot, and whatever else.  Am I crazy or is this actually all possible?  I just figured this was normal Shanghai expat life, everyone trying to do everything (except for those who drink themselves into oblivion, obviously).

So when people ask me, what do you do?, hence the hesitation. Also, probably the same reason I’m not sure when the last day I didn’t do some kind of work was.  Does checking and responding to emails count as work?

Tonight my Alma Mater officially opened its first office in Mainland China!!  In a great event, starting with the office open house and continuing with a cocktail reception and ribbon cutting ceremony, the University of Southern California did (as usual) a spectacular job heralding the opening of its Shanghai office!

Ribbon Cutting Marking Opening Of USC Office in Shanghai

Not only was the food good and the drinks free, but I also got to see many familiar faces in the Shanghai alumni group and from my college days long ago.  Perhaps the highlight was seeing my former boss, SVP of University Relations, Martha Harris.  I enjoyed meeting new USC people and re-connecting with many others.  I’m looking forward to renewed energy, enthusiasm, and participation in the USC Alumni Club of Shanghai.

USC Alums

The new USC office is located on the 27th Floor in the Chong Hing Financial Center on Nanjing West Road.  The ceremony took place at the JW Marriott, just across the street from the office.  The USC Global Conference starts in Taipei on Thursday.  USC will open other international offices in Asia within the next year, namely Seoul, South Korea and India.

A quick intro for those of you who don’t know, Taobao is China’s C2C internet selling platform, similar to eBay or Amazon.  It’s owned by Alibaba Group and all the online payment transactions for the site happen by your bank in combination with Alipay (also of Alibaba Group).  By the way, why does no one notice how monopolistic Alibaba Group has gotten in this area?

You can buy literally everything imaginable on Taobao from mobile phone recharge cards to patio furniture and shoes.  I’ve bought shirts, shoes, books, etc on Taobao.

Setting up an account is relatively simple if you can read some Chinese.  All you need is an email account, password, and the ability to navi-guess around the site in Chinese.  Actually buying and paying online becomes more complex, requiring a local bank account with either 一卡通 or 信用卡.  But this is how most of us get our salaries paid anyway.  If you can find a local friend to help you set up the link between your Taobao account and your bank account (through Alipay, of course) the first time, its pretty easy to just type in your PIN number whenever you want to buy something in the future.  Taobaofieldguide.com has a much more comprehensive and picture-oriented description of how to search and buy on Taobao.  They also offer to help you do it, for a small fee of course.

Feeling relatively confident in my Chinese reading ability and comfortable navi-guessing and shopping on Taobao, today I decided to try my hand at selling on Taobao. And ran into a Great Wall. To sell on Taobao, you of course need a local bank account linked to Taobao through Alipay (again), which since mine was already linked was easy enough.  However, you also have to verify your identity, and while this may sound simple, for a foreigner, it’s not.

First I tried pretending I was a local because I have a local bank account, yada yada, Not so fine.  You must input the ID # matching the person who opened the bank account.  In this case, it has to be the number of digits on a local Hukou ID card (If you don’t know what a Hukou is, this post probably doesn’t apply to you…).  Well since I’m not a local, I don’t have a Hukou so my bank account was opened with my Passport, which obviously doesn’t have the right amount of digits.  Fail #1

There is an option for Foreigners to sell on Taobao. So next I tried that: first line, OK.  Second line, please input your Guarantor’s name, ID number, phone number, etc, etc.  Uh…FAIL #2.  So as a foreigner selling on Taobao is much more difficult.

I guess they’re afraid we’ll list something super expensive, let some poor unsuspecting local buy it and transfer the money, and then leave the country with his money.  Granted, it could happen, but what’s the highest value item anyone’s ever bought on Taobao (without first seeing the item)?  Maybe 10,000RMB, maybe 100,000RMB?  So all of US$1400 or US$14,000?  Is that really worth it?  Fail #3.  That’s why banks, credit cards, et al have insurance and fraud protection.

Anyway, as you can see I was a bit frustrated with my Taobao selling experience today and I wanted to save other foreigners the same annoyance and waste of time.  And I’m sorry, I don’t know what happens after IF you get a Guarantor to validate your account.

It’s also interesting to note the differences between Taobao and eBay.  Taobao takes the money immediately from the seller’s account and holds it in escrow while waiting for confirmation from the buyer that the item has been received (or a certain period of time has passed) before sending the money to the seller.  eBay lets the buyer and seller decide between themselves how and when to pay and ship.

Can I further point out that since Taobao holds the money in escrow awaiting confirmation of item receipt from the buyer, that the whole paranoia of foreign seller runs out of town with the money is NOT very likely.  Fail #4

And that’s today’s Taobao 101 Guide.

I love cities, and I especially love them at night when they’re lit up and sparkling, dazzling my eye with their flickering lights and myriad of shapes.  So whenever I’m in one of those spectacular cities with the amazing view, I make a point to find the best vantage point in the city and go up there at night.  Some of my favorites are listed below:

Shanghai: Hyatt on the Bund, Vue Bar, 33rd Floor.  This hotel sits north of downtown and due to a particularly well placed bend in the HuangPu River, both new Shanghai (Pudong) and historic Shanghai (the Bund) are . Watch my video to see what I mean.

Bangkok: Banyan Tree Hotel, Moon Bar, Rooftop. From the Banyan Tree website, “The Moon Bar is one of the highest al-fresco rooftop bars in the Asia Pacific, offering a stunning venue with panoramic views” and I have to agree.

Hong Kong: 1 Peking Building, Aqua Bar, 29th Floor. This bar has a great angle and nice height from which to view Hong Kong Island.  The view from here is one of the most memorable and recognizable anywhere in the world.  Make sure you get there before they start turning off all the lights.

NYC: Arthur’s Landing, Weehawken, NJ.  The best view of New York City is actually from New Jersey.  Yes, that means you have to cross the river but the view is well worth it.

Where are your favorite city views? Do you have any for London? Paris? Dubai? Rio de Janeiro? Singapore?

Look inside any garment and there’s a good chance you’ll see a “Made in China” label.  Garments of all sorts, qualities, and brands are made in China.  Most of the garment manufacturing is centered around the Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou/Shenzhen) or Ningbo.  Despite this, and the tight watch designers keep on their production facilities, many people assume (sometimes rightly so), that its easy to shop for their beloved clothing brands right here in Shanghai.

Overruns, 2nds, and ‘it just fell off the truck’ do end up in Shanghai.  However, they are not easy to find: some hunting and lots of patience are required.  Recently I had a very satisfied shopping customer looking for specific brands, namely Banana Republic, LK Bennet, Reiss, Joseph, and Diane von Furstenburg.  We did manage to find a number of the brands she was looking for, at places besides the outlet malls.  While I never guarantee these are ‘real’ (whatever real means in this country), its worth taking a look.  Right?

For discount designers tucked away in small shops, try XinLe Road, ChangLe Road, HuaShan Road, JuLu Road, Maoming South Road and Fengxian Road.

For additional help shopping my shanghai, and the best prices, please contact me!

The list of my cruises thus far…

July 99 :: Alaska :: Celebrity Mercury
July 00 :: Greece :: Royal Olympic
July 02 :: Baltic :: Celebrity Constellation
December 02 :: L.A. - Mexico :: Carnival
July 04 :: Mediterranean :: Celebrity Millennium
December 05 - January 06 :: Mexican Riviera :: Celebrity Mercury
May 06 :: NYC - Canada :: Carnival
December 06 :: Caribbean :: Star Princess
December 07 :: Antarctica :: Antarctic Dream
December 07 - January 08 :: Panama Canal :: Azamara Quest
July 09 :: Alaska :: Diamond Princess

And that doesn’t even include Yangtze River cruises or other minor river trips.

I have done a fair bit of cruising, especially for my age.  And I thoroughly enjoy it, not to say their couldn’t be improvements, but it’s an all-in-one vacation that keeps the whole family together and yet the flexibility that allows us to do our own thing. I look forward to pursuing the rumors of a summer river cruise for our next family vacation.

Last month in celebration of my grandparents’ 60th anniversary, we did a 12 night cruisetour through Alaska. The itinerary is below.  Picture set is on Flickr

July 21st - Seattle/Mt. McKinley - Fly from Seattle to Anchorage. Scenic journey north to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge
July 22 - Mt. McKinley
July 23 - Mt.McKinley/Denali - This morning, continue by motorcoach to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge.
July 24 - Denali - This afternoon, take the Natural History Tour into Denali National Park.
July 25 - Denali/Whittier - Transfer to the rail station and board the Denali Express for direct rail service to your awaiting ship in Whittier. - Set sail this evening. Departure 9:30 PM
July 26 - College Fjord, Alaska (Scenic Cruising) - Bob’s birthday
July 27 - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska (Scenic Cruising)
July 28 - Skagway, Alaska - Grandma’s Birthday
July 29 - Juneau, Alaska - Don & Caren’s Anniversary
July 30 - Ketchikan, Alaska
July 31 - At Sea - Grandparents’ 60th Anniversary
August 1 - Vancouver, British Columbia