Osaka - a city of stunning diversity and culture

I touched down at Kansai International Air terminal on friday noon, (29 april).... the word Kansai International Air Terminal is very very familiar to me. i did research on it for a project in school and it's designed by a very famous architect-Renzo Piano. and now.... i can't believe that i was stepping on this man-made island !!

well, japan... another very different place. I guess my experience really started at the airport...going thru customs, had my backpack searched.... but it was all good, they were friendly and i guess they were just doing their job.

i took airport limousine to osaka city center. osaka is a water metroplis. not only because of its proximity to the sea, but also because of the numerous rivers and canals that crisscross it. it was over the water that most commerce flowed to, through and from osaka. on the way to the city, i saw lots of sailing yatchs, industrial area, beaches....and flamingo ~~

my next big encounter was the mrt. what can i say.... its messy!! they have lots of routes, you got to spend some time to really look at the map. if you intend to travel to japan, make sure you get a 7 day or 14 day rail pass. travel without it is grosly overpriced. and much more if you want to catch the shinkansen (bullet train) anywhere else.

a few other strange things about japan. its not a very friendly place to visit if you are looking for friendly, hospitible locals. not many people speaks english here, and they always round of some japanese that i have no hope of understand. a japanese phrasebook would come in real handy. japanese are very kind and will try to help u as much as they can if u ask them. however, you will always seem to get strange looks from the locals, i guess i m 'gaijin' (foreigner)..... :)

so far everything has gone extremely well. the weather have been magnificent...sunny and warm during the day with a bit cooler evenings.

Shanghai Motor Show 2005

Lamborghini concept car Exhibition booth with water feature Mini Cooper

The exhibition was held in the neighbourhood of Pudong in Shanghai every 2 years. I heard this year's show demonstrated a huge effort to be an influential and a large scale international show. Not only have local auto makers stepped up the quality of their exhibition booths and presentation (with some English catalogues) but all international brands were flexing their muscle. More than 1,000 exhibitors from around 26 countries and exhibiting area of 120,000sqm made the auto show the largets one ever.

Sarawak Laksa

Winter BBQ ?? At Oriental Green Haven - Somewhere near Shanghai

Winter BBQ

We had a BBQ today at Oriental Green Haven. A wonderful place with gentle scenery, ponds and lakes, gardens, bamboo woods... It's quite a huge place. The BBQ garden was located at the northern part - an area where you can see architeture with British, American, Spain features or something, each equipped with adequate modern holiday facilities such as tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, natatoriums etc..

The Eastern part is where the martial aircraft carrier stands tall and upright near the lake bank, show you the secrets of modern military science. I think the most exciting part is the "Bravers Trip". On the 200m long road for bravers, you can climb, jump, creep, run or whatever your body can do without tools in order to pass the military barriers and net twine labyrinth.

Well, the barbecue food was not nice. Was said "Unique Barbecue Food" with beverage and snack included. We booked 5 BBQ pit with little food and choices each pit - taiwanese hotdog, fish balls, half pigeon, few slice of beef, and 'man tou' (chinese bread). I don't like it personally... :) but I do love the scenery!

The Holidays that I've been waiting for

Left China to Singapore and Malaysia for holidays, Finally....!

The first few days in Singapore are always odd after staying in Shanghai for more than a year. It's probably a reverse culture shock! @.@

It all started by how polite everyone is in Singapore. When you buy something in a shopping mall or retail outlet, the staff will say "Thank-you", smile and proceed to wish me have a good day. When I bumped into someone, I always have to remember to say "sorry" or "excuse me" and they will invariably say "sorry" back. Scene like these will never happen in Shanghai! I've lost count of the number of times I've been knocked off my feet by people to get pass me and they just looked at me in shock and anger and continue onwards without showing the slightest bit of remorse!!

When you are walking on the streets, it's amusing to see cars stop by the zebra-crossing to allow people to pass by. You see all cars stop at the red light at a virtually empty intersection, patiently waiting for the light to change to green before they head on.

It was refreshing.

Beijing Golf Club in Winter

Ok, Nellie and I was so excited about this photo that we took during our site visit. A beautiful and peaceful scenery with a bicycle under the tree... The first things we did was change our desktop photo to this pic, haha!

Beijing Trip Update

Back from Beijing. It's freezing !! Well, the construction site is actually located beside Beijing city, 2 hours drive from Beijing Airport.

A so call "hotel" that we are staying was the lousiest hotel I have ever stay in! It's just like a motel with broken ceiling... but we are told that's the best hotel in town :)

I was thinking that finally, we can try the authentic Peking Duck (a famous dish in Beijing) but instead, we had some other authentic dish like fried chicken ankle!!!... in a so call high class restaurant :) But it's a lot nicer then Shanghainese food. Beijing people are friendly. We are so glad that the big clients that we met speak English! The guy is a HK born Canadian PR while the lady is married to an American. They speak good English!




From the left: Van (Our Art Director), Me, Client, Client, Nellie and the one holding the camera was our technical designer! :D

Beijing Trip

Just a quick post... will be going outstation to Beijing later for a Golf Club House and Hotel project. I am now writing this blog while waiting for my driver to fetch me to the airport at 6am later. Well, it's winter time and guess Beijing will be colder than Shanghai.

WenZhou Trip

Arrived in WenZhou for a business trip early in the morning today. Wow, I can't believe that i was treated like a Queen when I'm there. On arrival, there was a VIP shutter just to fetch me to the VIP airport lobby where the driver was already waiting at the entrance. Oops, did I told you who's my client ? Well, he's the Director of China's Petroleum!

WenZhou lies in the middle section of China's golden coastline. Bordering on the East China Sea and standing by the Oujiang River. It is the economic, political and cultural as well as communication center of the southern part of Zhejiang Province.

Many people think of WenZhou, whose many small commodities such as shoes and lock are well known the world over, as a commercial city. Shops line its streets, and WenZhou people have such business acumen, they are popularly known as China's wheeler dealers.

We had our lunch in a very high-class Chinese Restaurant. Abalons, traditional snacks such as dumpling soup and sesame seed cake were served, and claypot fish which was cooked in front of you ! I was told WenZhou cuisine is one of the four noted cuisines of Zhejiang Province. Less oily and often uses yellow croaker fish, crab and squid as ingredients.

The Sleepless Shanghai

View taken from my bedroom's window

It's midnight now and I couldn't sleep. My room is freezing even I got my heater on. I took out my mobile phone and start shooting anything outside my window. It's snowing...

I am staying in an old service apartment at the end of DingXi Road, very near to ZhongShang Garden and 5 mins walk to MayFair Hotel. It's consider a crowded area beside Shanghai City center. The advantages staying here are: you can get almost everything here, walking distance to fast food restaurant like McDonald and KFC, Cantonese Restaurants, Shanghainese Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, shopping centers... It's great !

When midnight comes, it's very quiet, and what wake me up in the morning ? 6.30am, a group of elderly playing 'Tai Chi' using a radio and 7am, China's National Anthem ! I am staying in 18th floor, can you imagine that ?? :)

Ok, back to sleep...

It's snowing in Shanghai

Heavy snow

Photo taken outside my work-place. I left the office at around 8pm and waited for a cab for more than an hour! They are all occupied! Althought it's just a 15 mins walk from home.

I am trying to get a cab nearby... but the local seems more expert to jump in a cab quick!! So, my best option is: walk home! Strong wind, slippery road, traffic jam...by the time I reached home, it's 10pm ++. Had my shower and a good night sleep. What a bad day!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve