Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

February 28, 2005

Brazilian Barbecue (B-) – Brunch

Filed under: Shanghai Restaurants — Shanghai @ 11:49 pm

We have made it a habit to brunch out in the weekends. Actually we do this for the reader. I mean what better reference than an honest blog…., not as we are rather biased and subjective when it comes down to food.

Sharing my joy or stomach pains with you will from now on happen weekly. I have never been to Brazil myself so I am not even sure whether Brazilians are as BBQ crazy as Australians, Americans or Dutch people.

In China though the word BBQ is connected to Brazil. Several Baxi (Brazil in Chinese) restaurants have sprung up. It’s all you can
eat meat from huge skewers that are carried around by waiters. They carve/cut pieces of huge chunks of meat, juices dripping on your plate, providing you with unlimited chicken kidney’s and they even have grilled bananas. A salad buffet is available for the healthy friends.

There are many and we chose Real BBQ in the Raffles City, 3d floor (see floorplan). I mean, why choose a fake one.

You pay around 55 Kuai for the food which is a reasonable deal. The meat could be more abundant but it’s still ok. The salad buffet is not bad at all, they even have egg salad.

Drinks are pricier but if you stick to hot water I am sure you will walk away feeling like a happy pig yourself. Next weekend
we go up market.

No Categories yet

Filed under: default — Shanghai @ 11:28 pm

All day I have been trying to order my blog. The idea is that I will
have categories added, so my trivial posts will have a second chance
besides the archives. Unfortunately the solution hasn’t come yet so
till then I blog on with only the eternal archives as a reference. The
future will hopefully bring some solutions.

February 27, 2005

World Mother Tongue Day

Filed under: China News Soft — Shanghai @ 1:47 am

Apparently I missed an important day. The World Mother Tongue Day.
Never heard of it , maybe because the Dutch language is never allowed
to participate. The People’s Daily carries a lovely “Opinion”
which rambles on about the poor state of comprehension Chinese
youngsters have of their own language. One of the conclusions in this
article is ” Particularly today when China’s overall national strength
is
increasing, its international status is rising and its international
influence is expanding with each passing day, we should all the more
take pride in our own unique, time-honored mother tongue, we should
even have such an ambition: Let our Chinese language go global as does
English.” So for all you businessmen coming here, you better teach
yourself 4000 characters, learn how to pronounce them in 4 dialects or
…. just wait a bit and talk to the young generation whose English is
improving by the day.

February 25, 2005

International Metropolis & Bed Sheets

Filed under: Shanghai Life — Shanghai @ 1:16 pm


shanghai quilts The clouds are back again. For three days though I had the feeling
Shanghai looked different. The sun was the perpetrator. Even the most
grey buildings seemed nice. Walking outside the streets in my area,
quilts and sheet were hanging in the street, forcing me to zigzag and
duck. Sitting next to it were the owners, watching the airing of their
quilts, guarding it for sheet thiefs and enjoying the sun themselves.
For me this is real city life. The blending of the ordinary with modern
high rises. The Public Sanitation Bureau
is less happy with such activities, afraid as they are that the image
of Shanghai as an International Metropolis will be tarnished. There is
even a regulation forbidding it, adopted in April 2002. The
Shanghainese don’t care, luckily, they continue to air.

February 22, 2005

The Spring Festival Days

Filed under: Private — Shanghai @ 2:11 am

People wearing coats in the house give me the feeling that they are on
the verge of leaving. In my parents in law’s place it’s more a matter
of being on the verge of eating. And eating we did, morning, afternoon,
evening, in between nuts and other chewable bits and tats and then
again and again. Not too bad actually.

They wore the coat, as it was cold. I didn’t at first and got one. I guess they were smarter..



We met many family and friends of my loved one. Most of them are great,
the not-so-great-one’s I write about. Meeting a white face for real
appears to be scary. It was one of those friends that told my
girlfriend she felt relieved we left. Another friend took care of my
health by providing me with fruit, after she first loudly exclaimed in
Chinese to the other guests that I hadn’t eaten fruit yet. “Laowai me
chi shuiguo”. Being talked about in the third person is always funny, I
murmur in my good moments. Especially because I understood her. Another
friend, not a good one I must add, asked my girlfriend if we were
serious….you know… the relationship. Yeah right, we travel all the
way to Chengdu, meet the parents, meet all the friends just in order
not to be serious and we love traveling in high season. The same friend
who is so desperate for contact she once ended up in a gay bar in
Shanghai. According to her they had to spell it out for her, before she
realized she wouldn’t find a man interested in her. But this is China,
so we stay friendly; at least that is what my girlfriend tells me, as
maybe the not-so-good-friend can be useful. I also intend to
practice my karaoke skills. Man, did I sound bad.

February 10, 2005

My First Hongbao

Filed under: China Culture — Shanghai @ 10:52 pm

hongbaoIt’s 21:00 when we arrive in
Chengdu. Chinese New Year’s Eve. A
taxiride of 25 minutes and I enter the house of the parents of my
girlfriend. It’s the first time they will see the white face that has
become part of their daughters life. My Chinese is not non-existent but
Chengdu hua (local slang) is something I haven’t grasped. So, how
to communicate and express politeness. Well, I was instructed to just
utter a lot of xiexie (thank you), hen hao chi (the food is very nice)
, another xiexie and most of all smiling. I did all these things and
actually it was not hard at all. They were a sweet old couple and
smiled back, urged me to eat more and especially eat rice at the end of
the meal. There’s no good start of the New Year without eating rice. I
smile, eat a lot and drink even more as my brother in law keeps on
pouring a pretty good Chinese Cabernet. We watch the CCTV Spring
Festival Show which is the Yearly highlight, at least audience wise,
and then the children, the small ones, I might add, are handed a red
envelope, the so called Hongbao. In it is some money to buy sweets or
something else kids like. Mother in law then goes to the study again
and coming back, she hands me a Hongbao. I am now one of the kids, the
small ones at
least.

February 6, 2005

Smart Chinese Marketing

Filed under: Whatever — Shanghai @ 5:41 pm

Right, let’s get some visitors to the East China Import and Export
Commodity Fair. Ok, let’s make an ad, but don’t spend too much time on it.

China Fair



Cool, and now buy some
advertising space on EIN News.
Hey, I can see the ad and I am sure the English readers will be fluent in
Chinese so just make the ad link to the Chinese section of our Website. Boss, we did it, look and see how professional we are.

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