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

Bon Jovi, Justin Bieber and ICS

For more than a half year now, whenever there’s a gap between two programmes ICS (International Channel Shanghai) plays a music video of Bon Jovi, then followed by an attractive lady in a car whose name I don’t know and to finish it off there’s Justin Bieber. Bon Jovi I still remember from their first iteration when they were still wild and Livin’ on a Prayer. Now they are so accepted that Chinese tv couples them with Justin Bieber. What’s next, the Sex Pistols.

As an aside, the days that the commercials were in English, mostly proclaiming a city the Most “Beautiful, Exciting, etc” in China, seem to be over. One more sign that ICS is probably the most expensive English corner in China.

Stop Quoting the BMW Woman

99% of the articles about the divide between rich and poor in China and materialism in Chinese Society mention the woman that would rather cry in the back of a BMW than laugh on the back of a bicycle. The latest in an article by Jonathan Fenby (who writes great books by the way).

Time to come up with a new example as this one is getting old (it’s from 2010), it even has its own Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_would_rather_cry_in_a_BMW

And here you can find the search results of “I’d rather weep in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle”

Zero-sum Walking

More on this next week

Spot the missing letter

Crossposted on Shanghai Daily Photos

Test Test

Test Test

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 exercise program started.

“Primary schoolchildren run 1 km per day, junior high school students 1.5 km, and senior high and college/university students 2 km.”

My step-daughter has been running her daily 800 meters since June

She enjoys it and feels fitter. Maybe an idea for European and US Schools as well considering the increase of obesity

Chinese Omelette Recipe

1. Get an iron wok, make sure there’s some rust left in it.

2. Ingredients

3 eggs, preferably from a brand with “green” in it
2 table spoons of local milk, preferred brand Sanlu
Some MSG for seasoning purposes.

3. Put the eggs in a bowl, add the milk and MSG and whisk it.

4. Poor the mixture in the wok and swish it around so that a fine layer of egg sticks to the side of the pan.

5. Leave the egg mixture alone for a few minutes to allow it to cook and “set up.”
Once the egg whites have actually turned white you’re ready to serve

Enjoy your melamine breakfast

Dressing Up

I survived last night’s US Dress up contest, otherwise know as Halloween, in my own clothes.
I’m afraid though that in the future not dressing up will make me an outsider as the number of costumes in the street was considerable.

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 would be a good alternative here.

Dress up like a bin? Any other ideas?

Source: NY Times

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.

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A hilarious clip from the Onion. The internet has crashed.
Don’t forget to read the ticker.

[youtube width=”405″ height=”360″]z4vDClhnJjs[/youtube]

via: lifehacker

If you find yourself in Chongqing and have dirty hands, why not wash them here.

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