Merry Christmas

Over Christmas we made a short trip to Sweden celebrating Christmas with my children and former family. X-Mas Eve dinner we spent in my daughters new house outside Kågeröd.
Also spend some days with my mother at her home.
As usuall too much Christmas food but we had a nice week in Sweden before we had to return home to Beijing again.
As Chinese You do not have any holidays during X-mas - we are waiting for the Chinese New Year in week 5.

December 2009 - a "black month"

Following the economic situation all over the world my company, Sony Ericsson, cut down on the number of emplyees in many places over the world. Most of our developments in US was closed and there was great cutdowns also in Kista and in Lund in Sweden.
Several of my former collegues had to leave the company and my own department was closed down.

However, I have been told to stay here in China and continue my work. Just the future can tell for how long ...

China in digits...

In China, numbers quick get big. Here some cuts from this months magazines...


97 297 400
Number of foreign tourists arriving in China from January to September this year.

66 000 000
Amount in RTMB that the new Bond movie Quantum of Solace brought in at China´s box offices during the opening week.

5 940 000
Number of visitors to Beijing over the National Holiday

25 000 000
Number of trees cut down every year in China for producing disposable chopsticks...
There is now a "campaign" to B.Y.O pair of shopsticks and carry with you.

230 000
Number of people in Beijing (official number!) living on less than
RMB 390 a month.

5 287
Roasted ducks was sold in one day,on October 2, by the restaurant chain Quanjude Beijing Roast Duck.

1 171
people died in traffic accidents during the National Holiday last year.

and in the other end.....

29
Time in seconds for the elevator at the Park Hyatt in Beijing to go from the 63th floor down to the lobby.

A smiling face in the skye

We weren't expecting to see more smiley faces in the sky until those special fireworks go on sale before Chinese New Year. But anyone who was out or looking out the window Monday night might have seen a cute little astronomical phenomenon in the southwest of the city.


A smiley face with the eyes of Venus and Jupiter and a friendly little smile care of the crescent moon.
The heavenly bodies not only smiled down upon the Olympic city, but could also be seen throughout China and across the Eastern hemisphere.
According to experts from the Beijing Planetarium the phenomenon of three celestial bodies being so close together only occurs about once a year.

Cars, cars and more cars

Rumors that Beijing was going to introduce a cap on car registration or sales have been quashed with an announcement on Wednesday that the city government would do no such thing.

The deputy head and spokesman of the commission justified the decision not to impose a limit on the grounds of a need to maintain the long-term development of the country's auto industry and sustain general economic growth.

Once again the environment is coming second when this country just think about economic growth. So typical todays China - just think about today and forget about "tomorrow" because YOU will not be there....

Rumors of an imminent introduction of some kind of limit on car sales or registration led to a spike in car sales as Beijingers attempted to beat the introduction of the new regulations. So when the rest of China's auto industry was witnessing a drop of sales up to 30% across the country, the Beijing market remained strong.

Reactions to the announcement are mixed, with many drivers already frustrated by the complex rules of the new car regulation along with automakers and potential car buyers seem relieved that the government has not decided to meddle any further.
However, other residents who have enjoyed the benefits of the Olympic odd-even ban - according to reports it helped to eliminate 120,000 tons of pollutants (about 63 percent of total vehicular pollutant emissions) and has given Beijing the best air quality results it has experienced in 8 years - not to mention less congested roads - think that the government has sacrificed the quality of life of Beijingers for the good of the economy.

Many residents are not convinced that the city's decision to forgo a limit on car numbers and instead to focus on

- expanding the public transport system
- raising parking fees in downtown Beijing
- offering free bike hire
and doing away with fuel sudsidies will be enought.

At present there are close to 3.4 million cars clogging Beijing's streets and approximately 1,200 new vehicles appear on the road everyday.
It's estimated that this number will soon reach 4 million.

Olympic after-play

A man was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and a fine of 447,000 yuan (about 65,000 U.S. dollars) for illegal scalping of more than 500 Olympic tickets.
It is the biggest Olympic ticket scalping case trialed in Beijing so far. The 41-year-old man, agreed to buy Olympic tickets for two companies in Beijing and Guangzhou at prices 50 percent to60 percent higher than the official ones, according to the Xicheng District People's Court.

He booked 527 Olympic tickets with 230,000 yuan (about 34,000 U.S. dollars) through the online ticketing system, using 2,500 pieces of identity information illegally obtained through his friend's construction company and other means, the court said. He was arrested by police on May 13 this year. Organizers of the Beijing Olympics had repeatedly warned that "resale of Olympic tickets for profit is illegal" and vowed to "support the authorities to crack down on suspected illegal transactions."

Police had warned anyone found scalping tickets would face penalties, which in some cases could be 10 to 15 days in detention.

On the way from the Subway to the Security check in the Olympic village You could every day see these "scalpers" quite open selling tickets to the games - with the police just a small distance away not care to much about the "scalpers"
But, some of them was apperantly "crossing the line".....

Enjoying Your breakfast?

It's getting harder and harder to enjoy a good breakfast in Beijing. First it was the milk - coffee drinkers across the city were forced to try and remember which brands were safe to drink, not to mention the sleepless nights that cereal eaters and pancake flippers had to endure.
Next came the maggots in the oranges - no more fresh juice for some and half price for Orange juice during a longer periode in the shops.


Finally, the discovery of melamine-tainted “problem eggs" in Hong Kong and spread of the scandal to the mainland, has left fans of a good ham and eggs worried about how much melamine they'll be ingesting with all that heart-clogging cholesterol.
However, the price of eggs in Beijing has already dropped 10% in two days.


So, what will be next? This week we see some ugly pictures of larvae-eggs in the cream of some of the most popular Bisquits. Yesterday JinkeLong (our ICA) had cat the price to half and You also got a drinking glass if You but two.....

Drum tower reopened

The Drum Tower (Gu Lou) re-opened to the public on Monday after being closed for 2 months.
The popular tourist spot was sealed after a knife-wielding stranger attacked two American tourists and their guide on the second day of the Olympics. One of the tourists, Todd Bachman - the father-in-law of the US Olympic volleyball coach, was killed in the attack and his wife was seriously injured. The 47-year-old attacker, Tang Yongming, jumped to his death after the stabbing.

Security at the site has been strengthened: an extra five security guards have been employed taking the total number of guards to 15, the tower’s balustrades have been raised and visitors are now searched when they enter the grounds.
At present, tourists are restricted to certain areas and are not allowed to freely wander the tower as they were in the past.





The Drum Tower
Daily 9am-5pm.
RMB 20, students RMB 10.

New traffic rules and extended services

New traffic regulations that will see up to 800,000 cars taken off Beijing’s road every working day, come efective from October 13 . All cars with license plates ending with either a 1 or 6 are not permitted to be driven within the Fifth Ring Road between 6am to 9pm on Mondays.

Monday 1 + 6 taken off road
Tuesday 2 + 7
Wednesday 3 + 8
Thursday 4 + 9
Friday 5 + 0

For the first month of implementation drivers caught taking their vehicles to the road on restricted days will get off with a verbal warning. After this initial period, those caught flaunting the ban will be fined RMB 100. However, no points will be deducted from the driver’s license.

Extended Subway Hours and more Buses
In order to support the new car restriction measures, the Beijing Subway Company has announced that they will extend the operating hours of the city’s subway lines. The city’s transport bureau will increase the number of buses on Beijing’s streets by 10% to 18,000 vehicles. The bureau has also announced that 10 of the 34 Olympic bus lines will be retained indefinitely and that these services will now operate from 6am daily. They’ve also increased the number of evening services by 3 lines so that there are now 15 lines operating overnight. They’ve also extended the operating hours of other bus lines.

Varied Office and Business Hours
The office hours of various unspecified industries and work units scattered across the city have been staggered to start at 8.30, 9 and 9.30am to help relieve peak hour traffic congestion. The office hours of national government bodies, Beijing government offices and schools remain the same.
Business hours of most of Beijing’s large department stores have been set as 10am-10pm. Most stores we’re already operating on this time frame but some department stores have been forced to push back the time they open by half and hour. The traffic bureau will announce the measures a week before the start of every month.

Let us hope that all these efforts can help bring down the polution again to the same (or lower) level as during the Olympics. Because soon the "heating-season" starts and all the powerplants in and around Beijing will start spreading their smoke over the city.

Nei Mongol - a rich part of China

Most of ShiZhitings family live in Nei Mongol and since her fathers youngest brothers son got married just before the holiday we took the oportunity to visit their hometown Wuhai.

This is a small and "quiet" town with just 450 000 people, in the middle of the coal- and metal district in Inner Mongolia.

Before this was a poor part of China but now with all the coal, minerals and metals found in the hills and mountains it is one of the richest provinces in China.
You see coalmines everywhere and I never have seen so many trucks on the road before - all loaded (overloaded) with coal. Since the load was not so well covered a lot of coaldust is coming from the trucks and the ground beside the roads is totally black of the dust.


















Before not too long this will be a great environmental problem together with all the power plants burning coal. You see the chimneys everywhere and can smell the coal. This is another example to how short time economy will destroy for the future. Nobody is today thinking about this - just quick make money and get out.....(of the country with the money...)

National Holiday

Sorry for not updating during a long time but have been quite busy.
Two weeks ago we had National Holiday in China and many people travelled across China - it is a small logistic miracle every year whel several million Chinese go by bus, train and airplane on the same days....

A lot of people from other parts of China visit Beijing during this holiday. This is the way it can look at Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City during one of the peak days.

8,2 million people visited Beijing major tourist sites during the week and later 38,75 tons rubbish was swept up from Tiananmen Square (last year 80 tons).
Also the Great Wall was crowded with people.




















In Badaling, 396 000 people climbed over each other.

According to the Beijing News, Beijing ate RMB 115 million worth of food, a 53.6% increase on last year.
Beijing parks saw almost 3 million visitors over the seven-day break. The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) proved the most popular with 443,900 visitors. The Altar of Heavan (Tiantan) attracted 353,300, Beihai Park 229,700 and Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) about 200,000.

So, a good advice from friends was NOT to stay in Beijing over the holiday. We did not - we went to Inner Mongolia....

Blue skies

The past weeks have been wonderful in Beijing. Not just because of the Olympics but because of the weather...
Living here for almost two years now I have never seen a weather like this before - almost every day a clear sky that is almost blue. The visibility some days was over 40 km - you could see the mountains with the Great Wall in the north being high up on a building. This August was the best month of air quality Beijing seen in many years - 14 days with "excellent" air quality and 16 "fairly good". The previous record set in 1998 was just 9 days with "excellent" air quality. Last August just had 2 days.

So, all actions take for the Olympics payed off in the end. Abandon all trucks that are heavy polluters, odd-even driving for private cars, stop all construction sites and stop all pollution from factories in and around Beijing (closed down permanent or during Olympics).

The big question is now - how will it be now when the Olympics and after that the ParaOlympics is over. Will Beijing go back to what it was before - one of the most polluted cities in the word...
We can just cross our fingers and hope not!

Typhoon!

Back in Doumen and Zhuhai (my second home) for two days meetings. Got some warning already when I arrived that there was a typhoon coming up and that it would probably strike the area during Friday.
Friday morning the typhoon warning was "yellow" - a medium strong wind with not too much impact but during the day it was increasing to "orange" - a quite strong typhoon.
So just before lunch we got order to leave Doumen and quick go back (around 1 hr) to Zhuhai and stay inside the hotel. Shuttle buses was quick arranged and the put me and Peter in a car so we quick would come back.

The maximum was estimated till around 17-18 in the evening and all people was asked to stay inside. Some of my Chinese friends was quite worried but for me it was a new experience and quite exiting....
After returning to the hotel I had to go out to find something to eat since we had no lunch. The wind was so strong so I was almost flying around in the street - feeling like the "Micheline man". The sea was not blue anymore - the water was dark brown and the waves very high - in some places pushing the water over the road and the cars driving there. And the heavy rain started - totally wet in 3 minutes.
The hotel entrance was covered with a big metal plate entrance with a small door with metal window - looked like the entrance to a prison..

In the evening the rain was very heavy and the streets "flooded" and the wind was very strong but in the morning in had calmed down and this afternoon the weather is very nice - blue sky, sun and it smells nice.

So, now I have added "typhoon" to my list of experiences.....

It was amazing...

Finally we got to see the Olympics - it was amazing!
On Sunday and Tuesday we had tickets for the Athletics at "the Bird nest"and it was a great experience. Not just seeing some excellent performance by the worlds best athletes but also to see the organization behind it.
The Olympic area with all the different venues - Bird Nest, Water Cube, Nation Indoor stadium and all the other in the Olympics park is worth a day to study. The architecture is great and now cost is saved to make it perfect.

And the service - every where. All this tens of thousand of volunteers helping you everywhere with everything - from finding the way to you venue or to take your picture standing in front of the Birdnest. All these young people doing this without any payment - just getting free food. But, as one of the girls we spoke with said
" We are doing this for our country and it is also a good opportunity for me to see and speak with a lot of foreign people - and to see some of the games for free..."

So, the games? Well it was a very special experience to watch the games inside a this stadium - together with 91 000 other people. The enthusiasm among the spectators was great and it was great to "do the Wave" together with all these people in this great arena. Once they started doing the Wave they almost never stopped again.
We also say some great results, like the new world record on Women's 3000m Steeplechase by Gulnara Galinka-Samutove with 8:58:81. Or Women 100 m where Jamaica made a triple before the three Americans.... Shelly-Ann Fraser got the gold in 10:78

















But the most amazing thing was when the games was over for the day - and 90 000 people should leave the stadium and go back home. Before I could see it as a nightmare (you all know how it looks around Råsunda after a football match when 300 people is going back - it is chaos).
No way - we just followed all the other people as a "stream" walking down to the new subway. There was volunteers all the way side-by-side showing you the way and make sure you not went the wrong way. Down into the subway (no ticket needed) and direct on to the first train on the Olympic Lane. At the end station direct change to our Line 10 and we was back at our apartment "in the other end of the city" withing 45 minutes.

I must say I am very, very impressed by the way these games are run by the Beijing Olympic Committee and by the city of Beijing. All foreign people I spoke with during the games and also in the subway had the same expression - It was amazing!

Chinese opera

Yesterday we were at the opera. Bao Bao got tickets from his music-teacher so we went with him and his father to see the opera. It was a quite famous opera with famous singers.

Although I do not understand opera and not understand Chinese it was a nice evening. The costumes and the set was beautiful and the singers were very good.
But, the first part was best with a little more "action". The second hour was a little bit boring....

Back again in Beijing - back to "the unhappy peoples Olympics"

Been back to Beijing now for almost a week. Have been sick most of the week after the trip to Zhuhai.

Now the Olympics is "knocking on the door" and common people are already talking about the "unhappy peoples Olympics" - this due to all regulations in daily life that will affect the "normal" Beijinger.

Already July 1st many trucks are not allowed to drive inside 5th ring road and this have significant cut the number of transport with food and other supply that every day can reach the city. In some areas (of cause the most poor arears) it is difficult to get food, vegetable, fruit and water.
Just outside our street the blue trucks have been grounded for a month now.














I am quite sure that the sign
"...we are supporting a green environment" not was set up by the drivers....

The system with letting cars with even figur drive even days and odd figure drive odd days have now also been put into system in surrounding citites trying to cut down the pollution - because so far we see no effect of it in Beijing. Some days are really bad and there are now just 4 days to go.
This action in the other cities have also added to the problem getting supplies into town.
Monday night we run out of our drinking water and this is normally supplied to us within 30 mins but we had to wait until Tuesday night because there were no transport into this area on Monday.

Beijing Taxi Drivers have been dressed up like never before. All drivers are to wear the same uniform over the Olympics and the have to pay fine if the do not. The selection is a little bit funny: a yellow shirt-armed shirt with tie..... Yellow is not a such good color against a Chinese mans skin (white or blue is better) and in how many western countries are we using tie together with short armed shirts? The poor guys are feeling really unconfortable since they are not used wearing tie.

We are now just waiting for the big decission on what to do about the pollution when the actions taken so far is not working. Will there be a total traffic stop just allowing Olympic people to have transport in Beijing....

Back in Zhuhai

Now back in Zhuhai again on Business trip. This time for around 10 days. Trying a new hotel since Holiday Inn is quite expensive and located in the middle of town with not so nice surroundings.

Staying at Harbour View hotel down by the sea. It is quite nice and yesterday I took a walk along the beach barefooted in the sand. It was nice and the water was quite hot and a lot of people was taking their evening swim or enjoying different "water" activities.















ZhuHai is a nice and green town compared to Beijing and I like it more for every time I am here.
The only bad thing is the 1 hrs bumpy bus drive every morning and every evening from the hotel in ZhuHai to the factory in Doumen. Since it is rainy season now you are not sure that you can go back in the evening. A few hours rain will get the roads flooded and some times not even the big buses can force the water. The clouds are getting darker outside now - crossing my fingers.....

26 days to go.... Today I got my tickets

Today we went to Bank of China close to Luft Hansa Center and picked up my tickets for the Olympis Games 2008. I bought and payed the tickets already last summer - before I knew that Caroline Klüft not is going to do the heptathlon, Kajsa Bergquist have stopped competing in Highjump and that the Swedish handboll team not even qualified to the Beijing 2008.

Now I have two tickets for each of three evenings during the finals for the athletics and two tickets for the Handboll finale for men. Even without Kajsahere will be many other and Carolines heptathlon I think there will be man buty other highlights to watch.

I am actually not that interested in sports but if you live in Beijing and it is the Olympics I think you "must have been there". Just to visit the Olympic arena, the Bird nest, will be a great experience.

Welcome to Park Avenue 4:1-11C

So, finally- our new apartment feels like a home. After almost a week with packing and unpacking boxes, buying new furniture and house hold things and putting up paintings and other things on the walls it feels like a home again.

We miss the old apartment that was our home for one year but we have been lucky finding this one. It will sure be very good and since we just moved from entrance 4:2 to entrance 4:1 we are very familiar with the area and also was able to do most of the moving by ourselfes.

This time most furniture was included so we could not self decide. It is dark Chinese furniture but the quality is very high and it is quite OK.

Living room - window against south

Dining area - against north

My office

Kitchen. This is a lot smaller and darker than we had before. The only thing we do not like with the apartment. But on the other hand, we now have a much bigger balcony and can have some real barbecue-parties...

My children in town

This week my children arrived to Beijing together with my oldest sons girlfriend. They will stay 10 days doing Sigh seeing, shopping and having some good dinners together.

Chef nr 006 entertaining my family and preparing some really good food for us. He is one of the best chefs in the restaurant.

We started on Saturday with a very nice Teppanyaki dinner at one of our favorite places in Lucky Street - Uomo.

Mats, Ylva and Shi Zhiting

Björn with his girlfriend Frida

A little "showtime" is included...

"Guest chef" Bao Bao

Moving

Back from Sweden we got quite busy because we had to move to another apartment before July 1.
We have been living at Park Avenue 4:2 16 D now for one year but our landlord did not extend the lease for another year.

This because her parents should move to Beijing and live in this apartment. It was originally bought for her parents but her mother did not like to move here because of the pollution. Since they now live in Sichuan province and was affected by the earthquake they were afraid to stay in that province and now want to move to Beijing.

We rather quick found a new apartment (maybe not so good as our old one) and was moving out on June 30. The apartment is in the same house in Park Avenue but now entrance 4:1 and apartment 11 C.

Will be more info here as soon as we get settled...

Back in Beijing with less traffic, less people

After vacation in Sweden we are now back in Beijing and again at work.
We quick noticed that something had changed in the city. Not so many people and less trafiic on the streets.
"Cleaning up" before the Olympics, all people not having resident paper from the police allowing them to stay in Beijing have been forced to move out of town. Many this poor people been living in cellars, in the shops and in offices must now go back to their home towns where they are registred.

Because in China you are registred where you live. Every time I get a new VISA I have to go to the local police and update my residential papers and lately they have also been knocking doors in our apartment area to check that all people living here are registred.

Also a clean-up in the traffic have been done. All old cars (exspecially trucks) not following the pollution standards have been banned inside 5th ring road and the fine for breaking this law is high. So, now it is a little bit smoother to get to the office in the morning and back in the evening.

Beijing also this week get their first "hybrid-taxi" that can take wheel-chairs. 50 of these cars is now in service in Beijing.

Vacation in Sweden

We have been on vacation in Sweden now for two weeks and have still one week to do before returning to Beijing. Spending most of the time seeing friends and family and just relaxing enjoying the clean air and the birdsong...

Staying in my daughters apartment at Fågelhundsvägen in Lund.

The second day in Sweden we joined the "Studentparty" for my youngest son, Mats.
He just graduated from "Filmgymnasiet" in Visby and we had a party for him with friends and family at his mothers home.

Beginning of this week we went to Stockholm for some "instant tourism"...

The Royal Castle is a "must" and also the "Old City" (Gamla stan) with it's small streets and alleys. So we spent the first evening walking around enjoying this part of Stockholm.

Second day we started by taking the Djurgårds-ferry to Skansen.

This is an "Outdoor museum" with a nice collection of Swedish history, culture and animals. It is another of those places the you must visit when you are in Stockholm.

And after ending the day with "Regalskeppet Wasa" in the Wasa museum we where quite tired.

Our last day in Stockholm we spent by doing a cruise in the archepelago of Stockholm, going out to Sandhamn. A really nice day crusising around among some of the 24 000 islands in the archepelago - must be one of the most beautiful in the world.