Wine tasting @ Yucca

Yucca had a wine tasting event, all kinds of South Australian wines to try. So much things about wines I didn't know that affects the taste of it and so many different grapes! If the grapes are in colder climates the taste is less sweet like many of these white wines here...

After the wine tasting there was an event for cyber companies in a hotel. Views towards Nanjing Road, everything looks small from the 65th floor...

Swedish Annual Gala

It was the Swedish Chamber of Commerce Annual Gala this weekend. Really nice party organized in The Hilton Hotel. It was hosted by a pretty famous guy in Sweden called Collin Moon and there was all kinds of program like singing, stand-up and other jokes. The Swedish are awesome at organizing events!

Food and drinks were really nice as well, Christmas came early this year in form of a clam :)

Bränboll

Wow it's become so warm here! Slippers and shorts everyday now! We had a brännboll/baseball match in Shimao Riviera apartment complex. Haven't played this for years, guess it was high school last time! A lot of people gathered here, had some music and beers on the grass with sunny weather. Great day!!

Run run run!

Doesn't look much like China here...

The views from Shimao are NAJS from the 41st floor!

我的钥匙坏了。。。

大家好！ 室好久我没写了中文，不知到如果中文进步了。。。那，现在要写一下。

我昨天做了一个新的钥匙因为以前的钥匙给James了。这里有很多路上的人做钥匙可是质量有时候不好，这次质量真不好！昨天做的钥匙 不会用所以我不能回家。。。有点儿生气了，下班儿以后回家不能开门，哎呀。那我去找一个锁匠，他打开我的门可是需要给他一百人民币。。。今天我再去做两个新的钥匙，一个不错可是一个不会用。之后我去做新的钥匙一直都要做三个四个。。。

上海终于有夏天，最近每天大概二十八度！ 太舒服了！下班儿以后我在阳台上网，晒黑，喝点儿咖啡，休息。。。我爱我的工作！

弟弟，当你来这里已经很热！ 不要带很多衣服，好了吗？这里也很便宜买新的东西。。。

明天室瑞典的大使馆的周年，应该很不错的晚会！ 他们的票比较贵，六百快一张可是吃的和饮料室免费的。

我已经两个星期感冒了，咳嗽还没好了。有点儿讨厌，每天喝很多finrexin。希望快好了，很想去健身练习练习！

Back from Hong Kong

After an extended weekend that felt like weeks I'm back in Shanghai again! The airplane was over an hour late and I almost missed a very important meeting that started 16.30 because of that.

It's suddenly become warm in Shanghai, tomorrow's weather forecast is sunny and 28 degrees! Have to go to Ikea and shop a table and some chairs for my office balcony so I can sit out taking some sun while enjoying Wi-Fi :)

Typical evening street view of HK, much less traffic than SH or BJ

Macao - Land of Casinos

Been in China a long time now but now was the first time I had the chance to go to Macao, last time I tried there was so much mist that boat would have been 4 hours late and didn't want to wait that long...It's a Ferry trip from Hong Kong that takes just about 1,5 hours and is fairly cheap. One Person is about 20 Euros.

I took a tour buss that went around the island but that was a total rip off...It didnt really stop at any cool scenic places so after 1h rid with it I just hailed a cab and went exploring the map by my own and it was much more fun. Macao is like mix of Europe and Asia at the same time. Some houses are chinese while some western and the roads are build just like in Europe. It only feels "half abroad" to come here expect for the fact that everywhere you look all people are Asian...

Taoism, these slippers have served me 2 years, love em, 1 euro :)

Macao was a colony for the Portuguese and given back to Mainland China about 10 years ago. Like Hong Kong it still enjoys things that are not allowed in Mainland. You can surf the internet on Facebook and there is press freedom here etc.

Is it Italy or is it China?

Macao is like the Vegas in Asia, there are Casinos everywhere! I went to the biggest and most "famous" for it's architecture. Even manage to win enough money to get my boat tickets paid :) The building looks like a huuuuuge flower!

Tried to shoot it down with the old fort cannon

From 1860

Many buildings from the 19th century still stand in the city and the government here has done a great job to preserve them

There was a "massage walk" which I would call the walk of pain. Small stones put into the concrete to walk on. Chinese massage believes that there are spots under your foot that stimulates certain organs in the body when pushing them. So, this should have stimulated my entire body, it HURTED a lot! Did it twice :)

Video can be found : HERE

The butterfly was also training it's feet

Old ruin， main tourist attraction point

Seagod!

Macao even had an own Colosseum! Was very much like the one in Rome

IKEA!!

Everything in Hong Kong is big, modern and clean. BUT! The Ikea here is different than any other Ikeas around the world. I've been in many countries Ikea and it looks the same in all. The food court is massive and you can get the same stuff world wide. Well, not in Hong Kong you can't! The only thing they serve here are boxes of 5 meatballs without potato mash, hotdogs, chicken wings, ice cream and some cakes. The place is very small and you can't even sit to enjoy the food. Blaaah! Never go to Hong Kong to eat Ikea food...Poor Swedish expats here.... :)

What's on the menu today....nothing much

Crowded, no seats...

Call this meatballs?

Hong Kong History Museum

It's been raining all day so I decided to skip the Macao trip for today and go tomorrow instead. Going to a museum today seemed a good idea because of the bad weather. They had the Hong Kong history on display. There were a lot of movie about the history, so many things happened here. Chinese goverment only allowed foreigners to trade in certain cities of China in the beginning of the 19th century until a war broke out and the Brittish overtook Hong Kong as a colony 1842 for 150 years. In 1997 Hong Kong was given back to Mainland China but still operate under the same rules as it did. In Mainland Tv, Newspapers and Internet are blocked and restricted while in Hong Kong it's as open as Europe. All kinds of criticize against the government is strictly forbidden in Mainland China.

Hong Kong Museum of History

Map of Hong Kong, to the north the Chinese Mainland boarder

Japanese Propaganda. Stop Useless Resistance Hong Kong, capitulate!

Fishing boat from the old times, countless of movies have these!

Wartime Dollar while the Japanese were occupying Hong Kong

Original Brittish tram from back in the day, pretty much like the ones they have now

Island traffic

Hong Kong is divided into 2 parts: The Hong Kong side and the Kowloon side (the islands). A lot of people choose to live in the island side because it's a lot cheaper. The rent prices on the Hong Kong side are a lot higher than in Helsinki! For a single bedroom of about 50m2 in city center prices go up to 1500 euros a month. Went to a friends place who lives on the island. Cars are forbidden here and only a shuttle buss operate between the houses.

This one was the Park Island

World's longest 4 lane bridge is...HERE

The Ferry, 30mins from Central

One thing that you can only find in Hong Kong are the 2 story trams that go around the whole city. It's nice and cool to sit in them, windows always open and only cost 2 local dollars (0.20 cents)

It's ALWAYS misty when I'm in Hong Kong. I somehow manage to choose those 100 days of mist that they have annually here...Great.

Shanghai - Hong Kong, again

Going to Hong Kong for 5 day to fix some things, like usually the plane is late again. China should really open more of their airspace and not keep it closed like it is now. Only 25% of the Chinese air space is open to public traffic, the rest is military…And there are just too many planes in the air for keeping it smooth. A few years ago planes were never late here, now it's been like this every time!

Took the Maglev train again and this time it went up to 431km/h! I also met a Chinese girl in the train who had studied Swedish as her major and I could seriously not tell that she was Chinese! The accent was pure Stockholmish! Amazing! She told me there are 17 people in China who study full time Swedish, not much considering to the 1,4 billion population here.

I accidentally smuggled a Letterman into the airplane. When I was at the que for X-Raying the bag I remembered that I have my keychain with me. Dammit! I had this Letterman since I was 12 years old. Maybe I don't have a terrorist face because the guy at the counter didn't even ask me to open the bag! Just looked at me like "Oh, another blonde guy, whatever" I'm sure I'm not gonna get away with this the next time, have to put it into the other bag, this knife has sentimental value and has been faithful for over 14 years now :)

Shanghai's 14th Autoshow

What sells like Vodka in Finland when it comes to China? CARS!!! People here buy the most amazing wheels without so much as looking at the price tag. Most of these luxury cars were already sold BEFORE the expo even started. I got a VIP pass to the event so got to see all the newer and extreme models and no need to que...

I was an Exhibitor....lol

Kimi's driving one of these I guess

Last weekend's 3rd place in the F1 Race

The most expensive car in the Expo was the Rolls Roys Limousine with gold and diamond interior. Price about 150 million Euros! For that you can buy 1,5 private jets…But if you want the most expensive this is what you should get, ridiculous price…

The newest Ferrari model looked cool and there were also a few other that were very nice. From 0-100km/h in less than 3.4 seconds!

Specs

Lamborghini is more popular in China than Ferrari and the average age for people who buy one of these is less than 30! It's over 20 years less than anywhere else in the world. What would you say if your first car was one like this?

Volvo's concept car was pretty cool as well! The old school version was also at display here.

New electric cars are coming to the market, this new Smart is purely electric and looks pretty futuristic...

The Japanese brand Mitsuoka looked really interesting, wonder how it is to drive. Never heard of the brand. Price about 180.000 Euros for the sport model and the other white that looks like something of a old american car 110.000 Euros.

There were only 2 male models in the whole exhibition, one of them Chinese standing in front of this Riot vehicle looking all big and bad :D

Geely, the Chinese company that bought Volvo had designed a new luxury car. Reminded a lot of Rolls Roys and cost 1 million Euros…

Jaguar beast! Would love to have one of these...

BMW concept