Machinery Expo @ Pudong

Since I'm working with logistics for many machinery companies it was a good opportunity to visit the Annual Expo in Shanghai for Machinery. We attracted a lot of attention there, first they come saying HELLO because of Mini-Kari who's 2 meters+ and then after that a white guy speaking chinese to them. A looot of people asking for our business cards...Also met with some Finish people at the expo who had been in China from 1996 and had a lot of great stories to tell. Good day and nice to get out of the office once in a while to breath a bit of Shanghai's "Fresh Air"

And that's me :)

Hundreds of meters of exhibit stands in those halls...

One of the stands looked like the World Expo Pavilion

Some of the machines had funny names, this was for a compressor...

Chinese Mad Parking Skillzzz

Last night when going to gym something had happened by the gate of my compound. Somebody had just left his/her car by the gate so no one could get in OR out. For a while it just gathered people who were all wondering who's car it was. Strangest thing is that no one knew how it got there and who's the owner even though there are 3 guards constantly checking incoming and outgoing cars?? Don't really know how it's possible....Well after a while there was a longer que because of people trying to get out and come in. Some minutes after this the police arrived and questioned people. I didn't stay there to see how it all ended but when coming back from the gym 2 hours later the car was gone. My best guess would be a angry girlfriend or wife who found out that her guy was doing something he should not. So she took the car and left it there so it would surely be confiscated by the authorities....But that's just a theory.

Still no que on the inside, probably just stopped here

Police arrives (right corner)

No one gets in or out....

Already a lot of car on both sides waiting...

Meeting the Minister

Last week Alexander Stubb the Finish Foreign Minister came to Shanghai for a 2 day visit. He held a speech about Europe's future and how Finland will develop. He also made a comment how to promote Finland and the slogan was "Finland, cooler than you think". Was a really good speech and I have to say we have an awesome Foreign Minister.

The event was hosted in one of Shanghais oldest and most exclusive hotels The Peace Hotel. Food and company was good and I also talked a while to founder and CEO of Rovio, the guy who is behind Angry Birds - Peter Vesterbacka. Really awesome guy with visions. He also said that "This was just a start, serious business will come in the future! Let's all hope so, Rovio is kinda like Finland's "New Nokia" who everyone knows about. At the moment Rovio is also the most pirate copied brand in the world and has over 400 million downloads to different mobile devices. Way to go!

When Xboxes Break Down

My Xbox gave me "blue screen" and some error message the other day because of some update gone wrong when using other than Microsoft's own games. After downloading an update it could not be put on anymore or used. Well it's not a big problem when in China, here they can update and fix your softwares really easily. So I went to the electronic market and the guy there just opened the box and flashed the software and Voila! It works again...10 euros and checked!

In Finland this would never be possible, you have to send it back to Germany for repairs and wait god knows how long and pay X amount of money...Some things in China are just so much easier, some are not...

And it's stripped...

Shanghai JAZZ Music Festival

There was a festival this weekend o the Pudong side where the World Expo was last year. They had jazz music on some stages and Dj's playing this and that on other stands. I got the tickets for free from Elements Fresh when using some of the bonus points that I collected on my membership card, normal ticket price was 150 rmb.

Band Schedule

And a message from the sponsor

"Jeanscar"

Somekinda version of Teletubbies...

The Expo area was huge and next to the river, really nice area. Weather was also perfect, sunshine and around 25 degrees, heard that there was snow in Kemi - Finland already, brrrr. Hope the Shanghai winter will not be as long and cold as last year because apartments here don't really have any central heating and it's as cold inside as outside.

The Lupu bridge

Stuff from the Expo

Main stage

The Mercedes Benz Arena - UFO

Sky was beautiful in the evening

REAL steaks with Rambo knives

Once again a proven fact that Shanghai has pretty much everything, even amazing steaks! And we were pretty much the only people in the whole restaurant. This place is on the Pudong side and it's called The Kerry Hotel. I have never seen such huge knives in any other restaurant. Even John Rambo could dine here with pride!!

Food was excellent and fairly prices as well. Strongly recommend this place! Did wondering about the menu when I found "Yesterdays soup" Maybe that's their secret of making it so delicious...:

Taipei - Capital of ROC

Taiwan capital Taipei or 台北 in Chinese. Taiwan is the Republic of China while mainland is ruled by the communist party. Mainland China says that Taiwan is a part of China while Taiwan people strongly disagrees to this and sees their country and independent.

Taipei has a lot of influence from Japan since the Japs used to rule Taiwan long time ago, also it's more open and western than mainland China.

We went to some of the main attraction where you "have to go" when in Taipei. Peace Square, National Museum, Shi Lin night market, some temples and 101!

Peace Square

Views from the other side

Taipeis most famous hotel, wonder how much one night is...

Shilin night market

Blue chicken? Please tell me if you know why, was it strangled? :P

101 - Taipeis tallest building 509 meters. The building is also earthquake proof

Compared to some other biggies

The famous LOVE sign next to 101, art by a famous artist to be found in many countries at "attraction" places. There you go Shuo.

National museum

Checking out the treasures...

Also went to try the nightlife, when going into a club we failed the first time because everybody has to wear ID to get into the club. I'm not sure if it's because of age or something else. The second day we went out the kindly let us into the bar after showing passport. Entrance fee was around 15 Euros but it also included all the drinks in the bar.

Carneighs Bar - Same as in hong Kong

The ast day we went wondering around and found Taipei's biggest burgers! It was about 3 times as big as a Big Mac burger. Very local food...Had to split it, too big for one person

After eating and walking around we went to the train station and took the bullet train back to Kao Siung in the south of Taiwan where our flight flew back to Shanghai. The train-ride took about 2 hours and went 300km/h. Taiwan was awesome!

The bullet train, a lot like the one they have in China

Keelung City

Keelung City is called the "New York" of Taiwan because they have a miniature stature of the "Statue of Liberty" on top of one of their department stores (didn't get a picture) and text of KEELUNG as in Hollywood.

On top of the highest hill in the city there is a temple for good luck where people come, from here you can also see the KEELUNG sign which looks like the one there is in U.S.

Top of the hill

Up in the temple they had bears to ride on! Was pretty slow but they were playing billboard hits while "driving" them.

Last week there had been a huge accident with tanker that was split in half because of the strong Taifoon (and some finnish idiots go drive scooter in that kind of weather!) The tanker had split in half, one part was now on the shore but the other one had sunk to the bottom with it captain and 11 crew members. 2 members still lost somewhere, most likely sleeping with the fishes.

Taiwan is a volcanic island and was shaped by volcanoes thousands of years ago. That's why you can find amazing rock formation like this in north of Taiwan (just outside Taipei). Many of the stones actually look like something, just use your own imagination and make something out of them :)

Heartbroken?

Caveman mattress

Strange rock

Mushroom rocks

Because Keelung is next to the sea you can find all kinds of deep-sea animals. There are fish or all size, crabs, eels, huge snails and things I don't even know what they are (but would not wanna find out either). People here really eat anything that comes from the sea...

ANGRY crabs that had to be placed inside bottles or otherwise they would have killed each other

Huge snails, eels

Easy choice, just go for the lobster