Streetstuff

Found some more fun stuff in the streets. 

Yeah, don't we all want a few inches more...

 Hard core "putkiremppa"

 They were hammering the bridge railings to get rid of the paint. There were about 10 old grannies doing this...NOISY! What a way to remove the paint

 Bikes...Someone just piled up all bikes there were outside my complex, why park when you can pile?

Annual meeting + Summer Party!

Now it was time for the Swedish chamber to have their annual meeting. After the annual meeting there was an awesome dinner songs and one Stand-Up comedy. The dinner was awesome! Have not eaten this great 3 course meal in a long time! 

Annual meeting followed by lots of other events in the ballroom

The after-party was held in Radisson SAS garden. Bar was free flow with some really good bartenders and a band was playing. Really great night!

Swedish Minister and EU Business Review

The Swedish Minister of Commerce came to China for a short visit. She is the youngest minister in the Swedish parliament, only 29 years old! She started her political career at the age of 26. 

The main topic was about SME (small and medium sized enterprises). SME companies in Sweden count for 99% of all the companies in the country so it's a huge part. They are also trying to promote SME companies in China and this meeting was a about "ideas" to the Chinese companies and how to run their business. There were also a few company CEO's giving presentations about their SME's, both Swedish and Chinese. The translator at this event had a really annoying voice...Lots of participants at the event, room was packed!

                                         

                                           

The EU Business Review was about how European companies see China now and in the future and how it's policies affect them. Some highlights were:

• China is big market opportunity, European companies estimate China’s portion in their worldwide sales to increase

• 22% of EU companies operating in China consider making next big investments somewhere else than in China. This was brought up strongly by the panel members
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• Regulatory environment is not getting better, it’s getting worse. Biggest problem is unpredictability and unclear implementation practices. As an example the poor implementation of social security system for expats was mentioned. IP protection is seen weak, even though some improvements have been made. Companies feel that they are not in equal footing with Chinese competitors, and loose revenue because of harsher regulations on European companies

• Difficult to attract expats to China- seems that this is in quite sharp contrast when compared to earlier years report. Speculation among the panel members about the reasons were: a) rising costs in China, and needs to cut costs including expat costs which makes expat contracts less attractive, b) uncertainty in European market, people may want to stay in Europe and hold onto their current jobs and not take risks in moving to China, c) environmental problems, especially in Beijing
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• Labor costs are rising, need to cut costs, increase efficiency

Land Rover - Making a commercial

I was asked to join a Land Rover commercial clip. My role was to tell how Land Rover is seen in UK and how great a car it is! So i was just making up stories about the car while camera was rolling. Was my first time I've done anything like this. And I wasn't even British so can't really say how people in UK see the car. But something like: It's a high end car, safe and fast and high quality...

1,2,3, action!

Walk around the shop looking at stuff

 Newest Land Rover, price 1.3 million rmb

Definitely need more Land Rovers in this traffic...

Beijing Ducks - Floor-ball @ Beijing

In Shanghai we had Hakkapeliitta floor-ball team and won the Chinese championship a few times. The Beijing Ducks did really well in our last Hong Kong tournament so let's see how our next tournament goes. The playtime is from 19.30 - 21.30 and it gets REALLY hot running indoors with no air conditioning when it's about 30 degrees warm.

                                     

The Ducks are playing in WAB which stands for Western Academy Of Beijing. It's an foreign international school with only people from abroad. Chinese kids with Chinese passport is not allowed to go to this school because the teachings might not be "correct" and no government officials are allowed to interfere with the learning materials. 

This and that happens on the road

While walking around the streets here in Beijing there are always some things that catch your attention. For example the way locals deliver things here, people wearing umbrellas on a sunny day so they they will not get tanned or houses torn down. 

So many people walk around with umbrellas on sunny day because it's still taught a "status" thing to be pale. The paler you are the better because if you are dark it means that you do labor outside. This is totally the opposite in Finland and so many other western countries.

 Rubble just next to a high end living quarter, in a few months there will probably be a 10 story house...

 This bike is SUPER, or at least it says so

 How beer is transported to shops and bars

 The water guy crashed with his small 3 wheeler. Caught this from the taxi, the guy seemed to be in 1 piece

 Hollywood movies with steaming sewers

Beijng's # 1 Brunch - Capital M

Capital M has been woted to one of the best brunch places in Beijing. It's an Australian guy who started it. The location is amazing just south of Tian An Men Square and food amazing! They also have a restaurant in Shanghai by the bund called M On The Bund which also has very high ratings.

For the brunch you can choose 2 or 3 courses, price is almost the same around 30 Euros. It also includes a free of choice cocktail and limitless coffee (any kind of coffee)

One of Beijing's best restaurant views of the Tiananmen Square

  Restaurant theme is 1920s all over

The reason why I chose this place was because it was Mikkos 18th birthday and birthday of that age should be remembered forever...I remember my 18th birthday, had too many tequilas and I still can't manage to drink shots of it except for some reason when James talks me into it...

Worlds Biggest SPA - Shun Jing @ Beijing

It's been quite some time since I was here last time! Henkka and Stefan you were both here about 2 years ago! There are almost 10.000 m2 of pools, hot springs and saunas here! They also build a huge grotto area where no one was swimming. In general this place was kinda empty considering we went here on a Saturday around 4 pm when it should be "rush hour". Price at the door is about 25 Euros but if you buy online the tickets it's about half that price. And for that ticket you can spend 24 hours in the SPA. They have a chill room for sleeping and also offer drinks (own beer which tasted strange) and massage. All in all WORTH the money! Hope you liked your birthday present Mikko :)

If this is not fake they made it into the worlds biggest SPA list

Their own beer which tasted kinda strange

Yes, everything looks very fancy here...

View from the reception

Cave area

Rubs The Regio Dorsells??

Blind Massage

Sunday and tired after 2 days of hard workout in the gym. Instead of going to Bodhy me and Mikko went for blind massage. They only charge 50 rmb/hour and it was pretty good. The place was popular! While we were there 4 people came asking if they are free but it was booked until 22pm and we were there at 17pm. Great massage! Will def. come again! And for 400 rmb you can buy a card to go there 10x!

New Office Opening Ceremony

Now the Beijing office is officially opened! We were blessing it with incense, BBQ port and Chicken. This is mainly done in Hong Kong for good luck and good business. The pig was barbecued in the morning and still warm when they brought it to the office. 

Comedy Night

The Swedish chamber organized a Stand-Up night at Live Bar. There were 6 persons on the stage from different countries. Some were good, some not...Drinks were cheap and the place was very cozy and "Beijingnese" old styled bar.