Stand Up @ Blue Frog

One of my friends managed to book a few tickets to a sold out Stand Up comedy show. There were some artists from UK, US and Australia that were flown into China for their first show here. The whole thing was hilarious! Never seen anything like this before, they were making fun of all kinds of people in the audience that were sitting in the first rows. Better take a back seat if your sensitive :)

Next one coming up in January!

 His first joke was the best "People say I look like a mix of Hagrid and Ron". And he kinda does...

 This guy made awesome songs and everything

SMOG!!

The smog comes and goes here, some mornings it's clear blue sky and today it's like this...Feels heavy to breath and by the end of the day ur lungs hurt a bit and it's like u been chain-smoking for a day, jei...

 The guards at my office are very active sleepers...Someone came screaming to him what he is doing but he just looked up as if he does not care or understand why he was screamed at. China....

Pizzas & DJ Hell

Evening starting at PBD Pizza, a place next to a lot of big universities in Beijing. 19 inch pizzas go for about 15 euros and are awesome. 3 liters of beer is just about 4 euros and later in the evening the just started giving out stuff for free. Amazing place :) 

It was anything but this!

 Dj Hell was playing later that night at HAZE from 2 - 5.30 am. Great gig!

Oil and Gas Expo

China is full of all kinds of expos all the time and there are people coming from all around the world to take part in them. But not only that, Chinese companies are manufacturing more and more high tech equipment  Although not all of them are as high or not even nearly as high quality as the Europeans and US products. But they are slowly getting there.

Norwegian oil platform

Chinese machinery

Talked to an American who invited me for a private banquet afterwards, their Bloody Mary's were quite special and SPICY! Buffet food was also amazing!

In the evening when I came home a lot of people were burning stuff in the street. I have seen this before but that is usually on "tomb sweeping day" when you honor the dead. This week I seen about 30 fires in the street, there must have been a lot of people dying in Beijing this week or its something else...Anyone?

Autumn in Beijing

Autumn is coming, it's getting cooler and the leaves are falling down but the air has been surprisingly clean for a longer time. Went for a meeting next to Liangmaqiao where the bigger hotels and offices are. View was great :) Down there you can see the third ring road

 The Swiss Chamber organized a wine tasting party at a newly renovated place by 1949 restaurant. Was really nice and professionally organized

 Pink Life restaurant still exists and it's as messed up as before. This tome however, around 21 on a Thursday night it was completely empty...

 Some random chinese guy was sleeping in the backroom...whaaaa

 Autumn is here, leaves are yellow or has already fallen off. This is just next to the Sri Lankan embassy

Around the office

My office here in Beijing is located just north of the airport. The development of this area has been incredibly fast! In the summer this huge area of cranes and houses coming up was just a huge hole. Now 4 months later it already 10 half made floors! Only in China can you see this kind of speedy development. BUT the quality of these buildings are usually poor. They are build to hold about 20-30 years. By the year 2020 about 40% of all the property in China needs to be renewed, will need quite a lot of cement...

 Construction yard everywhere

 The migrant workers houses, probably 100 persons living in that small place. It usually smells kinda bad around these places, never seen a toilet around these places so maybe that's the reason. Or showers....

When a small place called Wuqing became a part of Italy

Recently there has been a lot of real estate projects in China to build up malls, apartments and even cities that look exactly like some parts of Europe. Last year I saw a town in South of China that was a complete copy of a small village in Swizerland, now this...

I went to Wuqing for a work meeting last week and on my way to the factory I passed this "Florentia Village". It felt kinda surreal, totally empty and everything looking like you just came to Italy. Weird!! 

 The place is full of stores, high end brands and restaurants

 Even added SPQR to it, lol

 and build a river flowing through it....

 Mini Colosseum 

Property Problems

Like I earlier already mentioned, there have been some problems with my apartment. Well they keep coming...There has obviously been some leak of water behind my washing machine because the walls are completely destroyed around it, moist and crap quality.

The whole cupboard door fell off now. I've been waiting for someone to come and fix it over a week already but nothing...Too heavy to fix myself and I don't have the tools either.  

The wall next to the washing machine is also falling apart

Behind the washing machine it looks seriously bad

Water dripping from the roof

Some snow fell down in Beijing and it has become minus degrees in the evening, great! However the weather has not been too polluted recently. Quite blueish skies and nice sunsets. Really looking forward to the Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia trip next moth!

SNOW!

 Sun is setting the middle kingdom

This and that, visas schmisas

 On Thursday it was a historical day for China again, the 18th congress started and they government will choose a new leadership in the incoming 10 days. As much as 90% of the 3000 persons sitting in the governmental posts will be changed. Wonder if anything will change...The internet has been slow and they even shut down the VPN services for many providers stopping anyone from accessing foreign sites or Facebook here in China...And the security measurements REALLY tight in tiananmen area, should probably go and see how it is there and take some pictures.

 The Swedish Embassy had a short morning briefing about Visas for Chinese here. At the moment it is not possible to get a Swedish Visa and then fly to Germany for example...Regulations have changed, before it was ok to fly to different destination than the issuance of the visa...Now you will be stopped at the airport (for Chinese citizens) if you have tickets to another place than your visa.

 Weather has mostly been good here but just a little cold now, jacket def needed! Still a bit warmer than Finland though :)

 Massage! I found a place just next to my house that offers 100 minutes for about 10 euros! It's awesome after a hard days work....

Halloween!!

Once again Spider-man was saving the streets in Beijing! A few home parties and then off to a big techno music festival that continued until late. Was a looooot of fun and everyone were so cool dressed. The Beastie Boys took Spidey by surprise :)

 Even though I live in a "expat" complex the quality of the house is really crap. I had had dripping water from my roof, the toilet has been leaking to the floor below me, the walls are cracking and now this. The kitchen is falling apart. I called to the management office but they said tehy can't fix it. They are looking for some "specialized" worked who can help me. Grand....Wonder when it will get fixed. I tried fixing it myself but it's impossible without the right screws and tools. Play the waiting game....