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The pictures speaks for itself, but in case you have trouble recognizing this Expo three of Chinese celebrity, that's Lang Lang playing air piano, Jackie Chan giving you the thumbs up and Yao Ming towering above them with a slightly deflated looking Haibao perched on his shoulder.
In celebration of the last weekend of the annual Qingdao International Beer Festival, Shanghaiist presents a list of beer and non-beer related facts about Qingdao:
And, of course, all this talk of Qingdao and beer has naturally got us curious about Tsingtao beer. Besides the factoid our friend told us about how the 3 kuai liter bottles use formaldehyde as a preservative (and we kind of believe him, judging from the hangovers), we realized that we know almost nothing about China's most famous beer.
From Wikipedia:
Tsingtao Beer, a well-hopped standard pilsner of 3.1% alcohol, is the flagship brew, accounting for most of the brewery's production. An unpasteurised version is sold as Tsingtao Draft Beer. Tsingtao Beer was long advertised as being "brewed with mineral water from the Laoshan Spring", which contributed to its characteristic flavour; however, this now applies only to beer produced in Qingdao, not to that produced in the company's other breweries. Originally, Tsingtao Beer was brewed in accordance with the German Reinheitsgebot ('Purity Law') of 1516, therefore the only ingredients that were used were water, barley, and hops. After privatization however, the recipe was changed, so that today Tsingtao beer, like many other beers made in China, contains a proportion of the less-expensive rice as an adjunct in the mash.The brewery also produces a number of other beers, mostly for the local market. Those sometimes encountered outside China include Tsingtao Dark Beer (5.2% alcohol), and more rarely Tsingtao Spirulina Green Beer, also sold as Tsingtao Green Beer, a 4.5% alcohol green-coloured pilsner containing spirulina as an additive, and claimed to promote good health. (Note: alcohol content of export versions may vary slightly.)
Of course, one of the beer fest's biggest attractions is that we finally have the chance to drink beers other than Tsingtao. But we're always up for trying a new variety of Qingdao, especially healthy, spirulina filled beer (although it bears an eerie resemblance to the water that comes out of our bath). And we'd rather ganbei with the world for a weekend than ganbei with our friends at our local xiaomaibu like we usually do.
We're a bit stout-headed when it comes to planning things in advance, but for the weaker of stomach, there's a pretty good guide to getting your kuai's worth of a beer festival. China has named Qingdao the ninth most livable city in China, but Shanghaiist's Chinglish loving side thinks a more appropriate accolade is "China No. 1 Fragrant Beer King City"
True, the government has been quite busy in the preparations surrounding the 60th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China: crackdowns on illegal firearms and explosives, tighter security than at the olympics for the National Day celebrations, and the classic visa clampdowns that come with every important holiday. But what about the celebration? We've been busy doing our hair...monuments and popping popcorn one kernel at a time for the Sept. 17th release of the blockbuster film "The Great Cause of China's Foundation," but up until today, we've been left in the dark about China's plans.
Fortunately, the government has quite a show in store for such a massive milestone in the history of the PRC. This year, National Day will be commemorated by a massive display of Chinese pride and, well, population: among more traditional festivities of speech-giving and banquet-setting, this year's celebration will involve a military parade and a pageant big enough to make North Korea's Mass Games seem like a junior high talent show.
The spectacle will start with a parade on October 1 showcasing China's achievements in bolstering it's military power - a celebration with the dual intent of proving China's "resolution to safeguard world and regional peace and stability."
The pageant, which will include around 200,000 citizens and 60 floats, is centered around the humorously literal theme "Motherland and I Marching Together". Finally, on National Day Evening, a gala will be held in Tian'anmen Square, featuring party cadres, senior government officials, and fireworks all on display.
If parades and pageants aren't your thing, Beijing officials have also prepared a massive outdoor musical. "Road to Revival," featuring a cast of nearly 3,200 people, will depict the past 169 years of Chinese history from the Opium War to the present. Jingoism aside, we're sure the production will be just like High School Musical 3... with less teenage angst and more revolutionary zeal!
In spite of the grand scale of the celebration, the festivities are meant to be frugal. A spokesperson for the National Day Celebration Preparation Committee stated that the government is planning "to create a festive environment at an economical cost."
We can't help but wonder exactly how any part of this spectacle qualifies as "economical."
The New York Times recently ran an article about young Americans flocking to China for job opportunities because job prospects are so bleak in the U.S. The article made it sound as if it's easy to find a good job there even if you don't speak Mandarin or know much about Chinese culture. Is it really that easy?
The answer quite simply is no. Starting a career in China can be very worthwhile, but there are major downsides. Before racing across the globe to launch your new life, you need to think very carefully about whether it is worth it and, if you decide it is, how to guarantee yourself a meaningful experience.
On the good side, China's economy remains strong, and people are palpably proud of its strength. Work in China is challenging and fast-paced, and young executives get far more responsibility than they would back home. China is clearly the next growth engine for most multinational corporations, as the country's consumers and companies buy more and become less price-sensitive. Executives with experience in China will be in high demand back at headquarters and at leading business schools in coming years, so getting a couple of years of China work experience on your résumé certainly can't hurt.
However, there are caveats. First, you mustn't expect a high salary. Second, government regulations can make it very hard to secure a work visa unless you already have two full years of work experience. Chinese coming out of top schools like Fudan and Beijing University make $500 to $600 a month. To get more than that, young Americans need to prove they really deserve more, which is getting harder and harder to do. Having good English skills is no longer enough.
Hundreds of thousands of Chinese have studied in the West. Unlike the first rounds of Chinese, who studied in the U.S. during the late 1980s and early '90s and mostly stayed in the States, younger Chinese are moving back home, both because of the opportunities available now and because of forbidding American work visa policies. Most companies prefer to hire these returnees, because they understand how to navigate China but also speak English well and have been exposed to Western practices and values. When I did my graduate studies at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, there were more Chinese there than any other nationality except Americans.
Unlike a decade ago, young Americans today compete for jobs with highly educated and worldly Chinese. Not only that, but they go up against older Americans trying to reinvigorate their careers. My firm, the China Market Research Group, receives four or five résumés a week from managing directors of firms like Lehman Brothers
Unless you find the job in the U.S. and get transferred to China--and even before the recession those transfers were disappearing--be happy if you can make between $800 and $2,000 a month. My firm has calculated that the ratio of purchasing power for salaries in China and the U.S. is 3.5-to-1. That is, if you'd expected to make $60,000 a year on Wall Street, aim for $21,000 a year in Shanghai to be able to maintain the same quality of life and have the same amount of money to keep or pay back student loans with.
Assuming that you're fine with making a low salary, what's the best way to actually find a job? My firm receives résumés from bright kids with Ivy League degrees who have never been to China. When we offer them an interview, they tell us they'd be happy to fly out at our cost. Sorry, folks. Few businesses these days are into offering the all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime. You'll need to actually spend time in China, knocking on doors--a couple weeks, minimum, and on your dime. Work for a couple of months washing dishes, and save up for that plane ticket. Trust me, it will be worth it if you're serious about finding a job here.
I'd suggest that you start looking for that China job in the U.S. first. That may sound counterintuitive, but bear with me. Call all the alumni/ae of your school you know and ask them if they know anyone in China they can introduce you to. People are keeping their Rolodexes close to their hearts in this terrible job market, but you can get them to introduce you to people in China because they don't expect to move there and so won't view you as competition. While you're still in the U.S., arrange for meetings in China, so that when you arrive there you'll have a full plate. I've found that you're likely to get a higher salary if you're introduced from the U.S., either by a friend or by the human-resources department of an American multinational, than if you just go after something in China off the cuff.
When you buy your plane tickets, make sure you allow for enough time not only for the meetings you've already scheduled but also for ones you may set up after you arrive. I'm always amazed when people come to my firm for an interview the day after landing in China and say they're leaving tomorrow. Give yourself enough flexibility to accommodate second- and third-round interviews and introductions to other companies. Not many businesses will hire someone after only a first day's interviews.
Let's say you've made it to China for interviews and you've had the good fortune to score some decent offers. What should you look for in a job? Should you work for a large multinational or a Chinese company? I've always told people under 30 that they should care more about training than about money. Once you reach 30, the situation changes, but you want to get into a position that will give you exposure to a wide range of industries.
What is training in China, and what is a good stepping-stone job? Most companies don't have programs like the two-year ones at the top investment banks and consulting firms in the U.S. In fact, training tends to be haphazard, largely because the markets change so fast that everyone sort of plays it by ear. So look for a position that might let you try a little sales and a little marketing. Most important, look for a direct supervisor who has a track record of success in China and who will mentor you. Executive turnover is so high in China, accelerated by the financial crisis, which has led companies to cut back on employees from overseas, that you need to make sure you find a place where someone will show you the ropes.
It is often best to start a career in the U.S., to get solid training, and then move to China. It's a market that is still developing, with standards that are still changing. People starting out in investment banking often learn more about how to navigate the morass of legal issues and relationship complexities of the business than about the technical and hardcore skills of banking.
Personally, I find it pathetic when people consider moving to China without trying to learn the language once there. If you don't learn the language, there is absolutely no way you can truly understand the Chinese people. Yes, English has become the lingua franca of China and the world, but it won't let you fully appreciate China and how Chinese people think. Former President of China Jiang Zemin joked that there are more English speakers in China than in the U.S. That is certainly true. Sure, you can rely on a translator or find a job selling products and services to other foreigners, but part of the joy of working in foreign countries is learning about them. Make sure you learn the language, whether by hiring a private tutor or by making friends with locals.
One of the best ways to start a career in China is at a school. Apply for Mandarin language study for a semester, or see if you can get a job teaching English. That will get you a visa, you'll begin to learn the language and appreciate the culture, and, importantly, you'll begin to network and find out where the great job opportunities are.
China is a wonderful place to launch a career. The opportunities are limitless. Jobs aren't easy to find, but once you've got one you'll be rewarded by being part of a special time in China's social and business evolution.
As a college senior, Yang Fugang spent most of his days away from campus this year, managing an online store that sold cosmetics, shampoo and other goods he often bought from local factories.
Today, that store on Taobao.com — the fast-growing Chinese online shopping bazaar — has 14 employees, two warehouses and piles of cash.
“I never thought I could do this well,” said Mr. Yang, 23, who earned $75,000 last year. “I started out selling yoga mats and now I’m selling a lot of makeup and cosmetics. The profit margins are higher.”
Taobao fever has swept the school Mr. Yang attends, Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College, where administrators say that a quarter of the 8,800 students enrolled operate Taobao shops, often from dormitory rooms.
And across China, millions of other ordinary people — recent college graduates, shopkeepers and retirees — are also using Taobao to sell clothes, mobile phones, toys and just about anything else they can find at neighborhood stores and wholesale markets or even smuggle out of factories.
Analysts say this booming marketplace — reminiscent of the early days of eBay, when Americans started emptying their attics for online auctions — has turned Taobao into China’s newest Internet darling.
Though just six years old, Taobao — which means “to search for treasure” in Chinese — already has 120 million registered users and 300 million product listings, and generated nearly $15 billion in sales last year.
The company says that sales through its Web site are already larger than those of any Chinese retailer. And this year, analysts say, its online sales will double, surpassing the expected $19 billion in sales by Amazon.com.
“This is the next big segment for China’s Internet,” said Jason Brueschke, an Internet analyst at Citigroup. “It’s their Amazon and eBay combined.”
Like eBay, Taobao does not sell anything itself; it simply matches buyers and sellers. But Taobao has a firm foothold in China because many parts of the country still have poor transportation and some local governments favor their own government-owned outlets, making retailing inefficient. The global recession also has once-booming factories overflowing with goods the rest of the world does not seem to want.
The so-called Taobao addicts pick up the slack in a sluggish economy. “I can’t live without Taobao,” said Zhang Kangni, a graduate student in Shanghai. “First, it’s cheaper. I found a dress at a store in Shanghai. It’s a Hong Kong brand that sells for $175. I found it on Taobao for $33.”
But skeptics ask: Can Taobao actually earn money and emerge as a true Web powerhouse?
The company, which is not publicly traded, does not disclose any financial information, but Taobao listings are free and the company earns no income from online transactions. Almost all of Taobao’s revenue comes from advertising, which analysts say now covers about $200 million a year in operating costs.
The company has been criticized, however, for contributing to a flourishing trade in counterfeit goods. Taobao brushes aside such questions, saying it has a new program that is effectively cracking down on counterfeits.
Company executives also say that Taobao is poised to earn a huge profit but that their first priority is to create an online community. “Our vision for Taobao is to build a consumer’s paradise, where people can shop online and have fun,” Jonathan Lu, the Taobao president, said. “If you make the company better and better, profits will naturally follow.”
His confidence in Taobao’s future comes from the company’s lineage. It is a division of Alibaba Group, which was founded by Jack Ma, who during the past decade created an Internet conglomerate with strong financial backing from Yahoo, Goldman Sachs and Softbank Group, of Japan. Yahoo now owns about 40 percent of Alibaba.
Alibaba.com — the conglomerate’s flagship Web site — connects small businesses from around the world with Chinese exporters. Need 1,000 kilograms of lead nitrate? Click here. Taobao does something similar, for consumers who want to sell to other consumers.
When Taobao was founded in 2003, it looked as if it did not have a chance. EBay and its Chinese partner, EachNet, controlled 90 percent of the Chinese online shopping market. But Mr. Ma, a former English teacher, quickly undermined eBay’s fee-based service by offering free listings on Taobao, essentially giving free ads to anyone who wanted to sell. At the time, eBay executives ridiculed the strategy, saying, “Free is not a business model.”
But almost immediately, the site took off, and in 2006, eBay pulled out of China, citing dwindling market share and huge losses. Today, it is Taobao that commands 80 percent of the Chinese e-commerce market, according to iResearch.
“Frankly speaking, Taobao is dominant,” said Richard Ji, an Internet analyst based in Hong Kong at Morgan Stanley. “They’re like an online Wal-Mart.”
Taobao has thrived, analysts say, because people need little capital to start their own online stores. This year, Taobao says its site could create about half a million new jobs, mostly young people opening new stores.
Bao Yifen, a 23-year-old who recently graduated from college, opened her own Taobao shop selling clothing with a $5,000 investment in 2007. Today, it sells about $4,000 worth of clothing every month.
“Three times a week I go to the wholesale market,” Ms. Bao said. “It’s a huge market. About 70 to 80 percent of the stuff is factory leftovers. There are even some brands, but they just cut the labels off.”
Taobao also sells items smuggled into China from Hong Kong, Europe or the United States, evading high import duties and enabling sellers to profit from the huge price differences. An Apple MacBook Air that sells for $2,225 in Beijing, for instance, costs just $1,508 in Hong Kong, a difference of 33 percent.
Counterfeit goods are also ubiquitous on Taobao, even though the company claims to have removed two million product listings because of suspicions that they were fraudulent.
Nevertheless, many Taobao sellers openly acknowledge dealing in illegal goods. “I work in an O.E.M. factory that produces laptops and electronic devices for Sony,” said a seller who called himself Mr. Feng, referring to an original equipment manufacturer, which produces for global companies. “We have Sony’s core technology and exactly the same raw materials and components, so we set up our own store selling netbooks and laptops on Taobao.”
A Sony spokesman in China, Takashi Uehara, said the company had no comment but was looking into the matter.
Here in Yiwu, which claims to be the site of the world’s biggest wholesale market, Taobao has started to change the look of the university.
The school’s vice dean, Jia Shaohua, pointed out an area designated as a start-up city for students wanting to get rich. He indicated students taking orders from computers, packaging, sorting inventory and taking photos of the items for display online, then added, “Around the school now, there is a whole Taobao industrial chain.”
Every afternoon, even this summer, when the school should be relatively empty, one can hear the screeching sounds of tape being wrapped around boxes in a building that could pass for a U.P.S. shipping terminal. “The students don’t need a lot of money,” Mr. Jia said. “They just get orders and go find the items at local factories.”
One of them, Mr. Yang, has become a campus hero. He operates his own warehouses near the school, in the basements of a pair of residential buildings.
Standing in a crowded warehouse, near boxes of Neutrogena sunblock, hairpins, toothbrushes and a wide assortment of cosmetics, Mr. Yang said business could not be better.
“Soon, I’ll reach $150,000 a month in sales,” he said.
In many a China emergency, American Jim Ellis is there, providing clean drinking water for earthquake survivors and victims of a typhoon, a chemical spill and blue algae.
Throughout more than 40 years of doing business, American entrepreneur Jim Ellis has always based his enterprises on providing basic needs such as shelter and clean drinking water.
But it wasn't until the devastating Sichuan earthquake on May 12 last year that the former construction boss and maker of water filters was able to make a vital difference in lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people.
Ellis and employees of his company Paragon Water Systems flew into Sichuan just three days after the earthquake to install water filters in temporary tent cities. In many cases, he provided the only clean drinking water.
One of the first foreigners allowed into the affected areas, Ellis and his team worked virtually non-stop for 15 days to install water filters and train local operators in 20 cities and towns.
The filtration system they installed is capable of supplying water to 10,000 people a day. The systems were flown in from Canada within 48 hours of the quake.
Still haunted by the devastation, Ellis says his enduring memory is of the strength and resilience of the survivors and helpers.
"I have never seen so many people come together to help each other, there was so much devastation," he says. "The army was unbelievable; these young soldiers were out there digging through rubble with their bare hands, and putting up tents 24 hours day. The strength of the people in Sichuan in the face of something so dramatic and tragic was really amazing."
It was not the first time Ellis has provided emergency water supplies in China.
Paragon provided water filters to schools and hospitals in Fujian Province when it was hit by typhoons in 2004 and 2005 and also provided clean drinking water to Harbin in Heilongjiang Province after a major spill of benzene into the Songhua River in 2005.
In 2007, Ellis and his team supplied water filters for residents in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, when water supplies were cut due to a blue algae outbreak.
"We have made it a priority to give back by responding to major disasters in the last five years and it is something we are very proud of," he says.
Ellis, who comes from Ohio, started his own home construction company, building his first home when he was 22 years old. "Everything went into that house - if it hadn't sold I would have been sweeping the streets," he says.
Ellis ran the Four Seasons construction company for 20 years, building more than 110 homes a year at its peak, first in Ohio and later in Florida.
Making the move to Florida in the early 1980s, Ellis rode the construction boom generated by the demand of many retirees, so-called "snow birds," who headed to the warm climes of the US south.
While in Florida, Ellis became familiar with water filtration systems, which he originally sold as a side business.
"A guy came to us with a water filter and we started selling them on the home shopping channel," he recalls.
Since it was started in 1988, Paragon has sold filters for homes, businesses and hospitals.
What had started as a business selling filters made by two guys in a shed quickly became the main focus for Ellis and his partner, George Lutich.
The decision to concentrate on clean water was well timed as consumers increasingly becoming aware of the importance of pure drinking water.
Home shopping in America in the 1980s was also still in its infancy; its expansion and the boom in direct sales and marketing helped propel Paragon into an international business. It now operates in 12 countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Britain and Russia.
After sourcing materials for water filters from the Chinese mainland, Paragon opened a factory in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in 2002 and a sales office in Shanghai in 2003. He spearheaded the expansion into China, moving to Shanghai in 2004. He has visited 22 provinces and almost every major city. The company operates in 32 provinces.
Ellis plans to expand this year to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
"Meeting the people in China, learning about the history of the country, its diverse cultures and seeing its natural beauty has definitely been the best experience of my business life," he says.
Foreign reporters this week got a rare peek inside an infantry base of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). At the same time, officials were reportedly putting the final touches to a bilingual PLA website that is due to go live on Aug. 1, the 82nd anniversary of its foundation.
Taken together, these efforts are designed to signal greater transparency by a 2.3 million-strong military whose rapid expansion has stirred unease among other foreign powers, including Japan and the United States. But these baby steps seem unlikely to silence the debate over China's military capacity and how it intends to use it in future.
On Tuesday, Adm. Timothy Keating, who commands US forces in Asia, said the US and China would soon resume military talks that had been suspended last October over US arms sales to Taiwan. Speaking after two days of bilateral meetings in Washington, he said the overall atmosphere had improved between the two countries.
That same day, Col. Leng Jie Song, commander of the PLA's 3rd Guard Division, welcomed two busloads of foreign visitors to its base outside Beijing. He said the PLA was gradually opening its doors to outsiders to build trust and to avoid any "misunderstanding" between militaries.
"China is more and more open to the outside world. So is the PLA. We are speeding up this process," he told reporters.
In a brisk tour, reporters visited kitchens, canteens, dormitories, and other base facilities. The infantry division is tasked with defending the capital against attack and has more than 10,000 personnel, though few were visible on the tour.
Soldiers then went through their paces on a training field. Reporters watched displays of marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, including the firing of 82mm mortars into hillside bunkers. The final exercise pitted a counterterrorism squad against an escaping vehicle of balaclava-clad men who holed up in a concrete building.
Asked about the nature of the terrorist threat to China, Mr. Leng simply replied, "Xinjiang, Tibet." Both are autonomous regions that have been roiled by ethnic unrest that the Chinese government blames on separatist elements.
Leng said several foreign military delegations, including from the US, had visited the base. "We can learn from each other," he said.
In fact, much of China's military infrastructure is off-limits and shrouded in secrecy, says James Shinn, former assistant secretary of defense for Asia under President George W. Bush. Moreover, US policymakers are unsure of the PLA's doctrine and its intentions, which are crucial for strategic planning.
As a result, "the US and China's other neighbors must plan for the worst case.' That's not being belligerent, that's what military planners have to do," says Mr. Shinn, a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey.
How far these mysteries are cleared up by the PLA's official website is debatable. State media have trumpeted the website, to be modeled after the Pentagon's defenselink.mil, as an exercise in transparency.
It is expected to replace an existing site.
But no details have been announced of its scope and timeliness. And calls Friday to the Ministry of National Defense requesting further details proved unsuccessful.
Roller coasters have a special place in our hearts usually shared with cotton candy, summer vacation, and Mickey Mouse. And since Mickey Mouse in Shanghai might be nothing more than a dream anymore, we are more than a little excited for next week's opening of Shanghai Happy Valley (上海欢乐谷), soon to be China's largest amusement park.
After several years of waiting since construction began in late 2006, the enormous 900,000 square-meter park will open its doors in Sheshan, 40 km southwest from the center of Shanghai next Saturday, on August 8th, according to the park's website.
To add to the excitement, the park will be offering discounted admission prices until September 12th. Full price tickets will run 160 RMB per person per day, a 40 RMB discount from the normal price. However, we found their criteria for reduced price tickets a little strange: persons less than 140 cm tall can enter for only 80 RMB/person, which is pretty standard. But while women age 65 or older also get entry under the discounted price, men have to be 70 years or older in order to qualify. Sexism, anyone?
Still, unfair policies aren't going to stop us from being super psyched about a lot of their rides. Sure, they have plenty of kids' stuff, which we'll probably just pass on by, but we're looking forward to their several roller coasters (mostly imported from Europe/North America). According to People's Daily Online, these include a mine coaster, a diving coaster, and of course, China's first wooden roller coaster, Fireball (More pictures here).
The park will also feature a crazy part-underground eco-hotel made out of a former quarry; however, construction on the hotel has unfortunately not yet started. Look forward to construction beginning sometime next month.
The park is easily accessible by metro: simply take line 9 south to the first Sheshan stop (佘山旅游渡假区站) and take the park's shuttle bus from across the street. More transportation info can be found here (in Chinese).
