My mom came to visit me a few weeks ago and after an unfortunate trip to Beijing and then coming back to the constant buzzing, construction, people and flying dust that is Shanghai, insanity seemed like a bright, if not brilliant, option. There is only so much “lady, lady, watch, DVD, bag!” that you can take before losing it. We needed somewhere to go where something very rare to China could be found; open space, quiet, fresh air. I whipped out my travel book to find some place (anyplace!) that I’ve never heard of; someplace with fewer than 7 million people squeezed into a tiny metropolis made for 1 million. I needed to prove to my mom and myself that despite its oddities, it’s worth living in China. I came across a village called “Moganshan”, or Mogan Mountain. The description made this sound like the ideal place to hide from the hard, beating sun and even harder rhythm of Shanghai. The mountain is situated only 200km southwest of Shanghai, but unless you have a car, there is no direct route. In addition, there is an entrance fee of RMB80. However, these factors failed to dissuade me and I continued on my adventure in search of much needed reclusiveness.
On August 27, 2010, the three-day Greatwall Tanglewood Forest Music Festival will have a grand opening in Yanqing County (in the northern part of Beijing Prefecture). This exciting festival will feature many of China’s most-well-known indie rock, punk, metal, singer-songwriters, electro and DJ acts as well as a few foreign bands that are making waves abroad. The festival will be held outdoors among beautiful scenery and provides vistas of the Great Wall. Camping grounds will also be provided. Since the website (
Shanghai, not unlike the rest of urban Asia, is steeped in the tradition of daily life conducted on the street. Shanghai's street life tradition is, for now, alive and well in the remaining pockets of laocheng, however most of these neighborhoods are slated for demolition within the next 3 or 4 years to make room for modernization.
When in Asia, you have to see the sights, so I got a cab driver to show me the sights around Shanghai.
The Yantze River Tunnel-Bridge system opens to traffic on Halloween night, cutting the travel time from downtown Shanghai to Chongming Island to about 90 minutes from 150 minutes it takes by ferry now. And Chongming will be the next hot spot for Shanghai travelers even throughout China.
The awarding ceremony of the first ever “China Untapped, Discover Treasured Towns” was held in Wu Zhen recently. The objective of the project is to bring cherished and unknown towns to the spotlight and to arouse social awareness to the protection of these treasured towns.
Braces 
We are mid way into Hairy Crab season, which runs from September to December. While I haven’t figured out why exactly these funny looking crabs have create a frenzy amongst all my Chinese friends (there are even poems written about the crabs), I have figured out that the right sized crabs from the right lake and prepared the right way really can be worth the money and the time.
Yesterday we had a Tudou board meeting, and two of our VC's had flown in from Beijing the day before. At least that was the plan, because both had about a 12 hour delay (meaning sitting in the plane on the tarmac for 12 hours, with the plane eventually running out of drinks for the passengers). Today I read on Twitter that David Feng had a 7 hour delay yesterday, flying from Shanghai to Beijing.
I am an expat from Europe living in Shanghai for several years now. As most people I travel almost every 2-3 months back home for a couple of days. Usually I buy lots of several kinds of sausages, cheese and smoked ham ahead. It's not that there would be a lack of decent restaurants in China, but for me a native, yummy European sausage is a nice change. Even more when you stay uninterrupted for many months abroad, you start appreciating your domestic food even more. I know the amount of offered western products is increasing since the last past three years, but it just tastes different if you bought them in your home country.