“China is a young country in an old civilization. It an exciting place and the right time to be an entrepreneur in Beijing.” Read more about my background story here.
This week I made progress in transitioning the Jianwai soho unit into an office, started the recruitment drive and felt what it is like to commute between cities, a fatiguing experience destined to be the fate of a growing number of mainland Chinese. On Tuesday Guosheng Qi, a serious young IT graduate of Tsinghua university, [...]
‘Springtime is seen as a season, growth, renewal and new life. But it is also a time when chronic diseases break out’[1] This has been an excellent week, one in which I secured first ever coverage for clients in mainstream English language publications in China, gave EASTWEST it’s Chinese christening and avoided all Spring related [...]
This week marked the first time that I was not pre-occupied with operational things, except installing the washing machine, and upon my return from Singapore I was greeted by a clean and tidy SOHO and felt that life is getting good. I landed 2 months ago to set up a Beijing office and finally I [...]
I have missed writing the diary, a function of a rather stressful and purely self-imposed extraction from my comfort zone in Singapore. Moving three different apartments in as many weeks, missing out on more horse racing with the Queen, and moving 2,791, has led me to question why, at the age of 39, I am [...]
On closer inspection China is full of contradictions, counter currents in the tidal waves of change and culture. In my fourth week in Beijing I listened to Mr China, hosted an art exhibition and learnt that in spite of some signs of non sense, this place is opportunity in chaos. About 100 expatriates struggled to [...]
Week 3 in China and I believe that it is all coming together, as long as I don’t die of a respiratory disease first. This was a productive and intermittently healthy week in which I navigated the queue system at the Bank of China, followed the aspiring Chinese at Torino and became aware of the [...]
I’ve made progress this week, the blanket of snow covering Beijing on Monday being a good omen by legend, as it brings water for the crops in spring. In the first working week of the Year of Dog I have learnt about the myriad laws for company incorporation, rented an office in downtown Beijing and [...]
Sitting in the grandly named Metropolitan, unit 10-A, that lies outside the fourth ring road of Beijing, I am listening to Handel’s Messiah enjoying the uplifting score after my first week in China that was marked by missing Singapore, skiing, my first car crash, and some cynical conversations about China. I will only permit myself [...]
