Kunshan Beer Festival

Last week I won 2 free VIP tickets to the Kunshan Beer Festival. Each VIP ticket comes with free admission to the German Tent, buffet dinner, 1.5 liters of beer, and a spot at a reserved table. Woohoo!

When the tickets arrived, they were stamped "August 19" so it was Saturday Night at the Beer Festival.

Kunshan is basically a suburb of Shanghai, about a one hour bus ride from downtown. The shuttle bus (discount price of 30 RMB for VIP ticket holders) left Shanghai Stadium at 5:40 PM and arrived at the Beer Festival around 6:45 PM.

We found the German tent, hopped in the buffet line, and by 7:15 were drinking Budweiser draft (unfortunately the only "free" choice) and chowing on the German buffet: baked, boiled, and fried potatoes, spaetzle, salad and soft pretzels.

There was an excellent traditional German band "Lichensteiner" on stage and everyone had a great time. The video proves that "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is one of the most popular songs in the world. The band did an extended version that featured tempo changes, key changes,and a jammin' ending.

Festival entrance.


Pouring the Suds.


The band.


The food.


Enjoying the band.


Check out the Budweiser logo on the mugs.


Gan bei! Cheers! Prost!

Tibet Clockwise - Part 2

Click here to read Part 2 of the full report of our trip to Tibet.

Here is a preview.

Tibet Clockwise - Part 1

I have finally started posting the detailed adventures of our May, 2006 trip to Tibet over at our LiveJournal site. Click here.

Here's a preview photo of the Tibetan plateau taken from the airplane on the flight from Chengdu to Lhasa.

Typhoon Saomai

Thanks to all who sent emails asking how we fared with Typhoon Saomai. We appreciate your concern. For the most part, the typhoon had no effect on Shanghai other than creating a few breezy, clear days, and higher than normal tides on the Huangpu River.

Uncle Shen's funeral, youtube, and privacy

I've been lucky enough to be working on the somewhat leading edge of computer technology for the past 20 years. Occasionally a new "killer app" comes along. A new software application that blows me away the first time I see it. I instantly want to use it and it maybe it changes my life or my work or both, specially if it's free. ;-) Some of the past "killer apps": Mosaic, Hotmail, Napster and Skype.

The latest killer app is www.youtube.com where anyone can publish video for everyone to see. I'm using it to host the videos for this blog. Since I published the Shanghai New Years video four weeks ago, almost 300 people have watched all or part of it. Most of them probably found it through surfing, not from this blog as we don't have that many readers. That's amazing to me although it doesn't compare to the hundreds of thousands of views that some videos get, like the famous Zidane head butt.

On youtube, one can make the video public or private. The Tibet, Bali, and Shanghai videos are public. Uncle Shen's funeral is private. You can understand why. It can only be watched if you know where to look. Unfortunately, it's so private that it can't be watched from this blog unless you are signed in as a youtube user. Sorry for any frustration that may caused. I have cut some stills from the video on put them in the original post, near the bottom.

If you want to watch the video, "sign in" to youtube in another window and click here. If you still have problems, email me.

Sunset on The Bund

The Bund lights up as the sun sets.



It's been clear, sunny, breezy, and hot for a spell. So, last Sunday we decided to have 2 part program; first, catch a special exhibit at the air-conditioned Shanghai Museum; second; walk down to The Bund, have a drink, and watch the sunset from the 7th-floor deck of a trendy restaurant. The Bund is name the name the 20th century Europeans residents of Shanghai gave to the commercial area of west bank of the Huangpu River -- it means "waterfront".

Here are the photos from our program.

The sunny summer weather brings out the umbrellas as the locals are NOT into tanning.


The Shanghai Museum resembles a Tang dynasty pot.


On the way to The Bund we spotted the youngest driver in Shanghai out for a spin. You can barely make out the Pearl Tower in the background.


That purple thing on the right is the Pearl Tower which is about 1600 ft tall and sits on the east side of the Huangpu River, across from The Bund.



A giant crane moves up river.


Patrons enjoy the view.


Looking at Pudong. The tall building on the right is the Jin Mao Tower which is the 3rd tallest building in the world at 421 meters.


Mojito, fries, beer. 165 RMB or about $20 US. Yikes. You pay for the view.


Looking at The Bund.


After dinner we walked back down the pedestrian mall to catch the subway home. Note the LARGE thermometer over the Giordano sign.