Stefan’s weekly: China Nr. 2 – final!

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

Many thanks for the many and very positive comments I received to my “China-weekly”. Maybe I should start writing travel reports rather than trying to explain topics in connection with macro-economics, global exchanges and investments. I had quite a few of my readers sharing their experiences while travelling in China and the feedback I received confirmed my view. China is just a great place to see and experience and thus well worthwhile visiting.

Now and back in Liechtenstein/Switzerland and because of this very positive feedback, I would like to do another and final round of “China potpourri”.

Opera: We had organised tickets for Nabucco at the Shanghai Grand Theater. The Shanghai Grand Theater is a reasonably modern building, immaculate, with comfortable seats and very good acoustics. We had perfect seats, fifth row in the stalls and spent a wonderful time listening to the beautiful voices, the impressive choir and the harmonic music. It was just great! We were somewhat surprised about the casual dress code of our fellow spectators (which suit us well as we didn’t bring along very formal clothing) and the low ticket prices. We payed roughly 20% of what we would have had to pay for such tickets in Zürich. Fantastic value for money!

Mobile Phones: Mobile phones are omnipresent. People use it, at least this was my impression, even more extensively than here in Europe. Younger people watch TV on their mobile phones in the subway, on the bus and even walking in the streets, they listen to music, pay their bills, shop groceries. book tickets and call for taxies, they communicate through their social media accounts, take pictures (especially in restaurants) and just seem to love selfies. My mobile phone is important to me but from what I have seen in the large cities we visited in China, mobile phones are even more important to people in China.

Apps: There seems to be an App for just about everything, on just about every mobile phone in China. What impressed me were the restaurant apps. Clients may pre-order their food in restaurants and when arriving at the restaurant (in the morning before work or during work or at lunch time) hold their mobile phone against a reader and receive their pre-ordered drinks and/or food immediately. There are also taxi apps that pay a bonus to the taxi driver and/or the customer when ordering a taxi via the app. This leads of course to terrible consequences during rush hour and/or other times of high demand for taxis, as taxi drivers will not pick up customers in the streets if not necessary in order not to miss out on the bonus offered when being hired via app.

Tips: As an experienced traveller and just being on a great trip to new places in China I felt like wanting to tip the people that offered services to us. Only, this is not at all standard everywhere in China. In the large hotels and sometimes taxis it is no problem and tips are appreciated but in many restaurants service staff is not used to tips. At one time a waitress did not want to take the tip we offered and gave it back to us with a mile, thanking us, explaining that this was not necessary.

Marriage Market: This marriage market thing, Ladies and Gentlemen, may seem somewhat strange to people not used to all the cultural peculiarities. Marriage markets are events, usually happening on weekends in local parks. The idea is that parents advertise with small posters their adult daughters and/or sons to find a partner for them. I asked Laura from Fudan University if she could give us an explanation. She told us that the idea was for parents that their children would go to school, study hard, go to University, finish their bachelor and master’s degrees and spend time rather behind books and in libraries than in bars and clubs. Like this it is very difficult to find a partner. At the end of their studies and in the eyes of their parents, the children would need a partner to form a family and get children of their own. You know, those parents take great pride in talking about their children and in seeking a perfect match for them. The parents, born during communism, where everything was planned and organised for them, want to help organising the life of their children. Laura told us that this was somewhat embarrassing for the children but out of respect for the parents, children would usually go on a first date with a potential candidate and at worst would spend half an hour talking to someone. This is of course not binding for the children and once the children have found a partner in their own ways and present their partner to their parents, the parents will stop the advertising and spend their time travelling, playing cards, dancing and singing karaoke.

Interesting, no?

Please share your thoughts and ideas with me. Please feel encouraged to do so but please don’t forget (instead of hitting the reply button) to send your messages to:

smk@incrementum.li

Many thanks, indeed!

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen I wish you a great day and weekend!
Kind regards

Yours truly,

Stefan M. Kremeth