Helloooo boys and girls!!!
Hi boys and girls!!! It's summer and it's getting really HOT on the
streets of Shanghai!!!!
Pink, the bar on Tongren Lu just opposite the Kerry Centre, is being
renovated after closing in its previous incarnation somewhere before
Chinese New Year. From what's going on inside, it looks like it will
still be a bar. In fact, that whole row of old houses opposite Kerry,
which I thought was doomed for sure, is now being renovated. Good
news!
Bar and restaurant owners alike note: Laptop users appreciate the
ability to plug in to your electrical power. Places where your computer
can get sustenance at the same time as you already include: the Rose
coffee shop
in the Garden Hotel and the Hilton Atrium. The next step is that
laptoppers
will want a telephone line at their table as well. But only for a
while.
In
a couple of years, we'll all be surfing the web with handheld devices
hooked
to the Internet through the cellphone network. I can't wait!!
The Jingan subway stop on Nanjing Xi Lu will be opening before the end
of
the year, and the Jingan Park which sits on top of it, which has been a
construction site for much of the past two years, will open to the
public on Oct 1. I've heard of at least one group that interested in
doing something commercial in the newly re-opened park. We'll see how
things go over the summer.
The old Club Absolut on Shaanxi Lu, once one of the best discos in
town,
has
undergone a name change. It's now the Circle Disco.
The Shanghai Magic Troupe has hit the big time. They are over in New
York
right now during a series of 12 consecutive performances in Broadway's
New
Victory Theatre. They are the first Chinese art troupe to play on
Broadway,
which is both surprising and exciting.
I have just received an email which feels it's like a strange poem.
Maybe it's the repetition of the word and sound "may" that gives it a
special feel, but
it's not an ordinary email:
May May,
I mailed Chinese New Year time.
Next time May at Hongqiao.
I like May, it's a beautiful season in
the Central of Europe.
Juha
A couple of issues ago, I asked about the origin of the name of the
Rojam Disco, which either by coincidence or design is the reverse of
the
word Major. Now reader Karl, who comes from Belgium, has provided the
following extra information on the subject:
"I must say that the first time I saw this name appear, it puzzled me,"
says Karl. "Because in Belgium the same name is used in a completely
different
context. I used to work for a Belgian stevedoring co. in Antwerp. There
is a
law there called the "law Major", named after the politician who came
up
with it, which gives the port laborers special privileges and high
salaries.
But the law is only applicable in the port area. So people doing
exactly
the
same job outside of it are paid half as much and have much less
protection.
This company I worked for built a new terminal in Ghent JUST outside
the
area where the Law Major
is in force. There are several huge warehouses and they are called:
Rojam
1,2,3 etc. So, on one side of the road, the law of "Major" rules, while
on
the other side it is defiantly reversed ... Could it be that "Rojam"
has
Belgian owners???"
Byeeee!!!!!!!!
