Have you ever heard of this collegiate Olympiad known as the “Universiade”?  I never have, nor have a majority of friends of mine.  But, this collegiate equivalent of the Summer Olympics has been around for quite a while.  Beijing held it back in 2001, and now it’s Shenzhen’s turn.  I had no idea how big of a deal it was to Shenzhen until I visited their headquarters earlier this year.  The offices of the planners of the Universiade occupied a few floors of a skyscraper in the central district.  Somehow, they got wind of our music performances and wanted to interview us as an international music group in Shenzhen for their dedicated magazine.  Yes, they had their own magazine – a nice glossy piece of work.

In the mean time, two stadiums had begun construction some months earlier, one near my place.  It wasn’t until sometime around that interview that I realized the one near my apartment was being built exclusively for the Universiade.  And that stadium, though it is a huge and impressive venue, wasn’t even designed to be the primary location.  The Universiade Village and the main stadium is in the “suburbs” of Shenzhen, in a district called “Long Gang”.  Photos that I’ve seen of that place are stunning (below).

But, it wasn’t until just a couple of weeks ago, only a couple of weeks before the opening ceremonies, that I realized just how seriously the city was taking this Universiade, much moreso that I had originally realized.  I was exiting the new subway stop near my apartment one evening.  A few weeks before that, the subway system had received orders from on high that all passenger bags needed to be scanned, so there are now installations of scanning machines as well as a large staff to help the process along.  Now, there are also many volunteers dressed in brand new, clean, bright orange shirts and hats decorated with pins and buttons, to help folks to either ride the subway or direct them to the Universiade events.  There are also guards standing up on raised platforms at stoic attention which is, I suppose, more of a show of the formality of the whole event.  Well, I had been used to seeing this inside the subway for a while.  But, outside, I was greeted by several more guards also with around 5-10 drug sniffing dogs at the exit of the subway.  The whole plaza that this stop opens on to is near the Universiade venue, but I wouldn’t consider it “close”.  You still have a good 10-15 minutes of walking to do.  Yet, there were tons of banners and flower displays.  All of the trees were decorated with white and purple lights.  It was impressive to say the least.

The stadium (shown under construction on the left – on a nice and hazy day!), which remember is still quite far away, is easily discoverable in the evening due to an impressive display of soft-spotlights shooting into the night sky and illuminating the clouds.  There must be at least a hundred or so spotlights flashing across the sky.  The office towers near my apartment are adorned with huge lights that depict one of the sports represented at the event.  There’s a reserved lane on the expressways that extends practically the full length of Shenzhen, at least as far as I’ve traveled recently.  The whole thing is decorated with flowers in the colors of the Universiade.  Not to mention there are all sorts of bush sculptures along the way with additional banners.  There are sections of flags and posters.  The pedestrian walkways have all been upgraded with futuristic canopies.  And helicopters circle around the Nanshan stadium area.  It really doesn’t stop.  Shenzhen is a city flush with cash and it shows.  The whole production may be the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen.  It screams:  ”prosperity!”  And, back across the ocean is the USA getting it’s credit downgraded like some bozo who doesn’t know how to manage his money.  OK, that’s the only jab you’ll hear from me about that.

There are these “Universiade Stations” scattered all over the city, even in off the beaten path locations where you wouldn’t expect folks to be inquiring about this event.  I’ve never stopped at one of these.  I assume it’s some sort of information booth, but I’m not sure.  I just know there all over the place.  The promotion and organization is something to behold.

The opening ceremonies last night.  I caught some of it on a giant LCD hanging on one of the buildings downtown.  A TV crew came and interviewed me while I was watching.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of the Chinese equivalent of “impressive” and “organization” so, I eventually lapsed into English, but still, that was fun.  The ceremonies were almost as impressive as what we all saw during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  Afterwards, so many people came up to me saying “Hello!” and wanting their pictures taken together…guess they thought I was participating in the Universiade, though they never asked me about that.  Maybe it was just the spirit of openness and welcoming that the Shenzhen Universiade is trying to project.

Even parts of the city far removed from any action, like the heart of downtown in Luohu, display all sorts of decorations.  And the volunteers also swarm the metro stations there.  Even Dong Men, the place in Shenzhen for knock-offs and counterfeit has received a major facelift.  It’s not nearly as stinky and grimy as it used to be.  Although, I was just there the other day for the first time in a long time.  I swung by the DVD store expecting it to be “closed” because of the Universiade.  It was.  And, as usual, I was approached by someone and then taken to the real store.  Guess we’ll have to wait a week or so after the games in in a day for these sorts of stores to re-emerge.

That reminds me:  many of these unlicensed capitalists have been swept aside for the games.  So, I guess I have to adapt to that.  I miss the folks who sell the fruit out of the back of their little van.  I always patronize them – they have tasty grapes and mangos.  And there are no longer any makeshift barbecue joints appearing after 9-9:30pm.  Although, the little DVD salesman outside my apartment is still there actually.

Can’t see this on youtube…yet:  Watch some of the opening ceremonies on China’s youtube.

The best lunch deal in Nanshan (district of Shenzhen), or maybe in all of Shenzhen for that matter, is the Korean Restaurant in the Coastal City shopping area.  The restaurant is on the second floor near the theater and has a large window on one side with a commanding view over the plaza area at Coastal City.  The lunch deals start at 18RMB (less than $3) and include the following:

1) Four small Korean-style appetizers
2) Two soups (one pumpkin and the other a traditional Cantonese soup)
3) Your entry
4) A scoop of ice cream

For the entre, I like “shi2 guo1 ban4 fan4″, which is a rice dish with a collection of vegetables and an egg served in an iron bowl and served very hot (needs to be stirred up immediately).  The rice continues to cook while it cools down.  So, while I’m waiting, I can bust out the laptop, hop on the free wifi, and crank through a few tasks.  The restaurant itself is high-end and clean.  Hopefully, they’ll stick with that price for a while, in spite of the inflation of food prices here.

The Korean restaurant in Coastal City

Over Christmas, I was asked an interesting question:  What’s the single biggest change that you’ve seen in China since you’ve been there? I like these sorts of questions because they ask for a pithy response outright.  My answer:  “It’s more civilized.”  I reckon I have to stick to that answer.  Shenzhen has changed a ton since I’ve been here.  It’s certainly more civilized:  The middle class is rising and they’re behaving more and more like typical middle class citizens in other countries:  from dress to activities to manners.  Even the wild shopping places have been tamed a bit:  there are barriers along crowded hallways to direct traffic and policemen now patrol around.  It’s still wild, but it doesn’t seem to be as much of a madhouse as it was two years ago.  Now, don’t be misled; China is still the craziest, most nutty place that I’ve been to in Asia, and for that matter, the rest of the world.  So, you can still come here and enjoy some wild adventure.

I reckon this increase in civilized behavior is a good thing overall.  However, with it comes things like inflation and big new fancy shopping malls.  There are so many shopping malls here now – high end ones at that.  There’s a new one underneath a brand new tower in Luohu, the heart of Shenzhen.  This tower appears to be taller than the Di Wang building, formerly the 8th tallest building in the world.  It’s known as “KK100″.  No idea what the KK stands for.  Underneath and beside it is another of these five-storied luxurious malls.  On top of that, around a huge glass dome are situated several new apartment towers, all part of the KK complex.  I wonder how much a studio runs in that place.  For sure, a foolish price.  I keep wondering, “Who is buying all this stuff at these malls?”  I guess it’s those who are living in the apartment buildings.

This is post covers and old, old event occurring sometime back in July or so.  I wanted to write about it ’cause it showed an interesting look into a side of the entertainment industry in China.  Basically, through a odd source of contacts, I was able to go to the 18th (I think) reunion party of a high end spa chain in Shenzhen.  This is the kind of place where you go for manicures, haircuts, massages and the like for absurdly stupid prices.  It’s basically a place where the rich folks in Shenzhen can unload their money fast and feel proud at doing so.

Davide knew the CEO, who even proposed at one point that we perform at the event for a stupidly high amount of money.  Of course, we were into the idea, but it never happened (no surprises here).  Anyway, we were given tickets were very curious to attend to see the various folks who were indeed going to be performing there:  some big names in China and Asia.  The biggest name was a singer from Korea named “Rain”; that’s the only English name on the whole list.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but were hoping for some good publicity should we be fortunate enough to meet and have the opportunity to take photos with these folks.

Well, to give you the quick synopsis now, it was amazing how badly this whole event was organized and how weakly it was executed.  Really shocking.  It started off strong enough; a grand entry way in the large exhibition center in Shenzhen.  The space actually felt too big for a party, even one of this size (it quickly became apparent that there’d be no meeting opportunities).

We made our way into the huge banquet hall which was lit up with three massive video screens on the far end and a matching impressive sound system.  Other large LCDs were mounted on the left and right halls.  We had someone take us to our seat which was quite close to the main stage.

We were looking forward to a nice meal.  Everything up to this point indicated that that was exactly what we were going to get.  Amidst the well-dressed (for the most part) folks and the nice dinner ware, were plastic bottles of cheap orange juice and Pepsi.  This is usually no cause for alarm; you’ll see this odd display all the time.  Red wine…and Pepsi!  Served in the same glasses to boot.

Now, in China, everyone doesn’t get their own plate of food.  Instead, you have a small plate and bowl with chopsticks and tea cup and all of the food is served in the middle of the table (alongside the Pepsi) and you serve yourself from there in small quantities.  Well, these dishes came out so infrequently.  Like one every fifteen minutes.  It was punishingly slow.  First a dish of celery in a nice sauce with peanuts would come out and it would be devoured right away, then we’d wait and wait, as they played the same ole videos over and over on the walls.  Then another dish would come out and repeat.  Perhaps after an hour or so, we had more than one dish of food on the table.

Oh yeah, at one point, another woman showed up at our table and sat down in the chair that was occupied by another man who had stepped away for a bit.  When he returned, she refused to get up and just turned her back to him.  The guy, naturally, complained and called a waiter to do something about it.  It seemed like a long time until someone had the bright idea of bringing another chair.

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(above) Audio during the chair incident

In the midst of all this the show began.  The CEO got up and talked a bit about the business, the staff, and so on, and there were various musical acts in between.  Somewhere near the very beginning of the show, the right-hand audio channel went out.  And it never came back.  Nice.  Then the various stars started showing up.  They were mostly singing acts.  All of the solo singers sang against a backup track.  Some were pretty good, most were so-so, one was downright awful – looked like he had never been on stage before.  He walked out nervously, gave a weak wave, and then mumbled his way through a song, all the barely moving – just staying put and looking down.

Another famous Chinese singer sung a rather nice song.  She had a nice voice, but you could tell the song was unrehearsed.  You could see her looking to the back waiting for the signal when she was supposed to start singing during various parts of the song.  This wasn’t something subtle that I was catching.  This was beyond obvious.

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(above) Audio during the nice tune…where are we again?

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(above) A song called “Wu Suo Wei”, roughly translated as “Whatever”.  Listen to Davide mock the song right at the very beginning, quite funny.

Somewhere towards the end of the show, we heard that the main act, this “Rain” guy wasn’t going to perform.  Someone had said that he’d been denied a visa by the Chinese government.  Huh?  Who knows if that was true.  That left the last act to be some famous Korean beauty actress.  What a waste it was to wait on her.

Well, I can’t remember how late she was now.  An hour, forty-five minutes for sure.  At this time, I wasn’t even aware that she was an actress and not a singer.  There was some sort of ruckus going on in the middle of the hall.  A mass of people was moving towards the stage with flashing cameras all around.  I thought this must be some big shot, but the crowd mysteriously died out and we waited another thirty minutes for this person to show up.  Eventually, she did, though we didn’t realize it until someone told us.

They were using her to draw the names of the final lucky winners of the various drawings.  Oh gosh, that’s something that I forgot to mention.  The various door prizes were absurd:  100k RMB, 250K RMB (oh, around 15k and 40K US), and a few high end Mercedes.  I never got the opportunity to submit my number for the drawing.  And somehow, it seemed like we kept seeing the same phone numbers appear on the big screens.  Maybe it was just the fact that the numbers all consisted of 6′s and 8′s, lucky numbers for wealth in China.

Anyway, this actress didn’t do anything.  She just stood there and pressed buttons on a computer to randomly select more door prize winners.  It was fairly late in the middle of this whole part of the show that we realized that this was the final act and this was the big star.  Then the evening just kinda quietly ended and everyone left.

All in all, a pitiful waste of an obvious huge amount of money that this company spent.  The bizarre thing was that I told this story to various Chinese people and they all came to the same conclusion:  The company’s boss was probably happy with the evening because he was able to get all those big stars and show everyone what a big shot he was.  So what about the terrible execution?  Eh, that doesn’t matter so much.  Then, of course, I had to ask about the pitiful performances of the talent and the fact that the final star was so late and forced all the guests to sit through the same loop of 3-4 songs over and over.  Their responses, again, were generally the same:  Well, the stars know that this is not being broadcasted and that it’s only a private gig.  They couldn’t care less if there performances stunk.  They got paid and that’s all that mattered.

To be fair, one dude put quite a bit of effort into singing his song:  I’d actually heard this song before and it certainly isn’t an easy one to sing – a lot of high-pitched yelling involved!

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(above) At least this guy put an effort into singing his son (one of the few). He starts to belt it out after 45 seconds or so.  Actually, it’s a bit too much.

I am starting to work on some recording projects and need a working amplifier.  I had MS ship over my studio guitar amplifier, a very nice one, from the US, but, silly me who didn’t even think about the power requirements, the amp has no internal transformer like a laptop and can only work with 110 volts.  But, I had a brilliant idea:  I can go to Hua Qiang Bei, the electronics capital of Shenzhen, and China, and I guess the world.

I got a tip from Davide to visit some stores in the area that sold mixing boards and microphones and ask there.  I was successful at step one:  locating these stores.  The salespeople though weren’t selling what I was looking for, but they directed me to “Electronics World” across the street, which is yet another of these 4-5 story enclosures which comprise hundreds of independent shops.  I asked one of the guards where they sold transformers (bian4 ya1 qi1).  I couldn’t understand his response, but he gestured off in a certain direction, so I pretended to understand and thanked him.  After walking down one corridor of mini stores and eyeing the wares, I began to notice a lot of power supplies and plugs.  Perhaps this was the place.

And it was.  The nice woman showed me two heavy transformers, about the size of a shoebox.  After explaining what I was looking for and showing her a picture of the back of my amp, we settled on the 600 watt transformer.  I walked back outside and to the bus-stop, quite pleased with myself.  But, as I should have known, when I got home and plugged it in.  It turned on briefly, made a horrible noise, and shut off.  Dead.  Reality set back in and I cursed at the idea of having to go back to Hua Qiang Bei.

I went the next day and the nice lady switched out the fuse.  Oh, it was that simple?  Just an old fuse or something?  She gave me a couple of extras and we tested it.  It seemed to work fine.

Back at home, I plugged it in and turned it on again.  This time, it made a horrible loud buzzing, but didn’t shut off.  Now, why didn’t I hear this loud buzzing when I was in the store.  Oh wait, it was Hua Qiang Bei which is perpetually full of multitudes of screaming people.  Makes sense.  Well, back to reality again, I though, “How in the heck am I supposed to record with this awful buzzing in the background?”  There was no reasonable answer, but I decided to at least try the amp.  I plugged it in, turned on the power…BOOM!  Fuse blown again.

OK, I give up.  I could always have someone replace the transformer, I guess, but I do plan to go back to the US someday and don’t want to have to change it back again.  Besides, there is zero guarantee that the electrician will do a good job.  I could end up burning the whole apartment complex down.  Forget it; I’ll just buy a new amp, a little cheapo studio one.  That’ll be fine, I’ve got a nice effect rack.  It’ll work.  The next day, I learned about “Music Heaven” in Shenzhen and checked it out.  Not bad!  It’s another collection of stores, about 3 stories worth.  The owner of the place that I tried out is a big fan of Paul Gilbert and had his picture playing guitar with him proudly displayed, so I thought that was fitting.

I’ve got an extremely heavy paperweight now, my shoebox-sized transformer, unless someone wants to take this thing off my hands.  Return it to the store?  Forget it.  Welcome to Hua Qiang Bei.

A bunch of folks went out to Da Mei Sha (one of Shenzhen’s beaches) on Saturday afternoon, all at different times.  From where I live, it’s about an hour and a half bus ride.  I split the distance though.  In the early afternoon, I met up with my local musician friend who’s helping me with a re-release of a CD.  We spent about three hours tweaking the recording.  We might be able to finish in two more sessions, if all goes well.  After we finished, I hopped back on the bus and made my way to the beach.  I met up with Davide and his wife.  Paul and his girlfriend showed up later.  We hung out on the crowded beach while waiting on our Chinese friend, Mike, and his crew.  At one point, I noticed someone trying to sneak a photo of us.  So, I waved to them.  This prompted all sorts of excitement and lots of people joined in on the picture.  Check out the photos.

Contrast the crowds on this semi-pretty beach with those in Costa Rica.

Later on, we enjoyed an excellent “business meeting” dinner at a Hunan restaurant (my favorite) then spent the rest of the evening on the beach playing the popular Chinese “Killer” game, sort of a bluffing game that’s popular.  Folks in my office used to play over lunch.  Basically, a judge who runs the game you secretly  and randomly assigns roles:  one killer, one policeman, and civilians.  The game is based on rounds and each round begins with everyone closing their eyes.  Then:

1. The killer is allowed to open his eyes and point to someone that he wants to kill.  The judge notes it and then the killer closes his eyes.
2. The policeman is then allowed to open his eyes and can have one guess at who the killer is.  The judge either nods “yes” or “no”.

Everyone then opens their eyes and the judge announces who’s been killed.  That person is then out of the game, and gets to watch how the game plays out.  It’s the policeman’s job to ferret out the killer, and the killer’s job to eventually kill off the cop so he’s safe.  In between each round, the judge goes around the group and gets feedback from everyone about who they think the killer is and why.  If a majority of the people guess who the killer is, then the killer loses the game as well. Makes for a fun time late into the night on the beach.

Though I prefer my new place to the old one, one big drawback is that it’s not located on a subway line.  At least not yet; maybe in a couple of years, when I’m sure I will have moved on again.  So, most of my transportation lately has been by taking the bus, which has been getting steadily better – more comfortable, AC, less crowded.  And, just the other day, I hopped on a bus that had the passenger information recordings (the next stop, safety crap) in English as well as Chinese.  This was a first.  While the subway has always had Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, busses have always only used Mandarin.  So, I had a curious sense that I would prefer to only have Mandarin spoken on the busses.  I guess that parallels how I prefer to not her “Para continuar en Espanol, marque en ‘dos’” in the United States even though I can speak Spanish.