SEOUL REPORT ONE. WELLCOME

hi folks! don´t worry we are still alive. but the last week in seoul was very busy. we met so many people that we couldn´t chatch up with the time to blogg. sorry for that ;-)


let´s give you a small impression from our first meeting with the crew from adidas south-korea, the bling magazine and some people from office h. we went out for a warm welcome-dinner for mr. ricoh shin who is new at the adidas-marketing crew.

traditionally you have to arrange a dinner after the first month on the new job. so we spent a really nice night at a place wich is very famous for his spezial beef-BBQ in seoul. movie here..

later we went of course to a karaoke-bar and rocked the house. thank you very much ricoh for this funny night.
see the short movie..

later we will blogg more about seoul. so stay tuned.


now we arrived back in hongkong and are preparing some ideas for a small presentation. so we are a little bit busy for the moment.

so long and many greetings from hk.

BEIJING REPORT FOUR: FOOD AND LODGING

on sunday we had a little walk thru the city.. for sure: the tian anmen square, mao hall, forbidden city and all these tourist stuff.. and it's tru: on the tian anmen square chinese people just start talking to you.. and they take pictures of you.. like you are the tourist-attraction..

and even on sundays they are like all the other asians we have seen: shopping is the most important way of spending free time!

we ended up in a road where there was a row of food-kitchens.. about 100 in a line.. here a little movie-impression..

and look at the pictures: jummy!

after that we had a nice dinner with liù again.. she told us she will bring a friend.. she was introduced as pauline.. pauline? are you the 'pauline' we try to contact for the last days via e-mail because of an advise of somebody from our network in berlin? YES!

it is so funny: the only two persons we had contacted separately before our trip without knowing them are actually roommates! so we had a funny night.. talking about their music-projects (both dj) and paulines upcoming video-art-festival: borderline

after this funny and interesting night we drove home to our stunning place to stay: the china club beijing

One of the most exclusive private members clubs in China, Beijing's China Club has eight private suites that can be made available to Imperial Tours' guests. Since the China Club is housed in a 400 year-old, courtyard-style palace, guests can enjoy the unique thrill of inhabiting traditional palace rooms furnished with Chinese antiques. Be advised however that some of the customary amenities of a five star hotel are not available in these surroundings; a sports center, full service business center and the like are not to be found here. Similarly steaming hot water does not flow immediately from the hot water tap - these are the drawbacks.

this is a dream: video!
thanks to jürgen strafe and the adidas-division of china who are corporate-members and made us living at this fantastic venue!

on monday we started our trip to seoul/korea.. we got a little bit late at the airport.. but we managed to get our flight after making a little trouble with the security at the check in ;-)

stay tuned for a review of our days here in korea..

BEIJING REPORT THREE: PARTYPEOPLE

well.. seoul is getting busy for us.. so i didn't have time to sit on my computer ;-) but the beijing-story goes on:

after the battle of bands liù managed to get us into a very unusual venue: a huge one-night halloween-party deep down in beijing-student area.. maybe 2 hundred people were queuing in front trying to get in.. surounded by policemen observing the crowd.. so somehow it was legal.. but also just tolerated..

inside there was a funny mixture of chinese and european people. as you can see in the pictures: chinese are crazy! and we also went crazy..

there is also a little movie as a party-impression..

BEIJING REPORT TWO: PEOPLE

on the first night we were hosted by yaoyao. a local culture manager we got connected thru our network.. thanks pfadfinderei!

she showed us all the relevant clubs within a 3 hours ride thru the city.. about 6 clubs.. 30 min each.. with transport.. this was a real rush.. but it was funny and interesting regarding our mission to find out how youthculture works here in beijing: fusion club, the mix, cargo club..
it's almost like in every european city.. but the crowd is chinese.. the only difference: servants! in each club about 50 people running arround trying to make you comfortable but making you uncomfortable: you hold a cold cigarette in the hand and instantly you have a lighter under your nose.. you throw the cigarette on the floor.. promptly is somebady picking it up.. and they are not cool.. the are just servants for the crowd! and they are treated like that. one reason: they are all not from beijing! beijing people wouldn´t do this job!

on saturday we had dinner at the green t. house.. it is known for its overwhelming interior- and food design.. it's the place to impress visitors.. we were told.. but in the end it was just really expensive and the design reminded us a bit to a drug-addicted-everage-us-designer: more kitsch than style!

but we had a very nice evening with our guests: kathrin guethoff and georg warga from interone, a part of bbdo-worldwide. on the left side: sascha and lars krueckeberg from graft architectures (we know them from our pecha kucha)
they also gave us a brief overview about their experiences here in beijing.

afterwards we left to the world battle of the bands final at yugong yishan club where we met our second guide: liù (a music manager from france) she introduced us also to the owner of this subculture place lue zhiqiang.. he was living for 7 years in berlin and imported some of his experiences.. his club is voted thru the last years as 'best live-club of beijing'.. nice guy!

watch the video to get an impression what the final of the world battle of bands was like.. incredible!

afterwards we went to another student and expads party at a more or less illegal place.. but this story i will tell you tomorrow..

stay tuned..

BEIJING REPORT ONE: CONSTRUCTION

the first thing everybody is just shocked about is the amount of construction sites: on every corner they are building new skyscrapers or office houses.. hundreds!

this is just one symbol of the power of this huge country to expand.. we all will have to look about this movement!

one thing within this is just another symbol of whats going on: the construction-workers wear their sunday-suits.. they choosed their best clothes to come to the capital to get a job. and finally it's their only clothe and so they work in it.. with a helmet on.. thousends of them!

right in front of our first hotel they where building a whole area: soho beijing.. this is not socialist architecture!

here is a small video..

OFFLINE IN KOREA

During our trip to beijing we decided to have a weekend for ourselves without blogging.. we thought we will do it in seoul/korea.. but since we arrived here we are just struggling with our communication facilities.. so don't worry.. we are well.. the trip is amazing.. and we have a lot stories to tell.. later when we get reconnected..

stay tuned soon ;-)

HONG KONG FOOD

we have just arrived in beijing! no problems! now we are among 1 billion chinese people.. frightening! .. we will let you know how it goes..

yesterday we did some office work for projects going on in berlin + the preparation for our stay in beijing. in the evening we had another extraordinary dinner: ilse and juergen strafe invited us to a boat trip thru the bay of hong kong to an island of food! at the rainbow restaurant we only ate fresh seafood.. fresh means still alive while ordering.. all variations.. totally crazy..

a friend of ilse and juergen joined us: christa koch-kessler. she is the director and food goddess of 'ClassAct', culinary marketing and events planing in hong kong. she is not just a real professional but also a really funny austrian lady.. we had lots of fun!

she gave us a short but striking introduction to hong kong food strategies: they also have a menu order. but they choose depending on personal type, color of food, structure etc.. but listen to her in this movie (17 mb)..

stay tuned..

WESTERN CREATIVES IN HONG KONG

yesterday we had dinner with some people connected through our network (small video): first timothy jachna and wantanee suntikul. both professors at the polytechnic university of hong kong. he is an architect who worked for 7 years in berlin at christoph langhofs office. christoph checked this contact for us: thank you!

his wife is working at the hotel & tourism management department of the university.

we catched up with some of their friends: valérie portefaix and her husband laurent gutierrez from map office. also a architecture project which publishes books and takes part in exhibitions.. such as the urbandrift to which we took part as well in 2002. so there was already a link between Platoon and map office.. funny..

and last but not least benoit dupuis. the french publisher of the online art and culture magazine tofu.

it was a really interessting group of people talking while eating.. in the end nobody was interested in the food but in conversation.. we ended up on the roof garden of the map-office in between really tall buildings.. having some beer and wine..

later on, while we were on our way to the first really stylish club in town, we found our first example of the rare pieces of street art.. see left side..

the club is really hidden in a small alleyway at the very end: the drop. this is somehow the only real club we found so far. everybody told us that the 'underground' or party-people-scene is not very active.. there are just these pubs we all know and hate from england.. and some ibiza-style teeny-discotheques.. but we´ll keep searching..

stay tuned..