"Future Shopping and Gambling on Steroids" - The Cotai Strip in Macau

Yesterday we had a Farewell Party to attend in Macau which was nearly made impossible to reach - the only ferries we were able to still book were leaving at 2:45pm to Macau coming back at 12:30am - the reason for the crazyness?
Here's what I've read and heard -

Besides the existing casinos and the 11-months-old Wynn Macau, the 3000-suite Venetian Macao Resort Hotel which is the world's biggest casino and the 2nd largest building by floor area worldwide opened it's doors this week. It's located on the so called Cotai Strip which originates from combining the names of the surrounding islands of Coloane and Taipa and will host 350 shops of which 160 are open so far. Every major international luxury brand will have a presence on the Strip in the near future since the chinese customer is considered the highest spending tourist on retail (outside of his country) in the world - Chinese people just love to shop.

The frantic pace of hotel development on the Strip will result in more than 20.000 rooms in more than 10 Las Vegas-style luxury resorts with nearly 3.000 gambling tables being available by 2009/2010. I heard that the Convention Centre in the Venetian is already fully booked for the coming 2 years and I am sure it'll become a huge competitor for the HK Exhibition & Convention Centre. The hotel will boast a 2-level Buddha Bar, a pool big enough to water-ski in and - of course - a 1.800 seat theatre for a permanent, new Cirque de Soleil show plus a 15.000-seat indoor arena that puts anything in HK to shame. In October the NBA's Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers are expected followed by a match between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in november which was completely sold out within days.

Next door the Four Seasons, the InterContinental, Shangri-La, Traders, Sheraton & St. Regis, Hilton, Conrad, Fairmont & Raffles, Ritz-Carlton, Macau Studio City Hotel AND a Playboy Mansion are currently under construction, each with 100ds of more upscale shops AND malls - each of the properties will be connected by elevated walkways and footbridges to assure smooth traffic...and then there are of course the other casinos on the Macau Peninsula itself... Official forecasts predict that Macau can expect an annual 40 million arrivals by 2010.

W O W - but will these projects be able to fulfill the high expectations of Macau investors and where do they get enough bilingual, well-trained staff to keep up the standards of 5* and 6* hotels? Maybe I should return to my original professional roots, like this I could monitor the developments with my own eyes.

...and where does that leave the old native macanese families who have to put up with such a zoo in the future - after all, for many years they were used to living mostly simple lives in a peaceful, sleepy fishing village with one small casino for the locals - the Lisboa...

Home Sweet Home

although I was wondering whether I was really back in HK at first - while starring out of our kitchen window after our return I saw one of the construction workers right next to our building standing on top of the deserted construction platform, throwing his shoes from his feet, carefully emptying his pant pockets, unrolling a small carpet and getting ready for his prayers in the direction of Mecca - never seen this happening in the middle of a construction site before...

...hey there, just checking in - hope everyone had a fantabulous summer and isn't caught up too much in the daily life duties already - our trip to Munich was as turbulent as always, apologies to those I haven't called but I was really busy, more on that in private emails if anybody is curious...after having lived in the States for 8 years and now in Hong Kong since nearly 2 years, Germany seems more and more like "toy land" upon arrival - the ride to my hometown takes me about an hour from the airport and passing through small villages, seeing the countryside and the mountains flying by in the distance, everything seems so peaceful and in order but also rather smallish in comparison to NYC or HK - I wonder whether one day Germany will serve as a gigantic holiday Spa for tourists visiting from overcrowded countries like China and India in search of a little crispy clear air and some peaceful picturesque nature? Anyway, we enjoyed it as much as always and had a good time. In the meantime we also managed to put the jetlag behind us and sleepless nights sitting on the balcony while munching on german gummibaer's are in the past.

Fall seems to become very busy with classes, trips and visitors pouring in but I'll make time to keep on telling you what's going on in HK, promised....ciao for today...

PS

...forgot to mention a)that you can take the next 5 weeks to dig through the previous Blog because I will be traveling to Germany and won't be posting anything until september b)after the past events I nearly can whistle along the Chinese Hymn by heart...

Have A Great Summer!!!

Summertime - and the living is easy

31 degrees - U2's "A Beautiful Day" on my Ipod speakers (sounds like a cliche, I am fully aware, but that's what it was) while crawling up and down The Peak - higher speed is impossible due to permanent dripping from sweat, arghhh...still - what a priviledged life here in Hong Kong!
As promised I will try to summarize my activities during the past 3 weeks --->

* it started with the stunning fireworks on july 2nd which we unfortunately had to watch from the 3rd row pushed back further into Tsim Sha Tsui than we expected. Although arriving 1 hour before the action was going to start we just hit barrier by barrier and didn't succeed in even coming close to the Avenue of Stars since every spot there had been blocked off hours ago - before being shoved around back and forth we decided to just hang out next to the Sheraton and gave into our fate.
At least we were lucky to watch part of the fireworks since one of the 3 ships carrying the explosives was right in front of us - of course that didn't make up for missing out on the Lightshow and the harbour overview but at least we've got to mumble some OH's and AH's with about 350.000 others around us. Don't ask how long it took afterwards to disentangle the crowds...?! Next year we'll rent a hotel room with harbour view intime and have a private party....
Since the extended lightshow was on for the whole week I still managed to admire it a couple of days later and especially the pyrotechnics on top of the participating buildings were magnificent.



* then HK hosted its first International Ballroom Dancing Competition at Queen Elizabeth Stadium and some girlfriends and I found ourselves in the midst of cheering chinese dance enthusiasts - the program was all in chinese and we had not many clues about what was going on while the officials gave their endless speeches. We saw the semi-finals and finals of the international Standard and Latin Dancers and were reminded of the superb German Ballroom Dancing traditions after a german couple did win the Standard competition. The most impressive moment of the evening came when a huge crowd aged between 7 - 85 years old danced a mass ChaChaCha choreography, especially the youngest and the oldest were very sweet to watch. Inbetween there were lots of colourful performances by the local up-and-comings and while admiring the finalists of the age group of the 7-12 year olds I was wondering very strongly whether it makes ANY sense to continue my own efforts in mastering the Latin American Ballroom Dances, hmmmmmm........
- it's been 4 months of dancing classes in the meantime and I am still forgetting some steps and stagger around aimlessly...at least I am having a blast doing it and luckily our cute chinese dancing instructor has all the patience of the world....

* the week after we ventured out to participate in the Gymnastics Extravaganza at the Hong Kong Coliseum - HK hosted the Chinese national team including 2 current World Champions plus their own gymnstics elite. We watched unbelievable acrobatic and rhythmical gymnastics perfomances and got a glimpse of what the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics might look like. Once again the crowd was 95% Chinese with lots of Mainland travel groups who went ballistic once their Champions showed up. Unfortunately each of the visitors was given a plastic clapping hand upon entering the venue and even worse - made use of them at all times throughout the evening...I had a little boy with clapping hands in each hand sitting behind me and was ready to "clap him" inbetween - needless to state that I was half deaf when everything was finally over. This time even the written program was just in chinese and we had to make up our own interpretations of the proceedings - no wonder that no Westerner attends these events....on the other hand it's an exciting feeling to be surrounded by nothing than black haired heads ;-)



* last friday the final event for this summer which I would be able to follow, took place - the Wushu Spectacular which was mostly a performance for sponsors of the Wushu fighters but after finding out that there would be some tickets for the general public available I hopped on the next bus to hunt them down in the middle of nowhere...it's always rewarding once you finally managed to find the boxoffice to see how astonished the locals are when a westerner shows up and we could even communicate because they were mostly giggling students who spoke a little English. Once again it was a very interesting evening full of local culture and of course just in cantonese - although this time they provided the translation into a foreign language which was MANDARIN :-( I will definitely sign up for mandarin classes this fall since I am sick and tired of not understanding anything during these events!!! We also received a "blinking 10th Anniversary" button which luckily didn't make any noise - the funniest incident was that the only thing written in English was the small label that interrupted the battery contact and since the neighbours on both sides were elderly we had to provide development aid in sign language, hysterical. We did watch a lively dragon dance, the traditional lions were romping around and and lots of "Jackie Chan's-in-the-making" performed various stunning martial arts fighting scenes - meaning everything between the traditional Tai Chi to "Kung-Fu-fighting" demonstrations with all kinds of tools (sticks, swords, tridents, fans, etc.) - the body language of the performers was amazing - at times it was more like watching a perfectly choreographed ballet, especially with the music that accompanied most presentations. I include some pics to give you an idea - just don't forget to take a closer look at the officials on their stage - the size of the flower arrangements at their suit lapels made me expect them falling over at any minute, unfortunately it didn't happen, sigh ;-) and good-bye!

Beijing 2008 and other curiosities

...just read this in our local newspaper, the South China Morning Post:

A mainland official said rockets would be fired to scatter rain clouds and ensure perfect weather for next year's Beijing Olympics, China Daily said. While the forecasts indicate good weather, officials had prepared for the unexpected, the report stated. They concede that rain prevention is difficult/Reuters

Hmmmm...this will become the perfect Games, no doubt...if anyone needs a perfect day for any outdoor event next year, give "the weathergods" in Beijing a ring, should work out then...

Today's headlines (!!!) by the way were "Starbucks retreats from the Forbidden City" (1/2 page) - yes, it seems to be THAT important since we're having no other current problems in the world...The Forbidden City is undergoing renovation at the moment to restore its imperial-era appearance, meaning the commercial symbols have to be toned down - I commented on Starbucks in a previous Blog - why the h...did they have to open one on such a historic site in the first place?!...and NO, that does not mean that I turn my back on Starbucks ;-)

...oh and by the way - field mice are back on the menu in Guangdong because Hunan has been overrun by 2 billion field mice driven from their nests by flood last week and many merchants spotted a business opportunity - meat for dinner - anybody?...in case you want to adopt some mice to save me from accidentally eating them, call me, I'll ship some over...eating mice was banned since the SARS outbreak in 2003.

Where are you located???

Wow guys - I am stunned!! Just checked my clustr map and saw all these dots in the States - except for NJ,NY,MI,IN,WI,TX and Georgia, I really don't have the slightest idea who is following the Blog in the meantime - maybe half of the former HK Community who relocated to the US or Americans on the move to HK????...some of my friends must have passed on the address....just out of curiosity - would you mind sending me emails who and where you are and why this Blog is interesting for you? The email address is on the footer of the Blog, can't wait to hear from you...if anyone ever needs infos about HK don't hesitate to contact me...as for now keep on reading and have fun. Ciao