Olympic countdown: 473 days It’s springtime in Beijing. New life is blossoming throughout the city and my life could not be more different than a year ago. 
Olympic tickets went on sale last week, the first leg of a seven million ticket lottery. I went online to the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Centre and made my bidding for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for basketball, table tennis and swimming. Prices range from RMB500 to RMB5,000. If my name is not pulled in the first round, I will be entered into a cascading lottery that takes me to the next price category. The limit is 1 ticket per person per ceremony; I can't imagine the chaos as 100,000 look for their friends at the magnificent National Stadium. Each ticket will be embedded with a wireless chip and sprayed with special paint to avoid counterfeiting. As the combined revenue from ticket sales is believed to be US$140m, faking tickets will be a lucrative business. The EASTWEST business is now firmly on track, but not without its hiccups. This last week we received 8 new leads from as far afield as Australia and America, but as the agency is still small and in only one city, we can’t realistically pitch to win all of them. Xiaolei, ever on top of things, told me that the Government has changed the law again and we could have remained in the old office. Now my issue is people. This week Nellie decided that she would rather work in a Chinese company in the children’s culture industry. In truth, her abilities with the media were good, but attention to detail and client counsel were proving to be mutually recognized weaknesses. Last spring I was just finding my feet in Jian Wai SOHO; this year the office is all set up, we have potential business and the challenge is attracting qualified consultants away from the multinational agencies or finding talent to train. One mainland Chinese candidate I interviewed was earning more money than her equivalent in Singapore – such is the demand in an economy growing at 11%. Wage inflation is a real problem here, as people like Nellie are able to command greater salaries without improving their skill sets. As the wage gap narrows, China’s competitive edge is being eroded. 
One edge that China doesn’t want to lose is that of being a fundamentally safe place. This last week the English and Chinese papers were dominated by the tragedy of Virginia Tech, in which a South Korean student shot and killed 32 people. At first, papers were concerned at the anti-Asian sentiment in the USA; not least because people seemed unable to distinguish between Chinese and Korean. By the end of the week there was a photo in the China Daily of a steam roller crushing illegal weapons. Owning arms of any kind is illegal in China and in cases punishable with death. This appears to put off a significant number of people as only 178,000 guns, 3,900 tons of explosives and 7.77m detonators – the latter of which are probably used for illegal mining – were confiscated in 2006 . Apparently selling an illegal handgun can earn a farmer twice his monthly salary, and they fall victim to smuggling rings looking for fences. The authorities are keen to tell visitors that this is a safe country and Beijing will be a safe haven in 2008. Certainly spring is a lovely time in Beijing with plenty of government attempts to plant new life, and couples in China planning on having babies this year as it is Golden Pig Year, which only occurs every 60 years. Among the lucky couples who will apparently compete for hospital beds in this auspicious year will be Wei and me. We are now 12 weeks into her pregnancy and according to the ultrasound scans last Friday we have a healthy 6.3cm Eurasian baby. The scan was undertaken at the United Family Hospital, which resembles a 5 Star Hotel and I suspect costs more. A poster in the waiting room reminds prospective parents that babies of both genders have a right to life. I understand that, as a safeguard, doctors aren’t allowed to tell the couple the gender lest they decide to terminate a female fetus. At the Sino Japanese hospital the doctor told Wei to eat fruit and get fresh air and to return at week 15, but at the UFH there is an American attitude to antenatal care which includes thoughtfully having golf magazines in reception and attractive receptionists who smile while extorting the cash from one’s credit card. 
It has been in large part the knowledge that I will become a father that has separated me from writing this diary, as time supporting Wei while carrying forward the business have been priorities. A decade long relationship with Asia has finally, perhaps inevitably, resulted in having a love affair with a Chinese woman and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I am not the first Englishman, and doubt that I will be the last, to be drawn to China. As the world becomes more interconnected, the distinctions between east and west become less perceptible, and having a Eurasian baby is the ultimate expression of the two cultures coming together. On Saturday Wei and I went to listen to the acclaimed pianist Zhang Lu and the China Philharmonic Orchestra play Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky' Piano Concerto No. 2, followed by Symphony No.4 in F Minor. After several discordant weeks of coming to terms with fatherhood, listening to this magical music in the Forbidden City was just the ticket. Man zou.
Olympic tickets went on sale last week, the first leg of a seven million ticket lottery. I went online to the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Centre and made my bidding for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for basketball, table tennis and swimming. Prices range from RMB500 to RMB5,000. If my name is not pulled in the first round, I will be entered into a cascading lottery that takes me to the next price category. The limit is 1 ticket per person per ceremony; I can't imagine the chaos as 100,000 look for their friends at the magnificent National Stadium. Each ticket will be embedded with a wireless chip and sprayed with special paint to avoid counterfeiting. As the combined revenue from ticket sales is believed to be US$140m, faking tickets will be a lucrative business. The EASTWEST business is now firmly on track, but not without its hiccups. This last week we received 8 new leads from as far afield as Australia and America, but as the agency is still small and in only one city, we can’t realistically pitch to win all of them. Xiaolei, ever on top of things, told me that the Government has changed the law again and we could have remained in the old office. Now my issue is people. This week Nellie decided that she would rather work in a Chinese company in the children’s culture industry. In truth, her abilities with the media were good, but attention to detail and client counsel were proving to be mutually recognized weaknesses. Last spring I was just finding my feet in Jian Wai SOHO; this year the office is all set up, we have potential business and the challenge is attracting qualified consultants away from the multinational agencies or finding talent to train. One mainland Chinese candidate I interviewed was earning more money than her equivalent in Singapore – such is the demand in an economy growing at 11%. Wage inflation is a real problem here, as people like Nellie are able to command greater salaries without improving their skill sets. As the wage gap narrows, China’s competitive edge is being eroded. One edge that China doesn’t want to lose is that of being a fundamentally safe place. This last week the English and Chinese papers were dominated by the tragedy of Virginia Tech, in which a South Korean student shot and killed 32 people. At first, papers were concerned at the anti-Asian sentiment in the USA; not least because people seemed unable to distinguish between Chinese and Korean. By the end of the week there was a photo in the China Daily of a steam roller crushing illegal weapons. Owning arms of any kind is illegal in China and in cases punishable with death. This appears to put off a significant number of people as only 178,000 guns, 3,900 tons of explosives and 7.77m detonators – the latter of which are probably used for illegal mining – were confiscated in 2006 . Apparently selling an illegal handgun can earn a farmer twice his monthly salary, and they fall victim to smuggling rings looking for fences. The authorities are keen to tell visitors that this is a safe country and Beijing will be a safe haven in 2008. Certainly spring is a lovely time in Beijing with plenty of government attempts to plant new life, and couples in China planning on having babies this year as it is Golden Pig Year, which only occurs every 60 years. Among the lucky couples who will apparently compete for hospital beds in this auspicious year will be Wei and me. We are now 12 weeks into her pregnancy and according to the ultrasound scans last Friday we have a healthy 6.3cm Eurasian baby. The scan was undertaken at the United Family Hospital, which resembles a 5 Star Hotel and I suspect costs more. A poster in the waiting room reminds prospective parents that babies of both genders have a right to life. I understand that, as a safeguard, doctors aren’t allowed to tell the couple the gender lest they decide to terminate a female fetus. At the Sino Japanese hospital the doctor told Wei to eat fruit and get fresh air and to return at week 15, but at the UFH there is an American attitude to antenatal care which includes thoughtfully having golf magazines in reception and attractive receptionists who smile while extorting the cash from one’s credit card. 
It has been in large part the knowledge that I will become a father that has separated me from writing this diary, as time supporting Wei while carrying forward the business have been priorities. A decade long relationship with Asia has finally, perhaps inevitably, resulted in having a love affair with a Chinese woman and the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I am not the first Englishman, and doubt that I will be the last, to be drawn to China. As the world becomes more interconnected, the distinctions between east and west become less perceptible, and having a Eurasian baby is the ultimate expression of the two cultures coming together. On Saturday Wei and I went to listen to the acclaimed pianist Zhang Lu and the China Philharmonic Orchestra play Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky' Piano Concerto No. 2, followed by Symphony No.4 in F Minor. After several discordant weeks of coming to terms with fatherhood, listening to this magical music in the Forbidden City was just the ticket. Man zou.