There has been so much devastation in the Phillipines from both tropical storms (Super Typhoon Haiyan) and earthquakes. Some people would like to help out but don’t know how. Here is your opportunity.
Tonight at Rapscallions you can bring your old shirts, shoes, hats, and canned goods to give to either Shenzhen Local Music or put in the Donation Box from the Filipino Community.
St. Anthony’s Church will also have a donation box. The church is located on Nonglin Lu next to Sam’s Club. Another location to drop off goods are McCawley’s in Futian and Trainspotting in Shekou.
The Filipino community is also throwing an event this Sunday at Luna Bar. It is a buffet Dinner for 100RMB called “Dine for a Cause”. The proceeds will go to the typhoon victims in Tacloban City and Leyte.
Here is the list, image courtesy of Shenzhen Noted
Local blog Shenzhen Noted has published a price list of items in Shekou from the early 1980s that is a real reminder that the past is a foreign country.
The list, which came from Shekou Industrial Zone Life Services Bureau, gives the “approximate” (just about everything was negotiable) cost of a list of meats, vegetables, spices and dairy products.
Prices would fluctuate and items would become unavailable due to outside forces such as typhoons. But here is a translation of the list of the cost of 1 jin (approximately half a kilo) of the following items:
Pork: 2.4 - 2.5 RMB
Beef: 2.2 - 2.3 RMB
Tripe: 2 RMB
Frozen chicken: 2.6 RMB
Eggs: 1.7 RMB
Freshwater fish: 1.3 - 1.4 RMB
Seawater fish: 0.45 RMB
Green vegetables: 0.35 RMB
Melons: 0.15 RMB
Green beans: 0.4 RMB
Green onions: 0.5 RMB
Ginger: 0.6 RMB
Sponge gourds: 0.45 RMB
Balsam pears 0.4 RMB
Onions: 0.3 RMB
Tofu: 0.5 RMB
Preserved eggs: 0.25 RMB
Salted eggs: 0.25 RMB
According to the blog, the reason why the list contains RMB next to each price is that Hong Kong dollars and Foreign Exchange Certificates (or waihui 外汇), a surrogate currency used by foreigners, were also common.
Keep in mind that prices in Shenzhen were higher than in parts of the country such as Hunan and Sichuan, where the migrants came from to build the dazzling metropolis we see before us today.
It’s a week-long holiday so why not get out and have some fun? Shenzhen is celebrating with a few fun-filled days this weekend. Check out what’s happening:
Oct. 4th - Jef Neve Trio - The 3rd OCT Jazz Festival - The Jef Neve Trio playing live @ The 3rd OCT Jazz Festival. One of the best festivals in Shenzhen for music with lots of new acts each time.
Oct. 4th - Open Mic at XPATS - Come enjoy a beer, and keep drinking those beers till you have the courage to go up and perform.
Oct. 5th - Beer Pong at The Snakepit - Beer Pong Returns to The Snakepit. Lots of discounted beer and prizes. Hosted by the SZUPA.
Oct. 6th - Sunday Ultimate Frisbee by the SZUPA - Join a growing group of expats and local Chinese players play the fast growing international sport: Ultimate.
Oct. 6th - Luna Sunday Cinema: Ghostbusters - Enjoy great food and classic movies at one of Shekou’s best bar’s, Luna Bar. This week: Ghostbusters.
If you attend any of these events, please email me at Jeff@thenanfang.com and we may include some of your review in a future post. Let’s keep your event organizers working to provide better and better events!
(Editor’s Note: We’re looking for dining and nightlife writers in Guangzhou and Dongguan. If you’re interested, please get in touch with us at admin@thenanfang.com)
The Shenzhen Public Security Bureau incinerated 2.95 tons of narcotics in Shekou on Tuesday as part of a yearlong crackdown, Nandu Daily reports.
The bureau claims that by June 20 this year, it had cracked 1,746 drug-related cases, detained 1,915 people, smashed 43 criminal gangs that were involved in drug-dealing, and sent 1,443 drug addicts into rehabilitation.
Tuesday’s move was symbolic as it took place just one day before the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. According to the UN website, the theme for this year was: “Make health your ‘new high’ in life, not drugs.” The guy in charge of coming up with catchier themes must be on his summer holiday.
The problem of drug trafficking in Shenzhen however, is still serious. According to Shenzhen Daily, some expats have been getting locals to help them traffic drugs:
Foreigners taking advantage of Chinese friends by getting them to sign for international express deliveries that contain drugs is an increasing trend in the city, officials with Shenzhen People’s Procuratorate said.
At least 20 such cases have been brought to the court in recent years, Procurator Yu Hongwen said. Yu said foreigners in those cases took advantage of their Chinese girlfriends, business clients or acquaintances by getting them to sign for deliveries containing drugs.
In 2009, a mentally ill British man was executed for allegedly smuggling drugs in China. Considering the history of the country, any foreigner who does anything with drugs here is asking for trouble.
A report on Shaanxi Satellite Television tells the story of a woman from an unspecified foreign country who was rescued in Shenzhen’s Shekou area after being drugged and sold into prostitution by her foreign boyfriend.
The foreign woman, identified as Lily, was drugged and sold into prostitution in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before being rescued. Afterwards, she was kidnapped in Shenzhen’s Shekou area and a foreign man was beaten for trying to come to her rescue, Shaanxi Satellite Television reports.
The beating took place on the first day of Chinese New Year at around 6:30 p.m. when at the gate of a residential community near Shekou’s Rose Garden, a group of armed men kidnapped Lily. The foreign man, Scott, who tried to come to her resuce was then set upon by the gang. The gang then fled with Lily, according to a source close to the matter.
A subsequent investigation exposed the extaordinary story behind the incident.
Earlier, Lily’s foreign boyfriend had drugged her food, causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to, her boyfriend had gone and she discovered she had been sold into prostitution in Guangxi, a source told the TV station. Scott was responsible for rescuing her, first to Wuhan and eventually to Shenzhen.
When Lily was resuced, she insisted that her rescuers also help her friend, who had been sold into prostitution. When in Shenzhen, she would often sob while talking about her friend’s plight. Scott promised her he would do what he could to rescue her friend.
At this point, the television report puts the question: “Why did nobody get the police involved?” Rescuing a woman who has been sold into prostitution takes more than bravery and good will.
After Lily was kidnapped from Shekou, the police were finally notified. The report says that Lily and her friend have both been rescued and those responsible for the kidnapping were arrested in Dongguan.
As information emerges - such as the nature of Scott’s relationship with Lily and which country they are from - we will try to bring it to you.
An international hospital will be opened in Shenzhen’s expat-heavy Shekou area by 2016, Shenzhen Daily reports. Managed by a Singaporean company, it will service expats in Shenzhen who have overseas medical insurance cards.
It will be the first of its kind in Guangdong Province. The paper has more:
“The hospital will be located near Shenzhen Bay Yacht Club and completed around 2015 or 2016 if everything goes smoothly,” Ouyang Fang, a spokesperson for China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone, said yesterday.
Around a third of Shenzhen’s 400,000 expats live in Shekou. Two clinics in the area, SOS and Canam, offer only simple treatment.
Many expats encounter a language barrier and other problems at hospitals in the Pearl River Delta. You can read about one expat’s horror story in a local hospital here.
Many expats cross the border to Hong Kong for medical treatment, but this is expected to change when the international hospital opens.
Do you do the same? You may even have a positive experience in a Chinese hospital. If so, we’d like to hear it.
Staff at Chill’s Bar in Shekou are recovering from having tens of thousands of yuan stolen from them by an American who fled the city last month, according to Shenzhen Daily. Real English, a nearby language training centre, was also a victim of the theft that has caused outrage across Shekou.
The bar on Haichang Street lost tens of thousands of yuan that was allegedly taken by the American who had opened Chill’s with partners last spring, just before opening Real English.
The paper reports:
“He took everything — even the staff’s tips,” said Danish businessman Kent Kristensen, a regular at Chill’s who said a friend of the American’s loaned him 20,000 yuan (US$3,211) the day before he disappeared.
The vanished American allegedly left unpaid bills, paychecks and debts at both businesses, while taking advance tuition payments from parents of students at Real English, which was forced to close.
People who knew the alleged thief, who is unidentified because police reports and actions have not been confirmed, said he emptied the bar’s cash register on his way out the door and even grabbed loans from friends before jetting, saying he needed help with renovations or family issues.
“I gave him a personal loan of 30,000 yuan,” said a baker in the neighborhood. “He said he was going to expand the business. I gave him the money on Saturday and he left on Sunday.”
The remaining staff at the bar are selling T-shirts with the American’s face on it in order to raise money to pay the bills, and pay back creditors.
Chill’s Bar used to be known as Burt’s, and has become a popular hot dog and hamburger hangout in the Shekou area. Hopefully this guy is found, and people get their money back.
This should inspire confidence next time you board the Shenzhen Metro: trains on the Shekou line toward Luohu District temporarily stopped November 1 after suspected signal interference by passengers’ use of mobile networks, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.
The problem started at 8:15am and continued until 9:30 am. All subway trains travelling from Chiwan stopped for one to two minutes, inconveniencing thousands of passengers. According to the operator, the signal was interfered with by unidentified mobile networks, and all trains are programmed to slow down or halt in such circumstances.
That evening, anonymous insiders told media that the unidentified networks were being used by passengers on their mobile phones. An engineer said the network had the same frequency range as the one used by the metro company.
In September 2011, hundreds were injured in a subway accident in Shanghai. Two months earlier, a high speed rail crash in Wenzhou City in Zhejiang Province caused much public anger, and in recent days was brought up in an impassioned debate about the quality of infrastructure in China between Martin Jacques of the BBC and Charles Custer of Chinageeks.
Fortunately, this incident turns out to have been a minor one.
The Nanfang is pleased that Rue Moyer, the founder of Shenzhen Local Music, has joined as a weekly contributor. Each Thursday, Rue will look at the local music scene in the Pearl River Delta. You can read more on his website at Shenzhen Local Music.
Music is ingrained in us. It’s as intricate as the DNA that makes up our being and as rhythmic as a heartbeat. It was always a matter of time until the need for music in Shenzhen was backed by an obvious enough demand. The time is now. How do I know? We have 3 regular open mic night’s happening throughout the city.
In nearly every city, in every country around the world you can find at least one open mic night. These vehicles for expressing creative freedom, either for showing off your goods or merely conquering some stage fright, are a staple to music communities worldwide. They offer a welcoming stage to any level of musician for presenting well-tuned pieces or rough drafts to an audience which, at most times, will listen. At the very least they’ll refrain from booing!
In countries like America, an open mic is a neutral stage upon which musicians can test their newest riffs and producers, agents, and pro musicians can scope out undiscovered talent. From a venue owner’s side of the bar, they can pack the joint with free live music, minus the free booze musicians usually get. Unfortunately, Shenzhen isn’t Nashville and isn’t sought out for its musical prowess, so local music and open mic nights have barely even existed. As anyone that’s lived here for more than a minute can attest to, the only real rhythm you feel comes from the thousands of construction workers hammering away all day. However, most of the red clay has been replaced with foundations; the sea reclaimed for city building projects and now, after more than 30 years, people have taken root. Now, as Shenzhen approaches its 40th birthday, a community for music is starting to bud.
Sunday Nights at 10pm
The first to start looking for live local music, a place that has been doing it long before it was practical and remains by far the most interesting, is La Casa in Coco Park. Need proof? Check out this video:
This is David Seymour, owner and active participant in open mic, singing his own song, “Old Joe Hammer”. It was 2am and we’d gone through 8 musicians by this point. Notic, everyone huddled around the stage, each person pounding away on some form of percussive instrument; djembe, Cajon, washboard, chairs, tambourine. Jordan’s even wailing on a water jug! It’s tribal, it’s simple and it’s intimate. It’s authentic. Ask most customers why they’re singing along on a Sunday night until 2am and they’d tell you it’s because they want to experience raw music backed by travelling talent. La Casa offers a small stage with a minimal setup, and most people play a mix of covers and originals.
Mondays, 9:30pm-Midnight
The second venue to offer an open stage was McCawley’s in Sea World, Shekou. It’s been on about a year or so now and fills an otherwise empty 2nd floor and generates revenue on Monday night. This stage is completely different from La Casa’s. Here, musicians get access to a fully equipped stage setup; instruments, amps, band space and an atmosphere which epitomizes the Rock & Roll scene. And, Rock is likely what you’ll hear if you pop in. Shekou is the hub for long-term expats in Shenzhen. Many of the residents are middle-aged and raising their families here. Incidentally, most of the musicians relive glory days by jamming away on Hendrix, The Beatles, and Clapton tunes. Shekou is also where most of the live music in Shenzhen happens, so more often than not musos from the local venues stop in to help the open micers feel like real rockers. On occasion, you’ll even find local Chinese busker musicians strumming away.
Thursday Nights
As of 2 weeks ago, the third open mic is on Thursday night at Rapscallions Café Bar, just around the corner from La Casa in Coco Park. When you walk into Raps you won’t find a stage, just some mic stands and an amp. Why? It wasn’t designed with music in mind. But alas, the owner is himself a musician. After little deliberation and keen enthusiasm, Darragh made music a priority for Raps.
Brian Wegener singing at the 2nd Rapscallions Open Mic Night
Music started about 2 months ago with John Hutton, a local teacher and old school tunes player. I’m talking 60+ year old music – sweet, huh? Within a week, he added fiddle extraordinaire Graham to his show. Shortly after, I met Darragh and introduced my entourage of players and a Xinjiang, flamenco style trio to the mix and now music is on all weekend. Audience support and crowd turnout blew our expectations out of the water, so we’ve added a Thursday night open mic night. In the two weeks we’ve run it, we’ve had more than twenty musicians peel out of the woodwork to pick away on the guitar.
Raps is quickly becoming a house of music and gaining a reputation for a venue to hear tunes you may have long ago forgotten.
Shenzhen isn’t known for its music scene. It’s only ever been a transient business city, as it remains in its infancy. But the infant loves music the same as the old man. And, the infant has the advantage of being introduced to the best music from its grandfather’s generation. This international city has the advantage of drawing a highly talented, culturally diverse populace from which to build its music foundations from. Believe me when I say, it’s only a matter of time.
We told you earlier about the construction underway at Seaworld Square in Shenzhen, but using the word “construction” might not be telling the whole story. The area has been completely dug up, leaving nothing but gaping holes and small narrow passageways to get to the surrounding bars and restaurants. Sadly, many of the establishments, especially the ones that open directly into the square, will likely see their business hurt by the construction. But just so you know, and according to the signs in the area, all of these businesses remain open! (Even if you can’t see them as easily as before).
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