My stay in Shanghai, London, Milan and Hong Kong

Earth-/Seaquake in South East Asia

Horrible scenario what happened in Asia. I am little bit confused as I am not sure if my boss from Shanghai did spend his holiday again in Thailand or not? Hopefully he and his wife are safe. Additionally my roommate from Hong Kong was spending his christmas holiday somewhere on an island out there as well. Let's hope and pray that both parties are save.

Update:
I just called my roommate from HK. He and his friend are safe in Vietnam, which is good news indeed. However, I still couldn't reach my boss from Shanghai on his mobile phone. Hopefully he and his wife are save as well.

This weblog is due to turn out its light

Dear weblog/diary readers

after almost two years of operation where this weblog did track each step of my journey through different cities, countries and regions, on New Years Eve this weblog will shut down its services as I will not be able to use this webserver anymore.

This is just a note expressing a big "thank you" to all of you who carefully followed every step I made during the past years.

I would like to close this diary with a picture of the city which once was the reason of setting-up such a diary, the city of Shanghai. Having lived and experienced this city hands-on has changed many of my views and insights. Finally it'll be good to be back there next summer, although this will mean I will be seperated of a special person for the time being.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and prosperous New Year.
Thanks and all the best to all of you.

Claudio

Merry Christmas!

China's economy is expected to grow by 8.6% in 2005

According to a Spiegel article, China's economy is expected to grow at a very fast pace again in 2005 with an annual GDP growth rate of about 8.6%. Unbelievable if you compare those figures with recent GDP growth rates in Europe...

We got'im....

...my girlfriend's new passport! This means we won't get into any trouble at US immigration desk. Puh!

Munich under snow attack

Good morning! What an impressive view out of the window this early morning. The landscape is completely covered with white snow flakes and there is no inidication that it will stop snowing in the next hours. Welcome to the winter season!

Construction Area

This is just a quick note telling you that several links on this website are temporarily unavailable as the contract of one of my webservers expired and is therefore not reachable any more.

It's done!

Hip Hip Horray...after five long nights, little sleep and increasing consumption of coffee and Red Bull, I took part in all my six final exams.

All things considered I am optimistic about the outcome of those exams, given the time I spent for preparation and the feeling I had afterwards. Now let's wait and see.

Study ingredients

Holy cow! After four days of consecutive learning and preparation using nights and mornings I really feel splashed! Thanks to this special drink I am able to resist and able to get the strength to prepare myself for the last exam day which will conclude my term with two heavy heavy exams.
Let's pray and hope that I will get through my files asap tonight alongside my very best friend and pet, my red bull.

Exams No. 3 and 4

Go go go...it's 5 am, around three hours to go to my third and fourth final exam this week.....Italian and Corporate Finance.....uahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Go go go, Claudio. ;-)

Discover New York City...

...with of Lonely Planet's 4th version and most recent update of New York City guide. Now having received my own Christmas present, let's hope that my girlfriend will get her new passport in time before departure....fingers crossed.

Get it from Amazon!

Distraction needed...

I know I should better study for my next exam tomorrow, but thanks to Juergen's hint, I've found a better way of using my spare time :-)

Santa Throwing competition (click on the pic):

Enjoy the music, it's awesome!!! ;-)

Exam countdown...

12 hours to go until my first final Exam in International Management and I have still half the file to read...wish me luck!

Preparation for final exams

Urx... I have to prepare for next weeks final exams in uni! Six exams within four days.....uaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Reorganising my web domains

Damn... I should have done this before! After calculating the costs for all my web domains, I recognised that I really need to switch some ISP as their offers are no longer acceptable for me.

I am currently looking for a competitive ISP able to offer cheap .com and .net domains plus small webspace volume (2 MB).

One of the best offers to date is all-inkl.com. However, I am sure there are even cheaper offers out there....

Chinese food

...is one reason why I miss being in China. :-(

The picture was taken by Joerg, a friend of mine living and working in Shanghai.

Germany keen to double trade with China until 2010

One of his purposes during his visit to China, Germans chancelor Schroeder is keen to strengthen trade activities among both countries. The objective in doubling the current trade level until 2010 seems to be an easy task given China's current market forecast.

Shenzhen: Lift stolen from tube station

What a clue!

Some frightening Chinese robbers managed to steal a lift which was due of being installed within a tube station in Shenzhen, a metropolis south of China, close to the border to Hong Kong, SAR.
The tube station was planned to start its operation on 28 December 2004. This deadline is now delayed until the new lift parts are again ready to be installed.

May the thieves have a fulfilled life with this lift.

The city of Shenzhen, picture taken from tagesschau.de

Hainan Island, China: Miss World comes from Peru

As last year, this year's "Miss World" edition took place in Sanya, the southern part of Hainan Island. Remember, this is the same place I used to spend one relaxing week after my internship in Shanghai last summer.

Truly a great place, not only for being crowned as Miss World....

World Aids Day

Loyalty towards people who suffer...