Buzz

Now

• 24 Hours with the lovely Anna, Founder & Owner of Anna Blum ... I love to stroll the streets of Fumin, Julu, Xinle and Changle Lu and around with all those lovely small shops and a lot of street life happening. When it comes to fashion one of my favourite boutiques is right on Fumin Lu No. 184, DONG-LIANG, with a great selection of young Chinese designers.24 May 2013

• 24 Hours with Ray C. Cheng, Founder & Director of “Cordurov” ... My friends and I like to start the evening with a good bottle of wine at Bin 74 on 74 Fuxing Xi Lu and have dinner at Ogi（小木）- an awesome little izakaya located inside SOHO 3911 on Hongmei Lu. When in the mood for great Chinese home cooking, we’d prebook a table at Yme Casa（108 家宴）- a private kitchen on 108 Wuyuan Lu. 13 May 2013

• 24 hours with Jonas Merian, designer & maker of upcycled furniture and home accessories. ... If I don’t feel like working and nothing urgent is on my to-do-list, then we enjoy going to the Gongqing forest park (2000 Jungong Lu, near Nen Jiang lu) which is nearby our studio. If we sometimes make it into the center of town, we like to have lunch at “Sunflour” bakery (Anfu Court, 322 Anfu Lu, near Wukang Lu) or dinner with a group of friends at Sushi’O on Yongkang Lu.07 May 2013

• Luxury Concierge China Publishes The Ultimate City Guides “At each destination we introduce the highlights with a fresh angle and richer understanding. Then with our in-depth knowledge our guests will also visit places, see and experience things that other visitors do not, whilst enjoying the very best of China’s luxury travel and leisure options. Publishing the ‘Ultimate City Guides’ is our way of making the unique Luxury Concierge China experience more accessible.”23 January 2013

• A Sweet Preview ! We at Luxury Concierge China are pleased to give you a preview of our upcoming online guide to Shanghai. Sponsored by Belgian's Master-Chocolatier Neuhaus, the Ultimate Guide to Shanghai (Edition 1, Winter 2012/13) shall be released later this month ...15 December 2012

• The fermented backbone of Sichuan cuisine The small town of Pixian in Sichuan is famous around China for producing the best ‘douban’ (豆瓣), a chilli sauce without which no Sichuan chef can pick up a spatula. Fresh red chillies are mixed with lima beans and various secret ingredients, then left to ferment for months in covered troughs. 01 December 2012

• Innovation and tradition combine over a northern classic Of the many places offering Beijing Roast Duck in the capital, my vote goes to Da Dong Roast Duck (大董烤鸭). A much classier setting than the better-known tourist traps, this restaurant has an innovative take on the local classic, boasting leaner, more flavoursome ducks. 07 November 2012

• Tourism amongst the bustle The city of Wenzhou (温州) is famous as the entrepreneurial capital of China, whose people’s talents for money-making have seen them and the goods they make spread all over the world. 16 October 2012

• What’s in a shepherd’s purse? One of my springtime pleasures is the fairy tale-sounding shepherd’s purse, (荠菜 or ‘jicai’ in Chinese), a peppery green leaf best appreciated in my favourite local fast-food, the jicai soup dumpling (荠菜汤包) from Nanjing Soup Dumplings (南京汤包) on Shanghai’s Fahuazhen Road (法华镇路). 01 October 2012

• A local chain done good In the ever-changing western food scene in Shanghai, there’s a constant flow of new sandwich-and-soup places catering to the office lunchtime crowds. Only a few survive for more than a few years. An exception for all the right reasons is the chain Wagas.13 September 2012

• Old glamour reborn The Long Bar in the Waldorf Astoria is an atmospheric pit stop for afternoon refresher or pre-dinner drink. Housed in the sparkling renovated Shanghai Club, this world-famous bar was the nerve centre of a British-style gentlemen’s club whose colonial-era grandees ran Shanghai.09 September 2012

• A tranquil haven (once you know where to look) Making headlines recently for planning to float on the stock exchange, the Buddhist Island of Putuoshan is an increasingly popular east China getaway. A short ferry ride from the over-heated cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo, the small island’s ancient Buddhist temples and shrines are now joined by a gaggle of new hotels and crowds of Chinese tourists, which leave you wondering where all the peace and quiet went.04 September 2012

• Believe the high-speed hype! Since the Beijing to Shanghai high-speed train opened with much fanfare in 2011, debate has raged if train or plane is the best way to travel between China’s two main cities. My vote is for train. 31 August 2012

• The splendour of Old Huizhou, from the inside The historical village of Chengkan in Anhui Province is famous for its preserved Ming dynasty domestic architecture, with narrow lanes winding between high-walled, whitewashed mansions with distinctive tiled ‘horse-head’ rooves. 30 August 2012

• Meat and potatoes...without the potatoes Every region in China – every household almost – has its version of ‘hongshao rou’ (红烧肉), or braised pork. The Shanghai version uses small portions of pork belly coated in a thick sauce that typifies the city’s cuisine – sweet, gooey and moreish.28 August 2012

• Silk and bamboo In a cab to meet friends for another night on the town, my attention was caught by the music playing from the front seat: traditional instruments combined in a sinuous free-flowing melody that brought back the China of my imagination, before I’d come and experienced the neon-lit pulsing pace of life here. 14 August 2012

• An unexpected baroque beauty Sparkling forlornly on the edge of a construction site in Shanghai’s old town, Dongjiadu Cathedral is an arresting sight. This baroque church is the city’s oldest, built in 1853 by a Spanish Jesuit, and with its curved arches and plaster curlicues it looks as if it should be overlooking a South American plaza not the old docks in Shanghai. 08 August 2012

• Making waves in Suzhou Of Suzhou’s many famous, UNESCO World Heritage Site-gardens, my favourite has to be the Canglang Ting, or Great Wave Pavilion. This is partly because it was my first. Many years ago on my first trip to China I found myself distinctly underwhelmed by the city of Suzhou, primed as I was by tourist blurb to find a paradise on earth.06 August 2012

• Vegetarians: Welcome to Shanghai! China occasionally gets a bad rap when it comes to Western-style food sensitivity. I wish to dispel this rumour, or at least put your mind as ease.... When it comes to finding plentiful – and plenty tasty – vegetarian options in Shanghai you really need only the following pointers.03 August 2012

• 24 Hours with Willy Trullás Moreno, Chef & Creator of “el Willy” ... To start the night I’d like to have dinner to Goga, managed by my friend Brad Turley, with a small group of friends as Nasi and Marisa, my brother Max and Isa. After dinner we’d go to “el Cóctel” to enjoy a good drink ...03 August 2012

• Shanghai at Your Feet Shanghai’s Urban Planning Exhibition Center might not have the most inspiring-sounding of names. And in fact its original purpose was to persuade Shanghai residents that the inconvenient mass rebuilding of the city would one day all be worth it. 01 August 2012

• Three summer shows in Shanghai; Show 3 MD Gallery moved away from the Bund area this spring and opened an impressive new space of 1000m2 in the Yangpu district of Shanghai. This summer MD Gallery presents for the first time a complete line of Liu Bolin’s work from his beginnings until now. 28 July 2012

• Three summer shows in Shanghai; Show 2 "Why don't you love me anymore?" provokes anger, disappointment, hopelessness, emptiness, sadness and renunciation. These are feelings that everyone understands. This is global and cuts across all cultures. No one stays unaffected.27 July 2012

• Three summer shows in Shanghai; Show 1 Nine oversized kitchen sinks are pouring water, red wine, orange juice, black ink, glycerine, mint syrup, espresso coffee, almond syrup and facial tonic. Museum director Larys Frogier invited the well-known Italian artist Paola Pivi to show her impressive installations at the Rockbund Art Museum. 26 July 2012

• Waterworks for the Ages The name Sichuan means ‘four (i.e. ‘many’) rivers’, an ancient name which reflects the Province’s abundance of waterways and fertility. This agricultural richness explains why its food was able to become famous the world over, and how its people developed their fabled laid-back approach to life – they’ve never really known hard times, so a culture of tea-drinking and taking it easy prevails.25 July 2012

• The park that captures a city You can tell a lot about Shanghai by hanging out in Fuxing Park in the former French Concession. First, the design of the park is recognisably French, with regular flower beds around ornamental fountains, and paths with wrought-iron benches that are perfect for people-watching. 23 July 2012

• 24 Hours with Lee Mack, Managing Editor of City Weekend There is nothing I like better than to start a weekend by mountain biking on Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills), just to the west of Beijing. Me and some long-time Beijing friends gather at Excuse Cafe, a small coffee shop by the Drum Tower before heading out to Xiangshan. 21 July 2012

• Soundtrack to the Good Life circa 1720 ... One intangible but no less rich expression of Suzhou’s cultivation comes in the form of ‘pingtan’ (评弹), or sung storytelling. Typically performed by a man and a woman, the man playing a long-necked plucked instrument, the woman a ‘pipa’ (琵琶) or lute, pingtan combines music, singing and spoken-word telling of stories from China’s literature and ancient past. 19 July 2012

• What a homesick Beijinger needs Our local branch of the Huatian Snack Restaurant is the first port of call when we arrive in Beijing – it’s the best place to reacclimatise for a homesick returning native. It oozes Beijing’s traditional snack culture, with piles of exotic treats like ‘Sugared Ears’ (糖耳朵, not real ears (!) but donut-like twists steeped in syrup), ‘Noodle Broth’ (面茶, a sweet sesame-flavoured gloop), and myriad other cakes, buns and fried dumplings. 18 July 2012

• A haven of some real European culture In the expat enclave of Shanghai’s Anfu Lu there lurks an unsung cultural gem – the Cultural Section of the Consulate General of Spain. It features a 1st floor gallery with regular excellent exhibitions, film screenings, classes, live performances (flamenco anyone?), and a warm Mediterranean-style welcome. 18 July 2012

• Ancient Seat of Learning in the Hills One of the great Tibetan Buddhist centres of learning, Labrang Monastery lies nestled in the hills outside the town of Xiahe in southern Gansu Province. Founded in 1709 as one of the six main temples of the Yellow Hat sect, it could be described as a kind of Tibetan Harvard, comprising as it does six major institutes of traditional learning (theology, philosophy, astronomy, medicine and so on); 04 July 2012