Time for a little bit more funny post. The American stand up comedian Marc Maron has realised that the future is Chinese. Hear him explain it at Comedy Central.
Was going to embed the video, but Comedy Central’s embed code didn’t seem to be WordPress compatible. So I give you a link instead:
http://comedians.jokes.com/marc-maron/videos/marc-maron—the-future-is-chinese
World Expo 2010 opened in Shanghai a week ago, and so did the online expo, were you can visit Expo 2010 on the web. Kind of cool, but I got bored a couple of minutes clicking around on the site. I’d rather go there and explore it myself. It is open until October 31 so there’s no hurry. And a three day ticket only costs about 450 SEK ($58).
I went to TUR 2010, the big annual tourist fair in Gothenburg, a couple of weeks ago talking to the representants from China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and India. I got some tips on were to explore the technologic development of Asia.
In what order to visit the different cities is hard to decide, but I know a lot of places that is much worth a visit. And I guess that I will have to pick only a few of them. It’s an economic question.
I’ve been thinking of contacting companies and make study visits, but I don’t think I need to be that ambitious. There are a lot of science centers, theme parks, museums, malls, hi tech districts and other places that are worth visiting.
The casinos of Macau, often called the Las Vegas of Asia.
Hong Kong, is of course one of the most interesting cities. And taking the ferry over to Macau for some gambling would have been awesome. Not far away is Shenzhen, a big chinese high technologic city. I have been told that japanese often travel there to buy cheap electronic stuff.
One of the reasons why I want to do this trip this summer is because of the Expo 2010, that is hosted in Shanghai this year. The theme is “Better City – Better Life”, and I guess there will be a lot of cool innovative stuff to see from all over the world.
Beijing has become a real tourist city, with cheap shopping and living. Zhongguancun West District is the name of a hitech area I’ve read about. For a couple of years ago Beijing was full of millions of bicycles. Now they are exchanged to electric mopeds.
Taipei and Hsinshu City are two interesting cities in Taiwan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka are only some of many interesting cities of Japan that are full of exciting innovations and modern industries. Akihabara is an electronic district of Tokyo that I have been recommended to visit.
Seoul has the world's second largest metropolitan area.
Seoul, the capital of South Korea has the world’s second largest metropolitan area, after Tokyo. It grew past Mexico City just a couple of years ago. South Korea is a world leading producer of new ideas and innovations.
Dehli, India, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Singapore are also very interesting cities that are developing very fast. But maybe they are to far away from the other cities to be interesting and affordable enough. Maybe I even have to take the shorter trip and just stay inside of China (including Hong Kong and Macou ofc). It’s a lot to see there, and cheaper to live in. The development process in China is extreme. But as I understood, you need a visa for everytime you enter China. So back and forth to China is a more expensive option.
Honda U3-X, the unicycle of the 21st century
It’s called U3-X, it’s an awesome hi tech unicycle made by Japanese Honda. It is not made to be sold world wide, it’s just for bragging about their technology. It is balancing automatically and you just have to lean in any direction to move.
I want one! ..not because I need one.. I just want to brag about having one.
In a "car door pocket". Walking is so out! :P
Below is a quite recent talk by the Swedish health professor Hans Rosling, who talks about the rise of Asia. It’s a lot of data and statistics, but he’s funny. Worth seeing.
Fredrik Härén is a very inspiring person who now lives in Singapore. He has been analyzing the development in the developing countries of the world. He has also been writing books on the subject. Below is an inspiring talk by Fredrik made on Globe Forum in 2008, where he first predicts the future in the developed world and then talks about the developing world.
Part 1:
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHEJ0GRCNuQ
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-iyFAMxTWg
Below is another, partly the same speech though, in Swedish. Definitely worth seeing, if you know Swedish. It has so far had over 92 000 views on Youtube.
Part 1:
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t210BTHEcLU
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHy6JZdLzoM
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpEe777O3tA
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_xCwUhC7N8
Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China
Okay, I know that the summer arrives in just a couple of months. And it may be a quite short notice for planning such an advanced and distant trip less than 2 months from the summer. The reason why I want to do it this summer is mainly because of Expo 2010 that is hosted in Shanghai from May 1 to October 31. More info about that and other places I want to see later on.
I could do this trip alone – that actually has a lot of advantages – but it will definitely be more fun and exciting doing this together with one or a couple of like-minded and nice persons. Are you ready to spend a bit of your savings on a meaningful and fun trip? Are you interested in seeing the development of the new world with your own eyes? Interested in being inspired and improve your creativity. Leave a comment below or contact me.
I am planning a trip to Asia this summer, and I am not planning to lay on the beach in Phuket doing nothing. I don’t just want to travel only to see another part of the world, I want to invest in something more.
I’m a sort of a nerd, and technological innovations and designs are big interests of mine. We all know that Japan is way a head of the western world on many technological aspects, but Japan is not what interests me the most about Asia. I think that we, in the western, developed world, haven’t fully realised what is going on in the developing countries, all over the world. Maybe it is most apparent in China, India and South Korea. Shanghai, Beijing, Dehli, Seoul, Singapore and Hong Kong are cities that are developing in an extreme rate.
I have got a lot of the inspiration behind this idea from Fredrik Härén’s talk at Kunskapens Dag 2007 (in Swedish) and at Globe Forum 2008, about how the world is changing as the developing countries of the world suddenly have both the knowledge and the ambition create fantastic innovations. Troed Troedsson and Hans Rosling have also inspirated with their talks, and I will post more links and also videos later on.
