Post CNY good moods; $1.4m rent; rampant corruption!

Its been 25 days since my last blog. Its becoming more a diary than any insightful commentary, so my apologies in advance. Unlike January - full of vacations - the month of February has been mostly "back to work", plus kicking off some good 2012 habits of exercise.

The first week of Feb was spent in Beijing.  First time into "Sanlitun" area for over a year; this is where the Apple store got 'egg'd' when iPhone 4S sales were halted due to crowd unrest. Tried some decent Hunan food.  Weather was pretty cold as Beijing latitude I think is close to Toronto - so down jacket a 'must'.  People in China are generally in a better mood after Lunar New Year break, so my work meetings and dining experiences were far more pleasant ... :)  

Thereafter, I flew to Dallas for work, then drove to/from Austin in the pouring rain (i do NOT miss driving at all) for more meetings, happily crashed with old friends for southern breakfast in Dallas, then to Toronto for two days for family time, then LA dinner with Montreal childhood friends ... then back to HKG. Great.

On a more leisurely note, I've been training for a half marathon (week four so far), which is roughly 5-7 miles running every 2nd or 3rd day.  I feel great.  Treadmills tend to be boring but better on knees. Ran about 60-70 miles so far but no further than 12km at a time.  Even discovered our apartment gym... it has two treadmills  - who knew?! Now... the only problem is the target date is moving since we have yet to register for a half-marathon race itself! Hopefully by April I'll be ready.

Also we bought new tennis racquets and a nice bag, so I've practicing a bit more these days.  Still enjoying the weekends of friends, food, exercise and lazing around Hong Kong with Stephen.  His new job at SHKF means he's more familiar with Causeway Bay which is great :) 

Did you know Forever 21 pays $1.4 million US per month in retail rent (highest in the world for this chain) -- just to capture Chinese shoppers in Causeway Bay???

The most disturbing thing I read recently above governments, corruption and the rise of China is: The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices.  

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-26/china-s-billionaire-lawmakers-make-u-s-peers-look-like-paupers.html

WHAT THE F*@$!  

(YES I even think this 'result' of government work is worse than Hong Kong's $6000 HKD refund to citizens because they can't find good ways to use their surplus! People do need some level of responsible government in my opinion!)