ScandAsia China - August 2010

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ScandAsia.dk ScandAsia.fi ScandAsia.no ScandAsia.se

Ulla Lüders: “I Like to Be Busy”

ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish residents in China.

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Daily news and features here:www.scandasia.com

Coming Events

SWEA Asian Regional Meeting in Hong KongDate: 10 - 18 (SUN - MON) October 2010

During 10-18 October 2010, there is a huge event in Hong Kong which is SWEA Asian Regional Meeting. All SWEA members in Asia will gather to share common ideas and make activities together. Besides SWEA members from all over the world are also welcomed. The agenda is provided to down-load at www.swea.org/hongkong. Any inquiry email to [email protected].

Sunday 10 September 2010 - Pre-meeting Shopping DayWe take the MRT Subway across the border into China where we go to the shopping paradise Lu Wu in Shenzhen. We will guide you to our favorite shopping center where are 1,500 stores selling all Asian goods.

Monday 11 September 2010 - Golf Day & Welcome PartySWEA Golf Cup will be held at Kau Sai Chau Golf Course in Sai Kung. Evening program will be Welcome Cocktail and Dinner with the stunning altitude views of Victoria Harbour at night.

Tuesday 12 September 2010 - Mainland Excursion DayExcursion on the mainland including Chi Lin Nunnery is a Buddhist nunnery, with a beautiful Chinese garden. The buildings have been built in the Tang Dynasty style architecture. Then again in the evening we will enjoy cocktail at high attitude side and have a dinner at Hong Kong’s most famous private club.

Wednesday 13 September 2010 - Meeting DaySWEA Asian Regional Conference Day following by buffet dinner and open bar at the Happy Valley Horse Racing Course.

Thursday 14 September 2010 - Hong Kong City TourDiscover the Central Hong Kong along with British colonial architecture and present building. The interesting evening program is Gala Dinner with Swed-ish connection in the beautiful ballroom with remarkable Hong Kong’s fa-mous harbor.

Friday 15 - Monday 18 September 2010 - Alternative Post Tour to GuilinGuilin is considered one of the most beautiful places in China. The trip is definitely unforgettable experience.

Hong Kong Crayfish Party by the PoolLocation: Hong Kong Royal Yacht ClubDate: FRI 10 September 2010

In Hong Kong, Swed-cham’s Annual Crayfish Party by the pool at the Hong Kong Royal Yacht Club on Friday 10 Sep-tember 2010 at 7.30 pm onward. Don´t miss this evening with deli-cious crayfish, open bar and tunes to a great DJ. The ticket is HKD 595 available for members and HKD 695 for non-members. According to the limit of seats so please quickly send email to [email protected]. Bring your friends and look forward to an exciting evening!

Crayfish Festival in Beijing and ShanghaiDate: SAT 11 September 2010

The Swedish Chamber of Commerce will arrange two Crayfish Parties in Beijing and in Shanghai but on the same date Saturday 11 September 2010. The parties are highly appreciated events having attracted around 200 people for each for a number of years. The traditional celebration always takes place in a leisure atmosphere and in good spirit! Having crayfish cold with your fingers, sucking noisily to extract the juices is perfectly acceptable behaviors. Bread and a strong cheese are eaten on the side. People mostly drink beer and the inevitable schnapps. Please mark your calendar and fol-low up on www.swedishchamber.com.cn. This event you can’t miss at all!

6 ScandAsia.China • August 2010

Finnish Midsummer Cruise in Hong Kong

The Consulate General of Finland and FinnCham in June visited the Hong Kong Observatory. The Observatory forecasts weather and is-sues warnings on weather-related hazards. It also monitors and makes

assessments on radiation levels in Hong Kong and provides other meteo-rological and geophysical services to meet the needs of the public and the shipping, aviation, industrial and engineering sectors.

The Finns in Hong Kong celebrated midsummer at the Bel-Air luxury yacht. The cruise was a night of dazzling scenery, fabulous Finnish festive food, sip-ping and socializing. The Midsummer Cruise was hosted by FinnCham

Finnish Hong Kong Observatory Visit

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August 2010 • ScandAsia.China 7

Young Nordic Party Professionals

More than 150 guests gathered on Saturday 26 June to celebrate the yearly Young Professionals Swedish Midsummer Party in Beijing. Among the guests were not only Swedes, but also other Scandi-

navians and Chinese. The event was arranged by Swedish Young Professionals and was cel-ebrated with with a huge BBQ buffet at hotel Radisson Blu in central Beijing. The guests were offered a typical Swedish midsummer-buffet, including deli-cacies like herring, “knaeckebroed” and meatballs with lingonberries - and snaps. They danced around the “midsummer-stang” and participated in a number of fun games in which they could win more drinks and sang snaps songs until late at night. Chairman Eskil Hallström was very satisfied with the evening and look forward to next year’s celebration. “We had more guests than we expected and people didn’t leave until late. That’s always a good sign,” he said. For further questions, contact [email protected] or call: Eskil: 135 2195 2328 or Alexandra: 130 0102 0072

The DCCC Young Professionals in Shanghai on Saturday 26 June dust-ed off their miniskirts and flip-flops to celebrate with other Young Nordic Professionals that summer had finally arrived! The party kicked

off at The Fat Olive from 17.00 The Fat Olive is a casual, velvet-decked wine bar. If you’re around Xin-tiandi and want to unwind with some tasty Greek finger food and an afford-able glass or three of vino, check out the Fat Olive and its open air patio.

Swedish Midsummer Party in Beijing

1. The two floor setting of the Midsummer venue, with the Chinese touch of round tables and yellow decorations. 2. A bit sad-looking Shanghai - Swedish maypole in the rain.

3. Joseph Clayton, Sales Manager White Lotus and Sofia Gille Johansson, Swedish Young Professional Committee, were both happy and satisfied with the evening.

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1. Tug of war and other fun games!2. With midsummer flowers from left Alexandra Leyton Espinoza, Eskil Hall-ström, Mirjam Gustafsson. In the front Joakim Görsberg and Jonas Porat.


to Be BusyI LikeHaving several work titles in China’s two largest cities, while studying at the university and being active in the community at the same time is not a problem for Ulla Lüders. On the contrary: On top of it, she is the mother of two.

By Anya Palm


to Be Busy

Ulla Payreen Lüders manages her own firm, is a member of the board of the Danish Chamber of

Commerce and the mother of two. Recently, she accepted the position as Cultural Event Manager for Chi-na’s massive venture, World EXPO 2010, and she is currently taking a Master of Business at Fudan Univer-sity. “I like to be busy,” she says.

Work in Shanghai, family in BeijingShe bends her head all the way for-ward and lets the long mahogny brown hair fall the wrong way down, before she collects its in a carefully careless bun on top of her head. Her legs are crossed under her small body and next to her on the floor is her laptop and a suitcase. She is sitting in a sleeping cabin on the nighttrain from Shanghai to Beijing – this is the first time, she is going on that ride, but over the next seven mpnths, she is going to take it about twice a week. Her new job as Cultural Event manager is in Shang-hai, but Ulla Lüders lives in a small hourse in Beijing with her husband Christian and her two children, Iza, who is five and Zacca, 2. “I miss my kids. From the minut, I am in Beijing, my world evolves around spending time with them, she says. But at the same time she real-izes, the distance means, she can concentrate on her work and stud-ies, while she is in Shanghai. “From Monday to Friday, I fo-cus on that. When I shut down my computer at work, I go home to work on my studies, she says. But not just. The computer is also used for Skyping home to Christian to hear about life at home. We spend a fair amount of time on the computer, she says.

The phone call of a life timeHer little company did well. And it got noticed. In 2007, the phone rings yet again. This time, it is the phone call of her life time. “It was the European Broadcast-ing Union, asking me if I would be in charge of the local personnel for the Olympics in Beijing, she says and continues: “I thought, it was unbelievable, they contacted me, do they really want to put this eight million assign-ment into my hands. This is a once in a life time opportunity.” She was asked to find stringers, drivers, interpreters and to work out logistics for the 56 TV-stations covering the Olympics. “It was hectic. But it also gave me an opportunity to reflect on my work and my life. I like the work rhythm, where there are periods of extreme concentration and focus, but also periods where it dwindles down a bit, she says.

Culture is close to my heartFor her, the work with the Olympics gave her freedom to choose ex-actly where she wanted to go next. Shortly after she sent the interna-tional reporters home from Beijing, another challenge was presented to her: the job as a Cultural Event Manager for World EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. Accepting this meant changing paths for Ulla Lüders. “I can feel that from now on, I am going to focus on bigger projects that combine business and culture. I have always been very fascinated with commerce and trade, and at the same time, culture is very close to my heart. This is what I want to do,” she says. For the same reason, she has toned down the activities of her present company, Ring Leaders, and started to take an MBA on Fudan University.

Used to having much on her plateWhen Ulla Lüders in 1992 gradu-ated she wanted to be a teacher. And when a couple of her mom’s Chinese friends offered her a posi-tion as a teacher in Beijing, she was in no doubt: She accepted and end-ed up staying in Beijing for the next 18 months. When she returned to Denmark, it was with a plan to re-turn and find work permanently. “I immediately got very fasci-nated by China. I remember the first time, I entered the classroom and was greeted by 40 uniformed students. Good morning, teacher” they said, all at the same time. It was a bit overwhelming, but it was excit-ing!” After that, her goal became liv-ing and working in China. She went back to study Chinese at Aarhus Univeversity and the next couple of years, she went back and forth, working on different jobs. It was in 97, that things changed drastically. The phone rang. “It was Torkil Simonsen!” she says, leaning forward, trying to re-member the conversation in details. Torkil Simonsen, the former Minister of Interior to Denmark, was going to China and he needed a translator. “And so I went.” And stayed. The trip spinned off several other translator gigs for Danish delegations and Ulla Lüders decided there was no need to go back. Instead, she collected all her business under the name “China Ex-press.”

I love being involved in the dynamics and strategic planning of

business life. And I love taking decisions that helps create something

for other people, so it is a quite natural choice, that I have decided to take on

the EXPO .

Going homeOutside the train window, the land-scape changes and fields of green are slowly turning into the outskirts of Beijing. It is six o clock, Saturday morning, and for Ulla Lüders this means priority change. She is no longer a business woman, she is a mother. She has been awake for awhile, going over an assignment for her studies, one last time. The little lap-top lights less and less blue in the cabin as the sun rises. “I can’t wait to get home, she says,” while she packs away her computer and puts on her shoes. One of the things, she has mulled over during the night, is her life in Asia, her two children and their fa-ther, the decisions, she has made and where she is today. “It is amazing, this life,” she con-cludes. “It is busy, different and there are many things, that my friends home in Denmark does not under-stand about it. But it is amazing.”


Mats Harborn’s re-laxed style as a chair-man of the Swedish Chamber of Com-merce steers the chamber towards a business council with an important social networking role. This is very much on pur-pose; the chairman’s vision of the Swedish Chamber is an open, welcoming and inclu-sive one.

By Anya Palm

The election of the new board for the Swedish Chamber of Commerce is coming up. But it is not a very nerve wreck-

ing one. Managing director of Sca-nia, Mats Harborn, has chaired the board for five years now, and he is likely to continue – because it is go-ing rather well for the open minded, jovial Swede. Since taking on the post, he has had a clear vision of what direction, the Chamber should go and steered it here. And in his next term, this is going to continue. “What I am interested in, is how does new businesses, who arrive in China perceive the Swedish Cham-ber? It can be a difficult task to set up in China and there are lots of things to consider. We can help to create a business network for the new ar-rival, of course, but it is important, that the businesses know that,” says Mats Harborn. “This is going to be one focal point in his next term. Another is non-swedes in Swedish businesses. Harborn and his co-members of the boards have previously had suc-cess with integrating Chinese and Swedes through the Chamber.” “That is important. It reflects the Swedish values of being inclusive and open to other people. And that is going to continue,” he says.

Stability within in the com-munityIn general, the Swedish Chamber in Beijing is one of the more active ones, arranging events, both social and business related and also putting out the magazine Dragon News, for the members to keep updated on the latest developments. Additionally, this year is the 60th anniversary for China and Swe-den to establish diplomatic relations and especially over the last ten years the market has been opening up to foreign investment and trade. It cre-ates new challenges for the foreign businesses, but also new opportuni-ties. As a managing director in the traffic and logistics field, Harborn is seeing these changes first hand. For instance, in the inner city, trucks are not allowed, which means all deliv-ery and distribution is carried out by small vehicles. “This is something we need to change, he says. And thus, Scania and the Chinese government are al-

ready discussing alternative options that are more responsible and sus-tainable. The point is, however, that the reason there are these seeming-ly illogical regulations, it is because traffic and logistics, like many other areas in China, is relatively new and developing fast. This is a window for Sweden, he feels, and concludes the example with logistics:” “And when that area is ready, we are the first ones here,” he says.

Mission: Work with ScaniaThe Managing Director has worked with Scania for over 14 years and has been a part of the business life all his working life. Along the way, he has been with companies like Han-delsbanken, Ecolean and the Swed-ish Trade Council, but today, he is back, where he started his career: Scania. He can drive a truck as well as any of his drivers, if not better, and has always been fascinated by the big vehicles, ever since he was a little kid in Sweden. “When I was five years old, my best friend’s father was a truck driver. And I remember looking at the truck in the driveway, thinking: I would like to drive one,” he says. And so he did – and still does. “I have always liked trucks and I was very impressed with Scania. I am very proud to work with Scania today,” he says. The story is a good example of the director’s ability to clearly define a goal to pursuit – and reach and it is the same mechanism, he applies to the Swedish Chamber of Com-merce: He wants a gathering point with equal focus on social network-ing and business and over the past five years, the Chamber has certain-ly gone in that direction.

Time for softer valuesA means of reaching his goal has been to keep up with the rapid growing Chinese market, which is expanding in virtually all areas. The consequences for the Chambers, is an ever changing potential member base. Harborn is ready for that: “Our biggest challenge today is to attract new members,” he says, elaborating his point: “Our task is to provide every member and newcomer with as much information as possible and deepen the understanding of the market for new developments and

new laws of interest,” he says. “And then we will increase the focus on the local staff by making events in Chinese,more focus on business cultures and to include even more Chinese and non-swedes in our social events as well,” he adds, summing up the plan for the two focal points of the next term as a chairman. Either of them are particularly

Focus on the People in Business


Focus on the People in Business

BLUE BOOKMats Harborn has lived and worked in China for 17 years.He first started working for Scania since 1985 to 1989 in Beijing.1989-1992 he was working as Scania headquarters.1992-1997 he was the Chief Representative of Svenska Handelsbanken in Beijing1997-2000 he was head of the Swedish Trade Council in China2000-2002 he was marketing director of Ecolan AB in Helsingborg.2003- he is responsible for Scania China.He majored in Chinese studies and business administration from Lund University.

The first thing that meets the visitor to the Scania office in Beijing is a small collection of toy trucks. Are they sometimes used for play-ing? Why, yes, of course!

hardcore business strategies. But to Harborn, they match where China is right now. Having focused on blind growth for decades, China today is looking at more responsible methods of distribu-tion, more sustainable ways of living and energy saving technolo-gies. According to Mats Harborn, this is the time for Swedish busi-ness to focus on softer values as well.


By Anya Palm

As he concludes his presentation “China meets the world”, Jo-han Björkstén makes a final gesture with his

hands. His right hand hits the water glass placed in front of him and it flies to the floor and shatters. A silence, in which the excessively polite staff of Capital Club in Beijing, hurries to clean up the spilled water and glass, stops time for a brief second. Then Johan Björkstén laughs. And so does everyone else. Moments before, Björkstén had been given the exclusive crowd of businessmen and women his insights on a subject he knows more than most people about: Doing business in China. Not only because he today is the successful CEO of Eastwei Re-lations , one of the biggest PR com-panies in China. But also because, as he puts it himself: He knows how to NOT do business in China. During his almost 30 years in the country, he has had failures and suc-cesses alike, but the key, he believes, is to analyze where it goes wrong, when it does. Like the time, he had a record company that specialized in music from the North. “I think we put out about 30 CDs all in all. In a country with a strong censorship and where cop-ies are easily made, we started a re-cord company. We never made any money,” he says.

Started as a tour guideJohan Björkstén arrives about an hour before he goes on stage. The venue is an old English club, located on the 50th floor, and the old fash-ioned stylish interior, with the dark wooden bar and golden brown fur-niture in suede and silk, is as beautiful as the view. Or usually. Today is an exception, as the smog has cleared enough to reveal the mountains in the distance. “That seldom happens, and nothing beats it,” Björkstén says, while looking out at the city sur-rounded by mountains. Around him, other guests take out their cameras and photograph it. He has had an unusual career in China. While most people in his league are transferred into China by their respective companies, Björks-tén arrived as a young man with no possessions whatsoever. He worked as a tour guide the first year. “That is the most crazy thing, I have done in my life, coming to China with two empty hands. In the early years, I didn’t even have fur-niture. I lived in a room with a bed and I had a toothbrush and a bag of clothes,” he says without trace of bitterness in his voice. But it didn’t last long, there was too much to be tried and too many ideas in the young man’s head to continue with just the one job. In the next couple of years, Björkstén and shifting partners set up different types of businesses. Apart from the record company, Björkstén founded a company sell-ing miniature golf equipment and another, in the PR field. On the side, he was asked to host a radio show “Music from the North”, where he played Scandina-vian music and soon after he also found himself hosting the program “Music Makers” on Beijing TV. Ten years after arriving with his back-pack, the Swede was now running three companies and doing both a radio and a TV-show. The latter two experiences, he has taken with him: “It made it easy to make the decision to focus on PR,” he says. In 1998, he had closed down all of his side activities and focused only on PR in the reborn form of Eastwei Relations, a PR firm that helps com-panies brand themselves in China.

Introducing PR to China“When we started, there were a couple of agencies in the PR field, but they were doing things a lot like in the US. A different approach is needed here – we were already in China and had the advantage of do-ing things the local way,” Björkstén says. The company didn’t start from scratch either. “People had been calling us. So we started up with having clients already, learning the business along with the clients,” he says. With his experience in the Chinese media world, Björksten had the additional advantage of knowing the reporters and their way of thinking too. “One of the big difference be-tween the West and China is that everything is growing so fast. All the trades that our different clients are in are new, so often, the journalists did not have any background on the subject,” he says. “One important PR task is to make sure, they get it. “ With the arrival of the internet, the PR business exploded in China and many of the established over-seas agencies set up offices in China. Today, it is as common as every-where else in the developed world, but Eastwei’s cultural and media knowledge still helps them stay a market leader.

Work culture is importantThe outside success of Eastwei is re-flected on the inside. As is the Swed-ish tradition, the work environment is informal and relaxed and the tra-ditional hierarchy has been softened up. Björkstén sees this as essential – but he has fought to make it so. “In the beginning, I was the only one talking, when we had meet-ings; no matter how much I urged my colleagues to participate in the discussion, all they would do was agree with me,” he says. So he did something very Johan Björkstén. He instructed the most junior member of his staff to flat out contradict him at the next meeting. Everyone else at the meeting bowed their faces and was suddenly very busy taking notes, the first time, it happened. The atmospehere was tense, he says. But he didn’t give in. The next six weeks, one or more of the junior staff who were care-fully instructed to speak their mind, would openly state their opinion, no

“I Can Be a Bit of a Bastard”Since Johan Björk-stén arrived in China in the 80s, he has worked his way from being a tour guide to head one of the big-gest PR companies in the country, Eastwei Relations. A former radio and TV host, he has played a huge role in introducing the concept of PR to the Chinese market.


matter whether it was in correspon-dence with Björkstén’s. And then it happened. Other people started to chime in as well and we were having the discussions, I hoped for, he said. Af-ter that, he revealed to the staff that the juniors had not been impolite, but had helped him prove a point.

Push people over the lim-itsToday it is still a question that’s very important to Johan Björkstén: How to help his staff perform their best and get their ideas on the table. He links the culture and the business environment and has spent a good portion of his time in China reflect-ing on those two subjects, either separately or intertwined. To him, one cornerstone of suc-cess in the Chinese business world is the team, he is working with. “My style as a leader is that I am very impatient, involved and I like to challenge people. Sometimes, I can be a bit of a bastard,” he says and exemplifies. “We had this woman, who had been working very well for us. But one day, she had a client, who was very skeptical towards her and she tried to convince me, that it was impossible to get any of her ideas across to them,” he recalls. After hearing this, he instructed her to prepare her suggestions and deliver them anyway. “She came back with…I don’t even think she spent half an hour on that, it was rubbish. I told her, I wasn’t even going to look at it, and she could use it as toilet paper. I was really rude to her, he says. But she went home and redid her proposal.” “And what she came back with was fantastic. Even the difficult client could see that, and they were super impressed,” Björksten says. Today, that woman is a partner in Eastwei Relations.

A special relation with big treesHe shifts in the comfortable chair at the club. And returns to gaze at the mountains. Businessman in a suit in his every day work, Johan Björksten is a nature’s man, when he gets the chance. Having grown up in a small Swedish town, it is a part of his heri-tage to be close to nature and he goes to back to Sweden to do just

“I Can Be a Bit of a Bastard”

BLUE BOOKJohan Björkstén, born 1964• Moved toChina in1986,where

he got a job os a tour guide• FluentinChineseandnicknamed

Dalong, which means big dragon• WorkedeightyearsasTVandra-

dio host on Beijing TV and Beijing Music Radio

• Founder of Eastwei Relations in1998

• He likes music, including heavymetal and opera, and used to have a band called Antics

• Heistheauthorofseveralbookson China: - Lär dig skriva kinesiska tecken–

”Learn how to write Chinese” (1992)

- Learn to Write Chinese Charac-ters (1994)

- Kinesiska - övningsbok”Chinese – practice” (1995)

- Att göra affärer i dagens Kina”To do business in today’s China” (2005)

- Catching Up Fast: PR and Mar-keting in a Web 2.0 China (2007)

- I Mittens rike : det historiska och moderna Kina”The Middle Empire – Historic and modern China” (2006)

- Kinesiska språket i Mittens rike”Chinese language in the Middle Empire” (2007)

- How to Manage a Successful Business in China (2010)

that, at least once a year. “I love nature. Especially big trees. I am very fond of big trees,” he says and tells how he can sit and ”be” with a tree for half an hour. “It gives me a sense of belong-ing and of being a part of something benign and big, –It is peaceful.” Right now, however, he has to focus on something a little less earthy. Guests have been arriving and are now awaiting for him to share his insights on foreign business in China. He gets up. A waiter as quiet as a cat ap-pears out of nowhere and holds the big oak door to the auditorium for him. Someone places a glass of wa-ter on the lectern.


WeLiveinBeijing is a website that deals with everything from establishing

business partnerships to romantic flings. It has a blog that covers lo-cal Beijing news, bring up topics about Beijing music and art scenes, funky new restaurants and clubs. WeLiveinBeijing has also columnists that write about the Chinese life-style and shed light on some of the more creative things and people in the city. In 2004, Bloc, the company now running the Beijing web operation, began a similar online networking operation in Norway. Joakim Lund Rangel, Kent Loset and Ole Loset set up a localized service in order to help people get together. For the team, gathering people, helping them with their so-cial and professional network is their biggest aim. Four years later they wanted to explore markets outside Norway and that discussion ended in Lund Rangel booking an airline ticket to Beijing.

“After three weeks of getting to know Beijing, I booked tickets for the rest of the team and we moved to China in the end of March 2008,” said Lund Rangel, CEO of the com-pany. They moved to the student nest of Beijing, Wudaokou. It was a good place to get started as the center for thousands of students from all over the world. Students who were eager to find a channel where they could gather, share interests and get to know more about their new home. “Five months later we launched WeLiveinBeijing. Most of the stu-dents in Wudaokou are ambitious, eager and exited about life, meeting new people and exploring its limit-less possibilities,” said Rangel Their primary goal was to make

life in Beijing easier and its services more accessible for their members. Their website include comprehen-sive listings of Beijing businesses, food delivery service, tickets, listings of employment opportunities, to real estate, among others.

Norwegians Living in BeijingWeLiveinBeijing.com has become a well-known online community for foreigners as well as Chinese and has attracted more than 110,000 members in less than two years and is now expanding to Dalian and Shanghai.

By Alexandra Leyton Espinoza

of our members, and have made a lot of good friends in this city. With-out them we wouldn't been able to achieve success this fast,” he said. Rangel does not worry too much about other competitors in China. “There are people out there thinking that we are competing with them. But in a market with 1.4 billion natives paired with the hun-dreds of thousands foreigners cur-rently residing here I think there is only potential partners,” he said. Members of the team have now lived in China for two and a half years, and feel the Middle Kingdom becoming their new home. They are not planning to move back to Norway any time soon. “While some people are con-vinced that you can't do business the same way in China as you do in other places, I in many ways, dis-agree on that. People are people and I think, people always work together to find and build mutually beneficial relationships,” he said. Today, the second branch of the online business has opened in China -- weliveindalian.com, and the team did a soft launch for We-liveinshanghai.net in early June and are currently assembling marketing, advertising and editorial teams. “We hope to shake up Shang-hai, giving people there the experi-ence that people have expect from us here in the capital city: fun, daring and creative!” said Rangel.

We have made a lot of good friends in this city. Without them we wouldn’t been able to

achieve success this fast.

Joakim Rangel - standing in the middle between Kent and Ole Loset

Because they had set up an online community in Norway, they were very certain about how the operations should be done in Bei-jing. They recognized that the first three months would be the most difficult time and discovered finding partners was also a major challenge. “When you don't know anyone and nobody knows you, you are re-ally starting from the bottom of the food chain,” said Rangel. They started from grass root level and feet-on-the-street promo-tion played a big role. Today, the challenges are different. “The company is expanding, but never enough to solve the challenge of limited resources but we are also today overwhelmed by the support


Martin Bech stands by the window. He speaks a mixture of Chinese and English in the phone, while

he gazes out on the Southern part of the massive Fudan University. This is not his usual view. The room he is standing in is a square office, about 8 meters from wall to wall. It is packed with computers, students in discussion groups, books and chairs and in the corner, just in front of the window, is programme man-ager Martin Bech’s temporary desk. The office is busy, every person fully engaged in their own doings. This is the temporary Nordic Centre. “We are moving to the new building at the end of the year. But the old facilities were worn and we had problems with water damage, so we are here at the moment,” says Bech, once he hangs up the phone. Nordic Centre, home to two fulltime employees and a base for Nordic students as well as Chinese with interests in the Norht, has been present at Fudan University since 1995. The center focuses on bridging China and the Nordic com-munity, inviting students from the

Nordic Centre at Fudan University Gets New BuildingThis year, Nordic Centre at Fudan University can look ahead to new facilities. A brand new building is being built on campus, ready to move into later this year.

By Anya Palm

North to take part of their education here, while trying to engage the Chi-nese students in the centre as well. Martin Bech suspects this is going to be easier with the new facilities. Apart from not being wa-ter damaged there are several ad-ditional improvements, he says: “We are going to have teaching facilities of our own, so there is go-ing to be much better conditions for the students to organize activities of their own and exchange experienc-es. Here, we are creating personal connections in between the people, who are going to work in this area in the future, so it is very important,” he says. Also the prospect of getting new facilities for the Nordic Centre library, is an important improve-ments. Just outside the wooden door leading into the chaotic tem-porary office, are two bookshelves, packed with books. The collection continues inside the room, with books from floor to ceiling at either side of the room. A guest teacher asks Bech, if he has his book about The Little Mermaid somewhere? Martin Beck glances around with a confused look on his face.

“I do not know exactly where…,” he says and chuckles: “We can get these books in better order. The new library will contain a lot of literature that is not easy accessible in China, about Nor-dic studies, which will be a massive resource,” he says. In another corner of the massive university, several men wearing hel-mets are busy. The noise is sealed in behind a fence, but the building, they are working on, towers over the fence. The men are working simul-taneously on all three floors, some busy pouring in concrete and some laying in bricks for the windows. The building is not much more than a hollow shell yet, but even so, it is easy to see the style is quite Chi-nese – the staircase is in the middle of the building and the many rooms are all connected to the main cen-ter, on each of the floors. This is a Fudan University build-ing. They hire the workers and the architects, and they decide the look for the building, says Martin Bech. But the funding is Nordic. The total bill for the 2000 square meter large new building, of which 500 be-longs to the centre, will be 1,1 mil-


(Above) Nordic Centre programme manager, Martin Bech, in the temporary Nordic Centre at Fudan University

(Right) The hallway of the centre

(Previouse page) Chinese handymen working on what is later to become the Nordic Centre’s new library

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lion EURO. The money is collected from mainly Nordic governments, the centre’s 25 member universi-ties in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, but also from public and private foundations and company sponsorships. “For many of our Nordic stu-dents, our activities is their first in-troduction to Modern China and a way to get China under their skin very early in their carreer…having

the proper facilities to do that in a good way is a massive added value to what we have today,” says Martin Bech. He never finds the book about the Mermaid for his colleague. “I have totally given up on this library!,” he laughs. “The book will probably turn up in a few months, when the centre moves.”


Did you know that today, more than 30 per cent of the world’s private investment capital

is managed by Swiss banks?

Søren Fønskov Olsen and Lars Bro Olesen, Senior Business Developers of Jyske Bank, are curently planning a trip to China from 27 September – 5 November 2010.J

yske Bank Private Banking offers investment and financial advice to international clients. “Some people would say “isn’t that what they all of-

fer?” But we are actually different – and Danish – in quite a number of ways,” says S.ren F.nskov Olsen and Lars Bro Olesen, both Senior Business Developer at Jyske Bank in Schweiz. “The informal and open atmo-sphere we share with our clients is part of our Danish corporate culture, but in every other way we are definitely an international player working in a variety of currencies.”

“On our way to China” The two advisers are currently plan-ning a six week tour between 27 September and 5 November to visit clients and other interested Scandi-navians living in China. “Visiting our clients regularly is just one of the ways that we keep in personal contact,” they explain. “We use these visits to further familiarize ourselves in detail with their specific wishes and require-ments.” All clients are also given a direct phone number and email address to their personal adviser so that they can quickly contact him or her. And if the adviser is not available, a colleague from the team will be pleased to assist instead.

Not paid commission Another important point is that Jyske Bank advisers are not paid any commissions on the clients’ invest-ments.

“This is one of the ways we make sure that our advisers offer only objective advice on the invest-ment strategy which best matches the clients profile,” Søren Fønskov Olsen and Lars Bro Olesen explain. “In fact it is not only the person-al adviser – the management and other employees of Jyske Bank are not paid any kind of bonus either,” they add. As a result, Jyske Bank has been able to authorize its staff to make decisions on an individual basis be-cause no other irrelevant issues than the benefit of the client are at play. “It is a question of values and standards. Although we are an inde-pendent bank in Switzerland we are fundamentally still part of a highly value-based organization with mu-tual balance between clients, share-holders and employees.”

Best of two worlds Being a Danish bank operating out of Switzerland is like combining the best of two worlds, they add. “Switzerland has a long tradition as a banking nation and enjoys a favourable international reputation. It’s a question of quality, security and discretion.” And then there is the accumu-lated know-how. “Did know that today, more than 30 per cent of the world’s pri-vate investment capital is managed by Swiss banks?” Søren Fønskov Olsen can be contacted on telephone +41 44 368 73 49 or via email [email protected] - Lars Bro Olesen has tele-phone number +41 44 368 73 52 and email [email protected]

What Makes Jyske BankDifferent?Søren Fønskov Olsen and Lars Bro Olesen, Senior Business Developers of Jyske Bank (Schweiz) explain how they try to make it be a client with Jyske Bank.


Nga was amazed about the spec-tacular way the steak was served. Chefs arrived at their table every five minutes to cut off some slices of meat, seafood or chicken and place it on her plate.. And the taste. Nga’s eyes were rolling in every possible direction. And so did her thoughts. She started to spin a plan. She wanted to open a restaurant like this back in Vietnam. Nga and Jan returned to the daily life with children and work in Saigon. An environment where a thought like opening a Brazilian style restaurant could easily have been erased and forgotten. But Nga didn’t forget it. When foreigners go into the hospitality industry in the Far East, it’s normally because they can’t to anything else. To open a restaurant is often just a way to kill time and money. And maybe the marriage too. That was not Jan Tromlers situ-ation. Before Nga started rolling her eyes in Portugal, he had never thought of entering a restaurant in any other capacity than as a guest.

“I resisted a whole year”“It took Nga a whole year to con-vince me about the idea”, Jan says

while Nga is smiling at the opposite side of the table at what is today the third Au Lac do Brazil restaurant in Vietnam. During that year the couple did an investigation or two into what to do about equipment, cooking meth-ods, recipes and not to forget, how to find Brazilian staff. “We found out that Singapore had already had several Churrasce-ria restaurants for years. That was important news for us staff wise. It was clear for Nga and me that if the concept should work, we had to keep the atmosphere, and the spectacular setting witch is such an important part of the Churrasceria show. Brazilian chefs walking around in the restaurant with beautiful “churrasco” meat and a huge knife and all that. Just to know that the region already had Brazilian chefs helped us a lot,” Jan Tromler ex-plains.

Slow startWhen the decision was taken to give the Churrasceria idea a go, Jan and Nga combined Jan’s profession-alism as a businessman with Nga’s hardworking Vietnamese attitude and just got going. “It was a very slow start”, Jan ad-mits. From the first day he and Nga

focused on luring in Western expats but they did not exactly queue up outside their first Au Lac do Brazil. But at this point Jan was already a strong believer Nga’s Churrasceria idea. Au Lac do Brazil first became a success when a TV program intro-duced the restaurant.

Jan and Nga and Au Lac do BrazilAu Lac do Brazil is a Portuguese restaurant concept adopted from the Brazilian Churrasceria or Rodizio BBQ concept. The Swedish-Vietnam-ese couple Nga and Jan Tromler have so far opened three Au Lac do Brazil in Vietnam.

By Bjarne Wildau

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in Sky Garden II in Saigon’s Singapore like suburb Phu My Hung. Jan Tromler, 68, has kept his promise to bring along his wife

Nga for the interview. And it soon becomes obvious that an interview about Au Lac do Brazil without Nga would be like serving pepper steak without the pepper. After all, it was Nga who got the idea to open a Churrasceria restaurant in Saigon. The story goes back to 2001. Jan Tromler had invited his Vietnamese wife to join him on ‘just another trip’ to Portugal to visit his company Investkonsult´s office in Porto.

One fateful eveningOne evening the Swede - who made his professional life and his fortune from selling second-hand European spinning mills and other textile ma-chinery to Asia - took Ang for din-ner at a Churrasceria restaurant where they served “churrasco”. A Churrasceria or Rodizio restaurant is the Portuguese BBQ restaurant tradition adopted from Brazil. Jan Tromler had been at that type of restaurant dozens of times before. He enjoyed even more now his wife Nga was with him. But that was it. Nothing less, nothing more. On the other side of the table

“It took Nga a whole year to con-vince me about the idea,” Jan says

We found the first location in the very centre of HCMC /

Saigon in Pasteur Street in District 3. Au Lac is the original name for Vietnam so it was not difficult to name the

restaurant Au Lac do Brazil .


“It went on for twenty minutes. And at least 17 minutes of it was about Au Lac do Brazil” Jan laughs. But the guests that now came were not the expats but well off lo-cal guest who fancied the new spec-tacular way of serving the food. And they came back with more friends who later did the same. “Au Lac do Brazil became one of the new ‘hot’ places in Saigon. When Mothers waited for their children in front of the schools or at the preschool they would talk to the other mothers about us. And the more they talked, the more business we made”.

Instant success in HanoiThe next step was to open a simi-lar restaurant in Hanoi. That was in 2005. “The Hanoi branch took off from the very first day. No hesita-tion there. And very soon the Bra-zilian ambassador brought his busi-ness partners to Au Lac do Brazil in Hanoi. Later we started to take care of the Brazilians National Day party at the ambassador residence.

Which we have done ever since”, Jan Tromler smiles. A sister to Nga takes care of the restaurant in Hanoi, but in HCMC/ Saigon the people behind the Sky Garden II in the Saigon’ suburb Phu My Hung began to push for Jan and Nga to open a much bigger restau-rant in their complex. It was just before the financial crisis embraced the world Jan and Nga took the final decision and signed the contract at Sky Garden II. At the same time Jan was starting an eco spinning mill outside Saigon with a Swedish manager. “It has been a busy and chal-lenging years. I can see now that it was too much to start two different projects at the same time. And the crisis did not make it easier”, Jan ad-mits. But the spinning mill is up a run-ning with 40 people employed. And the same is the case with Au Lac do Brazil in Sky Garden II in the Phu My Hung. “It’s clearly the biggest of our three restaurants. We have space to 250 people here. And at the

same time the kitchen can prepare catering for up to 600 people” Jan explains. The restaurant is divided in a normal restaurant in A/C, and guests can also be served at two different verandas. The place does also have a section with a local band a sing-ers and dancers from Cuba. And the guests love it.

Let’s do a few more..!Although the couple leads what you could call more than usually busy lives, especially Nga has started about opening one or two, maybe even three more restaurant during the next year or three. “Phnom Penh in Cambodia is obvious a place for us” she say. Jan is not sure. But until now Nga has been right about what she had been suggesting. So he just cau-tiously says: “Well, let’s see..”

Jan and Nga and Au Lac do Brazil

The most important right now is to stick to our concept. Quality,

quality, quality all the way. We use meat from

New Zealand. And the wine we serve is

manly from countries like Chile, Argentine and South Africa. No cheating. No shortcuts.

Always stick to the concept, Jan is repeating .

http://www.aulacdobrazil.com


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When summer changes into autumn and evenings are growing darker, yet you can still feel the warm breath of summer in the air, it is time to arrange the traditional crayfish party. In shops in Sweden and Finland you can find plenty

of accessories to help decorate a table for this occasion; table napkins, table cloths, aprons, lanterns with crayfish patterns and crayfish knives. Out here you will need to improvise. At a crayfish party short crayfish songs are followed by snaps and small speeches to praise the magnificent crayfish. Crayfish should be enjoyed slowly, and as a result crayfish parties can last until the early hours. If you serve crayfish as a main course, make sure that there are at least 12 crayfish per person and plenty of freshly toasted white bread. Usually a light soup or salad is served as a starter, and a fruit pie, ice-cream or parfait for the dessert. The drinks served are ice-cold snaps and beer or white wine for those who find snaps too strong. A jug of water or mineral water should also be included on the table.

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Recipe for Boiling CrayfishPreparationsFor four people you need approximately 50 crayfish, 6 liters water, 2dl sea salt and 10-12 cubes of sugar. Utensils: A big pot, a skimmer, a large basin, big bundle of crown dill (inflorescences), sea salt and lump sugar.

InstructionsCrayfish should be boiled a day before serving for the best taste. Check that all the crayfish are alive. Rinse if needed. Bring water to boil and add sugar cubes, salt and half of a crown dill. Put crayfish one by one into boiling water, not more than 10 crayfish at a time, and boil for approximately 10 minutes, starting from the time when the water again boils after the last crayfish has been put into the pot. Ready crayfish should have small gap between the shell and the tail. Lift crayfish with a skimmer into a large basin to cool. When all the crayfish are boiled, strain broth into a clean pot, add the rest of the crown dill, but remember to leave some to decorate the serving plate. When broth has cooled, put crayfish back to pot for at least 10 hours to get juicy and tasty. Keep in a cool place. Take the crayfish out from broth with a skimmer and arrange them nicely on a large serving plate decorated with fresh crown dill from where everyone can take a crayfish to their plate. Every person at the table should have plenty of paper napkins next to them and a bowl of water, containing lemon juice, to rinse their fingers with. Eating crayfish is a messy job!

Frozen crayfish Shops have a selection of imported deep-frozen, boiled crayfish in different sizes, which are a more economical alternative for crayfish parties. Let the package defrost. When defrosted pour the juice into a pot with fresh crown dill, boil crayfish quickly for a minute or two. Cool broth and leave crayfish to get juicy until served.

Crayfish Party Time

Becker Acroma1/2

ScandAsia China - August 2010

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