Visit to Beijing Sinofile Information Services (www.sinofile.net)
Finally Grant Jacobson, director of communications for Sinofile succeeded in kidnapping me to his office, located in a 100 years old church, now a protected historical building, where the information company accommodates its staff of around 100 monks and piles of newspapers, computer equipment, one dog and one cat. Well, not real monks but they are doing a monk’s job: reading hundreds of websites, newspapers and keeping a digital eye on more than a dozen of TV stations. All looking for interesting information in the media to pass on to their clients. One client is the American Chamber in Beijing, through whom I receive a daily newsfile. Cool.

The church building is remarkable, especially the wooden roof structure – on the inside (the astonishing wooden beams) as well as on the outside (the bell towers look like Chinese pavilions).
The interior designer had to be creative because nothing could be damaged – sorry, no nails in the wooden beams.

Grant insisted is removing the wooden floor to show the “bath” where the baptism ceremony was held (sorry Grant, how do you call that properly?). Grant then tried to wash away my many sins but he run out of water.
The building is actually the “Cathedral of the Savior”, at Nangouyan (close to the Xuanwumen subway station). In 1907 the Anglican Bishop of North China designed, built and consecrated the church. After 1950 the church served as a warehouse. Restoration began in 1996.

Edited 1 July 06
Foreign companies complain that when pirates are caught, fines are too little to deter copycats. Maybe they have a point. A native from Anhui was jailed for four years for printing and selling pirated Shanghai maps – 77,000. It made him 20,000 RMB. He was fined 10,000 RMB. If he would have done the same for a famous western brand or DVDs, he would have paid a fine and that’s it – never heard anybody went to jail in a comparable case – or I may be mistaken?
Shanghai Daily also reported two gangs that produced and sold counterfeit certificates and cigarettes received prison terms ranging from 5 months to 4 years. The cigarette gang – of course Chinese brands such as Chung Hwa and Panda – were also fined 765,000 RMB. No mention of foreign brands – not clear.
When a Korean trading company was caught in Shanghai with fake Louis Vuitton and other foreign brands – valued at 3 million RMB, 3,000 pieces, authorities would not say what punishment would be given if the firm was found guilty “but they believed it would be only an administrative punishment rather than a criminal charge” – according to Shanghai Daily.
Anybody can explain that?
Not to wonder foreign companies and foreign chambers of commerce are getting upset.
On a more positive note – we hope – the Beijing IPR Complaint Center was to start a hot line (12312) at the end of June. China is planning to build 50 IPR complaint service centers across the country by the end of this year, according to China Daily. Hopefully somebody will pick up the phone when called.

I have been curious at times to figure that out but lack of time and the contradictory figures are a real deterrent. According to recent figures in China Daily, there are right now about 150,000 “foreigners” holding legal employment contracts. So, add the family. But wait, does it include our Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau compatriots? Well… who knows, sometimes they are foreigners, sometimes they are not. I remember some figures that in East China there would about 500,000 Taiwanese. Then we have the “official’ students, somewhere around 150,000. And the diplomats. But when one looks closer, like how many Japanese and (South) Koreans are in China, it all falls apart. Of course we still have legions of “II” here (Illegal Immigrants), people who simply live and work in China without the proper visas. So, I guess nobody knows. My very wild guess would be we have at least one million of “non-Chinese passport holders” in China on a semi-permanent basis.
Otherwise, where do all those people come from filling Sanlitun and other bar areas? Let’s go and have a beer and count them.