Daughter studying architecture in the Technion won a scholarship in Hungary but I advised against it. So she got a summer internship in an Architectural firm in Shanghai, which is the place where a young architect must be. She is studying Chinese.
11 comments:
Anonymous
said...
If you would like, I can put her in touch w. my son (age 21) who is living in Shanghai (and speaks pretty good Chinese, only very basic Hebrew). It is very helpful to have someone who is familiar with the local ways of doing things. Being able to read and speak the language opens up a whole world that is generally closed to most foreigners. You can email me if she wants his contact info.
Oh, and mazel tov on the scholarship and internship.
My daughter has asked a couple of times to attend a summer fencing camp in Hungary and I have advised her against it also. When I think of fencing and Jews and Hungary, I can only think of Attila Petschauer and the fine thanks he received from the Hungarian people. Adopting an ultra-Hungarian name was no protection for him - it probably only worsened the hatred. As as far as I am concerned I don't want to give them one forint of my money.
I advised against Hungary because there is no creative architecture and almost no building going on. They are using traditional materials and obsolete concepts. It would have not added much to her "portfolio". Shanghai is where the action is.
I have no doubt that she will manage, especially in Shanghai which has a large expatriate community. Most (but not all) signage is bi-lingual Chinese/English, there are many supermarkets and restaurants that sell Western food, etc. But the flip side of that is that it is possible to live in a bubble - to be in Shanghai without really experiencing it, or only one narrow aspect of it.
Shanghai's architecture is amazing. Pudong (the part of the city across the river from the Bund) was farm fields 30 years ago and now there are 100 story skyscrapers. What impressed me most was not that (every big city has a few showplace towers) but that the 25 story apartment buildings stretched to the horizon, thousands of them - it takes a lot of apartments to house 20 million people. They don't put up 1 building at a time - they will put up 10 or 20 identical towers in a cluster. The whole city is a giant construction site. The energy is palpable.
There is an epic property bubble forming in china mix it in with the pump and dump ops and the country gardens and Evergrands are on a roll. On the hot side nothing is as corrupt and xeno as RE in China and bubbles eventually pop if she can enter early stages of bubbles of any E Asia country life will be good
If there is a bubble it still has a long way to go, I think. While the Chinese economy is now #2, ahead of Japan, per capita income is still only a fraction of what it is in the West - there is no reason why their incomes should not rise to near Western standards since their productivity is, or soon will be, just as great if not greater. As their incomes rise, so too will the amount of $ available to spend on housing.
There are serious inflation pains already and unlike the west little internal demand fused structure that drains all savings to central. Remember when that 2% appreciation in RMB had workers striking if you watch Chinese news 90 percent is about inflation and Hu's boys trying to cool the property market 10% about the will be fireworks the issue is how can you milk the cow before it gets it
I think some of the Shanghai skyscrapers could be improved. A bunch of giant bagels could be looped around the spire of the Oriental Pearl tower. The hole in the top of the World Financial Center could be made into a shop window in which you could hang giant roast ducks. The riverfront along the Bund could be turned into a beach on which you could play Maktot, etc.
11 comments:
If you would like, I can put her in touch w. my son (age 21) who is living in Shanghai (and speaks pretty good Chinese, only very basic Hebrew). It is very helpful to have someone who is familiar with the local ways of doing things. Being able to read and speak the language opens up a whole world that is generally closed to most foreigners. You can email me if she wants his contact info.
K
Oh, and mazel tov on the scholarship and internship.
My daughter has asked a couple of times to attend a summer fencing camp in Hungary and I have advised her against it also. When I think of fencing and Jews and Hungary, I can only think of Attila Petschauer and the fine thanks he received from the Hungarian people. Adopting an ultra-Hungarian name was no protection for him - it probably only worsened the hatred. As as far as I am concerned I don't want to give them one forint of my money.
K
Nice! My daughter is 24 and she speaks English, Spanish and Hebrew. She will manage easily in China. I shall pass on the offer.
I advised against Hungary because there is no creative architecture and almost no building going on. They are using traditional materials and obsolete concepts. It would have not added much to her "portfolio". Shanghai is where the action is.
I have no doubt that she will manage, especially in Shanghai which has a large expatriate community. Most (but not all) signage is bi-lingual Chinese/English, there are many supermarkets and restaurants that sell Western food, etc. But the flip side of that is that it is possible to live in a bubble - to be in Shanghai without really experiencing it, or only one narrow aspect of it.
Shanghai's architecture is amazing. Pudong (the part of the city across the river from the Bund) was farm fields 30 years ago and now there are 100 story skyscrapers. What impressed me most was not that (every big city has a few showplace towers) but that the 25 story apartment buildings stretched to the horizon, thousands of them - it takes a lot of apartments to house 20 million people. They don't put up 1 building at a time - they will put up 10 or 20 identical towers in a cluster. The whole city is a giant construction site. The energy is palpable.
K
There is an epic property bubble forming in china mix it in with the pump and dump ops and the country gardens and Evergrands are on a roll. On the hot side nothing is as corrupt and xeno as RE in China and bubbles eventually pop if she can enter early stages of bubbles of any E Asia country life will be good
If there is a bubble it still has a long way to go, I think. While the Chinese economy is now #2, ahead of Japan, per capita income is still only a fraction of what it is in the West - there is no reason why their incomes should not rise to near Western standards since their productivity is, or soon will be, just as great if not greater. As their incomes rise, so too will the amount of $ available to spend on housing.
K
There are serious inflation pains already and unlike the west little internal demand fused structure that drains all savings to central. Remember when that 2% appreciation in RMB had workers striking if you watch Chinese news 90 percent is about inflation and Hu's boys trying to cool the property market 10% about the will be fireworks the issue is how can you milk the cow before it gets it
I have seen Shanghai too, several times; fantastic skyline.
Anon.
Anon, That was before... the arrival of my archi-daughter.
I think some of the Shanghai skyscrapers could be improved. A bunch of giant bagels could be looped around the spire of the Oriental Pearl tower. The hole in the top of the World Financial Center could be made into a shop window in which you could hang giant roast ducks. The riverfront along the Bund could be turned into a beach on which you could play Maktot, etc.
K
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