Dan's China diary - day 12

In May 2006, silicon.com senior reporter Dan Ilett travelled to China, seeking to get behind some of today's most interesting tech and business stories. This is his warts-and-all diary, which appears daily this month. For in-depth coverage of this fact-finding trip inside China, including analysis and exclusive stories, click here.

Wednesday 17 May, Shanghai

My interviews are in downtown Shanghai today. Meet Ipedo - an XML and real-time software company. One of the people I'd set up an interview with has left the company. This shouldn't be surprising considering staff turnover in some of these tech ventures is exceptionally high.

These guys have an interesting business - they take orders for XML software in the US and produce it in China. They've recently started to focus on the domestic market, as have many others. They're making headway with the Chinese government in particular, which is using the software to get instant information out to regional government offices in emergencies such as the Sars outbreak. It makes sense when you think of the difficulties the government must have running a country this size.

Sage, in line with his name, is frighteningly sharp... he's leading an analyst/news translation business in China called Pacific Epoch. And he knows pretty much everyone I've come into contact with in China.

Pop into an internet café to try again to contact search giant Baidu, for a big interview. There are a lot of young people all playing games and making a hell of a noise.

Before I'm allowed to use the internet I have to give over my passport. I'm surprised at this and a little taken back but I figure I'd better play along and surf the net without looking for references to anything controversial.

Try to reach Baidu... Sina.com... Sohu... C-Trip - the list goes on. The PRs are either unhelpful or the company doesn't have a PR department. In a moment of pure frustration I curse the way it's working - does anyone here understand having a relationship with the media? It's a laugh or cry moment and I really need to chill out a bit. It's probably my misunderstanding of the way things work but I can't help but feel disappointed.

My editor is going to be pissed off about it but what can I do? I've tried all my contacts, links through friends, UK PRs, all my links through Tsinghua and a few more for good measure.

Go to Pudong for a conference about financial services, an area I specialise in back home. In all of Shanghai, Pudong is one of the fastest developing areas - a little over 10 years ago it was nothing but marsh land where peasant farmers used to keep cattle. These days it's rammed with skyscrapers.

At the conference I do the usual speed dating introductions, getting as many contacts as possible in a short space of time without being rude.

In the hotel next door, the Hyatt - which is in the Jin Mao Tower - there's a conference for venture capitalists. Since I've arrived in China I've heard so much entrepreneurial banter about raising rounds of investment. One thing that's not uncommon as a business journalist - which is true of my experience in China as well - is to be the only one sitting around a table who's not a millionaire.

But apparently I'm not allowed into the sessions because I'm a journalist, so I head to the top floor of the Jin Mao Tower, which is the fourth tallest building in the world - it's 421 metres tall with 88 floors. Normally you'd get a great view of the TV tower. But today the weather is bad and you can't see too far.

Afterwards go to meet Sage Brennan - another of dot-com entrepreneur Shak's friends. Sage, in line with his name, is frighteningly sharp. Wish I was in his shoes - he's leading an analyst/news translation business in China called Pacific Epoch. And he knows pretty much everyone I've come into contact with in China so far.

Afterwards, I cross the road to meet TR Harrington - another bright young entrepreneur, with a past in Silicon Valley. He's doing some cool stuff in China-specific internet marketing. He tells me Micah Truman is heading down for the evening with another friend, Matt Roberts - the ex-bureau chief for Beijing's Dow Jones office. These guys all speak Chinese and are running successful businesses. That in itself shouldn't be that impressive but when you realise how hard business can be out here you see that these guys have done their homework and fought hard to get the right partnerships with the Chinese to keep afloat. This is an important consideration, I'm learning.

We go for a very Western evening that includes burgers, a pool hall and a nightclub called Mint to top it all off. Matt and Micah have to leave because they're up early for a meeting. I run into real estate contact Luke Nolan and friends. The club's crowd, about 50-50 Chinese and foreigners, is having fun, dancing to cheesy 70s music.

We leave at 3:00am.

Return to Dan's diary tomorrow as he finds out how Nanjing is trying to challenge tech in Shanghai.