Played Pool with Colin Colenso in Shanghai, China

nipponbilliards said:
Were you guys playing at Fu Ji Bo's pool hall? (I mean his home pool hall)

How is the gambling scene in China?

Fu could not stop gambling when I saw him in Japan:), he played for $300 or so a set.

What kind of cues do they used? I know Fu plays with a Ray made in Taiwan, and Wang Ming was playing with a cue made in China I think(I did not even take a close look, but it is not an expensive cue for sure.) What about the average players?

Thank you for the report, guys.:)

Richard
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There is a lot of gambling on pool in China. In fact there is a lot of gambling on cards, mahjong and everything else in China.

Many of the players here use Universal cues, including Wang Ming I think. You see very few, if any of the cue brands that are popular in the US.

Today the finals of the Shanghai 9 Ball open are being played. Fu and Wang both got knocked out yesterday in the preliminaries.Chao Fang Pong is here along with several other Taiwanese players and the top Mainland China players.
 
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Franklin Templeton just opened a mutual fund called BRIC (Brazil, Russia,India,China,) run by Mark Mobius who lives in Hong Kong & has a great track record. Up 20% since June. Its seems like a great opportunity to run up the IRA so that we can all visit China when we retire. Do they make better cues & tables than the ones they sell through Walmart?
 
berlowmj said:
Franklin Templeton just opened a mutual fund called BRIC (Brazil, Russia,India,China,) run by Mark Mobius who lives in Hong Kong & has a great track record. Up 20% since June. Its seems like a great opportunity to run up the IRA so that we can all visit China when we retire. Do they make better cues & tables than the ones they sell through Walmart?
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Despite the boom in billiards, I still think it is in its early stages in China. The cues I saw for sale were more along the lines of Lucasi and Players quality.

The Chinese stock market is up 70% for the year. Shanghai is fully developed. The big build out right now is Beijing. Huge, modern buildings, everywhere you look replacing old brick tenements. High tech is abundant, millions of cell phones and high speed internet computers.

Shanghai is rich and impressive, but elsewhere in China there is staggering poverty. There is a lot of "show" in Beijing, because the big buildings hide run down tenements and abandoned buildings housing millions of illiterate rural workers. It is clear that the Olympics (which will be in Beijing in 2008) development is "in your face" and meant to impress the visitor and to hide the other areas literally falling apart.

It is also clear the economics and policies of 1950's style socialism have dramatically failed the people. This is no secret. The Chinese know it. Mao is still their hero despite the failed policies because he was their fearless leader.

Mandated education is a relatively new thing in China. There is a whole class of middle aged and elderly citizens that are functionally illiterate. There are a lot of built-in obstacles because of regional language differences. For example, the residents of Shanghai cannot verbally communicate with the residents of Beijing because the languages are different. You run into this in many regions of China. An educated, intelligent Chinese student might have a written character word recognition vocabulary of only 3,000 to 4,000 words. This is about enough to read a newspaper. There is no way to sound out the word, you either recognize the character or you don't.

In terms of the people, we found the Chinese people to be very friendly, helpful and gentle. I felt they were kind and non confrontational to visitors. It is a well displined society. We felt totally comfortable and safe walking among large crowds of Chinese citizens . There are some scams and many hawkers, but these are well known, nothing dangerous. Guns are banned.

I have no doubt the Beijing Olympics will be a glorious event.

Chris
 
Hal said:
Tell the truth Tate. I bet Colin really sucks. :D
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uhhh back home after a day of flying.

I know you're kidding Hal, but Colin is a strong player and a fun player too. He has a powerful stroke but very well controlled. I didn't really want to get together with Colin just to play, I wanted to learn - learn about him, his life, pool in China, learn some of his techniques (which i've seen on his web site) and I wanted a trusted "pool room" guide.

Thanks Colin, you're a great host! Colin was an excellent guide. He personally knows the upper tier of billiards professionals, officials, television broadcasters, that sort of thing and promotes events in China.

Colin is also a very good teacher. My break, thanks to him, is at least twice as effective today as it was just a month ago. He gave me some breaking tips and they really paid off. I showed him my new X-Breaker cue and he also liked it. My ears are still ringing from his break shots.

We also compared our style of english set up. He showed me his back hand technique for setting up side spin, and I showed him my method. His cue also has a conventional shaft versus my Predator, so we exchanged ideas.

Believe me, I learned a lot more from Colin than he learned from me!

Chris
 
Yes I was kidding. Colin and I often take jabs at each other. He's a great guy. I'm sure he plays outstanding. He's a good sport and I enjoy messing with him.
 
Hey TATE, shame you couldn't hang around for Colin's night tour also! he can give Hugh Hefner the 6! :D
 
TheOne said:
Hey TATE, shame you couldn't hang around for Colin's night tour also! he can give Hugh Hefner the 6! :D
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I figured that's what was keeping him in Shanghai. There certainly is no shortage of beautiful women in Shanghai, Craig. However, my beautiful wife, who totally owns me, was waiting for me back at the hotel.

By the way, when I was in Australia I saw more beautiful girls over there anywhere else in the world - and the guys seem to just ignore them and talk about sports all day!

Chris
 
TATE said:
I figured that's what was keeping him in Shanghai. There certainly is no shortage of beautiful women in Shanghai, Craig. However, my beautiful wife, who totally owns me, was waiting for me back at the hotel.

By the way, when I was in Australia I saw more beautiful girls over there anywhere else in the world - and the guys seem to just ignore them and talk about sports all day!

Chris
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Hehe yeah I got his excuses today, agree about Sydney but you have to understand all the guys over there are ex cons and hence swing a different way to you and me! :eek: :D
 
TATE said:
I figured that's what was keeping him in Shanghai. There certainly is no shortage of beautiful women in Shanghai, Craig. However, my beautiful wife, who totally owns me, was waiting for me back at the hotel.

By the way, when I was in Australia I saw more beautiful girls over there anywhere else in the world - and the guys seem to just ignore them and talk about sports all day!

Chris
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Great, now I can't figure out where I should go:D Maybe I'll have to visit both places one day;)
 
Hey Chris,
Glad to know you made it home safely.

Again, I had a great time. Really wouldn't mind getting my hands on a longer cue like yours again. I didn't even know they made longer cues :o Shows what I know about US equipment.

Hope to hear more stories of you collecting some scalps over there with the new improved break :D

Colin
 
TheOne said:
Hey TATE, shame you couldn't hang around for Colin's night tour also! he can give Hugh Hefner the 6! :D
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Can I quote you on that on my resume'? Heck, I might even put it on my business card! :cool: ...:D

Colin
 
TheOne said:
Hehe yeah I got his excuses today, agree about Sydney but you have to understand all the guys over there are ex cons and hence swing a different way to you and me! :eek: :D
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You have to remember that Sydney was settled by convicts, so allowances have to be made:D .
Here in Victoria, we were settled by free men (and women), many of whom came from the US looking for gold;) . Ask Colin, as he originally came from here.

Daniel:D
 
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