Saturday, August 25, 2012

Official Team Intros on Chinarush.cn

Now here's the official version of teams intros on China Rush's website with more pictures of all 11 teams. Before the show starts tomorrow, let's have a quick recap of all the teams for this season so that we can go into the show with a lil' bit of understanding of the contestants!! 

At the meantime, we would greatly appreciate it if you can vote for "Fraternal Twins" or "双胞兄妹" through this link to support us!! Thanks!! =D


Khai Shing 凯馨 (MAS, 25) & Khai Sheng 凯升 (MAS, 25)
Khai Shing and Khai Sheng are fraternal twins from Penang, Malaysia. Being twins, one would think the 25 year-old brother and sister would be alike in every way, but in reality they couldn't be more different. Khai Shing is a fiercely competitive girl whose strength and quick-wits well outweigh her petite size; while Khai Sheng is a more laid-back thinker, often having to reign his sister back. Now living and working in different cities for the first time in their lives, they hope the race will provide a chance to reconnect and experience China for the first time as a team. They are also the first foreign team in China Rush history to use Chinese as their primary language.

Ryan 阮伯克 (USA,26) & Charlie 马景洋(USA,24)
Charlie and Ryan are former Harvard University roommates, originally from Los Angeles and New York respectively. They are an extremely competitive and athletic team; Ryan a hockey and lacrosse player and Charlie a rower and all-around athlete. But they're not just physically strong; their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture is just another weapon in their arsenal. These “Harvard Boys” are the full package; they have the brains, the brawn and the desire to go all the way.

Henry 苏立元 (USA, 33) & Jennifer 刘静雯 (USA, 33)
Henry and Jennifer are newlyweds from the United States, now living in Shanghai for just under a year. Moving to Shanghai for Henry's career was not only a chance to get in touch with their Chinese roots, but also a fresh start for the couple. After being diagnosed and treated for a brain tumor just a few months after their wedding, Jennifer is now dedicated to enjoying life to the fullest. Now, she is seeking new experiences on the race with her husband of 18-months by her side, to prove that they will continue to face any challenge together.

Janelle 万黎 (AUS, 21) & Karin 凯心 (SWE, 23) 
Karin and Janelle are genuine “Shanghai Socialites”. Originally from Sweden and Australia respectively, Karin and Janelle have spent the past year and a half as flatmates and best friends, becoming legends in the Shanghai nightlife. But as much as these two bombshells are alike, they come from quite different backgrounds. While Karin spent most of her four years in Shanghai studying or working full-time, Janelle comes from a privileged background and has lived comfortably on her parents trust-fund – until now. After the race both Karin and Janelle will return to their own countries and start new lives. China Rush may be their last shot for an adventure together in China. 

Nick 尼克(SCOT, 30) & Brandon 李之盛 (USA, 27)
Nick and Brandon are Shanghai-based next-door neighbors from Scotland and the United States respectively. Brought together by their like-minded senses of humor and close-proximity to one another, the close friends decided to further cement their bond by starting a Shanghai tour company together last year. But months before that they already shared a dream. Having just missed the application cut off for the previous season of China Rush, Nick and Brandon have been training for a year with one goal in mind: to win at any cost.

Rob 罗伯特 (CAN, 42) & Jia Jia 郝为加 (CHN/CHENGDU, 30)
Rob and Jiajia may look like the “odd couple”, but they have an irresistible zest for life that you can't help but love. These Chengdu-based friends of over 10 ten years come from opposite sides of the planet and have an age difference of over 12 years, but nonetheless were united by their passion for animals and being different from the norm. Rob, a former member of the Canadian army, currently owns and operates an Emu farm; while Jiajia is a professional Ping-Pong coach and volunteer animal protection enthusiast.

Xiao Bing 鞠翔成 (CHN/LIAONING, 30) & Xiao Bang 孙怀龙 (CHN/LIAONING, 22)
Ju Xiancheng and Sun Huailong, or “Xiao Bing” and “Xiao Bang” as they prefer to be called, are first cousins and street-side barbeque salesmen from Liaoning province. Their unique and entertaining style of singing and dancing while barbequing their skewers first gained national fame on the second season of China's Got Talent. Now they've brought their talents to a different kind of reality competition and are proving they are more than just “BBQ Boys”.


Yu Ping 俞萍 (CHN/SHANGHAI, 46) & Yu Chenjing 俞辰静 (CHN/SHANGHAI, 22)
Yu Ping and Yu Chenjing are an a-typical Shanghainese father and daughter. Risk-taking business investor, Yu Ping, is this season's oldest contestant; but what he lacks in youth, he makes up for in energy. A passionate drag-racer and extreme sports enthusiast, this outgoing father hopes the race will give his sheltered daughter some memorable experiences of her own. Yu Chenjing is also looking to experience some excitement before graduating university and entering the work-force, not to mention getting closer with her one-of-a-kind father.

Li Yang 李洋 (CHN/DALIAN, 27) & Zhang Yelin 张业林 (CHN/DALIAN, 27)
Li Yang and Zhang Yelin are a post-80's generation dating couple from Dalian, Liaoning Province. Although they began dating in university many years ago, they have waited to get married in the hopes of Zhang Yelin, a private car driver, being able to prove himself worthy in Li Yang's parents' eyes. They plan to wed soon, but have not made it official yet. They hope that through China Rush they can show Li Yang's parents once and for all that they are a strong couple that can take care of each other under any circumstances.

 Christine 童尹恩 (CHN/TAIWAN, 23) & Steven 赵睿乔 (CHN/TAIWAN, 24) 
Christine and Steven are professional models and television hosts from Taipei. Having met in a “star-training” school 3 years ago, they have maintained a close and supportive friendship both on and off the camera. Now they are looking for one last great experience together before Steven leaves for the military. It will be a test for their friendship and themselves. Christine especially wants to push herself to new levels and face her many fears, while Steven is hoping to find strengths he may have never known he had.

Lei Sheng (CHN/XI’AN, 40) 雷声 & Liu Weiwei 刘伟伟 (CHN/SHANDONG, 30)
Lei Sheng and Liu Weiwei are professional outdoor experience trainers based in Shanghai, but originally hailing from Shanxi and Shandong provinces respectively. Being 10 years younger, Liu Weiwei looks to Lei Sheng as a teacher and mentor. Liu Weiwei comes from the countryside and, before the race, had never so much as flown in an airplane; but his military background and eagerness to learn make him a fierce competitor. While Lei Sheng comes from the bigger city of Xi'an and is looking to prove that they are more than a couple of jocks. They think have the strength, smarts and passion to win.

The Rush Is Happening Tomorrow!!

Counting down 1 more day to the premier of the 3rd season of China Rush!!!! I'm extremely excited!!! Even though I may not be able to watch it through live streaming tomorrow...I'll be following all the comments and live updates on weibo. =P 


The official website is up and running!! Please vote for "Fraternal Twins" or "双胞兄妹" through this link to support us!! Thanks!! =D

TAR CR3 poster at Shanghai XinTianDi 新天地!! Lookout for it if you're in Shanghai!! China Rush is everywhere in Shanghai!! =P 

Stay tuned for more stories on our Amazing journey!! 

P.S. If you have fast internet connection, don't forget to catch us on the first episode of The Amazing Race China Rush 3, premièring this Sunday, 26 August, 8pm. You can stream it live at the links here or here
There'll also be EP1 viewing party on August 26th, from approx. 7:30-9:30pm, on the second floor of The Melting Pot (288 Taikang Lu, near Sinan Lu). Come and watch the show together with many of the crew and contestants!(All drinks 30rmb)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Journey to the Amazing Race 冲刺之旅 - Pre-Race

Counting down 4 days to the premier of the third season of China Rush...I'm so excited!! =D After 5 months of 'Amazing Wait', I can finally share some of our pre-race photos. Honestly, I've got quite a short-term memory so I've actually kept a log for our entire Amazing Race journey. =P Yes I know I'm a bit obsessed about this but c'mon this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, of course I wanna try my best to cherish all these memories la! 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned on my blog before, bro and I had to shorten our Japan trip for 2 days, forfeited our return ticket, and bought another ticket to Shanghai to prepare for this Race. Well...prepare as in getting our driver's license done, shop for race clothes, do the shooting for opening sequence and team intros, do the photoshoot, attend contestant briefing, etc. Sounds like we did a lot of things but apart from all these, we spent most of our time bumming in our window-less hotel (aka the 'redbox') surfing the net and watching TV ...and having 'nightmares' about the Race...lol!! 
 
Our 'redbox'!!! I was so bored that I got almost 10 packets of sewing kits from the reception and started sewing my race clothes...lol!! 

We were so excited when we got our brand new backpacks from production team!! Blue is cool!! =P Put my camera to good use before I surrendered it the day before our race started. We were so bored and efficient that we packed our bags right away...lol!!

Different angles of our backpacks. We even googled and youtubed how to adjust the straps on our backpacks to find the most comfortable position...haha!! It was my first time using such a big backpack and I loved it even though it was kinda heavy...haha!! =) 

Obviously, we were both over-excited with our new 'toys' and was running around our hotel room with our backpacks...haha!! I also taught bro the best way to carry 2 bags just in case I didn't have energy to carry mine...lol!!

By the way, the official website for China Rush have been updated and I'll share some photos in the next post. Stay tuned for more stories on our Amazing journey!! =D At the meantime, appreciate if you can vote for "Fraternal Twins" or "双胞兄妹" through this link to support us!! Thanks!! =D

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Quarter of a Century!

And so I turned a quarter of a century old last week!! Sounds old but I'm still young at heart...hahaha!! I'm absolutely blessed for all the wonderful opportunities and experiences that I've had over the past year and thankful for all the wonderful people around me...first 25 years of my life had been AMAZING...looking forward to more great years ahead!! Join me as I continue to grow and discover the person I am and want to be. ♥ ♥ Last but not least, million thanks to all my friends and family for the warm birthday wishes!!! 

Before I get caught up with more Amazing Race related updates (coz the show will premier this Sunday), I'd better blog about my birthday celebration first. =P

Thanks to Ali for promoting my birthday, my 2 angmoh managers Steve and Dan was so thoughtful to book this huge Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake the night before for my b'day. My other teammates were also busy trying to keep the surprise until I saw the cake during lunch time. Thanks guys for the cake and the surprise!! =) 

Birthday dinner with my batchmates/colleagues/buddies at Tsuruya. Thanks guys for the birthday treat, yummy cheese cake, and all the laughters!!! =)

Belated birthday dinner with the family at Starview!! Thanks big bro and sis-in-law for the birthday treat and awesome presents!!! =)

Told ya...August is a feasting month!!! Time to get into sporting mode soon...hehe!! =P

Amazing Race China Rush on CNNGo

Check this out! The Amazing Race China Rush Season 3 was featured on CNNGo!! Pretty cool huh!! The 2nd season of China Rush opened my eyes to many beautiful places in China and sparked my interest to take part in this Race to see and explore more of China. Wanna find out which interesting places we travelled to this season? Stay tuned to find out more when the show airs!!


Monday, August 20, 2012

The Amazing Race China Rush 3 Press Conference

15 August 2012 (Wed): The Amazing Race China Rush Season 3 Press Conference
《冲刺! 中国》第三季新闻发布会暨首映礼


The press conference for The Amazing Race China Rush Season 3 was held last Wednesday at STV. We received the invitation from ICS for this event few weeks back but unfortunately, we had to give it a miss due to work commitments. Besides, we're not that rich to fly all the way to Shanghai and take unpaid leave for a 2-hour event...we're not celebrities...lol!! Kinda suck that everything is happening in Shanghai while we're stuck here. =.= And because I knew that I couldn't be there, I made a special request for live updates from Jennifer, Henry, Nick and Yvonne. =P All of them did a great job sharing live updates and photos on Weibo. I was so excited reading all the updates and felt like I was there at the press conference too...hahaha!! Here's a quick look at what went down at the TAR CR3 Press Conference...

The event was hosted by Allan Wu and was attended by several press & media, as you can see from all the cameras at the back. =P 

The SUPERSTARS for the show! I was kinda surprised that only 5 of them made it to the press conference coz I was expecting all of them who are in SH to attend. Henry & Jenn looked fantastic!! Lei Sheng travelled 7 hours from Fujian purposely to attend this event!

Introducing the teams!! Thanks to Yvonne for helping to capture all these. =D

After introducing all 11 teams, it was time for a private premier of the 30-minutes version of the first episode. Arghh...I wanna watch it too!! The full version of the first episode (I think it's 1.5 hours) will premier Aug 26 (Sun), 8pm on ICS. 

The Amazing crew working hard behind-the-scenes. =) 

Huge promo billboard at Shanghai TV station's lobby and poster on ICS's website.

Wanna see more about what went down at the press conference?? I've compiled some videos and snapshots of news coverage (in Mandarin & English) from various media below. Enjoy!! =P

作为上海外语频道的王牌栏目之一,《冲刺!中国》已经成功播出两季,引起了国内外观众的热烈反响,并在一年一度的亚洲电视大奖上荣获现有电视模式改编奖项的高度推荐。8月15日,上海外语频道联手东方卫视共同推出12集大型城市文化体验真人秀节目《冲刺!中国》第三季。《冲刺!中国》第三季的制作延续了前两季紧张、刺激的一贯风格,更是把冲刺的足迹扩展到了前两季未曾涉足的地方,呈现有趣刺激的游戏的同时,又展现了中国众多知名的人文自然景观,凸显各地城市文化和精神。而节目将于8月26日和9月1日分别登陆上海外语频道和东方卫视。 






Friday, August 17, 2012

Eventful August

Seems like August is always a busy month with something going on almost every weekend...hahaha!! Spent the first weekend in Singapore and was busy with several things last weekend. Here's a short update on what I was up to last week.

10 August 2012 (Fri): Orientation Night
It's the time of the year again to 'officially' welcome the new joiners in our firm. Nope I wasn't orientated this time coz I'd already been through this last year but I was part of the team in charge of planning this event this year. But honestly, I'm a bit paiseh for not being involved much in the planning of the O'nite coz I was away the week before this event. Anyway, kudos to our team for doing a brilliant job!! =D

The 'receptionists'...lol! Momo and Herng made these interesting 'nickname' tags for everyone...and mine was "Superwoman"....hahaha!! 

The emcees for the night....Ah Boy and Momo. Well done guys!!

Some of the interesting things we did to introduce the newbies. (P.S. I've filtered out some photos that are not quite suitable to be made public...lol!!)

Group photo of everyone who came and the organizing committees. =)

11 August 2012 (Sat): KL Day Trip
Took the 7.30am bus down to KL and came back on the 8pm bus...10 hours of bus ride and spent RM70 just for a 1.5 hour thing. Yes I'm pretty crazy...lol!! Can't say what we did yet but you'll find out soon...haha!! =P 

Wearing the same outfit, having professional make-up artist...hmm sounds very familiar!! Brings back memories of the CR photoshoot we did back in March. When the sound guy passed me the portable microphone, I knew exactly what to do with it...I've definitely picked up some skills from CR....hahaha!! It's fun to do this kinda thing again after CR!! =D

12 August 2012 (Sun): Grandma's Birthday 

Celebrated grandma's 82nd birthday with da family...Happy Birthday Ah Ma!!! =D Hugsss!! August is also a feasting month...more to come!!! =P

Aight that's all for now...going off to celebrate my bday!! Oh btw...I turn 25 today!!! =P

Friday, August 10, 2012

Training in Singapore 2.0

Travelled to Singapore together with all Dell team colleagues last week to attend a training. Pretty much similar to the one we attended last year just that the people were slightly different this time around. The training was from Mon-Wed but I decided to fly earlier to spend a weekend there since Rachel is in SG. =P 

4 Aug 2012 (Saturday): Sentosa Island
For my last few trips to Singapore, I didn't thought about visiting Sentosa coz I didn't plan to go to Universal Studios. But Rachel visited Sentosa few weeks ago and said that there were quite a lot of fun stuffs to do there and after looking up online, I decided to make a trip there this time to tryout some rides.

Palawan Beach @ Sentosa Island. See the dark clouds there??

 The Southern Most Point in continental Asia.

And then it started pouring...what a day to be at the 'beach'...lol!!

Luckily the rain stopped after a while...time to hit some 'waves' at Wavehouse Sentosa!!

The one thing that I wanted to try most in Sentosa was surfing. I've never surfed before coz there's nowhere to surf in Malaysia so I reckon this would be a good time to pick up some surfing skills...haha!! I also remembered Allan Wu sharing about this Wavehouse in Singapore on his blog and it looked pretty fun!

 Honestly, it really wasn't easy just to balance myself but I think I did okay for my first surfing attempt in the FlowRider. Had some epic wipeouts but that's inevitable...lol!!! At least after an hour of training, I was able to balance and move front, back, left, right!! I would definitely like to try this again in the future. =)


Cute kiddos around to distract me while I was waiting for my turn. =P

Also tried out the Luge and Skyride (highly recommended by Rachel). 

After a whole day of fun, we had our dinner at Din Tai Fung. The Xiao Long Bao wasn't as good as the ones we had in Shanghai though.

5 Aug 2012 (Sunday): Marina Bay Sands & Gardens by the Bay


Checked into Carlton Hotel before continuing my sightseeing on Sunday. YuHan & Rae came over to the hotel for a mini UGRAD gathering.

Walked all the way from the hotel to MBS.

Walked till Gardens by the Bay...new attraction but we only took pic from far...I'm not a fan of flowers and plants. The 2 pics at the bottom is to show my frustration for asking people to help take pictures...you see what I mean??? We decided to call it a day earlier and went back to the hotel to watch Lee Chong Wei's final against Lin Dan...ended up shouting like crazy people in the hotel room...lol!!

6-8 Aug 2012 (Mon-Wed): AQW Training @ PwC Singapore

After a weekend of fun, it was time for our 3-days training.

Ordered in Quiznos, Berg and Italian for lunch and had Jap food for dinner...yummy!!

Aight that's all for my short SG work + play trip!!