End of the 90 years after Beijing. Those were the days.
Forgive the opening melancholy, but true. Perhaps ever played success sweet pop "Xin Tai Ruan" on the radio and screen "Titanic" appears on almost every PC cab, but I forgive the kitsch of the time.
There was a time before China has become a destination of choice for MBA CV stirring.
And it was a time of intellectual exchange between locals and expats Sinophile curious that each driven by a strong common interest in culture, music and new technologies.
Circa 1997 in Beijing, there was no use of irreconcilable stagnation or constant phone open and free exploration in the real world to keep.
And there were only 620,000 Internet users across the country.
This is the beginning of the Dot-com in China.
Cigarettes and instant noodles
If I do not do my dream job as a journalist full time in Beijing, I took a job in a young Chinese Internet company that had covered as a freelancer.
This principle later to Sohu, one of the largest Internet companies in China.
His office from an original piece for the heart of China Chang An Building was spartan to say the least. Forget the gourmet restaurants today Baidu.
There is 17 years, the regime of the Internet bubble in Beijing was MSG-laced instant noodles and cigarettes from your desktop.
I was the only woman in Western society and one of the few thousands of Western foreigners in the city.
If you were an expat in the pre-WTO China trade, probably gave it to you because of a genuine interest of the country and its culture.
We were not there from the economic opportunities of an alleged increase in China. We were only there for an adventure.
Dotcom game
In 1999, I met fellow expatriate Porter Erisman for dinner, while the group of the leading internet marketing advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather Beijing. I was curious to jump into the game of the Internet bubble in China and wanted to know more about what it was white.
I recently met with Porter remember at this time and learn more about why he decided to take the risk and deal with a Chinese Internet company.
"I had a number of customers who had various Internet start-up and they all seemed to have a good time when you register and wanted to be there," he said.
"I met several officers from different companies, and I finally felt with Alibaba was just because they have a very international state of mind."
Porter joined Alibaba.com in April 2000 and for the next eight years as vice president for international website of the company operations, marketing and corporate affairs.
He witnessed the rise of Alibaba from a small start-up run from a small apartment in a global Internet giant. And even if he left there a few years ago his position, Porter wowed the company as it goes to market with the successful IPO.
"For me, there are some that the company will be the satisfaction that I involved in construction in the early days, probably the largest e-commerce company in the world grew up," he said.
Alibaba Porter left to become a consultant and filmmaker.
In his documentary film "Alligator on the Yangtze River", which tells the story of the Battle of Alibaba in his early years and his triumph over eBay in China.
Far from over
I left my Chinese dotcoms to become a storyteller of any kind. Over the years, I have my experience in the computer industry divided in its infancy in China and I ventured into journalism.
Seventeen years in Beijing, there were debates rivets teahouses and hot pot dinner. Since then, he has light in a very big way with the advent of social networking and mobile messaging have been forced now reached more than 600 million Chinese.
As a journalist, the tension and the possibility of the dot-com mammoth now, China has been a pleasure to witness and report.
And the story is far from over.
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