Lilly Bussmann is a former Sandbox community manager and freshly arrived in Shanghai, where she will stay until summer. She brought the Sandbox spirit to China and organized a dinner at the beginning of this week with local members. Over the next months, she will occasionally report about her Chinese life on this blog.

“If god allows Shanghai to endure, he will owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology”, thus remarked a French colonialist in the early 20th century. And yes, it’s undeniable that Shanghai is China’s most promiscuous, booming and rapidly changing metropolis.

A bit of background

Historically, it all started with a little bit of opium. In the 17th century the British East India Company quietly traded on the shores of China, but as their demand for tea, silk and porcelain far outweighed Chinese purchases of wool and spices, the British decided to introduce opium to the game. They balanced their books by slipping into India to swap (at a profit) silver for opium with which they could then purchase Chinese goods – and Shanghai blossomed. In this way, the British passion for tea was increasingly matched by Shanghai’s craving for opium – a drug that virtually single-handedly earned Shanghai the reputation of “Whore of the Orient” or, more charmingly, “Paris of the East”.

Much has happened in the following 300 years and Shanghai has kept on reinventing itself from birthplace of the Communist party to financial hub and host of the Expo 2010.

Sandbox Shanghai dinner

Under these stars, the first Sandbox Shanghai dinner took place this week. Sandboxers from England, the US and Germany that have found a new home in Shanghai came together with a selected few of like-minded peers. Many topics were heatedly discussed, ranging from Chinese history to the different mindsets of  Western and Asian cultures. Yet, all discussions aside, what one can be sure of is that the future has much in store for China and so does Sandbox for Shanghai!

We will continue these Sandbox meet-ups on a regular basis from now on, so please do drop us a line if you happen to be around! Find my contact details here.

Ciao-Baba Cathrin

After three months working with us as a community manager in Zurich, Cathrin Lesslhumer went back to Vienna on Sunday. We would like to take this occasion to publicly thank her for the amazing work she did during her stay. She spread her positive energy all over the office and quickly became a legend in the community: she was so active connecting members to each other that her name is now known from San Francisco to Beijing.

Cathrin just started looking for a new job in Austria (or somewhere else) and we wish her the best of luck for her future. We hope to come visit you soon in Vienna and eat a giant Schnitzel at Figlmueller. In the meanwhile, we will keep repeating your famous “ciao-baba” [Austrian way to say goodbye] at the office for a while

Hallo Lilly

Freshly graduated from her German high school, Lilly Bussmann has now taken over Cathrin’s role after a week of handover. For the next six months, she will be working closely with Katrin and with me in the community management team. During high school, Lilly constantly tried to push the boundaries of her academic horizon and has absolved an early study program in philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. On the social side, she has spent the last year as head girl of her high school and led the German delegation to the International Intelligent Ironman Creativity Contest 2009 in Taiwan.

Lilly is already well traveled and the main lesson she has taken back from all her trips abroad is that there will always be things in this world worth experiencing, knowing and understanding. Welcome to the team, Lilly! I’m sure that you will have the chance to experience, learn and understand like never before during the six months you will stay with us.

Antoine is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Sandbox. He is currently sitting at the small Zurich office together with Katrin, Lilly, Nico, Fabian (back from New York for the Summer) and Severin (just back from Bangkok). Working with this team just feels great, and the level of energy is pretty high!