Riccardo Ulpts

Hey guys, this has been a funny day. Kind of … I went to Shenzen to visit a friend of mine and we were walking through some shopping centres commenting on Photos, Billboards etc of people we know. Well, all of a sudden I saw my picture in a shop. I walked in and took a few photos, I was lucky they kinda let me do it since they recognised it was me on those photos.

In China they are pretty weird about taking pictures, since you could take them to copy their products, how paradox since China is a paradise for illegal copies

Anyway, I was asked to sign 5 shop books with my signature for all staff, how funny…. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found out that all these photos were used for Billboards, Website and Shop pictures although the contract was about a catalogue only! Arrgh… Oh well I guess I have to contact my agencie about that

Well, what can i say, I left china. I’m happy! I definitely have to say I’m happy to leave Guangzhou. I had a few more nice and not so nice photo shoots. Well let me give you one bad example.

What do you think about a client shooting a girl in fake Gucci Underwear doing some weird porn poses and asking me to take my pants of and stand next to her only wanting to shoot my leg?!?!? HELLO?!?!? This was definitely not professional and I don’t want to be the poor little polish girl seeing her photos one day on a pornographic website.

I can’t deal with clients smoking everywhere and you leave the casting or fitting totally stinky. I even had one guy smoking next to me in the hairdresser!

But the worst is people spitting in front of you every 2 minutes, not even Police Officers behaves any better. Walking every 5 minutes and not holding your breath is almost impossible, IT stinks everywhere…….

They don’t have anything like dividing biological waste, plastic, paper or bottles. It goes allin one bin and in the evening people get it all out and divide it by hand. Even when you walk past empty bins, you will have to hold your breath as cleaning is not everyday procedure there.

BUT I’m also sad, why??? I have made many many friends which I will miss very much indeed. To just name a few people, Dean, Mikee, Samy, Craig, Superman, William, Gustavo who left earlier, Cherry the party Queen from my agency and many many more….

Miss ya guys…

Hey guys,
first of all, sorry for being a bit lazy and not blogging. A few things happened the last week and a half. I went to do a body check last Tuesday because I’m feeling quite tired and just recovered from a cold and eye infection. Also I have to admit that my recent diet and life style hasn’t been on of the best. Cherry a booker from my agency went with me to a traditional Chinese Hospital in Ersha Island, a little Island in the Pearl River.

It was much better and cleaner than I thought and experienced in the Eye Hospital. I paid for a whole body check including, blood, liver, kidney, heart …. tests which was about 400 RNB.

First day I arrived I only had a little Gatorade drink in the morning which in the end didn’t allow me to do a blood test. So I did liver, urin and other tests and had to come back the next day for the blood test.

The results were this Monday. But because I had a job in Shenzen I didn’t get a chance to have a look. BTW the job was very nice, nice people great photos. Hope I’ll be able to show some photos very soon. On Tuesday Cherry was sick so I couldn’t check my results yesterday. Today I finally got my results, in Chinese tho. But cherry translated the most important things for me. Later on I will have a closer look as I don’t have much time now as I’m off to Hui Zhou for a Fashion Show. Hui Zhou is supposed to a city close to the beach, NICE So today there will be fitting and rehearsal and tomorrow morning after having breakfast and make-up around 8-10 we will have the show at 10:30 and will return to GZ in the afternoon.

Hope this time we will get nice breakfast and so. Ah yeah, guess what, they asked me to bring my own shoes, casual and sports shoes, well it’s China Fashion show, everything is possible

About my results from the hospital, let’s say it like this, I’m still alive, just gotta make sure I drink and eat more balanced

Now I better pack my stuff as I only have 30 minutes left…

Later

Wow first day I feel a bit better, pressure on my eyes almost gone which means the eye infection is getting better, not much happing otherwise. Yesterday another guy from Russia and me had a 4 hour Photo shoot for “S square” which is supposed to be quite famous in China.

It was a very nice Photo shoot, nice clothes, people, 2 nice outdoor locations next to a restaurant and coffee. It was like tiny European village close to the river in Guangzhou, called Sha Mian.

After the shoot I went home as my eyes did start to hurt again and took my eye drops. Today I have to say I feel heaps better! Hope that will continue, as I have another fashion show for Yishion tomorrow.

Monday I had a Fashion Show for Kangwei, a famous Chinese sports brand. When you see the products you see a lot of similarities with Adidas, even the design and color of and etiquettes of the clothes are very similar. But this is China

It was a big Sport hall. It started 9 am in the morning, the fitting we had the day before, a Sunday! The Rehearsal believe it or not took all day until 8pm when the show started.

They didn’t even had time to give us guys make-up and do their hair, so we all did it ourselves, very professional for one of the biggest Chinese sports brand isn’t it?

Food was average so I got myself a nice chicken salad in a restaurant close to the sports hall.

Tuesday William and me had another fashion show for Yishion, a brand were doing a show before. Luckily we didn’t have to do another fitting as the show was completely the same. Still we had to leave Guangzhou at about 10:30am to go to Dong Guang which is about 1.5 hour away even tho the show started 8pm. Well guess what we did all day, sleeping, doing funny pictures, a professional way to waste time, if you know what I mean

As as expected, same food twice a day Even for the kids…

However, I got home about 12pm and didn’t feel well, as my eye is still sore from the infection I had and organized a doctor for today.

This morning then I had one fashion show casting, and another one at 2:20 pm. After that Cherry on of my booker got to me a specialist hospital for eyes as I still have loads of pressure and it’s very sensible the last couple of days after the infection.

I can’t believe what people in China call a specialist hospital where you see laborer running through the hall with a wheelbarrow full of sand.. HELLLO?!?!? Hygiene ever heard of that, especially for eyes!

Then, well the doctor prescribed me 2 eye drops which I have to take now for a week 3-4 times daily. He also send me to wash my eyes into another room, well ok why not I said.

This nurse was pouring a whole bottle with some kind of disinfection fluid into my eye. Relax, just open your eyes and relax, as if thats so easy if someone pours a bottle of desinfection water into your eyes…

Still having a little cold as well I’m not even able to go to the gym…. Let’s see how it goes the next couple of days, I hope better as I’m not really keen to visit a Chinese horspital again

Tomorrow morning I got a catalogue shoot, 4 hrs so I gotta goto bed now and sleep.

Nite Night Guys!

Little Mood Update Guys, not only that my babe left last night and I was very sad to let her go I’m still sick since a week ago. I have a strong cold I also got some eye infection…

I was lucky I had you here babe to help me getting better. My eyes are better and my cold is getting slowly better as well. I hope its all gonna be gone by Monday when I have a big fashion show. Thanks also for Gustavo and William supplying me with Brasilian medicine.

Moreover I have to do some snapshots for my mother agent, at this stage not possible at all.

Thanks for everything Jana, this was the best 10 days in China I’ve ever had.

P.S. Gustavo if you read this, special thanks for your barging tips we save heaps!!!
(Next time when I’m feeling better I’ll let you guys know how to better bargain in China, especially Beijing Lu)

The last couple of days were the best days I’ve had so far in Guangzhou. My girl Jana who is studying in Sydney came to visit me in China. Unfortunately the first day she arrived I couldn’t be in Guangzhou as I had a fashion show in Shen Yang. So I saw her the next day late in the evening

Anyway, we had a great time so far and you will see that on the pictures we have been taking We went to 3 Parks in Guangzhou, the Huanghuagang Park, the Yuexiu Park and the Luhu Park.

I expected a lot more from those parks, still it was a very nice change from the dirty city you are walking through every day. And I had my girlfriend with me, so what more you want!

On Tuesday the 2nd we went on a River Cruise, the Pearl River Cruise. We were almost late we thought as it was a nightmare to get a taxi that night and we had to be there we were told at 7.45pm. Still we made it and in the end had plenty of time to buy us drinks, nuts and chocolate for the cruise It was fantastic as you can see in the gallery we did tons of photos! It started at 20:30 and went on for about an hour. It was a huge boat as we paid a little more and you got fruits and coffee for free. Guangzhou at night, must see!!! It was a very nice evening… saying this I’m not looking forward to let you go babe

Hey guys, it’s been quite interesting lately here. I had another Fashion show for the brand Fenglei in Shen Yang, which is about 3 hrs by plane on the top of North Korea.

I was surprised when I arrived, it was a nice town, clean, green and welcoming if you know what I mean. A total contrast to what I’m used to in Guangzhou, dirty, loud, polluted and you see it everywhere.

To be honest it’s starting to annoy me quiet a bit, everywhere you walk it smells, many times I almost felt like ….. on the street. It is disgusting. Anyway this was a nice change, we got picked up at the airport and William and me were taking to a nice hotel where we met the organizer. Guess what we were welcomed with, McDonald’s ?!? U KIDDING?

Anyway, we were asked if we wanted to have Buffet in the hotel but William, me and others decided to go to the city and have nice dinner out. We also walked around the shops and did a bit of a sightseeing trip. In the end we had amazing Korean Food Korean?!? YES on of the best food I’ve had in my life, and it wasn’t too expensive probably because we were quite close to the border.

After having dinner we wanted to see if there is some nice pubs or clubs, but well it was a Tuesday night so not much spectacular was happening.

Next morning we had to be at the reception at 7.45 am to get our Breakfast! Looking forward to a buffet we walked to where we are supposed to get our breakfast. And then the big disappointment! Sweet bread with warm Milk!!!

This now happened the second time to me, I don’t get it! HOW in the world can u give 20 guys one sweet cheap Chinese bread and a warm little milk???? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That shouldn’t happen, a big fashion company providing food not even prisoners would get? But I guess in China everything is possible.

In the morning I got a phone call from Benny my booker that I had fitting that day in another town about 1.5hr away or so. William, Benny and me got a taxi and met the organizer of the fashion show. Most of the models were Chinese, except 3 Russian girls and us. The Bus ride in the end took almost 2 hours… William and me only got a little to eat before as we didn’t have enough time and the fitting was so sudden. We left Guangzhou at about 12:30 or so.

When we arrived we went into something like a factory hall, thousands of clothes just laying around. That day we had to dress in 4 different styles, the girls had 5 outfits. It took ages… and the best thing, to my surprise I got to know that in China the fitting is unpaid. What can you do? NOTHING! You get paid only for the show!

The whole time until 10pm when the fitting was finished we got nothing to eat, not even pour manager was allowed to get some food for us. Very disappointing. We got back to Guangzhou at about 11.30pm.

Anyway, second day we got I got up at 7am, met William at 7.30 and got a taxi to our meeting place to get the bus. Prior to that we had breakfast at, don’t judge us please, McDonald’s

The day consisted of the getting make-up and hair done, sleeping on chairs, rehearsal and cheap food, no fruit plate, nothing! All we got was rice, some leafes and beef consisting of bones and fat!

All in all I met some very nice interesting people, the fashion show itself was good. Some clothes I did like as well. Some of it reminded me of G-Star, guess why

Check out my photos in the gallery!

Today after my only casting for suits, where btw the size was double than what I was usualy wearing, I went shopping with one of our agency girls, Cherry. She took me to a place called (have to think about it) It was massive…

I’ve never seen so many shopping complexes next to each other. So many people … Well you guys know that China is the best place for shopping if you are looking for fake Gucci, Prada, Versace und co

Anyway I wasn’t looking for that kind of stuff, all I wanted was a pair of new shoes. Cherry then took me to the Outlet store of Converse, All Star. I got myself white ones this time, probably not shoes to go out with as they will get dirty so easily. But more like clean shoes to go for castings etc.

Guess what I paid, 165 Yuan which equals about 22 US Dollars!!! That’s very cheap even for original stuff. Although I was told that those expensive brands are even cheaper in Hong Kong. In China original stuff like Versace is supposed to be more expensive in general than any other asian country.

Anyway, I’m not after 1000 US Dollar scarf

Conclusion, I’ll def do a big shopping before I leave China