In June/July 2009 Luna and myself make a round trip in China. We try to visit as many as possible customers from PiPa. Of course with a limited time schedule and such a huge country like China, it is impossible to visit all of them. But this trip is such a great succes, so it will be repeated in the future. And then we can visit another group of customers. It is amazing to see that in such a short period of time, PiPa became a househould name in China when it comes down to exclusive pigeons. Nikolaas Gyselbrecht,
Nikolaas G -
18/06/2009
Nikolaas, Luna, Marcel and Harley. Harley and Marcel are the biggest collectors of European pigeons over 5 southern provinces in China. They have spent the last 3-4 years at least over 500.000 euro for pigeons. They told us, since they got to know PiPa, they have learned that for them it is the very best channel to buy exclusive pigeons.
I arrived Hong Kong half of June, the place where PiPa's representative for China and Taiwan, Luna Lai, lives. We stayed there a few days and from there we have started our China trip. First we took the train to Guangzhou and the next stops you can see on the map shown in the picture. The train trip to Guangzhou took us 2 hours.
A picture of Discovery Bay, probably the most clean and beautiful place in Hong Kong, beautiful infrastructure, no cars, only golf cars with very limited licenses. Continuously public transport, a lot of sporting facilities, restaurants, ... To go to downtown Hong Kong, you need to take a ferry. So most people who live in Discovery Bay travel by ferry to work every day. I takes half an hour to get to the centre of Hong Kong.
We are having dinner after the long trip. On the picture you can see Luna Lai and on the right Quan Wen Yo ( named since our trip "Marcel" after Marcel Aelbrecht - because he is such a great fan of De Rauw-Sablon, Aelbrecht & Limbourg pigeons ). Marcel lives about 5 hours away from Harley but came to spent a few days to Wuzhou especially to stay with us.
This is Harley, we could never have imagined to be received so well in Wuzhou. Harley treated us like a king. In Wuzhou live about 1,6 million people and Harley owns the 2 biggest restaurants in town. One of them receives up to 4.500 people / day, the other one up to 3.000 people / day. Harley also is in other businesses (Frozen Food import from Canada). 560 people work in the restaurants. When we drove around the town, everybody almost waved to say hello, he is a very popular person in town.
Luna and Harley. Harley's first pigeon he bought on PiPa, was Super Genius, an original De Rauw-Sablon pigeon, offered by Erik Limbourg, a top performance pigeon in the Limbourg loft. It was the most beautiful pigeon he ever bought in Europe and became in a very short period a top breeder. Now Super Genius ( or named "Sablon King" by Harley ) is on his namecard even. One of the first pigeons out of Super Genius is a pigeon that won 1st price ace pigeon in a famous Beijing one loft race! Another … [more]
Harley's office, showing a pedigree from a grandchild of Laureaat Barcelona ( 1st international Barcelona 1995, won by my grandfather Remi ). He bought this pigeon years ago through another channel. Now this year a friend of him won with a descendant of this pigeon 10.000 euro and the 1st price in the Guangzhou one loft race!
Picture of Sablon King ( Super Genius ), the daughter(in Harley's hand) won 3rd place in a 35 degree C weather on June 06, 2009, this hen was only 4 months old by then. Sablon King is the 1st bird Harley bid through PIPA that was back to end of 2007, and his children perform so well. He became Harley's favourite cock!
Security system, in the breeding loft. Harley breeds about 300 young birds every year, only 30-40 for Derby Race, all the rest are for One Loft Races. This year he participates in 10 one loft races, Marcel in 7 one loft races. There are 2 one loft race seasons : spring and autumn race. Harley and Marcel prefer the autumn race because in the spring race the weather is changeable.
We were driven back by car by Harley to Guangzhou. There we took the plane to Wuhan. This is the first picture taken in Wuhan. In the airport of Wuhan Mr. Peace Li ( left ), Mr Mei, Tan Yong and Mr. Li picked us up. They visited us last year in Europe and we had a great time, now we had even a better time in Wuhan. I realised these were more than just customers, they were so good for us, that they are more friends to me than customers. They treated us so well. Thanks to Tan Yong, Peace Li, Mr Li… [more]
Tan Yong and myself. I am very proud I can say that Tan Yong is my best friend in China. He told me that I am his best friend in Europe. Next year we are going to race in the biggest Derby Race together. Tan Yong is one of the most special people I have met in my life. He is unbelievably smart, very correct, very honest, he was a perfect host, ... His only child, a 13-year old daughter will go to study in UK this year for 5 years in a kind of high school. A special school to prepare her for Oxfo… [more]
The racing loft of Tan Yong, it is like a palace. Tan Yong hired the best loft manager in China this year as a preparation for the Golden Sand Derby Race in Wuhan. The Golden Sand Derby Race is the biggest Derby Race in China. Let me shortly explain how a Derby race works. A Derby Race is actually a club race, but to enter this race, you have to buy special rings which cost e.g. 100 euro per ring. This money will be a part of the price money. Racing happens from your own loft, so no one loft rac… [more]
Trophees room, loft managers place to stay,...Something more about Wuhan. Wuhan is a city with almost 10 million people, so almost the same number like Belgium. There are 8.000 pigeon fanciers. There are 3 clubs. The 4 best pigeon friends Tan Yong, Mr. Wei, Mr. Peace Li, Mr Li are the biggest European pigeon collectors in all Wuhan.
Tan Yong in front of some of the breeding lofts. Tan Yong has about 400 European pigeons, amongs them 30 original Ludo Claessens pigeons. So he is the number 2 collector in the world of Ludo Claessens pigeons, after Dr. Guo Weicheng ( Great Wall ) who has 38 original Ludo Claessens. Number 3 in the world is Mr. Shih from Taiwan ( you will see his picture later in the report, because we will meet him in Shanghai ). Tan Yong also has many Erik Limbourg pigeons, many Verreckt-Arrien pigeons. His fi… [more]
Tan Yong and Luna. Earlier this year Tan Yong won 1,2,3,4,5 against thousands of pigeons in a club race. 4 of them were Ludo Claessens pigeons ! One of them was out of a Limbourg pigeon. Ludo Claessens became a real hype in China, just like Erik Limbourg is. For Tan Yong, his Erik Limbourg pigeons won the most money for him till now!
The pigeon Luna is holding is a grizzle, 100 % Limbourg, it won 1st price against 7000 pigeons.
Tan Yong and Nikolaas, holding Blauwe 91. Father of Kleintje 22. Blauwe 91 is one of the best breeding pigeons Ludo Claessens ever had. Since he bid so many Ludo Claessens pigeons, and he has a very extended network all over China, he has a huge demand for children of his original Ludo Claessens pigeons. He charges up to 4000 euro per one! But despite the pigeon sales, pigeons is just a hobby for him. Tan Yong is the owner of 7 diferent companies. Born in 1968 he already belongs to one of the mo… [more]
Some trophees won by Tan Yong. Tan Yong only started to race pigeons in 2001 ! He first went to Europe in 2005, afterwards he went again in 2006 and 2008.
Tan Yong does not participate in one loft races, only in club and derby races. He thinks the future in China are the Derby Races. In the Golden Sands Derby Race 3000 pigeons are entered now, the price per ring is 100 euro to participate. You also have all kind of different pool systems. You can bet per participant 10.000 euro as limit for you… [more]
Mr. Wei his pigeon loft. Mr. Wei has about 300 European pigeons. With their 4 together ( Mr. Peace Li, Mr. Tan Yong, Mr, Wei, Mr. Li ) they have about 1000 European pigeons.
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central People's Republic of China. Wuhan is divided in 3 parts : Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang. Wuhan is known as the "thoroughfare of nine provinces"; it is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through th… [more]
Mr. Shih, probably the biggest collector of European pigeons the last years in Taiwan. He bought in 2008 the 1st international Perpignan 2008, he bought Montélimar from Jules Mannaert, Queen of Belgium from Hubert Schroyens, Mr. Belgium from Johan de Belser, Diddl from Demeulemeester, 1st nat Dax Bettini from Malfait, Horsy, 1st nat Beziers Joris Blomme, 2 best pigeons Jef vd Berghe Dax a few years ago, 29 original Ludo Claessens pigeons...and so many more, children of almost all famous pigeons… [more]
The Yellow Crane Tower is a famous and historic tower, often rebuilt, that stands on Sheshan, at the bank of Yangtze River in the Wuchang District, of the city of Wuhan. Tourists can obtain a fine view of the Yangtze River from the top of the tower. Yellow Crane Tower is considered one of the Four Great Towers of China. In its modern version it has the appearance of an ancient tower but is built of modern materials and includes an elevator. Displays are presented at each level. To the east on th… [more]
We arrived in Shanghai. On the picture you can see one of our best customers in Taiwan, Mr. Shih. Mr. Shih has an office in Shanghai. He is exclusive importer for Ricoh in China and Taiwan. He is a very very very gentle and nice person. He knows Luna's brother and Luna and Mr. Shih have a very close relationship. They are like brother and sister. So far Mr. Shih always preferred to stay on the background, it is the first time we actually can take a picture to publish online. He is the kind of pe… [more]
A group picture, from left to right : Mr. Li Bin ( he imported as one of the first chinese European pigeons in the half of the nineties ), Red Eagle ( he bought on PiPa many expensive pigeons, he is very young, but already a very succesful businessman ), a chinese translator and Mr. Teerapol, Luna, Nikolaas and Mr. Shih.
Red Eagle bid a.o. Amorina from Lucking ( daughter Kleine Dirk x Amore ), 1st NPO Winner Eijerkamp in Jewels of the Sky, Son Charley and 4 or 5 other Sangers pigeons in the t… [more]
We took the place from Wuhan to Nanjing. In Nanjing the driver of Mr. Pei picked us up to go to Maanshan, the city where Mr. Pei lives. Mr. Pei is the one on the right in the picture. In the middle you can see Mr. Zheng Chun Yi. They were classmates in primary school, secondary school and high school. Now Mr. Zheng is the right hand of Mr. Pei.
Mr. Pei liked pigeons when he was young already. But he really started only 1 year ago to collect and race pigeons. 2009 will be the first year for him to participate in one loft races with pigeons bred by himself. Last year he already participated with pigeons he bought.
In Maanshan there are about 200 pigeon fanciers. There are no derby races, only club races, but Mr. Pei only participates in one loft races.
Mr. Pei bought Supervedette and Blue 92, the super couple of Ludo Claessens for over 80.000 euro. Since he started to collect pigeons for one year he already bought for almost 300,000 euro of pigeons ( about 60 european pigeons ).Mr. Pei is introduced to us by Mr. Lin of Brussels. So we go through Mr. Lin whenever pigeons are sold to Mr. Pei, as Mr. Lin is a strong partner of PiPa in China.
On the picture : Mr. Pei and Luna holding the first youngsters from this super couple. The couple stayed … [more]
A prototype of one of Mr. Pei's projects. Mr. Pei is in project development. This project has 1970 different units. Total sales price is about 85 mio euro. It is in Maanshan. Everything is invested by Mr. Pei, land, appartments. He only sells the units when everything is finished, because sales price can be higher.
Luna, Nikolaas, Ma Ping and Zhou Jun in Beijing. Ma Ping is a "One Loft Race Maniac". He will send 130 pigeons to the BOB One Loft Race in Beijing. About 4500 pigeons will enter this One Loft Race. In Ma Ping his opinion one of the best one loft races. The cost of entering will be for him 100.000 euro.
Ma Ping is a big fan of Vervoort pigeons. He also bid 2 Ludo Claessens pigeons in the total auction, one is a full brother of Maxx, another one is a white pigeon. He is a big fan of Irmer pigeons… [more]
A group picture in the office of Liu Wei Lin. From left to right : Mr. Chu, Mr. Zheng Zhong Liang ( marathon champion - in 2006 he won the 1st price against over 18.000 pigeons on a 1000 km race, 2 weeks before the same pigeon won the 36th price against 18.658 pigeons on 800 km), Mr. Yu Hong (chief editor of the National Racing Pigeon Magazine - later more about this), Nikolaas, Luna, son of Mr. Liu Wei Lin, Mrs. Lin and Mr. Liu Wei Lin.
Mr. Liu Wei Lin is holding the pigeon that won the Millio… [more]
A group picture the same day in the restaurant. 4 new faces here, from left to right : Mr. Chen, Mr. Yang, Mr. Shih ( collector of Verkerk pigeons and pigeon master of K.S. Wong) and next to Luna : K.S. Wong, a young Hong Kongnese engineer, who lives and works in Shanghai. He is one of my closest friends in China. He is so motivated to race well on the long distance. Pigeons is his biggest passion! He started to bid on PiPa in 2004 already and in the meanwhile collected around 50 European pigeon… [more]
Today is a very special day. Thanks to my good friend Teerapol Teechavinian from Thailand we had the honour to visit CP Loft. The founder of CP Loft is Dhanin Chearavanont. Now his son Narong ( Alex ) is taking care of the Shanghai pigeon loft. CP loft was over many years the number 1 loft in China. Mr. Dhanin Chearavont is most likely the richest pigeon fancier on earth and is listed almost every year in the TOP 500 richest people in the world by Forbes.
Forbes: "Dhaning Chearavanont ( from Thailand ) is chief executive and chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group, one of world's largest producers of animal feed and livestock with operations throughout Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey; recently invested in Russia. He and his other 3 brothers, Jaran, Montri and Sumet, each own 13% of group. Dhanin also invests extensively in China's agriculture, food, retailing and property development."
We had the honour to meet Narong ( Alex ), the son of Dhanin for a whole day. The day before he arranged a visit for the Thai prime minister with the Chinese prime minister and the evening on the day we visited him, he would meet his father, who just arrived Shanghai. We felt very important that Alex could spend so much time for us.
Of course the main focus of our visit is for pigeons, but still, when you meet such a succesful people, it is always nice to talk about business, and the way they … [more]
Mr. Sombat (53 years old) and also his wife on the picture. Mr. Sombat lived for many years in Belgium. He moved to Belgium in 1979, he got married in Belgium in 1980. In 1981 he started to race pigeons in Belgium in Anderlues. In 1986 he started in Belgium to race in a partnership with CP Loft in Waterloo.
Mr. Sombat and his wife are from Thailand.
Mr. Dhanin races pigeons for over 40 years. The family has a loft in Thailand, Taiwan (father + cousin of alex are managing this loft) and 2 lofts in China ( Shanghai and Beijing ). And now with the new role for being chairman of Thailand One Loft Race which is so called “Thailand Grand Pigeon Race 2009”, in which you can visit at www.thailandoneloftrace.com. In Shanghai it is Alex who is the general manager of the pigeons for the Chearavanont family. Below him Mr. Sombat and his wife are ta… [more]
Inside the breeding loft. CP Loft was for many years number 1 in China. They have their own strain, built up during many years. I handled a lot of their pigeons and I have to say ; the quality I have seen here equals the quality of pigeons in Europe.
Because derby races got more popular, CP Loft also wants to prove themselves on the derby races, so more on the middle distance races. They are not in a hurry, but they want to do it good. When they do something, they immediately want to reach the… [more]
Inside the breeding loft.
An important pigeon in their loft : "NOT NORMAL". This pigeon won :
The 1st National Zhenzhou 830km. 60,144b in 2008.(all of China)
The 1st National Zhenzhou 830km.12,864b. in 2008.(Shanghai Prov.)
She is the 6th generation of the the 36times winner (the 92) and the amasing things she is the night flyer because she came home in the night ; spent more 14 hour for flying non-stop.
This is the racing loft. The familly of Alex imported pigeons from Europe in the early seventies already, mainly Catrysse and Vanbruaene.
In totally they also imported over 100 original Janssen pigeons, 50 Grondelaers, many Hofkens, Carteus, Marc Roossens, Vanbruaene, Catrysse, Erik Limbourg, Santens M&G, Casaert, Houben, Voets, Sablon, Verbruggen, etc...
On the right one of the most famous breeders in Asia, owned by CP Loft, born in 1992 and still alive, still produced a youngster last year. This pigeon is called the "36 times winner". He did not race himself, but his grandfather won 36 1st prizes, and was bought in The Netherlands. The "36 times winner" is like the Wittenbuik or Kleine Dirk or Figo for China, Taiwan and Thailand. An icon in the pigeon sport!
CP Loft crosses their own long time bloodline with new blood sometimes, but they are v… [more]
Teerapol and Nikolaas. Teerapol is a member of the Techavichian family, from Thailand. He and his brothers are taking care of Print City company which is a leading printing company in Thailand and also Ocean Group who managing over 300 magazines in Thailand. Mr. Teerapol is responsible as CEO. Recently Techavichian Brothers cooperated with PIPA TEAM to successfully publish the pigeon event book “World Star Collection”, during Olympiad 2009 in Dortmund.
A strong partnership, a strong bridge between China and Europe with Nikolaas and Zhou Jun and on the background, supervising this all : Luna Lai !!
Later this year, Zhou Jun and PiPa will start to organise interantional online auctions in China, European lofts will offer pigeons that are still in Europe to be auctioned online on his Chinese auction site. Only after the pigeons are sold and paid, they will be transported, in this way stock can be hold very limited.
Today, Saturday 27th of June, we visited the office of the most spread pigeon magazine in China : the China Racing Pigeon Journal, owned by the Chinese Racing Pigeon Association but they operate independently. They have an official license from the government and they sell 15.000 copies all over China, but the estimation is that about 100,000 people in China read the magazine.
About 20 people are full time working for the magazine. They deliver very high standard articles, and everything advert… [more]
The China Racing Pigeon Journal invited PiPa for a meeting. They are highly interested to coorporate exclusively with PiPa to bring European news in their magazine, and we discussed the coorporation possibilities. Both parties are highly interested and it can be a big step for both parties. Because as well PiPa as well CRPJ have still big potential to grow.
An official announcement of coorporation will be made in as well CRPJ and as on PiPa later on.
The magazine started in 1985, the distribution is by subscription ( by mail ) and by pigeon shops. From left to right : Nikolaas, Luna, Wan Qing Chu, Yu Hong and in the shirt with the red strips Mr. Xu Zhen Ming ( executive director internal affairs ). The main income of the magazine is advertisements. The cost of one page is about 2500 RMB and to advertise on the frontpage or backpage the price is 16.000 RMB. The plan is also to organise public auctions in the future with PiPa as partner.
On this picture you can see from left to right : myself, Mr. Xiu Hui Zhung. He has a collection of about 700-800 European pigeons, lives in Shanghai where he runs a restaurant chain. He invested over the years over 1 million euro in pigeons at least, but since he started to buy from PiPa, he only buys through us anymore, because the quality of pigeons on PiPa, he cant compare with any pigeons he bought anywhere...So he even told us the only pigeons in his breeding loft now are the ones he bough… [more]
In Zhou Jun his office. Nikolaas holding the belgian flag and Zhou Jun holding the chinese flag. Zhou Jun is PiPa's biggest buyer in quantity of pigeons in China. He is full time working in pigeon business and owns the most well known online auction site in China. He has a customer database from about 1000 different Chinese pigeon fanciers. With this number he is probably the number 1 in China.
Zhou Jun is only 31 years old, he is extremly smart and has a very smart clear view on the pigeon bus… [more]
Mr. Liu, the owner / big boss of Xin Yue Group. Their company was founded in 1992 and they own about everything that has wheels in Beijing - they are the leading bus company, they are one of the leading taxi companies in Beijing ( 8000 taxi's - all the taxi's in red and yellow in Beijing are owned by them ), they are one of the leaders in renting out luxury cars. They own restaurants, hotels ( Ritz-Carlton), etc...Their capital is 5 billion RMB !!! ( over 500 million EURO !! ) and in this way t… [more]
Mr. Liu on the right and his brother ( general manager of the group ) on the left. They both like pigeons very much, since their childhood. Only in 2005 they started to keep pigeons again. In the total auction of Ludo Claessens, they have bought 6 pigeons, amongst them : Blauw 66 and the nestbrother, Marianja, full sister Yeti, Super White and Smart. They love the quality of pigeons offered by PiPa and they are happy they find this channel to buy the exclusive pigeons.
Many famous hotels around Macau held cricket fights where bets up to thousands of patacas would be waged on a single fight. Prized crickets became famous and actual funeral services would be held for them.
Beijing is also very well known for cricket fighting. Crickets are born in August and only live for 3 months. They are caught in the wild, are bred, but people still believe quality of the ones to be caught in the wild are the best ones. They are caught as babies and then it is up to the mana… [more]
In Beijing, the Association for Cricket Fighting still organizes cricket fighting events and championships. Though it went on year round, the height of cricket fighting was between the summer solstice and autumn equinox. Banners and flags would be given out to the owners of cricket champions.
Crickets had pedigrees and would be carefully bred by knowledgeable keepers. Keepers kept their crickets in fighting shape with a carefully controlled diet. Ground worms, fish and water chestnuts was a p… [more]
We arrived Shenzhen today, we were picked up by the driver of the legendary Dr. Guo Weicheng alias "Great Wall". In the recent years he became the biggest pigeon collector of exclusive pigeons in China. The first pigeon he bought on PiPa was a direct son of Old Supercrack in December 2005. In the meanwhile he collected 42 original Ludo Claessens pigeons and in this way he is the number 1 collector of Ludo pigeons in China. He will invite Ludo to China to do the mating of his Ludo pigeons and to … [more]
Great Wall is co-founder of Sihuan pharmaceuticals www.sihuanpharm.com. In their domain they are the number 1 pharmaceutical company in China. In the Forbes list of all Chinese pharmaceutical companies they are chosen as number 1 company with the greatest potential for the future. Every year their profit and revenues increase a lot. The company is listed in the Singapore stockmarket. It is a very healthy company and for investors amongst you, a stock worth to invest. It is 0.68 SPD (Singapore Do… [more]
Dr. Guo told me I should sit in his director's chair. I felt very honoured. I told him, his company is doing great, because I follow the updates on his site, but he also told us that our company PiPa is doing great, that we are by far the number 1 pigeon and auction site in the world. He is very interested to invest in our company and become shareholder.
Great Wall and Nikolaas. Great Wall is building a huge beautiful new loft in Beijing. It will be ready end of the year. His collections has probably almost 1000 european pigeons. But not just european pigeons, only champion pigeons, national winners, national ace pigeons, NPO winners, 42 original Ludo Claessens (amongst them Jonge Supercrack & Vedetje) , maybe almost 100 original Koopmans, over 100 original Bosua's ( in the meanwhile he gave these away or sold them ), he also bought a lot of one… [more]
Great Wall holding a bottle of wine, named Great Wall! Everywhere we went in China, every fancier knows Great Wall, they all have great respect for him. He does not only have the biggest collection of European pigeons, he also has a great knowledge of handling pigeons and chosing the best amongst the best. Above all, he is a great personality, a very very nice person. He did everything to let us feel as comfortable as possible and already invited us in the end of the year for the opening of his … [more]
Every nice story has an ending. 2nd of July in the late evening, I took the plane back to Europe, from Hong Kong airport. Thanks Luna for the great time together, thanks for taking care of me!!! And let's remember the words of Great Wall said : "PiPa is such a great team because you and we are such a strong partners"...
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