Things are still incredibly quiet in Beijing, there is a paucity of news, and blogging remains unwarranted.

With one exception. Writing from Europe (he claims), Danny tells us that Xianzai.com has just hit its 10-year anniversary. This is certainly a milestone to point out for a variety of reasons. For me, the best reason is that, at least in part, I owe my career to Xianzai.

True story. When I first got to China and started looking for legal jobs, one of the only contacts I had in the country forwarded me the Xianzai newsletter. In the advernews was a classified ad run by Lehman, Lee & Xu. I contacted LLX to see if I could get some job leads, ended up being hired, and the rest is history.

Back in 1998, Xianzai was run by Blair Burns, and it was one of the few ways that expats could share information. It was a valuable resource back before a lot of us even had Internet access. I still fondly remember Blair coming in to LLX during the Internet bubble in 2000 and claiming that if he didn’t set up a Cayman Islands company immediately, he would never get the chance at that IPO. Those were silly times.

Under Danny’s guidance since he took over at the age of 15 (something like that), Xianzai has successfully ventured into territories that would probably surprise even Blair (I wonder if he still gets a cut of profits?), and the navigation of China’s bizarre and challenging Internet market has been a source of endless fun for Danny over the years, causing premature baldness, bouts of veganism (is that spelled right?), and rapid weight gains/losses — and these are the things disclosed to the public. With all that stress, Danny’s only recreational outlets are apparently purchases of electronic gadgets and being ripped off by shady local marketing agents (e.g. airport lounge deals). Whatever floats your boat, though.

OK, seriously, Danny is healthy, happy and having fun in Turkey (at an airport lounge). He has a lot more hair than I do and is enjoying his status as Internet entrepreneur.

Congrats to Xianzai.