The importance of contracts and compartmentalizing your supply chain cannot be overstated.  You have invested too much to build the business.  Don’t give it away because you are too lazy or too cheap to do the work to protect that investment.

Money ‘graph:

The other day, a really savvy client of ours stopped by the office. This company has been doing business in China for a long long time and it has non-disclosure/non compete/non circumvention agreements with all of its Chinese suppliers and US Buyers I mentioned the above conversation (no names or other identifiers, of course) and we talked about the benefits of the contracts his company has both in China and in the U.S. He then reminded me that this was also one of the reasons his company had set up its own trading companies in China. This company gets its product from about a dozen different Chinese factories, but the records in both China and the United States all point to the U.S. company’s own trading company as the exporter. This company has never had a problem with its customers going around it.

PassageMaker can help you secure your China supply chain.  Our “Black Box” Assembly Center is a far less expensive option than setting up your own trading company.  If you still want your own presence in China, we can help you with our Factory Formation service.  Give us a call, and when you need a lawyer in China, you could do far worse than Mr. Harris.

I’ll step up and admit I didn’t.

What’s worse, now that Import Genius is out there, finding your competition’s suppliers is as easy as using a search engine.  Anything imported into the USA is a matter of public record, including the exporter (i.e., your supplier), the type of goods and your receiving address.

Import Genius is an amazing program and I will be using it for sure, but it also highlights another advantage PassageMaker‘s “Black Box” offers our clients.  When you hire us to perform our Assembly-Inspection-Packaging service, that is really a catch-all term for any sort of contract assembly, product inspection, contract packaging, kitting, order fulfillment, pull-pack-ship, freight consolidation, private labeling or branding, etc.  We do everything from kit mobile phone accessories to assemble vacuum cleaners.

Aside from the advantages we provide to help you control your costs, ensure your quality and protect your intellectual property, we also act as a “firewall” to protect your real supply chain.  When a competitor searches for you on Import Genius now, they’ll get the name of your Chinese supplier.  Think about that for a moment.  You invested thousands upon thousands of dollars to establish that relationship, to tool your product and get the production going.  If you are like a typical “mature” PassageMaker client, before you hired us, you were paying for at least a half-dozen trips to China a year.  With business class seats, rooms at the Shangri-La, private cars, etc., that’s $20k per trip.

How confident are you that your supplier wouldn’t sell a knock-off of your product to a competitor?

If they search when you are working with PassageMaker, all they will see is our address as the exporter.  So in addition to saving you on travel expenses, we protect the investment you made in your suppliers.  Our motto is “Trust & Transparency”, and you can trust us to protect that supply chain.  We wouldn’t stay in business 5 minutes if that weren’t true.  In the PassageMaker system, you will always know who your suppliers are, who has your tooling, who has your designs, who has your money and who has your products.  The transparency part only applies to you!

I take full responsibility, as I am the only one who proofreads my blog posts.  I have dyslexia, so I always try and proofread everything 2-3 times before I send it or publish it.  After all, I get enough hounding from the clan in China, to say nothing of the Zen Dragon from down under, that I don’t need to make it any easier for them.

That said, my error sets me up for a good blog post today.  This experience underscores what I was saying in the original post – your business documents are far, far more important in China than in your home market.

Make a mistake or an error of omission on a purchase order, and you may very well be hosed.  Do the same on a Product Quality Manual (PQM), and I can guarantee trouble.

Some time ago, such an error of omission rose up and bit one of our customers rather badly.  We had followed the PQM as approved, but we had not been checking a particular dimension.  It had never been in the PQM, whether we didn’t include it when we drafted the document or whether the customer left it off the original drawing was lost in the mists of time, but the error had persisted undetected by all for nearly 4 years.  It was never a problem as long as the vendor providing that component did their job right, but we are all human and that finally didn’t happen.

Our team inspected the product to the PQM.  The error was so subtle, you would never notice it with the naked eye.  The client assumed all was well and shipped the product, which immediately were rejected in the field.  Long story short, everyone was unhappy and we all lost, but there was no warranty claim to be made against PassageMaker.  We’d followed the approved PQM.

Our policy is we will do what you tell us in the PQM, no more, no less.  It has to be this way, as the biggest problems in China are the admirable Chinese tendency to want to help too much or worse, to improvise when a problem arises.

I had a friend who was buying pillow cases in China.  All the samples came in exactly 1″ too big on every dimension.  Panicked, he called the factory and they told him they so appreciated the order (for several hundred thousand units), that they wanted to reward him by providing extra material at no cost!  After he got his heart pumping again, he contacted our friends at China Quality Focus who went on-site and got things back on track quickly.

Doing business in China is Murphy’s Law on steroids, acid and a truckload of uncut Colombian all at once.  Muse’s 1st Law is “Never Assume Anything“.  Make sure if you want it to happen (or not to) that you put it in writing.

I meant it when I wrote that we LOVE getting 17 pages of corrections back from the client.  It is far better than a cursory review and signature.

We have four (4) internal layers of proofreading for a PQM before it is sent to the client for approval.

1. The PQM is drafted by a Quality Technician, with input from the entire team, including the client.
2. It is then reviewed by the Production Engineer.
3. It is then reviewed by the Project Manager.
4. It is then reviewed by a member of senior management (most often by me).

Only then is it sent to the customer.

This is a time consuming process.  But the alternative is terrible to contemplate.  Anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time.

So make sure you proofread before you sign on the line that is dotted.

This put me in mind of the importance of making sure all your business documents say what you intend them to, ESPECIALLY when doing business in a foreign language.  One of the services PassageMaker offers our clients is help drafting the language on their purchase orders.  Many of our clients come to us after having a bad experience or two in China, and it is amazing how vague some of their purchase orders are.

The Chinese legal system is rapidly improving and a properly written purchase order is a binding contract that can be the difference between getting raked over the coals and being the one doing the raking.

I see similar issues with design databases.  Drawings are often given to us with no material specifications, no finish specs, etc.  I had a drawing once from an client that specified “aluminum”.  When I asked his engineer what type, he responded that he didn’t think it mattered.  This for a part to be subjected to high heat and load stress – you’re darned tootin’ it matters.

We have also received drawings specifying titanium fasteners.  After wasting time looking for these very hard to find fasteners, the project engineer in the USA tells us that he just cut and pasted the fastener drawing and forgot to change the material spec.  Two seconds of his time would have saved two days of our team’s time.

This kind of BS is why we have Endorsed Service Providers.  Choosing with the cheapest guy is very rarely the best deal.

Another area where we frankly NEED our clients to proofread is our Product Quality Manual (PQM), the core of our Assembly-Inspection-Packaging service.  As Mike Bellamy says, “we are generalists; we depend on the client to be the expert”.  We take the lead on drafting the PQM, and submit it to the client for approval, but once they sign off on it, that is what we are going to do, no more, no less.  It becomes our warranty and if the client forgets to tell us something, once they approve the document, that is now the official record.  We’ll happily amend the PQM for the next order, but if it wasn’t written down, not my fault.

Our system incorporates four (4) levels of approval before it is sent to the client for final approval.  From the speed at which some clients approve the document, I know they barely looked at it.  I would rather have a 17 page response as we got from one client than a signature 20 minutes later.

Doing things right takes time, but nowhere near as much time as doing things over.  If your project is valuable enough to bring to market, you have time for some proof reading.

PS – I have dyslexia, and have proof-read this damn post five times looking for typos.  I bet you all find at least one in spite of that effort.

Mike Bellamy interviewed by Fiducia Management Consultants.

This project has now transitioned to Pramod KC‘s team for production.  Pramod’s team manages the vendors (we call it Vendor Coordination / Export & Logistics) and coordinates to make sure our Assembly Center gets all components and performs Assembly-Inspection-Packaging to the customer approved Product Quality Manual.  When all is complete, our Logistics Department arranges the shipment, often shipping directly to the client’s distributors and retailers, often in customer-specific packaging, including point of sale displays and barcoding.  In short, this is not only a great product, but it is a great example of how the PassageMaker system works start to finish.

But enough about us, back to the article.  Key paragraphs:

You may think you have no choice about how much you sit. But this isn’t true. Suppose you sleep for eight hours each day, and exercise for one. That still leaves 15 hours of activities. Even if you exercise, most of the energy you burn will be burnt during these 15 hours, so weight gain is often the cumulative effect of a series of small decisions: Do you take the stairs or the elevator? Do you e-mail your colleague down the hall, or get up and go and see her? When you get home, do you potter about in the garden or sit in front of the television? Do you walk to the corner store, or drive?

Just to underscore the point that you do have a choice: a study of junior doctors doing the same job, the same week, on identical wards found that some individuals walked four times farther than others at work each day. (No one in the study was overweight; but the “long-distance” doctors were thinner than the “short-distance” doctors.)

…

But it looks as though there’s a more sinister aspect to sitting, too. Several strands of evidence suggest that there’s a “physiology of inactivity”: that when you spend long periods sitting, your body actually does things that are bad for you.

As an example, consider lipoprotein lipase. This is a molecule that plays a central role in how the body processes fats; it’s produced by many tissues, including muscles. Low levels of lipoprotein lipase are associated with a variety of health problems, including heart disease. Studies in rats show that leg muscles only produce this molecule when they are actively being flexed (for example, when the animal is standing up and ambling about). The implication is that when you sit, a crucial part of your metabolism slows down.

Nor is lipoprotein lipase the only molecule affected by muscular inactivity. Actively contracting muscles produce a whole suite of substances that have a beneficial effect on how the body uses and stores sugars and fats.

Which might explain the following result. Men who normally walk a lot (about 10,000 steps per day, as measured by a pedometer) were asked to cut back (to about 1,350 steps per day) for two weeks, by using elevators instead of stairs, driving to work instead of walking and so on. By the end of the two weeks, all of them had became worse at metabolizing sugars and fats. Their distribution of body fat had also altered — they had become fatter around the middle. Such changes are among the first steps on the road to diabetes.

…

Some people have advanced radical solutions to the sitting syndrome: replace your sit-down desk with a stand-up desk, and equip this with a slow treadmill so that you walk while you work. (Talk about pacing the office.)

Why yes, yes we have.  It feels to good to be a radical sometimes!

I have found that walking at 2.2 mph at 6 degrees of incline is just right to really get your heart rate going and still be able to type, write and talk on the phone.  So go order a TrekDesk, and if you need help bringing your product to market, give PassageMaker a call!

Dongmen shopping district

view from the pedestrian bridge - note the construction for the subway

view from the pedestrian bridge

Dongmen shopping district

a micro McD's that only sells ice cream in Dongmen

Chinese New Year decorations in Dongmen - featuring Disney knock-offs

Dongmen - Kobe, skyscrapers (that's Di Wang Da Sha from the front), faux temples and a plaster giraffe

Chinese breakdancers - only 20 years late to the party - as the proprietor of www.theshenzhenrules.com said, "the Chinese will never be able to beat Americans at cool".

yes, that's a Dunkin' Donuts in Dongmen - and no, I did not have one

the incomplete building across from Di Wang Da Sha - it has been this way for years, caught up in another corruption scandal

That evening we head out to meet Anne Kuschert of Karl Gross Logistics, aka Banana (adopted from China and raised in Germany and Hong Kong – yellow on the outside, white inside – her term), and one of our Endorsed Service Providers, Ms. Li Yan of the JunZeJun Law Firm.  Li Yan and I have been referring people to each other for a while now and she’s done an exceptional job with our clients, 8-0 on IP cases.  It was nice to finally meet her face-to-face.  We dine at the Da Yu (Big Fish) the crazy teppanyaki place with the all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink special for 150 RMB.  The place is packed to the gills for CNY celebrations.  Ultimately we are seated and have a spectacular meal.

Lamb, sushi, grilled fish, beef cooked several ways, raw kobe beef sashimi, and copious amounts of beer, sake and fruit smoothies to keep it healthy

Since we were one of the last tables to eat, the chef used our grill to make a massive batch of egg fried rice for the staff’s dinner.

that's a dozen eggs at least

you should have seen the slab of butter he threw in this thing - a pound at least - say it with me now, egg fried rice is NOT diet food

whole process took only about 90 seconds

The group breaks up after dinner, though some of us go for a few more drinks – Erdinger at McCawley’s (my favorite German beer).  Banana is with us and says I’m pouring it wrong.  That may be so, but I’m pouring it the way I like it.  Besides, my way is more fun for entertaining the wait staff.  No way to describe it, just have to show you the next time I see you.  Starts raining which sort of kills the fun sitting outside.  Head for home.

Day 33 – rained hard all day, forcing us to cancel our trip to Hong Kong and Macau.  We did nothing except sit inside all day working and watching movies.  When the rain finally started to abate, headed out to get some KFC.  Yes, I know, but sometimes you feel lazy.  We pay for it later with wicked acid indigestion.  KFC is much spicier and greasier than in the US.  Later in the evening we head out to Shekou to get rooms at the cruise ship so we can watch the Superbowl live in the morning at the sports bar downstairs.  We take our clients to dinner at Tasca, the Spanish tapas bar and have a grand time.  Early to bed.

ship hotel room at Seaworld - that's a port hole in the upper right of the "window"

Day 34 – Up early to watch the Superbowl.  I don’t care about either team, but fun nonetheless.  Our clients head out early via hydrofoil ferry to HKG, which is much quicker than crossing by land (the “business” excuse for our trip to Shekou – have to take care of those customers).  This is the first time I’ve been to Seaworld in the daylight in years, and after the rain it is a gloriously clear morning.

Seaworld in Shekou on Superbowl morning

This is the boat where Deng Xiao Ping signed the paperwork for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone

It now houses a hotel, a Western sports bar, the New Orleans nightclub and a German brewpub where we ate breakfast. Communist...right.

The water is to give the illusion it is still afloat

Little Foreigners Town

The opposite of China Town

Starbucks, KFC, McDs, 7-11

It's far from perfect though. This was all filled in (it used to be a harbor) and this area is below sea level. All the water has to be pumped out.

Merry Christmas in Shekou - in February

Because it’s Monday (China is 13 hours ahead of the east coast of the USA, so Sunday night is Monday morning), after the game we head to work.  We have to stop by B&Q again.

I was thrilled to see this in the parking lot at B&Q - tool trucks that deliver make plant life in the USA much easier and it is a good thing this in now available in PRC.

On the way home from the plant, we see a VW Santana with a big involved graphic across the back of the trunk lid.  It says “SOCCER” and has a picture of some famous footballer.  Only one problem – it’s backwards, a mirror image of what it’s supposed to be.  You see this kind of stuff all over the place here – English words on t-shirts, handbags, advertisements, etc. that are misspelled or upside down or backwards or just thrown together at random.  My wife has a t-shirt from our time in Taiwan that says “I’m Fine Muck”.  Yes you are, sweetie.

We are interviewing a Filipino process engineer to work with me at the Assembly Center.  He looks like he’ll be a good fit.  He’s got loads of plant level experience working for major global companies and has lived in Shenzhen before.  He has family in Dongguan up the road.  He tells us a harrowing story about his last time in China when he was kidnapped and robbed at knife point in broad day light.  I have heard these stories about SE Asians in China, but never about a Westerner.  I guess the gangsters assume the police will care less about the SE Asians.  Sadly, they are probably right.

Day 35 – Last day at the Assembly Center.  We hired the process engineer, Harold Roman, this morning and he’ll spend today and tomorrow with me reviewing our kaizen agenda for the next couple months.  I intend to return for the month of April, but don’t want things to go cold after CNY.

The last lunch is celebratory, the first lunch with beer since I’ve been here.  Had I been doing the factory visit two-step, every vendor would want to treat me to an alcohol-soaked luncheon.  I was not here for that, but in this case, a couple cold beers in the afternoon is an appropriate reward.  Only problem, no cold beer.  No problem, we’ve got ice.  Iced beer.  That was honestly a first for me.

The chicken was exceptional - Teresa asked me to pick a dish (I chose the little fish), but of course when they accidentally bring the mushroom dish in the foreground, my choice is the one that gets canceled. Lao wai's don't know how to order anyway.

sizzling black pepper steak - this was great - eat it off the bone with chopsticks - easier than it sounds

the chicken feet were not eaten by the ladies because they were 'too small'

It was a beautiful day, bright sunshine, 75 F, low humidity, so we walk to and from lunch, about 10 minutes each way. Landscaping on a street in an industrial part of town. The new China takes civic beauty increasingly seriously

typical traffic on a Chinese SIDEWALK

When we get back the postman is delivering the mail on his green China Post motorcycle with saddlebags.  Very cool.  We get back to work until Julien Roger of China Quality Focus calls and asks me to join him for a business dinner.  The schedule requires me to wrap things up early and head back to Liantang.  We have our closing meeting and say our goodbyes.  I’ll be back in April, but will miss these folks in the meantime.  A good team all around.

Chinese postman - note he just drives right into the building - walking is for sissies.

Our team at Buji. Wonderful folks. L-R: Mr. Tang, Teresa Chen, Josephine Ji, me (man, am I not photogenic), Candy Cheng, Marc Yue, Honey Wu, Hebe Wang, Bruce Li (yes, really) and Nancy Lan.

On the way home I finally get a not-completely-blurry photo of the “staircase street” we pass every day.  They are not good, but this is a very cool little oddity of Shenzhen.

I tried everyday to take a photo of this 'staircase street' which we passed on the way back from the Assembly Center - these are the best two - very cool

Can you imagine living on this street?

When I get back to Liantang, the driver drops me at the end of the street.  Our street is private, meaning that you have to pass through a gate and take a ticket to get in.  If you stay on the street for more than a few minutes, you have to pay to get back out.  We have a parking spot outside the wire, so this is typical.  Nearly every shop is already shut down for the Chinese New Year, a bit of a ghost town.  I come across one scene outside of a restaurant that is very cute and hugely disturbing at the same time.

This is a lot less cute when you realize that the bunny is dinner.

Julien and I head out to meet up with Renaud Anjoran of the Quality Inspection Blog at a northeastern style restaurant.  I love this style, and was wickedly disappointed by the last place I tried, so I went in hoping for a good experience.  Julien said this was his favorite place and I see why.  It was excellent across the board.

This is the best salad in the world - warm onion and cilantro with peppers.

This is by far the best fish I ate on the trip - boneless, deep fried, sweet & sour with pine nuts - what's not to like?

A light meal for 3 people - sweet potato noodles, pai huang gua (bashed cucumbers), sweet & sour fish, lamb & vegetable dumplings, some meat dish with chilies, cilantro salad, potato 'noodles' with 9 beers for a total of 178 RMB or US$26! I love this place!

After dinner, I go for my last massage of the trip.  I have a bad back, had to wear a back brace when I was a teenager and am used to regular pain and discomfort.  On this trip, I have definitely been spoiled by the affordable and effective massages.  My back feels better than it has in years.  The woman tonight is in her 40′s and her experience shows – she is an expert and despite the momentary thrashing when I wake up in the morning I feel like a million bucks.  Total cost around $25.  Love.  This.  Place.

Day 36 – Last day at the office.  Beautiful morning.  We battle the usual chaos before the CNY, mainly problems with customer payments clearing in time to release goods to get a berth on a freighter.  Customers often can’t envision the traffic at the ports during this time of year, and think that if they get the check out on the last day that that will translate to goods on the water.  To clarify, no it won’t.  If you are one of these customers reading this blog, it is nothing personal and trust me you are not the only one, but in the future, send the money early.  The earlier the better.  The Chinese have been celebrating CNY for 5,000 years.  It’s not like you weren’t warned, and trust me, there is NOTHING I can do about it.

last morning - beautiful

Our favorite local restaurant is still open and so we have our final lunch there.  All the favorites plus this that I’d not had before.

last lunch - very good sizzling beef dish - the dish was so hot it was still boiling 4-5 minutes arrived it arrived at table

We have a very productive day and then select Mao’s House for the final dinner.  How I love those chili shrimp skewers.  We have at least 4 plates between us – Mike Bellamy, Brian Garvin, Adam Supernant, and Harold Roman of PassageMaker and Julien Roger and Ludovic Larry of China Quality Focus.  Much later we head out to meet up with Dave Learn at Viva, running into Banana and other friends on the way.  How bizarre it is to have such a dual life.  And how exciting as well.  I am looking forward to being home and seeing my family, but I will miss this place when I am gone.

Home at a reasonable hour and to bed.  Early day tomorrow.

Articles, articles, articles…

• Chinese diplomat:  Ties with US deteriorated recently – no, really?
• More from Reuters
• This is just wrong – Chinese girl, 9, becomes one of world’s youngest mothers after giving birth to a baby boy
• India forms new Climate Change body
• Uh oh – Fears of sexual frustration among workers in China
• Proof there is a God
• China’s Debt Bomb – as good a reason as any for Washington to quit spending so much money
• Dazzled by Asia – a different perspective, far less rosy about China’s future, and hard to argue with
• Five Things the U.S. Can Learn from China – a rather silly article in Time magazine, which again reminds me why I no longer read Time magazine.  As Dave Learn put it, “it sounds like an article written by someone who read a book about China”.
• And this also popped up on the Google search (from the Business Insider) – TIME Magazine’s Ridiculous Five Things America Needs To Learn From China
• China PLA officers urge economic punch against U.S.
• Stay rates for foreign Ph.D.s rebound after decline

A little random tidbit from Dave, who is going on another Asian adventure for the Chinese New Year.  Airlines are just no damn fun anymore (from the terms and conditions on his plane ticket):

- Guests can no longer carry guns and/or ammunition on flights to or from Indonesia

Killjoys.

Day 27 – A client from the USA arrived today, one of a group of three we were expecting.  The other two were delayed by fun winter weather in the USA, so they will arrive tomorrow.  After a long day at work, I met the client for drinks at our preferred corporate hotel, the 999 Royal Suites.  Nice rooms for a very reasonable price.  The bar caters to foreign businessmen and they have the standard Filipino cover lounge singers.  Some have been there for years and it was catching up with old friends.  The Filipina hotel day manager, Queenie, looks great and I am glad to see her rising in her career with the 999.  I once spent 5 weeks living at the older 999 hotel across the courtyard, so I got to know the staff pretty well.

Day 28 – We have visitors today from Karl Gross, a German 3PL based in Shanghai with offices in Shenzhen.  The head of the Shenzhen office is a self-described “banana”, yellow on the outside and white on the inside.  She was adopted from China as a baby by a German family and raised in Germany and Hong Kong.  Very interesting young lady.  We have a great lunch and then they head off to tour our facilities.  Here they are with Mike heading into our medical assembly center with clean room and sterile packaging capabilities.

L-R - Mike Bellamy, founder of PM, Anne Kuschert and Martin Kollmann of Karl Gross Logistics, prepare to enter our Clean Room Assembly Center. Too funny.

Later the rest of the clients arrive and off we go to the traditional first-night-in-China Xinjiang dinner.  Great time.  The highlight was the staff practicing their traditional dances out in front of the restaurant late at night.  I’ve seen them do this before, and really don’t understand it, because none are from Xinjiang and they don’t work in local costume and don’t perform at the restaurant.  But this is one of my favorite scenes from China.  I’ve tried before to take photos and this is the first time they were any good.

Dance Practice

I have no idea if the dance has any significance.

Kind of like a square dance.

They finally realize they have an attentive audience and fall out laughing.

Day 29 – Very productive day of meetings with our clients from LimbGear and our Endorsed Service Provider, Camrett Logistics.  They have a great new family of products and I expect we will see great things from them in 2010.  At night we head out for a Northeastern style dinner, normally one of my favorite styles, at a restaurant called 东北人, dōngběirén, literally “northeastern person” or “northeasterner”.  We were told it would be awesome.  It wasn’t.  The food was a warm cup of OK, but the service was bloody atrocious.  After waiting more than 10 minutes I actually had to get up to go find a waitress and mildly berate her for leaving us sitting so long with no tea.  She was embarrassed enough to come immediately and take our drinks order, but the service stunk throughout the meal.  This is extremely rare in China, where most of the time you have almost too much service.  If you are in Shenzhen, Dong Bei Ren near King Glory Plaza (GuoMao station on the subway) is one to skip.

It's not MONS beer.

Day 30 – Another day at the Assembly Center.  I am starting to feel the end of the trip and have so much to do I eat lunch at my desk.  When I lived in Taiwan, I loved the lunch boxes (bien dang in the local dialect).  Today’s take out was not the same (bien dang are more complete rounded meals) but it reminded me a bit.  A good light and healthy lunch all the same.  Now if I can just get my TrekDesk (one of our clients!) set up in China, maybe I could actually LOSE weight on these trips.

lunch at my desk - better than 95% of American Chinese food

On the way to dinner, we saw one of the more memorable sights of this trip.  We are fast approaching the Chinese New Year, and families stock up on fresh produce to last through the long holiday (1-2 weeks).  And when I say fresh, I mean live.

This is 3 chickens and 2 geese caged on top of an SUV, with cardboard rigged up to block the wind. These birds will be kept on the guy's balcony or in his yard until required at meal time during the CNY. Sorry, but this is the best photo I could get in the moving traffic and low light.

Dinner was one of the best of the trip, which is really saying something.

personal hotpots - chicken broth seasoned with garlic, ginger, thousand year old eggs - you add green onions, cilantro, miso paste and chiles to a soy dipping sauce to taste - cook the raw ingredients yourself in the broth and dip in the sauce - lamb, beef, tofu, wood ears, golden needle mushrooms, lettuce - wonderful

RAW BEEF SASHIMI with soy + wasabi dipping sauce - this is the best thing in the world - ZOMBIELAND be damned

Everyone’s tired and a little lubricated, so early night.  More adventures tomorrow!

More interesting articles:

• Hong Kong remains world’s freest economy: report
• For this American, the idea that the US government can get Google to do anything is silly
• Impressive China economic growth numbers
• An ode to the internal combustion engine
• Now IMDB is blocked in China
• From Wired, In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits
• De-industrializing Detroit
• How to Push a Dump Truck Out the Window – the wreckage that was America’s 4th largest city
• US slaps duties on electric blankets from China
• Bacteria Rebuilt To Make Oil
• We Are So Screwed – a fascinating look at financial crises
• China protests US arms sales to Taiwan

The last two weeks have been insane.  The pollution was unbelievable up until this past weekend, as bad as I’ve seen it in over a decade.  I could taste it and feel it on my teeth.  Blowing your nose was a bit of an adventure and made me wish for black handkerchiefs.

It has also been fun as the Great Firewall is now blocking Bloomberg completely and Reuters about half the time.  Several IT guys we’ve worked with in the past have left China for Thailand because the Firewall is too big a pain in the neck.

Day 15 – Customer visits seem to to be an almost daily event.  So far this trip we’ve had them one after the other from USA, France, Australia, etc.  I was running late, so I hired one of the gypsy cabbies who hang out by our apartment complex to run me across the street to the office instead of taking 10 minutes to walk.  He proceeded to pull straight out into oncoming traffic driving the wrong way down the main road and then cutting across 4 lanes of oncoming traffic to get to our side of the road.  Such is life in China.  After 10 years here, Mike still doesn’t drive.

Lunch was nothing special, though I am constantly amazed at how fatty the meat here is.  In the USA, where nearly everyone can stand to lose a few pounds, fat is bad, horrible, terrible stuff.  Here, it is where the flavor is.  And hardly anyone is overweight.

fatty pork and bok choy with garlic

lovely beef and mushrooms

At night I head off to Futian to meet an old friend who is now a rep for PassageMaker.  He was born in Hong Kong but raised from infancy in the UK, so he speaks perfect British English.  He moved back to HK on the day of the handover in 1997.  He wanted pizza and beer, so we go to NYPD (New York Pizza Delivery), an outdoor place that serves the best American style pizza I’ve ever eaten.  Really.

The owners are a couple American Born Chinese (ABC) from California who developed a dough recipe that is mind blowing.  Crispy and soft at the same time, it kicks the pants of anything I’ve tried anywhere else in the world.  All ingredients are flown in weekly from the USA.  And the beer is dirt cheap, too.  Across from our table was a skyscraper with a gigantic TV across the top 5-6 floors.  We watched TV while we ate and chatted.  My camera sucks in low light, so I couldn’t take a photo.

Sitting outside on a nice night, eating great pizza, drinking cold beer, watching a TV 5 times the size of my house and hanging out with an old friend, all for about 20% of the cost of a similar meal in the USA, I wonder why the heck I don’t live here full-time.

NYPD extra large supreme

Futian at night - the colors constantly cascade

Day 16 – Worked all day and well into the night.  We didn’t leave the office until nearly 11 PM.  Given the hour, Mike’s wife thoughtfully arranged for dinner – a meal of grilled tofu, potatoes and lamb skewers, washed down with copious amounts of cold beer.  Oh, did I mention it was on the side walk, sitting on stools that would be reserved for a pre-school classroom in the USA and eating off a plywood folding table sized for a dwarf?  It was bloody fabulous.  It cost about $5.  I love this place.

eating meat and drinking beer on the street - yang rou chua'r & toilet paper napkins

grilled tofu - really good

our dining table

our chef

delivery bike - it's a good sign of quality if the locals will order delivery - they must be doing well, as a few days later they helped me make change to pay a cab driver who was out of small money - whole operation runs on a cell phone

Day 17 – A full day at the factory.  We are working on a big order that needs to go by the end of the month, and we are using this as the first test case of my ideas for operational improvements.

The view from our factory manager's window - Buji, an industrial suburb of Shenzhen

industrial park dormatories - maybe 2500 people live and work here

Who doesn't like Corinthian columns on their factory? I know I'd like them.

Every industrial park needs a decorative fountain!

The back part of our industrial park is still under construction - note the concrete erosion control lattice on the hillside - you see this everywhere in Asia

I joined the managers from the factory and had my first meal at the park’s cafeteria.  Food was not bad, certainly not as bad as they’d told me.

Beef & mushrooms for $1

That night we picked up some prospective clients for dinner at my favorite Xinjiang restaurant.  I’d gotten them hooked up with my old friend from Taiwan as a translator and we all had a great time.  One item of note, we saw the world’s most expensive production car outside the hotel.

a Maybach at the 999 Royal Suites

Day 18 – Mike asked me to join him for lunch on Saturday.  On the way down to meet him, I passed a ballot box – the apartment complex is having an election.

The ballot box

The banner announcing the election

We head to an Algerian coffee shop in the center of Luohu.  Both of us are in the mood for something other than Chinese food.  The place has several things that rare in China – a separate smoking area and SILENCE.  The Chinese, especially the Cantonese, are not quiet people.  Going to a typical food court on a Saturday is like enjoying lunch next to a jet engine.  You get used to it (by slowly going deaf), but it is a shock for first-timers used to the USA where typically people don’t shout in restaurants.  We had business to discuss, so it was a good choice.

lunch at an Algerian coffee house - seperate smoking area for the hookahs (yes, really)

Evidently Algerians eat their gyros with french fries - a North African Primanti

Shenzhen skyline - the bronze building (two towers of the same structure) has been tied up in a corruption scandal for years and has never been finished.

That night we head to Coco Park area for Brazilian barbecue and to later join friends at Club Viva.  I love churrascaria and this one was acceptable.  The ones in China just fail on the salad bars, which is a big part of the appeal for me in the States.  However there were two items of note:  camel meat and beer urns.

Roasted camel meat - they have camels in Brazil? Very rubbery and fatty - not something I will seek out again.

The urn of beer is one of the greatest ideas of all-time. An idea America needs to adopt. And Tiger Beer from Singapore no less - my favorite!

Day 19 – despite being Sunday, we go to the office to work most of the day.  Not much of note, but a few photos nonetheless.

An accidental photo of the apartments across from our office reflected in a puddle. These are very working class apartment blocks and are fugly. Note the slapdash hand poured concrete sidewalk.

This is what I was try to take a photo of. This flower graffitti appeared today, next to the trash bin no less.

Fruit and sugar cane for sale on the street. In order to eat sugar cane, you have to hack it to length and peel it. Our sidewalk is usually covered with foot-long strips of sugar can husk.

The day ended with another wonderful dinner by Mike’s wife and the maid.  Simply magic from such a small kitchen.

Dinner at Mike's

The chefs - Anita Tang-Bellamy and the housekeeper

Day 20 – I woke to ghastly pollution.  At first it appeared a lovely misty morning, but that soon turned into choking smog that persisted all week.  That said, it was a great and productive day at the Assembly Center.  The culinary highlight was a fabulous meal at a very upscale restaurant near the factory.  The place was part of a large apartment development with Spanish style architecture, a welcome departure from the typical Chinese apartments.

the mountains are obscured by smog

This is a temple, so I am told. It is a huge sprawling walled compound like a miniature Forbidden City. I hope to visit before I leave. Note the smog.

That's Di Wang Da Sha, the tallest building in Shenzhen through the smog.

A sign for Mission Hills golf course - supposedly a great course, but hard to imagine playing in this pollution.

they literally tear down mountains here

There is an army base across from our industrial park, complete with vintage jet fighter, tank and rocket on display.

A beautiful apartment complex, with a Spanish feel, with many good shops and restaurants.

Notice the planters in the road and the brick streets.

A sublime dish of squash and mushrooms.

Savory meat buns.

Sweet egg custard dumpling - this is hot and delicious.

Sweet pumpkin and taro soup.

Day 21 – Pollution continues and is even worse.  Back early to the Assembly Center to start working on the line.  We have a big rush order of a complex assembly, around 90 parts in the BOM, and an agonizing wiring step that takes around 8-9 minutes.  No way to automate it, it must be done by hand.

First thing is to head off to B&Q to buy some decent tools to cut down on assembly time as much as possible.  For the February order I will get electrical and air tools to speed things up and allow for more people at the wiring operation, but today it is just decent hand tools.  By upgrading the tools and teaching some Drum-Buffer-Rope practices, we complete the order 5 days ahead of schedule.

B&Q is like the European Home Depot.

Because land is so expensive, even a big box has to be multi-storied. These escalators are wide and flat to allow for carts, and they make them a sale point by lining them with bins. We picked out some containers on the way from one floor to the next.

How soon until this trend of patterned appliances and cabinets takes off in the States (the refrigerator is on the left)? My guess is no time soon.

Lunch was at a North West style restaurant.

I am sad this picture did not turn out - these are some of the best preserved vegetables I've ever eaten - vinegared and salted cucumbers and long beans.

Lamb bones - you suck the marrow out with a straw.

The soybeans in the back were particularly good.

One of the Little Sheep restaurants I mentioned previously - something creepy about it.

The Source of Cherry?!

Day 22 – Another day at the Assembly Center.  A good day with more smog.  Ho hum.  The highlight though was dinner with my old friend, my lao pengyou, Sabrina.  She was Mike’s first employee 9 years ago and we have become close friends over the years.  We always go for dumplings when I am in China.  She is a wonderful project manager, a very tough lady who doesn’t take any crap from suppliers.

My dear lao pengyou, Sabrina, who wouldn't hold still for a photo.

Roast pigeon - from lunch actually, but fun nonetheless. You don't eat the heads - they're just for show.

Dumplings with Sabrina.

Wonderful sweet & sour fish with Sabrina.

The fan in the bathroom was installed upside down. You see a lot of this kind of laziness here. I once saw the grill of a DongFeng (East Wind) truck installed upside down.

Day 23 – Another day at the factory, including lunch at the cafeteria.  This time we invited members of the production staff and they played “gross out the foreigner” with the lunch order.  Good natured fun and I am used to it.  I’ve never yet backed down.  Except for the waterbugs a few years ago, but I was already recovering from food poisoning.  Oh and did I mention the pollution *cough*?

Pollution is ghastly - compare with the picture above.

So far so good - a wonderful dish of tofu and pork - the reason most people in the West don't like tofu is because they've never had properly prepared tofu.

The fish was tasty but loaded with bones - what is so hard about boning a fish?

We start to go off the rails. Pig liver soup - with valves!

Now this was just plain vile. Pig's large intestines with sweet peppers. I ate two pieces to satisfy the hosts, but this will not be on the menu again.

ahhh...hmmm

Every cafeteria needs a puppy.

This is a beer poster in our cafeteria - a work dining hall that serves beer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why can we not have this in America?

Our industrial park's cafeteria.

Icky looking sweet pastries - I'll pass.

Basketball court in front of dormitory.

The outdoor pool tables (basketball court to the left, convenience store and cafeteria on right).

Another erosion control method is to pour concrete all over the hillside - really looks nice with the pollution patina.

Chinese construction site in the back corner of our park.

Our building.

Nice landscaping jarringly accented with fake plastic trees and shrubs in unnatural colors. They light up at night for extra class.

A plastic Japanese maple - why?

Pollution turns the leaves gray with soot and dust.

The industrial park gate.

I love the dragon turtles.

Tearing down mountains yields a lot of stone - EVERYTHING is polished stone.

We leave the plant close to 9 PM and the smog has rolled in.

We join Mike at the office and walk home for a late dinner.  This involves Mike’s preferred method of crossing the street – sprinting across 8 lanes of traffic instead of the “long way” using the pedestrian bridge.  Chinese pedestrians have no concept of jay walking.  The only thing more dangerous than the air in China is the traffic.

A late, lite meal at Mike's.

Day 24 – We head out in the morning to pick up a prospective client in Futian at the Marco Polo.  Dinner involves a trip out to Shekou for dinner at Tasca, a fantastic authentic Spanish tapas bar.  Spanish food is the only thing I like better than Asian cuisines.

Futian skyline around Coco Park

Futian skyline around Coco Park - note the cranes raising another skyscraper.

Futian skyline around Coco Park

Futian skyline around Coco Park - the handsome buildings in the foreground house the new McCawley's, a Nepalese restaurant, a Chinese-military-themed nightclub that is hugely popular with the locals. The Brazilian barbecue and Club Viva are around back.

Coco Park

TAPAS!

Paella!

After dinner we walk over to Sea World, an outdoor mall surrounding an old cruise ship.  This was the ship where Deng Xiao Ping signed the papers to create the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which was sort of the real starting gun for the reemergence of China.  They’ve since filled in the harbor, completely surrounding the ship.  The place is now a “Little Foreign Town” catering to expats.  My camera did not work with the lighting, so no pictures.  I am sure you are heartbroken.  We went to the original McCawley’s for a drink and then headed home.

Day 25 – It’s a glorious Saturday.  The pollution is gone and it is deliciously warm but not hot.   Mike’s in the mood for pizza and his wife and daughter want to go shopping.  The car drops us off in the heart of Luohu, in the shadow of the “Empire State Building” of Shenzhen, Di Wang Da Sha.  It is one of the best looking skyscrapers in the world, IMAO.

This photo does not do it justice. The building has twin spires and from this angle, you can only see the one. It is perfectly symetrical, so use you imagination.

Scroll back up for the pollution shot of this building from a distance.  If China adopts a better energy source – perhaps modern nuclear as in France and Japan – this a pretty attractive city.  The clear days that you do get remind you of how awful the pollution really is.

Papa John’s is the choice for today, and like many US chains in China, they’ve gone upscale and adapted to local tastes.  The dining area is an alcove of sorts, shaded with big comfortable chairs.  Kind of like eating pizza on you covered patio at home.  The recipe for the dough was substantially different than in the States, and while it was satisfying, it is no NYPD.  Looking out from our alcove a gleaming new Gucci store dominates.  A Mercedes festooned with wedding decorations pulls in to park.  To the left is a brand new Hyatt and to the right the Huaan Conifer Hotel, a Chinese hotel that is by far the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in Asia.  I spent 3 weeks there once and it is decadent.  Next door to the Papa John’s is the most badass fast food restaurant on the planet.

Papa John's local menu.

Gucci

Just married - the Chinese have embraced many trappings and traditions of Western weddings, including white gowns and bouquets of flowers. It is also common to have two ceremonies, one Western (white color scheme) and one traditional Chinese (red color scheme) in full costume.

The Huaan Hotel - this photo is a pretty good summary of Shenzhen.

The new Hyatt.

Chinese chain of healthy fast food restaurants featuring steamed food - and Bruce Lee. Told you it was badass.

After lunch we go to the Dongmen (“East Gate”) Road shopping area, which is a sprawling warren of narrow streets selling every consumer good under the sun.  It was a mob scene.  And lots of fun to see that many people out having a good time.  We buy some movies and the ladies get squid-on-a-stick (they didn’t ask me if I wanted any, *sniff*) and take it easy instead of going out on the town.

Dongmen shopping street

Day 26 – Another beautiful day.  I go across the border into Hong Kong with a co-worker, just into the New Territories, not the famous city center.  We are going shopping for American style dill pickles (yes, really) for Mike, mainly an excuse to get out of Shenzhen and do something different.  We cross the border at Luohu, and see something across the fence in Hong Kong I have never seen in Shenzhen – a grave yard.

Hong Kong graveyard on the hillside facing Shenzhen. Little mausoleums tucked into the hillside.

Today also saw my first trips on the Hong Kong MRT and the Shenzhen subway system.  So now I have an Octopus card for Hong Kong (which can be used to buy all sorts of things, not just riding the MRT, very cool) and a Shenzhen subway pass.  I rock.

Hong Kong MRT

A small town in the Hong Kong New Territories

First we went to a Chinese “wet market” selling an amazing array of fresh ingredients.  The smells were powerful and it is not for the faint of heart.  I thought it was awesome.

Know your butcher.

Really fresh fish.

Now THAT'S a cutting board!

Live crabs and shrimp and oysters, oh my!

Chinese sausages - these are awesome - especially the blood sausage on the left.

Vegetable vendor.

Tofu vendor.

Dried sea food vendor - that's dried squid - yummy. No, really. It's yummy.

Upstairs they had a food court.  As I mentioned above, these places are LOUD, but I feel right at home.  This dynamic, barely controlled chaos, coupled with incredible food, is what attracted me to Asia in the first place.  We have two 600 ml Skol beers and noodle soup.

Noodle soup with fish balls and crispy fried fish skin. Roasted garlic as the final addition is served in the spoon so it doesn't get soggy.

Hong Kong food court.

Hong Kong food vendor.

After lunch we try a number of Western style grocery stores looking for the pickles.  They are located in malls that are part of the MRT stops.  Very sensible.  Not sure which is the chicken or the egg, but it works well.  The grocery stores are 100 times better than when I was last here, but they are still thinly stocked compared to your average Kroger and are positively claustrophobic.  I can barely walk down the aisles without turning sideways.  After an hour or so of looking, no pickles.  We buy Cadbury’s chocolate for the office instead.  Couple things caught my eye.

Imported beer is big in China - a real sign of wealth and an acknowledgement the superiority of European brands.

You can buy whiskey and fine American wines in the grocery store!

Defeated we cross back into Shenzhen at the new Futian crossing, a far more impressive building than the old Luohu crossing.  Reminds me of an airport.  In this place the Shenzhen River is much wider.

The Shenzhen River, facing east.

The Shenzhen river, facing west.

We take the Shenzhen subway to meet Mike for dinner.  Very clean and efficient.  Instead of a poster in the car showing the map of the lines, they have an electronic display that tracks the progress of the train.  Very cool.  We head to a Japanese restaurant that has the craziest deal I’ve ever seen.  All the sushi and tepanyaki you can eat and all you can drink – juice, soda, tea, beer, wine, sake, doesn’t matter – for 150 RMB.  That’s $22.  I have no idea how they stay in business.  By my count, I ate $100 worth of food alone, not even counting the beer.  There is no restrictions – you can order anything off the menu.  The absolute highlight was kobe beef sashimi – raw slices of rice paper thin beef.  I ate at least 3 orders, each 45 RMB.  It was fantastic.  It is now my official favorite thing to eat in the whole world.  Note to the FDA – it is far easier to control the diet and health of a cow than a wild fish swimming in the ocean.  If sushi is legal in the USA, why not raw beef?

This restaurant is in the basement of one of the big malls in the area, CITIC Plaza.  It is a bit of a maze, so we went round and around looking for it, including an elevator with the follow sign:

This Elevator Circulates Time - new this year from Dongguan Elevator Factory #1, the Time Warp Elevator!!

Last item for today’s blog, the Japanese restaurant had cool bronze dragons on the table.  I had seen these before in Korean restaurants, but had forgotten about them.  I need to get some of these for my home in the USA.

Can you guess what this is?

very cool

That’s all for now…

View from the apartment window.

view facing Hong Kong New Territories

Note the mosiacs in the pool. It is amazing what you can accomplish with a massive supply of inexpensive labor.

And though it feels cold here because of the damp, it is about 62 F.  Salem, VA was in single digits in comparison.  The company apartment is decorated with Chinese art (Mike has good taste).  We even have a life sized terracotta warrior.

Rather imposing

These are iron door pulls that would have been mounted on a pair of double doors (love the screws)

A window - the screen is hinged internally to swing inward when mounted

Our apartment complex, taken Day 5 before the rain started. The pool with the mosaics is up the hill to the left.

Entrance to the apartment complex in the rain

The walk to the office takes maybe 5-6 minutes.  The rain was coming pretty hard and the wind overwhelmed the umbrella.  One thing you notice about side streets like ours is how poorly they are sloped to drain the water.  Makes for enormous puddles.

Stopped at my snack shop for dumplings and a tea egg.  I make tea eggs at home, and they are just that – eggs boiled in tea, dark soy sauce and spiced with star anise.  The flavor is very subtle – it is 90% a regular hard boiled egg, but the last 10% makes all the difference.

Breakfast (10 dumplings and 1 tea egg = 4 RMB = $0.60)

Worked the morning in the office, and then had lunch at the restaurant around the corner.  It has a few dishes that are wonderful, but is certainly not fine dining.  The highlights:

This is the best use for broccoli - it goes fast - garlic and what I think is chicken broth. A savory delight. In the background are fried pork ribs. Awesome.

This is the best use for squid - crispy golden brown and delicious!

Back to work until late in afternoon, then I head to Futian district to take an old friend from Taiwan to dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We were the only ones there, so service was exceptional, as was the food, as was the wine, AS WAS THE PRICE.  Dinner for two cost 7 times as much as dinner on the street the night before!  Luckily she is bringing some of her USA friends to PassageMaker, it was a legit business dinner, but man it is easy to get spoiled by the cheap food over here.  I figured we all know what Italian food looks like, so I’ll spare you photos of gnocchi and tiramisu.

Day 7 – A clear day, rain has stopped.  It’s knocked the smog out of the air, so a bright blue morning.

Clear blue skies

The streets around our office are narrow and crowded

Off early to our Assembly Center in Buji.  I’m working on continuous improvement initiatives there as part of our new ISO 9000:2008 certification, something we achieved just last month.  My background is in manufacturing, and since we are gearing up for what we think will be a very strong 2010, Mike asked me to come over and assist with introducing the alphabet soup of kaizen related initiatives – 5S, JIT, OJT, etc.  Meet and greet the staff, which is dominated by women at the manager level.  Only one man on the senior staff.  You are seeing more of this in China, but my impression is PassageMaker is ahead of the curve here.  On to lunch, which is fabulous as usual.

An even better use for squid - a superior version of the dish I had yesterday

The best use for duck, although I hate the way they cut through the bones. Makes eating very difficult and slightly dangerous. And yes, that's the head.

I love these little fish

Man they do vegetables well

You have to get used to your food staring at you

On the way out, we passed the fish tanks that hold the seafood fresh and alive until it’s time to cook it.  Everything in China is prepared fresh.

If I'd known they had had geoduck I would have ordered it. Never had it before.

Duck fish

Later that afternoon we headed back to the office to pick up Julien Roger of China Quality Focus, our sister company.  Mike, Julien and I flew to Shanghai for the Global Sources trade show, a trip that wasn’t scheduled for me when I came over, but I’m glad I went.  The show went well and I’ve never really been to downtown Shanghai before, just the industrial area around the old Hongqiao airport.  We flew into the new Pudong airport and I am convinced the planning went something like this – “To demonstrate the greatness of the People’s Republic of China, we will build the longest airport in the world!”.  We landed late at the last gate and walked for 10 minutes in a straight line down the terminal until we got to the baggage claim area.  This is a seriously long building.  And thoughtfully they included no people movers like the trams at the Detroit airport.  Considering the late hour and the lack of other arrivals, you’d think they could’ve found a found a gate closer to the exit.

Heading to the hotel, Ibis, a chain of affordable hotels owned by Novotel, a French company, what struck me about Pudong at night were the vast highways.  Six to eight lane interstate grade roads as compared to the cramped streets typical of most Chinese cities.  Pudong was farmland just a few years ago, and it definitely has a planned feel.

Although they fed us on the plane (a 2 hour flight with meal service – haven’t seen that in the States in decades), Mike and I were still hungry, so we found an American bar, Malone’s across the street and had a very good hamburger while listening to a GREAT Filipino cover band.  Every bar and hotel in China has a Filipino band, all playing English cover tunes, even when the clientele is Chinese.  And nearly all of them suck.  This was an astounding exception.  They were tight and the covers were quite good, including good hard rock and heavy metal.  The singer had some serious pipes.

Back at the hotel, I noticed the bathroom is a pre-fabricated assembly.  Smart idea for a chain.  It was one of the nicer bathrooms I’ve had in China.

Notice how all the parts are manufactured. I'm willing to bet Ibis just plops this into each room as a completed assembly. The big button on the way flushes the toliet, which is a European wall mounted unit.

Day 8 – After the best night’s sleep so far, up early to get to the show and set up the booth.  On the way to the convention center, I saw this:

Just bizarre

They switched us at the last minute to give us a corner booth, which meant we had to cut up the posters to make them fit.  I think the booth looked pretty good, considering.

Mike Bellamy (L) and Julien Roger (R)

I’ve been to a fair number of trade shows over the years.  Heavy truck shows are dull unless you really like trucks and truckers, car shows are fun, and motorcycle rallies are a blast.  But in every case before, I was selling a product.  If the guy’s got a Road King we have something for him, but not if he has a Dyna.  We’re on this model of Peterbilt, but not that one.  But now that I’ve done it, nothing beats selling a service.  EVERYONE doing business in China needs Quality Inspections, Product Testing, Sourcing Feasibility Studies, Vendor Coordination, Intellectual Property Protection, Logistics and Assembly Inspection & Packaging.  The industry doesn’t matter, they all needed at least one of our services.  This was a gift and clothing fair, but it is the same at every show.  It’s like we are selling beer at a NASCAR race.  We got business cards from USA, France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Israel, Nigeria, Iran, South Africa, New Zealand, etc.

Mike is a featured speaker at every Global Sources trade show (including Dubai, Hong Kong, Mumbai and South Africa this year), and he gave a two-part presentation spread over the first two days of the show.  He did a great job and it was extremely well received by the standing room only audience.  Rather than a canned sales pitch, he tells it like it is, barely mentioning PassageMaker or China Quality Focus.  The soft sell works and many attendees stopped by the booth afterward to tell us so.  They figure anyone with enough confidence to NOT shove his company down their throats must have it going on.  And they are quite right.  We do.

Mike is a featured speaker

Mike giving his presentation

Julien Roger is also a tremendous salesman and very knowledgeable.  I learned a great deal from watching his methods.  Selling China Quality Focus’s services is easier, as Quality Inspections are very straightforward compared to PassageMaker’s services, but the combined message of the two companies meshes very well.  We often have the same customers.

The convention center is still under construction and gigantic.  As with the airport, the point seems to be making you walk as far as possible to get anywhere.  Despite the impressive size, they apparently forgot about effective HVAC.  It is unseasonably cold and I packed for south China.  Day 1 of the show had no heat at all, which made it a real grind.  Day 2 was a little warmer, but still uncomfortable.  By Day 3 they’d gotten it going to the point it was now actually hot inside.  HVAC needs some work for sure.

They also have very little in the way of food.  The restaurants inside looked just plain bad, serving cold rolls and sandwiches wrapped in plastic like a vending machine.  However, there was a McDonald’s right across from our hall, W2.  It turned out to be the world’s smallest McD’s, about the size of a broom closet, with one little girl selling horrible looking “chicken sandwiches” out of coolers.  I put that in quotes, because they were actually pork.  Menu says chicken, she will say in English it is chicken, the box says chicken, but she insisted in Chinese that they were pork.  We passed and were directed to the other McD’s at W5.

W5 is an international airport runway away from where we were.  In 30 F weather, I was not interested in the walk, but there was nothing else, so walk we did.  Entering W5 was a shock as it was still under construction, freezing cold and reeked of paint fumes.  The McD’s was even colder than the rest of the building.  It was a huge McD’s, brand new and manned by an army of eager young staffers in winter parkas.   McDonald’s can’t heat their own place.  It was also completely deserted.  We were it for customers stoopid enough to walk that far in the cold for genuine simulated food.  Our “food” in hand we sat down to eat our rapidly cooling cheeseburgers (with cucumbers instead of pickles) in 25 F comfort, huffing paint.  Then the staff helpfully turned on the Backstreet Boys at headache inducing volumes to entertain us, because what lao wai doesn’t love the Backstreet Boys?  We’d shout over the music to tell them to turn it down please.  And they would, just a little.  As it was the only food around, we ate there all three days of the convention.  Our experience was exactly the same each time, including the yelling over the music to turn it down.  Note to China:  the progress over the last 30 years has been astounding, but build convention centers with decent places to eat and heaters.

Holy crap this place is big!

Holy crap this place is big!!

Holy crap this place is big!!!

This is the smallest McD's in the world, right across from our exhibit hall.

So why put the real McDonalds as far away as possible?

W5 under construction

Way to plan fellas

The interior of the McD’s was just as bizarre.

Huh?

What is it with women and fruit and vegetables?

This is a joke, right?

The rarest sign in China

With the first day of thee show successfully behind us, we head out into a bitterly cold Shanghai sunset.

Shanghai sunset - the pollution makes it prettier!

For dinner, we are off to meet friends at Shanghai Hooters.  Yes, really.  This turns out to be loads of fun.  Mike, Julien and I meet up with one of our sales reps, Dan Welygan, who worked in our Shenzhen office for about 4 years.  Also in our quintet is a classmate from the University of South Carolina now living in China.  Many, many wings and beer later, I have a new found appreciation for Hooters.  It was a bold decision to open this restaurant, as typical Chinese girls lack the requisite body type required of a Hooters waitress.  And they have to be attractive and be able to speak English.  A pretty small labor pool.  Our waitress was very good, spoke solid English and really new how to work a room.  A very bright young lady, she has a future in sales for sure.

Our waitress Elva

Hard to find the body type in China - the Chinese are blunt about weight and appearance. I am sure every one of them would describe themselves as "fat" and not be the least self-conscious about it.

Day 9 – Second day of the show went as well as the first.  Part two of Mike’s seminar was very well received and many of the attendees have stopped by the booth, several 2-3 times.  After the show, we meet our web developer, a French graphic designer living in Shanghai, at a trendy coffee shop for sandwiches.  This place was in a glittering new mall, still decorated for Christmas.  My cameras does a poor job in low light, so my apologies for the quality of the photos.

Christmas decorations in Shanghai

First of two Ferraris I saw in less than 2 minutes - notice the Christmas lights on the trees.

yep, that's a Christmas tree!

This is what irony looks like. The sign says "The site of the first national congress of the Communist Party of China". This historical marker is in front of a brand new shopping mall and a Ferrari had just driven beneath it. China is not a politically free country, but it ain't communist either.

So far no Chinese food in Shanghai.  After the meeting, off to meet another USC classmate at The Boxing Cat Brewery, the nicest brewpub I’ve ever been to.  As I was once in this business, that is quite a statement.  It was in a 100+ year old home in the old part of Shanghai, beautifully refurbished.  The brewpub was 3 stories, with a bar on the 1st and 3rd floors.  It felt exactly like a British pub, with beer selection and menu to match.  Since we had already eaten we did not order anything, which now that I know the chef was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, I heartily regret.  I have a feeling it will not be my last trip.  My, how far this country has come in just a few short years.  However, even The Boxing Cat has moments that confound.

Where the heck do you want me to put it? You really don't want to know the answer.

Day 10 – Last day of show, and the pollution is pretty bad today.  Traffic is light, and some exhibitors start packing up almost from the opening bell.  We stayed until nearly the scheduled end at 5:30 PM, though we give up when they start dismantling the booth around us at about 5:10 PM.  Global Sources has been good to us and we thought it the honorable thing to do to stick it out to the end, though honestly the show really ended around noon.  Off to Pudong airport (which is even more gigantic from the outside and has the coolest road system connecting it I’ve ever seen) to catch our flight to Shenzhen.  Our first Chinese meal of the trip is some very good Cantonese cuisine at the airport.

Smog

Always a bad sign when the gates are in triple digits

Cantonese beef noodle soup - Chinese airport food is MUCH better than USA

Shrimp dumplings, they go fast

Mike's 'set menu' meal

Day 11 – Worked all day to get caught up from the show.  Verizon’s data service here stinks, a pale comparison to my old AT&T service (of course, that is reversed in the USA, which is why I switched).  Many emails did not come through to my blackberry.  I also discovered that Verizon is charging me $2/minute to RECEIVE CALLS.  This was one of the specific questions I asked before adding the “China plan” for this trip.  I have already written about how woefully trained their salespeople are, and this takes the cake.  Since the trip began, I have been receiving calls from clients, family and friends – including a call a 3 AM from a client who had missed I was not in USA.  My team in the USA is having words with Verizon about this, but let’s just say, it was a cute phone bill.  China Mobile by comparison, charges nothing to receive an international call.  Heck, their rates to MAKE an international call are less than Verizon.  So, if you want to get in touch with me, send me an email and I’ll give you my China Mobile number.

I join Mike and Adam Supernant for dinner at a local place in Liantang.

Chinese donuts - I like the fried ones, steamed ones not so much. Sweet dishes are not for dessert, but served as part of the meal.

This is essentially braised fat - gross.

It's very common to have fire at the table.

Quite tasty dish of tofu and pork finished on the burner at our table.

After dinner I was invited to join some of our Chinese co-workers at a nightclub.  I was flattered to be invited and went along.  After several hours, I had my first run in on this trip with the dreaded Mao’s Revenge.  I am trying to tell it like it is for those of you who don’t travel overseas, and if this strikes you as TMI, it isn’t.  You need to know what you are in for.

While western style “sitters” are becoming more common, squatters still dominate.  In a sense this is good, as sitters are not as sanitary ( I mean, everyone else is sitting there too).  But when you’re in an emergency situation and you are not used to squatters, this can get dicey fast.  My advice for survival in these situations:

1. Wear sensible shoes with good rubber shoes – I prefer Blundstones.
2. Wear jeans.  Avoid khakis – not the color issue but the way the pockets are cut.  I always keep everything – wallet, keys, passport, phones – in the front pockets of my jeans.
3. This is a very uncommon position for a Westerner.  I have pretty strong calves and thighs, and have learned how to balance, but if you never done it before, try it and hold the position for 2-3 mins.  It takes some getting used to and you don’t want to find out the hard way you can’t do it.  Luckily the squatting position is more conducive to the situation at hand, and so things tend to go quickly.
4. Carrying a small packet of tissues is a good idea.  Toilet paper in a public restroom anywhere in the world is never a given.  Handkerchiefs and socks (single use of course) will do in a crisis.
5. Carry a bottle of prescription Lomotil or the generic.  I always do and there is no OTC medicine that comes close.  It WILL stop the drama.

My evening cut short, off to sleep.  Day 12 is Sunday, market day in Liantang, and Mike and I head to Mian Dian Wang, or “Noodle Snack King”, my favorite fast food chain in the world.  14 line cooks actually making the food by hand.  Total cost of the meal is about 60 RMB, or less than $9.

Noodle Snack King

Knife cut noodles

Seaweed salad, bamboo shoots and bean sprouts

Soup dumplings

Lamb dumplings

That evening, Mike threw a dinner party at his home.  It was great to see old friends and an even better meal.  Simply the best food I’ve ever eaten in China.  Mike’s wife and the maid did all the cooking.

Two women, in this kitchen...

with this equipment and about 2 hours...

made this.

Day 13 – Monday – Last night there was a little too much “medicinal wine”.  Whenever you hear that phrase, run screaming in the other direction.  After such an amazing meal, we needed something basic to calm the acid seas, so off to Subway (yes, really).  A steak and cheese later and all is right with the world.  With some lingering Mao’s, I head to the apartment to work from home.  It was a glorious day, 70 F and clear blue skies with a light breeze.

Our apartment complex

Later Mike asked me over to finish up the leftover ingredients from the dinner party – there was no left over dishes, just raw materials.  This is the modest result.

A light meal - those ladies can really cook!

Two customer visits tomorrow and time at the factory.

All for now…