What do you want for a gift?

Hi, Everyone,

I'm confused by a question, I hope you will help me out.

As a foreinger to China, what do you want for a gift?

I've been facing this problem for long time, whenever I departed my foreign friends, I wanted to give them a reeeeeeeeeeally impressive gift. But I almost never succeeded in it. So, What is your suggestion?

Doing Business with China

It is a popular topic, it is a headache topic.

As a Chinese, I've heard a lot of story about a foreigner scammed by the Chinese. Here is some expamle for the biginners doing business with China.

Somebody invites you to fly to their company to sign a big contract, they don't argue so much about the price. The deal is too good to be real. Then they will tell you, if you want to finish the contract, you have to bribe the manager, which will cost you a lot, maybe $500. Yeah, compared with the contract amount, the bribery is nothing. But after you give them the money, they disappear. You will never find them again.

In fact, their names are fake, their office room are rented, and every other things are fake.

If you go to the police, you know, it is only $500, they are reluctant to take the trouble to find the liars. And please remember, there are more than 1.3 billion people in China, how could you find them?

So, if you are freshman dealing with Chinese, it is almost the best choice for you to choose a reliable Chinese Partner at the beginning.

Beijing Apartments for Olympics

Whoever wants to come to Beijing for the Olympics Games, you could check the following website to find the apartment to rent during the Olympics Games. If you need any help, you could write to me: attnlxf@gmail.com

The website: www.sublet.cn

By the way, I’d like to say something, this type of rent apartment although is normal in overseas, but is new in China.

Exhibitions in China

From 1990s, the exhibition grows very fast in China. A lot of exhibitions were held since then. And then there are some problems.

1. So many exhibitions are becoming a burden for the manufacturers. One exhibition will cost at least 10 thousand US dollars, and it will need a lot of people to take care.
2. So many exhibitions at the same time is becoming a dilemma for the buyers. Especially the new buyers into China, two same kinds of exhibitions at the same time but different places, even the buyers want to visit it, it is becoming impossible. If they are at different time, it will become exhausting.
3. The small companies could not afford the exhibitions, but the exhibitors are usually state-owned companies and big companies, which means expensive products. But in fact, the most competitive companies in China usually are small ones.

Apple and its followers in China

Apple topples market estimates. So does its followers in China.

In China, MP3 industry has always been in a mess. Since the launch of first iPod, MP3 became popular in China, too. Hundreds of factories started to produce MP3. After all these years, iPod is becoming more and more popular, but the China MP3 industry is still full of small factories, no big brand. Among them, now, there are two manufacturers are doing good jobs. They are Meizu and Oppo.

Especially Meizu, follows Apple very close. At the beginning, Meizu copied iPod appearance, at the same time, only 1/3 or half of the price of iPod. But now, Meizu is still following Apple, though, is doing a better and better job. The quality is better, the launch time is shorter, and now they began to add some more human oriented functions, which is better than iPod! At the same time, the price is still half of the price of Apple.

When I found there is almost only Apple iPod as the MP3 player in US, I was astonished. It is unbelievable. In the biggest market, there is only one brand in the market. Yes, iPod is good, but I like to have more choices. In China, there are dozens of brands in the market, with different prices and choices!

I hope the followers in China will sometime equal Apple.

Timber Industry

In China, the timber industry is one of the few industries in which the state owned companies are not the main players. Almost all of the players are private companies. And none of them are big players.

This is a good chance for anyone who wants to enter this market.

Now the biggest timber import port in China is Zhangjiagang, which is near to Shanghai, and 100 kilometers around Zhangjiaguang, there are hundreds of timber companies. But the most advanced furniture factories are located in Peal Delta, which began to develop ten years earlier than those in Yangtzi River Delta.

Baidu goes for C2C

Baidu announces to do the C2C business. Since Alibaba has launched Taobao for C2C and defeated Ebay China. Now Taobao is the biggest C2C website in China.

The second and third C2C website is Eachnet, which was Ebay China, and Paipai, which is owned by Tencent. Now, Baidu comes in.

Baidu is the first in search engine in China, but I doubt on its power in electrical business.