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.

The Land Ownership System in China

It is state owned land ownership system in China. In China, you could only buy the rights to rent the land, and the land is still owned by the state. Usually, if the land is used for the residence buildings, it could be rent for 70 years. If the land is used for the commercial buildings, it could be rent for only 40 years.

Since the land is monopolized by the government, there are a lot of problems coming out. The government buys the land from the peasants very cheap, and then sells to the developer about ten more times through bidding. All the developers have to buy the land from the government. Under this condition, although the central government wants to lower the property price, it is still going up very fast. Since the land income covers about 1/3 to 1/2 in the local government finance.

During the transaction, the government usually forces the peasants or the residents to leave, and compensate them a little. Especially the peasants, they don’t have the skill to live in the city, but now they were forced to become a citizen, and they only have the money to live on about three to five years in the cities. It is naturally that there are a lot of conflicts during the moving. Recently it is much better, since the central government doesn’t allow the moving by force, but it still happens in some places.

Some dare peasants begin to save themselves. They build houses on their own land, and then sell to other people directly. Since they don’t need to pay tax and the house is not licensed, it is very cheap. And since more and more citizens in the cities could not afford the property price, they take the risk to buy the unlicensed house.

Personally I believe all the problem comes from the monopoly. Since the government is the only legal supplier of land, the property price will have to go up and up, especially when the RMB is increasing too. When will it be ended? People usually say in Beijing, the property price will not go down until the Olympic Games in 2008 and the in Shanghai, the property price will not go down until the World Expo in 2010. Who knows?

Vietnam and China

Vietnam is affected by China a lot from 2000 years ago until now. When I came here, I felt like in a southwest province of China, not like in a foreign country.
Vietnam doesn’t have a full industry system, so a lot of materials have to be imported. They import a lot from China. For example, about 80% of the building materials are imported from China.

The biggest difference of China and Vietnam is the land ownership. It is private owned in Vietnam. And it is said after years of the war, the government divided the land equally between the citizens. Each house covers a place about 5M X 10M square. Now almost all the citizens build a three story villa and open a small store on the ground floor. Wherever you go in the cities, you will find the seem-endlessly store street.

So I believe this feature brings two ways to do business in Vietnam. One way is to do wholesale, because there are so many stores, it is not difficult to find your customers at all. Second way is to build a big supermarket, and then you will have a big advantage over the small stores.

Resident Registration System in China

The resident registration is one of the points China receives the critics most frequently.

When China established the planned economy in 1950s, each resident had to be registered in one place, usually his birth place. If you wanted to move to another city, you had to be registered in the new place. But it is very difficult to change. First you had to find one company in the new city to receive you, second you had to get the old company’s permission, which was usually the most difficult point.

There were a lot of people, especially poor people moved from the original place to a new place without registration. If they were caught by the police, they would be treated like a criminal. Fine, beaten, jailed, everything was possible.

In 2003 a college student was caught in Shenzhen without registration, he argued and fought, and at last he was beaten to death. This was a big news in the year. And after that incident, the policy began to change. Now the police have no rights to jail anyone for without registration.

But the resident registration system still works, especially in the big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. If you move from someplace to Beijing without the registration, you have difficulty to find the highly paid job. Your kids will be charged extra more than other residents’ children. Even you are registered in Beijing, but you are married to a girl from another place, your wife could not be registered in Beijing, either. It is not before her 45 age until she could not be registered in Beijing. Sometimes I joked that to be registered in Beijing is more difficult to get the United Stated visa.

Of course, such system is not good for the economy and equality. But it is said that if the registration system is cancelled, everybody will rush to the big cities for the higher living standard, and it will be a disaster for the big cities. I don’t know so much about the nation level things, but I believe there is more ways to correct it and make it more human.

The outlines of China cities

Today I’d like to tell some basics of china cities.

1. Economically
Economically, the most important metropolitans are:
A. Pearl River Delta
This is the most advanced area in China. The core cities are Shenzhen, Guangzhou. And a lot of satellite cities around them: Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou.

This area is influenced by Hongkong a lot, and has advantage in electronics, communication, automobile and building materials.

B. Long River Delta
This is called the economic center of China. The core cities are Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou. The satellite cities are Suzhou, Ningbo, Zhenjiang.

Shanghai is the financial center of China, and a lot of multinational companies set Shanghai as their headquarters in China. Zejiang Provice has the largest number of private companies in China.

C. Bohai Sea Area
This is the political and cultural center of China. The core cities are Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian and Qingdao. The satellite cities are Qinhangdao, Langfang, and Tangshan.

All the major commercial banks of China set Beijing as their headquarters, and the central bank of China also is located in Beijing.

These three areas cove about 80% of the total economy of China. If you want to do business with China, they are the best and in a lot of case the only choice.

2. Seven Capitals
In the long history of China, there are seven cities which were often set up as the capital of China. All of them are rich in history and culture. They are:
1) Beijing
2) Xian
3) Kaifeng
4) Luoyang
5) Anyang
6) Nanjing
7) Hangzhou

3. Beautiful Cities
1) Hangzhou.
2) Suzhou
3) Zhangjiajie
4) Dalian
5) Qingdao
6) Chengdu
7) Lhasa

4. Cities famous for their beautiful girls
1) Dalian
With the International Costume Festival held in Dalian each year, the Dalian girls know how to dress themselves up and they are born to be high with light complexion.

2) Chongqing
The Chongqing girls are hot. They eat a lot of hot food and they are dressed hot. They are not so tall, but they are so cute.

3) Shanghai
Shanghai girls are always the most modern girls in China, both in the mind and the dress. They always know how to dress up and catch up the fashion so quick.

4) Changsha
They are called “spicy girls” in China, similar with the Chongqing girls.

Drink in China

If you have the dinner with a Chinese the first time, usually, Chinese would like to propose a drink. But don't misunderstand it; Chinese don't drink so much as you think. They usually drink with the dinner. They don't go to the bar to drink so often. And what kind do they drink? Maybe it is beyond your imagination.

ALCOHOL

The Chinese Alcohol is made of wheat, and some of them very strong, the highest contains 86% alcohol as I know. Among them, there are some very famous brands. MAOTAI is the first brand and of course the most expensive brand. Erguotou is a popular one, and very cheap. These two are good for the beginner to taste Chinese alcohol. Even you are a drinker, maybe you are not used to the Chinese alcohol. I once saw a Japanese heavy drinker drank the Chinese alcohol too fast and got drunk in 5 minutes.

WINE

Chinese are not famous for wine, if you would like to try, I'd like to tell you the top three brands: Changyu, Changcheng and Dynasty.

RICE WINE

Rice wine is only produced in China, very singular and impressive. It tastes better if warmed. Don't miss it. Here is the top

BEER

Beer is like cigarette in China. Each place has its own brand. You could try when you move to a new place in China, as what I suggested yesterday.

Now, what do you want to drink?

Do you want a cigarette?

“Do you want a cigarette?” this maybe the most popular line when two Chinese businessmen meet to speak.

Yes, so many Chinese like to smoke, but it is far far less than Russia. I noticed there are very big ash trays everywhere in Moscow public places, even airport!!

COMMUNICATION
In China, Cigarettes mean different from western world. It is not only private, as in western world, it is a kind of communication with others. When you meet a stranger, an offer of cigarette will make both of you much closer.

SO MANY BRANDS
And usually the foreigners are astonished to find so many cigarettes brands in China! There are about 660 cities in China, and there are more than 700 cigarettes brands in China! Why? This comes from the planning economy. Each place wants to develop the local economy, so each of them wants a cigarettes plant in the local place, which is very profitable. At last, more than 700 brands were made out.

BIG DIFFERNCE IN PRICES
So many brands are positioned so differently, and so the price gap is bigger than you think. It is not like the difference of Marlboro and Winston in your street corner shop. It is from $0.25 to $ 10 per pack.

FACE
Yes, I admit it, Chinese hate to lose face. Unfortunately, the cigarettes are one of their tools to show off. If you smoke cheap, you are telling others you are poor, which is an insult for a rich man. Unreasonable, but real.

However, if you are a smoker, when you go to china, you find an interesting job to do. You could try a new brand whenever you go to a different place.

Sir, Do you want a cigarette?

Driving in China

If you don’t have a Chinese driving license, you are not allowed to drive in China. Even you have a international driving license, it still doesn’t work. The only way for you is to change your driving license to the Chinese driving license. Fortunately, it is not complicated, and it is cheap.

In another word, you don’t have so much desire to drive in China, especially when you don’t read Chinese. In the big cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, the traffic is so heavy, jam is almost everywhere, you will not enjoy the speed. And in the countryside or on the highway, the signs are written in Chinese only.

Now, it is a little better for the later problem, the GPS develops so fast in China; you could get the help of GPS to navigate China. But still there is something bothering you. First the GPS generally is in Chinese only. Second, since the China develops so fast, the city outlook changes almost everyday. But the GPS maps usually update every six months.