The Rise of the Dragon

Today was supposed to be another important day with a meeting in Shenzhen at a very important factory.  I had confirmed a meeting with them earlier in the week to meet today.  What I failed to do was to reconfirm this morning.  So, making the assumption that everything was good to go, I took a two hour bus ride down to Longgang District in Shenzhen.  When I arrived, I called the factory to have them pick me up.  However, they told me the sample I was expecting was not ready yet and would not be ready until Tuesday.  Since there was really no reason for me to head to their factory, we arranged for a meeting on Tuesday. 

Hoping to make something of this two hour trip, I called another factory to visit with.  However, they were all the way on the side of Shenzhen.  This city is not terribly big, but the transportation system is not the best.  Road wind all over the place and are packed.  It probably would have taken me another 2 hours just to get over there.  So, I decided to take the bus back to Dongguan and do some work from the hotel.

It is frustrating that I spent 4 hours on a bus without visiting a factory, but I know I should have followed up before I left the night before.  Lesson learned.

My condolences go out to the Bachman family, who lost one member and had another member injured by an unprovoked attack in Beijing.  Unfortunately, nothing of it is talked about here in China.  I’ve watched just about every news channel and read through every online newspaper.  The only way I heard about it was reading the US news.  Whether or not China is purposely failing to report this is disappointing, but it is typical of something that would go unreported in China due to its censorship control.  It really is sad to hear something like this happen; however, it is a very rare occurrence.  Surprisingly, it happened in Beijing at a tourist spot where the security should be pretty high; at least higher than those places without Olympic events.

My first travel day of this trip was today. As I am still adjusting to the time change, I was up at 4:45am. This is a lot better than my last trip where I would get to bed at 4am. I am making an effort this time to go to bed at a normal time and get up at a reason able time. This way I can get over the jetlag quicker.

I had breakfast at the KFC next door to my hotel, since it was the only thing open, then prepared for my trip down to Dongguan.

It’s always an adventure taking Chinese subways and trains anywhere, but it’s an even greater adventure when you have luggage to carry with you. I took the subway to the Guangzhou East Railway station and then took the train to Dongguan. It was a very cheap way to travel, costing me about $9. If I was to take a taxi, it would be about 10x more.

After arriving at Dongguan, I finally bought a sim card for my phone, so I can begin communicating more effectively with the factories. I then took a taxi from the train station to my hotel. The big thing right now is the Olympics and the Opening Ceremony tonight. Like most people I spoke with, the taxi driver was going home early to watch the Opening Ceremonies.

After checking in and eating lunch, I met up with my clothing factory. They picked me up from my hotel and drove me to Humen, a suburb of Dongguan, about 30 minutes away. I toured their facility and looked at samples of their recent products. They do a very great quality work and have many clients from Australia, Europe, and the United States. What’s great about Humen is their access to cloth and fabric. Many cloth and fabric factories are located in Humen, which makes it an ideal place to produce clothing.
After our meeting, we went for an early dinner. It was to be an early night for all of us, because the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics was to begin in just a couple of hours. It’s always important to take the time to get to know your factory/supplier not only on a business level, but on a personal level as well. Meals are a very good opportunity to do this.

I got back to my hotel room at about 7:30pm, early enough to get ready for the Opening Ceremonies. The Ceremony was a very impressive display of Olympic spirit and Chinese culture mixed together. Zhang Yimou, Director of Jet Li’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers, directed the Opening Ceremonies. I loved the opening of where the drummers counted down to the beginning.

I am excited to see the Olympics. I made a vow 7 years ago when I heard that Beijing got the Olympics for 2008, I would be here for the Olympics. Although I am not here for what I originally vowed I would come for, I am honored and excited to be in China nonetheless. The excitement for the Olympics is amazing. The great national pride China has and has always had for themselves will be most prominently shown during these Olympics. I expect China to do very well.

Today was a contacting day. I spent the entire day in my hotel room calling factories to set up times to meet with them. I was hoping to get this done before I left, but it is so hard to set specific dates until you get here. This is because there are a lot of unknown factors that are just not known until you get here, such as hotel logistics, transportation, etc. My original plan was to head to Shanghai for a couple of days next week, but because of some logistical issues with factories, I will not be able to go to Shanghai any longer. I was very much looking forward to go to Shanghai, but it might be good that I don’t go with the Olympics beginning and Shanghai hosting one of the events.

I rarely stay in Guangzhou, so I decided to go exploring around my hotel location during lunch. I am staying pretty much right in the middle of the shopping district. There are a couple of malls around where I am staying, 2 KFCs and McDonald’s pretty much across the street from each other. It took me about an hour of walking around to finally find the alley with all the authentic Chinese food. It feels great to get a full meal for less than $2.

Tomorrow, it is off to Dongguan for my first of many factory visits. I’ve been to Dongguan many times and look forward to going back there and start getting real work done. It is also the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, so I will need to make sure everything gets done before 8:08:08pm when the Olympics are set to start. The atmosphere for the Olympics is exciting. Everywhere you go the Olympics is taking precedence over anything else. I am very excited to actually be in China for the beginning of the Olympics.

I left at 8:20am Mountain Time and got into China at 11:00pm (9:00am Mountain Time), so in total I was traveling for more than 24 hours including 2 layovers. This is the most unpleasant part of traveling to China; however, as soon as I make it to China I enjoy every minute of it. The flight and layovers were very uneventful. There was not much I could do while I was at the airport. I made some phone calls and did some planning for my business. I wish all airports would offer free internet access. Call me cheap, but I don’t see a point in paying money to use the internet in the airports for an hour or two. There are a few airports that have internet computers or even free wireless access. I was surprised during my layover in Japan that they still don’t have free wireless or something similar, because the Japanese are known to embrace advanced technologies and like to stay ahead of the curve. So far, the only place I have been with free wireless is the Hong Kong airport. Even the airport in Taipei has free internet machines. Time goes by so much faster and I am able to be much more productive when I have the internet.

Surprisingly, all of my flights were early today. I exchanged some money in Minneapolis thinking it would be a better deal exchanging money at an airport in the US compared to one in China; however, I was wrong. I was actually able to get a better exchange rate at the Chinese airport than the one in the US. It’s been a while since I’ve exchanged any money at the airport usually I do it at a bank, so this was a learning experience for me.

I definitely noticed a heightened security as I went through Chinese customs. In the past, if I had nothing to declare I could pretty much walk right through to the exit. However, this time we all had to wait in line to scan our luggage before proceeding out to the exit. This took about an extra 10 minutes. I walked over to the area to take a taxi and noticed there weren’t many people in line. I thought to myself that because of the Olympics they are making sure everyone stands in line in an orderly manner. However, I was soon proven wrong as a large group of Chinese came from all different directions lunging for the first taxi they could find. I’ve learned from past experiences that if you can’t beat them, then join them. Since I was supposed to be the next person in line, I grabbed my one suitcase and carryon bag and went after the first taxi that was open.

I’ve finally arrived to my hotel room, 26 hours from the time my flight left. I don’t think anyone can ever get used to the time it takes to travel to China.

I’m looking forward to begin what is to be a very eventful two weeks with factory visits and project negotiations.