¿¿Obsesión?? Algunos dirían que sí

Todo extranjero que pase un tiempo relativamente largo en China, se dará cuenta de la importancia que tienen los “números de la suerte” en China.

No es ninguna coincidencia que los próximos juegos olímpicos en Beijing, comiencen el 8 de agosto del 2008 en otras palabras el 08/08/08.

En China, el número 8 (”ba” en mandarín) es de buena suerte. Su pronunciación es muy parecida a la de 法 (fa) que significa fortuna o posperidad. Gente paga increíbles sumas de dinero por tener el dígito 8 en el número de teléfono de su negocio, o en las placas de su auto. En el 2006, una empresa de motocicletas, pagó $ 32,000 USD por una placa con los dígitos 6 y 8. El 8/8/08 se espera habra un número récord de bodas en China.

Otra razón por la que el número 8 es tan querido y considerado número de la suerte, es por su perfecta simetría. Se puede divir en dos partes y ya sea horizontal o verticalmente, ambas partes reflejan exactamente la misma figura, alcanzando un balance perfecto.
En la Astrología China, tener el balance perfecto es considerado el estado ideal del universo.

SLC

One of my favorite dishes in China is pidan. It is a tasty fermented duck’s egg with a very particular flavor. It is dry and salty, something like an old avocado
Although it is not that appealing for the human eye, when you look at it, you can’t help but feel curiosity about what is that black egg in front of you, and most likely you’ll end up trying it.

Here is a quote with a bit of history and more descriptive facts about this Chinese delicacy:

“In earlier times visitors demonstrated their respect, awe and sometimes fear of Imperial China by bringing gifts for the emperor, members of the Imperial Court, and other high personages they expected or wanted to meet.

Abiding by a very strict formal etiquette in all meetings with members of the Imperial Court and ministries was also an essential requirement for foreign visitors, with the most notorious of these requirements for Imperial audiences being the kowtow, which required that individuals get down on their knees and touch the floor or ground with their foreheads.

When Europeans began visiting China and were confronted with the kowtow it was a shock to both their dignity and feelings of superiority. Some were so incensed that they were expected to bow down to a “heathen emperor” that they talked of showing the Chinese what’s what with the force of arms.

The Chinese no longer expect visitors to lower themselves to the floor, but they still expect that they demonstrate both goodwill and friendship toward China in a variety of other ways.

One of the most interesting tests of both appreciation for Chinese culture and friendship for China (the latter meaning that one is willing to go well beyond the half-way point to prove friendship), is weather or not one can eat a pidan.

A pidan is a so-called 1,000 year-old egg. Of course, a pidan in not one thousand years old, although it looks like, smells like, and tastes like it could be.
Pidan are “cultured” by coating with them with a layer of lime and clay for six to ten weeks. The lime soaks through the eggshell, turning the egg white to a bluish brown, and the yolk to a dark green.

Not being able to stomach a pidan does not mean you cannot develop a satisfactory relationship with Chinese or do business with them. But downing a mucky “1,000-year-old” egg with gusto will certainly raise your stock in everyone’s eyes.

Actually, there are many other things on a typical Chinese menu that are more challenging than pidan, things whose names alone are enough to discourage most newcomers to Chinese cuisine.
Declining such delicacies should be done with diplomacy and self-deprecating humor to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings.”

Lafayette De Mente, Boy©, “The Chinese Have a Word for It”, Passport Books, 2000.

Photographs from k-shoku.com

Aproximadamente hace 7 meses recibimos este espejo de nuestro socio en Monterrey Mexdollar International.

Un par de semanas después, manufacturamos este:

Cumpliendo las expectativas de Mexdollar International, mejoramos la calidad a un mejor precio.

El día de hoy tenemos 2 fábricas en la provincia de Zhejiang, trabajando a su máxima capacidad produciendo espejos para todo el 2008.

Así­ como el espejo de Mexdollar International, prácticamente cualquier producto puede ser manufacturado en China, disminuyendo el costo por la mano de obra barata en China. Sólo hay que conocer la mejor región donde manufacturar y hacer la diligencia debida.
¡En Dragon-Exports nos encargamos de esto!!

Y no sólo con espejos, sino que a través de Mexdollar International y Dragon-Exports, podemos encontrar el producto que usted busque.desde un alfiler hasta maquinaria! Puede estar seguro que le vamos a ofrecer la mejor búsqueda para cualquier producto que esté buscando.

Creemos que lo mas importante es crear valor para nuestros clientes y socios, esta es nuestra meta en Dragon-Exports: dar valor a su negocio.

Prueba de esto es la sociedad que hemos formado con Mexdollar International en Monterrey, Mexico. Nos da gusto decir que tenemos mas de un año de trabajar juntos, y hemos formado un equipo.

¡Queremos motivar a mas empresas que pasen su negocio al siguiente nivel, manufacturando y localizando productos en China y Asia! Con Dragon-Exports tienen un socio confiable en China, que hara crecer su negocio de eso estamos seguros!

Esperamos tener noticias suyas pronto!!

Atte.

Sergio de Leon

The holiday season is quickly approaching, which means people are buying things - lots of things. And while it’s too late for this year’s season, next year’s Christmas purchasing period is wide open to investment. If you have an idea about importing a certain product, or desire to import goods to your country from China, we can help you at every step of the way. Be it industrial goods, toys, make-up…anything you might need, we can find and guarantee quality and speed of delivery for you.

If you’ve got an idea but no solid plans, contact us right away - we can give you concrete advice and information about the current state of the market and the conceivability of your idea. No strings attached, and no round-about discussions; we’ll tell you straightly what the real value of an idea is, because we value and understand that honesty means repeat business. We’re partners and friends working together.

So consider what 12 months from now might be like; will stores be stocking your merchandise?

ChrisP

“There is an old saying in China that you cannot clap with a single hand, a reference to the fact that getting things done depends more on a web of connections than any other factor.
The importance of connections in China derives from a historical lack of rule by law, impartial judgments and behavior based on universal principles.

In the Confucian concept of the world, virtuous rulers (who were also presumed to be wise and benevolent), including regional and local magistrates did not need to conduct themselves according to precise, immutable laws. Instead, they were expected to make the right decisions based on their own standards of morality and ethics.
But this system led to corruption becoming institutionalized in China, creating a society in which the only thing an individual could depend on was personal connections.

There were, and still are, two kinds of connections in China- direct connections, meaning members of one’s own extended family and other relatives, former classmates, ex-teachers, co-workers and others one has gotten to know personally: and indirect or “associate” connections, referring to people whom your direct contacts now.
Using indirect or associate connections is known as la guanxi 拉关系 or pulling (one’s) connections.
Both direct and indirect connections work in China because the custom has been ritualized and sanctified as the right thing, the moral thing, to do. Anyone who does not respond as expected, loses face, is regarded as immoral or uncivilized, and is no longer trusted or respected.

The effective use of la guanxi is a subtle and sometimes dangerous exercise. It requires that your direct contact have current and precise information about his or her relationship with the person that you want to meet or need something from.
If the relationship is no strong enough-if the social debt owed by the indirect contact to the direct contact is not sufficiently large to warrant a favorable response-the effort may result in some irritation or anger, and fail.

Asking a direct connection to use his or her contacts on your behalf naturally puts that person on the spot. If you misuse or abuse the connection, it could destroy the relationship between the two connections.

Because of the personalized nature of most social and economic relationship in China, making and maintaining connections is an overriding necessity that is pursued with considerable intensity, significantly influencing the behavior of people, including inducing them to lie and to be excessive in their praise of others.”

Lafayette De Mente, Boy©, “The Chinese Have a Word for It”, Passport Books, 2000.

It all started with a directive from Deng Xiaoping in the early 80s: China must open its doors to the world. And from that time onwards, especially in the last five to ten years, the world has been pushing and shoving to get in that door.

China’s economy is growing extremely fast, and while some point to the negative aspects of this growth, it is worth noting the enormous progress that has been made in such areas as living conditions, education, and modernization in general. Literally hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty in a single generation. And if that’s not impressive enough, think of this: within the next twenty years, China’s economy is set to become the largest in the world.

With such enormous growth potential still waiting for someone to “walk through the door”, it’s easy to see why so many people are choosing China as a business partner. Its products are cheap and reliable (Dragon-Exports makes sure they are; we have people at our suppliers’ factories personally inspecting and guiding production), and they are of course produced on time.

China’s capacity for growth has yet to even see the beginnings of a peak; growth in the Middle Kingdom isn’t expected to slow for the foreseeable future, and investment and opportunities are to be had in every province and city.

In the next few weeks Dragon-Exports will be revamping its website; if you have any suggestions or inquiries, we’re always happy to help.

ChrisP.

We have just faced a huge challenge with one of our regular orders. We need to make sure that 100% of the goods are high quality and up to the standards we asked for. Our customer is an old successful company, and their products have high demand on the market and they offer top quality products in the American Continent.

So how could we make sure they would receive the products with the expected quality? If there is a mistake during production, it should be solved immediately and during production. Even with a final inspection, the goods are already finished, and in most cases the buyer can’t wait any longer for the factory to correct those mistakes replacing poor quality goods will cause (1) delay on delivery,(2) double work for the factory, and (3) both sides would be angry without willing to do business again

What did we do? We assigned a Quality Inspector to have an eye on the factory EVERY DAY during production, rejecting the goods our customer wouldn’t accept.
And what did I find the same day we assigned our inspector? That Wal-Mart is doing the same, sending their people to have an eye on the factory, after Mattel’s big scandal, who wouldn’t be afraid?

The factory wasn’t happy with their new “staff member” at first, but after all, we are doing our job, and we are doing it at its best though that might be hard to understand at first, it’s the best solution. Factories should be in charge of their quality, and if they can’t, we are going to give them a hand.

For those of you doing business in China, take extra caution. There a hundreds of excellent suppliers in China but also many that would cut the corners to save some pennies

Talk to you later,

Sergio de Leon

Dragons are the sacred symbol of ancient China. In past times before the revolutions of the 20th century, each emperor’s clothing was emblazened with depictions of them and their likenessess. Dragons symbolized the highest possible level of attainment in life; they were perfect.

But of course they weren’t the same as the dragons you and I might imagine in our minds today. The dragons of ancient China were yellow creatures with snake-like scaled bodies, goat horns, and short tails.

Roaming the Mother Land in search of evil, the Chinese dragon is said to have often attacked and conquered many evil-doers in ancient China, while defending morality and goodness through its intimidating outer form.

Since they symbolised everything perfect in the world, only objects in the imperial palace were allowed to be colored yellow like the dragon — and that included everything, including clothing, jewellery and food! The punishment for using the color yellow outside of imperial grounds was death.

According to legend, dragons controlled the rain and epitomized luck and auspiciousness. Their image was likely constructed from common animals in ancient China like goats and birds. Many Chinese believe the Western idea of dragons is negatively affecting the traditionally highly-regarded image of dragons.

But so far as today’s traditional Chinese are concerned, dragons remain as always a great symbol of luck, prosperity, and the hard-working Chinese spirit!

Chris P.

I was in YiWu last week. Going to the markets reminded me of the first time I went there YiWu is famous for its huge markets, where you can find all kinds of “small commodities”. I compare it to walking into a B2B website, packed with booths and stuff everywhere! A friend of mine once said that YiWu is like a “daily Canton fair”, so for those of you who have been in the Canton Fair, you know what I’m talking about

With its markets that cover more than 2 million square meters, its more than 300 thousand different kinds of products (registered), and more than 50,000 booths, make YiWu a shopper’s dream. Oh yeah, every day over 1000 containers leave YiWu another great fact of YiWu, apparently 80% of the world’s Christmas decorations come from YiWu.

To get to YiWu in Zhejiang province, you can take a domestic flight from any of the major cities in China, or take a train or a bus. It takes about 3 hours by train from Shanghai.

The best way to shop here, is taking a digital camera with you, a notebook and a translator. Once you find what you are looking for, you should enter the booth, take a picture of the product, write the price the booth number, and move on to the next booth I guarantee doing this will take you longer than you think. The markets have business hours of 9-5 usually, so once you are back in your hotel, review your notes, select the best options, and get ready to visit those booths the next day.

What attracts most foreign buyers to YiWu are it’s low prices however the quality is not the best you can find in China, YiWu’s products are perfect for “1 dollar shops”. The other great advantage of YiWu, is that you can fill a container with as many different products as you want you can buy 20 different products and ship them all together!! Most of the booths in the markets are not representatives of factories, and to be honest if you are not going to buy hundreds of thousands pieces of the same product, I don’t see this as a big problem if you wanted to consolidate a container with more than 20 suppliers say for example in Guangdong, it would take you a lot of time and energy

YiWu has a commercial fair too. It is held around the same dates as the Canton Fair; of course many suppliers from YiWu exhibit their products at the Canton Fair, which attracts way more foreign buyers. (Click here to get more information on YiWu’s fair.)

I recommend you visit YiWu if you have the chance. It will expand your business vision and options

For more information, hotels reservations, transport, etc just send us an email to info@dragon-exports.com We’ll be happy to help.

See you later!!

Sergio

Hi there!!

Welcome to our Blog!! We have created this Blog with the idea of letting everybody know what is going on in China - basically business, but also, an insight into Chinese culture.

We believe that there are many cultural factors that make doing business in China very different from doing business in other countries. That’s why we would also like to cover Chinese culture, so our readers have a little deeper understanding of the Chinese background.

We don’t consider ourselves as Chinese culture experts; however, living in China gives us a lot of different perspectives and understanding on the way of doing things here.

You will be hearing from us with Factory Inspections Reports, upcoming Commercial Fairs and Events, Culture Articles, and more hopefully giving you a clearer picture of China.

We also want to use this space as a dynamic way of communication, for those with more than curiosity in this country - we encourage you to send us your comments and questions, we will be happy to hear from you!!

Talk to you soon!!

S.