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.