Newsletter Week 49 |
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Dear Reader, Here is this week’s edition, covering:- China Chapter Three: First impressions - Develop your social capital - Made (responsibly?) In China - Shanghai’s Social Insurance System We hope you will enjoy reading this edition. Have a nice weekend! All of us at China Success Stories China Expert Guest Blog China Chapter Three: First impressions  So the gweilo got on an Air China flight. It seems I was the only non-Chinese person on the plane. The culture shock began there. Flying Air China is not like flying Air Canada. We take our western comforts for granted and don’t really appreciate what we have until it’s taken away. This was a good, gradual first phase introduction for me. Take all we are used to here and knock it down three notches. Space, service, quality whether washrooms, seating, or food. I did not suffer, but realized that I was like a city guy going to visit country cousins on the farm. I was going from a developed society to a developing society. They were trying to catch up with us, and doing a great job, but were not there yet. Alone with my thoughts, I wondered and worried. What was I getting myself into? The pangs of being alone were deep. It would be four months before Lovy would join me. Without her at my side, I was at the mercy of others and my own mental meanderings. Would Dan and his partners, Wu Bing and Peter, accept me? Would the Chinese staff accept me? Would I succeed? Read the rest or post a comment >> China Expert Guest Blog Develop your social capital  The idea of commissioning market research in China is daunting to most Western companies. It’s a country of over 1.3 billion people with 200 dialects and 57 ethnic groups. To compound the problem, China is not homogeneous. The larger cities contain educated, Internet-savvy people who earn incomes comparable to U.S. citizens. On the other end of the spectrum, there are people living in villages who survive on $400 a year. If you ask a survey question to both groups, you are likely to get vastly different answers.The first task is to pick your market segment. If you only want information about consumers in tier-one cities such as Shanghai or Beijing, then your task becomes easier. All forms of data collection are available when researching in top-tier cities, whether it’s online surveys or face-to-face interviews. The task becomes more difficult if you want to learn about the rural population. Even though more than 900 million Chinese live in villages and the outlying countryside, they are difficult to reach. Phone interviews are impossible since they don’t own any phones, most have never seen or used a computer, so online surveys are not an option either. Really the only option left is a face-to-face interview. Read the rest or post a comment >> Facts & Figures Post Office You never know when these statistics might prove to be of value to you. So without further ado, here's our weekly top 10. Top 10 countries with the most post office workers. China Expert Guest Blog Made (responsibly?) In China  I recently had the opportunity to visit two factories in the southern China town of Kaiping that produced denim jeans for a major discount retailer in the United States. Considering that the only reports of Chinese textile factories that I had come across had been critical, the visit was a (pleasant) surprise.Working conditions were orderly and tidy, the air was cool despite scorching heat just beyond the concrete walls, generous lighting flowed from large bay windows, and healthy employees casually chatted above the hum of the machines barely noticing the presence of the factory owner leading us through. A sense of respect and camaraderie passed between the management and employees, ages 20-40, while the atmosphere was calm yet efficient for a Sunday afternoon without a sense of employee exhaustion or oppression. Each floor of the large facility occupied a different stage of the production process, from cutting to sewing, embroidering, and packaging. The floors were neatly organized with sturdy machines—some computerized—for a streamlined process from bolt to box. Read the rest or post a comment >> China Expert Guest Blog Shanghai’s Social Insurance System  Last night, I was on MSN chatting with my client, whose trading WFOE (Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise) incorporation is being proceed by me currently. He hired a 21 year old assistant to assist him in daily affairs. My client sacked her a couple of days early, for her irresponsibility and laziness, and is seeking another assistant, so he asked me if I happened to know anybody. I introduced a girl who’s intending to quit her present job, and they seemed to have a good conversation on MSN later. The girl was concerned with the mandatory social insurance thing. The problem is, since the trading WFOE is still under incorporation, she wants to know whether she can still get the five social insurances during the first several months before the trading WFOE is legally established. Well, I think it’s an issue between the employer and the employee, and I literally cannot help. So I just reminded my client about the different social insurance treatment against the local Shanghai people (who have Shanghai Hukou) and those non-local staff. I was so astonishingly surprised that when my client told me that the insurance policy towards both local and non-local employees were unified now. It feels awkward when your client tells you something that you are supposed to tell them. I googled it, but got nothing. Read the rest or post a comment >> Comments Vincent Cheung in reply to: About Opening a Foreign-invested Restaurant in Shanghai Hello David, the minimum registered capital for a catering management company is 140,000 USD. The amount you should invest should be decided by your own needs… Cory Russell in reply to: Import from China: Getting Started We are a distribution center and have a complete finishing department, that includes quality inspection, sewing repairs, product packaging, alterations, re-ticketing … Marcus Evengelica in reply to: Attraction and Retention of Chinese Employees: A Legal Perspective There is also very good comment on the new Labor law and implications for foreign businesses in China in this months China Briefing ... Celina Chan in reply to: Attraction and Retention of Chinese Employees: A Legal Perspective I think the points made here are quite fair. Actually I think as an employer, we need to be fair and keep our promise in the first place. I do meet some staff who are willing to work hard… Anthony in reply to: China Lesson Eight I am a civil Engineer by profession but I would like to start a business whereby I will be importing building materials, toilets and bathroom wares and other house material … Karl J. Weaver in reply to: Introduction China Business Group Dear China Business Group, I've been involved in selling/marketing to Greater China since 1985 on both sides of the Pacific Rim. Studied Mandarin from 1982~1985 in Taipei, … Michiel in reply to: Introduction China Business Group Hi Karl, I've passed your comment along to a member who is exploring 3G currently. I'm positive he will make contact with you. As for evangelizing… Peter Zapf in reply to Paul Global Sources verified suppliers have all been physically visited, so we know they are real companies and you can send them money... Cat Rust on How to Avoid Tax by setting up a Parent Hong Kong Company I saw the figure for setting up a company in Hong Kong, including a bank account is RMB100,000 but did you mistype that or is that the company capitalization? Paul in reply to: Links What is the easiest and best way of finding out if a company in china is legimate and that i can trust sending them money for goods? |
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