To say I am paranoid when I travel would be an understatement. To say I am pleased when I find some justification for my paranoia would also be an understatement. Let me explain. When I travel, I am on constant guard for two things. One, getting sick. And two, getting ripped off. Last year I… Continue Reading
Category Archives: China Travel
Subscribe to China Travel RSS FeedRuminations On The Meaning Of Toilet Paper/Poisoned Food In China. Morality Play Or Meaningless Drivel?
Posted in China Business, China TravelA story I always tell — heck I told it earlier this week — about China revolves around toilet paper. My story is as follows: A year or so ago I was in Vietnam visiting my daughter, who was there studying. We were in an airport when I walked away to go to a rest… Continue Reading
China Service And One Tiny Tiny Hotel Comment. Meaning Versus Nothingness.
Posted in China Business, China TravelThis blog has been around for more than six years and during that time we have picked up a number of regular e-mailers. Some of these are people who, for whatever reason, refuse to comment on the blog, even anonymously, preferring to leave their “comments” via email. Then there are the people who have a… Continue Reading
Economic Downturns. Bad for Foreigners. In China And Always.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Legal NewsI am just returning from a delightful family vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we got around mostly by taxi. Both my kids speak Spanish fairly well and I am totally willing to fake it. One of the things I quickly learned from our conversations with the taxi drivers is that there is a… Continue Reading
China And Its People. Just ONE Book.
Posted in China Travel, Good People, Recommended ReadingMy firm is in the throes of defending a strike suit brought against Sea Shepherd by Japanese whaling interests. The Japanese whalers are seeking an injunction to stop Sea Shepherd. Under U.S. law, to get equity, one must do equity and one of the things we have learned about the Japanese whaler plaintiffs that we… Continue Reading
A Complete Guide To China’s High-Speed Rail.
Posted in China Travel, Recommended ReadingTrain aficionado, David Feng (and author of China Travel 2.0), recently wrote a very helpful piece for CNNgo on China’s high speed rail, entitled, “A complete guide to China’s high-speed rail: Four expert tips and 5 top lines travelers shouldn’t miss.“ If you will be traveling on China’s high-speed rail or even if you are… Continue Reading
Service In China. Good Luck With That, Part II.
Posted in China Business, China TravelThe Seeing Red in China blog has a really funny post on service (actually the lack therof) in China, entitled, “Don’t expect customer service in China.” The post starts out describing a role playing game the blogger had his Chinese students play where one student was the hotel manager addressing the complaints of the hotel… Continue Reading
A Chinese Brothel Scam. Don’t Let It Happen To You.
Posted in China Business, China TravelIt happened again last week. Multiple calls from the same person, wanting to speak with me urgently, yet refusing to provide any information to our receptionist on the nature of his issue. I eventually called this person back and here’s pretty much what we discussed (which was essentially what I have heard from two other… Continue Reading
Simply China (The Book). Simply Beautiful.
Posted in China Travel, Recommended ReadingOne of the perks of writing this blog is that we get countless review copies of books, most of which we never review. We especially get countless travel/journal type books on China and I do not recall us ever reviewing any of those. Simply China is a China photo book too beautiful not to plug… Continue Reading
China FDI In Iceland. Soft Power Done Hardly Well At All.
Posted in China Business, China TravelThe following is a guest post from one of our readers in Iceland, Neil Holdsworth. Neil has been updating me via email regarding a Chinese investor who is seeking to purchase a massive amount of land in Iceland and the controversies that have been attendant to that. When he asked me why I don’t write… Continue Reading
Everything You Want To Know About China. The Ten Minute Video Version.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Recommended ReadingJust watched a video on Shanghaiist, entitled, Everything You Need to Know About China in Ten Minutes. I love stuff like this and before anyone leaves a comment pointing out the shortcomings of this video, let me state that I realize it is not an encyclopedia. But if you are about to get on a… Continue Reading
China In America. Newton, Iowa, Edition.
Posted in China Travel, Good PeopleJust spent the last day and a half in the heart of Iowa. Though I was there to be on a bunch of panels at Grinnell College, parents weekend there necessitated that I spend my nights in the neighboring town of Newton, Iowa. Newton has a population of about 15,000 and it is known for… Continue Reading
Service In China. Good Luck With That.
Posted in China Business, China TravelI love it when my wild assertions are proven right. I am always writing about how terrible the service is at China’s hotels and restaurants and I have often posited that service in China is the worst in the world. In “This Is China. I Laughed, I Cried,” I wrote about a blogger’s “Kafkaesque situation… Continue Reading
Beijing Daze. Because I Like It.
Posted in China Travel, Recommended ReadingI am always getting emails from people asking me what they should be reading on China politics, China travel, China food, China this and China that. My quick answer is to refer them to our blogroll. But that only goes so far because our blogroll is intentionally and decidedly quite narrow, confined almost exclusively blogs… Continue Reading
Qingdao’s New Bridge As Symbol Of China Infrastructure.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, EventsWe’re on a road to nowhere, come on inside Taking that ride to nowhere, we’ll take that ride Feeling okay this morning, and you know We’re on a road to paradise, here we go, here we go From the song Road To Nowhere, by the Talking Heads I could not resist asking co-blogger Steve… Continue Reading
Random China Thoughts. Been There, Done That.
Posted in China Business, China TravelJust arrived Seoul after a quasi-whirlwind China tour. Started in Shanghai, then went to Beijing and then to Qingdao. It had been around four months since I was in China last, and as is my habit, I am going to toss out my random thoughts from my trip. Here is what I saw/thought. 1. Shanghai,… Continue Reading
Think Locally About Your China Blogs.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Recommended ReadingEvery so often I get emails from readers asking what I read on China beyond the blogs in our blogroll. This post on China regional blogs is going to be the first in what is likely to be an erratic series to answer that question. I define a China regional blog as a blog that… Continue Reading
Where To Locate Your Business In China. This Download Will Tell You.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Recommended ReadingThe other day we did a post, entitled, “An Amazingly Good (And Free!) Intro to China,” on The China-Britain Business Council’s recently published China Business Guide. One of our readers, Juha Lassila, left a comment extolling the virtues of HSBC’s new book, entitled, “Inside the Growth Engine: A guide to China’s regions, provinces and cities.“ This guide… Continue Reading
Chinese Immigrants In America. Ummm.
Posted in China TravelHad lunch the other day with a Korean-American client. Like many Koreans in Seattle, he came here at elementary school age (12 in this case) and he comes across just like any other American. No accent, understands and even laughs at my jokes, etc. At one point in the lunch, he told of having to… Continue Reading
Interfering In China. What’s A Laowai To Do?
Posted in China Travel, Recommended ReadingAnyone who has spent any real time in China has had to deal with a situation similar to that thoughtfully described in this post, entitled, “Breaking the ‘rules’ in China — getting involved when you know you’re not supposed to.” The post is about a public fight between a man and a woman and the… Continue Reading
China Visas Just Got Easier AND Tougher.
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Legal NewsSome interesting developments with China visas this last month. First the good news. The Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau has launched an English-language website for visa renewals and I checked it out and it is not bad at all (h/t to Shanghaiist). Now the bad news. I have received three rather troubling visa related calls in… Continue Reading
97% Of Chinese Want To Live In The United States. Is This Really True?
Posted in China Business, China TravelThe Globalist is out with an article, entitled, “The American Dream Is Alive and Well…In China,” stating that “we heard that if U.S. immigration policies allowed it, 97% of the Chinese people would probably want to move to the United States.” (h/t China Challenges) I talked a bit about this previously in a post… Continue Reading
The China Rich….Are Not Like Us?
Posted in China Business, China Travel, Good PeopleJust got an email from a long-time loyal reader who is now in England studying law. His email was a combination of updates and thoughts and I just loved one portion of the thoughts. This person spent considerable time in Beijing tutoring children of high level Chinese executives, mostly bankers, and here, word for word,… Continue Reading
Cambodia: China’s Newest Appendage?
Posted in China Business, China TravelCo-bloogger Steve Dickinson just returned from a business trip to Cambodia. As China’s costs rise, American and European companies are beginning to turn to Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, Cambodia, and even Laos, for their manufacturing outsourcing. This post focuses on Steve’s time in Cambodia, and, specifically on its growing relationship with China. By… Continue Reading
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