China Law Blog - China Law for Business

My 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 consider to be less than equitable, is that they have used nearly $30 million in tsunami relief money (I kid you not) to fund their whaling operations. 

A young lawyer in my office was shocked that this would go on. Her shock stemmed not even so much from the fact that the funds would be used so deceptively, but more so from the fact that it seems never to have occured to the whalers that using tsunami relief funds to kill whales would be viewed with such horror by just about everyone outside Japan. I told her of how a friend of mine who is completely fluent in Japanese and lived there a long time is always telling me of how the average Japanese businessperson knows nothing of how Japan treated China during World War II, and so just assumes that China's anger towards Japan is based on "jealousy." 

I then ordered her the book, Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Modern Japan.

Whenever I want someone to have a sense for Japan, I buy them Dogs and Demons. And whenever I want someone to get a quick sense for Korea, I buy them The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies. Both of these books have been recommended to me by countless people who really know Japan and Korea, respectively.

Well that got me to thinking. What is the one book to recommend to someone who wants to learn about the Chinese people? Now I know that no one book is going to do that so please nobody write about how no one book is enough, but is there any one book that shines above the rest for this? If I had to pick one right now, I would actually choose John Pomfret's book, Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China. Though not really intended to provide an overview of a people, by writing about the Chinese students with whom he attended Nanjing University in 1982, Pomfret's book at least makes clear (as if it were ever necessary) the great diversity that is China. But I am more thinking about a book that seeks to explain the Chinese people and why they are what they are.

What is that one book?

The 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 guest. It went something like this:

Guest: I’m sorry, but there is a mouse in my room, can you take care of it?

Manager: I don’t see any mouse in here. Why are you lying to me?

Guest: I’m not a liar. It’s under the bed, I just saw it. You should give me some discount for the room.

Manager: I knew it, you just want me to give you back some money. There is no mouse! My hotel is very clean! You are trying to cheat me!

Guest: No! You are cheating me!

Manager: GET OUT OF MY HOTEL!

Now if you have never been to China, you are probably thinking that something like that could never happen in real life. But if you have been to China, you are probably thinking, "so...?"

The post then lists a few of the blogger's real life bad China service experiences and the comments are well worth reading for more. For more stories (and even some statistics) on China's lack of a service culture, check out the following:

• Service In China. Good Luck With That.
• This Is China. I Laughed, I Cried.
• Win-Win Negotiating In China. It Is More Than A Panda.

What's happened to you?

One 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 at least a little. It is by Nancy Brown, an experienced and well-regarded photographer and the book is beautifully and thoughtfully designed from cover to cover.

The book starts with a lively written introduction and then is divided into seven sections: The Forbidden City, Inner Mongolia, Guanxi, Sichuan, Zhouzhuang, Tibet, and Qinghai Province. The book is a visual tour of China that highlights the distinctive qualities of each region. But for me, the most notable quality of Simply China is the photographs of China's people.

It makes for a great coffee table book and the proof of that is that it now sits on our reception area's coffee table.

Just 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 plane to China or about to start doing business with China, there are definitely worse and less enjoyable ways to learn about China than watching this video. Or as Shanghaiist so nicely put it:

Okay, probably not everything you need to know, but this video certainly makes the best attempt we've seen so far. They cover everything from economics and regional development to eating habits and even how the concepts of face and guanxi can influence corruption. Despite a few weird mistakes made by the narrator (like China's "five million year history") the entire film is very well made with lots of aesthetically pleasing infographics. Seems like the perfect primer for anybody looking to absorb China 101 over their lunch break.

So I say, watch it and enjoy. What do you say?

I 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 that  so often occurs at hotels (or other businesses) in China" and concluded by noting that "China does not have a monopoly on bad service, but the [horrible] treatment TFF received is so way more likely to happen in China than anywhere else."

In "Win-Win Negotiating In China. It Is More Than Just A Panda," I again lit into China for its service and compared it very unfavorably to Vietnam:

Every time I go to China, I come back planning to write an excoriating post on the place. I mean, let's face it, it is one of the (if not the) most exasperating places on earth. I found it even more exasperating this last time because before hitting China, I spent two and a half weeks in Vietnam (mostly Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi) and once again was shocked at how a country like Vietnam (which is considerably poorer than the places I tend to go in China) can, at least on some levels, appear to have its act so much more together than China.

Let's take service for example. I am never ceased to be amazed at the downright horrible service in China, and that includes at so-called five star hotels.

I am feeling vindicated today after reading a New York Times article, entitled, "Where to Get the World’s Best Service," which puts China next to the last in service, behind only Russia. And I agree with the rankings, based on the following countries I know well:

Japan.  Japan came in first place and anyone who has been to Japan knows why. The taxis there are impeccably clean and their drivers are always polite and know where they are going. No matter how cheap the restaurant, service is quick and professional. The hotel staff are so good and so pleasant, it's almost scary.

Canada and the United States. Canada came in third and the United States came in seventh. Not sure why the difference as to me they are pretty much the same but I agree generally with their rankings. Both countries usually provide excellent service. Excellent, but not amazing.

Turkey.  Turkey came in twelvth and that seems about right to me. I lived in Turkey for a year and I've been back a few times for extended stays. The service there is generally very friendly and sincere, but probably not top tier.  

Vietnam. Vietnam came in fifteenth and that seems about right to me. The hotels and restaurants and even cab drivers there just "seem to get it" more than in China. They actually try hard.

China.  Twenty-third and next to the last. Russia got the honor.

Russia.  Service in Russia isn't so much bad as non-existent. They don't even try and on some level, you have to respect that. I once was fumbling with my money at a really nice store in Vladivostok when the storekeeper derisively yelled across the store to everyone else there to "look at this stupid American who can't count to ten." My Russian was at its zenith at the time and so I was able to understand what she was saying and deliberately counted out my payment ruble by ruble in Russian and then swore at her and left.  Russian service is consistently rude, bordering on mean, but without any pretense. You do not get the unbelievable type stuff that you get in China, but I guess that it is consistently worse.

So does China really deserve such a poor rating? I say that it does.

UPDATE:  This post has received a number of fairly strong comments, to which I say great, but would like to respond.

Some imply that good service equates to being a servant and imply that I am a snob for seeking it out. I will leave it to others to decide if I am a snob (I don't think I am), but I will say that good service does not mean being a servant. I kill myself and I expect my collogues to kill themselves as well in providing good service to our law firm's clients. Is it because we are servants. Hell no. There are countless times where we just flat out tell our clients they are wrong and there are other times where we tell them that if they want a lawyer to do what they want us to do, they need to hire another law firm. I view that as good service in that we are doing exactly what we think is right for our clients, but that is not being servants.

"Service" goes beyond hotels and restaurants. If you have a plumbing problem in your house (and come on people, be honest here) that needs an immediate repair, in what countries do you think you will get it fixed quickly and correctly and in what countries do you think it will be difficult to get someone to fix it correctly at all? That too is service.

And to all those who make it seem that the Chinese service problem lies with me, I say bunk. You could claim that if the article were not based on interviews with hundreds of world travellers. In fact, I am going to flip it around and say that your love of China or your lack of travelling elsewhere may be blinding you to reality. 

I also have to say that I really notice the lack of Chinese service when I take my wife and kid(s) with me to China. Just by way of one recurring example is how often the people at the hotel have absolutely no clue on how they should go to major tourist sites and they make no real effort to find out. That is a phenomenon pretty much peculiar to China.

One commenter asked for examples so I am going to reprise some that I set out in a previous post, all from just one China trip:

Let's take service for example. I am never ceased to be amazed at the downright horrible service in China, and that includes at so-called five star hotels. Some examples from this last trip:

• At breakfast one morning, I was waiting as an employee was loading massive amounts of French toast. I wondered to myself whether he had seen me and knew I was waiting and gave him the benefit of the doubt. He then looked right at me and continued loading, while I waited. This at a five start hotel in Shanghai.

• Towards the end of my stay in Shanghai, I got sick and needed to keep extending my stay. Twice, I called down in the morning and received confirmation that my stay would be extended at the same rate and twice at around 4:30 in the afternoon I would receive a phone call pretty much giving me three minutes to get the hell out of the hotel or the police will be called. I should further note that for at least five years I have been the highest level frequent stay member at this particular Western hotel chain.

• At a Beijing five star hotel, two days in a row for breakfast I was seated where someone else had already been seated. One of those days, I was re-seated, got my food, then got up for maybe 30 seconds to get my drink and my food was gone. I probably could have gotten my food faster by going to the grocery store.  

Then there are the cab drivers who have never made any effort whatsoever to learn anything about their city and who get mad at you when you are unable to give them street by street directions to where it is you are seeking to go (another, as far as I know, peculiarly China phenomenon)

And here are a few more that pop into my head with no effort:

• Restaurants in China, way more than restaurants in any other country I have ever been (with the exception of Russia) simply do not have what is on the menu. Come on people, can you honestly tell me that you have not ordered something at a Chinese restaurant, been told it doesn't have it, ordered something else as a replacement and then been told it doesn't have that either, then ordered yet another replacement item and been told it does not have that item either and then, in complete frustration, ask what exactly it does have? Has that ever happened to you anywhere other than in China?
• How many times have you ordered something in a restaurant or bar and then had it substituted without your permission in China as compared to elsewhere in the world? China wins hands down on this, doesn't it?
• How many hospitals in China do not make you wait five+ hours and are clean?
• The planes in China run later than in any other country (except Russia) of which I am aware and the information given out regarding flight times is typically either non-existent or just flat out untrue. 
• Back to the plumber example above. in what country do you trust your plumber, your landlord, your accountant, your hospital, your baby formula, your milk, your eggs, or your fake Ikea or fake Apple store less? That's service too, isn't it?

Keep the comments coming....

We'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 Dickinson to write of his trip last weekend over China's newest engineering marvel: Qingdao's new Jiazhou Bay Bridge. Here goes.

By Steve Dickinson

The opening of the bridge across the Jiaozhou Bay was achieved in Qingdao on July 1, just in time for the 90th Anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party.

At 41.58 km, this bridge is the longest ocean span bridge in the world. On the same day, the undersea tunnel from Qingdao to Huangdao opened. At 9.47 kilometers, this is the longest undersea tunnel in China. Qingdao is rightly proud of these engineering achievements. See the China Daily for a report.

The completion of the bridge and tunnel fulfills the long term dream of the Qingdao government to fully integrate the two shores of the Jiaozhou Bay. Qingdao has long been troubled by the fact that modern development is centered on the Huangdao side of the bay while government and banking is centered on the Qingdao side.

In honor of the opening, I took a trip with a local group last Saturday. The trip suggests that more work needs to be done to achieve the full potential of the bridge and tunnel. Here are some of my observations:

1. There is already a high speed highway that rings the Jiaozhou Bay. The bridge is built across the very widest part of the bay, quite close to the shoreline. It runs pretty much parallel to an existing highway. As a result, local reports have indicated that the bridge will reduce the travel time by only ten minutes. Locals wonder why $US2.3 billion was spent for a ten minute reduction in travel time.

2. I took the bridge from Qingdao to the Qingdao container port in Huangdao. Normally, this trip takes about 1.5 hours. The trip across the bridge was smooth. However, upon exiting the bridge, we were confronted with a massive line at the toll booth. Three lanes of bridge traffic dumped into three toll booths. On most bridges of this size, one would expect six to eight toll booths. The resulting back up at the toll booth caused a three hour delay. As a result, our 1.5 hour trip turned into a hellish 4.5 hour trip. There is no indication that this issue will be resolved, since there seems to be no room to build additional toll booths at the exit area. I see this as another instance of China doing well with "hard engineering" but neglecting the soft stuff like the user's overall experience.

3. Private vehicles must pay a 50RMB (~USD$8) toll for the bridge and 30RMB (~USD$5) for the tunnel. The toll for our bus was 90 RMB for the bridge and 100 RMB for the tunnel. These fees are quite high. Considering that in the best of circumstances only 10 minutes is saved in using the bridge, locals have indicated that they do not plan to use the bridge for normal transportation purposes.

4. We took the new tunnel to return home from the port. The experience was quite different. We were greeted by eight toll booths at the mouth of the tunnel and there was only a five minute delay in entering the tunnel. The tunnel is quite modern and was a pleasure to use. However, the tunnel connects the beach portion of Huangdao with the downtown area of Qingdao. It is therefore not really useful for cargo transport needs. Locals also indicate the the high toll will discourage private car use. It is anticipated that the main use will be for bus traffic across the bay. The big problem with the tunnel is that it links to slow local roads, so this route took us three hours. 

Nobody is even sure why either the bridge and the tunnel were built, much less the two of them. The bridge seems to be mostly aimed at connection by highway for goods from the ports and airport and tradezones. The tunnel does not provide access to any of this. The high toll for the tunnel means that it will not be used for normal surface transport (private cars and taxis). So why was it built? No one has ever been able to provide me with an explanation. Why was the bridge built at the WIDEST part of the bay? Why was it built when it only provides a 10 minute improvement in travel time? Why was it built with no attention to access and exit? Why were the connecting highways not improved? Who knows

It appears that these two massive projects are typical of so much of the infrastructure being built in China. Liittle attention was paid to the human element in actually putting the infrastructure to work. Our group of 40 was disappointed that our outing was ruined by the long delay on the bridge. However, I have to say that no one was surprised.

Every 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 focuses on one particular China region or city written by someone who lives in that particular region or city.  

Right now I have the following regional China blogs on my blog reader:

• Shanghaiist 
• Notes From Xi'an  
• Qingdao(nese)
• Xinjiang Far West China
• Chengdu Living 

Shanghaiist is on our blogroll because though it does somewhat focus on Shanghai, it writes at least as many posts that go way beyond that. 

I strongly suspect I am missing some good ones. What other good China regional blogs are out there?

Had 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 go back to Korea to meet his wife's parents to request their daughter, which is very much traditional in Korea. We then talked of a mutual friend who had initially gotten lots of grief for having married a non-Korean. 

Then our Korean client said something I found very interesting and insightful, which was that the older Koreans in the United States are "more Korean" than the Koreans in Korea. He went on to say that they came over to the United States 30 or 40 years ago and "their Korea" has remained the Korea of 30 or 40 years ago, but Korea today is, of course, very different from the Korea of 30 or 40 years ago. So while the people in Korea change, the older Koreans in the United States don't. On top of this, the older Koreans rightfully see themselves as bulwarks for maintaining Korean culture, whereas Koreans in Korea likely do not see themselves so much in that way.

I definitely think my client is right when it comes to Koreans in the United States as opposed to in Korea, but I have never really noticed anything similar in terms of the Chinese in the United States being "more Chinese" than the Chinese in China. Am I missing something? What do you think? 

Some 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 the last month or so. Two of them were from people who had been caught working in China without a work visa (Z visa) and both of them were subsequently denied re-entry visas to China. Both of these people should have set up companies in China but had not done so in order to cut costs and avoid paying taxes. The other person was an employee with a state government in the United States, while vacationing in China was reading up on China cyber hacking and is now convinced that the Chinese government took his laptop at some point when he left his hotel room and then followed him while in China. 

The first two people wanted us to call the Chinese Embassy and get them visas and the third person wanted us to do the same, but to tell them that he is not really a spy, rather just a low state government employee with an interest in computers. I told all three that a phone call from an American lawyer would likely have zero effect and that they could better spend their money elsewhere. All three really want to return to China (the first two pretty much need to return to China), but in my experience, once China has put you on a no entry list, it is pretty much impossible to get off it. The government employee is rightfully concerned about returning to China at all and my advice was that he consider vacationing elsewhere the next time.

All three of these people talked about the possibility of "just paying someone off" in China but I explained how that was a bad idea because even trying to do so would put them at risk of getting charged criminally in either China or the United States and that there would be a very good chance that the payment would not work in any event. 

Anyone else experience or know of something similar?

UPDATE:  A number of people have asked what it was that caused these two people to get caught working in China without a work visa. One of the callers told me he was convinced that he had been reported to the authorities by an employee he had fired a few weeks earlier. The other guy did not tell me and I did not ask. In my experience, these things are about 99% of the time due either to an ex-employee who is angry about having been fired and left without a real company to sue or by an existing employee who has decided that the foreigner is no longer needed and that he or she is now ready to take over the company. 

Just 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, are some of his random, insightful thoughts from that experience:

1) None of them had counterfeit stuff in their houses. Even their DVDs were genuinely bought from Walmart, or HK, unlike most Westerners, whose apartments are full with fakes bought openly in Sanlitun.

2) None of them wanted their kids to go to university in China. They all universally hated China's education system and its high pressures. They all universally pushed their children to top their classes.

3) All of them were getting books banned in China from their frequent trips to HK, or from friends bringing them in. The recent one on WenJiaBao was common, but they also had stuff on Mao, T1a-nanmen etc. They would read and discuss them openly and their kids would read them too.

4) None of them wanted any kind of immediate reform. The best you could get was an admission that the government now was pretty 'arrogant' off how well they'd done in the past 3 years. One said this could be hubristic, others said it was well deserved.

5) The currency trader told me that on the day the government announced to great fanfare they'd allow some appreciation of the RMB, he was called in and told to generally not consider this as significant in his trading decisions.

6) The book industry in Beijing at least, must be doing well. Their book stores are massive emporiums, floor to ceiling on 6 levels of books, and incredibly busy. I asked why people don't go for ereaders. Was told they liked the feeling of choosing the books, and the smell!

The above all jibes with what I have seen with the Chinese lawyers in China with whom my firm works.  

What do you think?

Flying to Hong Kong from the Mainland has always been surprisingly expensive. But no more. According to the China Economic Review, China Budget airline, Spring Airlines, has just announced that it will be pricing its Hong Kong-Shanghai route at as low as RMB398 (US $59), roundtrip, "less than a third of the current lowest air fare." It will be interesting to see how Cathay Pacific and the various China "big" airlines respond to this.   

I am always being asked what China is like and I usually freeze in response to that question.  I could tell them that I went to three or four places in China and that they were all as different from each other as Seattle is from Kalamazoo or New York, but that would make me sound really condescending and it would not give the person asking the question any more of a clue. Or I could just say something about how China is big and crowded and then let them respond as to how they knew that, but that would not achieve anything either.

So my trick is to say that I spent much of my time in Qingdao and it is really more like Seattle than you would ever imagine. Half of the people say "really" and move on and the other half start asking questions to learn more.  

But what really frustrates me is how difficult it is to convey how China "can be simultaneously so rich and so poor, so strong and so fragile, so advanced and so undeveloped, so controlled and so chaotic...." James Fallows, one of my (and everyone else's) favorite writers on China, just did a short article for Atlantic, entitled, "Imagining What China Looks Like." In this article, Fallows talks about how tough it is to convey China to those who have never been:

My standard "learning to live with China" pitch includes exhortations for foreigners actually to go and spend serious time there -- and as much time as possible away from Shanghai and Beijing and other cities with superficially "familiar"-seeming areas. The reason is that the place is so huge, so varied, and so contradictory that, unless you have much more robust imaginative powers than I do, it's hard really to sense how it can be simultaneously so rich and so poor, so strong and so fragile, so advanced and so undeveloped, so controlled and so chaotic, without seeing for yourself.

He then assumes not all readers will immediately be heading to China on his advice and provides links to two excellent articles that help (at least a bit) in conveying what China is like. These articles do this not by talking about China as a whole, but by focusing on small parts of it.

The first is a Boston Globe article, "Landslides strike Zhouqu County, China," replete with "riveting" photographs of the recent mudslides there. Fallows comment on the photographs makes sense:

Obviously pictures like the one below aren't the "normal" look of inland China; this is disaster and its aftermath, reminiscent of the look of Sichuan province after the horrific earthquake two years ago. But when you hear about some inland Chinese city whose name is unfamiliar but is bigger than Chicago, this gives an idea (minus floodwaters) of how the cityscape might look. 

The other is an article in Foreign Policy by Christina Larsen, entitled, "Chicago on the Yangtze: Welcome to Chongqing, the biggest city you've never heard of." 

If you want a better "feel" for China, I urge you to check out James Fallows' article and to follow the links. 

It's bad enough I have to admit there is a book out there making fun of what I like, now Modern Lei Feng is doing a series of China-fied blog posts doing the same thing.

I just love his second post in the series, entitled, "Stuff Laowai Like 2 - Shanghai (老外喜欢的东西 2 － 上海）" because (like the book) it is both spot on and funny and because I have to cop to it.

As just about everyone knows, there has been a Quisp versus Quake like battle raging for years between expats regarding the better city between Beijing and Shanghai. I love it because I live in neither city and though I have probably spent more time in Shanghai than in Beijing, I still should be considered a neutral.

Modern Lei Feng nails the differences on how expats tend to view Shanghai:

Whether you judge her to be the Pearl of the Orient or the Whore of the Orient, laowai have a long history and deep connection with Shanghai. Whether forced to go there by your large overseas company or choosing the city due to its creature comforts and business environment, expat laowai from North America and Europe almost always prefer this more "sophisticated" southern city over us northern barbarians in Beijing.

Beijing has welcomed the world and hosted the Olympics, but it is still in-your-face Chinese at almost every turn, the same cannot be said about Shanghai, where you can easily forget you're in China. Short term tourists love Beijing for its "authentic Chinese" feel, but long term expats tend to choose Shanghai.

It's the "acceptably Chinese" city, where you can earn the big bucks, brag about being in China to your friends back home, and yet live no differently than you do back at home. The large foreign population and diversity of quality, foreign restaurants makes living in Shanghai easy for the expat, though its still not that hard to find "Chinese" experiences in the city. Just like Beijing expats lust over hutong housing, in Shanghai its the French Concession homes that are the things of their dreams, offering Chinese history and the comforts of modern living (very different from most of Beijing's hutong housing).

I admit it. I prefer Shanghai to Beijing for the reasons mentioned above. I know Beijing is where the power/government is and it is where the news is and it is where the art is and it is where the writers go, but I prefer Shanghai for the following Laowai reasons:

1. It's less polluted than Beijing.
2. There are more great restaurants.
3. The Bund is so cool. I love the Forbidden City and all, but the Bund is a much more repeatable experience.
4. Xintiandi is cool.
5. Shanghai has better Laowai-centric restaurants.
6. Shanghai just feels more.... Western, easy, sophisticated, action-packed....
7. It's where my firm's clients are, by maybe a two to one margin over Beijing.
8. I actually really like Shanghai cuisine and since I don't eat meat....

This cushy boy says Shanghai.

What do you think?

When I was in BigLaw back in the Midwest, one of my favorite activities was engaging in Britt Airways stories with other lawyers during long pauses in depositions or hearings. I usually reeled out two stories. The first was how I once had to go from Bloomington, Indiana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota and how my luggage went to Bloomington, Minnesota and then, after I complained, was sent on to Bloomington, Ilinois. My other story involved two vomiting kids and angry passengers who blamed the vomiting (probably rightly so) on the pilot. My favorite story that happened to another lawyer was of a plane held up on the runway for hours and the lawyer constantly being denied the right to use the bathroom or go into the airport. Finally, he just walked off the plane, walked around 50 feet, did the deed, and returned to the cheers of everyone in the plane. Britt Airways, may it rest in the same place it always inflicted on its passengers.

Now that I've gone international, I love telling border guard stories and here goes:

1. I am in Busan, Korea, flying to Seoul, Korea, and then on to Seattle. I take a delicious looking apple from my hotel room, put it in my suitcase and start thinking of how much I am going to enjoy eating it during my long Seoul layover. Maybe 16-17 hours later, I land in Seattle, where a customs official asks me if I am taking any food in. I tell him no. He then asks me if I am sure and in a really frustrated voice, I tell him yes. He then asks if I am bringing in any fruits or vegetables or anything like that and in my most frustrated voice, I point out that fruits and vegetables are food, that I know they are food and that my answer is no. He then opens up my suitcase, points out the gorgeous apple, and tells me he can fine me $500. I then apologize (very nicely), explain how it is that I have the apple in my suitcase and of how I had failed to eat it, and tell him that if he wants to fine me, then all I can do is pay. I point out that I am from Washington and I understand the need to protect "our" apple crop. He lets me go.

2. I am flying from Seoul to Qingdao (why always Seoul?) and maybe 3/4 of the way through this short flight, I check my Chinese visa and I start sweating profusely. It was a one year visa (as I had thought), but it was a single entry visa, not the multiple-entry one I usually get. I land in Qingdao, make nice with the customs people there and convince them that it makes better sense for them to send me back to Seoul than to detain me in Qingdao.

3. I'm coming from Shanghai (or Beijing?) and I land 45 minutes late in SFO, making my connection to Seattle perilously tight. I bolt off the plane and customs (or was it security) decides to take an inordinate interest in me. About five minutes into the procedure, I ask them in as nice a tone as I can muster, whether there is any way they can speed it up so that I can catch my flight. Some guy responds in a pissed off voice that I should have gotten to the airport earlier. I very quickly and sarcastically respond by saying, "seeing as how I just got in from China, maybe you should be telling that to the pilot and not to me." They then proceed to come up with about ten minutes worth of new questions on my trip and I miss the flight.

4. I'm coming from Canada to the United States, by car, and I answer yes to having citrus, but add that it is two oranges I bought in the United States and never ate while in Canada. I am told to drive my car to a spot and wait inside. I start to tell them where the oranges are, but they quite rudely tell me they do not want to hear it. About 20 minutes into their search, I ask someone at the desk whether it might not just make sense for me to tell them where the oranges are and I am again rudely waved off. About thirty minutes into the search, an officer comes in and not very politely asks me to tell him where the oranges are. And I just go to town. I remind him of how he had boasted that he could find them. I remind him of how I tried to help him and his cronies twice on finding them, but was assured they could find them themselves. I point out this was before they had turned my entire car and its contents upside down and inside out. I then ask him if I have any obligation to tell him where they are because I am by this point nearly done with my book and I have no problem sitting in this brightly lit room and finishing it. The officer stammers and essentially says they cannot make me tell them anything I don't want to tell them but that they can stop me from entering the United States with the citrus. I then tell them I have no desire to take the citrus into the US and that I will let them know where the oranges are after I finish my book, if they have not found them in the meantime. Twenty minutes later, they come in with the two oranges, tell me they are seizing them and that I can go on my way. I smile and leave.

I could go on and on.

I thought of these stories today after reading a post by Cyndee Todgham Cherniak on the always enjoyable Trade Lawyers Blog. The post is entitled, "Treat Border Guards With Extreme Respect - Your Freedom Is In Their Hands," and if I may grossly summarize it, it says you should be nice to border guards:

When travelling to the Canada-United States Border (or any border crossing for that matter), remember to be humble, remember to be respectful, remember that the border officers have great power. Have you been in the military? --- remember to respond respectfully "Yes Sir", "No Mam". Do you remember spending time with your Grandmother? --- "What can I do to be helpful?". Do you have a demanding boss? --- "Let me answer that question for you as best I can".

Ms. Cherniak goes on to point out that "border officers have a lot of power and can send you straight to jail" and "a small disagreement can turn into criminal charges and that will cost you a lot of money and possibly your freedom." She then backs this up with the example of Peter Watts, "a well known and respected Canadian writer." Here is what transpired:

He [Watts] found himself in a disagreement at a U.S. border crossing and on March 19, 2010 was convicted of assault, obstruction and resisting an officer. The facts seem unclear --- except that he and a border officer had a disagreement and the border officer overreacted. There were no illegal goods in Mr. Watt's car and there was no border problem other than the disagreement.

Mr. Watt's was arrested at the disagreement and he ensured the humiliation, stress and cost of a jury trial. In the final analysis, we has convicted and is yet to be sentenced --- possibly up to two years in jail.

According to Watts, who wrote of the incident on his blog, the following occurred:

What constitutes "failure to comply with a lawful command" is open to interpretation. The Prosecution cited several moments within the melee which she claimed constituted "resisting", but by her own admission I wasn't charged with any of those things. I was charged only with resisting Beaudry, the guard I'd "choked". My passenger of that day put the lie to that claim in short order, and the Prosecution wasn't able to shake that. The Defense pointed out that I wasn't charged with anything regarding anyone else, and the Prosecution had to concede that too. So what it came down to, ultimately, was those moments after I was repeatedly struck in the face by Beaudry (an event not in dispute, incidentally). After Beaudry had finished whaling on me in the car, and stepped outside, and ordered me out of the vehicle; after I'd complied with that, and was standing motionless beside the car, and Beaudry told me to get on the ground -- I just stood there, saying "What is the problem?", just before Beaudry maced me.

And that, said the Prosecutor in her final remarks -- that, right there, was failure to comply. That was enough to convict.

Ms. Cherniak nicely analyzes the event as follows:

What strikes me the most is how the disagreement could have been avoided if Mr. Watts had appreciated the power of the border officer and just taken a more obsequious approach. I am not criticising Mr. Watts as I have friends and family members who could have been in Mr. Watt's shoes. What I say to friends and family members is to let the border officers do their job and to help them do your job. If the individual crossing the border does not have anything to hide, they should just open their kimono (car doors, truck, hood, bags, etc.). Report all acquisitions outside the jurisdiction truthfully. Answer all questions truthfully and respectfully. If you do not understand a question say "I am sorry sir, I want to answer your question, but I do not understand your question, would you help me give you a responsive answer by clarifying your question for me?"

She then tells her own story, which no doubt will sound very familar to many:

This reminds me of my own disagreement at the border a few years ago. I was asked 'Where do you work". I said "Toronto". I was then asked "Where do you work". I responded again 'Toronto". I was asked again, "Where do you work". I responded "downtown Toronto". The officer then shouted at me, 'Are you an idiot, where do you work? You are not answering my question." At this time I tried a different approach, "I answered 'I am a lawyer with Lang Michener". The officer asked 'Was that so hard?" I answered "No sir". I then was passed through U.S. Customs and was allowed to board my plane. Phew, I could have landed in jail if I had not figured out the real question was "Who is your employer?"

Now I know most of you know this already, but I am going to remind you of it just the same, because when you most need to know this is when you are most likely to forget it, so here goes. The border officer, be he or she be in China, Canada, the United States, or anywhere else, has, for the most part, a pretty routine job and you do not want to be the thing that spices it up. Give them the respect they crave and treat them as nicely as you possibly can. Unless you want a jury trial with that.

"And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear...."
Space Oddity, by David Bowie

I love technology and I am constantly on the road. I definitely fit the definition of "early adapter" and my friends are constantly asking me what technology they should be buying, oftentimes for travel. I just got an email on that and I figure I might as well just write about it here.

Here's what I use, have used, and wish I used.

1. My laptop is a 14.1 inch Lenovo t400 with a solid state hard drive. I picked the lenovo T400 because it was well priced and because I like how I can remove the DVD drive and replace that with another battery, which is what I typically do. I also like how its power cord is smaller and lighter than most other laptops. I went with the solid state drive because it weighs less than a regular hard drive and is also much less likely to crash. I beat the heck out of my laptops and usually have to replace them every 18 months or so and I have been known to have hard drive issues. Plus, since it is made in China, I figure repairs and spare parts ought to be easy there, though that is probably true of every laptop. I once found myself in Dalian without the power cord to my dell and it took me all of thirty minutes to find a replacement.

When my laptop is docked at my office, it is supposed to back up to my firm's network. But because I am out of the office so much I also back up online via Carbonite and I also every once in a while backup to a Seagate Go portable hard drive.

I sometimes wish I had something even smaller, but then I would have to deal with the hassle of having to do file transport. Right now I have everything I need on my laptop and that would be much more difficult if I were to get something smaller. I bought a netbook a few months ago before a China trip and I absolutely hated it. I actually bought it for my eleven year old daughter so that she would not keep asking to use my laptop, but it was not even adequate for her. The keyboard was just too small and everything just seemed so slow. Many many years ago, I bought an HP Jornada, whose claim was that it worked well for 95% of what one needed for a computer. I found out though that it was the other 5% that drove me crazy and I vividly remember trying to send an email from a hotel room while doing a cost benefit analysis between throwing the Jornada against the wall and reveling in watching the smash or selling the damn thing as soon as I returned to civilization. I sold it.

Still, I covet the Toshiba Mini NB205 and the Sony P. The Sony P is absolutely gorgeous and it weighs only 1.4 pounds, but since I have an iPhone, I cannot justify it.

2. I use an iPhone, but with trepidation. This is actually my second iPhone and I will be getting the 3GS version very soon. I just love it. One can never be bored with an iPhone. My trepidation stems from two things. First, it is not as good as a Blackberry for email. Second, it is not nearly as good as a Blackberry for international use. I was a Blackberry user for years and for years I would marvel at being able to respond to emails while standing in line at customs after having landed in China or wherever. But because my iPhone's mail is pulled off the internet and because international roaming is incredibly expensive, I bring my backup phone with me to China these days, leaving my iPhone at home.

3. My firm's phone system allows me to use my computer to receive and dial out as though I am in the office, but I find it easier and about the same cost to just use Skype. My home phone system is and I could do the same thing with that, but again, I just do not bother. I have Skype rigged on my iPhone, but I also pay AT&T Mobile a bit extra per month to reduce my international long distance charges and I virtually always make my iPhone calls through AT&T rather than through Skype.

4. Onebox.com. I signed up for this service during the dot.com boom and it was free for years. I used it then and I still use it now (but far far less often) as a virtual fax machine. It costs only $9.95 a month and I also use it as a voicemail box to which my cell phone and my office phone are transferred when I am out of the country. I then pull my voice-mails off the internet. Again, I am sure my office phone system has this same capability, but since I have been using onebox for this for years, I see no real reason to change. My firm's faxes all come in digitally and I can check those from China as well.

5. Tripit.com I am addicted to this service. You reserve your hotel, rental car and airline at your normal website and then forward you email confirmation on to tripit, who then takes all that info and sets it up in the form of a killer itinerary with the key phone numbers and maps that is both online and on my iPhone. It really is amazing. I have the FlightPro app on my iPhone, but I find myself using it way less than I expected.

6. Noise canceling headset. I use a Sony in ear model I bought at Narita airport a few years ago when I forgot my regular pair. I know the quality is not that of a Bose, but its size and weight is considerably less than an outside the ear model and that is most important to me.

7. Booking sites. In addition to the old standbys like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity, I also use Divamboo for my initial hotel check and then I typically go to the hotel's own website to book. I often use ATA to search for flights. When in China, I, like just about everybody else, use eLong and cTrip.

What do you think? What are you using that you like or dislike?

I am into architecture. I love buildings and my impression of places oftentimes stems from the buildings. If buildings can speak to a people and to a history (and I am convinced that they do), religious buildings oftentimes speak the loudest. They can tell us who was up, who was down, and when.

I was delighted when a client sent me this "Top ten most beautiful churches in China" and I wanted to pass it on. I have seen only two of the churches on this list, but now that I know about the others, I am going to try to knock down a few more.....

Anything missing from this list?

Tim Johnson, at the always interesting China Rises, recently wrote on the upsurge in rabies cases in China in a post entitled, "Rabies explodes in China." (h/t Time China Blog) Much of this increased incidence of rabies has been in Southern China.

Are your rabies shots up to date?

Mapmatrix.com has what appear to be excellent maps of Shanghai and Beijing in pdf format. (h/t to James Fallows)

Excellent Washington Post article on how China's increased security (including executions) may end up taking the "fun" out of the Olympics. The article is entitled, "Across China, Security Instead Of Celebration: Police Crack Down on 'Hostile Forces,' Apply New Safety Measures." and though I have read a whole slew of these articles, this one really got me thinking.

Is China using the Olympics as an excuse to crack down on dissent or is it justified in its security concerns? I not only do not know, I do not think there is any way to know until the Olympics are over and done with. What do you think?

UPDATE: Just heard about the explosions in Yunnan Province. Does this change things?

FURTHER UPDATE: Must read "retorts" over at TwoFish's always thoughtful and thought inducing blog, entitled, "Notes on Washington Post Article" and "Washington Post Appears to Get Executions in Xinjiang Wrong."

MSNBC.com is just out with a story on United Airlines raising its fares and within that story, I have learned that both United and US Airways will not be going forward with their US to China flights as originally planned:

United Airlines has sought and US Airways plans to ask for one-year delays in launching the new routes, representatives from the carriers said Thursday. United won final approval and US Airways received the tentative go-ahead to launch the routes from the U.S. Department of Transportation in September.

The routes in question affect planned United service between San Francisco to Guangzhou, and US Airways flights between Philadelphia and Beijing.

United’s request for a delay was approved April 25, while the request from US Airways has not yet been received, Transportation Department spokesman Bill Mosley said.

United, a division of UAL Corp., was scheduled to start its new flights in early June, but now plans to postpone the launch until June 2009. Spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the Chicago-based carrier is scaling back plans for some new international routes where there aren’t “strong enough economics” to offset higher fuel costs.

United received final approval for its route in September, the same time Delta Air Lines Inc. won the opportunity to launch its first flights to China with a daily route between Shanghai and Atlanta. Delta’s flights began March 31.

US Airways has begun sending letters to members of Congress and its employees saying it would seek to delay the launch of the new Philadelphia-Beijing route, noting that the cost for fuel would be more than $90 million a year — $40 million more than the original estimate of about $50 million.

“We’re optimistic that economic conditions will be on the upswing in 2010, giving us a better chance of success with our first route to China,” Scott Kirby, the president of Phoenix-based US Airways Group Inc., said in a letter to workers.

Hainan Airlines, on the other hand, will be starting its Seattle to Beijing direct flight service on June 9 and Northwest Airlines is scheduled to start flights on that same route in March of 2009.

The Yuan Also Rises blog has a nice post up on China's current visa situation (at least as of this week). The post is entitled "Clear as Mud," and, among other things, it notes of reports that China visas may be easier to obtain in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand than in England and Hong Kong.

I used to almost always get my visa in Seoul by going to the Chinese Embassy there in the morning, producing an airplane ticket showing my flight leaving that afternoon, and pleading rather nicely for a visa before my plane would take off. I think the longest I have ever had to wait was one hour. Maybe I will have to go back to that when my multiple entry visa expires in September or maybe the tightened requirements for visas will have ended by then.

I make it a point to leave it to others to write about air pollution in China from a non-legal perspective, but this one from the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 Blog is just too good to pass up. Seems those who say breathing Beijing air is like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day are exaggerating, it is actually like living with someone who smokes a pack a day:

The magazine ‘that’s Beijing’ interviewed Dr. Will Chickering from the Beijing United Family Hospital on Beijing’s air pollution.

Reports had suggested that living in Beijing was the equivalent of smoking a packet of cigarettes everyday. Dr Chickering in the interview said that it is not that bad. “It’s more like living with someone who smokes a pack a day”.

What a relief.

Just the facts....

The Modern Lei Fang blog just did a post, entitled, Crime in China (Alternative Title: I call Bullshit!)" excoriating the Associated Press for "piling it on against China." Lei Fang is angry at an AP article, "Foreigners Grapple With Crime in China," which he rightfully considers fear mongering. Lei Fang complains about how the article takes a few anecdotes and then ascribes them with a Chinese crime wave.

Lei Fang is right on all counts, but he misses the really big issue here: what is the media supposed to do when there are no accurate statistics? I wrote a post on this about a year ago, entitled, "China Crime By The Numbers And By The Anecdotes," where I registered this same complaint.

As an employer, I am in favor of nearly full disclosure regarding firm finances, hirings, etc. My view is that the rumors are nearly always worse than the facts. I agree that this AP article is (as my kids would say) a bit off, but I also believe at least half the blame for this falls on the Chinese government. And though I sort of promised not to talk again about the big issue going on in China's West, I have been wondering a lot if much of the PR problem China is facing on that issue would not go away if the media were simply allowed in to report on the facts, rather than forcing us to work off rumor.

Stan Abrams, over at the excoriation proof China Hearsay, did a nice post on this as well.

A few years ago, I went to Goroka, Papua New Guinea, to recover two Kamov Helicopters on behalf of a client/friend from Sakhalin Island, Russia (man, I loved writing that sentence!). I flew from Seattle to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Sydney, Australia, from Sydney to Cairns, from Cairns to Port Moresby, and from Port Moresby to Goroka. And then, after negotiating the helicopters back, the same return trip. Papua New Guinea is said to have a "cargo culture" in which the natives treat outsiders better than natives. That certainly seemed true for me.

I went to the grocery store (and when I say "the" I mean the only) one day and saw all of the locals get searched by rifle toting security guards both when entering and leaving the store. I came at went untouched. The same thing happened at the airports. The locals would have their bags opened and rummaged through, while my bags were never opened. I was scheduled to leave Goroka to return to Australia on a Wednesday but the plane (again, "the" means "the only") plane did not arrive. Without my having to do a thing, I was given a front row seat for the next day's flight. The weight limit for carry-ons was 8kg and a local right in front of me was stopped by a stewardess for trying to bring on a small bag and told, "You no go on de plane wit dat." Me, I wanted to be sure I made my connecting flight from Goroka and I was let through without question, toting a bag that must have weighed at least 15 kg. Ah, the joys of being a foreigner.

There can be a bit of that in China as well, though I have always viewed it as somewhat of a more double edged sword there. Lucy Hornby, on her Reuters sponsored Countdown to Beijing blog just did a great post, entitled, "Being a foreigner, the ticket to privilege?" (h/t to All Roads Lead to China).

Ms. Hornby starts out by revealing how easy it was for her, as a foreigner, to get tickets to the Beijing Olympics:

I did this entirely legally. I want lots of guests to crash at my apartment in August, and see this huge moment for China. So when the first round of the ticket lottery opened, I filled out the online forms, met all the deadlines, and picked the maximum number of tickets — mostly for semi-final events where I thought I would have a better shot.

The tickets aren’t just for guests of course. I myself can’t wait to sit in the stands for at least one competition, and soak up the excitement. But I didn’t even bother to apply for the Opening Ceremony — I knew I had no chance, and anyway, applicants were limited to one ticket only. Who wants to be all alone in a crowd?

I got about three-fifths of the events I wanted, or 17 tickets for six events. That puts me among only 5 percent of Olympics tickets applicants, according to a membership survey by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Most Chinese I’ve told say the decks were stacked in my favour. “Of course you got tickets, you’re a foreigner” was the first reaction from my colleagues, taxi drivers, and anyone else I told.

An informal survey revealed many of them had given up halfway through the lottery process, which I also thought was a little daunting. Or they only applied for the opening and closing ceremonies. Or only popular weekend events. But still. Their reaction also shows how much Chinese citizens assume that the system will never work in their favour.

Hornby then notes how many former foreigner privileges are now being given to all who are wealthy, foreign or not:

Fast forward 13 years, and most of the privileges of being foreign, versus being Chinese, have morphed into being wealthy versus not. It’s pretty easy to get train tickets nowadays, if you book through an agency for a small fee, but the migrant workers still wait for days in line at the station.

What do you think?

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) just announced its award of additional U.S.-China passenger flights for 2009, granting flights to US Airways, American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines.

US Airways will fly between Philadelphia and Beijing, American between Chicago and Beijing, Continental between Newark /New York and Shanghai, and Northwest between Detroit and Shanghai. All 2009 services must begin on or about March 25, 2009. Delta Air Lines was previously granted the right to commence a new daily flight between Atlanta and Shanghai and United a new daily San Francisco-Guangzhou service. Both of these flights are planned to begin in spring 2008.

The Guardian's Breaking News section has just announced that beginning next month visitors to China will no longer need to fill out health declaration forms to enter China. In addition to this, beginning on February 1, 2008, "people with no goods to declare will not have to fill in customs forms when either leaving or arriving."

This is a good thing.

My friend, software guru Buzz Bruggeman, founder of and driving force behind Activewords (endorsed by James Fallows, I kid you not. Click on the Activewords website for proof of this), sent me an article from today's New York Times mapping out what to do in Beijing if you are there for 36 hours.

The New York Times article is entitled "36 Hours in Beijing" and it makes for a fun and interesting read.

Update: Beijing Boyce and did a good post revising the NYT piece and Truth From Facts also puts forth some modifications.

Very helpful post over at the Lost Laowai Blog on how Chinese restaurants mark up their prices for foreigners. The post is entitled, "One Restaurant, Two Menus," and it is on how the prices on the menus with an English (usually Chinglish) translation are oftentimes higher than on the strictly Chinese language menu:

However, after recently A-Bing the English and Chinese versions at a few random restaurants, I’ve come to learn that the prices are completely different - sometimes with nearly a 100% markup for what could I can only assume is the added expense of having their menus masterfully translated.

Now, I’m fortunate in that more often then not I’m with my Chinese wife and ordering exclusively off the Chinese menu. I’m certainly in the minority though, and most of Suzhou’s (and by extension China’s) laowai “guests” are tourists, or corporate expats who unwittingly bend over and take it - all the while exchanging smiles for this “cultural experience”.

The Lost Laowai then goes on to remark upon how strange this sort of markup would be in the United States or in the United Kingdom:

The simple fact is that I’m sure most of us in our home countries couldn’t imagine being given a different (and much inflated) menu based on our race or nationality. Can you imagine walking into a diner in San Francisco and being given the “Saudi” menu? Or in the UK being offered the “Blacks” menu?

Another reason to learn Chinese characters.

Excellent article in the Wall Street Journal on a topic near and dear to my heart: air safety. The article is entitled "How China Turned Around A Dismal Air-Safety Record Foreign Help Combined With Willful Regulator" and it discusses how China's air safety (which I knew to be good) has risen to the level of great. Interestingly, the article also talks about how China's action on air safety might be applied similarly to the product safety.

For much of the 1990s, Chinese air safety was "arguably the world's most dangerous, beset by persistent pilot errors, unreliable maintenance and erratic government oversight." Today, however, China is "an acclaimed global leader in air safety" with fatal-accident rates lower than America's and Europe's. China achieved this turnaround under Yang Yuanyuan (a/k/a Triple Y), "a hard-charging aviation official" who made it a point to "adopt a more open attitude" and to learn from foreign accidents and incidents.

China took the following steps to reduce crashes:

• Established programs for Chinese regulators and airline officials to learn from their U.S. counterparts • Enlisted help from governments and manufacturers to draft new safety regulations and procedures • Relied on international aviation safety organizations to conduct audits, recommend improvements • Increased training for mechanics, pilots, government inspectors, airline officials • Pledged close cooperation with foreign crash investigators

Chet Ekstrand, a senior Boeing safety expert who worked with China on improving its airplane safety, marveled "at how the Chinese 'could be so candid in revealing shortcomings' to outsiders." China's aviation authority took its task very seriously:

At crucial junctures, officials at the Chinese aviation authority did something akin to heresy for a burgeoning economic superpower: They threatened to halt deliveries of new aircraft to China's airlines until a comprehensive, multiyear safety roadmap was in place and they were confident that airline officials were taking it seriously.

China also did not hesitate to secure assistance from outside China:

More than two dozen U.S. companies, from engine makers to cockpit-instrument suppliers, banded together to provide technical help. FAA officials helped the Chinese beef up air-traffic control designs and inspection procedures.

Chinese airline officials, regulators and air-traffic-control managers were targeted for an exchange program focused on skills such as strategic planning and project oversight. In the continuing program, candidates spend three months in the U.S. including stints with major airlines and aircraft manufacturers. Airbus and French aviation colleges have separate agreements to train Chinese safety managers.

China's commercial aviation sector is also surprisingly transparent:

When Chinese carriers began flying a new generation of smaller regional jets, they faced a fresh set of safety issues. In November 2004, a Bombardier CRJ-200 plunged into an ice-covered Mongolian lake seconds after taking off in good weather, killing 54. Mr. Yang let U.S. and other foreign investigators visit the site within hours. Investigators later pegged the likely cause as wing ice stemming from failure by the crew to take necessary precautions.

Prompted partly by that crash, China and the International Air Transport Association, which represents the interests of airlines, worked out a separate cooperation pact. China became a pioneer in allowing IATA specialists to audit all airlines and in due course release their findings.

All this has led the accident rate for Chinese carriers to improve "roughly tenfold since the mid-1990s" during which time fatality rates moved in the opposite direction in Africa and parts of the former Soviet Union. No Chinese jetliner has crashed since 2004 giving China the "best safety performance in the world in the past three years."

The article sees China product safety as a similar challenge as it too will require China "balance safety and growth." Both also require a "very strong, central agency to establish rules" plus "well-trained people able to adapt and impose them in the Chinese environment."

Article in today's People's Daily says Beijing's Capital International Airport will, from today on, "spend no more than 3 minutes [on each passenger] going through customs and less than 10 minutes waiting for a security check:"

Those are just two of the promises made jointly by airport companies, airlines and government departments at a meeting in Beijing yesterday. Dong Zhiyi, general manager of the airport, told a press conference he wanted to provide passengers with a level of service as good as any in Europe, as part of its preparations for next year's Olympics.

The airport has introduced the following measures to reduce waiting times and to improve overall service:

-- Sending delayed luggage on to passengers in Beijing free of charge within 24 hours.

-- Setting time limits on procedures to ensure passengers never have to wait too long, he said.

-- Passengers on international flights will spend no more than 45 seconds in frontier inspection, and a maximum of 3 minutes at quarantine and customs, unless "an individual merits closer inspection."

-- Airlines will provide free food to passengers whose flights are delayed for more than 2 hours "due to airlines' reasons", and free accommodation if flights are delayed for 4 hours "due to airlines' reasons."

-- Products on sale at the airport will be priced the same as in Beijing's downtown area, he said. For example, roast duck that used to sell at the airport for 98 yuan ($13) will now sell at 72 yuan, "the same as downtown."

I will be flying in and out of Beijing in a few weeks and I will report back. I will believe it when I see it.

Whenever I return to Seattle from China, I cannot eat Chinese food for months.  I simply do not want to spoil the memories.  I know I am not alone on this.  And since Seattle has a large Asian population and a relatively sophisticated food scene, I very much doubt things are any better in other U.S. cities. 

Just a couple of days ago, the Seattle Times did a story on Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, British Columbia (that's Canada, people), entitled, "Have chopsticks, will travel? Go north for Chinese delights."   The gist of the article is that Vancouver is THE North American city for Chinese food:

This is where hotshot Hong Kong chefs create innovative dim sum that trickle down to restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

This is Vancouver, where the Chinese culinary bar is raised higher and the Cantonese restaurants are more trendsetting than anywhere in the United States.

"Hands down, I think [Vancouver's Chinese food] is superior to other cities' in North America," said Nathan Fong, a Vancouver-based food-stylist and noted expert on Chinese cuisine.

The Chinese food scene here exploded due to mainland China's takeover of Hong Kong 10 years ago, which brought a flood of wealthy Chinese immigrant's and injected much competition in the Vancouver restaurant industry. That's why the Vancouver area has been serving Chinese food that is arguably as good as in the homeland, much like Vietnamese cuisine is in Westminster, Calif., or Indian cuisine is in London.

So true. 

The article goes on to describe my favorite Chinese restaurant in North America, Sun Sui Wah, as follows:

But the overall star attraction remains Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver, considered by many critics and local chefs to be one of the best Chinese restaurants in North America, especially for seafood and dim sum.

I once suggested (begged?) a friend of mine, whose wife's family owns a number of very large and very successful Chinese restaurants in Asia, talk to his in-laws about opening one in Seattle.  He reported back that Seattle could not support such a restaurant because such restaurants need to serve meals late into the night and there are just not enough Seattleites who go for that.  He then noted this was why Seattle did not have any great Chinese restaurants and why it never would.

Nina and Tim Zagat (of the Zagat Guide) wrote an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, entitled, "Eating Beyond Sichuan," first bemoaning and then explaining the extreme dearth of great Chinese food on these shores:

Chinese food in its native land is vastly superior to what's available here. Where are the great versions of bird's nest soup from Shandong, or Zhejiang's beggar's chicken, or braised Anhui-style pigeon or the crisp eel specialties of Jiangsu? Or what about the tea-flavored dishes from Hangzhou, the cult-inspiring hairy crabs of Shanghai or the fabled honeyed ham from Yunnan? Or the Fujianese soup that is so rich and sought after that it is poetically called "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall," meaning it is so good that a Buddhist monk would be compelled to break his vegetarian vows to sample it?

The historical explanation for why "the lackluster Cantonese, Hunan and Sichuan restaurants in this country do not resemble those you can find in China" is the lack of "key ingredients" from China, but that is no longer the case.  The reason the United States is today mired in Chinese restaurant mediocrity is that it is nearly impossible for Chinese chefs to get visas to come over here. 

Not sure if the Zagats are right about this, but they do provide some anecdotal proof.  And, hey, if opening the floodgates to immigration would raise the level of Chinese cuisine over here, than I say "open." Food trumps politics, hence the call for dumpling diplomacy.  Might even improve China-US relations.  Of course, our visa policy holds back more than just great Chinese cooks, but people, let's stay focused here. 

In its post, entitled, "Hear, hear for dumpling diplomacy!" Foreign Policy Magazine weighs in on this crucial issue with its own whine:

And they're [the Zagats]  absolutely right. Let's face it most of what America considers "Chinese" food SUCKS. It's too sweet, too sticky, too oily, too heavy, and too bland. There are exceptions, of course. (Notably, my mom's kitchen and the Chinatowns in New York, San Francisco, and LA.)

But take Washington, D.C., [please do!] for instance. I've been living in this city for nearly two years, and have yet to understand why it's so hard to find a single decent Chinese restaurant in the nation's capital.

Again, so true.  I have always suspected PF Changs to be the leading cause of increasing sugar prices.

The Rose Cantine Blog is skeptical of the reasons given by the Zagats for the "abysmal state of Chinese food in the United States."  According to its post, "Is 9/11 to blame for bad Chinese food," Thai, Vietnamese and Korean chefs are subject to the same restrictions and yet their food is good.  The Rose Cantine, posits the following reasons for the difference: 

1. Thai, Vietnamese and Korean restaurant owners are relatively new immigrants to the US and have not lost touch with the authentic recipes. Because US-born Chinese are no longer in touch with their homegrown cuisine, restaurant owners have to import Chinese chefs and the visa restrictions are making this impossible (Zagat theory).

2. The type of Chinese cuisine that got locked in was Cantonese which is relatively bland.

3. The Chinese who settled in the US and Europe cook differently when they make dishes for Western people than they do for themselves.

This posts makes me wonder though if what the Zagats are saying about Chinese food holds true for most Asian cuisines.  I know very little about authentic Thai food, so though I love what get of it here in the United States, I am not qualified to compare it to the motherland. I have eaten great Vietnamese food in both the United States (particularly in California) and in Vietnam.  I am generally not a big fan of Korean food (seeing as how I do not eat meat and I do not think food should be judged on how long it has been buried in some old auntie's backyard), but every Korean in Seattle with whom I have discussed restaurants has told me there are no good Korean restaurants here.

Daniel W. Drezner, in his post, "I want to believe the Zagats -- I really do," is also skeptical of the Zagat explanation and he also posits three of his own:

1) Because China has a larger internal market, there is more innovation and competition at home, leading to more frequent innovations. Without a reliable transmission mechanism (i.e., migrating chefs), Chinese cuisine in China will improve at a faster rate than in the U.S.A.

2) Law of averages. There are 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., but only 9,000 Japanese restaurants. If quality is a function of quantity, then the average Chinese restaurant will simply be of poorer quality than other cuisines.

3) Innovation in a different direction. As this Washington Post story from last year suggests, American restaurants tend to innovate by using new cooking styles to present more traditional foods. Indeed, as the Zagats observe, this tendency is strongest in cuisines that have been here for a while -- like Chinese. This roils devotees of "pure" national cuisine, but delights everyone else.

The Zagats end their article with this clarion call: 

So, we welcome Chinese chefs to share their authentic cuisines with us. American palates, unlike those of previous generations, are ready for the real stuff.

To which, I would think we can all say, amen.

Damn.  Damn.  Damn.

The Wall Street Journal said it yesterday and I had completely bought into it.  Actually, I had more than just bought into it, I was near giddy about it.  In its article, "China Aloft," the WSJ said there would soon be an open skies agreement between the United States and China:

At long last, change may be in the air for travelers crossing the Pacific. During a trip to China last week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters touted a new round of talks between Washington and Beijing over an "open skies" agreement. A tentative deal could be hammered out as early as next month, not a moment too soon for fliers in this under-supplied market.

But after reading David Wolf's (regularly at the always excellent Silicon Hutong) post on this over at the Seeking Alpha blog, I am convinced it ain't gonna happen.  There will be no open skies agreement between the US and China for some time. 

Wolf's post is entitled, "Open Skies Agreement Between U.S. and China? Not Anytime Soon" and I am going with Wolf's version both because he knows whereof he speaks and because his reasoning is pretty much irrefutable.   Wolf says there are a lot of reasons why there will be no agreement in the short term, but each of the following three clinch it for me:

1.  What is Hong Kong?
One of the biggest questions in the discussions is the status of Hong Kong and Macao in the agreements. If you exclude Cathay Pacific (CPCAY.PK) and Dragonair from the discussions, open skies looks like a great deal for U.S. carriers, but not necessarily such a hot deal for domestic Chinese airlines. Short of a significant upgrade of the reputation and service offered by Chinese airlines on their North American routes, chances are the U.S. carriers would dominate the routes, at least taking the more profitable business and leaving the Chinese airlines to scoop up the leftovers.

On the other hand, if China managed to convince the U.S. to include Hong Kong and Macao, the tables would turn. All of a sudden, you could fly Beijing to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and DC on Cathay Pacific. That would allow CPCAY to take the cream, with the American carriers fighting the mainland Chinese carriers for everything else.

While the Chinese may not want it (ownership structures notwithstanding, there's no love lost twixt the mainland carrier and it's Hong Kong cousins), it would be a great tool to use to slow down negotiations and exact concessions from the US. Regardless of how the Chinese feel about it, the U.S. airlines certainly don't want to face CPCAY on what are rapidly becoming the most profitable routes in the business.

2.  Are the Chinese ready for open skies?
Here is the real kicker. You have to assume that at some point there will be an open skies agreement between the US and China. You also have to assume that the US wants this, because they are driving the process at the moment. This means that the Chinese control the timing of the process.

So the real question is "When will it make sense for the Chinese to go for open skies?"

The short answer to that is "Not right now."

Apart from the obvious question of service quality, China's airlines aren't ready. Marketing is weak, the brands need pumping - even the liveries on the sides of the aircraft look like throwbacks to the 1970s. Domestic demand is rising quickly, and the companies are having to deploy most of the aircraft, pilots, and financial resources they can muster simply to handle local growth.

Keeping up with a sudden inrush of airlines who are much larger and more experienced airlines would swamp the locals, who would be unable even to match the growth in routes. If it happened today, would Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern be able to start direct service to another half-dozen US cities without stripping their networks of assets? Already China needs to find 11,000 new pilots and 2,500 new aircraft in the next 20 years just to keep up with organic growth. Competing under open skies would only add to this burden.

3.  Give them an inch...
There are other reasons for the Chinese to want to go slow on open skies with the US.

For one, the Europeans would show up the next day demanding open skies for their airlines, too. They'd be followed by the Japanese, the Singaporeans, and nearly every country in the world. In other words, even if you don't think United (UAUA), American (AMR), Delta (), Continental (CAL), Northwest (NWACQ.PK), USAir (LCC), and Hawaiian could collectively deliver a mortal wound to the international services of China's airlines, you have to assume that adding the rest of the world to that burden isn't going to help. At the very least, international growth opportunities for China's airlines would be stunted, and this at a time when those services are desperately needed to help make ends meet.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal did a piece on air travel in China, entitled, "China's Congested Skies: Between Military Maneuvers and Outdated Equipment, Travelers Face Agonizing Delays." [subscription may be required].

Amen, brother.   For parts I and II of this series, click here and here. 

According to the article, only 30% of China's airspace is open to passenger planes -- "making China one of global aviation's most restricted countries."  The reason:  China's military controls the skies:

Shanghai's Pudong International Airport shut down for four hours one afternoon in December when China's air force ran a drill. Airports in at least three other big coastal cities that fall under the Nanjing Military Area Command also had to close, forcing the diversion or delay of hundreds of flights, both foreign and domestic.

Adding further frustration for travelers, military affairs are a state secret in China, so there is no way to predict the snap shutdowns. In the Pudong shutdown, for instance, pilots said they assumed the closure had to do with military maneuvers, but passengers weren't told why their plane had landed in an unexpected airport, raising concerns there had been a crash or other calamity. A military-run newspaper noted that the drill had been a success.

By way of example, planes flying from New York to Chicago can fly at any of "about 13 altitudes."  China limits civilian aircraft to flying at seven altitudes.  As traveling by air continues to increase in China, such constraints are taking a bigger and bigger toll on Chinese commercial aviation: 

"I can pretty much always bank on an hour's delay, and I think I'm doing well if it's less than that," says Irishman Joe Healy, a director of engineering at Emerson Climate Technologies in Hong Kong.

For obvious reasons, things are particularly tough in Southern China near Taiwan:

Congested corridors over the Chinese coast facing Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province, are particularly prone to military disruptions, they say -- the reason for last month's airport shutdowns.

When the limited routes into southern China get too crowded, air traffic controllers on the mainland try to slow the inflow of planes by reducing the number of altitudes available to them. Jetliners bound for China or Europe from Southeast Asia and Australia can get backed up and forced into fuel-guzzling holding patterns as a result.

One of the best ways to minimize delays is to fly as early as possible.  Cathay Pacific Airways has a 3:25 a.m. cargo flight from Hong Kong to Beijing that also carries as many as 100 passengers. Despite its "ungodly hour," that flight almost always leaves with most of its seats full.  It also has a good on time record. 

There are some signs the 2008 Olympic Games will lead to a bit of a loosening of air space by the military.  Last year, they agreed to open a new corridor that reduces flight times between China and Europe by up to 20 minutes and authorized "another new route and is considering opening a third, possibly in time for the Olympics."

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have all installed new air traffic control equipment that is "light years ahead" of what most Western countries use.  China is also expected to soon reduce its approximately 2,000 foot required "cushion" between planes to a more usual 1,000 feet, allowing up to twice as many planes to fly on any given air route.  "China recently hit a record 5.8 million flying hours without accidents."

The article makes the obvious suggestions of avoiding busy air travel times on your flights and traveling with only carry on baggage, so you can quickly switch planes, if necessary.  Here are my additional tips:

• Be patient.  Be prepared.  Assume a two hour delay and pack accordingly. 
• Do not believe a word the Chinese airline employees tell you about when your plane will leave; they are all trained to tell you "in ten minutes," no matter what. 
• Always ask about the rate for business class.  The difference between economy and business class on Chinese domestic flights is usually surprisingly minimal and, after your long wait, hey, you deserve it.
• Never travel within China at the beginning or the end of any major Chinese holiday.

Bon voyage. 

With there being no shortage of China blogs, I am surprised at how few China blogs focus on China food or drink.  In fact, I am aware of only one blog that consistently provides top-notch, personalized, reviews of Chinese eating or drinking establishments.  That blog is called "Beijing Boyce" and it is an amazing source for information on Beijing bars.  Its tagline is "A Somewhat Young China Hand on the Local Drinking Scene."

According to its "about" section, the blog evolved from a newsletter started in 2005.  The blog itself began in October, 2006, but having incorporated articles from its predecessor/sister newsletter, the posts go back to October, 2005.  It is written by an employee of "an NGO in China" who has been in Asia for more than a decade and in Beijing since 2004 and he (I say "he" because I know who writes it) describes himself as follows:

I work for an NGO in China. I�ve been in Asia more than a decade and in Beijing since 2004, with past stints in South Korea and Taiwan. I am tall, cute, intelligent and smart, and like collecting Five Friendlies souvenirs, traveling and searching for �the one�� Wait, I think I read that in the personals at thatsbj.com. In fact, I enjoy reading humor (dry), tennis (doubles), martinis (dry doubles) and those rare days when the mountains east of the city are visible from my apartment. I have no Five Friendlies paraphernalia, not even a Jingjing key chain. I also have no fascination with Mandarin, Confucian philosophy or the Shaolin Temple, and am not here �to live and breathe China� as are many foreigners. I came to work. Even so, Beijing�s pace of change and growing importance make it, especially pre-Olympics, a notable place to live.

The writer writes about bars because he finds them interesting and enjoyable:

I find bars interesting as businesses and enjoyable as places to relax and meet people. I like writing and have penned three columns and two newsletters over the years. Thus, since Beijing has a quickly morphing drinking scene and I have a notebook, writing about the city�s bars was a natural. It also mixes well with my job as I meet many work-related people for drinks and can easily take notes about cocktail quality, service, ambiance, and so on. Finally, the drinking scene is a popular topic since almost everyone has a favorite bar, knows a good spot to take visitors to Beijing, or can opine on the pros and (especially) cons of drinking baijiu. My newsletter and blog aim to join in that discussion by providing useful information - hopefully in an entertaining way - and helping people make the most of their nights out on the town.

In addition to covering Beijing's bar scene, the blog also has posts on wine and other available spirits in China and it occasionally forays into Shanghai. 

That's Beijing's Blog also reviews restaurants as does That's Shanghai Magazine.  Any others?     

According to the China Daily, Wuhan, China, has just been picked to become China's fourth air hub, along with Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.  This means international flights will soon be able to go directly to Wuhan, without first stopping in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.

Domestic airlines will be also encouraged to set up branches in Wuhan. "Developing Wuhan into an air hub will not only support efforts to develop Central China, but also link the country's far-flung regions, easing access to western China's resources and market, said a government document." 

Wuhan Tianhe Airport presently has only one runway and one terminal but is in the process of adding a second terminal and increasing capacity to handle 13 million passengers and 320,000 tons of cargo a year.  These expansion projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

This is likely to prove huge for Wuhan, giving it a real leg up over  Chengdu and Chongqing for foreign direct investment (FDI).

If you build it, they will come.   

Has anyone taken more than two internal China flights in a row without delay?  Are you all like me in that you just assume your flight will arrive one to two hours late? 

China Logistics News recently posted on the dismal passenger services and scheduling problems at Chinese airports.  The article highlights the frustrations business travelers have in navigating to and from Beijing:

Finance Asia [subscription required] has just published the results of its annual business travel poll. A quarter of the responses referred to an above average number of delays on flights to and from Beijing. Some of the comments:

• "You cannot count on anything like a schedule flying in and out of Beijing."
• "The travel from Beijing to Hong Kong continues to get worse, with the delays rumored to be weather, military exercises, and plane maintenance."
• "It is extremely annoying that you cannot plan your schedule in the way that you want it to be, as the delay is always unpredictable. I have to budget more time for travel these days when going to Beijing."
• "Meetings are scheduled based on an expectation of a 1.5 hour delay � time is wasted."
• "The flight is always delayed. We will be seated in the plane, but won�t take off until 45 minutes to one hour later."
• "It sucks, it is a totally inefficient airport."

And this is the airport that is going to be the vital cog in the logistics for the Olympic Games?  It sounds like London Heathrow of which Jeffrey Barnard wrote: �I welcome death for I will not have to pass through Heathrow.� 

Beijing Capital Airport is definitely more chaotic than most of the other Chinese airports to which I have been.  I have heard good things about Nanyuan Airport for short hop domestic flights out of Beijing, but I have never had occasion to fly in or out of there. Beijing is in the process of siting a second major airport for the city, but that is not going to come on-line for the 2008 Olympics.  Beijing air travel is a problem.

But, no matter how nice the airport, the reality is that planes in China (particularly from or to Shanghai and Beijing) nearly always seem to leave late.  I am constantly asking if any one airline is better than another on this (how are the discount carriers, Spring Airline and China United?) but the usual answer is that the skies over China are just too crowded.  But then why are my flights into and leaving China nearly always on time?

Came across this really cool site that allows you to create a map of all countries to which you have gone (h/t to the Bring on the Night Blog).  I could not resist. 

What I find interesting about my travels (see the map below) is that though I have been to almost every country in Europe and Asia and even to such exotic a locale as Papua New Guinea, I have yet to set foot in Africa or South America and though the site claims my having been to Turkey means I have been to the Middle East, I would beg to differ.

I come up with 47 countries, but I am a little irritated at it not counting my visits to Hong Kong and to Macau when they were not a part of China.  Then again, they were not exactly separate countries then either.  But if they can count Puerto Rico . . . .

Anyway, have fun creating your own map at World 66.

In the category of things better seen than described is this post with really good, high-tech, maps of China, Shanghai (including the subway) in particular.   

On Wednesday, July 26, I am taking off on my bi-monthly Asian trip.  As is nearly always the case, I will be spending my first night in Seoul, Korea.  I leave Seoul, on Friday, July 28, for Shanghai, where I will stay until Sunday evening, July 30.  I then fly to Qingdao where I will stay, probably, until the next day.  On Monday, July 31, I will fly to Beijing, where I will stay through Thursday, August 3, at which time I will board a plane for Saigon, Vietnam, where I will be through either August 5 (in which case I will be in Seoul through August 7) or through August 7 (in which case I will go "directly" to Seattle).

My law and blog partner, Steve Dickinson will be with me for most of the China portion of the trip. 

Steve and I are interested in meeting up with our loyal (or even not so loyal) readers in any and all of the cities listed above (Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, Saigon) to talk China, China business, Vietnam, Vietnam business, Korea, Korea business, or whatever.  Please contact us if you would like to meet with us.  Drinks (including, but not limited to, green tea and Starbucks) will be on us.

The best way to contact us is by e-mail to firm@harrismoure.com.

I will post frequently to update my schedule.

To quote Bob Dylan, there's a slow train coming.  It's called the Beijing-Lhasa "express" and it seems just about everybody has an opinion on it. 

Newsweek's Melinda Liu is doing a video blog of her trip on the newly completed Beijing-Lhasa express.  The (first?) segment is a bit short, but certainly worth watching.  It comes with an article. I think (but am not sure) that more posts will follow from Ms. Liu and I will post again on this when and if they do.  Another good trip account can be found on the Moderate Voice Blog. 

For those wanting additional information and perspectives on this groundbreaking run, check out the Washington Post, the Popagandhi, Ultima Thule, China Snippets, Mask of China, and Thomas Barnett.  To greatly summarize, the widely divergent views on it range from viewing it as bad for the locals and the environment, to good for China and the economy.  Nobody disputes that its pressurized rail-cars and permafrost stabilization qualify it as an amazing engineering feat. 

UPDATE:  There is also a first hand account of the trip at the Times U.K. blog here and this article from the Globe and Mail (Toronto) touches on the issue of smoking in a pressurized train compartment....no minor matter in a nation of 350 million smokers! The always informative EastSouthWestNorth blog also has an interesting English translation of a report from Chinese blogger Fu Jianfeng.

Please baby, please.

I have been a United Airlines Mileage Plus member since I kicked off my legal career with Chicago (United's hub) mega law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, more than 20 years ago and I am addicted to miles.

So it is with great joy that I pass on today's news that Shanghai Airlines will be joining the Star Alliance mileage network.  is currently in talks with the Star Alliance regarding joining as well.  The Star Alliance presently consists of United Airlines, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, Swiss International Air Lines, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International,  US Airways (America West),  and Varig (Brazil).  Rumours have been "flying" about Air India, and Qatar Airways also possibly joining the Star Alliance fold. 

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the "three main global airline alliances are scrambling to line up members in China, where there has been a boom in air travel."  The SkyTeam alliance (Air France, Aeroflot, KLM, AeroMexico, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Czech Airlines, Northwest Airlines (NWA), and Korean Air), already has inked a deal to have China Southern in its fold, while the Oneworld Alliance (American Airlines, , Iberia, LAN (Chile), Qantas, Finnair, and ) has also been wooing Air China, in which Cathay Pacific has a 10% stake.  The WSJ says that if Air China joins the Star Alliance, China Eastern Airlines would likely become Oneworld's new target.

Fly me.   

I just watched two more episodes of the highly publicized new four part TV series, "China Rises."  I watched the episodes entitled, "Food is Heaven," which focused on the centrality of both the quality of food in Chinese culture and on the difficulty so many in China still have in just getting enough to eat and I watched "Party Games," which focused on Beijing getting ready for the 2008 Olympics.  Both episodes were excellent.   

The following two things from the "Food is Heaven" episode stood out for me:

1.   I often wondered how China could have so many great restaurants despite the Cultural Revolution.  How could there be so many great chefs and incredible restaurants in China when the Cultural Revolution (and even the entire period under Mao) looked so askance at anything as bourgeois as great food?  This episode answered this question for me.  Food is so much a part of Chinese culture that I now realize it was silly of me to have thought any government could have annihilated something so important and ingrained.      

2.  This episode did a story on fish farms wiped out by pollution emanating from an up river leather factory.  The story focused on a Beijing lawyer trying to determine whether he had enough evidence to sue the leather factory for damages on behalf of the fish farmers. This Beijing lawyer has won about half of his 70 environmental cases against Chinese companies.  The lawyer talked about how the leather factory was violating the law but corrupt local authorities were ignoring the violations.  This lawyer's success rate bolsters my view and that the Chinese courts generally rule fairly in business disputes.  The Beijing central government controls China's courts and Beijing generally wants corrupt local party hacks reigned in. 

I found it interesting that the lawyer used the same methods and case analysis one would expect a United States lawyer to use.  The lawyer was testing the water, interviewing witnesses, and making a video showing the factory's discharge.  The lawyer talked again and again about the need for evidence.  One should conclude from this that the Chinese courts, like those in the west, focus on the evidence in deciding how to rule in business cases.

The "Party Games" episode makes clear, however, that the Chinese courts work far less well (or not at all) in dealing with an overzealous government.  Chinese law and courts are of virtually no use when challenging the Beijing government and its policies.  This episode focused on a lawyer and his wife and her friend who had sued over the razing of a Shanghai apartment for development.  The plaintiffs lost their case (which by all rights they should have won) and the lawyer was imprisoned for three years and his wife and her friend were constantly followed and harassed for having  brought it.

This series' portrayal of China's legal system jibes with my firm's own experiences with business issues in Chinese courts.  The Chinese courts (in China's business cities) are thorough and fair in dealing with business disputes, even if those disputes involve a "connected" local factory and even if those disputes involve a foreign party.  Chinese judges are well paid and closely monitored from Beijing in an effort to avoid corruption.  Beijing uses the courts to extend its own powers and Chinese judges generally look to Beijing in determining how to rule. Beijing wants business in China to function smoothly and business functions smoothly when courts rule fairly in business disputes. 

China's courts, are however, of little to no use in cases involving the legality of Beijing government actions or policies.  The courts support the center or, at best, will not cross it.  The Communist Party takes priority over China's constitution and the courts accede to this.  A few months ago, while in Qingdao, I asked a couple of top Qingdao lawyers what would happen if a Qingdao judge were to issue a ruling that went against a higher court decision out of Beijing. The lawyers told me they were unaware of that ever having happened and they could not even imagine it.  They found my question funny.

Bottom Line:  China's courts are surprisingly good at handling business disputes, but do not expect to use them against the government or its policies. 

A couple readers e-mailed asking for travel information from this recent trip. I am hesitant to write about Shanghai because there are many good guidebooks on the city and so many expats live there, who presumably know the city far better than I ever could.  So for Shanghai, I will limit my discussion to the hotel in which we stayed, mostly because I would definitely stay there again.&nbs p;

In Shanghai, we stayed at the Radisson Hotel Shanghai New World.  The rooms are nice, the gymnasium is nice, and breakfast is good but way too expensive, so try to get it as part of your room package. The best thing about the hotel, however, is its location.  It is right across the street from People's Park and right across the street from the People's Park subway station.  This makes the hotel very easy to get to and an excellent base from which to travel throughout Shanghai.  It is also steps away from the Nanjing Street Mall and close to a whole slew of good, traditional, Shanghai restaurants.   

Qingdao:  We have an apartment in Qingdao, but when I started having trouble with Internet access and started missing my gym workouts, I fled to the 5 Star Grand Regency Hotel, where Steve (using fluent Chinese) was able to get me a room at the "local rate" of only around $50 per night, including breakfast.  Though the Grand Regency is not quite up to the standards of Qingdao's Shangri-La or Crowne Plaza Hotels, it very much has the feel of a Chinese luxury hotel and I like that.  I also like how hardly anyone there speaks any English so I am forced to work on my Chinese.   

Qingdao actually has a pretty good range of high end business hotels for foreigners.  In addition to the Shangri-La, the Crowne Plaza, and the Grand Regency, one should also consider the following:

The Huiquan Dynasty Hotel , though not quite downtown, is in a beautiful section of Qingdao and overlooks one of Qingdao's nicest beaches.   

I am a big fan of the Qingdao Seaview Garden Hotel.  This hotel has every amenity, is only a five minute taxi ride from downtown, and overlooks a beautiful beach.  I know this hotel well because it is a three minute walk from our apartment and I often go there for its excellent breakfasts. 

The Best Western's Kylin Hotel Qingdao is also quite nice, but a good fifteen minute cab ride from town.  It is, however, quite convenient to the Shandong Exhibition Center.

I have found elong.net (which has some connection with expedia.com) to be one of the best sites for searching for and reserving China hotels. 

Qingdao food is consistently excellent and, by U.S. standards, ridiculously cheap.  My favorite restaurant in Qingdao has to be Die Qiao, located in the center of Minjiang Lu's restaurant row.

This is one of Qingdao's newest and hottest (in multiple ways) Sichuan restaurants.  The chef and nearly all of the staff are from Sichuan province.  Word has it that the chef here was told not to change a thing from what he was doing previously as chef at one of Sichuan's finest restaurants and near as I can tell he hasn't.  In other words, the food here can be ridiculously hot.  One of my favorite dishes here is a shrimp dish, where the shrimp are completely covered in a mound of red peppers when the dish is first brought to the table.  The shrimp are so spicy they burn my mouth, but I cannot stop eating them.  The tofu and fish dishes here have all been excellent as well, and the fried corn makes for a great side dish.   The restaurant itself is beautiful and would fit in just fine on one of London's or New York's trendiest streets. 

I always have a couple lunches at the very good and always pleasant Japanese restaurant within our apartment complex at the Silver Garden (200 feet away from the Seaview Garden Hotel, which is at No. 2, Zhanghua Road). The chef here spent time in Japan and he always insists on speaking Japanese with Steve (who does speak Japanese, but not as well as he speaks Chinese).  The clientele here seems to be made up mostly of Japanese and Koreans who live in the apartment (or perhaps are staying at the Seaview Garden Hotel.  The cooked mackerel and salmon here are excellent, as is the ever changing array of side dishes that come with every meal.  The staff at this small restaurant are always welcoming.   

I also had excellent pizza for lunch one day at La Villa, 5 Xianggang Zhong, which MyRedStar aptly describes as being just "a pizza throw" up the street from the Shangri-La Hotel and just opposite Qingdao's World Trade Center. 

Dou Lai Shun , at 232 Minjiang Lu, is a great place to go for hot pot. 

Qingdao's two online English language information websites are good sources for restaurant (and all sorts of other) information on Qingdao.  MyRedStar.com maintains an up to date list of Qingdao restaurants (oftentimes reviewed and/or with reader comments) and That's Qingdao has a pdf list of popular restaurants here. 

On Sunday, I actually got a little time to do some sightseeing so I went to Changle Lu, also known as Qingdao Culture Street.  This long street, in the old part of Qingdao, is made up almost exclusively of art galleries, book shops, and video stores.  It also has a small outside market where street vendors line up selling mostly art and small antiques.  This is a great place to bargain for and pick up old Mao Zedong plates and authentic little red books.  A 200+ unit luxury apartment building is under construction on this street so I imagine it will be very different in a few months. 

If anyone ever has any questions regarding Qingdao, please feel free to e-mail either Steve or me and we will try to assist.