Economic Downturns. Bad for Foreigners. In China And Always.

I am just returning from a delightful family vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we got around mostly by taxi. Both my kids speak Spanish fairly well and I am totally willing to fake it. One of the things I quickly learned from our conversations with the taxi drivers is that there is a big split between the Puerto Ricans and the Dominicans. We heard of this during our first day there, in our second cab ride.

Our first cab ride had been from our hotel, with a very polite, very well spoken Dominican cab driver. Our second cab ride was from San Juan's old town, and this driver was a very young Puerto Rican, who made it a point to spend maybe the first five minutes of the ride lecturing us on the differences between Puerto Rican and Dominican cabbies. As we careened wildly through San Juan's streets, with the car radio blasting out Spanish hip-hop, he told us of how the Dominicans are all crazy drivers and how it is not even safe to get in their cabs. He then proceeded to make sure we knew that the Dominicans are all money-hungry and that is the only reason they drive a cab at all. My poor Spanish and being with my family prevented me from asking if he was driving a cab for charitable reasons. Lastly, the Dominicans are all in Puerto Rico illegally and they do not pay their taxes.

In other words, absolutely nothing we all haven't heard a million times in a million places about some immigrant or minority group somewhere.

I am telling you about the cab situation in San Juan to highlight how routine this sort of thing is, not that it is ever right. And I certainly do not have to be a sociologist to point out that these sorts of comments and, more importantly, actions based on these sorts of comments, increase when times are bad or even when times are perceived to be bad.

I thought of that today when I read a post on Shanghaiist entitled, "Crackdown underway on foreigners teaching without work visas." The gist of the post is that the Shanghai Daily had run an article letting everyone know that the Shanghai police are reminding "foreigners without work visas not to look for employment in the city." This reminder also notes that if you are "found out, you'll be fined and deported." I also thought of the San Juan comments when I returned maybe the tenth email from a Shanghai-based consultant friend of mine, who has, over the last three months or so, been screaming about the various things the Chinese government is doing (starting with its imposing the social insurance taxes on foreigners) to drive down the population in China. My response to him is usually just to tell him that my law firm has been seeing an increase in requests for help from businesspeople deported from China for not having a proper visa.

The bottom line is that as China's economy heads South, or even as fears of its doing so increase, we can expect that pressures on foreigners operating illegally in China will increase.  To repeat, pressures on foreigners operating illegally in China will increase. I repeated this sentence because it seems like whenever I write about China cracking down on those there illegally, someone almost always attacks me for criticizing China for following the law. Wrong. I am drawing no moral conclusions here. All I am saying is that right now (and the next six months) is not a good time to be operating illegally in China as you can expect China to step up enforcement of its laws against foreigners and your chances of being caught in that have just gone way up.

If you are working in China without a work visa or running an unregistered business, you are at risk. You will be seen as taking jobs from locals and there will be little to no sympathy shown.

UPDATE: Just saw that the Lost Laowai Blog did a post, entitled, "From Foreign Friends to Foreign Felons – new law wants your foreign fingerprints," on a China Daily post discussing how China is looking to tighten its enforcement and its laws regarding foreigners overstaying their visas. Many see this (and China's mandating that foreigners pay into China's social insurance as another example of China's tightening the screws on foreigners. Though I have a tough time challenging China on a legal basis for these new laws (and I recognize that the United States already has similar laws in place), I do not think it a coincidence that these laws were enacted and are being proposed during tough times. China's paranoia about foreigners taking jobs from Chinese nationals is probably justified, but by the same token, if you are a foreigner in China right now and feeling a bit paranoid yourself, that too is entirely justified as well. 

What are you seeing out there and what do you think about it? 

China And Its People. Just ONE Book.

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?

A Complete Guide To China's High-Speed Rail.

Train aficionado, David Feng (and author of China Travel 2.0), recently wrote a very helpful piece for CNNgo on China's high speed rail, entitled, "A complete guide to China's high-speed rail: Four expert tips and 5 top lines travelers shouldn't miss."

If you will be traveling on China's high-speed rail or even if you are just contemplating doing so, I recommend you check out David's piece.

Update:  I received an email from a reader, stating the following:  The high speed rail article mentions that foreigners can't buy tickets online. But I was reading here that now they can. I haven't bought tickets online myself yet. But should soon, to know for sure.

Service In China. Good Luck With That, Part II.

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:

What's happened to you?

 

A Chinese Brothel Scam. Don't Let It Happen To You.

It happened again last week. Multiple calls from the same person, wanting to speak with me urgently, yet refusing to provide any information to our receptionist on the nature of his issue.

I eventually called this person back and here's pretty much what we discussed (which was essentially what I have heard from two other callers in the last 6-8 months or so):

Caller:  I've never done this before and I feel terrible.

Me:  Done what? Talk to a lawyer?

Caller:  Gotten that kind of massage.

Me:  Okay. But why are you calling me? Can we start at the beginning? 

Caller:  They took my passport and said that I would never be able to enter the country again unless I paid them USD$4000.  I didn't have that money so I went to an ATM over the next few days and kept paying them and I had the rest sent to me by Western Union.

Me:  Wait a second. Can we please start at the beginning. I am totally confused.

Caller:  I went to get a massage. I was tired and my back was hurting. I'm never going to do that again, I swear to you.

Me:  Okay. Look, what you do is really none of my business.

Caller:  I know but what I did was wrong and it led to a lot more than that and I have never done that before and I am really ashamed.

Me:  Okay.

Caller:  And right after it all happened, the owner and two others burst into the room and one of them looked like he was a police officer. They told me that what I had done was illegal and they demanded by passport and I gave it to them.

Me:  Okay.

Caller:  They then told me that they were going to hold my passport and press charges against me unless I paid the USD$4000 fine. I gave them all I had on me and told them that I would need more time to get the rest.

Me:  Did you pay them the rest? 

Caller:  Yes.

Me:  Did they return your passport?

Caller:  Yes.

Me:  Are you now back in the United States?

Caller:  Yes.

Me:  Then why are you calling me now? When did all of this even happen?

Caller:  Three months ago, but my company is sending me back to China and I am worried that I am going to get arrested for what I did. I swear I will never do anything like that again.

Me:  Yeah, that would be wise. But what do you want from me?

Caller:  Do you think I'm going to get arrested?

Me:  I have no idea. Those guys are probably just so delighted to have made USD$4000 off of you that they don't care about you anymore and who knows if the guy in the uniform was a police officer or not and since what they did was almost certainly illegal, I doubt if they ever reported you to anyone, much less border patrol, but I don't know. 

Caller:  But should I go to China?

Me:  That's your call. We could spend all kinds of effort trying to find out if you are on any police or border lists or not, but no matter what we do we'll almost certainly never know for sure. 

Caller:  I'm never going to do anything like that again. I really do feel so ashamed.

Me:  Okay. Well. Good-bye. 

Caller:  But should I go or not?

Me:  I really can't tell you one way or the other.  You are the one who is going to need to make that decision. But if you do go, I would stay away from the neighborhood in which that massage parlor is located. Good-bye.

Caller:  Good-bye. And I was being serious when I said I would never do anything like that again. I really have learned my lesson.

Me:  I understand. Good-bye.

It seems this scam is becoming fairly common. Were you aware of it?

Oh, and if you need another reason not to do what this guy did, check out this article.

Simply China (The Book). Simply Beautiful.

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.

China FDI In Iceland. Soft Power Done Hardly Well At All.

The following is a guest post from one of our readers in Iceland, Neil Holdsworth. Neil has been updating me via email regarding a Chinese investor who is seeking to purchase a massive amount of land in Iceland and the controversies that have been attendant to that. When he asked me why I don't write a post about it, I asked him the same question and the below is the result. 

As has been reported extensively elsewhere, China has taken an interest in Iceland as a potential location for a deep sea port on arctic shipping routes and as a future source of fresh water. Though China has not shown signs of embarking on an Africa-style resource grab in Iceland, it obviously has a long term strategic interest in the country. It is proposing to develop what will be by far the biggest embassy in Reykjavik, raising eyebrows among the country's 320,000 inhabitants.
 
Despite Iceland's being part of the European Economic Area, investment opportunities for outsiders here are limited. However, the tourism industry is open to foreign investment and a number of successful tourism related businesses are seeking finance for expansion. Financing is nearly impossible to obtain in Iceland because of its banking problems (there are mostly no new loans, only old loans being renegotiated and written off). For this reason and others, the government is keen to attract foreign investors in this sector.

Instead of buying into relatively safe and established companies, this China group is trying to do something much more symbolic and grand. China wants to come to Iceland's rescue, but on China's own terms and in its own way -- buying no less than 0.3% of the land mass of the country and unveiling a vision of a new Chinese sponsored tourism in the country. China-based investors are proposing two huge hotels, a new airline, golf courses to be built in the mountains, horse riding, and hot air balloon rides. And all of this is going to happen year round.
 
This vision for Iceland makes little commercial sense and is very unlikely to work, mainly because for about 80% of the time in Iceland, the weather is so miserable you can't go outside for more than a few minutes at a time. What probably started as a genuine and good natured attempt to invest in an area of the economy in which Icelanders are desperate for investors, has descended into a fiasco. Everyone wants to know why the Chinese investors need 300 square kilometers of land for a hotel, and Mr. Nubo, who is heading up the investment from the China side, has no convincing answer.

Mr. Nubo is saying the controversy is making him think about taking his money elsewhere. Iceland's  interior minister (from whom approval of the deal is necessary) has responded to the effect that he is more interested in looking at speeding up the approval times for residency permits, than in dealing with Mr Nubo, who can wait in line with everyone else.

Though buying up 300 square kilometres of overgrazed wilderness does not confer rights to build a Chinese military base in the Icelandic countryside, there are some people here [in Iceland] who seem to believe that. Even if Mr. Nubo and his group buy the land, Iceland will still require they secure planning permission and pass Environmental Impact tests, for whatever it is they want to do with it. Whatever Mr Nubo's motivations for his project, this episode does demonstrate how suspicious people are of China, and of how little soft power China actually has, particularly in the West.

Indeed, the most believable analysis I have heard of the project itself is that China wanted to help Iceland out and so it sent over a property developer/poet/cat lover/arctic explorer with connections to the Icelandic Social Democratic party to invest in the one area of Iceland's economy where foreign investment is tolerated. Despite this, it has all backfired spectacularly. As someone who lives part-time in Iceland and who is cautiously optimistic about China's role in the world, I'd suggest that if China wants to use FDI as a way of building up good will among Icelanders, it consider building a brewery in my town of Flateyri would achieve a lot more (and cost much less) than golf courses and five star hotels. 

11-26-2011 Update.  Iceland has rejected Mr. Nubo Huang's purchase of this land, saying that it is incompatible with Icelandic laws. An article on this can be found here.

Everything You Want To Know About China. The Ten Minute Video Version.

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?

China In America. Newton, Iowa, Edition.

Just spent the last day and a half in the heart of Iowa. Though I was there to be on a bunch of panels at Grinnell College, parents weekend there necessitated that I spend my nights in the neighboring town of Newton, Iowa. Newton has a population of about 15,000 and it is known for being the former home of Maytag Appliances, the present home of the Maytag Dairy (and its Maytag blue cheese) and for being where Rocky Marciano's plane went down. Perhaps more importantly for some, it is also has a gorgeous Maid-Rite.

I arrived fairly late to Newton and this being the heart of the Midwest and my not eating meat, my dining choices were looking pretty limited. Out of an overabundance of a lack of caution, I decided to eat at the Chinese restaurant in town. Though American-Chinese cuisine, it was shockingly decent.

I got to the restaurant about twenty minutes before its 9:00 p.m. closing, which meant I got to watch that Chinese restaurant staple of the restaurant workers being served their own dinner. What surprised me (maybe it should not have) was that every single employee was Chinese (or at least appeared to be). As I paid my bill, I asked the cashier/apparent owner, where she was from. She seemed to hesitate just a bit and then said "China." Where in China, I asked, just about certain she would say Fujian. She did. 

I am fascinated by America's small towns. I am in awe of how so many of them seem to both stay the same and change. At one time, just about every U.S. town between 15,000 and 25,000 had a general store/department store/clothing store/furniture store owned by Jewish immigrants, whose sons and daughters have mostly moved to bigger cities today. Now it seems those U.S. towns now all have one or two Chinese restaurants run by immigrants from Fujian. Who are these immigrants? Do they go straight to these small towns or start in New York or Los Angeles and then move later? Do they plan to stay in these towns, move elsewhere in the United States or return to China? What is it like being one of damn few Chinese or even Asians in these places?

Many many years ago, I represented an Asian (I am being intentionally vague here) family whose son had been expelled from a small town's school system for having damaged a teacher's property. The parents (who spoke no English) had hired my firm to get their kid exonerated and back to school. The parents had a successful business, consisting of two stores and were pretty much the only Asians in the town. They were short in stature and everything about their physical appearance said the country from which they had come and not the town in which they were living. Their high school age son was nearly six feet tall, wore baggy jeans and a Raiders jersey and he looked like any "cool" kid from a big city American high school. 

He told me the story of his innocence in front of his parents, but I wasn't buying it.

I arranged a meeting with him separately and essentially told him that if he was really innocent, I would be happy to take every dollar his parents for his defense. But that he would be wasting his parents' money if the school system really did have so many witnesses of him in the act.  I told him that if he did it, he needed to come clean with me so I could work with the school system to get his expulsion revoked in favor of a less harsh sentence -- from my conversations with key people with the schools, I knew we had a very good chance of this because they too wanted to avoid costly litigation. During our various conversations, the son told me that he loved his parents (I really liked them too), of how his parents had come to the United States for him and that he did not want them to have to spend so much money on his defense because he had in fact done the deed for which he had been expelled.

He also poured forth with how difficult it was being the only Asian at his school. His school had "Americans" and "Hispanics" (his language, not mine) and nobody, including him, was sure in which group he fit. He said he had done this bad act to fit in (my language, not his).

I explained all this to the school people, got the expulsion reduced to time already served by way of a suspension. I ended up really liking the kid and I "felt his pain" as a kid without any natural peer group.

For a long time, Maytag Appliance was one of the leading (the leading) employers in Newton. It and its thousands of jobs are now gone and its quite large, quite nice office building has a "For Sale or Lease" sign out front. Maytag was purchased by Whirlpool and its Newton operations (both manufacturing and corporate) moved elsewhere. How much of that was due to China? How much of that do Newtonians pin on China? Does anyone blame the local Chinese (gosh, I sure hope not!)? On the flip side, I kept hearing about how the price of farmland in Iowa is at record highs and how the price of pork is doing just fine as well. I am sure China plays some role in this and I wonder if or how this is considered.

Are there studies or surveys or articles on any of this? 

What do you know?

Service In China. Good Luck With That.

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....

Beijing Daze. Because I Like It.

I am always getting emails from people asking me what they should be reading on China politics, China travel, China food, China this and China that. My quick answer is to refer them to our blogroll. But that only goes so far because our blogroll is intentionally and decidedly quite narrow, confined almost exclusively blogs relating to doing business in or with China.

There are countless other excellent blogs out there, of course, and many of those are on China. I try to have all of those in my RSS feeder and I also try to at least skim them from time to time. 

Just today I realized how much I enjoy and for how long I have enjoyed the Beijing Daze blog, and yet I have not once mentioned it on this blog.  Until now.

Beijing Daze describes itself as "ramblings and comments about Beijing Live Music Scene, Chinese Restaurants in Beijing as well as any weird and quirky cultural ditties that I might come across!" It is heavily skewed toward Beijing's music scene. 

It is written by a "dude" who describes himself as follows:

I’m just another expat in Beijing with a fingers, a keyboard and enough IT knowledge to setup a blog and -as you might have noticed- I’m not afraid to use it!

I have been in China since Feb 2004 and in Beijing since Feb 2006 so it’s has been a few years. I love Beijing and can’t picture myself living anywhere else in this massive country! Why? The sheer diversity and complexity and simplicity of the experiences I’ve had in this mecca of smog!

This blog reflects more or less my interests in life which are food, music and IT! I spend quite a bit of time out and about in the city and can be found generally hiding behind a wine glass or a white russian in the greater chaoyang area with occasional escapades into dongcheng!

I started this blog to keep track of places I was looking for and present information/share experiences in Beijing in a way that I would have liked to find them thus the whole “biased perspective” thing.

I mean, where else can you read about a Uighur psychedlic rock band?

Beijing Daze is not likely to impact the profits of your China business nor will it help you better understand China's laws, but it will increase your knowledge of Beijing and its music scene and if you have an interest in that, then I heartily recommend it to you.

UPDATE: Apparently, Beijing Daze is not the only place where one can read about China's ethnic music scene. The New York Times just came out with a story entitled, "Ethnic Music Tests Limits in China."

Qingdao's New Bridge As Symbol Of China Infrastructure.

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.

Random China Thoughts. Been There, Done That.

Just arrived Seoul after a quasi-whirlwind China tour. Started in Shanghai, then went to Beijing and then to Qingdao. It had been around four months since I was in China last, and as is my habit, I am going to toss out my random thoughts from my trip.

Here is what I saw/thought.

1. Shanghai, Beijing and Qingdao all seem to be booming. However, those who are on the fringes of the boom, seem to be getting angrier by the day. in particular, Beijing cab drivers have gone from being the surliest in the world to bordering on being serial killers. My favorite was the one who told us to f--k our mothers after HE missed our hotel and then drove into a dead-end street after we told him to circle back. It's tough living on $300 a month in a very expensive city. #7 below also does not help much in relieving their stress. 

2. Three people (all foreigners) told me they have pretty much stopped eating out because they are afraid of the food. As one well-known China lawyer told me, "if I buy my own food, i have taken away one more potential trouble spot." On the flip side, at least a dozen people said there's no place they would rather be. China is where "everything" is happening. And fast.

3. I stayed at a brand new Crowne Plaza in Beijing. Though nominally an American hotel, it is very Chinese. One day, I remarked to Steve how the risk of staying in a brand new hotel is that the whole thing might just collapse on us because it has yet to stand the test of time. Very next day, there were sticks propping up a couple of mirror tiles on the ceiling by the elevator. After that, I was perpetually worried about the ones without the sticks.

4. One night a bunch of us had dinner at South Silk Road restaurant. The restaurant, owned by Beijing artist Fang Lijun, was gorgeous, with his paintings festooned everywhere. The food was excellent, as was the service. We then crossed the street and met some more people for drinks at the Pavillion, a high-end bar/restaurant. We were sitting outside when we all of a sudden started smelling something and then realized that a truck was going by spraying massive amounts of pesticide. We ran inside. I mention all this because Beijing does remain a city of contrasts. High end restaurants but spraying of pesticides at 9 at night without a care for the countless people in the path.  

5. China does not have a housing market; it has a speculative market made up of people who buy property strictly as investments. Think of the condos as gold, not housing. A decent (not great) condo in Qingdao now costs around $500,000 but rents for only around $500 a month. Everyone said that half the condos in Qingdao are vacant, mostly bought by investors who don't live in them. More and more are being built.

6. There were a number of important government type buildings that were 80-90% finished but then construction stopped. The explanation given to me by the Chinese lawyers was that they never made much sense in the first place, other than as vehicles for enriching bureaucrats' pockets. 

7. Man but I had some amazingly good food. All three cities are getting increasingly diverse and sophisticated in their offerings.

8. Beijing has more $300,000+ cars than any city in the world, I think. It is a good thing China's peasants do not go to Beijing very often (other than as cab drivers). Not very subtle. 

9. Had many discussions with Chinese lawyers. They are very frustrated with China's court system. Their complaints are that there is little predictability and that the judges are random. Randomness/lack of caring/lack of scholarship were the big complaints. Why bother killing yourself on a brief and a hearing when the judges won't read it and don't really care?

10. China's Internet was worse than it has been within the last five years. My old standby VPNs did not work to allow me to watch US TV shows or to get on Facebook. Again and again, people (both Chinese and non-Chinese) talked of how Beijing is doing what it can to try to stay ahead of the people and it is doing so with both carrots and sticks. The carrots are things like more accessible health care. The sticks are obvious. 

11. Can China become a great economic power without massive improvements in the above, or will it get to a Thailand-like prosperity and then peter out? Or will it change?

12. While in Beijing I did a TV interview for a Hong Kong program on how American manufacturers are leaving China. I mentioned that as my firms' manufacturing business declines, our creative services business is growing and more than taking up the slack. Five years ago, a large part of my firm's business was in the Shanghai-Suzhou area and consisted mostly of manufacturing companies that were headquartered there. Five years ago, we did almost no business in Beijing. Beijing was for government and we were not very involved with that. Now, we do more business in Beijing than anywhere else. By far. Beijing has become the center for software, gaming, film, media, photography, sports and entertainment and various other creative service businesses and that is where we are seeing massive growth. We recently brought on a new lawyer (Mathew Alderson) whose practice focuses on these industries so I am sure that is clouding my view a bit, but at the same time, one of the reasons we brought Mathew on board was to handle the increasing number of such clients and to give me a foil for my Australia jokes. Are you seeing the same thing? 

13. I have traveled all over Asia, North America, Europe and much of Latin America, and in no country of which I have been other than China do the people stand up on the airplane too early when landing and then try to push their way through. Am I making too much of this or should this be instructive on how business is done there? 

14. I attended a talk given by co-blogger Steve Dickinson on how to protect your IP in China. The talk was put on by the China Helpdesk (a superb source for China IP info) and was geared a bit towards those in the creative industries. Steve mentioned how in virtually every instance where he has confronted IP and trade secret theft, it has germinated from an ex-employee or a customer. As Steve put it, it is almost always your "good friend who you have known for 17 years."  Two Chinese lawyers in attendance told Steve that of course that would be the case. At least one Westerner expressed surprise at this.

15. Didn't get a cough from Beijing this time. Has it really gotten better?

16. Went by a number of massive buildings that were 80-90% finished when construction stopped. Best explanation I got for those was that the skimming had already been taken out of them, so no need to continue. Developer borrows $25 million, skims $5 million off the top and then hires his cronies to build and skims another $3-5 million off that and then why even bother continuing? This seems to happen most often with quasi-government type buildings.

Fire away people. What do you think?

Think Locally About Your China Blogs.

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 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?

Where To Locate Your Business In China. This Download Will Tell You.

The other day we did a post, entitled, "An Amazingly Good (And Free!) Intro to China," on The China-Britain Business Council's recently published China Business Guide. One of our readers, Juha Lassila, left a comment extolling the virtues of HSBC's new book, entitled, "Inside the Growth Engine: A guide to China’s regions, provinces and cities.

This guide is also free and it is amazing. It consists of 245 pages and it does a better job than any book I have seen in describing and graphing China's regions, provinces and cities. I have seen other books that have sought to do what this book does, and most fall flat, mostly regurgitating a bunch of boring government generated statistics. This guide is also replete with statistics, but it does such a nice job in compiling them and graphing them that it makes for a fascinating and highly informative read. 

It is going to be the book to which I refer clients seeking to know more about the colossus that is China and I highly recommend it to anyone doing business in or with China, or just interested.

What do you think?

 

 

Chinese Immigrants In America. Ummm.

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? 

Interfering In China. What's A Laowai To Do?

Anyone who has spent any real time in China has had to deal with a situation similar to that thoughtfully described in this post, entitled, "Breaking the ‘rules’ in China — getting involved when you know you’re not supposed to." The post is about a public fight between a man and a woman and the issue is whether the laowai (foreigner) should get involved and I recommend you read it and give us your thoughts.

 

China Visas Just Got Easier AND Tougher.

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. 

97% Of Chinese Want To Live In The United States. Is This Really True?

The Globalist is out with an article, entitled, "The American Dream Is Alive and Well…In China," stating that "we heard that if U.S. immigration policies allowed it, 97% of the Chinese people would probably want to move to the United States." (h/t China Challenges)  

I talked a bit about this previously in a post entitled, "Representing Chinese Companies. I See Some Light:"

Many of the Chinese companies that seek to hire us for one thing (let's say, forming a US company) really have another goal in mind (let's say getting visas for their families and getting their kids into U.S. schools). They do not tell us of their real goals until we are way into the project.

And again in "The Chinese Are Coming, Part XII. To A Public School Near You":

My own experiences have forced me to add an additional reason: sending kids to United States public elementary schools. Not kidding.

I should have realized this sooner, because this has been true of many of my firm's Russian and Korean clients for many years.

At least half the time, my meetings with Chinese companies looking to come to the United States devolve into a conversation as to whether it is really true that they will immediately be able to get their five year old kid (yes, the kid is usually five years old!) into a top neighborhood school for free. I swear that our saying "yes" to that question triples the chances of some sort of transaction going through.

The United States and Canada are the number one and two most desired countries for people from Asia, according to this recent Gallup survey. (h/t Global Small Business Blog) The reason the US scores so well is "opportunity," including for children, which translates into education.

UPDATE: Shanghaiist did a post, entitled, "Special delivery: mainland mothers heading to US to give birth," on how wealthy Chinese mothers-to-be are hopping on airplanes to the United States so their kids can attain United States citizenship by being born there.

But still, 97%. Can that really be? What do you think? 97%, real or made-up out of whole cloth?

The China Rich....Are Not Like Us?

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?

 

Cambodia: China's Newest Appendage?

Co-bloogger Steve Dickinson just returned from a business trip to Cambodia. As China's costs rise, American and European companies are beginning to turn to Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, Cambodia, and even Laos, for their manufacturing outsourcing. This post focuses on Steve's time in Cambodia, and, specifically on its growing relationship with China.

By Steve Dickinson

I just returned from Cambodia. On this trip, I stayed in Phnom Penh and explored the city carefully for the first time. There are a number of notable changes from the last time I was there, about a year and a half ago:

• The Cambodian government has worked hard to develop the riverfront area. Though the rest of the city remains in a state of remarkable disrepair, the parks and riverfront along the Mekong and Tonle Sap have been entirely modernized. The locals have taken to the modern park-like atmosphere and have made the waterfront a local hang-out, especially on mornings and weekends. This is in marked contrast to the old days, where the riverfront was mostly relegated to tourists.

• Most of the current development seems to be highly dependent on Chinese (Hong Kong/Mainland/Singapore) investment. The visible, modern developments in Phnom Penh all seem to be based on Chinese money. The locals even claim that their new parliament building and prime minister’s office were funded by the Chinese. On a larger scale, the Chinese and Cambodian governments on November 4 announced that China had agreed to invest $USD1.6 billion on infrastructure projects in Cambodia over the next five years.

• Cambodia has become a center for outsourcing of textiles. Conditions in this business seem to have improved. When I was last in Cambodia, five of the textile factories in Phnom Penh were on strike. The strikes were all directed at mainland Chinese employers. This worker unrest seems to have passed and on this visit all the factories were operating at full capacity. Cambodia has a small but skilled workforce, primarily composed of young women from the countryside. The government plan is to move more aggressively into outsource-focused manufacturing. The major limitation is the supply of electricity. During my visit I had talks with several consultants who are working on electricity issues throughout S.E. Asia. The problem for Cambodia is that it has no good locations for hydro-power. The Chinese are rumored to be planning a major power plant project in Cambodia as part of the investment program discussed above. The mystery is what will be used to fuel the proposed power plant. Cambodia has no coal resources, no coal port and no coal transport infrastructure. So the building of a power plant requires consideration of all these infrastructure issues.

• The Cambodians I talked with appear to have accepted that their economy will become dominated by China. If true, this would mean that China has successfully moved to dominate Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in S.E. Asia. The presence of the Chinese is greeted by the locals with indifference. There is very little evidence of any real interest in Cambodia by any other country, so the impression given by the locals is consistent with the facts on the ground. From the standpoint of the Cambodians, Thailand and Viet Nam are their traditional enemies. Alliance with China is seen as a way to keep those traditional enemies at bay. This is in stark contrast with Viet Nam which is moving closer to the United States, in large part as a counter to China. 

• During my stay, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a plan to close down the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal and terminate trials of the remaining Khmer Rouge. This was a topic of interest in the foreign NGO community. The locals greeted the news with indifference.

• During my stay, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also present in Phnom Penh. Her visit was not mentioned on local television or in the local newspapers. The Cambodians I spoke with stated that they feel the U.S. has written off Cambodia as an investment target. In particular, they see the close relations of the U.S. with Viet Nam and Thailand as a threat to Cambodia. As a result, Ms. Clinton’s visit was treated as a non-event.

• I took a number of visits into rural villages. In the area around Phnom Penh there is definitely a feeling that more money is moving into the rural economy. The people are starting to paint their houses and they are moving from wood construction to concrete. These are the usual signs of rural wealth. The birthrate in the country side is high, which means there will no doubt be plenty of laborers down the road to work in the textile, shoe and furniture factories being planned for the Phnom Penh area. Let’s hope they get the electricity situation figured out by the time these kids are ready to go to work.

• I visited for the first time the National Museum in Phnom Penh. This museum houses most of the fragile sculpture from the Angkor Wat temple complexes. This museum is one of the best I have been to in Asia and is well worth a visit. It is very laid back, like the rest of Cambodia. The exhibits, however, are world class.

• My overall impression is that Cambodia is not trying to compete with Viet Nam for American business, nor would it be likely to succeed if it did.  At this point, most foreign direct investment in Cambodia is coming from China and from overseas Chinese and I do not see that changing in the shot term. 

What are you seeing out there?

China-Hong Kong Flights Just Got Cheaper.

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.   

Eight China Business Travel Tips.

The Dragon Business Network Blog did a post, entitled, "7 Tips for Business Travel to China." Believing both that one was missing and that eight is a lucky number, I added one more.  

Here are the original seven:

  1. Bring an unlocked mobile phone
  2. Take taxis everywhere
  3. Use Mguanxi to get around the city
  4. Program 962288 into your phone, in Shanghai
  5. Register with Ctrip
  6. Know that some hotels cater to the domestic market, not foreigners 
  7. Treat yourself to a tailor-made suit

Is Ctrip necessarily better than elong?

For more on the seven, I urge you to read the full post here.  

And now for the eight tip. Enjoy yourself at least a bit. If at all possible, spend a few hours taking in some of the tourist sites.  Walk around the city in which you find yourself. Enjoy the food. Get out of your hotel.

What else?

Imagining China....

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. 

Xinjiang, China, As A Place To Go.

For years now, Beijing has been doing its darndest to encourage foreign investment in Xinjiang and for years now, it seems very little of that has been happening. My firm did some work for a German food company that was buying product from there and for an oil services equipment company that was supplying product to there and I came "this close" to going to Urumqi for a couple of depositions in a case that settled only weeks before the depositions were to occur, but that is it. i can tell you though that if you ever need to conduct a deposition in Urumqi and have it filmed and broadcast over the internet, the Sheraton there seems to be the place for that.

Though near as I can tell not much is happening in Xinjiang for Western business, it is (or at least it was) a fairly prime tourist destination. If you are planning to go there for any reason, you should check out the FarWestChina Xinjiang blog which just came out with a really good post, entitled, "FarWestChina Xinjiang Travel Resources," setting out a host of excellent links for those travelling to Xinjiang.  

Urumqi is actually the answer to one of my favorite trivia questions; what is the most remote city from any sea in the world (per the Guinness Book of Records)?  

Any of you done any business in Xinjiang.  

Stuff Laowai Like In China. I'll Cop To All That.

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?

Gotta Get To China? For You, Very Cheap....With Points.

Ryan Bingham: Our business expense allots forty dollars each for dinner. I plan on grabbing as many miles as I can.
Natalie Keener: Okay, you got to fill me in on the miles thing. What is that about? You're talking about, like, frequent flyer miles?
Ryan Bingham: You really want to know?
Natalie Keener: I'm dying to know.
Ryan Bingham: I don't spend a nickel, if I can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account.
Natalie Keener: So, what are you saving up for? Hawaii? South of France?
Ryan Bingham: It's not like that. The miles are the goal.
Natalie Keener: That's it? You're saving just to save?
Ryan Bingham: Let's just say that I have a number in mind and I haven't hit it yet.
Natalie Keener: That's a little abstract. What's the target?
Ryan Bingham: I'd rather not...
Natalie Keener: Is it a secret target?
Ryan Bingham: It's ten million miles.
Natalie Keener: Okay. Isn't ten million just a number?
Ryan Bingham: Pi's just a number.
Natalie Keener: Well, we all need a hobby. No, I- I- I don't mean to belittle your collection. I get it. It sounds cool.
Ryan Bingham: I'd be the seventh person to do it. More people have walked on the moon.
Natalie Keener: Do they throw you a parade?
Ryan Bingham: You get lifetime executive status. You get to meet the chief pilot, Maynard Finch.
Natalie Keener: Wow.
Ryan Bingham: And they put your name on the side of a plane.
Natalie Keener: Men get such hardons from putting their names on things. You guys don't grow up. It's like you need to pee on everything.

From the movie, "Up In The Air"

Elliott Ng at CNReviews has a great post, entitled, "Finding Discount Airfare to Shanghai from US." The post talks about how airfare to China is up this year and then goes on to set out various ways to find low fares. My favorite paragraph, however was the following:

Because I'm a United Airlines mileage whore loyalty program member, I'm willing to pay a little more to fly a Star Alliance flight that gives me the miles and even more importantly, the Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) that give me a chance at being treated like a human being elite status on United.

For no other reason beyond the fact that I began my career in Chicago (home of United Airlines), I too have an unwavering Star Alliance addiction.

Elliott's post does a great job laying out various options for finding cheap fares to China that goes way, way, beyond the basics, ranging from a number of relatively obscure, but excellent, online sites, to a travel agent in San Francisco's Chinatown.

I have one addition to make Sharp Travel in Seattle is the best place I know from which to buy tickets on Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines. Word is that Sharp is always at or near the top in US tickets sold on these two airlines. Nick was originally introduced to me by a high level executive from a Korean chaebol, who told me "all of the Koreans" in Seattle get their tickets there.

All I know is that every third time or so there seems to be some ultra-high level muckity-muck from Asiana or Korean Airlines hanging out at Sharp in an obvious effort to win its favor and that the prices and the perks from buying there invariably beat anything on the internet. I have flown Asiana from Seattle to Seoul to Qingdao or Shanghai or Beijing or Dalian, business class and with a free hotel night and transportation in Seoul for as little as $1600 and coach for as little as $700. I have bought next day tickets from Sharp for hundreds of dollars less than anything on the net. Oh, and they include miles. FULL DISCLOSURE: Nick is a friend of mine and a part owner of my lunchtime hangout, Redfin restaurant, but I assure you that he had no idea I was writing this and I have no expectation of receiving any remuneration for having done so, beyond maybe a sushi combo....

I am a big Asiana Airlines fan because it is in the Star Alliance, because it has relatively new planes and an excellent safety record, and because it has such an incredible network of Asian (and Chinese) cities to which it flies. I also like stopping off in Seoul, which has one of the two or three best airports in the world, which includes a quite decent and well-priced in-airport hotel and very nice Hyatt a five minute free shuttle away and a very new Sheraton a little bit further out in Incheon. I like flying to Seoul, arriving in the evening, spending the night there, then flying on to China the next morning, fully refreshed. Then on the way back, I typically spend a couple days in Seoul proper, so for me, Seoul is the perfect layover and since only Hainan airlines flies direct from Seattle, I'm looking at a layover pretty much no matter what.

Bon Voyage.

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China (And Other) Border Guards. Hate 'Em At Your Own Peril. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

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.

Evacuation Insurance For China. Why This Cushy Boy Says Yes.

At my old law firm, I was one of two lawyers who traveled constantly. Back then it was mostly to China, Russia, Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam, but sometimes even more exotic places like Papua New Guinea would come in. I later learned that at least one of our staff would refer to the two of us as "the cushy boys" because we had so many requirements on each trip, ranging from where we liked to be on the plane (always the aisle for me) to where we wanted to be in the hotel (not so high as to be unreachable in a fire and yet not so low as to be the first to be hit) to the airline (if it is not part of the Star Alliance, I ain't goin'). And so on and so on.

So now that I have established my credentials as a travel wuss, let me just say that I feel somewhat vindicated with respect to another one of my peccadilloes by a New York Times article I read today on Haiti, entitled, "For Travelers in Danger, Someone to Swoop In." The article talks about those in Haiti who were able to secure an emergency evacuation because they had evacuation insurance. Many years ago, I was involved in a case where someone was badly injured in a very remote region of the Russian Far East (and when I am talking remote, I mean remote, even for the Russian Far East). This person was evacuated to a hospital in the US and the cost of that evacuation was (if I recall correctly) around $100,000. Since then I have bought evacuation insurance whenever I travel to any country/region with less than world-class health-care. Fortunately, I have never had to use it, but still.....

Do you? What are your thoughts on this? Too cushy or just smart?

And while on the subject, I ask each of you to consider donating something (anything!) to Haiti.

UPDATE: A reader sent me this link to a very helpful post on the
Start in China blog, entitled, "Health insurance for expats in China." The post nicely sets out and describes various health insurance options for expats in China, including a list of those companies (with links) that provide such insurance.

Travel Tech for China. My Idiosyncratic Views.

"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?

Where's China? How 'Bout Estonia, Benin And Belize?

I know I ran this a few years ago, but you would be surprised how often people email asking where it is on our site. Rather than having to keep answering those emails, I decided I would run it again. The it is a country finding game that is "more fun than squishing tadpoles."

The game gives you maybe ten seconds to find a given country on an unmarked world map. Russia, China, the United States, and even France, Ethiopia, Sudan, Portugal, and France were relatively easy, but I defy anyone to find Luxembourg, Estonia, Latvia, Benin, Albania, or Belize in that time. Let the game begin. Click here and enjoy.

Let us know how you did.

China's Ten Most Beautiful Churches

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?

China And The Swine Flu. When Pigs Fly.

If you are not reading Absurdity, Allegory and China, you should be. It just did an excellent post, entitled, "One Flu East," on what could happen to you if you come to China with an elevated temperature or even if you just come in on a plane near someone with an elevated temperature. The gist of the post is that you will be quarantined and there will be no special dispensations.

The implicit message of the post, and one which applies to foreign businesses in China as well, is that once the Chinese government gets committed to something (and I mean really committed), it is difficult if not impossible to budge them. There is this idea that "guanxi" or just blame importance can cause the government to bend and that can be true. But there are certain central tenants that can take hold within the government that can become pretty much immutable. I do not know how many times I have had to tell foreign companies that do business in China that they have gone beyond the point at which my law firm can help them. Their response is oftentimes to complain about how Chinese law places "form over substance," to which my reply is usually, "yes they do, and that is why it is so important to follow it...."

So with the Swine flu out there, what's the best way to get into China from the United States or Europe? What sort of monitoring is going on for those entering China via Hong Kong by train/bus/ferry/taxi?

China: On Why To Stay Current On Your Rabies Shot

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?

China Tourist Attractions

One of the things I truly love about blogging on China is the interesting people I meet. One of those is Eutak (Tak for short), a software guy from Singapore who spent many years working for Microsoft here in the Pacific Northwest and then in Beijing. Tak and I share a love for running/walking/biking around Green Lake here in Seattle and, more importantly, a reverence for the baked goods from Hiroki's bakery and for great sushi everywhere.

Tak has an excellent China tech blog, called, appropriately enough, China Tech Blog, of which I am a regular reader. This blog focuses on "Chinese Internet, software, and information technology." Tak also has a super cool Web 2.0 site called funtouristattractions that really nicely sets out tourist attractions, historical attractions, cultural attractions, restaurants, hotels, nightlife, architecture, and shopping on interactive maps of Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, and Shenzhen. I checked out Qingdao on the site and was hugely impressed (in other words, I mostly agreed with the picks). There is a surprising paucity of helpful sites for tourists going to China and this one certainly helps fill the gap.

Shanghai And Beijing Maps Good Enough For Tom Cruise

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

Beijing Subway 101

Leave it to CNReviews to come out with a clearly written post on how to get around Beijing using Beijing's subway. The post is entitled, "Beijing Subway Guide: of Tickets and Faregates," and it does an excellent job setting out the dos and don'ts. If I might add one "do" of my own: do use the subway system as it is oftentimes the fastest way to get around: I truly cannot think of another city where I have consistently had to wait so long for a taxi as Beijing.

China's Olympics. Security Trumps Fun. Why Oh Why?

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."

How To Get From Airport To Town In Beijing

There are two kinds of people. Those who enjoy figuring out exactly how to get from one place to another and those who just want to know how best to get from one place to the other. David Feng of CNReviews is of the far rarer first category and he just did a post, entitled, "Beijing Capital International Airport Express(way) Guide (PEK)," setting forth how to "get from A to B — in this case, from Beijing Airport into “the Jing”, as they say."

It is a very helpful post and since there will soon be a new express train (16-25 minutes from airport to CBD), I urge everyone who will be flying into Beijing Capital Airport to check it out.

Planned US China Flights Postponed

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.

90 Minutes From Shanghai To Paris (Ningbo)

Well, not quite, but the Shanghai to Ningbo bridge is the world's longest cross-sea span and it cuts the drive from Shanghai to Ningbo from 400 km to 80km.

CLB's own Steve Dickinson just returned from Ningbo, having travelled there from Shanghai to meet with a client who is setting up a manufacturing plant there. I asked Steve what he thought of it and here is his response:

The bridge was truly amazing. It is not like a bridge. It is like a very long, straight road. Just like the Beijing airport: the impossible, done quickly and well. Query: why can they do these things and then not be able to put the right paint on a toy? There is reason at the bottom of all this, and I think pricing and profit margins play a role.

Anyone else been down that bridge yet?

China's Visa Situation. Now Clear As Mud.

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.

China Terror Alert

The US embassy in Beijing issued the following email travel alert for all US residents and visitors in China (h/t to AmCham Daily):

There is a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within China in the near future. In light of these security concerns, citizens traveling in China are advised to use caution and to be alert to their surroundings at all times, including at hotels, in restaurants, on public transportation and where there are demonstrations and other large-scale public gatherings. Consistent with our standard advice, American citizens are urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations.

I spent most of yesterday in Jinan meeting with people from the Shandong Province Ministry of Justice and then more than five hours on a bus going from Jinan to Qingdao. I had been scheduled to take a fast train to Qingdao, but the recent crash on the Qingdao-Beijing line (in Zibo, where co-blogger Steve Dickinson lived for a couple of years) caused the trains to shut down. All of the Chinese people with whom I talked in Jinan and in Qingdao intially blamed the crash on terrorists.

The train crash ended up having nothing to do with terrorism, but obviously there is a heightened awareness of that threat in China these days. For all of us.

Beijing As Second Hand Smoke

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....

Getting To And Around Shanghai Pudong International AIrport's Terminal 2

CN Reviews has a great summary on getting to and from Pudong's Airport's new terminal and on going between the terminals.

Very useful.

Crime In China: BS Upon BS

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.

Don't Blame China, We're British

Every so often I get a slew of emails asking me why asking me why I have not written on a particular topic or telling me that I should. But I have gotten so many relating to Britain's edict (since revoked?) to its Olympic athletes telling them to keep their mouths shut while in China I am beginning to wonder if they are part of some concerted email campaign. A number of these emails even accuse me of "remaining silent."

I was going to remain silent on this because I do not see this as a China issue, and if it is a China issue, it is certainly nothing new. Readers of this blog do not need me to tell them about speaking out in China?

This is mostly a British issue (I say mostly because I rather doubt this will be an issue at the upcoming Winter Olympics in beautiful Vancouver, BC). Is Britain making a mistake here? I certainly think so, but since this is a blog on Chinese law and business (with a bit of China miscellany thrown in from time to time), who am I to write about that?

So enough with the emails already. PLEASE STOP!

One of the emails was from Commentary Magazine, linking over to this fine post by Gordon Chang, entitled, "Britain's Olympic Kowtow."

For those wanting to read more on this, check out the following:
-- "China 1, UK 0," at Random Nuclear Strikes
-- "Removing The Gag" at Right-Thinking from the Left Coast
-- "Olympics, Politics, and Food," at Booker Rising
-- "Athlete Defies the 'Gagging' Clause" at Iain Dale's Diary
-- "It's not only Britain rolling over on Olympic restraint," at Precious Metal
-- "No Politics in Beijing?" at Concurring Opinions
-- "Back to the Future for UK Athletes," at Rhymes with Right

China: It's A Foreigners' Thing.

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?

How To Fly Out Of (And Into) China On The Cheap

Highly informative post up on the always excllent Shangaiist blog, entitled, "Air Asia: Another way to get your ass out of China." The post gives a great rundown on the various budget carriers operating in (or near Mainland China): Air Asia, Tiger Airways, Jetstar, Cebu Pacific, Oasis Hong Kong, and Spring Airlines, including a quick take on the cities to which they fly.

More US China Flights Announced

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.

Time Magazine's Top Ten New "Architectural Marvels." China Gets Three.

Time Magazine article by Richard Lacayo lists "The 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels" and China gets three places, all in Beijing.

In order:

NEW

1. Bloch Building, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art addition, Kansas City, Mo., by Steven Holl Architects.

2. Federal Building, San Francisco, by Morphosis

3. Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi

4. IAC Headquarters, New York, by Frank Gehry Partners

5. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of Sanaa

UPCOMING

6. Olympic Stadium, Beijing

7. CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, by Rem Koolhaas

8. Linked Hybrid, Beijing, by Steven Holl

9. Heathrow Five, London, by Richard Rogers

10. Caja Madrid Tower, Madrid, by Norman Foster

It is going to take me a while to get used to the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, but I am already a huge fan of Seattle's Olympic sculpture park.

Getting Into China: Ooh, Ooh, Baby, Things Are Gonna Get Easier

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.

Where To Live In China

Matt Schiavenza's China Journal Blog did an interesting post on where to live in China. The post is entitled, appropriately enough, "Where to Live in China," and it is meant to serve as a guide for expats, depending on their category. Schiavenza describes his goal as matching "the aspiring laowai to the most suitable Chinese city."

1. You're looking to cash in on China’s rapidly growing economy. You’ve got quite a lot of cash to spare, so setting up won’t be difficult. Otherwise, you’re not particularly interested in Chinese culture or Chinese language, and you’d like to live somewhere with a large foreign community. Best bet: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong

2. You’re an adventurous sort who wants to experience China: the real China. You’re keen to learn Mandarin, to make Chinese friends, and to dive into Chinese culture headlong. You’d be more than happy never to see a McDonalds once during your stay in the Middle Kingdom. Best bet: Any small or medium-sized city outside of Tibet or Xinjiang.

3. You’re a fledgling businessman who wants to experience the cutting-edge of Chinese society. While you do want to make a bit of money, you’re also interested in Chinese culture and to see how the world’s largest country is rapidly changing. Best bet: Shanghai, Beijing

4. You’re an aspiring journalist fascinated with the murky underworld of Chinese politics. You want to experience Chinese media head-on, as well as delve into the country’s past. Modernity suits you fine but you’d rather be somewhere that reminds you that you are in China. Best bet: Beijing.

5. You find China interesting and exciting but can do without the hustle and bustle of the big coastal cities. Pollution, hot and humid summers, and cold winters also put you off. You’d like to go somewhere that combines a relaxing environment with enough things to do to not get bored. Best bet: Kunming

6. You’ve come to China to learn Mandarin- properly. You don’t want to study for a year only to realize you’ve picked up some incomprehensible local dialect. Money is no object. Best bet: Beijing or the Northeast.

7. You don’t have much interest in China per se but would like to settle somewhere with beautiful scenery and a small but vibrant expat community. Your ideal China experience would be to sip coffee at an internet cafe before embarking on a bike ride through gorgeous countryside. Best bet: Dali, Yangshuo, Gulangyu (Xiamen)

8. You have an academic or personal interest in exploring China’s minority ethnic groups. Best bet: Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Provinces/Autonomous Regions

9. You love spicy food and hot summers and want to be centrally located. Best bet: Sichuan and Hunan Provinces

10. You love China’s culture, but not the mainland’s quality of life. You’d like to live in a more sophisticated, international environment with plenty of business opportunities. You have no intention to learn another language, just to work, live, and have fun. Best bet: Hong Kong

Schiavenza admits these are "bald stereotypes" and solicits comments, of which he got some good ones.

Jason, from the Over and Out blog added the category of "You came to China to learn Chinese, make Chinese friends and enjoy Chinese culture. You don’t want too much westernization, but you definitely want to occasionally eat Western food, go to bars and also have foreign friends. Best bet: basically all second-tier cities. (Suzhou, Nanjing, Dalian, Hangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, Qingdao etc)"

Brendan, from the legendary bokane.org blog, added the somewhat dubious but probably disturbingly accurate category of "You’re a 50-something alcoholic who’s abandoned his family on the other side of the world to come and teach English in Asia. You’ve been kicked out of Cambodia for reasons you’ve never satisfactorily explained, and now you’re looking for a cold, desolate place where you can drink yourself to death while teaching at the local agricultural university to make enough money to cover your daily half-gallon of baijiu. City: Harbin.

I like the list and the comments, but would add Dalian and Qingdao to #5.

What do you think?

36 Hours In Beijing

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.

Vancouver-Gangzhou Direct -- It's Gonna Happen

The Zhongnanhai blog is out with a post, entitled "Guangzhou's immaculate Baiyun Airport to receive direct flights from Vancouver," on how there will soon be direct flights between Vancouver and Guangzhou. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed on this last week to commence such flights in 2009.

Zhongnanhai then goes on to describe "Guangzhou's luxurious Baiyun Airport" as "nicest big-city airport in China (not including Hong Kong International)." China Southern Airlines will be taking on this route from the China side, while Air Canada will, presumably, be making this trip as well. Vancouver is a great gateway to Asia because so many top Asian airlines go through there and the airport itself is pretty good, with (at least the last time I was there) a pretty good sushi restaurant. Back when the US dollar was stronger, I would often transit through Vancouver to and from Asia via Air Canada (good seats, clean planes, mediocre food) and Singapore Airlines (nothing need be said).

China Restaurants And The Laowai Markup

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.

What About Hong Kong?

Hong Kong International Airport
In the Dragonair lounge waiting for Asiana Flight 724
Eating peanuts (h/t to the Silicon Hutong)
2319 hrs

I am just wrapping up my one week visit to Hong Kong. I am (was?) here to cover eight depositions in a case pending in Kentucky Federal Court in a case I was brought in on as international counsel. Co-blogger Steve Dickinson came here as well to assist with the depositions and to make sure the Mandarin to English interpretation remained on the up and up. The opposing side had one China and two U.S. lawyers.

I do not purport to know Hong Kong terribly well as my firm now does very little work there. There was a time where we fairly frequently helped our clients (mostly non-American clients) form companies in Hong Kong, but that work started dropping off around three years ago. Now when clients talk about wanting to form a Hong Kong company to go into mainland China we tell them doing so will in most cases do little more than increase their costs. Rarely does it make sense to do anything other than to just go into China directly by forming a company there.

This was only my third time in Hong Kong and it was my first time here in more than five years.

Here are my highly subjective thoughts:

1. This is truly an international city. That term is probably applied too often, but it definitely fits Hong Kong. By international I mean there are people from all over the world who appear to be living here comfortably and who influence its culture. If I had to name the top three most international cities, I would say New York (America), London (Europe) and Hong Kong (Asia). Hong Kong just feels way more international than Shanghai or Beijing.

2. This city is more orderly than any mainland city. It is clean and efficient. Things just work. Service is with a smile. The taxi drivers are polite and they know where they are going. Its public transportation is as clean and efficient as any in the world. Hong Kong feels accomplished while Shanghai and Beijing feel like they are still striving. At one point, Steve told me some of his friends from Shanghai like coming to Hong Kong for three to four days just to get away from the chaos/stress of Shanghai. Steve said he understands why.

I admit I never went too "deep" into the city so I never saw the parts of Hong Kong that are very much like the mainland. Just never had time.

3. Hong Kong is more open than the mainland. I know there are those who assert Hong Kong's press has been muzzled by the mainland powers and I know that politics here are not wide open, but I can tell you that reading the English language newspapers here feels like reading a real newspaper and not like government propaganda.

4. Hong Kong is a food city. I have eaten Japanese three times, Thai twice, French, Italian, Hong Kong, Phillipino, and Sichuan, and all were really good. I see Chinese as a food culture and Hong Kong's wealth puts that on steroids. The Lan Kwai Fang [restaurant] District is just flat out cool.

5. Man, but Hong Kong hotels are expensive, or at least they are when the huge conventions are in town. We started out in the $300 a night Renaissance Hotel and it was not at all luxurious. My room had a great view, but it was tiny and the service was mediocre. I stayed there two nights but fled when I could no longer handle its less than stellar internet connection. I also did not appreciate how the workout facility was in another building. I moved to the JW Marriott on Queensway, which was even more expensive, but only minutes away by foot from the building in which our depositions were taking place. The rates we got were actually quite good as most hotels were booked or charging hundreds of dollars more. It certainly did not help that Hong Kong's massive yearly home show is taking place right now.

6. Hong Kong International Airport (a/k/a Chek Lap Kok) is about as nice as they come and the Wi-Fi is free.

7. There are securities firms and banks everywhere here and Hong Kong is still the financial center (or should I say centre?) of Asia. Its combination of no capital controls, an independent judiciary, low taxes, a free press, and good communications has put it safely out in front in this arena and I do not see Shanghai catching up for some time, if ever. I have a lawyer friend from Seattle, Steve DeGracia, who is a finance lawyer at Paul Hastings' Hong Kong office, which is the base of one of the strongest corporate finance departments in Asia. Steve and I were supposed to meet up at some point in Hong Kong but I ended up without a spare moment. Amazingly enough, by sheer coincidence, I ran into Steve and his lovely wife (whom he met while working in Seoul a few years ago) and 20 month old daughter during a lunch break between depositions. What are the odds of that?

As always, the comment lines are open. Is Beijing's handling of Hong Kong a portent of what Beijing would like to see happen on the mainland? Is Hong Kong a portent for China's future? Is it even relevant?

China Air Safety: Damn Good

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."

Beautiful China Cities. I Know It When I See It.

China Daily has an article on how the China Institute of City Competitiveness has determined Beijing is China's most beautiful city. I learned of this article by reading a post over at bezdomny ex patria, entitled, "Make Sure You're Sitting Down."

Bezdomny is not impressed:

Beijing is the most beautiful city in China and Hong Kong the safest and second most beautiful, according to a study by the China Institute of City Competitiveness.

Alright, now that you've finished laughing.

I've even heard people call Tianjin "beautiful" (all Tianjinren of course), but I have never heard anybody describe Beijing as beautiful... well, maybe some of my students from Beijing have said something along those lines, as well as those from outside Beijing who say things like "I like Beijing because it's the capital of China" and other non-sensical rubbish. Anyway: Beijing the most beautiful city in China? You'd have to be on a serious mixture of various hugely powerful hallucinogens to think such a thing. I mean: Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, Guilin....... Shit, even Changsha is more beautiful than Beijing. And Taiyuan would be if it weren't for the pollution.

According to the China Daily, the study used "factors including the preservation of historical monuments, forest coverage, air quality, the transportation network, city life, public space and GDP" in making its beauty determination. Hong Kong came in second, Shenzhen (!?) took third, "scoring highly for its role as the pioneer of China's opening up and reform policies," and Shanghai finished fourth "for being the country's financial center."

Nothing against Beijing, but whatever happened to beauty being in the eye of the beholder?

Beijing Promises Airport Nirvana

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.

Shanghai-Beijing Air Express

Just about every time I go to China I go to both Shanghai and Beijing and I hate the commute between those two cities because each leg usually takes a couple hours longer than it should. I will be doing this trip next month and I am dreading it a bit less than usual because "express air service" between these two cities launched this week.

According to the China Daily, this express service will "make getting between Shanghai and Beijing a little bit easier," though discounts are being eliminated.

"Passengers flying between the two cities will enjoy quicker check-in times, and security checks." They will also be able to use one ticket for any of the five airlines participating: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Shanghai Airlines. The five participating airlines will provide quicker check-ins, security checks, boarding and luggage collection through designated passages. Flights will run from 7:30 a.m. until around 10:00 p.m. and will be as frequent as every half hour, starting around October of this year. These express flights will be between Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and Beijing Capital Airport will eventually depart every 30 minutes. The plan is for travel from downtown to downtown to take less than three hours.

Buying e-tickets for these flights will be encouraged and the two airports "will gradually increase the number of automatic ticket vending machines." The two airports have set aside exclusive counters for the service.

Fly the friendly skies....

Chinese Food And Seconding The Call For Dumpling Diplomacy

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.

China's Bullet Trains A Coming: Fast And Soon

China Daily reports that "Bullet train service" started on April 18 linking Beijing and Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang, Changchun, Harbin and Qingdao.  These trains will travel at speeds of between 200 and 250 kilometers per hour.  The journey between Beijing and Shanghai will take ten hours. "Ticket prices for the bullet trains will cost 50 percent more than the current express trains, which usually travel at 115 kilometers per hour."  Passengers will be able to book trips up to 20 days in advance. 

Non-stop express trains will also also start to operate between Beijing and Nanchang, Nantong and Fuzhou.

Fly The Open Skies Between China And The United States: Not In This Decade

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.

The Economist On Shanghai And Beijing

Just came across the City Guides section of The Economist (h/t to The Weifang Radish).  The city guides are geared towards business travelers, and for each city there is the following:

  • Insider Tips:  From our correspondent
  • Cheat Sheet:  View or print our executive travel dossier
  • Hotels:  From decadent to easy-on-the-pocket
  • Restaurants:  Our favourite dining spots
  • Sightseeing:  Kill an hour, serenity in the city and more
  • Nightlife:  Best for culture vultures
  • Wise Buys:  Gifts for gourmets and more

Each section also contains news on the particular city, an events calender and some interesting cost figures.  In Asia, the Cities Guides covers Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Singapore, and Tokyo.  Seoul, Korea, apparently does not rate.  The Guides also cover Europe, Australia, and the Americas.

The guides really are quite good.  For instance, in the insider tips section, I learned that "during a meal," one should "not turn a fish over to get to the flesh on the underside. Superstition holds that turning a fish over will cause a fishing boat to capsize."  How many of you knew this?  Be honest.

I found the city cost listings interesting, but of questionable accuracy. The site sets forth the following prices for Beijing and Shanghai:

  • Cost of an average two-day business trip (excluding flights): 5,147 yuan for Beijing, 6,541 yuan for Shanghai
  • Monthly rent of a mid-priced one-bed furnished apartment: 30,000 yuan for Beijing, 12,132 yuan for Shanghai
  • Three-course dinner for four at a top restaurant: 1,600-3,000 yuan for Beijing, 2,600-4,800 yuan for Shanghai
  • Theatre or concert (four best seats): 1,360-3,520 yuan for Beijing, 800-2,000 yuan for Shanghai

I am quite familiar with Shanghai prices, less so of Beijing, but I can tell you that before my firm secured its apartment in Shanghai, I would always do just fine staying in Shanghai at the Radisson Hotel right smack across from People's Park, traveling around by taxi, and eating plenty well, for way less than 6,541 yuan per two days.  Our extremely nice, two bedroom furnished Shanghai apartment also costs quite a bit less than the 12,132 yuan per month the Economist ascribes to "mid-priced" furnished one bedroom apartments in Shanghai.  I also find it difficult to believe Beijing apartment rents are 2.5 times those in Shanghai.

Despite its lofty price calculations, this really is an excellent site for business travelers who find themselves going to any of the listed cities.   

China Air Travel: Everybody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, Part III

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

China On A Budget: Jean Georges Is The New Frugal

Yesterday's New York Times Frugal Traveler column is entitled, "In Shanghai, Balancing the Past, the Future and a Budget" (h/t to Shanghaiist)  It is a three page story and it gives a pretty good account of Shanghai.  I just love the Times' definition of "frugal" and "budget":  $500 for the weekend in Shanghai, and all this without even a hint of irony. 

The writer stayed at the Hotel No. 9, a five room B&B in a 1920's mansion that does sound really cool and costs about $100 per night and he ate at Jean-Georges restaurant.  There truly is something a bit absurd about putting "frugal" and "Jean-Georges" in the same story.  Surely the writer, Matt Gross, could have come up with something good at half the price. 

But, if one suspends disbelief regarding the frugality of it all, this is actually a really good article on what to do during a Shanghai weekend.

Bejing Bars By Beijing Boyce

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?     

Fly The Friendly Skies To China

I have been an upper tier member of United Airline's Mileage Plus program since I started practicing law more than twenty years ago in Chicago, United's primary hub city.  So it is with great pleasure that I announce United Airlines as the winner of the beauty contest among U.S. airlines seeking an additional one a day flight to China. 

Starting March 25, United will be adding a Washington D.C. to Beijing run.  Does anyone think politics played any part in this pick? 

Wuhan, China -- New Air Hub

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.   

China Air Travel: Everybody Knows The Trouble I've Seen, Part II

A few weeks ago, I posted on the problems with China air traffic.  Today, Reuters did a story, entitled, "Stop complaining, China tells airline passengers" describing how China's civil aviation authority is asking fliers to stop complaining about air travel (h/t to USA Today's Today in the Sky Blog) despite all its problems:

"The food's bad, the airport coffee costs too much, the in-flight service is terrible, the flight's delayed and your suitcase got destroyed in transit -- well, it's your fault for having unrealistic expectations." Indeed, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China is trying to quell a rising tide of passenger complaints there by adjusting expectations. "We hope to increase consumers' understanding about the special nature of the civil aviation industry, so that together we can create a cosier, more harmonious aviation travel environment," the agency says on its website.

"What must be stressed is that safety is at the root of airline travel, and on-board service revolves around this," it adds. Reuters says that fliers in China "have long got used to surly cabin crew, decrepit in-flight entertainment systems and mysterious delays where aircraft full of people are just left on the tarmac."

The Chinese airlines attribute the complaints to passengers who are unfamiliar with flying.  I attribute it to passengers who have schedules to keep and who know how food is supposed to taste. 

In any event, this attitude of the airlines and the civil aviation authorities obviously does not bode well for rapid improvement. 

China Air Travel: Everybody Knows The Trouble I've Seen

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?

China Is Not The Safest Country In The World

At a seminar I recently attended, one of the speakers pronounced Vietnam as the safest country in the world.  I wondered at the time whether that were true and how safest was being defined.  Safest from what?  Death by accident and/or violent crime/terrorism and/or natural disaster?  Crime?  Injury? Health care? Who knows? 

Because I spend so much time in China, I often wonder how safe it is.  What is its violent crime rate?  Its auto accident rate?  How common are natural disasters in China and where do they occur?  DiseasesFood safety?  Life threatening pollution?  I have always found it difficult coming up with reliable statistics on any of this. 

I, along with my co-blogger, Steve Dickinson, actually can lay claim to having been in two auto accidents in China on the same day, in different cities.  We were in a taxi on the way to the Yantai airport and got rear-ended by another car.  Then, that very same night, on our way back from dinner in Qingdao, while backing out of a driveway, our taxi hit another car.  I hate to sound like Ronald Reagan (at least I hate mimicking his analyzing by anecdote), but our getting hit twice in one day must mean something about auto safety there. 

China seems to have its share of natural disasters and exotic diseases, but I am unable to accurately quantify that in comparison to other countries.  Food safety seems to be quite bad there, but, again, I am unable to quantify it.  Like everywhere else, China also has violent crime, but I have never seen accurate statistics on that either. 

I was able to find some good safety statistics on Asian airlines, including many that fly into and out of China.  Plane Crash Info puts out a safety ranking on Asia's airlines based on the number of flights, the number of fatal accidents and the fatality rate of those accidents.   The site notes that plane accidents are extremely rare and the odds of dying on any single flight are approximately eight million-to-one. "If a passenger boarded a flight at random, once a day, everyday, it would be approximately 22,000 years before he or she would be killed."  Asian airlines rank as follows:

  1. All Nippon Airways
  2. Qantas
  3. Malaysia Airlines
  4. Air New Zealand
  5. Cathy Pacific Airways
  6. Air China
  7. Japan Air Lines
  8. Dragon Air
  9. Asiana Airlines
  10. China Eastern Airlines
  11. China Southern Airlines
  12. Philippine Air Lines
  13. Air India
  14. Garuda Indonesian
  15. Singapore Airlines/SilkAir
  16. Thai Airways International
  17. Korean Air
  18. Pakistan International Airlines
  19. Indian Air Lines
  20. China Airlines (Taiwan)

I guess I would have to say I think of China as being pretty safe so long as you ride around in a big car, watch what you eat, and avoid areas where bird flu is present. 

Oh, and the safest country in the world?  I found claims for Japan, The United States,Malaysia, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Israel. Japundit puts forth its own list made up of Uruguay, North Korea, Vietnam, Botswana, Mongolia. 

If I had to, I would bet on New Zealand or Switzerland.

Air China Launching Beijing-New Delhi Direct Flights

The People's Daily just announced that on October 30, Air China will launch the first direct flights between New Delhi and Beijing.  Air China will operate this route three times weekly, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, using Boeing 767-200 aircraft. 

Through November the promotional round-trip fare will be only 3,880 yuan (approximately 485 U.S. dollars).

Air India and China Eastern Airlines currently offer flights between India and China, but Air China will be the first to have direct flights between the two capitals. 

In other China airline news, CATA (China Air Transportation Association) has replaced paper tickets with e-tickets, effectively ending paper tickets in China.

Shangri-La And Charging Regular Rates To Chinese Businesses

Interesting article in the International Herald Tribune on the worldwide expansion plans of the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts luxury hotel chain.  Shangri-La is based in Hong Kong, is majority controlled by the Kuok Group, founded by Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok.  The Shangri-La group operates two brands: the five-star Shangri-La and the four-star Traders hotels.

Thrust of the story is an interview with Shangri-La's chief executive, Giovanni Angelini, regarding Shangri-La's taking its hotels to Asia and the United States and building its name there.   The company is the largest operator of luxury hotels in mainland China and is planning to double its current 20 hotels by 2010.

What I found fascinating about the article though, was Angelini's views on the future of China travel. 

"By the year 2020, it is expected there will be more than 100 million Chinese travelers," he said. "Can you imagine the impact? Japan has made a tremendous impact in the industry and it never reached more than 17 million travelers.

"If you go back 30 years ago," Angelini continued, China is "exactly the way the Japanese were, traveling in groups around a little flag, negotiating the lowest rate. But look where the Japanese are now: in top hotels and big spenders. The Chinese market will be much stronger and develop much faster."

I think he is absolutely right and I think what he says will apply to all industries. Right now, talk to anyone who provides high end legal, financial, public relations, design, consulting, advertising, or other kinds of business services in China and I can assure you will be able to get them to complain about the unwillingness of most Chinese companies to pay their fees.  Based on my own experiences in dealing with Korean and Russian companies over the last 15 years -- as frustrated as I am -- I am always counseling patience by saying "it will change."

Mr. Angelini would agree.

Where Have You Been? Map It.

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.

China-Korea Fare War

China and Korea recently agreed on an open sky agreement for flights between Korea and Shandong Province and, as Korean newspaper, Dong A Ilbo, makes clear in its article, entitled, "Korean, Chinese in Fare War," "the race is on to lower the airfare for trips between Korea and China." 

Fares between Seoul's Incheon airport and Shandong Province which formerly cost 400,000 to 500,000 Won (approximately $420 to $530) roundtrip are now down to the 200,000 Won range (approximately $210) and are predicted to go as low as 100,000 Won (approximately $105) roundtrip in the near future.   

Roundtrip fares for flights between Incheon and Qingdao of Shandong Province are now 200,000 won. Fares between Incheon and Yantai of Shandong Province and Incheon and Ningbo (not Shandong) are 240,000 Won and fares between Incheon and Sanya, Hainan Island (also not in Shandong) are now 260,000 won.  Korean Air will be lowering its fare between Incheon and Weihai (in Shandong) to 200,000 won starting August 25 and it also plans to charge around 200,000 won for Incheon-Qingdao and Incheon-Yantai routes, when it begins service to those cities on August 25, at 200,000 won.  Asiana Airlines will lower its Incheon-Yantai return fare from 350,000 won to 200,000 won beginning August 25, and it is "now mulling over cutting prices for other routes too."

China Eastern Airlines' head of Planning and Public Relations stated "the heightening competition between Korean and Chinese carriers to lower prices and increase services is highly likely to bring the fare between Korea and cities in Shandong down to the 100,000 won range.�

This is all a result of the recently concluded Korea-China Air Travel Conference, at which Seoul and Beijing agreed on an open-sky deal to be carried out in phases, with the first step to be all Korean cities and China�s Shandong Province.  I am not sure what is driving the reduced fares between Seoul and Ningbo and Seoul and Sanya, but it is probably the same thing. 

Since China and Korea will be expanding their open sky agreement every year, "the race to cut prices, which began for routes between Korea and Shandong, is expected to spread to Beijing, Shanghai, and other major Chinese cities."  Since I nearly always pass through Seoul on my way to China, this is very good news indeed. 

I am a big fan of going from the United States' West Coast to China through Seoul.  Both Asiana Airlines and Korean Airlines fly nearly daily from Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to Seoul and then on to various cities in China.  Both of these airlines are pretty good and both of them use brand new 777s to fly between Seattle and Seoul, with on-board internet access.  The fact that a Korean-American friend of mine owns a travel agency that gets great rates on the two Korean airlines also plays a big part. 

Korean Air's Seattle-Seoul-China connections are usually the same day, while Asiana Airlines' are usually the next day.  To make up for this, however, Asiana puts up its travelers, gratis, in a decent Incheon or Seoul hotel and covers dinner and breakfast as well.  I typically fly Asiana to China because Asiana is a member of the Star Alliance frequent flyer program while Korean Air is part of the Skyteam Alliance.  I also like spending the night in Seoul and then arriving in China the next morning, fairly rested.  As an added bonus, both Asiana and Korean Air have extensive Asian flight networks so if you are planning on going to other countries in Asia besides Korea and China, you can usually add on other Asian stops at a decent price. 

Perhaps as US-China fares through Korea come down, US-China fares will face price pressures as well.   

China Maps -- Just Go There

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.   

China Air Security: Liquids Allowed And Not Allowed

Danwei.org just did a post on the allowability of bringing liquids on to planes leaving China's airports.  The post said liquids have been banned for years, yet I know I was able to bring on a bottle of wine I purchased in a Qingdao airport shop only a few months ago.  The comments to the post were all over the map as to what is and is not allowed. 

I did a bit of research on this and found this Wall Street Journal article, that sets down the rules.  According to this article, "no liquid aside from goods purchased after the airport-security check, like duty-free liquor, could be taken aboard outbound flights. The only exceptions were for baby formula and certain medicines."

My Tentative China/Asian Itinerary -- Let's Meet!

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.

China's Ten Most Charming Towns

China Rises: Notes from the Middle Kingdom Blog, a new blog written by McClatchy Newspapers (which purchased Knight Ridder) China correspondent, Tim Johnson, did a post on China's ten most charming towns, per the China Daily.

Mr. Johnson notes that he has "lived in China for almost three years, and traveled to more than a dozen provinces, some of them with charming places," but he has "not been to a single one of these towns."  Neither have I, but judging solely from their pictures and descriptions, they certainly do seem to be bursting with charm.  And, as much as I love places like Shanghai and Qingdao, which I most often frequent, I have never described either as "charming."

So, without further ado, the ten most charming towns, with China Rises' synopsis of their charms:

1.  Tongli, Jiangsu province -- Sometimes called the "Little Venice of the Orient," Tongli is surrounded by lakes and has many bridges and gardens from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

2.  Nanxun, Zhejiang province -- More quaint bridges and gardens, site of first silk exporters.

3.  Xingan, Guanxi -- Site of the world's first man-made canal.

4.  Shiwan, Guangdong -- The porcelain capital of southern China.

5.  Shiwei, Inner Mongolia -- A Russian ethnic minority town along the border.

6.  Heshun, Yunnan -- Beautiful scenery at China's first border trade town with Burma.

7.  Wuzhen, Zhejiang -- Picturesque canal town known for "clear waters, fragrant wines, legendary lanes, and handmade calico.

8.  Taining, Fujian -- Best maintained hometown homes of leading scholars in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  Also famous grottoes.

9.  Hongcun, Anhui -- UNESCO-listed village near Mt. Huangshan, one of China's five famous mountains, and backdrop in the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

10.  Zhangbi, Shanxi -- Site of ancient castle.

Bon voyage.      

China's Slow Train Coming -- Beijing To Lhasa

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.

Great China Photo Site -- Middle Kingdom Blog

I have been a regular viewer (and viewer is the right word here) of the Middle Kingdom blog for a long time.  It is operated by Mark Hobbs, who describes himself as a "British/Australian cultural studies teacher in China, trying to come to terms with the ways of the "middle kingdom" through photos and comments - Life and experiences are reflected with photos, art, design and musings on China." 

Hobbs is based out of Guilin, which certainly is not a bad place to be for a photographer. 

The blog itself is gorgeous and the pictures are stunning.  I love this siteGo look for yourself.   

Star Alliance Is China Shopping

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 InternationalUS 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.   

Seeing The Rest Of China

The Wall Street Journal has a good story on tourism in some of China's less developed and less visited regions.  There is also a very nicely done sidebar article, with a map, entitled, "Seeing the Rest of China" that describes "three trips -- two day, three day, and five day options -- from each of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou."  The sidebar is meant those going to these main cities in China with a few days to spare for a bit of pleasure travel.   

China Rises -- The TV Show/"Food Is Heaven"

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. 

Cheapest China Flights, Ever!

Now that we have your attention. 

Seems competition on U.S. - China routes will be heating up when American Airlines enters the market on April 3.  American will be offering a $372 Chicago-Shanghai round trip promotional fare, expected to be matched by United Airlines.  With taxes and surcharges, the fare is actually more like $550.  Shanghai Daily article states that this new competition should have a lasting downward effect on fares.  We should be so lucky!

When in Qingdao (Shanghai too)

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. 

On Getting To China

This post comes to you from Asiana Flight 271, flying over the Pacific.  Asiana is a fine airline and the Seattle flight is on a 777 that is only months old.  From Seoul, Asiana flies to a whole host of Chinese cities. 

The flight leaves Seattle at 12:20 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive in Seoul at 5:20 p.m., but it invariably gets there much earlier (oftentimes more than a full hour and my TV this time is saying arrival will be at 3:35 p.m.).  Asiana even pays for a hotel room for those passengers continuing on to China.  One usually gets the choice between a decent hotel near Incheon Airport or a quite nice hotel in downtown Seoul. 

Incheon Airport is a great airport.  It has a whole host of nice shops and many good restaurants.  It even has a hotel in the airport, which rents out rooms in six hour blocks for only $45.  The rooms have a television, a telephone, internet access, and a bathroom with shower.  I recommend  the Westin Chosun sushi restaurant on the second floor of the airport after immigration from an arrival. It is fast and good, though it can be difficult to find.

Postscript:  My in-flight internet died before I could post this so, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit this is actually now coming from Shanghai.