Greetings from Dongxiang City, China
Happy May Day Weekend.. hope you have Spring in the air and a Spring in
your step.
I'm in Dongxiang City, which certainly does, it's a small up and coming
city close to the hometown village of my wife. It's a friendly and well
kept place, everyone seems to know each other.. I'll explain why below.
Last week I was telling you about my arrival in China at Shanghai, where
I met up with Coco (my wife and your China agent) and we hung out in the
coolest (we think) neighbourhood in Shanghai - I was telling you about
the profound changes there.. if you missed it you can catch up
here.
From Shanghai we took the fast train to Yiwu, travelling in business
class it was super pleasant. Airline style reclining seats, loads of
space, free snacks, fruit and soft drinks and almost flying across the
country on overhead rails at 300+ km/h. Yiwu station used to be a hassle
where you shuffled sheeplike through tunnels and turnstiles to get out
and then had to hustle for a taxi. Now there is a large underground taxi
stand directly beneath the station, and a super efficient queuing
system, within two minutes you are on the way to town.
Most people in China (including Coco) will tell you that despite covid
and everything else things are getting better and better in China. In
many many ways things are getting better since I was last here.. but
some things are not.
It was amazing to be reunited with my wife and her son, wife and
kids.. who live in a new super modern, hi-tech apartment on the
outskirts of Yiwu. They relocated during the pandemic and this of
course is (apart from video tours) my first sight of them and the
apartment. There are forty low rise blocks - seven floors each in the
development. Underground parking and beautiful gardens between the
blocks. It's maybe (by my estimate) about 10% occupied - although if
you ask the sales office they tell you everything sold out. The super
posh development next door is also sold out but I can see almost no
lights on at all... strange.
The big problem I have is internet connection.. it was always a bit
of a problem in China but the solution was to use a VPN to get round
the fire walls.. now I'm fighting a running battle all the time to
get connected to the internet.. I have five devises, two sim cards,
two VPN's hotlinks to Coco's mobile, and of course the house Wifi..
Now even with the VPN connected I can lose connection to google
after a few minutes, (BBC in seconds) and the connection will drop
totally.. often I'm offline (outside China) totally for hours at a
time. Someone told me that it's reginal - the fire wall policy is
dictated nationally but different places interpret it harshly or
softly. And this is true.
So one of the first jobs is to connect with our old suppliers, and
many of them have showrooms in or around the massive Yiwu market.
88,000 showrooms under one roof.. it's mind boggling huge.. but
organised into Area's specialising in various (what they call) small
commodities. Area 1 and the main entrance to the whole grand place -
It houses on the ground floor the cheap and tacky plastic flower
department, one floor up is hairbands, scrunchies and small flashing
objects department. On the third floor is the home of general
giftware, and all things bad taste. The top floor is more posh with
big flashy show rooms for the big flashy companies.
Haha - I'm kind of exaggerating - in amongst the plastic and bad taste
are some very arty and ethical family businesses many of which we have
done good business with for over ten years. Regular readers will know
we avoid the faceless factories accessed only via agents, and try to
deal with real people.. like our lovely
Soap Flower
lady.. Xiao Pao who works exclusively with just a couple of Japanese
companies and Ancient Wisdom.
We also went to visit Tina and her arty husband (Tina is the boss)
who make quite a lot of the gemstone
jewellery
we sell. They closed the showroom in the market in the pandemic, and
now just work from the factory come studio, where they work hard at
making new designs and mostly market to the Chinese market online.
Their biggest customer outside China is AW.. and we spent a day with
them and in the evening had a local Yiwu food meal. It was really
nice to catch up.
The first words every one exclaims is "Haojiu bujian" or Long
Time No See! And they certainly seem very pleased to see me.
Many suppliers are telling us that the Europe and USA trade has
dropped by 80% but Middle Eastern, African and Russian trade is
replacing it. The type of products on display in the showrooms
reflect this.. to western eyes bad taste and golden flashy stuff is
back front and centre. Massive wheels are moving, who knows how a
new world order will pan out.
Now we just arrived in Dongxiang city, five hours drive down the G60
- it's a major holiday (May 1st) and we wanted to get here before
the massive traffic. When I first came here it was a poor backwater
city with muddy streets and poor lighting, that very rarely saw
westerners, I was spectacularly strange, and quickly became famous
in town - haha drawing crowds of people who wanted to try out their
English with me. Now the city has a beautiful lake with a park, wide
clean streets and smart shops.. lots of good restaurants. In the
evening families, kids and old people hang out on the brightly lit
streets chatting and playing.. Coco knows many people - the ones
that like her sisters and parents have moved from the villages to
the city and bought smart apartments. Many have small businesses and
trade seems good. An import wine shop has opened close to close by
and sells Chilian and Argentinian wine at reasonable prices. The
shop assistant who could speak good English was so excited.. I was
the first western customer to come in the shop.. I was granted
"Friends discount" and treated like a royal visitor.
There is clearly a lot of new money in Dongxiang - Porches and Mercs
are common.. nice restaurants and expensive shops - all despite the
pandemic. But I quickly realise why.. this city main factories are
medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.. I let you figure out what
happened.
Anyway more news next week.
Hope you have a wonderful May Day and may spring sunshine bless you
and your business.
David (and Coco) from China.
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