How I Went into China

Folks,

I've been asked before if I'd lead a "trade delegation" into China and the
answer is no way, it
will never happen. First, self-employment is a lifestyle thing, and I'd never
do that to myself,
that is lead a tour group.

Second, getting in and around is safe, easy and efficient, nothing like
travelling in USA, in
spite of the fact that you are in an alien culture. And if you have any
questions, eveyone
speaks english.

THE #1 REASON people want to be in int’l trade is for the travel. The #1
complaint of people
in int’l trade is the travel. I have zero interest in flying to Hong Kong and
China, but
opportunity forced me to do so. I am trying to get out out of the travel part,
but they keep
pulling me back.

Two specific tasks were 1. to spend face time with a printer who can get my book
down to $3
a copy landed USA, best price I can get in USA is $14. It isn't ever going to
make bestseller at
$26 for the paperback. 2. to explain some very unusual techniques in handknotted
carpets to
be introduced in the USA market, and to explain how we were not going for an
exclusive, but
a royalty as they sell my carpets everywhere. This had to be explained face to
face.

I knew I was going, and since I was going, it was a matter of optimizing my time
and
opportunities to meet as many people as possible in as short a period as
possible. 18 April
was optimum, but the $800 ticket I was eyeing jumped to $3300 while I tarried,
and my
hotels jumped from $150 to $300 a night. Naturally, most people are around at
the height of
the biz season, makng everything more expensive. I know there are cheaper
tickets out
there, but I wanted this time, this flight.

Further, my rug contact could not get out of China, meaning I had to go in,
something I
hadn’t done in 25 years. We agreed to meet at the Canton Fair. I checked out
the current
process for getting into the fair, under the fair auspices, and it was a
bureuacratic waste of
time and money. I can’t have that.

First the airline ticket problem... I went to the hktdc website to see what
shows were going
on, and there happened to be a housewares show in Hong Kong the week I wanted to
fly... I
clicked through to find the airline that was the “official carrier” for the
show, in this case
Cathay Pacific. A good outfit. I clicked thru to their special promotion code
page, and there
was my ticket, available for $800. The website would not accept the
reservatgion at this
price, so i called their sales office, vexed, vexed I tell you! that their
website was not
accepting my reservation. "What price was quoted?", she asked. $800 I said,
and she forced
the issue from her end, getting me the ticket. No restrictions.

Next, the hotels. Hong Kong charities are rich, because the people there are
free. Our govt
tells us they must take money from your paycheck, or people will starve in the
streets. Most
people in hong kong pay no taxes whatsoever, yet the charities are quite flush.
The YMCA
runs first class hotels at very low rates (all full on my dates). In fact, the
Y has a high rise
next door to the Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong’s finest. YMCA hotel rooms in NY
and SF would
disgrace a county jail. In Hong Kong they are first class.

Clicking thru I found the Catholics have a chain of hotels sponsored by Caritas
called Bianchi
Lodge. The put up people in distress in these places, women beat up, the
orphaned,
whoever, but there is so much help in Hong Kong that a lot of these rooms are
available, so
they rent them out. $50 a night, breakfast included. They look like a motel Six
room (well,
the way a motel six rooms are advertised to look). Just to put poverty in Hong
Kong in
perspective, this particular hotel has a day spa as well, in case the indigent
might want a
massage and a hairdo. I am not making this up.

I called Hong Kong, made the res over the phone, they had to waitlist me on two
of the nights
I wanted, but they eventually cleared me for the whole run.

The problem of crossing into Red China I decided i would deal with in Hong Kong,
because I
had a plan. But before I left, I asked my contact who could not leave China is
she could email
me an .pdf invitation from her corporation, she did, but it was from Dalian and
for visting
Dalian, not Guangzhou. No matter. It had a communist seal on it, and that
opens doors. I
land 6am Hong Kong time on Tuesday, and I have to meet with the communists on
Wednesday.

I land, go to the hotel, they had room availble, clean neat quiet, fully
outfitted. Overlooking a
churchyard, good location for my purposes. I showered, suited up, and heading
to China
Travel Service on Nathan Road, opening at 9am. This si the hard core government
travel
outfit, no nonsense. Took a number and waited my turn, and booked an early train
in, and a
late bus out for Wednesday, and early train in, late train out for a week
later... Problem: No
visa!!! "No, can I get one from you?" Alarmed, she asks "have you ever been to
china
before.?" Yes. "Have you ever been denied a visa to China before?" Not yet.
"We make
application, see what happens." $180 dollars later, I won't know until 6pm that
night if I am
going to China next day.

The alternative would have been to try to get an invitation from the Chinese
Fair authorities,
which would mean much rigamarole, many hands, plenty of fees. That's not for me.

Then off to lunch, and my tailor. "O you keep in such good shape!" (Liar!) It
takes a long
time to get them to back off trying to get me to buy the stuff on their shelves,
and force them
to go out and buy the beatiuful fabrics I want..

No donegal tweed, then no suit. So I ordered one less suit than I wanted, but
they agreed to
make what I want if I send them 4.5 yard of tweed. Zero demand for real donegal
tweed suits
for some reason. What is this world coming to?!

Measurements taken, come back at 6 for first fitting. Now this may seem rather
rapid, but
some of the material in this first fitting is just scraps to get the ranges
right for the second
fitting in 2 days, after I come back from China.

I took a quick tour of my old haunts and found everything the way it was pretty
much, quality
lasts, and headed to the pool at the Hong Kong Hotel (now Marco Polo Hong Kong
Hotel to
drink and read. Come six oclock off to china travel service... all is well,
tickets, visa... and
back to the tailor for first fitting...then back to hotel to crash before
heading to china.

Train station. My passport number and visa does not show up in the Chinese
computers,
please step this way. Sigh. A few minutes later, "sorry for inconvenience,
please go ahead." I
asked a friend of mine with US Immigration what would happen if my passport
number did
not show up as I was entering Seattle. He said, "next stop, Federal Detention,
South." In
China if the government computers are wrong, they wave you through politely. In
USA, if the
government computers are wrong, you'll be arrested.

Board the train with my Starbucks Mocha and the Chinese offering instant coffee.
Long ago
as we approached the border everyone got ready to deboard the Capitalist train
to walk
across the bridge at Lo Wu to get on the Communist train. Now everyone pops open
their cel
phones to take out the Hong Kong sim cards and insert china sim cards, as the
train sails
straight on through. Click click click click..., like soldiers about to enter
battle.

De-boarding in Guangzhou (Canton) the way is clear, clean, safe, crowded,
orderly...maybe
even more so than under the Maoists. I already mentioned when I stopped by the
bank
window a street trader tried to get me to change out of HIS dollars as I changed
out of mine.
Sorry, I am a guest of the communists, and I won't misbehave. 25 years ago
there would
have been no currency hustler, no one would have dared come near me, and
certainly at the
slightest mischief the security services would have been on all of the players.
As far as I
could tell, the bank clerk making the conversion couldn't care less if I broke
the law.

I don't think I've seen this train station before, but no matter, it is quite
modern and rationally
laid out. I follow the hong kong traders to the taxi stand, and rudely wade
into the sea of
taxis to snag one myself. I know maybe 3 phrases in cantonese... "Jo sun!"
(good morning)
which I find relaxes the poor taxi drivers who fear they will lose money somehow
with a lost
tourist. Then I said "Dong Fang Bingguan" which is a particular hotel directly
across the
street from the fair grounds. Off we go!

I cannot imagine that any city on earth in all of history has transformed as
much as Canton in
the last 25 years. Astonishing. And I hear Shanghai has had an even greater
transformation.
Chinese creativity and energy has been let loose! Traffic is abominable, but
the Chinese are
expanding mag lev transport after its successful introduction in Shanghai, so
they may
leapfrog the West in this as well.

We make it to the Hotel, it is physically still there, but the transformation is
wild. It is
crammed with booths of businesses showing samples, but not part of the fair
itself. 25 years
ago there was a huge billboard listing Deng Xiaoping's "four modernizations."
The billboard is
still there, now with Deng Xiaoping smiling over pictures of this new china.
Where I once
waded through a sea of bicycles to cross the street to the fair, they have now
built pedestrian
tunnels cuz you ain't going out in that traffic.

Security is tight at the fair itself, I present my invitation from the
Communists in Dalian and
that moves me to the head of the long line, where I am asked if I ever attended
the fair
before. "Yes, before you were born..." There I was in their computer, so I was
photographed,
issued a photo-id, barcoded, hologrammed, good for 5 years.

Crowds, far more people than I ever remember, from far more places.

First thing you see is a directional sign, with explicit instruction for how to
find a Mosque on
the grounds in which to pray. In green no less. Moslems are still getting
special treatment,
just as they were 30 years ago. But now the Russians are getting VIP treatment
too. I was
handed things by people in the street, brochures in Russian.

I cruise the fairgrounds and showrooms, everyone is bringing the chinese their
designs, and
the chinese are making it. They are making everything, and why wouldn't they,
since they
cover 1/4 of mankind. Add to this USA govt policy which dissuades americans
from making
things, and to load up on debt, and a lot of this success is compliments of you
and me, to be
paid for later.

US govt policy is unsustainable, so they are changing the subject. In time
trade will flow
elsewhere. Chinese creativity is in reaction to USA policy. When USA policy
changes, I hope it
is for the better, because we can out-compete the Chinese as they are now. The
republican
and democrats cannot, but free-traders can. Free trade in Hong Kong and China
is only
relative. If USA went back to absolute free trade, no one could out-compete us,
and China
would evolve further as a Chinese free market. And again, competition is to
strive with, not
to fight with. With free markets we'd get more, faster, cheaper and better.
Everyone would.

In the meantime, I gotta get designs that mimic a bear rug on 120 line, 5/8ths
inch natural
undyed wool handknotted carpets, deep carved, 8 x 10 feet for some retailers in
Aspen and
Haley to trick out private ski lodges. I have my priorities, and politics just
have to wait.

John

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