This is truly a PS. The blog has ran its course but seeing this immediately made me think back. The 2009 The W. Eugene Smith fund awarded the annual $30.000 prize for humanitarian photography went to Lu Guang.
ChinaHush has the pictures with comments up for viewing. You may well found these photos somewhere else too, but please see for yourself if you haven't:
http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
/ Closure
Thank you all for reading You Don't Know China.
We made it up to 100 posts, some of which were very good - and it showed, we got a nice increase in visitors during the last three or so months.
However, I am planning to leave China. I have flight tickets about a month from now, and for me YDKC has ran its course. I don't see a point in me continuing to write about China if I don't live here. Besides, the site has ceased to be an outlet for my personal life.
With this, I thank you again, and I'll leave this as my final post here. I'll let the site remain up - perhaps my co-writers will want to use it occasionally, or some users will want to browse the older posts.
OP Out.
We made it up to 100 posts, some of which were very good - and it showed, we got a nice increase in visitors during the last three or so months.
However, I am planning to leave China. I have flight tickets about a month from now, and for me YDKC has ran its course. I don't see a point in me continuing to write about China if I don't live here. Besides, the site has ceased to be an outlet for my personal life.
With this, I thank you again, and I'll leave this as my final post here. I'll let the site remain up - perhaps my co-writers will want to use it occasionally, or some users will want to browse the older posts.
OP Out.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Repackaged Movies
My local DVD shop has a new strategy. They've began making their own box arts for movies in order to boost sales.
The first example is easily spotted if you know what you are looking for. They add various film festival winner logos on to the regular box art. This results in some fun, if improbable combinations. I'm talking about a "low-budget B-movie about an alien probe fighting marines in the desert winning the Cannes festival" level of obviousness.
The second method is more insidious. They take an old action movie and create a new boxart. Nothing wrong with this, especially since the art guys are pretty good. Last time I was unable to distinquish between the release date and quality of Defence of Firebase Gloria (IMDB) and Hurt Locker (IMDB) because the 80's Vietnam movie got a makeover making it look like a '08 blockbuster.
A second example of this was Red Heat. When I saw the cover I actually had to turn it over and see if Arnold had made a new action movie. He hadn't, but damn if the box wasn't good enough to almost make me buy it.
This could hurt the sales of movies in the long run, but I'm not completely certain the local customers will really care which foreign war movie they picked.
OP Out.
The first example is easily spotted if you know what you are looking for. They add various film festival winner logos on to the regular box art. This results in some fun, if improbable combinations. I'm talking about a "low-budget B-movie about an alien probe fighting marines in the desert winning the Cannes festival" level of obviousness.
The second method is more insidious. They take an old action movie and create a new boxart. Nothing wrong with this, especially since the art guys are pretty good. Last time I was unable to distinquish between the release date and quality of Defence of Firebase Gloria (IMDB) and Hurt Locker (IMDB) because the 80's Vietnam movie got a makeover making it look like a '08 blockbuster.
A second example of this was Red Heat. When I saw the cover I actually had to turn it over and see if Arnold had made a new action movie. He hadn't, but damn if the box wasn't good enough to almost make me buy it.
This could hurt the sales of movies in the long run, but I'm not completely certain the local customers will really care which foreign war movie they picked.
OP Out.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Fashion of Sorts
All right, I can't really go "her pashmina was so 2008 it was unreal!" here, the fashion mistakes I've pictured are in a league of their own.
I've previously mentioned how in the summer men roll up their T-shirts to show their bellies, but the women of Taizhou have their own unique winter clothing. It's not very unusual to see people with their pyjamas on here. Women at times decide it's fine and proper to wear a pyjama outside and go do whatever daily activies they wish. The pictured example came to the largest supermarket in the city to show her stuff.
The second pic is from the airport. Perhaps she thought going out in a pyjama wasn't fitting, but she still decided to drag along a little piece of warm fluffy home with her. And yes, even if I don't have a pic to share, I've seen women wear the pyjama and the "shoes" as a set.
OP Out.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Airport River
The three images above are from the small river at the local airport. It's not even an international airport and you're boned if you're headed to anything futher than Shenzhen. The airport itself is the least interesting thing to post about, so I'll cover the river.
The first image is from the last summer. The river was covered with this thick green algae, which covered all the local waterways. The growth was very smooth and made the whole river look like a slice of golf green riddled with junk and empty bottles half buried in the grass.
The river then changed outlook drastically, and got covered with green plants with occasional little flowers on them. This was in autumn and made the river look like an intentional garden. You couldn't see any water then, either.
The last image is from my last flight here. The plants have died and turned to an awful brown, with bits of black brackish stinking water peeking from the edges.
You are welcome to make your own commentary on the state of the environment as far as these images are relevant. I'll try to take the next picture in the spring to show you the whole circle of life at the Taizhou Airport river - should I still be here.
OP Out.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Central China Drought
If you've followed the China news carefully you've come across the drought already.
Perhaps it's not worth it to share the full statistics again, but there are 200 million farmers suffering from a lack of water for crops and drinking. The image I dug up should cue you in on how large a piece of China we're talking about. You can find the rest from any site offering more complete news coverage.
I wish I could offer more valuable insight to this, but I've never been to these areas and I recognize I Don't Know that part of China. However, potable water is in my opinion the one issue which could cause severe unrest in China. Healthcare has improved in less than 10 years significantly. Human rights are on their way up and people are less impoverished - all these contribute to the stability. And at the moment China is stabile. However, these do not mean much to people who have no water to drink.
China is working on it, and we will need to wait and see if the efforts are effective. I hope the millions of hectars of wheat affected are not a sign of worse to come. They plan to cut the amount of water used per dollar of GDP significantly by 2020. It's a lofty goal, but perhaps not impossible.
OP Out.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Music Choices
One of my favorite things in bars and restaurants here is commenting on the music. Commenting, or more truthfully ridiculing.
The Chinese restaurants catering to the westerners make it easy. Actually, I think establishments fall in to two distinct categories, the fist one being the group where the music is mostly fitting but include a few odd songs here and there; the second group is far more interesting, and unfortunately, far more numerous.
A prime example is from stopping for a pint after dinner in Hong Kong. Lasse and I found a comfortable, mood-lit little establishment and ordered our drinks. The service was good, the decorations were fitting and everything spoke of upper middle class. Well, everything except for the playlist. I pointed out the disco beats to Lasse, and we listened a little further. They started playing Crazy Frog.
I'm sorry, I can't continue that thought further, but rest assured it's not the only example of unfortunate music here. The Irish bar in Guangzhou looks the part, except you can't really hold a conversation inside due to the disco built to an adjacent hall. Turn left from the bar, walk past the Guinness tap, through an opening and there's a mirror ball hanging over head.
These unfortunates are extreme examples though. Most restaurants just have a partially English menu riddled with typos and unclear expressions and a CD playing in the background. The DIO Cafe I used to go to actually always played the same music back to back. The selection was so narrow I caught on the second time I went there for lunch.
The menus in restaurants I will leave as a topic for another day.
OP Out.
The Chinese restaurants catering to the westerners make it easy. Actually, I think establishments fall in to two distinct categories, the fist one being the group where the music is mostly fitting but include a few odd songs here and there; the second group is far more interesting, and unfortunately, far more numerous.
A prime example is from stopping for a pint after dinner in Hong Kong. Lasse and I found a comfortable, mood-lit little establishment and ordered our drinks. The service was good, the decorations were fitting and everything spoke of upper middle class. Well, everything except for the playlist. I pointed out the disco beats to Lasse, and we listened a little further. They started playing Crazy Frog.
I'm sorry, I can't continue that thought further, but rest assured it's not the only example of unfortunate music here. The Irish bar in Guangzhou looks the part, except you can't really hold a conversation inside due to the disco built to an adjacent hall. Turn left from the bar, walk past the Guinness tap, through an opening and there's a mirror ball hanging over head.
These unfortunates are extreme examples though. Most restaurants just have a partially English menu riddled with typos and unclear expressions and a CD playing in the background. The DIO Cafe I used to go to actually always played the same music back to back. The selection was so narrow I caught on the second time I went there for lunch.
The menus in restaurants I will leave as a topic for another day.
OP Out.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Ineffective Advertisements
Last time I was driving towards NingBo, during the last quarter of the journey the car had to stop at the lights. A guy walked up to the door and slipped a card to the window crack - not inside the car obviously, just outside the car. I didn't bother to remove it and we drove on.
The next set of lights come up and the driver has to stop again. Another guy walks the row of cards, comes to our car, takes away the other card and replaces it with one of his own and walks away.
That has got to be the single most uneffective advertisement I've seen here. About as ineffective as posting spam comments on YDKC with a link to your own crappy site. (Rimshot)
OP Out.
The next set of lights come up and the driver has to stop again. Another guy walks the row of cards, comes to our car, takes away the other card and replaces it with one of his own and walks away.
That has got to be the single most uneffective advertisement I've seen here. About as ineffective as posting spam comments on YDKC with a link to your own crappy site. (Rimshot)
OP Out.
No Fireworks Allowed
Firecrackers are perhaps the most traditional Chinese firework. There are more traditional ways to celebrate the New Year, including hanging of the red papers at doorways, but fireworks make more headlines.
I looked back a little and found several separate pieces of news. Like most China news they report a number, a cause and a province. (Quite a departure of Who, Where, When, What -reporting, eh?) The numbers were small, 6 dead, 13 dead and so on, but they all were preventable. Explosions in fireworks factories, some illegal facilities some lisenced.
The most recent reminder of worker safety training comes fresh, last night from Beijing. Monday marked the end of the New Year celebrations. The Chinese traditionally celebrate the first full moon of the New Year with fireworks rivalled only by the New Year's Eve itself. Last night a 44-floor building paid the price.
I'll link the Reuters piece since they have better pictures this time around. (Please note the casualty information in the linked piece of news is wrong.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090209/ap_on_re_as/as_china_hotel_fire
Cause? Workers celebrating. At the top of a construction yard at night, with fireworks. Numbers? Six, five of whom were firefighters. Aside from those the two points I'm interested in whether the higher-ups realize this is something you fix with worker safety training, not fireworks bans, and if the builders still have the money to finish the tower. I assume no and no.
OP Out.
I looked back a little and found several separate pieces of news. Like most China news they report a number, a cause and a province. (Quite a departure of Who, Where, When, What -reporting, eh?) The numbers were small, 6 dead, 13 dead and so on, but they all were preventable. Explosions in fireworks factories, some illegal facilities some lisenced.
The most recent reminder of worker safety training comes fresh, last night from Beijing. Monday marked the end of the New Year celebrations. The Chinese traditionally celebrate the first full moon of the New Year with fireworks rivalled only by the New Year's Eve itself. Last night a 44-floor building paid the price.
I'll link the Reuters piece since they have better pictures this time around. (Please note the casualty information in the linked piece of news is wrong.)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090209/ap_on_re_as/as_china_hotel_fire
Cause? Workers celebrating. At the top of a construction yard at night, with fireworks. Numbers? Six, five of whom were firefighters. Aside from those the two points I'm interested in whether the higher-ups realize this is something you fix with worker safety training, not fireworks bans, and if the builders still have the money to finish the tower. I assume no and no.
OP Out.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Shenzen Airlines Branding
During my recent Hong Kong trip (and I might infringe on Pekka's turf in a later post and talk a little about arcades or goldfish) I flew from Taizhou to Guangzhou with Shenzhen Airlines.
I noted they had started a push to promote their carrier / brand in-flight. When looking out the window my eye was drawn to the wingtip. It was painted bright red with a golden Shenzhen Airlines logo on it. I thought it was a clever way to associate looking out of an airplane window with a carrier. Actually, considering the cost of the paint job it's an excellent marketing idea.
They followed the act with a little promotional speech and proceeded to sell little gifts. Passengers could buy scale models of the plane, as well as pieces of jewelry and other such miscellaneous items. Nothing wrong with either, and I'm sure the domestic carriers need to extra profit too.
However, the branding did not go all the way. The in-flight lunch was served like usual, and it included a small wet napkin. This was proudly branded Japan Airlines.
I guess they ran out of napkins branded Shenzhen Airlines and bought a similar product just to fill a routine lunch package. I felt it kind of undermined the whole marketing push.
OP Out.
I noted they had started a push to promote their carrier / brand in-flight. When looking out the window my eye was drawn to the wingtip. It was painted bright red with a golden Shenzhen Airlines logo on it. I thought it was a clever way to associate looking out of an airplane window with a carrier. Actually, considering the cost of the paint job it's an excellent marketing idea.
They followed the act with a little promotional speech and proceeded to sell little gifts. Passengers could buy scale models of the plane, as well as pieces of jewelry and other such miscellaneous items. Nothing wrong with either, and I'm sure the domestic carriers need to extra profit too.
However, the branding did not go all the way. The in-flight lunch was served like usual, and it included a small wet napkin. This was proudly branded Japan Airlines.
I guess they ran out of napkins branded Shenzhen Airlines and bought a similar product just to fill a routine lunch package. I felt it kind of undermined the whole marketing push.
OP Out.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
China
How China looks from Finland? At the moment it looks like another planet, because it seems so distant. The news from China have been recently focusing on rather trivial issues, such as talking about how Chinese people spent their Chinese New Year in Finland, or then they talk about tragedies or scandals happening in China.
I don't know why it is like this, because to me China seems like a nation that is going to matter, for example in the world's economical development, a great deal. Well, on the other hand, every country seems to have troubles of their own in this moment, but regardless, I'm sure there are things happening in China every day.
I can't say I could hooray for Finnish media anyways, but still, considering how big China has come, it has struck me when I'm now back in Finland, how small amount of news from there actually reaches here.
I don't know why it is like this, because to me China seems like a nation that is going to matter, for example in the world's economical development, a great deal. Well, on the other hand, every country seems to have troubles of their own in this moment, but regardless, I'm sure there are things happening in China every day.
I can't say I could hooray for Finnish media anyways, but still, considering how big China has come, it has struck me when I'm now back in Finland, how small amount of news from there actually reaches here.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
More Poor Reporting
One more example of poor reporting:
"BEIJING (Reuters) – China denounced a protester at Cambridge University who threw a shoe at visiting Premier Wen Jiabao, but nevertheless hailed Wen's visit as a success and avoided widespread reporting of the incident."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090203/wl_nm/us_china_britain_shoe
The problem with this piece of news? They say China avoided widespread reporting of a shoe thrown at the prime minister, but later in the same piece of news they admit the foreign ministry included the shoe in a press release on their website. Oops.
Want one more? The issue was even brought up in the main evening news on CCTV, in a nationwide broadcast. They reported the facts as is and proceeded to note the visit still achieved it's goals and that a shoe won't affect UK - China trade relations. Oops again. That piece of China Brand News was brought to you by Chris Buckley and Yu Le; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani. They suck. Their reporting had an outright wrong fact in the midst, and using this they drew wrong conclusions.
OP Out.
"BEIJING (Reuters) – China denounced a protester at Cambridge University who threw a shoe at visiting Premier Wen Jiabao, but nevertheless hailed Wen's visit as a success and avoided widespread reporting of the incident."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090203/wl_nm/us_china_britain_shoe
The problem with this piece of news? They say China avoided widespread reporting of a shoe thrown at the prime minister, but later in the same piece of news they admit the foreign ministry included the shoe in a press release on their website. Oops.
Want one more? The issue was even brought up in the main evening news on CCTV, in a nationwide broadcast. They reported the facts as is and proceeded to note the visit still achieved it's goals and that a shoe won't affect UK - China trade relations. Oops again. That piece of China Brand News was brought to you by Chris Buckley and Yu Le; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani. They suck. Their reporting had an outright wrong fact in the midst, and using this they drew wrong conclusions.
OP Out.
Simple Pleasures/Businesses
The first sunny days in Taizhou have brought out kites.
It's still holiday for many, and it's not the first time I've seen people fly kites here. It's a simple pleasure, but I appreciate the fact families take the time to go out together and play a little.
Since we're in China, it's a small business too. The local park where kites are flown gathers kite peddlers. The average salesman has about a dozen kites, sold from either the back of a bicycle or laid out on the grass. And there are quite a few. On the first day people were out I counted about 50 kites in the sky. I also saw at least 10 hawkers with kites.
Similar small businesses can be found in most parks around here. The largerst are regular kiosks selling snacks, toys and drinks. These are often surrounded by various other merchants. I've seen fishing games for kids (plastic pool filled with plastic fish,) the usual flower salesgirls, radio-controlled boats for rent, bird seed salesmen and the food stalls. Like other businesses these clump together so that potential customers have an easier time finding them. This is especially true for food - the larger park here will have a minimum of five carts at any time there are potential customers.
This time I'm not going to go on a rant on how everything is made commercial, I'll reserve that for cultural landmarks. Instead, I will say the parks are serviced parks. Actually, last time I was out I made a small detour just to grab a cola from the stalls, since the places are so lively. The small businesses don't detract from the small joys.
OP Out.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Making It Look Easy
One factor for piracy in China is the convenience of it.
Case in point, my iPhone. I have the 3G model, bought right here in Taizhou. Originally the phone came with a third party SIM card modification installed. There was a little chip you could place between your regular SIM and the phone so it would accept any SIM card. This was coupled with a custom piece of software to allow any code on the phone. However, me (or any customer for that matter) wouldn't need to bother about the details.
The shopkeeper had installed everything. He was an authorized Apple retailer, who had the phone ready to go within minutes of the purchase decision. All I needed was my own SIM and I could use any legit software or any copy. The only drawback was the unability to update the software should Apple release a patch.
And release a patch Apple did. The new official software had a couple of functions I wanted, so I returned back to the shop to ask what to do. I had actually researched a bit before, and found out there was a new version of the piggyback SIM solution, as well as a new software solution. The online reports on the software solution were conflictory and I couldn't fathom if it'd work on China Mobile or not. Luckily my retailer did.
He told me the software method was all that was needed now, and that he'd do it for a modest 100 RMB fee within an hour. He had about three other phones going through the process at the moment, but I haggled a bit. The price didn't come down but the time dropped to 30 minutes. I let him do it, and boy did he know how to run an iPhone.
He had three computers all set up with the necessary tools and backups to modify any phone. He jacked in the phone, ran through a few clicks and he actually finishd in 30 minutes. Most of this was spent looking at a loading bar onscreen - the service was quick and smooth. No hassle, no worries. I walked away with a software modified phone with the latest Apple patch installed.
Great service, and the guy even recommended a Chinese media hub website made for the phone, as well as suggested a data plan for my mobile provider in order to drop my charges. This I had already done, but it all adds to the service. Oh, and none of this was in any way under the table or behind closed doors. This was straight up service in the largest computer center of the city.
No, Apple does not have a version of the phone for the Chinese market. Yes, it's quite a popular phone here regardless. A regular customer would have problems installing the hacks at home, but the retailers do all the work.
OP Out.
Case in point, my iPhone. I have the 3G model, bought right here in Taizhou. Originally the phone came with a third party SIM card modification installed. There was a little chip you could place between your regular SIM and the phone so it would accept any SIM card. This was coupled with a custom piece of software to allow any code on the phone. However, me (or any customer for that matter) wouldn't need to bother about the details.
The shopkeeper had installed everything. He was an authorized Apple retailer, who had the phone ready to go within minutes of the purchase decision. All I needed was my own SIM and I could use any legit software or any copy. The only drawback was the unability to update the software should Apple release a patch.
And release a patch Apple did. The new official software had a couple of functions I wanted, so I returned back to the shop to ask what to do. I had actually researched a bit before, and found out there was a new version of the piggyback SIM solution, as well as a new software solution. The online reports on the software solution were conflictory and I couldn't fathom if it'd work on China Mobile or not. Luckily my retailer did.
He told me the software method was all that was needed now, and that he'd do it for a modest 100 RMB fee within an hour. He had about three other phones going through the process at the moment, but I haggled a bit. The price didn't come down but the time dropped to 30 minutes. I let him do it, and boy did he know how to run an iPhone.
He had three computers all set up with the necessary tools and backups to modify any phone. He jacked in the phone, ran through a few clicks and he actually finishd in 30 minutes. Most of this was spent looking at a loading bar onscreen - the service was quick and smooth. No hassle, no worries. I walked away with a software modified phone with the latest Apple patch installed.
Great service, and the guy even recommended a Chinese media hub website made for the phone, as well as suggested a data plan for my mobile provider in order to drop my charges. This I had already done, but it all adds to the service. Oh, and none of this was in any way under the table or behind closed doors. This was straight up service in the largest computer center of the city.
No, Apple does not have a version of the phone for the Chinese market. Yes, it's quite a popular phone here regardless. A regular customer would have problems installing the hacks at home, but the retailers do all the work.
OP Out.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Happy New Year
Happy Chinese New Year!
When I first arrived to Taizhou I asked about weather as part of small talk. I was told it doesn't get very cold during the winter, and that it doesn't really snow, perhaps once in few years.
It's snowing again today, enough to make the grass white. If it keeps up the roads will be white too. Nobody has access to winter tires for their cars of course, but from what I've seen the snow should be gone in a few days. It does make the New Year a little more special in its own way, and I don't mean accident statistics for a change.
Again, from the YDKC Team, Welcome to 4707, year of the Ox!
When I first arrived to Taizhou I asked about weather as part of small talk. I was told it doesn't get very cold during the winter, and that it doesn't really snow, perhaps once in few years.
It's snowing again today, enough to make the grass white. If it keeps up the roads will be white too. Nobody has access to winter tires for their cars of course, but from what I've seen the snow should be gone in a few days. It does make the New Year a little more special in its own way, and I don't mean accident statistics for a change.
Again, from the YDKC Team, Welcome to 4707, year of the Ox!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
New Year Alcohol
It seems alcohol makes for a good New Year gift here. The second image is a part of the new liquor and tobacco section opened to the local super market for New Year. They already had a large wine and liquor section, but they built a new counter and set up a second larger area for gift packages.
The first image is of the gift boxed bottle sets available here. You can see the price ranges from modest to prohibitvely expensive, but what the image fails to fully capture is how beautiful some of the sets are. The sets usually include a bottle and a few glasses, or two bottles and two glasses. These are packed in boxes (wooden for the better sets) lined with cloth and come with gift bags to carry - they sets are ready gifts.
The bottle designs themselves vary a great deal but the best I saw was in the sub 500 RMB range, where the set had two glass bottles, both with a small glass ship inside, New Year wishes scribed on the sails. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to take a photo, but the photos I did get should give you an idea. The whole concept goes way above and beyond anything I've seen in alcohol marketing before.
Cigarettes are another possible gift, and the second pic has cartons stacked upon cartons. The red cartons are actually the most expensive cigarettes sold in super markets, 40 RMB a pack. The counter of course has many other brands for sale too.
This is just a part of the shopping people do for their #1 holiday of the year, but you can trust me the markets are filled with snacks and candy. It's very similar to Finnish Christmas shopping, but the boxes of chocolate have been replaced with hard liquor. If this concept was implemented in Finland we would see a Christmas with statistics so grim people wouldn't complain about the lack of snow, but here it works.
OP Out.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Usable Statistics - The Chinese Market for Foreign Companies
The National Bureau of Statistics released new information regarding the real urban disposable income per capita. The figures given were as follows:
Real disposable income per capita of China's urban and rural residents in 2008 rose 8.4 pct and 8.0 pct, respectively.
The growth was slower than 2007 levels of 12.2 pct and 9.5 pct.
NBS also said per-capita disposable income of urban residents was 15,781 yuan while that of rural residents was 4,761 yuan.
I'll help you a little further and give you the urban population stat, it's over 577 million (sorry for the 2006 figure, but somewhere under 600 million is about right I believe.)
What this means is that foreign companies eyeing China as a market do not have 1.3 billion potential customers. They don't even have have 600 million potential customers if their product is too expensive.
The richer potential customer who lives in a city has a rough 1300 RMB a month to spend. For reference, that's about 190 USD. But that doesn't really matter, the exchange rate doesn't come in to play when you have a certain amount of available money and shops offer certain products. What matters is that people take a long, long time to purchase items which cost more than they have available in a month. It's a simple thought, of course, but it means the people focus on purchasing things which cost single digit percentages of their available money, as well as low double-digits more seldom.
Now consider entering the Chinese market. You have 600 million customers who are willing to spend 1% - 25% of their available money on a purchase. This is not a real statistic but the point is valid. The money spent is around 13 RMB to 325 RMB. This is what a foreign company will have to consider as their more affluent customer. Suddenly it isn't a very welcoming market with 1.3 potential customers, is it?
Now consider there already exist a Chinese alternative for most of the goods foreigners would import. Anything from electronics to clothing to food can be made differently enough to be unique and brought here, but there will be a domestic good that is at least somewhat similar and cheaper.
Recall the first statistic the next time you see a movie studio or a software producer complain about piracy in China. It's not that the Chinese love copies for the sake of copying, it's because the legal alternative is priced way out of their range. Want to sell Windows Vista here and price it at 140 dollars? Well don't be surprised at the huge backlash when your anti-piracy tool blacks out thousands of computer screens and the people are angry at your software. But that's just one example showing how difficult a market China is for foreign companies. And this comes up before you even think of the trouble localizing your product.
OP Out.
Real disposable income per capita of China's urban and rural residents in 2008 rose 8.4 pct and 8.0 pct, respectively.
The growth was slower than 2007 levels of 12.2 pct and 9.5 pct.
NBS also said per-capita disposable income of urban residents was 15,781 yuan while that of rural residents was 4,761 yuan.
I'll help you a little further and give you the urban population stat, it's over 577 million (sorry for the 2006 figure, but somewhere under 600 million is about right I believe.)
What this means is that foreign companies eyeing China as a market do not have 1.3 billion potential customers. They don't even have have 600 million potential customers if their product is too expensive.
The richer potential customer who lives in a city has a rough 1300 RMB a month to spend. For reference, that's about 190 USD. But that doesn't really matter, the exchange rate doesn't come in to play when you have a certain amount of available money and shops offer certain products. What matters is that people take a long, long time to purchase items which cost more than they have available in a month. It's a simple thought, of course, but it means the people focus on purchasing things which cost single digit percentages of their available money, as well as low double-digits more seldom.
Now consider entering the Chinese market. You have 600 million customers who are willing to spend 1% - 25% of their available money on a purchase. This is not a real statistic but the point is valid. The money spent is around 13 RMB to 325 RMB. This is what a foreign company will have to consider as their more affluent customer. Suddenly it isn't a very welcoming market with 1.3 potential customers, is it?
Now consider there already exist a Chinese alternative for most of the goods foreigners would import. Anything from electronics to clothing to food can be made differently enough to be unique and brought here, but there will be a domestic good that is at least somewhat similar and cheaper.
Recall the first statistic the next time you see a movie studio or a software producer complain about piracy in China. It's not that the Chinese love copies for the sake of copying, it's because the legal alternative is priced way out of their range. Want to sell Windows Vista here and price it at 140 dollars? Well don't be surprised at the huge backlash when your anti-piracy tool blacks out thousands of computer screens and the people are angry at your software. But that's just one example showing how difficult a market China is for foreign companies. And this comes up before you even think of the trouble localizing your product.
OP Out.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Chinese Hospitals
Since the last post on the hospitals was so dready I thought I would comment a little further. This is mostly since I don't actually have poor thoughts on Chinese hospitals, in fact, I've had reservations and prejudices but good experiences.
For the Chinese, it appears to me, they expect two things when they go to a hospital. They want to see a result and they want to see medicine. For a Finnish person a hospital is not something you visit for a flu but the Chinese think differently.
All of the hospitals I've seen have had large rooms for patients waiting for their IV to drip. This is the most common flu treatment too, you go in, the doctor takes your temperature, listens to your description of the symptoms and prescribes an IV. It's usually a 500ml bag of glucose, another of salt water and some medicine given intravenously. If you suffer from diarrhea or have similar symptoms the treatment is mostly similar, but the doctor is more likely to prescribe the same over three days. The last time my wife went to the hospital it was 3x500ml bags per day for three days plus all the other medicine. This is similar to children, except that they insert the liquid into the forehead instead of the arm and the quantities are smaller.
This kind of treatment is very common here, but the Chinese expect value for their money, even at a doctor. They would feel cheated if the doctor told them to go home, stay warm and call back in two days if the patient didn't feel better.
This seems like a cookie-cutter approach to medicine, but it responds very well to what the customers expect and it's fast enough. The doctors don't need too much time per patient, and to be honest, the patients don't need more - they would likely get better on their own too.
The IV rooms in nicer hospitals have TV:s and I've even seen a room divided in to two areas, one with hard plastic benches and one with beds for those who will pay an extra 10 RMB / visit for the comfort. The hospitals need to make money, but they also have to keep the costs of the visit to a minimum.
The costs of a hospital visit aren't great, but I can imagine they add up to a family. A typical visit will cost 5RMB, which will get you in to the hospital and a brief consultation with a doctor. The prescribed liquids and medicine are then bought from the hospital pharmacy and taken to the treatment room. Depending on the quantity of the medicine one can expect to spend around 50-100 RMB for treatment for flu or food poisoning.
Since I now have experience (by proxy) on surgery I can claim it too is reasonably priced, quick and efficient. The cesarean section is a routine operation anywhere, obviously, but many Chinese mothers opt for the operation instead of the pain of labor. The hospital provided us with a lower uterine segment section (I believe). The whole operation took about 45 minutes from entering the operation room to handing me the baby, and a total of less than 2 hours before the mother was already recovering. Local customs aside, the hospital worked nicely and my wife recovered quickly.
The post-operation treatment included bed rest, IVs and soup. Later more rest, IVs and porridge, followed by IVs, solid food and rest. Five days in the hospital is the typical time it takes to release a patient from a cesarean here, as was the case with my wife. The greatest surprise was the cost of the operation - the work itself, excluding medication and other costs was 1100 RMB. The hospital stay, clothing for the baby, nursing staff, medicine, IVs, diapers and other associated costs added up to less than 5000 RMB, all for a grand total under 6000 RMB. Yes, it's a big amount of money for an average family, but keep in mind this was in the Taizhou Central Hospital and included everything. Giving a normal birth in the hospital would have cost around 1600 RMB, including perhaps one night and two days recovering before release.
No, the hygiene standard isn't as high here as it is in Finland, and no, the rooms aren't as nice and quiet, but the whole system works, and it works fast. All in all a good show from the hospital.
OP Out.
For the Chinese, it appears to me, they expect two things when they go to a hospital. They want to see a result and they want to see medicine. For a Finnish person a hospital is not something you visit for a flu but the Chinese think differently.
All of the hospitals I've seen have had large rooms for patients waiting for their IV to drip. This is the most common flu treatment too, you go in, the doctor takes your temperature, listens to your description of the symptoms and prescribes an IV. It's usually a 500ml bag of glucose, another of salt water and some medicine given intravenously. If you suffer from diarrhea or have similar symptoms the treatment is mostly similar, but the doctor is more likely to prescribe the same over three days. The last time my wife went to the hospital it was 3x500ml bags per day for three days plus all the other medicine. This is similar to children, except that they insert the liquid into the forehead instead of the arm and the quantities are smaller.
This kind of treatment is very common here, but the Chinese expect value for their money, even at a doctor. They would feel cheated if the doctor told them to go home, stay warm and call back in two days if the patient didn't feel better.
This seems like a cookie-cutter approach to medicine, but it responds very well to what the customers expect and it's fast enough. The doctors don't need too much time per patient, and to be honest, the patients don't need more - they would likely get better on their own too.
The IV rooms in nicer hospitals have TV:s and I've even seen a room divided in to two areas, one with hard plastic benches and one with beds for those who will pay an extra 10 RMB / visit for the comfort. The hospitals need to make money, but they also have to keep the costs of the visit to a minimum.
The costs of a hospital visit aren't great, but I can imagine they add up to a family. A typical visit will cost 5RMB, which will get you in to the hospital and a brief consultation with a doctor. The prescribed liquids and medicine are then bought from the hospital pharmacy and taken to the treatment room. Depending on the quantity of the medicine one can expect to spend around 50-100 RMB for treatment for flu or food poisoning.
Since I now have experience (by proxy) on surgery I can claim it too is reasonably priced, quick and efficient. The cesarean section is a routine operation anywhere, obviously, but many Chinese mothers opt for the operation instead of the pain of labor. The hospital provided us with a lower uterine segment section (I believe). The whole operation took about 45 minutes from entering the operation room to handing me the baby, and a total of less than 2 hours before the mother was already recovering. Local customs aside, the hospital worked nicely and my wife recovered quickly.
The post-operation treatment included bed rest, IVs and soup. Later more rest, IVs and porridge, followed by IVs, solid food and rest. Five days in the hospital is the typical time it takes to release a patient from a cesarean here, as was the case with my wife. The greatest surprise was the cost of the operation - the work itself, excluding medication and other costs was 1100 RMB. The hospital stay, clothing for the baby, nursing staff, medicine, IVs, diapers and other associated costs added up to less than 5000 RMB, all for a grand total under 6000 RMB. Yes, it's a big amount of money for an average family, but keep in mind this was in the Taizhou Central Hospital and included everything. Giving a normal birth in the hospital would have cost around 1600 RMB, including perhaps one night and two days recovering before release.
No, the hygiene standard isn't as high here as it is in Finland, and no, the rooms aren't as nice and quiet, but the whole system works, and it works fast. All in all a good show from the hospital.
OP Out.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
I Don't Know Hospitals
My wife is recovering very quickly and the baby is just fine, they share a room with one other mother in the Taizhou Central Hospital which is the nicest hospital we could find in the area. I think the care they provide is pretty good, the whole place seems efficient and even the nursing staff is fine.
Our old roommate was released and moved away the night before yesterday. Last morning a new mother moved in to the bed next to us with their new daughter. They go through the whole family visiting routine, and when the majority of the people left the new grandmother remained a little longer. Very normal so far, especially grandmothers helping the new mother.
But, and there's a but, the following experience shows how little I know of China. This case, I assume, relates to only Taizhou and even then to only some people in Taizhou. Or I hope so since I find it revolting.
She had a little plastic bag and speaking in the local language asked us if we had the same. She actually asked "Did you also take the ..." I couldn't catch the last word but I understood the first part. My wife looked a little puzzled and made the lady repeat herself. She did and my wife caught on. She said no, we didn't take it and I asked her to explain to me what was going on.
My wife told me the lady had her daugher's placenta in the bag. The new granny was going to take it home for cooking.
Apparently it's customary enough that the hospital staff will ask the family if they want it or not, and will pack it away for them. They even asked my wife after the operation - she of course couldn't fathom why she would want to keep it and declined. Supposedly eating the placenta will do good for your health or something along those lines.
Shows how much I know - I live here and I had no idea. A good reminder, if one was needed, that there are a huge variety of traditions, customs and beliefs and they vary greatly from region to region, people to people, all within China.
OP Out.
Our old roommate was released and moved away the night before yesterday. Last morning a new mother moved in to the bed next to us with their new daughter. They go through the whole family visiting routine, and when the majority of the people left the new grandmother remained a little longer. Very normal so far, especially grandmothers helping the new mother.
But, and there's a but, the following experience shows how little I know of China. This case, I assume, relates to only Taizhou and even then to only some people in Taizhou. Or I hope so since I find it revolting.
She had a little plastic bag and speaking in the local language asked us if we had the same. She actually asked "Did you also take the ..." I couldn't catch the last word but I understood the first part. My wife looked a little puzzled and made the lady repeat herself. She did and my wife caught on. She said no, we didn't take it and I asked her to explain to me what was going on.
My wife told me the lady had her daugher's placenta in the bag. The new granny was going to take it home for cooking.
Apparently it's customary enough that the hospital staff will ask the family if they want it or not, and will pack it away for them. They even asked my wife after the operation - she of course couldn't fathom why she would want to keep it and declined. Supposedly eating the placenta will do good for your health or something along those lines.
Shows how much I know - I live here and I had no idea. A good reminder, if one was needed, that there are a huge variety of traditions, customs and beliefs and they vary greatly from region to region, people to people, all within China.
OP Out.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Asia in a nutshell
Actually the heading is a little bit misleading. I can't give you a "nutshell" experience what Asia is about, but I can give you my experiences in a nutshell, since I've just returned to Finland.
At the moment I don't miss any places in China, Malaysia or Hong Kong, but later I will. Right now I just miss few people, and especially one of them.. so much I can't explain it. However, I will give you a simple pro and con list of what was there in those countries for me. You'd be surprised how petit my list is, but honestly, the grass ain't that green anywhere.
Plus:
-Food
-Shops
-Weather
-Games
Minus:
-Apartments
-Jobs
My list contains much more plus than minus, but actually there is one big thing that puts a lot of weight to the minus list; social issues. I didn't mention it, since it might look one sided. I admit though; us Finns are not the easiest people to get along with. The question, however, is that are we Finns too close minded, or we just don't bother shallow people? I'm not saying Asians are shallow. I'm saying that material worship combined with immense discipline doesn't produce the biggest of hearts always.
At the moment I don't miss any places in China, Malaysia or Hong Kong, but later I will. Right now I just miss few people, and especially one of them.. so much I can't explain it. However, I will give you a simple pro and con list of what was there in those countries for me. You'd be surprised how petit my list is, but honestly, the grass ain't that green anywhere.
Plus:
-Food
-Shops
-Weather
-Games
Minus:
-Apartments
-Jobs
My list contains much more plus than minus, but actually there is one big thing that puts a lot of weight to the minus list; social issues. I didn't mention it, since it might look one sided. I admit though; us Finns are not the easiest people to get along with. The question, however, is that are we Finns too close minded, or we just don't bother shallow people? I'm not saying Asians are shallow. I'm saying that material worship combined with immense discipline doesn't produce the biggest of hearts always.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Stay Tuned
At 06:05 on Sunday night, 11.1.2009 my son was born weighing in at 3650g.
You can imagine how glad I am the longest holiday of the year is only a week away now that the family requires more.
I should have quite a bit of material on a writeup on Chinese hospitals in a few days, or when I get settled in to a new routine.
OP Out.
You can imagine how glad I am the longest holiday of the year is only a week away now that the family requires more.
I should have quite a bit of material on a writeup on Chinese hospitals in a few days, or when I get settled in to a new routine.
OP Out.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Shopping
I promised a few pictures of the New Year preparations from my local supermarket, so there you go.
In the second picture you can see one of the huge stacks of snacks sold from large bins. All of this is very similar to western Christmas shopping, where Finnish supermarkets have stacks upon stacks of chocolate boxes, except people aren't that into chocolate here. But they are into snacks.
I frequently note how the other shoppers in supermarkets are content to load their basket to the brim with goodies. Sweet drinks, bisquits, candy and various other snacks like flavoured chicken or dry octopus are huge hits. Groceries not so much. Actually, I'm often toting the healthies basket or pushing the cart with most actual food with it. It's because people do their grocery shopping mostly in wet markets, but are affluent enough to buy the nice stuff too. So they make a trip to the mega mart and load on the goodies.
The market knows this. The local Auchan has a almost everything, and you really don't need another shop unless you really want some specific hard-to-find items. But snacks and candy? Rows, stacks, shelves, piles and then some. Surely it is a case of people buying what is abundant in the shops, but the shops have to shelve what people want. And judging by the square meters of junk food I can guess what they really buy. It'll be a few years still before people get more used to supermarket shopping. That, or they will have to - I don't think the wet markets can really compete with the giants, not for long anyway. They will of course have customers who need to buy only the most basic goods, who save on every purchase as much as they can, but later there will be a point where most city people realize the big shops have clean goods at a cheap price, not only New Year goodies.
OP Out.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Stripa Faita Foor
To all my beloved fags: I was busy so I didnt write much. Now I wont write much either, but I was visiting Hong Kong and I played Street Fighter 4. Its a nice game, but the problem when going to HK arcades is that certain geeks practice daily and I just cant beat them.
After about 20 rounds I can already say that SF4 is quite OK as a game, and the game balance seems nice too. The strongest characters in the game are probably M.Bison and Blanka. Also Zangief, Abel, Ryu and Ken (the two latter ones.. sigh.. what a surprise) seem solid as well. And more probably, the Japanese tournament scene will very quickly prove my observations wrong.
Well. I play Ken as always. Akuma seems to weak to bother with, and I dont like how he works. In Street Fighter 3 Akuma was my fav char, but now, I just need to do it with Ken since he seems more stylish this time - and with him I can actually get some rounds in against those HK geeks.
If you manage to find one, and are into fighting games, then try SF4. Ill give it 3,5/5 and probably later on 5/5, but not yet. Depends how good I get in it. Lol. Moi.
After about 20 rounds I can already say that SF4 is quite OK as a game, and the game balance seems nice too. The strongest characters in the game are probably M.Bison and Blanka. Also Zangief, Abel, Ryu and Ken (the two latter ones.. sigh.. what a surprise) seem solid as well. And more probably, the Japanese tournament scene will very quickly prove my observations wrong.
Well. I play Ken as always. Akuma seems to weak to bother with, and I dont like how he works. In Street Fighter 3 Akuma was my fav char, but now, I just need to do it with Ken since he seems more stylish this time - and with him I can actually get some rounds in against those HK geeks.
If you manage to find one, and are into fighting games, then try SF4. Ill give it 3,5/5 and probably later on 5/5, but not yet. Depends how good I get in it. Lol. Moi.
Friday, January 2, 2009
China Brand News, Continued
The real news item is how China feels it should have a working 3G cellular network. And beign China, they want to have local technology in the mix. Rumor and hearsay say that the local test 3G network isn't realiable at all, but hey, they can improve right? Or at least sell massive quantities to drown small complaints such as call dropping or inexplicable signal loss (you can call this the iPhone 3G method.)
AP News is reporting on this too. They state they don't know who is getting the 3G licenses and instead talked of technology distribution. No original research involved, as it appears the news item is a translation of a press release. It's weak reporting through and through, but what irked me was the last note.
They added a More on the Net section to the end. And remember, this is for a piece of news they translated and posted for people who assumedly need the translation - otherwise they wouldn't have a motive posting:
"On the Net:
Chinese Cabinet (in Chinese): http://www.gov.cn"
They linked to the Chinese Goverment website. In Chinese. I can do one better. Here's the English website of the Chinese Government AP was too lazy to dig up http://english.gov.cn/ and here's the same news AP reported:
http://english.gov.cn/2008-12/31/content_1193250.htm
Compare it to the AP post:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_telecoms
They just didn't have the balls to credit it further or provide a proper link to the content.
The China Brand News. a Quick Fix of reporting.
OP Out.
AP News is reporting on this too. They state they don't know who is getting the 3G licenses and instead talked of technology distribution. No original research involved, as it appears the news item is a translation of a press release. It's weak reporting through and through, but what irked me was the last note.
They added a More on the Net section to the end. And remember, this is for a piece of news they translated and posted for people who assumedly need the translation - otherwise they wouldn't have a motive posting:
"On the Net:
Chinese Cabinet (in Chinese): http://www.gov.cn"
They linked to the Chinese Goverment website. In Chinese. I can do one better. Here's the English website of the Chinese Government AP was too lazy to dig up http://english.gov.cn/ and here's the same news AP reported:
http://english.gov.cn/2008-12/31/content_1193250.htm
Compare it to the AP post:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_telecoms
They just didn't have the balls to credit it further or provide a proper link to the content.
The China Brand News. a Quick Fix of reporting.
OP Out.
Welcome to 2009
Welcome to 2009 from the YDKC Team!
The holidays here in China are very much what you make of them except for the Chinese new year. It's fun how my wife thinks of the coming New Year celebration ahead of time but other holidays may come as they are. The New Year however has started in shops and advertisements, just as Christmas starts two weeks or a month ahead in the west.
Our regular supermarket is now chock full of red banners. I'll take a picture next time I'm there, but there are hundreds. You don't need to speak a lick of Chinese to know it's going to be the year of the bull next.
Christmas, as I hinted, isn't a mainland holiday. Shops play Christmas songs and you see some decorations but that's all. In Hong Kong (and I hope Pekka elaborates) you see 10-story tall light advertisements and Christmas designs on building walls. Much like everything else, HK Christmas is about shopping.
The western new year gives a one day holiday to most workers but there's no major celebration. And even though fireworks are so popular and available around the year, nobody plays with them for the western new year. Saving up for the Chinese New Year I suppose. Actually, saving up for the New Year is very much a topic.
I've heard that small crime is on the rise a month before the holidays. Like legitimate workers, thieves will try to get some extra money to spend the holidays with. Even our neighbourhood as additional security measures in place. Nothing obtrusive but they make an effort.
But all in all, I've enjoyed my break.
Welcome back everyone!
Oh, a mention to my friend Eero. He's in China getting a nice Chinese marriage with all the hassle and (strange) wonderful ceremonies included. Congratulations.
The holidays here in China are very much what you make of them except for the Chinese new year. It's fun how my wife thinks of the coming New Year celebration ahead of time but other holidays may come as they are. The New Year however has started in shops and advertisements, just as Christmas starts two weeks or a month ahead in the west.
Our regular supermarket is now chock full of red banners. I'll take a picture next time I'm there, but there are hundreds. You don't need to speak a lick of Chinese to know it's going to be the year of the bull next.
Christmas, as I hinted, isn't a mainland holiday. Shops play Christmas songs and you see some decorations but that's all. In Hong Kong (and I hope Pekka elaborates) you see 10-story tall light advertisements and Christmas designs on building walls. Much like everything else, HK Christmas is about shopping.
The western new year gives a one day holiday to most workers but there's no major celebration. And even though fireworks are so popular and available around the year, nobody plays with them for the western new year. Saving up for the Chinese New Year I suppose. Actually, saving up for the New Year is very much a topic.
I've heard that small crime is on the rise a month before the holidays. Like legitimate workers, thieves will try to get some extra money to spend the holidays with. Even our neighbourhood as additional security measures in place. Nothing obtrusive but they make an effort.
But all in all, I've enjoyed my break.
Welcome back everyone!
Oh, a mention to my friend Eero. He's in China getting a nice Chinese marriage with all the hassle and (strange) wonderful ceremonies included. Congratulations.
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