Roadside Businesses in Zhuhai. Gambling in China.

We saw an interesting and mobile business just outside our Zhuhai office yesterday.   Heading out for our meeting our team came across this scene, a computer engineer seated behind a roadside truck.

Returning from our meeting we took a closer look and saw that this business was in fact arranging pigeon races. We found it very interesting that 2 foreign staff from our company were allowed to photograph this scene since pigeon racing is such a big business in China (and so closely related to gambling).

Anybody who does business in China understands the importance of the company chop.  Not only are the birds tracked with high tech GPS, they are also authenticated by a racing chop.  Check out how they are branded below.

This is usually big business with some birds selling for staggering figures.   We learned that the birds near our office sell for RMB 1,000 each on average.  As we sit in our office, looking out over the colossal Sands & Lisboa just over the border in China, the RMB 1000 cost is put into context.

Check out some interesting articles on Pigeon Racing:

• Bloomberg
• Independent
• Xingewang

You might also like to know a little more about company chops and where to pick one up in Zhuhai

China Visa for French

If you are a French and you need to apply for a tourist visa to China, you can apply from Hong Kong. These are the documents required to process your visa. Take a look and make sure you have everything so that you don't have to keep coming back and forth to process your visa. It will cost HKD 360.

Factory visit for Promotional Products in Yiwu

I visited Yiwu for a factory visit September 26th - September 28th. In the following post, I will give a brief summary of my trip.

After arriving, I first thought that I just landed in a different country. When you compare Yiwu with Zhuhai you can definitely say that Zhuhai is the cleaner city and more "Western". Furthermore, it seems that the people do not have that much money compared with most cities in the Guangdong Province.  But back to the factory....

When I was arriving at the factory, I was surprised to see that the company owner was hardly older than me, and at 22, I seemed to be one of the older people there.   This is quite different to the factories I can imagine in the West.  He seemed to be quite nice even if he did not speak English at all. Therefore all our communication was based on google translater and calls back to our office to chat with the merchandisers.

My business was to check the samples on Wednesday and make sure that they are sent away on Wednesday or Thursday to the clients. My boss basically wanted a set of European Eyes in the factory.  Being German, I know what quality products are and what can be acceptable products for sale in my home market.  This does not replace laboratory testing, but getting to factory means you can have a first hand view of product development and quality.

Unfortunately, the owner "told" me that he did not even have all the parts in the factory and that it will take until Thursday to finish everything.  Because of the fact there was not so much to check, except the weight and measures of the product, I used the time to have a closer look to the machines and the facilities of the factory.   It is always good to have a snoop around and see what the conditions are like and see the quality of other products on the production  lines...

Assembly lines China

On the second day it was exactly the same and I began to get mad because the excuses of the factory owner became worse and worse. I called up our office in Zhuhai and gave status report to the merchandising staff.   They were then able to take over negotiations and give the factory a good push.  Nevertheless, I had much work the whole day because it was quite hard to get answers from those guys.  In the end of the day at least a couple of components arrived and I could do some of the checking.

On the last day, I visited Yiwu- Fair to get some factory offers for other products. The Fair was the largest one, I have ever seen and it was quite impressive. Afterwards I went back to the factory to check the final product.

Because of a car accident on the way back, we were quite late and so I was in a hurry to check everything and catch my flight.   On the airport, I saw that my flight was delayed by an hour.   This happens quite a lot in China so I got back to Guangzhou airport quite late..

To sum it up, I can say that this trip was a great experience. Even if I did not like the city and the factory owner was not the most cooperative, I was glad that I had the opportunity to experience another side of China and Chinese Business.

No internship in China should be complete without spending some time in a factory....

Going To The Hospital In Zhuhai

When living in Zhuhai it is important to know how to get to the hospital in case anything happens, and here you have a basic guide.  In Chinese hospitals you need a identification card which you can transfer money to and use for payment - sort of similar to the public transport cards in many major cities..

The hospital in Zhuhai is in the center of the city.  You can here see the main entrance to the hospital below.

Nice new building so on the outside everything looks good...

When coming inside there is a sign of what level you have to go, in this case foreigner has to go to level 5 to visit the VIP clinic.

Arriving the fifth floor and you are at the vip floor, here you just have to show your identification card and they will get you through to an English speaking doctor who will take you through the line and help you with your request. 

In our experience the service was friendly, efficient and fast.  Many people will use hospitals for GP style services and costs were overall reasonable for standard care.  Now you just have to go back at the same way to exit the building..

E-Beer Festival in Huafa New Land - Zhuhai

On Saturday the 22. September there was a really cool event in a district in Zhuhai called Huafa New Land.
Huafa is a very beautiful place with nice shops, architecture and have the great view of the river and the lights from Gonbei. Huafa is placed on the other side of the river from Gongbei.

The event was an electronic beer festival, with great International DJ's playing different styles of music like House and Dupstep. The event was really well implemented but unfortunately lasted only a few hours from 6:00 to 10:00 pm.  There were refreshing beers from several countries, and you even got one for free with your ticket.

There was cool dancers, people that was specially dressed up with make up and cool accessories for the guests to laugh and have fun with. At the event also had a luxury car show with stunning models - for sure worth a good look.

There were many people enjoying the event, coming together to good music, beers and a nice chilled atmosphere.  Lots of Beer Promo gifts given out too... After the festival they had arranged a after-party at a bar nearby called The Factory. The bar had live music and was nice and chilled.

Trip to Flying-Sand Beach

Interns from The ODM Group in Zhuhai participated in a trip to the Flying-Sand Beach in Zhuhai which was arranged by Intern China.

Located in the west of Zhuhai, Flying Sand Beach is about 550 meters long and 150 meters wide, surrounded by subtropical plants. White sand, clear water and sunshine all the time attract visitors.

This trip was a great experience for all of us. The water had a good temperature and we were able to play football and volleyball with some locals, what gave us a good opportunity to experience more of the Chinese culture. In the evening we had a barbecue on the beach. That was good end of great day. We slept in tents and when we woke up, we saw the dawn on the beach.

All in all this trip was a good break from work and gave us the opportunity to experience another side of Zhuhai & life in China.

"Come together" - Charity Event in Zhuhai, China

All the interns from The ODM Group Zhuhai participated in a charity event in Zhuhai. The event was with the aim to raise enough money to pay the school tuition fees for some pupils from the West of Zhuhai. When living in another country it is important remember to give something back to the society, and the money raised means that between 50 to 100 kids could carry on going to school in September. It was a pleasure helping to provide local Chinese children with school education while enjoying the nice vibes and great live music. The event was organized by Beishan Theatre and InternChina with the main purpose to help raise money to buy children equipment to school. There were the most awesome bands playing, from Hong Kong and Macau, they really made the evening complete and ensured the event being a great success. While helping a good course, people had a good time dancing and laughing together.  The charity event was a great success and all the interns enjoyed being part of it.