My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

A few days ago I was directed to a supplier’s website.  I took a look.  Some of the products were quite nice.  Their selection quite broad. I was interested.  I contacted them.  I requested a look at their company catalogue.  To my surprise, I was told I needed a password to gain entry.  Having already seen some of their product, my appetite whetted, I told them a bit about my company background.  I got the password. Upon “entry” I was quite impressed with the range of product.  Working under the old adage,  “Chinese know Chinese”, I could see why a password was required.   And if I were in their shoes, I’d do the same. A few days later, having caught my breath, I began ordering samples from them.   The response I received surprised me somewhat; “Out of production” “Out of stock” “No inventory” WTF?  Seriously? I couldn’t help but ask the question:  “If it is out of production, why is it still in the catalogue?” First to even have a password

Since I wrote this post, there is an update to be made.  The Chinese inlaws have applied to have their monthly rent lowered from $150 to $65.  I found this out just before the Chinese mother in law went on a cruise in the Caribbean. (First stop:  San Juan!  She studied up on Puerto Rico.  I told her not to worry, they speak English.) No, the boat did not sink.  She had a whale of a time by the way. She went with another elderly Chinese lady from her HUD apartment complex.  Apparently her son owns 8 houses within the local area.  Not sure why he just doesn't put his mom up in one of those....I guess because he could never evict her if she didn't pay rent. I just shake my head at the lunacy of it all.  I have nothing left to say on the matter.  Unless, that is, they managed to bring the rent down lower still.  Surely HUD has rules against rich people living for free. The irony of it all is my Dad, should he ever decide to sign up, would have to pay about 5 times higher

When I first met my wife in the 90’s she lived in a 5 th floor nondescript apartment building reserved for high ranking officials.  There was no elevator.   Yet lived by foot only 7 minutes or so from Westlake in Hangzhou.  The building itself had a covered, enclosed bicycle garage.   The family an actual working phone.  The year was 1991. Soon after marriage we had a crisis on our hands.  The rumor was that the government was going to raze the building (which they eventually did).   The parents wanted to buy a home, because by ’96 apartment blocks were beginning to rise in Hangzhou.   The Taiwanese, and overseas Chinese in particular (Indonesia, Malaysia) were beginning to see this and suddenly Hangzhou was being looked upon as a nice place to have a 2 nd home.  That is, the wealthy Chinese were all flocking to the defacto retirement getaway of Mao (whose villa by the way, unlike that of Lin Biao, still hasn’t been opened to the public.  I tried to bike in once when I was a stu

I was hanging out with a sales lady a few weeks ago in Ningbo.   She wasn’t devastatingly pretty but she was pretty enough.  After having visited her factory on a Saturday, I had a day off.  She offered to show me around.   I casually suggested she bring her daughter with her.    I felt guilty, but only slightly, from keeping her away from her family during the weekend.   The factory visit had not gone down well.   It was a pathetic place, full of pathetic personnel and I was disappointed she knew so little about the product I was interested in buying.   As such, I also knew her boss was getting rich selling his product to ignorant ass foreigners too fucking lazy to come over here and compare one site against another.     When she offered up, as I expected her to, to take me around Ningbo on Sunday, I of course said yes.  We both realized she had a lot of Face to earn back.   But while it’s perfectly ok for me to be a dick at the factory that wants to earn money off me, one must u