Quote: (02-06-2013 01:47 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:
JD,
While it is true that as you put it nicely, every yahoo is in Guangdang exporting crap out of China, opportunities there are incredible. And like in anything else, the way to differentiate yourself from the competition is by offering better quality, learning the language, being familiar with the local customs of things are done and delivering more than what the clients are expecting. And that frankly is not quite hard to achieve in China where as long as you have the basics checked, it's not hard to achieve that.
I agree totally with you that the major money is in importing quality, luxury goods from overseas into China. As you mentioned, the Chinese middle class is exploding and they have money to burn. Their appetite for western, luxury goods is simply unsatiable. This is also where I will be concentrating on when I get there later this year.
You're also right that the 2nd tier cities are a gold mine. Keep in mind tough that the sheer size of cities in China are in a different league than what we may be used to by western standards. A village can have half a million people and a small town, over a million. As a matter of fact, there are over 50+ cities with a population of a million or more. Mind blowing!
China is really the wild wild wild west or rather in that case, the wild wild wild east and it's developing like crazy at a neck braking pace.
In my opinion, the best place to start is to watch the videos on the elevatorlife.com site. These guys know their stuff inside out and are down to earth.
Here are a couple of videos that address much of your comments:
http://www.theelevatorlife.com/the-eleva...-in-china/
http://www.theelevatorlife.com/the-eleva...isconnect/
When you will go back to China, which city are you going to base yourself in? Keep me updated on things as I will be very interested in how things go for you. I will return to China in the fall.
All the best man!
Thanks for the tips VP! I just watched those videos you posted and I checked out a few out a few others after reading through this thread the other day. I'll probably go through all of them in the next couple of days.
After watching the one about starting small, they reconfirmed my beliefs that you don't have to know what you're going to be doing when you first get into China. There is so much opportunity there that you don't have to be someone who invents a completely new product or strategy to get a foothold.
As far as where I might end up... I'm still researching that. When I was China 2 years ago I went to about 16 cities but I was just there to check things out as a tourist. It wasn't until near the end of that trip that I started meeting people that were doing cool things and my eyes were opened. By that point I was already in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and had passed over some of the second-tier ports like Xiamen and Ningbo. A lot of the people I met were actually on holiday from their endeavors in the Chinese coastal cities.
Like I said, I'm not sold yet on Guangzhou or Shenzhen proper just yet. What would be the advantage of being in Guangzhou over someplace like Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Huizhou, or Foshan that (I imagine) are still in the intermediate boom stages? When I was working with the freight forwarder I processed so many shipments out of those places... there are so many manufacturers there that the place just has to be swimming in disposable income and it might be cheaper to get set up with some office or warehouse space.
I'm also interested in Fujian province. I like the fact that it's still subtropical but you have some nice mountain areas and it's less known internationally and maybe less polluted. I'm thinking access to the port in Xiamen and a better quality of life are two potential advantages. Fuzhou or Xiamen are big candidates for me as they're both about midway between Shanghai, Guangzhou and Taiwan if relations between the two Chinas ever cool. It's a shame I didn't get off the train in either of them last time I was there. Xiamen is supposed to be rather pretty and have some nice beaches.
Other than that, there is TONS (!!!) of potential in developing things in Central and Western China. I spent two weeks in Guizhou and was shocked by how underdeveloped it was. There were signs that the Chinese government has big plans for it however, as they were building a giant four lane highway directly through mountains (not going around or over them like we do in North America). Some of the lesser known areas might be a goldmine in the waiting as the money will eventually start to pour in from Beijing.
Perhaps I'll revive an old thread or start up a new one on some of these more off-the-beaten path small cities. For example, Guiyang, Guizhou has 4.5 million people... like you said VP, these places are only small in the universe that is China!