I’m in Thailand for a week or so to visit some martial arts suppliers and collect a few other samples, my Chinese phone won’t be working here and I will have patchy wireless access for checking my emails so please expect delays in my responses.
In the mean time if you require any specific products sourcing to export from Thailand please get in touch.
I have wanted to visit Canton Fair for about 4 years now, I was put off by two things in the past that had I known what I know now, would not have been an issue. Number one being getting a visa and number two being getting from Hong Kong airport to the Fair. I almost came here to the Fair in 2008 and I was trying to organise the trip through a Chinese agent. Continue reading
“This is china” – a phrase used by western people living here. It means “This is pretty crazy right but hey don’t be suprised, your in china after all”. That just about sums up this place, culture shock doesn’t even cut it. I have been all over the world but this feels like another planet.
I landed in Hong Kong on friday and it’s been a mad rush and emotional roller coaster for the past 3 days. Losing my iPhone didn’t help, if you know me personally then please email your contact details to me on dan @ cassico.com.
I had to fly into HK for my visa which i had to wait overnight for. I have then travelled to Guangzhou which is my first port of call to start visiting factories on Monday. Pretty tired but can’t wait to start putting all this planning into action.
I have Just been for a meal with a friend of mine who lives here and met my guide/translator. Sorry for the lack of updates for the past 3 days but interestingly blogging, facebook and things like youtube are all banned in China so i had to sign up to an off shore server in order to log in – this is china! Here’s a few snaps from the last few days, afraid since I lost my iPhone all the good ones are gone.
From what I can see people here are either pretty poor or super rich, it’s a funny set up and you can see the social effect this has. There is a lot of fake stuff here, as you might expect, but I didn’t expect this level of blatant copies. I went to a roof top party on Friday night and there was a fake Rolls Royce phantom parked outside. Outside my hotel, a casual fake range rover sport. I just went to buy a new iphone from a legit looking apple dealer until my translator told me it was a copy. You could never tell, makes you wonder….
Living costs wise you can live for real cheap, but you can also spend big bucks. Apparently the average wage here is about £120 a month but my hotel was £160 on the first night so I guess I need to slip out of “Tourist” mode. A bottle of water is A few pence but in starbucks one will run you £2.60.
So tomorrow we start hunting down goods, very excited indeed.
