BigWorldAndSmallWorld Blog

A friend and I went to Guangdong in 2016 for two purposes: indulge in their mouth-watering delicious food and search for family root because our ancestors were from this region. Guangdong (formerly Canton), a coastal province of southeast China, borders Hong Kong and Macau. Its capital, Guangzhou, sits within its industrial Pearl River Delta region. While I don’t remember all the places we went on the 6-day gourmet food tour around Guangdong, I certainly remember some of the tastiest food we ate and I’m glad I took some pictures. Cantonese cuisine is one of China’s Eight Traditional Cuisines, it is also popular in the western world . Roast pigeon, egg custard, abalone, duck, crab, double-skin milk, dim-sum, roast suckling pig, and Foshan Chen-village noodle are among the favorite, too many to name the others.

Below are some of the pictures I took around the region. Best of all, I got to see two college friends whom I haven’t seen since we graduated from Fudan University many many years ago. It was delightful to see them and chat with them, even though it was a short time. The other fun thing I got to do was being drafted as a temporary actress for a show and I got to dress up and be on stage acting as an empress, it was so much fun and totally unexpected.

I saw this on the internet, I thought it was quite funny. I had no intention to encourage you to do the same, nor did I like any of the doings. I translated it so that you can laugh about it and trash it. I didn’t mean to offend anybody.
One person got 1 yuan, he found a friend in the black market and bought a 50 yuan fake money. He used the 50 yuan to make a phone call at a small magazine stand on the street. The stand owner an old grandpa could not tell fake money from real money, therefore he gave the person 49.6 yuan change in real money.
The person went to an underground CD store, bought 9 CDs at less than 5 yuan each. Then he took a 5 yuan long-distance bus ride to a nearby town where he sold his CDs for 15 yuan each for a total of 135 yuan. After returning to the city, he used the money to buy 260 pens, sold them at 1.5 yuan each thus to make a total of 390 yuan…He used this way buying and selling different merchants, now he got 2000 yuan.
The person went to amusement park to look for a prostitute, negotiated 300 yuan for the service but he gave her 1000 yuan. This pleased the lady so she introduced more prostitutes to him. Then he found a close-out printing shop and used 500 yuan to print many flyers, posted them everywhere in the city. The flyer said 10 prostitutes could make you 5000 yuan per day, 150000 yuan per month, subtract 100000 yuan rent, you gain 50000 yuan per month, do you want to make the big money?
…Now the person had more money to make bigger deals. He went on making variety of deals such as buying special goods from Yunnan and sold it elsewhere for big profit, registering a real estate company, hiring employees, bribing local officials, gaining contract for government road constructions, becoming representative for foreign companies in China, building a website to lure investor’s money, rounded 200 million yuan in funding, IPOed the company and the company valued at 200 million in US dollars. On the first day in the stock market, the stock price multiplied 10 times, the next day he sold the stocks and made 1 billion US dollars. From there on, the person became China’s Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Haha, the end.

Whether you go to a conference or exhibition in China, or search for a Chinese company online, many people worry about or don’t know if they are dealing with a factory or a trading company. How to differentiate these two? I am sharing some important tips here and I hope it is helpful. It is essential for you to learn them. In fact both factory and trading company have its own advantage. In the end, who you decide to work with largely depends on your experience and what kind of risks you are willing to take. Each circumstance is different; therefore we don’t recommend one solution for all.

1. This is the most import one among all tips: Only a few large factories in China have the licenses to trade with overseas companies directly; therefore most factories must rely on trading companies as the middle men to carry out the transactions. License to export is required by China’s policy and the policy has been in place for a long time. So ask a factory or a trading company to show you the license, this is a must.

2. Of course the product is what you want. Find out how good the quality is early on will help you make decision and save big in the future. So ask a lot of questions.

3. Ask for a business card, normally the business name will be on it. If it is a factory (厂或工厂), it will say so. If it is a trading company（贸易公司、外贸公司）or import or export company (进出口公司), it will say so too. Therefore you can tell from the name, it’s the easiest way.
Note: If you don’t know Chinese, I recommend you to learn some key Chinese words for your business. You will find it to be very beneficial!

4. A factory is able to provide you the original product certificate (CE) while a trading company normally doesn’t have it. The CE would clearly state which factory this certificate is issued to, match the name on the certificate with the business name.

5. Ask for pictures of how the product is made, again a trading company normally doesn’t have that information while a factory may be happy to show you.

6. A trading company may provide products from various different industries while a factory may provide products for only one industry. This may not be true for all factories, however a large percentage of the factories fall into this category.

7. Ask to visit the factory to see it by your own eyes how the product is made and the factory environment. A true factory would be happy to arrange a visit fairly quickly while a trading company may take a while because it has to go through contacts to make this special arrangement for you. So you can test the business to see what the reply will be.

8. It is always a good idea to get a quote from three vendors regardless it’s a factory or a trading company. Only then, you will have a better handle of pricing.

9. You should know that even though a factory may give you the lowest price and it usually has some rooms for you to negotiate to lower the price furthermore, while a trading company may give you a higher price because it needs to make a profit, a factory may ask you to purchase the product in a huge quantity. Do you need that much quantity?

10. A trading company may be more responsive to your request when issues occur because it wants to treat you their customer nice thus to confront with the factory on your behalf, while a factory may be somewhat difficult to deal with or delay responding you.

11. Unlike a trading company who is very familiar with overseas orders in terms of communication, negotiation, goods in stock, custom form and shipping, a factory may not have the experience or resources thus a factory is more likely to make mistakes.

I would recommend you to consider all facts and balance pros and cons; then you will have a good feel for what’s the best for your situation. As you acquire more experience dealing with Chinese companies, your preferred method may change too.

I read a blog on this topic recently. One comment said that the other four things the Chinese like to do are: buy house, eat, play mahjong, and travel. Even though this is very true to the common people, in the business world however, the blog said there are four other important things for the Chinese business people. Because the blog I read is in Chinese, I now summarize it in English below. It’s interesting to know that young Chinese business people today are not that much different than western business people. Or at least, they are learning from the westerners.
1. Low key is the number 1 attitude a good business person should have. Always respect others and put others above yourself.
2. Your values are essential in everything you do, from small action to big decision-making.
3. Patience and persistence will make a big difference in your business’ success or failure. People respect businesses that last 100 years, but forget businesses that lasted only three or five years. Time will put your patience and persistence to test. One of the lasting Chinese wisdoms is: do things slowly but do it right.
4. Having a sharp and correct vision for the future is a must. It’s also critical to find the right partners along the way. Owners may have to do things not directly contribute to the revenue of the business such as supporting disaster relief, or being Good Samaritan to the society.
So what do you think about the above four points?

I am so delighted that I am on the June issue of the Overseas English Magazine. They did an interview with me on my life after I came to USA from China as a student, my work experience as an engineer, tech lead and specialist at several fortune 500 companies, and how I started my own company and what services I offer today to benefit both the Chinese people and the American people. Unfortunately this interview is in Chinese only. Click the link to read the entire article. http://www.meilecheng.com/docs/OEEliteInterview1.pdf

In China, names have deep significance. They can influence consumer behavior and imagination. When a foreign brand wants to enter the Chinese market, the first and the most important thing to do is to have an excellent and well-thought Chinese name that caters to the Chinese people. I consider these foreign brands’ Chinese names smart, easy to read and remember, pleasant to the ears, and very meaningful.

On top of the winners’ list is Revlon 露华浓. The Chinese name actually came from Tang Dynasty famous poet Li Bai’s poem. The name makes people wanting to try the cosmetic and make oneself look as beautiful as Tang Emperor Xuanzong’s beloved concubine Yang who was regarded as one of the four most beautiful women in China’s history.

The 2nd place winner is Coca-Cola 可口可乐 literally means happy mouth makes a happy person.

The rest on my favorite names list are:
Cannon 佳能 for good functions and capabilities
Home Depot 家得宝 for home receives treasure
IKEA 宜家 for easy and comfortable home
Nike 耐克 for endurance, persistence and long-lasting
Reebok 锐步 for quick steps. I would want a pair of shoes feel so light on my feet that I feel like I can run faster.
BMW 宝马 for precious horse
Channel 香奈儿 very good phonetic translation, sounds soft and fragrant
Master 万事达 for achieve 10,000 things
Carrefour 家乐福 for happy and lucky family
Bing 必赢for winning every time

On the contrary, phonetic translation like Hilton 希尔顿 means nothing in Chinese. To come up with a good Chinese name is not easy; however with some knowledge and due-diligence it is achievable.

Located in Tanzania, Serengeti is Africa’s largest plain. In Swahili, Serengeti means endless. We saw and loved this typical African scene: animals rest and eat peacefully; powerful lions and meek impalas happily live together on the same land; sausage tree stands alone on a vast land under the sun; at sunset, Serengeti is so beautiful. This is what draws our human beings to Africa.
Two things are must when people enter Serengeti: open-top jeep and plenty drinking water. We bought 24 bottles of 1.5 liter water for five-day’s supply. Our tour package included a driver and a cook. The driver is also the guide. All vehicles entering Serengeti are modified Toyota SUVs either Land-rover or Land-cruiser. They are tough vehicles perfect for the rough roads. We had a good cook who cooked three meals daily for us. Considering he was cooking on charcoal at camping sites in the wildness, we were surprised by the delicious and variety of food the cook prepared for us. Lunch was usually something easy to take on the road such as sandwiches, fruits and drinks. For breakfast, we had eggs, sausages, toasts, coffee and tea. For supper, we had rice or potato or noodle, the main dish usually was a stir-fry dish with beef or chicken and vegetables. We had fruits like baby banana, mango, orange, papaya and watermelon. Eating under the African stars in the evening was a real treat for us. The meal service was English style. The cook set up plates, forks, spoons and cups on a table with nice table cloth. And he served our meals with polite manner. What a luxury! We would not have imagined this kind of service in the wildness. The cook also would put up the tents for us and we would help the driver take down the tents. The driver guide not only knew the roads well, he also was very knowledgeable about animals and plants in Serengeti. To be a driver guide, one has to go to special schools for a couple of years to learn.
Sleeping under the Africa sky was the most memorable experience for us. We chose camping on this trip so that we could be closer to the nature. At night we could hear animals’ sounds, it was wonderful but also scary at the same time. Knowing there is wildlife out there, I was afraid to go to bathroom at night. Clark said every time he went outside the tent, he would shine flashlight around to spot any eyes staring at him in the darkness:). Camping was also the cheapest accommodation among others such as sleeping in fixed tents, huts or in lodges.
Road conditions and toiletry conditions were pretty bad. Every day we were dusty from head to toe. It was hard to comb my hairs. Camping sites did have outdoor showers. We had to be brave to endure the coldness to take a shower. To our surprise, one place where we camped at the rim of a creator we even had a hot shower. It was the coldest place where days and nights were foggy. Africa has two seasons: wet season and dry season. We went there in August, it was their dry season and also winter. Morning and night were cool while daytime under the sun was warm. Travelers can enter Serengeti only in the dry season; otherwise jeeps would be stuck in the mud during the wet season. Human is not allowed to get out of vehicle in Serengeti. While we were at the bottom of the creator, a few hundred meters away from seeing a lioness under a rock, our jeep broke. It would not shift gears. The driver guide had to come out and work on fixing the car. We were worried. Time seemed frozen and we felt we had waited forever. Eventually we got a few other cars’ attention and they stopped to help us. Nothing bad happened and we were able to drive away with a temporary fix.
Africa is animals’ heaven. We saw baboon, zebra, elephant, lion, giraffe, hippo, hyena, buffalo, crane, impala, wildebeest, cheetah, leopard, ostrich and many kinds of birds. We had a very close encounter with a cheetah lying on top of a termite mound. He/she was relaxing but seemed stay alerted. The thought of the possibility the cheetah would jump on to our jeep was frightening, but it never happened. A huge male lion was also in close view. We could see his strong body powerful and beautiful. This fearless creature indeed had the king of the jungle manner. He walked confidently away from us towards a few female lionesses resting under a tree. My favorite was zebras and wildebeests. They were in great numbers.
We also saw native Africa tribe people Maasai. Like American Indians, they love nature. Some sleep in the wildness with surrounding bushes and sticks as temporary shelters, some sleep in fixed huts. The huts were made from mud, straws and cow pup. The main foods they live on are cows and sheeps. The cows we saw in Africa all were very skinny. The Maasai people rarely take shower. They wear red or purple robs, holding a stick in hand. The guide told us even lions could recognize Maasai and the lions don’t normally get too close to Maasai people.
Kenya and Tanzania people look poor and live a simple life. They live in shabby houses. The roads were dusty, muddy and bumpy. The Chinese are building roads in Africa. Water is a precious resource in Africa. Tuesdays and Saturdays are market days where people can sell or buy all kinds of produces on the market. Our guide told us his monthly rent was $15 US dollars and his monthly grocery was $20 US dollars. Tanzania shilling is worthless. 1 US dollar is equal to 1600 Tanzania shilling. The largest bill in Tanzania is 10000 shilling and the smallest bill is 500 shilling. People there like to receive US dollars because they can get good rate by exchanging them to shillings. When the tour ended, we gave tips to the cook and the guide in cash. We also gave them our nice sleeping bag, ropes, blankets and flashlights. They appreciated these good camping equipments because they did not have much stuff.
Our Africa trip is the hardest vacation ever. We met three Chinese people from Guangzhou in the beginning. They were to climb Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. It borders Kenya and Tanzania. I would think climbing Kilimanjaro would be a harder trip than our camping trip. They had to backpack everything themselves and sleep in tents on the mountain where base camps were set up. I asked these young people why they choose Africa and why climb Kilimanjaro? They told me they want to challenge themselves. What a terrific answer! Luckily after returning to USA, I was able to connect with one of the Chinese. They did climb to the peak and got a certificate. I liked one of their photos a lot where the moon seemed so close, the snow peak was within reach and the sky was so deep blue. Africa, you added another continent to our travel log. Kilimanjaro, we wish to climb you the next time we go to Africa.
You can watch our photo video Dailey’s Africa on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeTEK5ms9EY

In my life, I had the pleasure to occasionally notice the differences when Chinese culture crashed with American culture.
Once I went to YMCA to exercise. I was there a few minutes early so I started to chat with the instructor. She was a happy grandmother with seven children and three grandchildren. I was surprised to know she had that many children, but I was happy for her. She asked if I had any children. I answered: yes, three boys, two teenagers and one 3-year-old. And I told her my oldest and the youngest is about thirteen years apart. She replied that her oldest and youngest are also over ten years apart. Then to my surprise, she asked: is the little one from the same husband? I instantly felt very uncomfortable even though I knew she had no bad intention. Yes of course, in my case. I could not help but thinking such a question would never have been asked if she were a Chinese, no matter how curious a Chinese was. What if the child is not from the same husband? This question would cause a Chinese person to lose face which would be a big no-no in China.
Would you marry your husband because he was No. 1 in the class? Many American wives would not use this as their criteria to select a husband but Chinese women would. In fact this probably would be their number one reason why they marry their husband. My American friend has a Chinese friend who was married based on this.
My Mandarin Chinese class student asked me if somebody ask somebody else’s boyfriend the “男朋友boyfriend” implies intimacy in China. I would say yes. In Chinese culture it would be considered that way while in America boyfriend can mean just male friend. So when you ask a Chinese lady: is he your boyfriend? You need to be very careful. You don’t want to imply something more.
Even though I haven’t heard the saying in China: Grass is greener at the neighbor’s, but I know the Chinese are much more likely to compare themselves with others including their neighbors, coworkers and relatives. It is very common for the Chinese to think others are making more money than they do; therefore they like to ask how much you make when they barely know you. In this case, you might feel uncomfortable to answer. What would you do? Smile and not say anything, or give a rough figure that this type of job offers.
“你吃了吗？Have you eaten yet？” is a common conversation starter among Chinese people. It is often asked regardless the time of a day or how you may answer it. If you say No, it doesn’t mean the Chinese would like to go to eat with you. Remember this is just a conversation starter!

Often times we heard people say learning Mandarin Chinese is difficult. Indeed it is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Being a China native, I can’t appreciate enough of the beauty of the Chinese language until I have a need to translate it into English. For example, 杭州八景 the eight famous scenes of Hangzhou is perfectly constructed in four small but precise and vivid Chinese words. These Chinese words paint a lovely picture on my mind. How can I translate them into English that still maintain the same beauty as they are in Chinese? I can’t! It’s a sad thing, isn’t it? But at least this is the best I can do to translate the top eight famous scenes of Hangzhou in English.
1．断桥残雪 Remnant Snow on the Bridge in Winter；
2．平湖秋月 Moon over the Peaceful Lake in Autumn；
3．阮墩环碧 Ruan Gong Islet Submerged in Greenery；
4．雷锋夕照 Leifeng Pagoda in the Sunset；
5．曲院风荷 Curved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer；
6．三潭印月 Three Ponds Mirroring the Moon；
7．柳浪闻莺 Orioles Singing in the Willows；
8．南屏晚钟 Evening Bell Ringing at the Nanping Hill。

And then, it came the new ten scenes of the well known West Lake located in Hangzhou西湖新十景:
云栖竹径Bamboo–Lined Path at Yunqi
满陇桂雨Sweet Osmanthus Rain at Manjuelong Village
虎跑梦泉Dreaming of Tiger Spring at Hupao Valley
龙井问茶Inquiring About Tea at Dragon Well
九溪烟树Nine Creeks Meandering Through a Misty Forest
吴山天风Heavenly Wind over Wu Hill
阮墩环碧Ruan Gong Islet Submerged in Greenery
黄龙吐翠Yellow Dragon Cave Dressed in Green
玉皇飞云Clouds Scurrying over Jade Emperor Hill
宝石流霞Rainbow over Precious Stone Hill

How many of these scenes have you seen? Like the Chinese saying 上有天堂，下有苏杭Heaven is above, Hangzhou and Suzhou is beneath, Hangzhou and West Lake are truly one of the most beautiful places in China.

After three-month using the Chinese social media almost daily, I can say I am somewhat an expert. 新浪Sina.com（means new wave in English）has a twitter equivalent called 新浪微博weibo (means small chat in English); 人人renren.com （means everybody in English）and 腾讯QQ also have a twitter equivalent 微博weibo. Facebook is not easily accessible by the Chinese people, however one can use any of the three medias I mentioned above to accomplish the same thing as Facebook or Twitter. All three Chinese medias have the capability to add friends, listen to friends’ broadcast and follow friends. LinkedIn is widely used by professional Chinese people as well as professionals all over the world.

Each media attracts different groups of people. For example, 新浪Sina.com is where professional Chinese people like to hang out; 人人renren.com is very popular among college students; 腾讯QQ is where everybody likes to hang out and of course it has the largest user base among all medias. Some people overlap these medias. Another media I eventually gave up is 开心kaixin.com (means happy in English), because this is the place where the Chinese people hang out and play games. I am not a game player. Knowing who frequent which media can help you decide which media is the best for your business. My business is travel and education focused; therefore anyone and everyone can be my customer, so I need to hang out in all three medias.

In order to use the Chinese social media, of course you need to read and write in Chinese. And your customers are Chinese. You may wonder: how much time do you spend on managing these medias daily? The three Chinese medias plus weekly update on my LinkedIn and two or three times on my Facebook personal page and business page Mandarin International, together I have six sites to maintain frequently. I would say on the average I spend two to three hours daily if I have something to say. This does not include the time I spent on blogging where I have both an English blog and two Chinese blogs. If I have nothing to share, then I would not even bother to log in to these accounts.

As I get more familiar with the user interfaces of all medias, I am getting quicker and better at it. Usually I write one Chinese twitter and copy it to all three Chinese social medias. It’s funny that I really liked Chinese 微博weibo (twitter) even though I refuse to use Twitter in US here.

Here is my sophisticated social media map:
Blogs:
English – http://www.daileytravelservice.com/blog/
Chinese – http://www.meilecheng.com/blog/ and http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2163468803

微博Weibo (Chinese Twitter): search 陈琼 my Chinese on Sina.com, renren.com, and QQ。

LinkedIn: view my profile by searching Katie (Qiong) Dailey if you already have a LinkedIn account, otherwise view my public profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/katieqiongdailey2008

Facebook: you must log in first, then search Qiong Dailey for my personal page; or http://www.facebook.com/MandarinInternational for my business page.