Spotted this on the train from TangGu/Tianjin to Beijing. I should point out though, there are legitimate Chinese language versions of Nat Geo to be found all around China. Nevertheless, I thought this was a pretty shameless attempt to cash in on an iconic brand and image that another mag has honed and used since 1888.  

We were walking back from a Summer trade show at the Exhibition Center in downtown Beijing, minutes away from any number of embassies. Dave, who used to live on this street 9 years previous, was harping on about “the good old days”. This would have been endearing if he hadn’t spent the entire walk on the way to the trade show talking in the exact same manner. Needless to say, I was no longer listening, and instead glancing...

The following is an excerpt from a China Daily cover story about Entrepreneurs, written by David Bartram. To view a cropped version of the original article, click the image to the right. An understanding of the local business environment is often what is lacking from young entrepreneurs and SMEs who want to do business with China rarely have an idea where to start. In 2007, Dave White and Shane O’Neill, a British engineer and an Irish...

When you order samples from a Chinese manufacturer at any stage, it goes without saying that you, as the customer, expect to see a close to final product with small exceptions that only mass production can achieve. Very often a buyer will accept that a mass production item will/should look like the sample they received. This is a fair assumption but unfortunately, more often than not, this is not the case. If the correct and detailed...