Guanxi. The First Word in Chinese Trade by Peter Bennett
A colleague once told me that a good indicator of economic confidence was the number of construction cranes on the skyline. If he's correct, Beijing is feeling good about its prospects, very good in fact.
According to figures recently published by the Associated Press, China's economy grew at a blistering 9.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2005 alone. Yet a pan-European business poll by parcel firm UPS revealed that almost a third (31 percent) of UK business leaders do not consider Asia to be an important trading or production market.
To ignore the headlines predicting the 'awakening of the Dragon' would be commercial suicide: the world economy is undergoing a revolution as a China-led Asia returns to its historic role at the centre of affairs, according to the Financial Times' Martin Wolf.
Few of us receive emails in Chinese, but I saw one last year which translated into: "I'd like to spend a million pounds with your company". A good excuse, I thought, to spend January in Beijing talking to business representative organizations and growing companies who want to trade with the west. There were things I know now which I didn't know when I boarded my plane from London to Beijing to meet my Chinese contact which everyone wishing to do business in China should be aware of. Let me explain.
There were no berths available on the night train from Beijing to Xian (famous for its terracotta army but fast developing other industries) but we soon found ourselves settling down to sleep as one suddenly came available. A few days later we dined in a restaurant which was so busy that there was a queue for tables but strangely we had been directed past the queue into a private dining room.
Not long after my arrival in Beijing I'd mentioned a long standing back injury was troubling me after my flight. The next day I was ushered past the waiting patients to be x-rayed immediately by one of the City's leading orthopedic surgeons. No money changed hands. The currency exchanged was based upon Guanxi (Pronounced "GWAN-shee") which literally means "relationships". In practice, "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". The exchange of favors.
My host, a local businessman whose family has lived in the same area of Beijing for centuries, runs several successful restaurants. He has Guanxi in abundance and I have lost count of the number of times his standing has made things happen which would have been impossible without his network. If you trade with China, or would like to trade with China, underestimate Guanxi at your peril.
It works at all levels from social engagements through business and into officialdom. Western corporations often place great emphasis on efficiency and financial performance as a guide to whether or not to trade with other entities. In China, a much higher importance is put on personal relationships. You do not need to be big and powerful to forge successful business relationships with Chinese executives but you do need establish the personal contacts first.
My advice is not to rely on formal written communications but wherever possible to talk to prospective contacts on the phone (using an interpreter if required) and, if at all possible, arrange to meet in person as soon as you think you have a mutual interest in trading. Return flights from London to Beijing are around 400 UK and once there, accommodation is cheap.
Time spent getting to know your potential partners will pay dividends down the line. Unless your hosts speak English well, consider hiring a face-to-face interpreter to avoid confusion and help initial meetings run smoothly. Their local knowledge of the City will also be invaluable as Beijing is huge.
My time in China was extremely productive. London Translations Limited, has announced an agreement with Beijing Sagive Translations Company Limited, one of the most respected and experienced translation firms in China. This will provide a crucial language 'bridge' to enable trade between our two countries. Crucially they will provide an English to Chinese service and we will translate Chinese into English.
Incidentally, I never found out how exactly we managed to get seats on a fully booked train but my host did mention that the wife of a comedian whose show was being played on TV in our carriage works at the train company and the comedian himself regularly eats in his restaurants!
Peter Bennett is founder and CEO of London translations Limited, one of London's fastest growing business translation and interpreting agencies.
Download his free report, Translation without tears, from:
http://www.london-translations.co.uk
Article Source: ArticleBazaar.net
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Guanxi. The First Word in Chinese Trade
Monday, April 16, 2007
Free way to advertise all things Chinese
There is this site 
which offers both free and paid pixel advertisements. I need a way to tell the world about all things Chinese, so I generated a button at TomaWeb Free Button Generator. Now I have a free pixel advertisement for this site, only thing is, I am limited to only 60x20 pixels, so I can only put the word Chinese in the button. It is good enough for me. I hope gets popular so more people can see this site.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Beginnings of Traditional Chinese Medicine
The Beginnings of Traditional Chinese Medicine
by Steve Hudson
At the root of many holistic practices are the philosophies and ideals that come from Chinese medicine. From the beginnings of this practice has been a growth in natural methods to help promote healing and balance.
The beginnings of Chinese medicine as a practice come from the year 800 BC. Even though this practice began before this, it was only recorded beginning in this year through a book known as the Huang Di Nei Jeng or The Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine. The methods that were used in this book were based around the herbal remedies that were most significant in helping with holistic healing.
The idea of this particular book was based off of the Yellow Emperor, one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history. He is thought to have lived in 4700 BC, and is often attributed as a mythical character with a status of royalty that provided inspiration to those living in the orient. It is through this mythical character that this book of medicine is still portrayed under, with the attribution to the Yellow Emperors knowledge that was passed down holistically.
The beginning of this book included 12 prescriptions through herbs that were used with a combination of twenty-eight different ingredients. By the year 220 BC, the book had become so popular that medical services were established based around the remedies from the Yellow Emperor. The adjustments that were made from this book included detailed classifications of the herbs, how they worked, their strength and what their properties were for healing different ailments.
Overtime, new publications and philosophies were added onto this book in order to provide practitioners with new methods and substances to the basis of the Yellow Emperors remedy book. These additions provided new insights and books, all the way into the 1700s with the contribution of the Theory of Herbal Medicine.
The ancient practices of Chinese medicine through herbal remedies are a true philosophy that shows how time withstands the ideas of holistic treatments. Through the growth of herbal practices, several in the East have found ways to provide insight and balances between different herbs for better practices to gain energy and balance in ones life.Balanced Cures for Imbalances in Problems
There are a variety of problems that are directly linked to health in the world today. Everything from mental ailments to physical diseases to problems reflected by other more serious problems are becoming better known. In the increase in knowledge for better health is also the desire to find the correct cures for the problems. Not only are Western scientists trying to find solutions, but traditional Chinese medicine is also working towards increasing the availability of ancient solutions.
Not only is Chinese medicine known to help cure common ailments, but it is now being proven that they are working towards finding alternatives in other ways. There are several that are turning towards Chinese medicine to help alternate things such as obesity, smoking and addiction to hard drugs. This is not only a continuation of Chinese medicine, but is also an increase in evidence of the effectiveness of this alternative
One of the proven effects of Chinese medicine comes from recent research done by a variety of acupuncturists. In this particular study, acupuncture practitioners conducted acupuncture on those who were suffering from obesity and addiction. It was found that there were direct results by refocusing the energy of the person by using specific acupuncture points.
The major change that occurred with the acupuncture is that the chemical of endorphin, which is usually a response to addiction, began to flow differently. This occurred because there were direct pressure points used in the acupuncture that linked to the nervous system. The areas of this nervous system are the ones that carry the endorphins, telling your body that it needs certain things and responds to addictions.
Not only are acupuncturists working with those that are addicted in order to open up channels for releasing endorphins into a different direction, but they are also finding ways to use acupuncture in direct areas for the addictions. Ear acupuncture is one of the most well known ways to change the imbalance of endorphins and is done by stimulating specific nerves in the ears, which causes an increase in endorphins and releases the chemical stimulants to stop addictions.
If you are suffering from an addiction, you can try using acupuncture and ancient Chinese medicine in order to help find a cure. Most likely, your body is telling you to release specific chemicals that cause the addiction. By using holistic methods, you can begin to reverse this process and work towards a well-balanced alternative towards your health.
More Health Fitness Lifestyle articles and ebooks can be found at Health-Fitness-Lifestyle.com
Article Source: ArticleBazaar.net
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Why the emphasis on things Chinese
1 in 4 of the living person on earth is Chinese. China used to be the most developed contry in the world, but was overtaken by the Western country when it became too inward looking and became complacent. Now with the opening up of China, it may again take its place as a leading country of the world.
(note: Instruction to implement expandable post summary was given in this post: Expandable Post Summary for New Blogger, but with this method, the link "Read More" appears even for short post. This short post and blog is published mainly to test the peekaboo expandable post summary to see if the "Read More" link appears for short posts. If after this, the "Read More" link is not visible, that means the hack works as intended.
Update: There is no "Read More" link in this short post, so it shows that the hack is working.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Submit Your Website's URL To Chinese Search Engines
Submit Your Website's URL To Chinese Search Engines
by: David Carnes
It is certainly true that the Internet is dominated by the Englsih language – it has been estimated that 75% of all Internet pages worldwide are written in English. But surprise, surprise, the world’s No. 1 language in terms of number of native speakers is also the most difficult to read – Chinese, with about three times as many native speakers (and readers) as English. China has the second greatest number of Internet users in the world, behind only the United States, and its Internet market is one of the world’s fastest-growing. Furthermore, its buoyant economy is impossible to ignore. Every year millions are added to its relatively affluent middle class.
You’d be surprised at how many Chinese can read English – they are small in proportion to total population, but large in number. You might also be surprised at how many Chinese yuppies (“Chuppies”) carry Visa and Mastercard.
Do you have a product that might sell well in China? That’s a difficult question to answer, but as a one-sentence primer: affluent Chinese gravitate towards any product with name-brand appeal, snob appeal, or that is closely associated with the United States (sarcastically dubbed the “Mickey Mouse Syndrome” by envious economic rivals). If you are going global, you cannot afford to ignore China. And if your business has a website, it should be searchable in China.
Following are the URLs for site submission to ten Chinese search engines. The sites are all written in Chinese, but if you can get past the language barrier, anything is possible…
Top 10 Chinese Search Engines
1. Baidu: Submid URL to Baidu
2. Sina: Add URL to Sina
3. Sohu: Submit URL to Sohu
4. Yahoo China: Yahoo China
5. Google China: Google China
6. Sobao: Sobao
7. Tianwang: Tianwang
8. China-Holiday: China Holiday
9. Wangluobing: Wangluobing
10. Sunwukong: Sunwukong
The first six of the foregoing are major players, but the rest are marginal and may well be out of business by the time you read this (then again, you never know…).
Happy hunting!
About The Author
David A. Carnes is a California attorney working for California Industrial City in Zhengzhou, China. His website, China Company Startup Guide, offers free, step-by-step information on how to establish a business presence in China.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Seven Free Online Resources for Learning Chinese Faster
Seven Free Online Resources for Learning Chinese Faster
by: Kah Joon Liow
Are you learning Chinese?
Chances are, you've already searched the internet for information that'll help you learn Chinese. And what do you find? Lots of sites offering free information on learning Chinese.
I did an online search recently and realized that with all the information out there, it can be pretty confusing for a person who's just beginning to learn Chinese to figure out what's useful and what's not.
Where should you start? Which are the sites that offer you, the beginning Chinese learner, practical advice and Chinese phrases you can use immediately?
I decided to put together a select list of useful, free online resources to jump start your learning of Chinese and help you get better results in less time. :-)
Learn Chinese Resource #1:
**How to Learn Chinese with More Fun and in Less Time in Five Easy Steps
This step-by-step guide does two things: it gives you proven tips on how to approach the study of Chinese for better and faster results plus the 80% of listening, speaking, writing and reading basics you need to know when you're at the beginning stage of learning Chinese. Sign up for this 5-part mini-course at
Learning Chinese
Learn Chinese Resource #2:
**Chinese Pod
Free, daily Chinese conversational audio mp3 lessons (called podcasts) based on real situations (ordering food, renting an apartment, talking about yourself etc.) you can download, listen and review on the go to start speaking Mandarin right away. Start with their New User Guide. Visit Chinese Pod at Chinese Pod.
Learn Chinese Resource#3
**Five Beginner Steps to Learning Chinese Faster
Real experiences of an American learning Chinese in China. This funny and useful “5 Beginner Steps to Learning Chinese Faster” free email course doesn't teach you Chinese but describes a beginner's strategy for how to get out into a real Chinese-speaking environment and learn it for yourself.
Sign up at Master Chinese Faster.
Learn Chinese Resource #4:
**BBC Real Chinese
For those who plan to travel to China, learn useful Chinese phrases (note: no Chinese characters, only in pinyin, the Romanized script) for introducing yourself, getting around, shopping, booking a hotel in China etc. in this interesting ten-part, online beginner's Mandarin course in slideshow format with text, images and audio followed by a one-minute video shot in China and cultural notes. Learn BBC Real Chinese at Real Chinese
Learn Chinese Resource #5:
**Chinese Forums
Find like-minded, motivated Chinese learners to discuss topics related to learning Chinese and Chinese culture. Chinese-forums.com is an online community of people with an interest in learning Chinese language and culture. When you're just starting to learn Chinese, keeping yourself motivated is vital for getting results. This is where you'll find other motivated Chinese learners of all skill levels to exchange tips and information whether it's about overcoming difficulties in learning Chinese Mandarin or sharing your favorite Chinese movie or travel destination in China. Visit
Chinese Forums
Learn Chinese Resource #6:
**CRI Radio
A great site to read and listen to radio broadcasts in English and Chinese about China and life in China – China news, culture, sports, travel, entertainment etc. CRI Radio can be found at China Broadcast.
Learn Chinese Resource #7:
**Chinese Fonts
If you're not reading Chinese characters properly on your computer, like the chinese words for “learn Chinese” 学中文 follow the link to find out how to display and type Chinese fonts on your Windows or Mac computer: Chinese Fonts
There you have it -- seven free online resources for learning Chinese faster.
If there's any "secret" to learning Chinese faster and with better results, it's this: learn a little, use a lot!
Don't be afraid of making mistakes, or fret about getting the pronunciation right.
Start by speaking Mandarin with Chinese friends whenever you can. There'll be lots of slip-ups along the way, but you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much you can accomplish in a short time!
About The Author
Liow Kah Joon’s Living-Chinese-Symbols site is a handy guide to the Chinese language and lifestyle. You can sign up for his free monthly Chinese Symbols ezine at Living Chinese Symbols.