Author Topic: A new experience (Read 3461 times)

jim king · « **on:** June 25, 2011, 04:03:56 pm »

I have never been a whiz at making a web site but now I have really almost met my match. We are making a web site for the Chinese office , I think.

First problem is getting together words that can be translated between English, Spanish and Chinese. Chinese words can have even more meanings than words in English that have multiple meanings. Some things really turn out strange and it takes multiple tries to get it understandable or “exceptable” in the three languages. Many times we can only go from Chinese to English as English to Chinese does not go well. ¿¿

My computer does not understand Chinese and so I have a Chinese program coming to let the Chinese work . We have to make and publish the web site in Hong Kong as it will not work from here. Here is the name of the company that was sent as a jpg file '冲劲' . I now am communicating mostly by jpg files. I don`t know if this is peculiar to the windows programs sold here or if it is the same world over.
This is an explanation from China about the name.

Quote

(Last time you sent me a page to fill out the Chinese details & I put '冲劲木业' - 1st letter '冲' - in writing means Chinese with water, in pronounciation similar to 'China'; the 2nd letter '劲' - in writing means power, in pronounciation is 'King'; the last 2 letters '木业' means timber business. I hope you like it.)

I am encouraged that it is sticking to this site.

I will not be able to see the Chinese on the site until it is done and just hope that it means what I want to say as I don`t have a clue as to what they are saying. It is kind of frustrating but very interesting the differences in the cultures and how they do business. I can see why 95% of the outsiders who go there fail. It is very different.

To add to the above the Chinese lady lives in Australia part time and is married to a 1/4 Aborigini with white skin and red hair who has made millions and never been to school and he is here now helping.

All in all a fun experience.

WildDog · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2011, 05:35:14 pm »

Nothing like a challenge Jim, I think i'd go fishing for the day.

If it helps I could send you my local Chinese restaurant menu, it translates "Sweat and Sour Pork" into they're lingo

jim king · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2011, 06:46:09 pm »

WildDog :

We have more Chinese restaurants here than we have missionaries and that is saying something.

Randy88 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2011, 10:41:12 pm »

Let us know how it turns out but remind me I don't want your job, I'll stick with english and forget the translation part.

jim king · « **Reply #4 on:** June 26, 2011, 05:01:46 am »

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Let us know how it turns out

I thought this would be a two week project but now hoping to get it done before I die. I will post it when we get it done.

isawlogs · « **Reply #5 on:** June 26, 2011, 08:25:05 am »

Two weeks .. Ha ! You would have trouble to get an English menu for a hot dog stand done in that time , let alone a web page in three languages .

But , I do want to see and read more of this

jim king · « **Reply #6 on:** June 28, 2011, 10:49:30 am »

This Chinese thing is getting very interesting. A Chinese company just did a stock offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange and sold the 40,000 hectares they are renting here near us to the public for $14,000,000 . They pay about $20,000 a year rent. Not a bad price when you can only harvest on 5% of the land each year. The public offering document lay it out as a 200 year plan. Cannot say they dont think ahead.

We have 7,000 hectares with title and finishing another 7,000 and we are allowed to harvest on the whole area vs 5% on a rented concession`anually. These are the only large land titles in the Peruvian Amazon and no more are being issued. My Chinese partner is all excited about doing the same type of sale and we are scurring around like a bunch of mice getting everything in order.

I forgot to say that there were more than 650 times more offers to buy than stock available.
This is the web page of the company that did the public sale.
http://www.china-flooring.com.hk/html/index.php

BaldBob · « **Reply #7 on:** June 28, 2011, 07:12:01 pm »

Investing in operations that have anything to do with China can either be a golden opportunity or a minefield. For one example of the problems an investor in forest products associated with China can encounter look up recent events with a company called Sino Forest.

jim king · « **Reply #8 on:** June 28, 2011, 07:53:12 pm »

BaldBob :

I am not buying I am hoping to sell all.

I should have a good idea in six months. The Dr. told me dont even buy green bananas.

jim king · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2011, 11:55:44 pm »

We have sent off all the layouts for the web page to be published from China but I don`t know how long that will take.

Here is the last I have heard as of today, it sounds as if things are moving in the right direction.

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Furthermore, when you guys do the video, please organize it systematically, e.g. introduction about Peru - introduction about Iquitos - introduction about Amazon forest - introduction about the native timber species - about us - about our future plan etc etc. You can simply offer me the clips from varies sources & I will organize the story/presentation from China or Hong Kong.

The reasons for the above are:
• as a citizen of Hong Kong, holding a company there, I am eligible to apply for manufacturing development grant, so we can use it to expand our factories in Peru
• in the future, it can be presented to fund manager for potential IPO

Thanks
Polly

________________________________________
Subject: RE: Species pages
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2011 22:33:44 +0000
Thanks Jim,

Among the potential customers I will meet from 14th, there will be an importer that has been importing a lot of Brazilian timber, they said if our price is right, they will take whatever we can produce. The others are from the furniture city in SE China, they are manufacturers & importers, they also said that they will buy everything we can provide if price is right.

I haven't formally started my marketing yet !! Initially I'll allow one or two importers/distributors to take the whole lot of produce, but I will not let them control us, because I will set up our distribution so our profit can be maximized.

You & David may start planning the expansion so I can line up future orders.

Polly

jim king · « **Reply #10 on:** July 06, 2011, 09:36:53 pm »

This is a note from my Chinese partner asking about her husband.

Asunto: Where is David?
Para: "James King" <jameskingpe@yahoo.es>, "David "
Fecha: miércoles, 6 de julio, 2011 18:10
Hi Jim,

Is David in the jungle? Didn't hear from him for 2 days.....

Polly

Polly:

Last thing I know Tarzan went to the jungle and I have not heard anything.

Joking:

He went down river to verify the land with my man and the tribes and is in good hands, He took plenty of food and rum and is OK. Maybe will be back tomorrow night and if not the next day. There is no communicationes. Dont worry , all is OK.

Jim

Just got the answer

Thanks Jim,

Make sure he will not bring Jane home.

Cheers,
Polly

jim king · « **Reply #11 on:** July 07, 2011, 06:31:29 am »

I have never known much if anything about the Chinese culture and the last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Here we have a few thousand immigrants from China and they are all self employed. I would guess that near 100% live in the back of their store or restaurant and do not have a home outside of work. They work and sleep. They do not mix much if at all with the other foreigners as people do from other countries but I think that will change with the second and third generations here. It is unusual to see them outside of their workplace.

After many years of being a closed country only a handful of Chinese understand the outside world and all of them are very distrustful of foreigners until a comfort level is reached.

It appears as if the Chinese government promotes the idea of it`s people emigrating to other countries as every one is a point to export Chinese products which appear to be financed by the Chinese government thru an export finance program. They are hard working and police their own very strictly.

I am hearing that in many areas of China if a person owes money and does not pay a sticker is put on the relatives doors so everyone knows that someone in the family owes money and it stays until it is paid. The next step is not good.

The area that my partner is concentrating on is a zone about 20 miles square of nothing but furniture and flooring factories and a market searching for an endless supply of raw materials. There is said to be corruption at the high levels as in most countries and no one walks out of court innocent, just a formality. Very family orientated and businesswise they think the same as to the people they finally do business with once one is accepted. Shrewd hard businessmen.

The carrot we are chasing of selling our land and assets on the Hong Kong stock exchange requires verification and backing from international banks, brokerage houses, nests of lawyers etc. etc.. This process is expensive and takes time and is the responsibility of the Chinese partner. It seems that anything to do with timber and a source of raw material is very good to them as a long term investment. Timberland prices in China that I have seen are 20 times and more than the cost in North America and they are throwing money at where ever they can guarantee long term supplies of raw materials.

A business lunch can cost several thousand dollars which surprised me as the best meal here in the best restaurants is maybe $12 US. When my partners husband arrives in China she meets him at the airport and immediately buys him new clothes with fancy brand names and cleans him up to the level that they want to see. Seems as the new rich there are into a true yuppie style and the new rich as in billionaires are mostly young and came from nothing. I don`t think they have got so far so fast buy doing everything above the table. A very strange mix of socialism and capitalism being pushed by the socialist government. I have a lot to learn and then understand about that. This is the perception of a Gringo lost in the jungle so take for what it is worth but it is an eye opener to me and I have had them opened many times very wide.

More to come as I get to the point of understanding more.

Norm · « **Reply #12 on:** July 07, 2011, 08:15:13 am »

I've traveled and worked in China for years Jim and your perceptions are spot on. From my first time there in 93 till present their country has really changed. Some for the better some for the worse.

jim king · « **Reply #13 on:** July 07, 2011, 08:50:35 am »

Norm:

You were just a young one when you went there. What are you doing there ?

Norm · « **Reply #14 on:** July 07, 2011, 09:08:50 am »

I worked for a company that sold equipment there and then when we went on our own kept a small presence. We still do quite a bit of business in China with them doing some custom fabrication and us selling some of our goods in various places. I will say it's much easier for them to sell to us than it is the other way around.

jim king · « **Reply #15 on:** July 07, 2011, 09:14:05 am »

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I will say it's much easier for them to sell to us than it is the other way around.

I can second that. They are hard to catch and very secretive.

jim king · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2011, 08:39:43 am »

My Chinese partners husband went down river to verify that the land and the project exists and take photos. Here are some photos from his trip. He also took some video of falling a nice tree close up and he said he will use that in China to make some of those eyes round. It scared him quite good when it started snowing leaves and crashing down.

This is the ramp going down to the river to board the first boat.

Down the ramp they found some chickens coming to market.

While traveling down river they approached a log barge coming in to town.

The kids are always happy to see somebody show up

Onr of the village elders, Edelso and his wife

Waking up in the morning on a small tributary

They ran into the local Chris Craft factory

Cutting a typical tree for photos for the Chinese propaganda

Cutting the tree into flooring size cants to be carried out by hand and send to town

The last breakfast before going back to town

LOGDOG · « **Reply #17 on:** July 09, 2011, 09:45:35 am »

What kind of wood is that Jim? That's a beautiful red color.

jim king · « **Reply #18 on:** July 09, 2011, 10:07:15 am »

That is what we call Quinilla, in Brazil it is called Massaranduba and when it gets to the States it is called Brazilian Redwood and it makes great flooring and decking. Hard as stone.

If you do a search for Massaranduba or Brazilian Redwood you will find it.

LOGDOG · « **Reply #19 on:** July 09, 2011, 12:16:41 pm »

So it looks like those guys are snapping a line to maybe rip that slab off with the chainsaw? What do they do with the slabs? Do they pack them out as well and put them through a re-saw?

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Author Topic: A new experience (Read 3461 times)