The old adage goes, "Everything you have heard about China is true somewhere in China." So, it is hard to ask blanket questions about China and expect any kind of coherent answer. Just like the United States, it is much more helpful to look at more detailed information of local areas, provinces, and cities.
What is the coffee culture in China? We really have to cut that question down to size. What is the coffee culture in Liuzhou, our local area? Now there is a question we can possibly answer.
Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and all the other big cities have already been infiltrated by Starbucks, but that does not really say much about the underlying culture of coffee drinkers. Who drinks it? How often to they drink? What kind of coffee?
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"So, why are you opening a cafe out in Sanjiang and not in Liuzhou?" Good question, and one I am asked almost daily. On the surface, it does not make too much sense for a foreigner in China to pick a mostly rural county seat over the bustling city with yuppies who want to buy coffee roaming the streets.
There are superficial answers, which now roll of the tongue quite quickly, and there are the real answers. There certainly are not vast amounts of money to be made in such a small town, but if there is not some convincing answer, Chinese people will just never understand and just give you that you-must-be-crazy look when you talk about it.
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How will new roads improve the tourism industry in this small town? How will it affect the bigger regional cities like Guilin and Liuzhou? Things are changing in this region, and I have been thinking the past few days about the affects it will have on the cities and town around here.
A few days ago on the post about advertising in our small town here in China, a reader asked about the amount of tourist traffic here in Sanjiang County (a very typical, small-scale tourist town for Southwest China) and about the new road under construction which will cut the, now, five to seven hour Guilin-Sanjiang trip down to two or three hours.
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The Chinese government regularly updates its list of official occupations in China to help it regulate and track the development of each occupation's specific situation, CRI reports. Personally, I like that "barista" (experts in preparing specialty coffee) made the list, since I am in the process of identifying barista staff for our own cafe, which will open in a few months.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of customers out there will see a barista more as a 'fu wu yuan', which is a sort of waiter/waitress, but with some definite cultural tags. I would not expect a Chinese restaurant server to engage me, make sure my drink is good, and (most importantly) take pride in what they do. The typical Chinese server just does what they are told, and if they are not told anything, they do not do anything.
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What is the comparison between coffee and tea? I starting thinking about it some when recently. Sure, there are similarities, but I think there are some very distinct differences between coffee culture and tea culture.
It is not as simple as saying this country drinks one and that country drinks the other. Both coffee and tea have gone global, and in true "e pluribus unum" fashion, they are both gaining influence.
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It is truly amazing where coffee can be found these days in China, though what is actually in the cup is not always equally amazing. With my wife and I about to start up a cafe (coffee shop) in our little town of Sanjiang, I find that I am starting to see the world through different colored glasses...coffee-colored glasses.
In my travels through countless towns and cities in Thailand and China this Chinese New Year, anything and everything with the word "coffee" caught my eye. Thailand and China are hardly comparable when it comes to coffee culture. My "coffee radar" was very busy in Thailand, but not so in China.
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When you are young and inexperienced, you think you can conquer the world. At least, that is how I feel right now. I think, though, that even the not-so-young and far-more-experienced ones face much the same problem when starting up a new business.
When I look at it that way, I start to think it has less to do with thinking you can conquer the world, and more to do with that common human fault so many of us have: deafness to good advice. We have a hard time listening to others tear apart our plans when we just know in our gut that our idea is the best. What I have learned today is this: as soon as you think you are right and have achieved that good startup idea, you have set yourself up for a world of hurt.
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All of China (not just Beijing) is gearing up for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. A rush of tourists will flow into the country, many of those dispersing away from the Olympic venues to tour some of those "I always wanted to see" sites: the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, and the rustic Southwest with its wealth of ethnic culture to explore.
Is China ready? Sure they are pumping billions of dollars into the tourism industry, but building new hotels and paving all the frequently traveled roads is not the solution to the biggest problem facing China's tourism industry: the lack of hospitality.
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Chinese are world class bargainers and will drive the price down at all costs. Foreigners often just do not care about a slightly expensive price if it saves the trouble of beating the last bit out of the seller.
The past few days, I have been working through the last few negotiations before signing a contract to rent a property for a cafe here in Sanjiang County. I thought I had it figured out, and then a Chinese friend jumped in to "help". My friend wants to make sure we have a great deal, but I have begun to wonder what the real "cost" will be of this great deal.
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How viable are foreign businesses in China's small towns, especially at a county level? A couple days ago I was talking to a friend about restaurants, travel service firms, and guest houses in these small towns. Some of these ideas are working and some are not.
These small towns are a completely different business environment from the cities and even prefectures. On one side, because they are smaller, the lack of volume or traffic is an issue. On the other side, a foreign business may be able to provide the only such service or product without any fear of competition.
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On the surface, this does not seem like a topic that needs to be brought up on a site dedicated to developing and marketing the resources from China's rural areas, but it actually does fit right in. How many of you have traveled in China? Did you try to find any postcards to send to friends and family? Could you find any?
Imagine visiting the Eiffel Tower. The experience is breath taking. You want to share a little taste of this moment with your best friend back home, so you look for a postcard with some glossy photo of the tower. You have thousands, if not millions, to choose from. What would the moment be without that simple little postcard? And why is it that China does not seem to have any?
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I have mentioned the cafe idea before as well as some of the process of discussing business ideas with the board of accountability we have for New Frontier. One of my board members is also working in China, has run a cafe here, and is looking to set up another cafe. He knows the difficulties of the food industry in China, and here are some of his comments:
Though I know and understand the difficulties I faced running the cafe in Liuzhou, I have found that the situation changes drastically every time you change location in this, sometimes bazaar, country! On the other hand, some things remain the same. In any case, I thought I could discuss some of the issues I have wrestled with through it all.
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How much investment money in small Chinese towns is heading in what direction? What resources have already seen some investment (whether from outside or local sources)? Tourism is certainly the strong winner where the money seems to be going around here. It is definitely a "resource" the government wants to develop as much as possible.
I have mentioned the Sanjiang Investment Guide before when thinking through whether tourism is a natural resource or not. And having decided it is indeed a resource (though that is certainly a funny way to label it), we have decided to create an entire category for articles pertaining to tourism as a rural resource. This article explores some of the real-life figures of investment projects given in the Sanjiang Investment Guide, taking note of the huge slant toward tourism.
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I have gone through many stages of emotions towards going into the food business in China. I once hated the idea, then walked alongside a good friend as he managed a small restaurant, and now, seem to be rethinking some of the positives and negatives for my own situation.
I was recently talking through some of my own business opportunities with one of the members of my board of accountability. He is far more experienced than I, and I was really struck by his reactions to my business ideas. Everything I said met with long responses including, "good idea, but full of risk, and maybe not sustainable in the long run." Then, my wife mentioned her dream of a cafe, and he instantly replied, "that could work." The quickness of his reply made me rethink a few things.
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Maybe it is just Chinese journalism, maybe overly formal policy, or maybe just a plain, old bad idea, but reading through an article about some of the government's plans to alleviate poverty in China's rural areas, the plan seems terribly simplified. Maybe it is just me.
I read a short article in the China Daily about a joint plan between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Chinese government to develop the local economies of the countryside, especially in minority areas. There may be a good plan hidden away somewhere, but the article was an over simplified idea restated in five slightly different forms, cramming one paragraph of content into a ten or so paragraph article.
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Tourism or electric power? That is the struggle between residents and officials in the public in Guizhou Province's Xingyi City. The government wants to build a hydroelectric power station that would put scenic spots under water. I cannot say this is the first time I have heard this issue come up.
It is a tough issue, really. Not building a dam preserves the current scenic beauty which brings in tourist money, and building the dam provides tax revenue of around $14 million Chinese yuan (USD 1.7 million) per year. Actually, come to think of it, that sounds like more of an ethical issue than anything else. Those who have the power to say if the dam is built are also the same ones who would profit from the building of the dam.
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Tourism can play a very important role in economic development—we will assume something tour-worthy is available. Southwest China wants to strengthen the tourism industry in small towns and big cities alike, and much of the development for tourism is on a scale for which only the Chinese government can take responsibility.
I want to look lower level needs, though, needs that can be worked on with something less than millions in funding. One big help a small foreign company could provide to help develop small town tourism is English. But not just teaching English, rather going beyond that and teaching foreign cultural awareness.
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When you think of marketing rural resources from China's countryside, you might not think of tourism, but these are changing times, and the local government most definitely classifies the mountains and minorities as travel worthy "resources." Sounds strange to me, but let's look into it.
Regardless of whether you really want to call it a resource or not, tourism is a big thing in these small places. Nearby Guilin is one of China's biggest tourist attractions, and is the best example of the type of tourism most prevalent in Southwest China: scenery and nationalities.
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