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Perhaps I'm the last to know, but:
Over the past years its been difficult to buy a PC or notebook in China with a legitimate English language OS. Last week I bought a notebook computer in Shanghai with Vista preloaded, the shop assistant told me the language was flexible. He set the machine up in English for me, great. One small snag, Vista Premium only.
fz
[QUOTE=Fuzimiao]Perhaps I'm the last to know, but:
Over the past years its been difficult to buy a PC or notebook in China with a legitimate English language OS. Last week I bought a notebook computer in Shanghai with Vista preloaded, the shop assistant told me the language was flexible. He set the machine up in English for me, great. One small snag, Vista Premium only.
fz[/QUOTE]
From legitmate, I assume you mean not counterfeit? I bought my desktop a year ago in Shenzhen with English Windows XP pre-installed in it. I bought Windows Vista in English about 6 months ago for 8 rmb, works like a champ, its certified and I get all the updates no problem.
-CPE
Sammy,
You have made some very good points, especially about certain high level executives not wanting to monger with their subordinates. I have encountered this many times.
I often find myself in these precarious situations not knowing if a client is keen on mongering or not. It works both ways. The client may be hesitant to ask you about mongering opportunities, as well. I also try to drop subtle hints without being too direct and watch for signals from the client. This way I can back off if I get the feeling that the client is not game.
Just my POV.
OAH
[QUOTE=Sammy_T]A couple of basic issues: first, when you go to dinner are there any female clients in the group? Do they go with you to KTV? If so, then do not expect anything funny to happen. If the female clients get seperated from the group after dinner, and you go to KTV, is it one where they have girls? If so, then your clients are probably just waiting to see your reaction. Maybe make a comment like "I hear / have read on the internet that sometimes these KTVs can get crazy!" If they play dumb then you may be out of luck. Something I have noticed is that different levels of executives do not like to "party" with higher/lower levels. This may require taking the boss out seperatly one night for KTV, and then the worker-bees out another night. Neither group will be able to turly relax around the other. Choose one of the group with which you feel the most confortable and ask him for his opinion. He might suggest taking the whole group, or just a sub-group.
I have also found that you need to be very familiar with a client before you take them to a sauna. Yes, business is done in saunas all the time, but this is a bigger step than taking them to dinner or KTV.
I hope this information helps!
Sammy[/QUOTE]
I agree with all your points.
Personally, I prefer to refrain from trying to monger with business partners/customers, just to avoid embarassing situation of me misunderstanding their signals and proposing something they are not interested in, or simply just ashamed to do with me.
However, when they play open game and invite me, picture changes and it is up to me to decide.
In the past, in some cases, I had accepted.
[QUOTE=OldAsiaHand]Sammy,
You have made some very good points, especially about certain high level executives not wanting to monger with their subordinates. I have encountered this many times.
I often find myself in these precarious situations not knowing if a client is keen on mongering or not. It works both ways. The client may be hesitant to ask you about mongering opportunities, as well. I also try to drop subtle hints without being too direct and watch for signals from the client. This way I can back off if I get the feeling that the client is not game.
Just my POV.
OAH[/QUOTE]
Since a few days, I do not have access to ISG on the Internet anymore. Living in China, I am afraid this is part of the current crackdown before the olympics. Does anyone have a similar experience?
Wonderer
P.S. Currently, I am connected through an anonymous proxy. This is why I still can write this message..
[QUOTE=Wonderer]Since a few days, I do not have access to ISG on the Internet anymore. Living in China, I am afraid this is part of the current crackdown before the olympics. Does anyone have a similar experience?
Wonderer
P.S. Currently, I am connected through an anonymous proxy. This is why I still can write this message..[/QUOTE]
I am living in Chang Ping (CP) no problems accessing ISG here.
-CPE
[QUOTE=Wonderer]Since a few days, I do not have access to ISG on the Internet anymore. Living in China, I am afraid this is part of the current crackdown before the olympics. Does anyone have a similar experience?
Wonderer
P.S. Currently, I am connected through an anonymous proxy. This is why I still can write this message..[/QUOTE]I am in Beijing and had also some problems to log-in the last few days, but today it works again.
[QUOTE=TenthFloor]I am in Beijing and had also some problems to log-in the last few days, but today it works again.[/QUOTE]
Same here - had trouble accessing ISG from my office computer in Beijing last week, but it is better today. Even when I had trouble I was always able to access the site via GPRS over my China Mobile phone.
[QUOTE=Sammy_T]Same here - had trouble accessing ISG from my office computer in Beijing last week, but it is better today. Even when I had trouble I was always able to access the site via GPRS over my China Mobile phone.[/QUOTE]
Same here in Beijing. No problems.
Some pointers:
- ISG sometimes has access problems, no matter where you are. They appear to be routing problems to Johnson's server, which appears to be somewhere in Toronto, Canada.
- The fabled "Great Firewall of China" actually is many firewalls. Most blocking is going on on the ISP level. What is blocked at one ISP, may be accessible through the other. As the (summarily blocked) Wikipedia says: "The banning appears to be mostly uncoordinated and ad hoc, with some sites being blocked and similar sites being allowed or even blocked in one city and allowed in another."
- As Sammy said, the GPRS connection appears one of the more lenient. Also, when the undersea cables were out, GPRS was the only halfway reliable connection. There is a slightly fasther 1x CDMA available in some markets, but compared to 3G in other countries, it's a dog.
Generally speaking, if you want to avoid ISG to be blocked, avoid political discussions. Nobody cares about sex talk between laoweis. We (mostly) are guests in this country and should observe their rules.
I've had some ISG logging on problems here in BJ over the past few days. Over now, obviously. I think it's just random stuff, nothing coordinated. As Zhuren says, stick to the girls and avoid politics and all will be plain sailing. The authorities don't give a stuff what a bunch of laowais get up to online as long as its not subversive. And anyway, we're making our own little contribution to the local economy.
Ok, thanks guys! Apparently, I only had to raise the question, and then my connection to ISG is back again...! Which also raises some questions.
But let's assume it's pure coincidence.
I definitely stick to the real topic of this forum and will leave all politics out you can see this in my posts. Why at all should we discuss politics here? There are many more interesting things to talk about...!
Wonderer - who is happy that ISG is back
Not reall sure where to post this, but of interest.
[url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-admits-that-cases-of-hivaids-have-risen-45-per-cent-786175.html[/url]
News report from this morning. Numbers don't really change in the grand scheme but greater local awareness is good news for all.
WGS
Might be good for a laugh
[url]http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/ynkmdali/product-detailDqxQmREzDaWg/China-Chinese-Viogra.html[/url]
Anybody else heard that recently certain types of visas, like 6-month F-visas aren't being issued anymore? I talked to a guy at a visa office and he told me that since last Thursday it has been next to impossible to get visas for China that are longer than 30 days.
[QUOTE=Phil1980]Anybody else heard that recently certain types of visas, like 6-month F-visas aren't being issued anymore? I talked to a guy at a visa office and he told me that since last Thursday it has been next to impossible to get visas for China that are longer than 30 days.[/QUOTE]
The crackdown against shady visa operations, and the stricter enforcement of the rules has been going on for a while. The loophole of longer-term F visa is closed for most. It's generally viewed as a pre-Olympics cleanup operation.