Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur

&quot; All we had to do was download an app and click on some mysterious Chinese advertisements to top up our data. &quot;<p>This is the sort of shit that keeps network security people awake at night. I bet they enabled third-party app downloads on their Android phones and uninstalled some unknown .apk<p>The future business leaders of America... fuck...

I hope you didn&#x27;t just take taxis around all day. Public transport, especially the trains in Hong Kong are day and night compared to most other countries in terms of pricing, speed and reliability.<p>6000USD&#x2F;Month for 600sqft is ridiculous, even by HK standards. It&#x27;s probably a 5-star serviced apartment, i.e. long-stay hotel.<p>Paying 200 to drive across the border is a rip-off though. There are trains and buses that take you right across for less than $20, in the same amount of time.

My goodness. Their website is made exactly after this article:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;slackjaw&#x2F;template-for-tech-product-announcements-f92830f6a2c4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;slackjaw&#x2F;template-for-tech-product-announ...</a><p>As for their story... Well, it&#x27;s great that they wrote up a summary of their adventures, but I&#x27;m appalled at the fact that these three 25-something year old Americans are amazed that in China, people speak Chinese and nothing is written in English... Welcome to the World, I guess!

I have to wonder if there&#x27;s a market for people who specialize in helping foreigners do factory tours like this more efficiently. For a few hundred dollars, someone who actually knows China could have easily paid for themselves by preventing ripoffs like the taxi to the border (as others have pointed out, the train is dirt cheap) and the rush visas (you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200), and made the whole trip smoother and less stressful. As someone who lived in China, this seems like it would be pretty fun.

I enjoyed that account of their experience. It&#x27;s a bit cliché and naive but not in a bad way. They seem to have genuine wonder for what they encountered and it&#x27;s an experience that has opened their eyes to a different world and -hopefully- made them question some of their previous beliefs and assumptions about the world.<p>I especially love it when people come to Hong Kong for the first time. I still view that city with the same wonder I had when I arrived 20 years ago, probably why I never left.<p>The account of their visit in China is spot on. It&#x27;s messy, impossible to fully grasp, completely alien and yet things get done, fast. You better be there during early production if you value your product though. They did well to make the trip.

They make $350 sheets. Think about that for a second. $350 for cut and sewn planes of linen.<p>I was all about it until I saw the price. Elevated for no reason. They sell it a premium price point to just give the illusion of extreme quality. It&#x27;s made just like any other linen bed sheets you can buy with a few buttons to connect the top sheet to the duvet.<p>Someone could make a duvet with some buttons and sell it at 1&#x2F;10th the price.

Partially relevant. Bunnie&#x27;s guide in doing business with electronic factories and suppliers in Shenzhen.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bunniestudios.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;?p=4585" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bunniestudios.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;?p=4585</a>

Why is the author seemingly afraid of every new experience? Is this normal?

Nice blog post, it makes me remember my early years as a professional in China. Now as a 27 year old who flies back and forth once every 1.5 months to manage a team of 3 Chinese developers, I really miss the times when everything was a discovery and looked so fresh and cool. After a while you get used to it and start noticing all the bad details. It takes away a lot of the enjoyment that pushed me there in the first place. The good part is that China always finds ways to amaze and entertain me.

This seems like a pretty strange road trip with very little business content. More like a &quot;ZOMG-wow we are in China&quot; (wait you need Visa for that?). I would have been very suspect and have refused to go on that booked vacation. And smoking because you don&#x27;t want to upset someone...strange. Oh yeah we will just take that click on a bunch of adds thingy..what could possibly go wrong. ALL IN ALL IT WAS WORTH IT.

Nice post, but I am disappointed that you did not post the names of the hotels you stayed at. I would have enjoyed details of <i>where</i> you spent your money.

These poor guys, it seems not one nice thing was said about them or their article. I suspect they will think twice before posting to HN again.

Fascinating. Sounds like a 2&#x2F;3 vacation, 1&#x2F;3 work, but I guess the time was well spent, as they caught production problems earlier on.

Nice post. Quiet true about everything in china. If the labor price is higer in china, these young man probably will visit laos or vietnam

Cringe