China

We are pleased to announce that we will be co-hosting, and speaking at, the China Edge Symposium: Hospitality and Service for High Net Worth Chinese, in London on 3 July in London. With the Chinese consumer being in the headlines almost every time a major brand issues its results, it is no wonder that luxury retail brands want to get a better understanding of how to attract, engage, serve…and sell to…Chinese buyers. The China Dividend: “Luxury fashion retailer Burberry posts 14% profits rise as Chinese sales surge” (Retail Week) “Armani…said revenue for 2012 rose 16%…The strong numbers, in particular in Armani’s Far East region of China, Hong Kong and Japan, are motivating the company to aggressively expand…” (The Wall Street Journal) A key point for brands to understand is that 60% of Chinese luxury spending happens outside of mainland China. Hong Kong is a big beneficiary. But shopping destinations such as London also have an opportunity to attract these high-spending travellers. With many brands and retailers cautious about international expansion, or with limited resources, in the current economic climate it makes sense to bring the Chinese market a little closer. UK business groups, including the China UK Visa Alliance (“UKCVA”), which have lobbied the UK Government for reform of the visa system, recognise the importance of the opportunity that Chinese shoppers present: “The UKCVA estimates that Britain misses out on around £1.2 billion of spending from Chinese tourists because we underperform in attracting them…New West End Company, the Business Improvement District for London’s West End, estimates that Chinese visitors spend nearly three times as much in the West End than the average overseas visitor – £1,688 compared with £567.” Businesses need to take a long-term, strategic approach, localise their messaging and offers, engage online and through Chinese social media, target key travelling groups, be culturally aware, and know how to serve their Chinese visitors once they arrive in-store. With these issues in mind, together with our specialist partners, we are delighted to launch the China Edge initiative, with our conference on 3 July: Hospitality and Service for High Net Worth Chinese. Find out more, and register to join us here. China Edge is a collaboration of sector experts with a wealth of experience in China that brings you the knowledge of how to target, engage and retain wealthy customers from China. China Edge LinkedIn Group China Edge on Twitter @ChinaEdge

Although I love Southern Barbarian's Fear Factor-evoking bug platters and beer selection that's worthy of a Czech beer garden, it's definitely passed the torch onto Lotus Eatery as Shanghai's go-to Yunnan Spot. This small, rustic Dai dive offers colorful, consistently Dai-licious bites from spicy frog dishes to succulent beef cheeks to crispy and lush Miao roast lake fish. Our favorite is their fried goat cheese (35RMB). [ more › ]

As if tensions between Uyghur and Han people in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region aren't complicated enough, an enormous amount of gold has been found in the province. [ more › ]

A slight graze on a car during a motorway crash led to an intensely drawn-out haggling session over as little as five yuan, the People's Daily reports. [ more › ]

Two of the six foreigners who were photographed pissing on one of our splendid, pristine Shanghai roads, have been fined 100 yuan by authorities, according to the Shanghai Daily. [ more › ]

According to the “Qianjiang Wanbao” newspaper 700 years ago, the famous traveler Marco Polo came to Hangzhou and was then called the “most beautiful and elegant city in the world.” Today, 700 years later, Hangzhou launched a global advertising campaign to recruit a new “Marco Polo”, offering an annual salary of 40,000 euros (about 323,000 yuan). On March 11, the city officially began recruiting. The “Marco Polo” today will be selected in April of next year only among foreigners. The winner does not need to choose routes or spend money. He must simply share travel experiences in Hangzhou. The main task is the following: the No.1 role play “doctor Hangzhou” in the film publicity on tourism in Hangzhou; stand counselor Hangzhou tourism marketing abroad and share their stories and life on foreign web sites. Copyright © 2013 Mysterious China Blog. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact legal@www.mysteriouschina.com so we can take legal action immediately.Plugin by Taragana

China’s biggest e-commerce firm Alibaba Group announced  on April 29, 2013 that it would acquire an 18 percent stake in Sina Weibo for 586 million US dollars, a deal that could reshape the country’s Internet landscape. Sina Weibo is China’s most popular Twitter-like microblogging platform with over 500 million user accounts, but it has yet to find a profitable business model. By connecting the millions of Weibo users to Alibaba, an e-commerce platform that handled more transactions than Amazon and eBay combined last year, the deal is widely heralded as a game changer that could jump-start an era of social commerce, or social media-driven e-commerce, in China. New exclusion in the era of social commerce Alipay has become the world's biggest third-party online payment platform. By IvanWalsh.com. (CC: BY) But the deal also marks a subtle trend which will enable the authoritarian state to tighten its grip on the Internet. As the line dividing economics and politics in the Internet space erodes, new possibilities arise for governments to pursue systematic online persecution beyond content control. Google’s Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen spell out this scenario in their new book “The New Digital Age“: As connectivity spreads, Internet service and mobile devices offer vital outlets for individuals to transcend their current environment, connecting them with information, jobs, resources, entertainment and other people. Excluding oppressed populations from participating in the virtual world would be a very drastic and damaging policy [...]. As banking, salaries and payment transactions move increasingly onto online platforms, exclusion from the Internet will severely curtail people’s economic prospects. It would be far more difficult to access one’s money, to pay by credit card or get a loan. As a country facing the Internet “dictator’s dilemma,” the above scheme presents great potential for China to bring the Internet’s convenience to bear upon curtailing of online freedom. By embracing the Internet, the Chinese government has reaped its benefits for economic and social developments, thereby enhancing its legitimacy. According to McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, China is the second largest e-tailing market in the world, after the United States, with sales totaling 120 billion US dollars in 2011. But at the same time, the Internet has become a vibrant public sphere filled with criticisms about government policies and corruption. The well-known Great Firewall, which blocks “undesirable” foreign websites, and elaborate social media censorship, with forced cooperation from private Internet companies, are the official responses. A recent Economist special report described the Chinese Internet, with its distinct mix of economic freedom and political “unfreedom”, as a flourishing “giant cage” which is constantly watched over. The Alibaba deal is a foretaste of how the Chinese regulators further manipulate the economic desires and needs of citizens. Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter, highlights its sinister aspect in his New York Times Dealbook column that the deal, “through integrated online payment functionality, has the voluntary real name registrations of many users”. Sina Weibo, China's biggest microblogging service. By jonrussell CC: BY-SA. Information totalitarianism In December 2011, the Beijing Municipal Government issued rules requiring microblogging services to verify the identity of their users. In December 2012, China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, passed a law requiring users to provide their real names when registering with an Internet service provider. While the rules have thus far not been well implemented, China’s leadership sees this as a top priority. In late March 2013, the State Council released its task list for the next five years, which includes implementation of an Internet real name registration system by June 2014. But the

The launch of the new candy will be first time Hershey has launched a new product outside of the US in its 120 year history. [ more › ]

Not only did this driver manage to bump into two men, but he actually ran both over and refused to stop. Watch the horrifying CCTV footage above. [ more › ]

For eight years already now, a small workers’ residential community in Jingzhou, Hubei province has “quietly” been living a revolution. In 2005, errant fireworks caused a fire on a balcony in this community, and drawing the (painfully obvious yet in China excruciatingly absent) conclusion that fireworks on the whole just isn’t worth it, decided to ban the stuff altogether. As the front page of the Jingzhou Evening News reports today, for the last eight years Beiling has been living in a near nirvana-like state of calm and serenity. So can we all Learn from Beiling? For eight now already, the small community of Beiling (????) in the district of Shashi (???) in Jingzhou (??), Hubei province, has been fireworks-free, and the residents have not at all missed the noisy traditional accoutrements of every Spring Festival, wedding or funeral in China. In the estimation of its residents, Beiling has never been cleaner or more peaceful. A reporter from Jingzhou Evening News (????) yesterday ventured into the community of around 700 workers to get the lay of the land of this fireworks-free zone, and found the air nice and clean. At the main entrance of the community the reporter interviewed a few of the older residents who sat playing chess, and these informed him that eight years ago during the Spring Festival holiday, someone in Beiling was careless when shooting some fireworks and caused a fire on an apartment balcony. Fortunately no-one was injured, but at the time some of the residents were dismayed by the incessant cacophony from the crack of dawn to the middle of the night, and the “red carpet” of debris that would be left strewn everywhere every day. So the community decided to henceforth ban all fireworks. And what was the result? A more peaceful environment, cleaner streets, less noise and ruckus, a greater sense of calm and security, and cleaner air. And not only this, as the residents informed the reporter, now during Spring Festival holidays people can leave their windows open and can freely engage with each other in all kinds of hearty activities without being disturbed. All the residents were in agreement that their community is so much better now. The head of Beiling’s neighborhood committee put it succinctly: fireworks waste resources, pollute the environment, disturb everyone’s peace and are potentially dangerous – so why on earth would you have them? So in the spirit of Learn from Daqing and Learn from Dazhai, it’s now time for China to Learn from Beiling. Links and sources Jingzhou Evening News (????): ????8??????