Fascinating. Sounds like a 2/3 vacation, 1/3 work, but I guess the time was well spent, as they caught production problems earlier on.
Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
41–50 of 69 posts
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#42I enjoyed that account of their experience. It's a bit cliché and naive but not in a bad way. They seem to have genuine wonder for what they encountered and it'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.
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.
The account of their visit in China is spot on. It'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.
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
>three 25-something year old Americans It says that they departed from St. Louis, but I don't think that they're American. For one, their English isn't at a native level. Also, at one point in the article they referred to what the vast majority of Americans would call a "soccer ball" a "football." There are many other terms and phrases that I wouldn't expect an American to use, like "China border." Assuming you are A…
They're native speakers, but the style is weird, agreed. I think it's the generally extremely simple sentence structure and vocabulary -- this blogpost is probably at a third-grade reading level. There's also no deep commentary on any of the things they encountered or things they thought about. I couldn't help but feel as if I was reading some kind of picturebook intended for children.
These are smart guys who are catering to the wannapreneur/internet marketer crowd, not tech geeks and seasoned entrepreneurs.
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#44These 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.
The article is poorly written and they seem absolutely clueless, have too much money (most likely from a trust fund set up by daddy) and too little sense. There's nothing nice to say.
As my grandma used to say, if you can't say anything nice, it's better to not say anything at all
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#45Nice post, but I am disappointed that you did not post the names of the hotels you stayed at. I would have enjoyed details of where you spent your money.
I am interested in this too. $100/night and $70/night sounds affordable and looking at the picture, the hotel room looked pretty good.
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#46Nice post, but I am disappointed that you did not post the names of the hotels you stayed at. I would have enjoyed details of where you spent your money.
I am interested in this too. $100/night and $70/night sounds affordable and looking at the picture, the hotel room looked pretty good.
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#47I hope you didn'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. 6000USD/Month for 600sqft is ridiculous, even by HK standards. It's probably a 5-star serviced apartment, i.e. long-stay hotel. Paying 200 to drive across the border is a rip-off though. There are trains and buses that tak…
>Paying 200 to drive across the border is a rip-off though Agreed. For anyone planning a similar trip, the train to the border at Lok Ma Chau costs less than US$5 and you can then just walk through immigration. Taxis and the Shenzhen subway are right on the other side.
You can also get a 5 day Shenzhen only visa at the border for a lot cheaper than the regular Chinese visa. (Although only from the Lo Wu crossing).
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#48" All we had to do was download an app and click on some mysterious Chinese advertisements to top up our data. " 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 The future business leaders of America... fuck...
Their doe-eyed turnip truck perspective was cringy all the way through. McDonalds is the same, but different! And they negotiated 3000 dollars off! How lucky! And he sent them off to Hainan Island. Prosperity and success can not be in doubt.
"Winston wanted to send us away to a Chinese island called Hainan for a few days during the slow part of production."
Of course he didn't want foreigners snooping around in his factory. It must have been cheaper to pay their holidays than run the factory at Western standards for "a few days" to please naive visitors.
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Paying 200 to drive across the border is a rip-off though Agreed. For anyone planning a similar trip, the train to the border at Lok Ma Chau costs less than US$5 and you can then just walk through immigration. Taxis and the Shenzhen subway are right on the other side.
You can also get a 5 day Shenzhen only visa at the border for a lot cheaper than the regular Chinese visa. (Although only from the Lo Wu crossing).
Be aware that U.S. and French citizens are NOT permitted to apply for the 5-day Shenzhen port visa. [1]
It's also not guaranteed for other citizens so probably best to get a regular China visa rather than risk being turned back at the border.
[1] http://www.travelchina.gov.cn/art/2015/1/30/art_15_45566.htm...
Re: Visiting Factories in China as an Entrepreneur
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
>three 25-something year old Americans It says that they departed from St. Louis, but I don't think that they're American. For one, their English isn't at a native level. Also, at one point in the article they referred to what the vast majority of Americans would call a "soccer ball" a "football." There are many other terms and phrases that I wouldn't expect an American to use, like "China border." Assuming you are A…
There is a caption on one image that mentions that at least one of them is from the UK: "There are lots of things in Hong Kong that Jon remembers from the UK, like Lucazade!"
Which is another mistake, since it's "Lucozade", as you can see in the photo right above. Plus, at one point they say "it costed us X".