It also has a 54,000 square meters plaza, which is connected with the green plaza in Zhongshan Park to form unification presenting the largest plaza in the center of Wuhan. There is a modern shopping mall under the plaza. The convention and exhibition sophisticated equipment and enjoyable environment, which will be a symbolic building of Wuhan. The center is the largest exhibition center in Wuhan and amongst the top exhibition center in China. It is said that at present, Wuhan International Convention and Exhibition Center is the largest one in the city. Totally 200 exhibitions will be held each year in Wuhan.

Wuhan International Convention and Exhibition Center combines various functions such as exhibition, convention, parking lot, information exchange, trade fair, indoor and outdoor squares, shopping center and foreign enterprise service center, etc. It can offer the customers extensive services including business, communication, advertising, decorating, catering, leisure, recreation, travel, parking, transportation, storage and office work and so on so forth. It’s both the center of politics, economy, culture, science and technology, trade, business and information exchange of Wuhan, and the best place for all kinds of domestic and international exhibitions, conventions and activities, and the reception of foreign guests.

How to understand Guanxi

Whenever you read or hear about China you cannot get around the Chinese word Guanxi (关系).

For non- Chinese it is difficult to understand what this little word really stands for.

The original meaning is “relationship”. But most dictionaries mention that it can also mean “concerning something”, “condition” or “involvement”. And that is where most foreigners have trouble understanding how relationship can also mean “condition”.

Guanxi is used as a term for a personal network. Those networks influence almost all decisions made in China while contracts and agreements are seen as guidelines which can be questioned or changed.

Most foreigners find it hard to believe that Guanxi is not a synonym for the Western term “corruption”. In China they use the word Huilu (贿赂) for this illegal process.

So what is Guanxi, if it doesn´t mean corruption?

Guanxi- Relationships are unlike corruption not based on unions, groups or institutions but are concerning the link between two individual persons. From there on the network can be expanded to the people the other one has Guanxi with.

The dangerous thing about introducing other people to the people you have Guanxi with, is that you could lose your face (honor, credibility) in case the introduced person is not trustworthy or reliable.

This kind of relationship needs a long time to be built up but when established it can be on a very high level. Some of the relationships are based on living together in the same village or because two people were studying in the same university.

But unlike the western definition of friendship or companionship, Guanxi can only exist if the help one gives to the other is equal to the received favor. Eventually you have to “pay back” your Guanxi- Partners.

Time and consistence play an important role in this process which involves work and caretaking. It could be compared to a fire. You have to put wood into the flames to keep it going.

People you have good Guanxi have the skill to know when to get new wood and when it is time to use the fire. That’s why it is very important for Chinese to categorize people as family, friends or foes.

All this is normally unnoticeable for foreigners who are most of the time outside of this very Chinese network.

Interesting enough “Mei Guanxi” which could be wrongly translated as “no relationship” means actually “don´t worry”, “never mind” or “doesn´t matter. So don´t be insulted if someone on the street appears to tell you “We have no relationship”.

Wuhan lies in the middle latitude zone of the north of the Tropic of Cancer. The City has a subtropical monsoon climate with sufficient sunshine, plentiful rainfall and four distinct seasons. The temperature of Wuhan on a average is 16.6 Celsius degrees an annual reaches 1.269 millimeters. Meanwhile, the hours of sunshine in Wuhan reaches an average of 1,928.5 hours per annum.

There are 13 administrative districts and 3 store level development zones in the city, which holds a population of approximately 9,7 million people including a population of 5 million people in the centre urban area.

Located in central China, Wuhan is not only the capital of Hubei Province, other than Being  the capital it also serves as the political, economic, finance, science and technology,  and cultural centre of Hubei Province.

Wuhan is famous for its geographical position it is known as “the gateway to nine provinces”. The city is located within a radius of 1,000km from other major cities in China such as Beijing, shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Xi’an.  The city’s geographical position gives the advantage to link the east and west, and as a pivot providing easy excess between the north and the south. And off course Wuhan  is capable to provide easy excess to both lakes.

There are three state-level economic and technological development zones in Wuhan. The East Lake Hi-Tech Development Zone focus on optical and electronic communications, bioengineering, material research and laser technologies, while the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone emphasizes on the production of automobiles and spare parts, food and beverages. Similarly, Wujiashan State-Level Industry Development Park puts emphasis on food and beverages; in addition, it also focuses on agricultural products for further processing, and bioengineering. Together, these three Development Zones in Wuhan play a critical role in its development and growth

Over a hundred hills and about 200 lakes are scatters around Wuhan, Wuhan’s water area accounts for a quarter of the city’s land area. The East lake Scenic Area’s lake covers 33 square kilometers, which is the largest “lake within a city” in China. It is one of the famous scenic spots in Wuhan. The area covers a range of 82 square kilometers. Characterized by beautiful landscape and abundant plants, the area boats more than 100 scenic spots, which attracts many tourists every year. Besides this all, it is known as the biggest tourist centre of the ancient Chu culture.  The plum blossom and lotus in East Lake rank top in China. This is also where the China Plum Blossom Research Centre and China Lotus Centre are located.

Wuhan has a long and rich history. According to archaeological studies and records of ancient books, there are trances of civilization of more than 10,000 years old. The unearthed Panlong Town Heritage proved to be to be the place of the Fang State in Shang Dynasty built about 3,500 years ago, and it was the only town in Shang Dynasty discovered in Yangtze River Valley, On October 10 1911, the Xinhai revolution started in Wuhan, which ended the feudal society lasted 5000 years in China.

Wuhan has plenty of attractions such as Yellow Crane Tower, Baotong Zenist Temple, Guiyuan Zenist Temple, Qingchuan Pavilion, East Lake, etc. The Yellow Crane Tower was built in 223 AD. It is renowned for its poetry. Many famous poets such as Li Bai, Bai Juyi and Lu You have written poems there. Wuhan also boasts some museums like Zhongshan Warship Museum and Qingchuan Pavilion.

Wuhan has its own unique food culture. There, Jingzhou Cuisine meets Huangzhou local cuisine. There are many renowned delicacies, such as “steamed blunt snout”, “braised soft-shell turtle”, and typical snacks, like steamed dumplings from “Sijimei”, Doupi from “Laotongcheng”, hot dry noodles from “Cailinji”, and sweet dumplings from “Wufangzai”.

Wuhan plans to construct six new suburban residential districts. The plan is to construct the districts around the central urban area, with the new Wuhan city composing of one urban centre and six satellite districts.

1. Wuhan JCO Translation Co., Ltd

Founded in September 2003, Wuhan JCO Translation Co., Ltd employs more than 60 full-time or part-time people. It has provided related service for famous enterprises of Wuhan such as Wisco Group, Donghu High-tech Development Zone, Wuhan Economic Development Zone involving in translation of steel, metallurgy, construction, IT, website, electronics, machinery, etc. The translators mainly come from famous universities and research institutes. Wuhan JCO Translation Co., Ltd undertakes translation of British, French, Japanese, Russian, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian, more than 30 languages between Chinese, and different forms of mutual translation of Chinese business.

2. Wuhan Oriental Century Interpretation & Translation

Wuhan Oriental Century Translation Co., LTD. was founded as the institution of higher learning foreign languages institute with the support of Wuhan University, Hubei University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other foreign language service agencies. Service includes English, Japanese, French, German and other languages. For 4 years, Wuhan Oriental Century Oral English Base has trained a large number of outstanding talents for interpreting teams and foreign enterprises. The agency has senior professional titles, good mastering and experienced team, who provide professional foreign translation on foreign trade, investment, international conference, exhibition, international economic contract, and advertising.

3. Wuhan Dayang Translation Co., Ltd

Wuhan Dayang Translation Co., LTD has many translation experts, foreigners, overseas returned personnel, research institutes of professional translators and translators who have much experience. Currently it is the most famous large translation organization of Central China. Till now, it has provided good translation for government agencies, the embassies, economic &commercial section and the global multinational company, and it also established long-term cooperative relations with many famous companies. Wuhan Dayang Translation Co., LTD can offer written and oral translation in English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French, etc, more than 30 kinds of language translation.

4.  Wuhan To-Win Translation Co., Ltd

Located in the beautiful scenery of the Wuhan University campuses, the company is founded by two overseas scholars as a professional translation agency. With cooperation with national key university and translators association, the company owns a large group of regular foreign language translation, and has professors, industry experts, foreign experts, study and research institutes’ elite professional translators. It also established partnership with the United States, Canada, Switzerland and other countries of the translation organization and can undertake various translation service in different fields and different countries, different time zones, involving in two-way communication and information translation between Chinese, English, Japanese, German, Russian, Korean, and more than 20 languages.

5.  Wuhan ZuoAnhe Translation Service Co., Ltd

Established by a lot of experts and scholars with overseas study and working experience, after years of development, Wuhan ZuoAnhe Translation Service Co., LTD has grown into a cross-cultural communication professional translation company. Having the excellent interpreter team, the company can satisfy needs of customers on different industries, different languages, and different levels of business requirements. It can provide standardized, professional and comprehensive translation service for multinational companies, enterprises, institutions, social organizations and individuals.

http://www.at0086.com/rank/en-us/20090627190103609.html

In China, Volvo Car Corporation’s management team led by Freeman Shen is well established and Volvo Car China has now grown from a national sales company into a full-fledged organisation with its headquarter in Shanghai. Now when we are talking about Volvo Car China Operation, we are talking about a subsidiary in China which includes sales and marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, product development and all other supporting functions.

We have started building the Chengdu plant, and investigations are ongoing for a potential plant in Daqing. It will be extremely important to use the Volvo manufacturing and quality systems in these plants so that we will build the same quality Volvo cars and engines as those being built for Volvo elsewhere.

Our R&D organisation in Shanghai will become the centre for product development, engineering, design and sourcing in China, and an important and integrated part of our global product development network. Our diversified product development team has taken on engineering tasks in new product design and local sourcing as well as supporting global teams in new product and new technology development.

Meanwhile, we are developing and optimising the supply base in China not only for the China plants but also for Volvo Cars’ entire global operation. Currently, it is our priority to hire new staff to work with product development for the Chinese market and support local production and purchasing activities. We will implement the same quality standards as those in Europe and are willing to build a long-term relationship with our suppliers in China. A design center is being located in Shanghai to support the global design team in understanding the market trend in China and the preference of Chinese consumers.

There is also full focus to increase sales in China by strengthening sales and marketing activities, including expanding the dealer network, recruiting and training sales consultants and improving customer experience and satisfaction.

China Growth Plan Progress
We have made lots of progress in China in the past year. Sales increased by 36 per cent, to 21,000 units by the end of June, compared with the same period last year. Our sales network is expanding systematically, with increased interest and enthusiasm from dealers across the country. In the first half of 2011, 11 new dealers joined our sales force and turned the total dealer number to 117 nationwide. We are also working on further improvement of customer satisfaction together with our dealers.

Road ahead
China overtook the United States as the world’s largest car market in 2009, and continued a strong growth momentum in 2011, especially in the market segment where we are competing. In the luxury car segment, the sales boom has provided tremendous opportunities for us. However, our goal of selling 200,000 vehicles per year from last year’s amount of 30,000 vehicles will not be an easy job. This requires lots of hard work, passion for our customers and cars, speed to market and smart thinking from all of us.

Nobody has ever done what we are doing today. We are not just another multinational company in China. Here we are making history together. Facing the market and fierce competition, we need to have a strong sense of urgency and install great courage to achieve our ambitious goals in China.

My colleagues and I are committed to writing a new chapter in China’s auto industry. We will work very hard and smart, with customers, partners and other stakeholders to unlock the tiger of Volvo and regain its glory. Together with our global team, we will make Volvo Cars a most admired brand and one of the most successful businesses in China.

How to purchase a property in China (Ch…

Les 500 entreprises les plus puissantes du monde dont le groupe français Keolis vont établir leur quartier général ou des bases de production à Wuhan et déclencher un nouvel essor des investissements dans cette ville importante du centre de la Chine.

La société automobile « Shenglong » ltd, constitue le plus grand projet à investissement sino-français dans l’industrie automobile à Wuhan. Aujoud’hui 80 autres entreprises françaises sont également installées à Wuhan. Un tiers des investissements français en Chine se trouve concentré dans cette ville, avec un système de production, d’acquisition et de logistique très commode. Près de 1 000 Français travaillent et vivent dans cette ville chinoise. La construction de la nouvelle usine « Shenglong » 3 débutera dans le mois de mai ce qui renforcera davantage la position de Wuhan, en tant que capitale automobile de la Chine.

Outre l’industrie automobile, Wuhan et la France coopèrent encore dans les domaines du transport, du développement durable, de l’économie d’énergie et de la protection de l’environnement.

De plus, le Groupe Keolis, le premier opérateur privé français de transport public, a signé un protocole d’accord avec le Groupe de développement du transport de Wuhan. Cet accord prévoit de compléter les installations de l’aéroport « Tianhe » de Wuhan et de construire les projets de correspondance reliés au métro de la ville. Le Groupe Keolisva également établira son quartier général Asie, un centre d’acquisition et un centre de formation à Wuhan. Il aidera le gouvernement municipal de Wuhan à devenir un exemple en matière de construction du transport en Chine.

La Société Eurocopter a également l’intention d’ouvrir un bureau à Wuhan pour développer ces affaires en Chine. En revanche, elle attend que la chine ouvre d’avantage son espace aérien à basse altitude.   Le groupe Saint-Gobain envisage aussi d’implanter une usine de production de matériaux de construction à Wuhan.
De plus, l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD) a déjà investi 20 millions d’euros à Wuhan pour la reconstruction des édifices publics. C’est également le premier projet d’économie d’énergie lancé par la Chine, en utilisant des prêts gouvernementaux étrangers.  Pour faciliter les échanges et la coopération entre la France et Wuhan dans les domaines économiques, éducationnel et culturel, une ligne internationale entre Wuhan et Paris sera ouverte avant la fin de cette année.

In loose terms, you can think of face as reputation, honor or respect. You could also think of it as public image, particularly through the eyes of one’s close connections.

Face can be given, gained, lost or saved.

It’s easy to lose face. For example, face can be lost through a public insult or public contradiction or by failure to receive the proper level of respect. It is not really the act that causes a loss of face but the fact that the act is public, and there is public humiliation or loss of prestige involved.

Loss of face must be avoided. Sometimes, Chinese go to great lengths to preserve face. It’s acceptable to lie to preserve face. In fact, lying is considered the better option, especially when it is understood that it is being done to preserve face.

You may have noticed how Chinese business people don’t like to say “no” outright, even when that is their answer. This is because saying “no” would cause the rejected party to lose face. By not saying “no” directly they are preserving face.

One good reason for not doing anything that would cause someone to lose face is that it could result in some form of retaliation. The face loser may attempt to regain face by doing something to cause the initial infractor their own loss of face.

Face can be gained through public showings of respect or praise to a third party. See again how the simple act of giving praise isn’t what gives face, it’s the fact it is done publicly or via a third party. Face can also be gained by doing what others cannot do or by being exceptionally knowledgeable or wise.

In China, it is not just individuals that have face, the concept applies to companies and government ministries too. In this case, think of it as the organization’s good reputation that they aim to preserve.

To learn more about mianzi, see the following article which does an excellent job of explaining face in non-business situations from both Chinese and Western perspectives:

http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/mianzi-guanxi-china.htm

Source: dragonbn.com

1) Look to your current contact base

I think the first place you have to look to build your China network is your current contact base. Take a look through your Facebook and Linkedin accounts and see if your current contacts are doing anything in China. When I first announced on Linkedin that I was doing business in China, I had several contacts who said they knew someone I should meet.

If you attended college, make sure to tap into your alumni network. The Chinese really believe in their alumni network so it is natural for the expat alumni networks take a more important role in China. I think a good alumni network might be the best possible source of building the right contacts in China.

2) Join online networking groups with a China focus

Join online networking sites and, after you join, be active and participate in online discussions. Keep your profile current and actively seek new contacts.

Here are the main online networking groups for China business. Join several if you can.

Dragon Business Network
www.dragonbn.com

The China Business Network
www.thechinabusinessnetwork.com

China Groups at Linkedin
www.linkedin.com

China Groups at Xing
www.xing.com

3) Join a chamber of commerce

I think joining a chamber of commerce is a must. Chambers really do a great job of providing seminars. And their networking opportunities are unparalleled.

Here’s more information on chambers of commerce in Shanghai: www.dragonbn.com/articles/3

4) Attend live networking events

Attend networking functions organized by private networking groups like FC Club (www.FCclub.com), OK Deal Club (www.Okdealclub.com), Oriented (www.oriented.com) and Next Step (www.nextstepshanghai.com). Many of these events are held at fashionable drinking venues. What a great way to meet contacts and have a good time.

Though not billed as business networking events, local get-togethers like ShanghaiExpats.com’s Wednesday Beer Mixer and weekend coffee meetings are also good for making contacts.

Various chambers of commerce also organize events.

Here’s a link to the most complete, up-to-date list of in-person networking events in China:www.dragonbn.com/events

5) Reach out to government organizations

Relevant government organizations in your country, such as ministries of trade and technology, are generally easily approachable. More importantly, key staff at these organizations, such as trade officers, tend to have a great number of contacts they can help you meet.

6) Join business associations or industry groups

Most major cities around the world have business associations or industry groups with an interest in China. One example is the Vancouver Business Network Forum (www.vbnf.com) in Vancouver, Canada.

7) Socialize

I met some great contacts while watching football games at expat bars like Malones and the Big Bam Boom in Shanghai.

Ask consultants

Be sure to touch base with market entry consultants, lawyers and accountants that deal with foreigners. These service providers are helpful for meeting the right connections.

9) Join expat centers

Join expat-oriented groups such as Community Center Shanghai. Expat communities are highly integrated — knowing one person means you will be introduced to several others.

10) Get an MBA or EMBA

Go get an MBA or EMBA. I have met a lot of people who got their MBA in China who said the contacts they made at school made their MBA worth it.

Source: www.dragonbn.com