[FretDancer]

Gentlemen, I am departing to China tomorrow. The purpose of this travel is business, but also to have a great time, meet cool people, cool girls, and overall just have a blast. I will be staying 1 month there as of now (might stay more but I can't confirm that right now) in Beijing, with the idea to visit Guangzhou and meet the guys from The Elevator Life (thanks Vacancier Permanent for recommending them and thank you for all your great advice), however visiting Guangzhou is not yet certain.

I will be documenting my trip experiences with the culture, the girls, business-stuff, everything, in this thread.

A little background on me:
I am 22 years old latino and a Computer Systems Engineer. I speak Spanish, English, Mandarin, and a little bit of Italian and I guess you could say I have intermediate game.

About my business idea:
After being inspired by the guys from ElevatorLife (Strongly recommend to check them out), I decided I wanted to find out how real the opportunities in China really are. I started thinking on different types of business approaches I could take. I believe Honduras as some great quality products that can find big market in China, so I settled with this idea. I chose a product, and started my research. I visited suppliers, manufacturers, did some networking and met some good contacts here. Now it is time to do this over there. Basically, this is an exporting business from Honduras to China.

I managed to get a good amount of samples of the product. The idea is to get a solid market response and opinion in China. This way I can have a good idea what kind of product they want, how much, and at what price. If they do want it, that is. In the process, the idea is to also get some contacts in China who are interested (or know people who are) in buying the product in mass quantities.

I have to say I'm just a young guy and not very experienced regarding business. But I'm decided to enjoy make this trip something I can remember and learn of, for my entire life.

Regarding getting laid, I will also share my experiences here. I plan on running some Day Game, Club Game (I don't like clubs much though), Bar Game, anywhere I can. I still haven't pipelined much, I have used QQ for years and I have Line and Weixin. I will probably give Couchsurfing a try to get some local girls for a night out.

If you want to hang out leave a reply on this thread or just send me a PM and I'll get back to you.

[nmmoooreland20]

I’ll be following this thread. Hope to make a similar move later this year or next. Current building a base of capital to start with and teaching myself Mandarin in NYC.

Good luck!

[Vacancier Permanent]

Awesome stuff FretD! I'm glad that my Guangzhou trip and thread inspired you and that you've made a move! You're definitely right on the money by getting into importing goods into China, this is where the REAL money is. Exporting, although still very big and profitable, nowadays, and into the foreseable future, is to take advantage of the ever increasing spending power of the Chinese middle class by bringing luxury and or rare products from abroad into the Middle Kingdom. I would highly recommend you to run your idea through Tim and Nick as they are in that same field, importing wine from the US into the Chinese market and are killing it (doing a 7 figure a year biz after only 3 years of being in China!).

I will join you in GZ in the fall. Stay there, make contacts, build a strong and wide network in GZ and SZ pick Nick and Tim's brain as much as you can and even better, let them plug you into their massive network of killer contacts there. Oh and make sure to also pick the brains of Ryan, one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet (He's the guy that just did 390K$ in sales 3 weeks time on Kickstarter with his Original Grains awesome watches). Also, another crucial thing for you would be to attend the Canton Fair which will be starting shortly. Awesome opportunity to meet reps from all the factories in China and initiate contact with them and amass as much info from them as possible and along they way, pick up a cool product to start an ecommerce and or a Kickstarter project! Oh and make sure you document all these, not only in here but also, on your blog!

Just like what I said to my friend Vorkuta in his quest to making a meaningful life for himself in Russia, I'm also not going to wish you luck, but rather raise a toast and say "Congratulations!". I have absolutely no doubt that you will succeed amigo.

Cheers!

[clever alias]

best of luck to you

[Fortitudinal]

Dude, whatever you do, get a good lawyer look over contracts. Remarkably easy to get shafted there.

Also, learn everything you can about business starting yesterday, but I trust you are smart enough to having done this already

While you are there go to HK and open a bank account there. Might come handy some day.

Godspeed man, dejate caer. . .

[OSL]

-

http://www.chinalawblog.com

http://www.amazon.com/Where-East-Eats-We...1439228302

Good luck.

I also suggest you open a bank account and/or a PLC with a corporate bank account while you are there, if you have the cash to do it.

-

[Duke Castile]

Awesome buddy

[Roustabout]

Awesome idea. I applaud your initiative and wish you the best of luck.[/align]

[Belgrano]

Good luck, I´m hoping to do the exact same thing, only with Austria instead of Honduras. I can only recommend ElevatorLife, those guys are inspiring.

I just applied for a semester abroad, spring/summer 2014. Chose Beijing (Tsinghua), Shanghai (Tongji) and Guangzhou (Sun Yat-sen). I hope I´ll get nominated, my first pick is Guangzhou. Would be great if I could attend the Canton Fair in April 2014. Wish me luck!

Can´t wait for your first posts from the ground!

[Snowflake]

Best of luck Fret, I will be following this thread for sure

[Mersault]

Best of luck Fret. Will be following this with interest as I'm planning on moving over there myself in the summer. Keep us updated with all that happens.

[Vacancier Permanent]

That's great to hear! Where in China? I'll be moving to GZ in the fall.
Would be nice to have a few RVFer in Guangzhou and or/ Shenzen!

(04-11-2013 08:01 PM)Mersault Wrote:  

Best of luck Fret. Will be following this with interest as I'm planning on moving over there myself in the summer. Keep us updated with all that happens.

[buja]

(04-09-2013 11:39 PM)Fortitudinal Wrote:  

While you are there go to HK and open a bank account there. Might come handy some day.

Do you have any connections for a Hong Kong bank account?
I was just there and I struck out at numerous banks cause of my Murcan citizenship, lack of a local reference, etc...

Any tips or leads will be greatly appreciated

[Kristian]

how old are them?

http://www.theelevatorlife.com/about-us/

[polymath]

Best of luck FretDancer!

[Fortitudinal]

(04-13-2013 07:40 AM)buja Wrote:  

(04-09-2013 11:39 PM)Fortitudinal Wrote:  

While you are there go to HK and open a bank account there. Might come handy some day.

Do you have any connections for a Hong Kong bank account?
I was just there and I struck out at numerous banks cause of my Murcan citizenship, lack of a local reference, etc...

Any tips or leads will be greatly appreciated

A company is much more welcome than a person. Hint Hint.

HK is very friendly to foreign investment.

[Vacancier Permanent]

Mid-late 20's. Why?

(04-13-2013 10:31 AM)Kristian Wrote:  

how old are them?

http://www.theelevatorlife.com/about-us/

[FretDancer]

Alright guys, I arrived here 2 days ago and haven't much time to post. This might be a long post.

I arrived here and as soon as I arrived my friend (she is Chinese, more on her later) was waiting for us (I'm travelling with a friend too), she drove us from the airport to our apartment I managed to get online (check this website out if you are looking for apartments, but its in Chinese mind you.). The apartment looks pretty good, everything is good so far.

The next day, we went to Tian An Men Square with my travelling buddy. Lots of people, unfortunately the local talent there was not so good, as it was in Taiwan. Still, there were a few gems among the crowds. Lots of chinese locals bothering the shit out of us with being tour guides and stuff, if you know chinese then sometimes they back off, but some don't seem to get the hint.

Now here is when it gets interesting. When we were in Tian An Men square, two fat ugly chinese girls approach us and start talking to us, they are a little direct so I have my suspicions, I read a thread here before about some guy (can't remember which thread) who went through this and got scammed. I chat a bit with the girls to practice my mandarin and then we bounced, scam dodged!

Or so we thought...

Later, while walking around Tian An Men West some two chinese guys asked if we were students, the didn't approach us, they did so while we were walking, like a simple conversation starter. I wanted to practice my mandarin so I continued their conversation, I said we weren't students. All four of us kept walking but still talking, it felt natural and somehow the conversation changed to business, and then my business ideas. Wrong move I guess.

We kept talking and it seemed they seemed to know quite a bit about business in China, or at least they are pretty good liars. We crossed the street to reach the Opera Theater and we talked more there. They seemed cool and I thought they could be good for connections. They suggested we took a cab to "Tea City" (which I later found it it is not named this way, motherfuckers...). They payed for it, once we got out of the cab we kept walking, one of the guys greeted a policeman there, it made me feel more safe. We walked into a tea shop, it was very beautiful place. We sat down and they gave us cigarrettes and we smoked there, some very young girls in the tea shop kept serving rounds of different kinds of teas and we kept talking about business. After a good time of chat, they brought the bill, I almost faitned..., it was crazy, but they "had to pay too". This is when I got the hint...But I didn't know what to do from here, get angry and walk away? Tell them to fuck themselves? I had no idea what these guys could do, my friend knew what was up but we had no clue what to do (he doesn't speak chinese). We payed the bill with credit card, they gave us some more tea to take us with and went out. Funny thing is, they still wanted to take us to massage parlors, the motherfuckers...

After a few minutes, I started feeling very dizzy, I knew it was because of the tea, or whatever that shit was. I got scared, I thought I was drugged, just like a bad trip. It seemed my friend was normal though. The fuckers gave us their "emails" to "Stay in touch" and discuss more business and connections in the future. At this point we still didn't know if we were scammed or not, at least we couldn't accept it, we were in pure old denial...

We took a cab back to the theatre. I couldn't find the meter in the cab so I asked the cab driver in chinese how much does it cost (I'm from latin america), he didn't speak to me at all. Thats when we really got scared, because the scammers got us this cab. I was starting to feel worse, dizzy, I wanted to puke, but I couldnt' puke on the bastard's cab, as much as I wanted to.

We reached back to the theater, we just collapsed on the park. I didn't even want to speak, I needed to wait for this thing to get over, while trying to accept how fucking dumb we were. Finally this weird feeling faded. We glanced each other and we didn't know if she should laugh, cry, or just scream. We decided to get out of there so we headed back to the subway. I wanted to leave those tea they gave us so bad, but somehow I couldn't, for that much money we payed, I just couldn't. Still, I felt like Beijing's biggest retard while carrying that bag, I looked at people and I felt like they knew we just got scammed like morons just by looking at that bag, it was like a mark of shame on my forehead.

I gave my chinese friend a call, we decided to meet up. I told her what happened, I could finally snap from my denial, just what I needed. We hanged out in many places, she took us to see many cool places and overall we just had fun. I have been QQing with this girl for more than a year, she is really cute and just my type. She is gf potential in my eyes, it's hard to feel that way about that girls back in Latin America, it feels very nice.

Finally we took the last subway and she took off at her station, me and my friend took at ours later and we had all our trip to think about what just happened today. Everything seemed cool, normal, the word "scam" never crossed my mind, I let my guard down. It was alot of money, but ir hurt my ego more than anything.

[Vacancier Permanent]

Good to hear from you again amigo!
Wow, can't believe you fell for that classic tea scam in Beijing! The good thing was that you were with your friends, imagine if this shit had occured while you were alone on your own...scary just to think about it!

Anyways, charge it to jet lag and I guess the tourist or reverse gringo tax so to speak. lol

Spot on that QQ is the shit in China! I've had a QQ account for a while but haven't used it much. Maybe I should un-dust it and start using it. Can you use it while not knowing/speaking any Mandarin?

Good stuff! Keep the updates coming!

Cheers!

[Al Czervik]

Well it looks like you avoided the art house scam, but they got you with the tea house scam. Don't feel too bad about it as they are professional scammers so they get a lot of people. Plus you probably can dispute the charge with the credit card company. The Beijing tourist attractions have far too many of these scammers running around.

[Pacific]

Didn't some guy post on here about falling for the tea scam? I guess you must have missed that thread.

[Kristian]

(04-13-2013 06:33 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  

Mid-late 20's. Why?

(04-13-2013 10:31 AM)Kristian Wrote:  

how old are them?

http://www.theelevatorlife.com/about-us/

because they're very inspirational!

[FretDancer]

Update:

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but my business venture is Honduran made Cigar importations into China. So yesterday I went through many places in Beijing looking for Cigar clubs. I made a list with around 10 cigar clubs before coming and the objective was to visit each of them with some samples I got from cigar factories in Honduras.

So yesterday I visited a club, after so much time looking for it (Beijing is such a huge city), I spoke with the people inside and they told us the manager will be coming on wednesday and will be there around 5pm - 8pm. The idea is to suit up and head there on wednesday with my samples, give the manager some samples to try and obtain his opinion. If he likes them and he thinks they are good quality, then I am on the good path. We shall proceed to discuss prices and many other details and hopefully create a solid contact that I can trust with purchasing a good amount of cigars to import in China. If not, well there are still many clubs to visit left on my list. Finding these clubs is not easy! Specially when I have to walk around to find them.

On other news, I ate snake for the first time yesterday. It tastes really really good! I also been messaging with ILikeKane which has recently posted some great intel on China and we might hang out in a few days, should be fun. Stay tuned guys.

[Vacancier Permanent]

Good stuff amigo! You've chosen a great product IMO!
When you meet those decision makers, make sure to have some business cards made in English and Chinese! And if possible, have a website as well to really look the part! Last but definitely not least, before you meet with the manager, do a consultation call with Nick and Tim from the elevatorlife to really pick their brains as these guys are pros in that.

All the best and keep us updated!

Cheers!

P.S. How's the local talent in BJ? And how about the attitude of the girls there?

[chamele0n]

(04-13-2013 06:48 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  

Alright guys, I arrived here 2 days ago and haven't much time to post. This might be a long post.

I arrived here and as soon as I arrived my friend (she is Chinese, more on her later) was waiting for us (I'm travelling with a friend too), she drove us from the airport to our apartment I managed to get online (check this website out if you are looking for apartments, but its in Chinese mind you.). The apartment looks pretty good, everything is good so far.

The next day, we went to Tian An Men Square with my travelling buddy. Lots of people, unfortunately the local talent there was not so good, as it was in Taiwan. Still, there were a few gems among the crowds. Lots of chinese locals bothering the shit out of us with being tour guides and stuff, if you know chinese then sometimes they back off, but some don't seem to get the hint.

Now here is when it gets interesting. When we were in Tian An Men square, two fat ugly chinese girls approach us and start talking to us, they are a little direct so I have my suspicions, I read a thread here before about some guy (can't remember which thread) who went through this and got scammed. I chat a bit with the girls to practice my mandarin and then we bounced, scam dodged!

Or so we thought...

Later, while walking around Tian An Men West some two chinese guys asked if we were students, the didn't approach us, they did so while we were walking, like a simple conversation starter. I wanted to practice my mandarin so I continued their conversation, I said we weren't students. All four of us kept walking but still talking, it felt natural and somehow the conversation changed to business, and then my business ideas. Wrong move I guess.

We kept talking and it seemed they seemed to know quite a bit about business in China, or at least they are pretty good liars. We crossed the street to reach the Opera Theater and we talked more there. They seemed cool and I thought they could be good for connections. They suggested we took a cab to "Tea City" (which I later found it it is not named this way, motherfuckers...). They payed for it, once we got out of the cab we kept walking, one of the guys greeted a policeman there, it made me feel more safe. We walked into a tea shop, it was very beautiful place. We sat down and they gave us cigarrettes and we smoked there, some very young girls in the tea shop kept serving rounds of different kinds of teas and we kept talking about business. After a good time of chat, they brought the bill, I almost faitned..., it was crazy, but they "had to pay too". This is when I got the hint...But I didn't know what to do from here, get angry and walk away? Tell them to fuck themselves? I had no idea what these guys could do, my friend knew what was up but we had no clue what to do (he doesn't speak chinese). We payed the bill with credit card, they gave us some more tea to take us with and went out. Funny thing is, they still wanted to take us to massage parlors, the motherfuckers...

After a few minutes, I started feeling very dizzy, I knew it was because of the tea, or whatever that shit was. I got scared, I thought I was drugged, just like a bad trip. It seemed my friend was normal though. The fuckers gave us their "emails" to "Stay in touch" and discuss more business and connections in the future. At this point we still didn't know if we were scammed or not, at least we couldn't accept it, we were in pure old denial...

We took a cab back to the theatre. I couldn't find the meter in the cab so I asked the cab driver in chinese how much does it cost (I'm from latin america), he didn't speak to me at all. Thats when we really got scared, because the scammers got us this cab. I was starting to feel worse, dizzy, I wanted to puke, but I couldnt' puke on the bastard's cab, as much as I wanted to.

We reached back to the theater, we just collapsed on the park. I didn't even want to speak, I needed to wait for this thing to get over, while trying to accept how fucking dumb we were. Finally this weird feeling faded. We glanced each other and we didn't know if she should laugh, cry, or just scream. We decided to get out of there so we headed back to the subway. I wanted to leave those tea they gave us so bad, but somehow I couldn't, for that much money we payed, I just couldn't. Still, I felt like Beijing's biggest retard while carrying that bag, I looked at people and I felt like they knew we just got scammed like morons just by looking at that bag, it was like a mark of shame on my forehead.

I gave my chinese friend a call, we decided to meet up. I told her what happened, I could finally snap from my denial, just what I needed. We hanged out in many places, she took us to see many cool places and overall we just had fun. I have been QQing with this girl for more than a year, she is really cute and just my type. She is gf potential in my eyes, it's hard to feel that way about that girls back in Latin America, it feels very nice.

Finally we took the last subway and she took off at her station, me and my friend took at ours later and we had all our trip to think about what just happened today. Everything seemed cool, normal, the word "scam" never crossed my mind, I let my guard down. It was alot of money, but ir hurt my ego more than anything.

lol this is the classic Chinese tea house scam I read about probably 3-4 times online before. Obviously it happens in Tiananmen square, where all the foreigners go first place. I am just curious how much you forked out to them. I would have paid them $5 and told them to f*** themselves for the rest of it. Obviously file a police report there and use a copy of it to dispute the charges with your bank and/or credit card company.