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www.KunshanExpat.com
Kunshan
Connection
Issue 14, October 2012
Your business, social, and community events connection
How to Improve
Kunshan
Six things Kunshan can do for westerners
( continued on page 8 )
Published by
HOW SAFE IS YOUR
APARTMENT OR
OFFICE?
GETTING MARRIED
IN CHINA
WHAT WILL YOU
DO FOR NATIONAL
DAY?
Louie Cheng, founder of Pure
Living, talks about hidden
dangers in your home..p.12
Part 1 of a 3-part series on
marriages and weddings in
Kunshan..p.16
Our first Person on the
Street column..p.22
Connecting Kunshan & the World
FR E E
免费赠阅
Young Talent Program
Canadian
International School, Kunshan, China
A call for the best and the brightest!
Be a Part of the Canadian Experience
Applications are currently being accepted for the Early Years Foundation Program
Opportunities also Exist for Grades K-6
Enrol your child today!
Special
Tuition
Incentives
Apply!
For more information please contact Sherry Cheng at 0512-5778 1328 or [email protected]
Early Years Foundation Program
Pre-school Nursery
Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten
Tel :
+86 512 5778 1328 / 5777 9328
It is a great opportunity to showcase your child’s talents
Fax :
+86 512 5500 6328
and gifts and become a part of a great educational experience!
Email : [email protected]
Gift our school with the special talent of your child.
Add :
1855 West Ma'anshan Road, Kunshan
Jiangsu Province, China, 215300
Letter from the Editor
Editor
Virgil Adams
[email protected]
October 2012
Marketing & Advertising
Anna Wang
[email protected]
What the Kunshan Government Should Be Doing to Help
Foreigners Here
Business News & Events
Ken Lee
[email protected]
Distribution Inquiries
Anna Wang
[email protected]
Contributors
Jenny Wang, Nancy Zhu, Tina Wu,
Yvette Hui
Kunshan Connection is published monthly.
Sign up for an email subscription at
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Copyright 2012 KEWC. All rights reserved.
Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
COMMUNITY
NEWS p.08
BUSINESS
UPDATE p.12
LIVING IN
KUNSHAN p.16
COOKING
ADVENTURES p.23
STARTING A
COMPANY p.24
L a st m o n t h m a r k e d t h e f ir s t a n n iv e r s a r y o f t h e
pu bl i c a t io n o f t h e Ku n s h a n C o n n e c t io n . T h a n k
you t o a ll o f o u r s t a ff a n d a d v e r t is e r s , a n d o f
c ou rse o u r re a d e r s , f o r m a k in g t h is m a g a z in e –
a n d t h e e n t ire Ku n s h a n E x p a t As s o c ia t io n , o r KE A
– poss ib le . T h is m o n t h , w e h a v e a B B Q p a r t y,
ope n t o e v e r y o n e , a t t h e Un ic o r n R e s t a u r a n t o n
O c t 20. Ple a s e s e e t h e n o t ic e o n t h e b a c k c o v e r
for de t a ils .
In t h e y e a r t h e KE A h a s b e e n o p e r a t io n a l, w e ’ v e p ro d u c e d t h e f ir s t a n d o nly Eng lis hl a n gu a g e m a g a z in e c e n t e re d o n Ku n s h a n , c re a t e d a n in t e r a c t iv e web s ite (www.
K u n sh a n E x p a t . c o m ) , m a d e E n g lis h - la n g u a g e t a x i c a rd s f o r t h e c ity, and m ad e
t h e c i t y ’s o n ly E n g lis h - la n g u a g e m a p . We ’ v e h e ld m o n t h ly b u s in e s s m eeting s , a
Ch ri st m a s p a r t y, a n d o t h e r e v e n t s t h a t h e lp f o re ig n e r s m e e t o n e a n o t her and enjo y
t h e m se lv e s in a c a s u a l, w e s t e r n e n v iro n m e n t . We ’ v e d o n e t h is w it h a s m all s taff
of vol u nt e e r s a n d t h e s u p p o r t o f p r iv a t e s p o n s o r s a n d a d v e r t is e r s . I n the co m ing
ye a r, w e e x p e c t t o d o e v e n m o re f o r t h e f o re ig n c o m m u n it y in Ku n s han.
Bu t som e t h in g h a s a lw a y s p u z z le d m e : Wh y is it n e c e s s a r y f o r a n o r g aniz atio n
l i k e ou r s – w it h v e r y lim it e d s t a ff a n d re s o u rc e s – t o p ro d u c e t h e s e t hing s that the
fore i gn c o m m u n it y in Ku n s h a n n e e d s a n d e n jo y s ? Wh y is n ’t t h e g o v e r nm ent – which
h a s pu t s o m u c h e m p h a s is a n d d e v o t e d s o m a n y re s o u rc e s o n b r i ng ing fo reig n
c om pa nie s h e re – d o in g t h is ? Wh y h a s n ’t s o m e b u re a u m a d e a go o d Eng lis hl a n gu a g e m a p o f t h e c it y f o r t r a v e le r s a n d re s id e n t s ? Wh y h a s n ’t a n y g o v er nm ent
a ge n c y s u p p o r t e d t h e c re a t io n a n d g ro w t h o f g ro u p s t h a t h e lp t h e fo reig ner s in
K u n sh a n e n jo y t h e ir liv e s h e re a n d s t a y in Ku n s h a n , r a t h e r t h a n m o v i ng o ut o f the
c i t y t o p la c e s lik e Sh a n g h a i o r Su z h o u , w it h m o re f o re ig n s e r v ic e s ? W ho in the
gove r n m e n t is in c h a r g e o f h e lp in g t h e f o re ig n e r s t h a t t h e y h a v e t r ie d s o hard to
bri n g h e re in t h e f ir s t p la c e ?
It i s a sh a m e t h a t m o s t w e s t e r n e r s in Ku n s h a n e n t e r t h e c it y a t 8 : 0 0 a .m . and leav e
a t 6: 00 p . m . e v e r y M o n d a y t h ro u g h F r id a y. M o s t w e s t e r n e r s e n jo y wo r king here,
bu t don ’t w a n t t o liv e in Ku n s h a n . Wh y ? B e c a u s e t h e c it y d o e s n’t hav e m any
of t h e t h in g s t h a t w e s t e r n e r s n e e d t o liv e – t h e re a re n o p la n n e d co m m unities ,
w i t h n i c e h o u s in g , f o re ig n - f r ie n d ly s h o p s , h e a lt h a n d d e n t a l c lin ic s , inter natio nal
su pe rm a r k e t s a n d o ff ic e s o f p ro f e s s io n a ls o ff e r in g s e r v ic e s t o fo reig ner s in
K u n sh a n . T h e re a re in Su z h o u , a n d t h a t ’s w h e re m o s t o f o u r e x p at p o p ulatio n
l e a ve s f o r a t 6 : 0 0 e v e r y w e e k d a y.
Th e f a i l u re r a t e o f e x p a t a s s ig n m e n t s in C h in a is m u c h h ig h e r t h a n t ho s e o f o ther
l a rge c o u n t r ie s , a n d t h e # 1 re a s o n f o r f a ilu re – in e x p a t a s s ig n m e n t s ev er y where,
bu t e sp e c ia lly in C h in a – is f a m ily s t re s s . Ac c o rd in g t o C h a lre As s ociates , while
t h e e xp a t r ia t e s e n t t o C h in a f in d s a n e x c it in g e n v iro n m e n t t o b e b u sy in, his (it’s
a l m ost a lw a y s a “ h e ” ) s p o u s e is le f t t o f e n d f o r h e r s e lf .
art , photography & design
Feedback or
Comments?
rs, letters
We welcome contributo
Editor:
the
and ideas. Send to
m
t.co
xpa
Virgil@KunshanE
4 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
Th e gov e r n m e n t o f Ku n s h a n h a s b e e n v e r y s u c c e s s f u l in lu r in g f lo w e r s -- wes ter n
bu si n e s s e s - - t o t h e c it y. B u t t h e g o v e r n m e n t h a s n e g le c t e d t h e ro o ts o f thes e
fl ow e rs , t h e s p o u s e s a n d f a m ilie s o f t h e s e f lo w e r s . W it h o u t a t t e n t io n, the flo wer s
w i l l di e b e c a u s e t h e ro o t s w o n ’t s u p p o r t it .
I be l i e v e t h a t it is t im e f o r t h e g o v e r n m e n t t o s h if t it s f o c u s f ro m l ur ing fo reig n
bu si n e s s e s t o c re a t in g a n e n v iro n m e n t a n d in f r a s t r u c t u re t h a t sup p o r ts the
fa m i l i e s o f t h e f o re ig n m a n a g e r s t h e s e b u s in e s s e s a re r u n b y.
We w ou ld h a v e a m u c h m o re d y n a m ic a n d s u c c e s s f u l c it y if w e c o uld keep the
fore i gn e r s h e re , a n d a t t r a c t o t h e r s o n w e e k e n d s a n d h o lid a y s , if we had g o o d
se rvi c e s a n d b u s in e s s e s t o s u p p o r t t h e m . Pr iv a t e o r g a n iz a t io n s a re c ar r y ing m o re
t h a n t he ir f a ir s h a re o f t h e lo a d h e re ; t h e y a re d r iv in g t h e g ro w t h o f this city. But
t h e y n e e d h e lp .
I t i s grea t t o have a ne w i n t e r n a t i on a l sc h ool i n K u n s h a n ( t h e
C anad i an Int er nat ional S c h ool i n K u n sh a n , or CIS K ) . B u t t h e
gover n ment should g et be h i n d t h e sc h ool – i t sh ou l d b e m o re
vested i n t he Schoo l’s s u c c e ss; i t sh ou l d off e r sc h ol a r s h ip s t o
s tud ents and t heir famil i e s. It sh ou l d de ve l op a c i t y p la n t h a t
l ead s to a clust er o f fo re i gn bu si n e sse s, so t h a t w e st e r n e r s c a n
l i ve, s h o p, eat and ent e rt a i n on e a re a , w i t h ou t t h e n e e d o f a
car. It s hould giv e financ i a l i n c e n t i ve s – t i e d t o spe c i fi c s u c c e s s
metri cs , o f co urse – t o h ospi t a l s l i k e t h e J e n Ch i n g M e m o r ia l
H osp i tal , because weste r n e rs w on ’t l i ve h e re i f t h e re a re n ’t
good s cho ols and g oo d h e a l t h c a re . A n d w h i l e t h e go v e r n m e n t
p rovi d es a lot of servic e s t o t h e w e st e r n bu si n e sse s t h a t a re
i n K u n shan, why can’t t h e y h e l p a t t ra c t a n E n gl i sh - s p e a k in g
d en ti s t o r west er n doc t or? W h y c a n ’t t h e y i ssu e m o re t a x i
l i censes so t hat fo reigne rs c a n go f rom on e f ore i gn -f rie n d ly b a r
or restaurant like t he Oa si s t o a n ot h e r, l i k e t h e U n i c o r n ? Wh y
d oes n ’t the go ver nment h a ve a t a sk forc e t o h e l p f ore ig n e r s , t o
s u p p ort foreign or ganiz a t i on s a n d t o i n vol ve u s i n i s s u e s lik e
ci ty p l an ning ?
I n the p a st year, I’ve ha d doze n s of m e e t i n gs w i t h go v e r n m e n t
agen ci es t hat say t hey wa n t t o m a k e t h e c i t y a be t t e r p la c e f o r
f orei gner s, but ult imat el y don ’t f ol l ow u p t h e i r t a l k w i th a c t io n .
We n eed t o see some ac t i on on t h e pa rt of t h e gove r n m e n t h e re ,
or w e ri sk losing much of t h e m om e n t u m i n a t t ra c t i n g w e s t e r n
comp ani es here and k e e pi n g t h e m a n d t h e i r pe ople h a p p y.
K u n sh an needs t o go from be i n g a h om e of w e st e r n c o m p a n ie s
to a b ei ng a home t o we st e r n e rs i n ge n e ra l .
R ecen tl y, it seems t hat t h e gove r n m e n t i s be i n g m ore p ro a c t iv e
i n ex ami ning t he idea o f m a k i n g ou r c i t y m ore fore i gn f r ie n d ly.
I ’ve even been cont act e d by t op gove r n m e n t off i c i a l s a n d a s k e d
to s u b mit ideas for makin g K u n sh a n a be t t e r c i t y for f o re ig n e r s .
I d eci d ed t o make my proposa l t o t h e gove r n m e n t o p e n t o
everyone, by t ur ning it in t o t h i s m on t h ’s c ove r st ory.
K u n sh an has come a lo n g w a y i n t h e 15 ye a rs t h a t I ’ v e b e e n
vi si ti ng it and t he 12 ye a rs I’ ve be e n i n ve st i n g i n i t . I h o p e
w e move fo rward wit h a c oh e re n t a n d produ c t i ve pu bl ic - p r iv a t e
p artn ers hip t o no t just a t t ra c t w e st e r n bu si n e sse s, bu t t o k e e p
th e b usi nesses and busi n e sspe opl e h e re . We a t t h e KEA w ill
d o ou r par t , and impor t a n t n e w e n t e rpri se s l i k e t h e C I SK a n d
th e K u n shan Green Towe r w i l l h e l p t h e c i t y e vol ve i n t o a m o re
f orei gn-friendly place.
Bu t u n t i l t h e gove r n m e n t s h if t s it s
p ri ori ti es and reaches o u t t o w e st e r n e rs ( a n d t h e i r f a m ilie s ! ) a n d
w ester n o rganiz at ions he re , m ost e xpa t s a n d t h e i r fa m ilie s w ill
vi ew K u nshan as just a pl a c e t o w ork , n ot a pl a c e t o l iv e .
I n th i s and coming issue s, I w i l l off e r spe c i fi c i de a s fo r m a k in g
th e ci ty a bet t er place for fore i gn e rs t o l i ve i n , a n d sp e a k w it h
other foreig ners t o g et t h e i r opi n i on s. I w e l c om e you r in p u t –
p l ease email y our ideas t o m e a t V i rgi l @K u n sh a n E xpa t . c o m
Cheers!
Virgil Adams
Editor, the Kunshan Connection
[email protected]
SUZHOU SANYE
Company Introduction:
Suzhou Sanye Garden Engineering Co., Ltd. (shortly referred to as Suzhou Sanye) is involved in garden
scene design, city planning projects, greening
construction, scene maintenance and management,
and rockwork making and selling. The company has
a strong technical background and a large seedling
nursery base with a growth area of 700,000 m2.
The company sticks to the principles of honest,
cooperation and double-win, focuses most on
customers and service, and exerts all its efforts to
provide high-quality, high-efficiency and low-cost
solution for the customers. We will provide real and
practical services through our specialty and concentration, so as to create a clean, green, beautiful
working and life environment for more and more
people.
Contact Information: 0512-57683928 13584961475
Company Address: No. 5 Zhuhai Rd., Kunshan Suzhou
Company Website:
http://www.szsany.net/
6 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
October 2012 ISSUE 14
Useful Phone Numbers
& Information
EMERGENCY
& USEFUL
HOTELS
Fairmont
Yangcheng Lake:
Swissotel: Kunshan Hotel: Ramada Hotel: Pullman Hotel: Courtyard Hotel: OTHERS
Note: If you call the Police or Ambulance numbers below
you will be connected to someone that speaks English.
0512-5780-0888
0512-5788-5788
0512-5788-8000
0512-5518-9971
0512-5716-9966
0512-5072-8888
Train Station: Bus Station: 0512-5736-9105
0512-5738-6789
Kunshan Traffic Police & 0512-5035-0627
RESTAURANTS
& BARS
Lecker’s Restaurant:0512-5739-6616
Oasis: Unicorn: 0512-5732-2440
(Banking services):
120
Police: 110Ambulance:
Fire Department: 119
Jeng Ching Hospital: 0512-5715-9999
Asia Dental Center: 0512-5708-6190
9688-9699
Taxi: Vehicle Administrative Offices
153-5883-9516
China Construction Bank
SHOPPING
HOURS of OPERATIONS
95533
Boya Language Center
(Chinese Lessons):
158-6236-1966
Kunshan East-West Properties (Housing):
Auchan:8:00-22:00
Carrefour:8:00-22:00
Metro:6:00-21:00
RT Mart:
8:00-22:00
Tesco:7:30-22:00
Wal-Mart:7:30-22:00
189-6269-4137 Ariel
Kunshan10 Design Solutions
(art, photography & design):
137-7312-7247
Sino-Soar
(Business, tax and financial services):
0512-5777-7088
Where to Find the Kunshan Connection
If your business or organization has an event you would like us to publicize, send details to
•
Fairmont Yangcheng Lake Hotel
•
Swissotel
•
Courtyard Hotel
•
Pullman Hotel
•
The Kunshan International School
•
La Taverna Restaurant
•
Unicorn Restaurant
•
Oasis Bar & Grill
•
Friday’s Pub
•
ToMuHu Photography
•
KSND, KETD
•
China Construction Bank
•
Sino-Soar
•
And many other foreign-friendly establishments
And, of course, online at www.KunshanExpat.com
C O M M U N I T Y N EWS
How to Make Kunshan
a Better Place for
Foreigners
by Virgil Adams
I
n recent weeks, the government seems to have
been invigorated with the idea of examining
how our city can be a better community for
westerners. As I wrote in this month’s Letter
from the Editor, I’ve been getting contacted by
government officials asking for input on increasing
Kunshan’s appeal to foreigners. In September,
Vataple Corporation, the company behind the
Kunshan Green Tower, held an event in which over
100 foreigners were invited to give their opinions –
through a survey – on the same topic.
I’ve been trying to make the case for more
support of the western community here for years,
even before I moved to Kunshan. At first, it just
made economic sense: westerners have and
spend more money than their local counterparts;
if we could get those people to stay here, to shop,
school and start families and companies here, the
city would get a lot more in tax revenue than it
would cost to build the infrastructure necessary
to keep them here (that’s a long-winded way of
saying there would be a good return on investment
for the Kunshan government to invest in what is
necessary to keep high-level foreigners in the city).
Later, after moving to Kunshan, becoming an
advocate for the western community became
more than just a matter of what seemed economic
and logical, it also became necessary to my own
quality of life and that of my family’s: Kunshan
doesn’t have many of the things necessary for a
westerner to live a comfortable life. That’s why
most of us live in Shanghai or Suzhou instead.
That’s why most of the brainpower of the city
– the best executives and engineers today
and, tomorrow, the brightest researchers and
professors of Duke-Kunshan University and the
most promising minds at the companies in the
Kunshan Green Tower or other business park –
won’t stay here long. They might start out here,
8 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
but it won’t be long before they move to one of
our neighboring cities, taking all their talent and
potential with them.
Kunshan needs to keep people like that here
if we’re going to go from being a town that
assembles other people’s technology to one
that creates our own.
Rather than spend my time putting together
a presentation to the government about how
to make this city a better one for westerners,
I decided to put my ideas on paper here. I’m
having this article translated and submitting
it to the officials that have asked me for a
proposal. What you’re seeing here is what I
am presenting to them.
In simple terms, there are probably only four
things that Kunshan needs to attract and keep
westerners: a good international school, a good
international hospital, an entertainment and
shopping district (with “real” international shops,
not Chinese shops selling cheap foreign knock off
products), and a foreign housing area (with true
western housing – not cheap renditions that look
western from the outside but are held together by
glue and spit). We have the seedlings of some
of these things, but we need central direction,
standards and incentives to see these grow and
blossom.
Here are six detailed recommendations that I
believe the government should follow to make the
city a better place for foreigners.
1.
Create a planned foreign
community
Kunshan needs the equivalent of an SIP: a tranquil
place with a cluster of western and foreign-friendly
businesses,
within walking
or biking distance
of one another.
The community would need to include
at least the following: housing that is up to
western standards (there is a severe shortage
of this in Kunshan, though low-level housing
is abundant), health clinics, schools and preschools, an international supermarket, coffee
shops, bookstores, restaurants and bars. There
should be a park and wide streets that are safe to
walk on (more on that later).
We need a real international school. The KSIS
October 2012 ISSUE 14
is really just a Taiwanese school that most
westerners are shocked by. The new CISK is
a great facility, but it needs a lot of investor or
government support if it is to survive and thrive.
KTV clubs that few foreigners would ever want to
live around.
But there’s a chicken-and-egg problem:
foreigners don’t want to live in an area without
international schools, hospitals, entertainment and
shopping nearby, but none of those businesses or
organizations are going to locate in a place where
there aren’t a lot of foreigners already.
We need a good international hospital, or at least
a western-style clinic. The Jen Ching Hospital is
the closest thing we have to a real international
hospital, but they don’t do direct insurance billing
and don’t have western doctors. The city needs
high-quality foreign clinics with English-speaking
doctors.
Community planning in a new western
district should be equitable and
transparent, with input
from foreigners, not
simply the result
of
Chinese
top-down
decision
The development and community should have a
Board, and the Board should be heavily
represented by foreigners. The Board would have
to approve changes to designs, tenants, property
transactions, and other issues. Things would be
transparent and fair – you don’t get a great
location for your non-foreign business because
you know someone high up or you take the right
people out to banquets.
I’m not suggesting we recreate the SIP here,
but we could have a block of land planned and
designed for foreigners. This area would become
a showcase for the Kunshan government;
something they could show off to other cities. I
suggest it be located somewhere in western
Kunshan, where there’s ample land, good roads
without terrible traffic, close enough to Suzhou
to lure some residents that live there back to our
city, and where key institutions like the Canadian
International School are and the Duke-Kunshan
University will soon be.
making.
And
the
development
should be nonprofit: there are plenty
of developers that would be
interested in building something
that looks good on paper if the government
gave their usual promo package of free land,
tax breaks and other things. But developers
aren’t interested in building communities; they’re
interested in making money. They would skimp on
materials (costs), try to maximize rentable space
(at the expense of wider streets and common
areas), and would sell property to people that
have no interest in anything but leasing their
places out for as much as possible, which would
result in a hodge-podge of local businesses and
the “Kunshan Western District” proposed above,
an English-speaking dentist, a health clinic,
international market, shops and places to eat.
The problem is that it could be years before
any area of Kunshan gets the “critical mass” of
foreigners necessary to support the businesses
that foreigners need there. To be successful in
building a real foreign community, you can’t wait
until there’s a population of foreigners in an area to
build the businesses that support them, you have
to take a “build it and they will come” mentality.
But no businessperson in their right mind is going
to open a restaurant or store in a new district
where there’s not enough of a foreign population
to allow him or her to pay rent. The solution? Pay
the rent for them. The government should provide
incentives – including cold hard cash – to incubate
new lifestyle businesses that are necessary to
build and support a foreign community. If you
offer to provide free rent for three years and free
employee training for, say, a successful foreign
restaurant in Suzhou to establish in the new
Kunshan Western District, then you have a good
chance of getting the district filled quickly with
high-quality businesses. Make no mistake: Any
foreign business locating in western Kunshan –
again, the best place for the new foreign district
– will lose a lot of money for the first three years or
so; but the city needs those businesses in order
to attract foreigners, so the city should bankroll
them.
3.
2.
Incentivize foreign “lifestyle”
businesses and organizations
We already have a lot of foreign manufacturers
here. Now it’s time to incentivize the businesses
that support the lifestyles of the important
foreigners that run those companies. We need, in
Get the police to crack down
on violations
Not long ago, Rudolph Giuliani, then the mayor of
New York City, presided over a massive decline in
crime in Manhattan. Almost overnight, he turned
the city from a high-crime one to a very safe
metropolis. How did he do it? He told the police
to crack down on small offenders. Don’t just focus
on the “big crimes”, he said, take a zero-tolerance
approach to small violations: crack down on jay
walkers, speeders, and people committing petty
crimes.
The police started ticketing massively: if you
parked illegally, you got a ticket. If you did an
illegal U-turn, the police wouldn’t look the other
way. If you rode your scooter on the sidewalk,
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 9
C O M M U N I T Y N EWS
your scooter would be confiscated. (Do you see
where this is going? I sure wish Rudolph Giuliani
spoke Chinese and could move to Kunshan for a
few years.
When people started realizing that they couldn’t
get away with even small infractions, they stopped
thinking they could get away with more serious
ones. New York became a safe city, tourism
skyrocketed, property values increased, and new
businesses located there.
Now, I’m not saying that Kunshan is a high-crime
city, and I’m not suggesting that the police start
chasing after every person breaking a traffic law
here – there aren’t enough police in China to
do that. But couldn’t there be one district, one
small piece of land, where pedestrians could
walk around without fear of being hit by an e-bike
illegally being driven down the sidewalk? Or
where we timid foreign drivers could be spared
the anxiety of taking our lives into our hands when
we’re behind the wheel because every other
driver on the road here seems to think they can
make up the rules of the road as they drive? Or
where we don’t have to swerve into oncoming
traffic because some e-bike-driven cart going six
kilometers an hour ignores the bike lane that’s
been made for them?
Kunshan is a very safe place in terms of “big
crimes” – it’s unlikely you’re going to be murdered
or kidnapped here. But it is terrible for “smaller
crimes”. The average person here has his or her
rights – whether it’s the right to drive on a road
with other law-abiding drivers, the right to ride a
bicycle in the bike lane without dodging cars, or
the right to not be pushed aside by people that
don’t respect lines at the train station or grocery
store – violated nearly every day. This is in large
part because there are so many immigrant workers
and ex-farmers here that really don’t know any
better. While teaching manners and common
decency can be a long and subtle process, at
the very least we should be able to expect our
police force to stop turning a blind eye to the law
breaking, no matter how minor. A sense in the
city that you can’t get away with small infractions
will spread and, eventually, lead to a more orderly,
safe and also well-mannered community.
So then the issue becomes getting the police to be
more vigilant (a cynic might say “to stop napping
on the job”). One method I’d propose: Tell the
police in the New Western District that their jobs
are dependent on evaluations given by the people
that live in and frequent the community, and give
them quotas for tickets – the more tickets you
give, the better your salary. Or don’t. The point is
to find some way to get the police to do their job
– send a message to the foreigners in this city that
it is safe, that laws must be obeyed, and that you
and your kids can walk around your neighborhood
without risking life and limb.
4.
Create a Public-Private
Training Center
One of the biggest challenges businesses –
especially foreign ones – have here is finding and
retaining local talent. One of the biggest complaints
of many people here – again, especially those of
us not from China – is the lack of understanding
that the immigrant worker population has about
laws, rules, safety and basic manners.
Kunshan’s government should address these
problems in a bold and progressive manner.
My suggestion: create a “training center” for
immigrants and locals. The Center would be a
public-private venture, funded by the government,
but also from taxes levied on the companies
here that benefit from the Center’s graduates,
who would be more productive employees and
would probably be more loyal to the companies
that employ them (since the Center would explain
things like career planning and the importance of
not “job hopping” every six months).
The government – in conjunction with business
leaders and the foreign community – would create
a curriculum for the Center. Graduates would
be sought after by companies all over China –
it’s possible the Kunshan Training Center could
become a model for the entire country. Local
businesses would have a centralized location
to go to for new employees. Employees leaving
one company could come back to the Center for
training in a new and different skill.
The Center would offer basic “orientation”
programs – such as driving regulations and
manners – that all students would have to take,
10 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
and then “job tracks” such as hospitality, food
service, manufacturing, child care and other areas
for specialized training.
You could even go so far as require that all
employees and immigrants have certification from
the Center. “Forcing” our local population to go
to school to learn that spitting on the floor isn’t
considered civilized behavior, or that they should
look both ways before walking across a busy
highway might be difficult, but think of the longterm benefits to our city and the employers and
populace here.
5.
Seed some Venture Capital
funds
Many major cities in China seed venture capital,
or VC, funds. These funds receive money from
the municipal government and invest that money
into businesses that are expanding in or locating
to the city.
The Kunshan government should work with some
VC firms (and I’m happy to help them with that – I
proposed the idea years ago to the government
here) to seed the businesses and business ideas
that could turn into the major economic drivers of
the future.
There will be brilliant engineers, doctors, and
programmers attending Duke-Kunshan University
or graduating from the CISK years from now that
want to start their own companies. Some of these
companies could become the Apples, Googles,
and Microsofts of the future. But they won’t be
located here, because the founders are more
likely to live in Suzhou, where they can access VC
funding.
Let’s get a Kunshan-focused, Kunshan-backed
VC fund to promote the businesses of tomorrow,
to lure the Taiwanese or Koreans and incentivize
the local Chinese that are smart, hard-working
and have great business ideas – but just need
some start-up capital – to stop looking beyond
our city. Palo Alto did it in California, and Kunshan
can do it in China.
6.
Create better transportation
infrastructure
I had a lot of ideas for “Recommendation Number
6”, but this is one that’s obvious and easy to fix.
Kunshan has been a major beneficiary of new
transportation infrastructure – the high-speed
train makes Shanghai easily accessible, and the
upcoming extension of the Shanghai metro to our
October 2012 ISSUE 14
city will make us even more a part of our large
neighbor.
But while the Chinese can build bullet trains in
record time, they can’t seem to figure out how to
get more taxis on the roads here.
The problem is that the number of taxi licenses is
tied to the registered populace of a city. Kunshan’s
registered population is only about 700,000. But
our real population is three times that, when one
counts all the immigrant workers that live here.
So the reality is that we have 1/3 the number of
taxis per capita that we should. And when one
considers the fact that very few of the immigrants
here drive, there’s an even more disproportionate
number of people trying to flag down the rare taxi.
So, it’s too dangerous for a foreigner to do the
two-wheel commute to work, there’s no English
information on the buses or bus routes, and most
of us aren’t here long enough to justify the effort
and expense of buying a car and getting a license.
So what’s a foreigner trying to get from home to
work or from a restaurant to a business meeting
across town to do? If you’ve ever tried to find a
taxi on a rainy day in Kunshan, or found yourself
at the Fairmont waiting for a taxi to go downtown,
you’ll know how inadequate the city’s “small
mass” transportation infrastructure is.
What to do? I’m sure that if the right higher-up
decreed that there be a solution to this problem,
then one would materialize almost instantly. The
Chinese are very industrious, and can find a
solution to almost any problem if compelled to.
We just need someone in power to make it a
priority.
A Few Random Notes:
I’ve seen Vataple’s vision, and it’s very nice on
paper. The plans are for luxurious houses built on
Yangcheng Lake. Who wouldn’t want to live on
the water, in a high-quality large house with lots
of glass looking out on the view of Suzhou? I’m
sure most people would love to (if there were good
transportation, entertainment, and the other things
recommended above). But the real question is
this: “Who wants to pay the rent for a place like
that?” Or, rather, how many westerners can afford
to live in an ultra-luxurious foreign compound?
We haven’t seen the numbers yet, but I caution
people not to think that we are a “mini-Shanghai”
– we aren’t. Thinking there is enough of a “rich
person’s” market to support luxury anything is a
failed approach in Kunshan. For developers, start
backwards: Don’t build something and then price
it out; start with what kind of price you can expect
What’s Promised
What’s Delivered
to get – and that price would be perhaps half, in
the best case, but more likely 1/3 or ¼, of what a
similar place would get in Suzhou and then see if
developer that has the contacts in the government
that allow them to get away with anything they
want in order to sell property.
you could build a development that would attract
westerners for those types of selling prices.
Conclusion:
Finally, there is the “Chinese credibility” issue: The
Chinese are great at putting forth drawings of
places that look magnificent, but end up being just
plain cruddy. You might see beautiful swimming
pools that, after being built, are never filled with
water, or large community club spaces that the
developers promise will house nice exercise
facilities, meeting areas and other conveniences,
but that are in fact used as “management housing”
by the developer’s brother-in-law after its being
built. And haven’t we all seen what happens
when the Chinese move into the nice communities
that have been built in Kunshan already? They
start adding carports, decks, patios, glassed-off
laundry rooms and other additions that aren’t
approved by anyone, that aren’t consistent with
the design of the community, and that in many
cases are simply garish and gross. None of the
nice housing community drawings I’ve ever seen
show house after house with laundry hanging out
the windows to dry, or nice backyards concreted
over to make way for even more laundry to be
hung up.
Chinese developers and planners have a habit
of over promising and under delivering, selling
people on idyllic designs and then delivering substandard finished products. My advice would be
to do the opposite: don’t elevate expectations,
and make sure to deliver something with nice
surprises and with an eye to detail. Make sure
that promises made about community areas and
amenities are kept; the best way to do that for the
government to recognize the importance of the
community and make sure that the developers
enforce their vision, rather than by supporting the
No one elected me – I guess in this country
it would be better to say appointed me – the
representative of the western community here,
and I’ve only lived in Kunshan for two years. But
I’ve been in this city as a single person, a married
one, a father, an employee, an investor and an
entrepreneur. I’ve been coming to Kunshan for
15 years, and been investing here for 12. I’ve
seen, from many different perspectives, the good
and bad of the city, and I’ve spoken with a lot of
foreigners about the things that Kunshan could
and should do to make the city a better place for
foreigners to live in.
There are many great things about Kunshan, but
the city is at a turning point. We’ve just gotten
our first real international school and are about to
open the China branch of a prestigious American
university. We have a great opportunity to leverage
these assets and the others that Kunshan offers
and transition from being a workplace to being
a community -- a home -- for westerners. With
a little planning and cooperation between the
government and the foreigners here, we could
carve out a portion of the city that would blossom
into a showcase for Kunshan. With a little help
from the government, we could find and fund the
start ups that will grow into the major industries
of the future. Lou Reed once sang, “between
thought and expression there lies a lifetime.” I
hope that the government can be as bold in
building this foundation of the future as they have
been in bringing so many foreigners here in the
first place; that they can take the leap between
idea and expression during our lifetimes.
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 11
BU SIN E S S U P D ATE
Testing our Air
and Water for
Safety, Part 1
Louie Cheng, Founder of
PureLiving China
12 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
by Virgil Adams
B
efore moving to China my biggest
concern was the poor quality of
the air here. We moved here with
three kids, aged one, four, and six
at the time, and I was worried that
the air might harm their development or lead to
asthma. I researched the subject, spoke with
medical professionals, and discussed the matter
with foreigners I knew that had lived in China
before. I felt comfortable enough to relocate to
China, but I still harbor lingering concerns about
the safety of the air we breathe and the water
we drink.
Enter Louie Cheng, the founder of PureLiving,
a Shanghai-based company that specializes in
indoor environmental health. I spoke with Louie
one afternoon in the office he shares with an
environmental design and architecture firm near
Xujiahui Station in downtown Shanghai.
KEA: Louie, can you tell me
about yourself?
Louie:
I’m originally from California. I went
October 2012 ISSUE 14
services – he’s an American, and was living
in a nice apartment complex when he noticed
that one of his daughters started having some
health problems. She was coughing a lot, was
having allergic reactions to something, and had
headaches. He knew this wasn’t normal, and
eventually found mold in her room.
to Harvard undergrad, and spent six years in
the Army as a tank officer. I then went back to
school for my MBA at Dartmouth and became a
consultant with Thompson Scientific after that.
Around the beginning of 2010, I decided I would
take the experience I had in the Army (one of
my roles was heading up a chemical warfare
defense unit) and with scientific companies I had
worked with and merge them with my consulting
background to fill a need in the market – getting
clean air and water. I share the background of
most of our clients – I came to China from a
western country, and had the concerns that they
have about the environment here.
KEA: How would you describe
what PureLiving does?
Louie:
PureLiving at its core is an indoorenvironment quality testing and quality
consulting company. We help clients, residential
or corporate, check the quality of their
surroundings. If there are any problems, we
identify them, find out how serious they are, and
fix them.
KEA: What do you mean when
you say “indoor environment”?
What does that include?
Louie: We focus on air, water, and the
presence of lead and mold.
We’ve been
expanding into other areas, though, such as
asbestos removal projects.
KEA: How did you get into this
line of work?
Louie: Our co-founder went through an
experience that highlighted the need for our
He spoke with the apartment building’s
management company, but they denied there
was any problem. They scrubbed the wall and
painted over it. As a homeowner in the U.S., he
knew this wasn’t the correct way to deal with
the problem, but he didn’t know anyone that
could test the air and provide a real solution. He
eventually did find a company, but they just came
in, took some measurements, and left. They
didn’t consult with him to get an understanding
of his concerns; a while later, he got a report
with a bunch of Chinese and numbers that didn’t
mean anything to him.
Even after he got that report translated,
though, it wasn’t meaningful – it used Chinese
standards, rather than international ones; it had
no context; it didn’t provide solutions. So, he did
some sleuthing on the internet and discovered
that Chinese testing companies can’t help fix
problems – by law, they’re not allowed to.
Well, he and I were classmates at Tuck
(Dartmouth’s Business School). We were in
China at the same time, and we got together and
spoke about the problem he was having. I was
looking for something new to do and had the
right background to help him and other people
with these types of problems, so we decided to
start a company together. We actually drafted
the business idea together during a guys’ golf
trip!
KEA: What was the process from
that point?
Louie:
We started by doing a lot of market
research. We went to look at what was being
offered to the market and found that there were
a lot of testing companies, but no one that had
the cultural understanding of expats or blended
the soft skills with the science.
We made investments in equipment, and
launched with a booth at the Wellness Works
Fair. We got our first customer in September.
There was a learning period in which we were
working mainly with friends and family; we were
doing about one testing a week then, and now
we’re at about 10 a week. We’d finished around
150 projects in Shanghai by the end of 2011.
KEA: What have been
the biggest surprises and
disappointments you’ve had with
your business thus far?
Louie: One of the biggest surprises is that
certification doesn’t mean a lot in this industry.
We have a lot of companies that are uncertified
giving advice to people, and there are a lot that
have certification but that just sell their results
to clients – they tell the client, which is usually a
property management company, what they want
to hear for a fee.
We learned very quickly that we only want to
work with property occupants themselves, not
intermediaries like landlords that might have a
conflict of interest and might want us to put out
certain kinds of results.
In terms of challenges, we’ve had to learn how
to work with Chinese laborers around big holiday
periods. Having good staff and employees is
critical, and around Chinese New Year’s we
found ourselves trying to get projects done
before the holidays, but saw that suddenly our
construction workers’ productivity fell off a cliff
for no apparent reason. We just hadn’t been
aware of how important getting back to their
home provinces was, and that having to stay
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 13
BU SIN E S S U P D ATE
of particle board on air quality, and so on.
It’s half detective work and half sampling. A
week or so later, we get the test results back
from the lab. Then we provide an interpretive
report that is essentially an environmental
report card for your home. It’s like a doctor
doing a health check – we can show what
problems there are, what might be the cause of
the problem, and interpret the results by peer
group and international standards. The most
important part is us telling you options for fixing
the problems.
KEA: What’s a typical case look
like?
and work in Shanghai was a big demotivator.
We addressed that by telling them that the
sooner they finished their work, the sooner they
could start their holidays, and the difference in
productivity was night and day.
KEA: What are your customers
like?
Louie: We started with about 95% residential
customers, but now we’re about 50/50
residential and corporate.
Louie: You or your landlord have done a
renovation of your apartment – that’s usually the
#1 cause of bad air, due to the lack of standards
on products used and contractors choosing very
bad materials. You spent a lot of effort having
a green design firm design the place and you’ve
chosen the right materials, but your contractor
has screwed you and substituted the wrong type
of board, with a lot of formaldehyde, to cut his
costs.
In a case like this, we usually provide a few
different solution options: 1) the free option
of ventilating with industrial fans and increasing
humidity to dilute higher levels of toxic gases and
to cause the boards to off-gas faster; 2) treat
the room with an oxidizing spray to cause the
building materials to off-gas faster; or 3) provide
gas-reduction air purifiers that we’ve tested (and
can provide at a discount).
chlorine levels. Most countries have a maximum
level of chlorine allowed in water, but in China
there’s a minimum level, because the source
water is so bad that the priority is on preventing
stomach bugs. So the government has decided
that if high chlorine levels could prevent 100,000
people from having diarrhea, but might lead to
three people developing bladder cancer in 10
years, it’s an acceptable risk.
KEA: What do you think the
biggest problem that people
aren’t aware of is?
Louie: The Chinese are very aware and
afraid of formaldehyde – it’s in a general class
of pollutants known as “weidao”, or “things you
can smell”. But there are things – like radon -that have no scent, and that people in general
aren’t aware of or don’t care about.
I would say that foreigners care more about
things that they can’t see or smell, whereas the
Chinese care about things they can identify with
their senses.
KEA: Are there any other big
differences between the Chinese
and foreigners when it comes to
indoor environmental awareness
and safety?
Louie: For the most part, Chinese just want
KEA: Can you walk me through
you to fix the “smell problem” – they don’t want
the process of getting an indoor
a second testing to make sure the problems
environment test for a residential
are permanently eradicated. We hold a lot of
KEA: What’s the most common
town hall meetings with Chinese to help explain
customer?
things and also to prevent mass hysteria or overproblem people call you about?
reaction to problems. Foreigners are more apt
Louie: A typical client has just moved to
to want a complete, across-the-board clean
Shanghai. They typically have a family or are Louie: In the air, the most common problem
bill of health, and they don’t want to accept
very health conscious, and are already worried
about air and water quality here. They contact
us, and we interview them to find out pertinent
information on the building they’re in, health
sensitivities, what’s in the building, special
concerns, any unusual smells and things like
that.
Based
on
our
interview,
we
create
a
recommended test plan and schedule a test
visit. We have an English-speaking consultant
go there with technicians. The technicians take
samples while the consultant explains what’s
happening and things to be aware of, such as
the location of plants, single-paned windows
(which lead to more condensation), the impact
14 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
is particulate matter. There are fine particulates
like very fine dust, soot and pet dander – things
that are ever-present outside, and that you
bring into your house every time you open your
window. If you’re not filtering these things, it can
lead to shortness of breath.
Another common problem is formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde is in paints, particle board, glues,
carpets and other things in China. It causes
stinging eyes, headaches and dizziness and
was recently reclassified by the US EPA from a
“suspected” to a “known” carcinogen.
For water, the most common problem is high
any readings that come in above international
standards.
In other words, for the Chinese, it’s more “sight
and smell”, whereas for foreigners it’s more
“data and numbers”.
In part two of our interview with Louie Cheng
next month, we’ll look at the consequences
of living or working in a bad-air environment,
the cost of indoor environmental testing,
and easy things you can do to improve the
air quality of your home or office.
October 2012 ISSUE 14
The Kunshan Business
Networking Event 3rd Wednesday of each Month
Kunshan Expat Association In Conjunction with Swissotel Kunshan Presents
How Safe is the Water You’re Drinking and
the Air You’re Breathing?
What can you do to make your home and office safer?
October 17th 6:30-9:30 pm
3rd Floor Swissotel Kunshan
• 6:30 • 7:00 • 8:00 No.387, Qianjin Zhong Road Kunshan
Registration & welcome drinks
Speech and Q&A
Buffet dinner with drinks and networking
Improving Your Personal Environment
by Louie Cheng, Founder, Pure Living
Louie Cheng
a ex-U.S. army officer and
business consultant. A graduate of Harvard University and
Dartmouth’s Tuck School of
Business, Louie has helped
dozens of companies make
their offices Safe and hundreds
of individuals create safe home
environments.
How safe are your living and work environments? What should you look for
when looking at a new house or apartment? What can you do to make the
air in your office safe to breathe? Louie Cheng, the founder of Pure Living will
answer all your questions about the safety of your indoor environment and how
to improve it, and share his experience in taking a company from start-up to a
thriving business.
Upcoming events may be updated; please check www.KunshanExpat.com
Event Description
Each month, the KEA organizes a western-style, casual
business networking event. A guest speaker is invited
to give a short presentation followed by Q&A, drinks,
a luxurious buffet dinner, and time to network with
businesspeople from around the city. All events are in
English, with no Chinese translation provided. Attendance and Register:
Events are open to everyone, but registration is required.
Attendees are limited to 40 people. To register, simply send
an email with your name, occupation and company name to
[email protected] one week before the event. Cost :
200 rmb to anyone that pre-registers. Same-day tickets will
be available at the door for 250 rmb.
For information on being a speaker or sponsor contact: [email protected]
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 15
L IV IN G I N K U NSHAN
Registration Office Information
Kunshan Civil Affairs bureau:
Website: www.hydj.ksmzj.gov.cn (In Chinese)
Ph No.: 0512-5521-6866 / 0512-5521-7866
Address: No.458 West Tong Feng Road.
(The 3rd floor of KS Civil Affairs Bureau Maternal
& Child Care Center.)
同丰西路458号（昆山市妇幼保健所三楼）
Jiangsu Civil Affairs bureau:
Website: www.jsmz.gov.cn/ (In Chinese)
Ph No.: 025-84510099
Address: Room 204, Great Wall building, No.82
North Tai Ping Road, Nanjing.
南京市太平北路82号长城大厦204室
16 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
Getting Married
in China
A Step-by-Step Guide. Part 1:
Getting the Marriage License
by Anna Wang
Over the next three months, we’ll go through the process of getting married
in Kunshan. In Part 1 of this mini-series, we’ll look at the procedures
involved in applying for the marriage license. Next month, we’ll speak with
a wedding event coordinator at the Fairmont Yangcheng Lake. And in the
conclusion of our feature, we’ll speak with a couple planning their wedding
in Kunshan and hear about the joys and difficulties they are going through.
There are three steps to the wedding application process in Kunshan: the
Application, the Qualification Examination, and the Registration. Let’s look
at these in detail here.
October 2012 ISSUE 14
STEP 1: THE APPLICATION
Chinese citizens marriage
Foreigner & Chinese citizen marriage
Place
The Civil Affairs Bureau Maternal & Child Care
Center
Jiangsu Civil Affairs Bureau
Application
Either person must go to the Civil Affairs
Bureau of his/her hometown to apply for the
wedding license.
The couple must apply for the registration at the specified
provincial registration bureau in the hometown of the engaged
Chinese. For people from Jiangsu province, the registration place
is the Jiangsu Civil affairs bureau.
Documents
required
Residence Certification; Resident Identity Card;
Marriage certificate issued by the company or
the neighborhood committee. (If one of the
couple has been divorced before, they should
bring the divorce papers too.)
The couple should go to the specified medical
center to do the Premarital Health Check. After
receiving the results, they should provide them
to the Kunshan Registration Bureau.
The Chinese individual must present the Residence Certification
(Including the information such as the individual’s name, sex,
date of birth, nationality, marital status (i.e. unmarried, divorced,
widowed), career, Job functions, name of the person you are
applying to marry) issued by the government of the city the
individual is a permanent resident of.
The foreigner must present a passport or other proof of identity; a
Foreigner’s Residence Permit issued by the Police, or identification
issued by the foreign affairs bureau, or certification of temporary
stay in China; the marriage certification from the homeland notary
office which is approved by the homeland Foreign Affairs Ministry
or authorized departments and the Chinese Embassy in the
country, or which is issued by the homeland embassy in China.
The couple should also provide health check documents.
STEP 2: THE EXAMINATION
Place
The Civil Affairs Bureau Maternal & Child Care Center
The
Qualification
Examination
The registration center which is part of the Civil Affairs Bureau will administer the examination. They’ll check the
documents and maybe ask some questions. And if necessary, they might ask for some related documents.
STEP 3: THE REGISTRATION
Place
The Civil Affairs Bureau Maternal & Child Care Center
Application is Approved
If the couple is qualified, the Civil Affairs Bureau
should issue the Marriage Certification right
away. The certification of marriage has to have
a photo of the couple and will be stamped by
the Registration Bureau.
The Marriage
Registration
If there are objections raised to the issuing
of the license (from individuals and/or the
companies the couple work for) and these
objections result in the couple not being able
to get the required certificates, the Registration
Bureau will review the Application. After review,
if the Bureau thinks the couple is qualified after
hearing objections, they will issue the Marriage
Certification form.
Application is Rejected
If any of the following situations exist, the Application will be
rejected:
•
Haven’t reached the legal age to marry (for females, 20; for
males, 22)
•
The marriage is involuntary
•
One or both individuals already has a spouse
•
The couple are lineal relatives and collateral blood relatives
within three generations
•
In some cases, if one or both members have diseases
which could affect kids or STDs, particularly if the the other
engaged party doesn’t know about it.
If the couple does not agree with the result of the Application, they can ask for the Application to be reconsidered. If the Application is rejected
after reconsideration, they can request administrative proceedings and review of the Application.
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 17
18 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
Mrs. Wang’s
Chinese Corner
October 2012 ISSUE 14
by Jenny Wang
Here’s some Chinese you can use the next time you visit the deli at Auchan, or any deli in China, for that
matter.
Sentence Structure Practice:
Dialogue:
I’d like _____ grams of those
Wǒ xiǎng yào _____ kè _____.
Dialogue at Deli Counter:
Deli staff: Hi, how can I help you?
What’s inside of that?
Nà gè lǐmian shì shén me?
Nín hǎo, yǒu shén me kě yǐ bāng nǐ de ma?
Sam: Yes, can I have 500 grams of the fried
rice?
A little more/a little less, please
Qǐng duō (yì )diǎn /shǎo (yì) diǎn.
èn, wǒ yào yī jīn chǎo fàn, kě yǐ ma?
Is this spicy?
Zhè gè là ma?
Deli staff: This is a little more than 500 grams.
Is that alright?
Can you heat that up?
Néng jiā rè ma ?
Zhè gè yì jīn duō diǎn, xíng ma?
Please give me some chopsticks with that
Qǐng gěi wǒ jǐ shuāng kuài zi .
Hǎo.
Sam: That’s fine.
Deli staff: Would you like anything else?
Where do I pay for this?
Zài nǎ lǐ jié zhàng?
Nǐ hái yào bié de ma?
Sam: Yes, what’s in that sandwich?
Vocabulary:
Deli
Noodles
Rice
Sandwich
Vegetables
Beef
Pork
Chicken
100 grams
Half a kilogram
50 grams
A little more
A little less
Yào,nà gè sān míng zhì lǐ shì shén me ya?
shú shí diàn
miàn tiáo
mǐ fàn
sān míng zhì
shū cài
niú ròu
zhū ròu
jī ròu
yì bǎi kè
jīn
liǎng
duō (yì ) diǎn
shǎo (yì) diǎn
Deli staff: Minced beef, egg, and lettuce.
熟食店
面条
米饭
三明治
蔬菜
牛肉
猪肉
鸡肉
100 克
斤
两
多（一）点
少（一）点
Suì niú ròu, jī dàn hé shēng cài .
Sam: Is it spicy?
Là ma?
Deli staff: No, it’s mild.
Wēi là.
Sam: Ok, I’ll have one of those also.
Hǎo, wǒ yào yí gè.
Deli staff: Here you go. Would you like me to
heat it up?
Gěi nǐ. nǐyào jiā rè ma?
Sam: Yes, please. Also, I need some
chopsticks.
Jenny Wang is the founder of BOYA
Yào, xiè xiè. Lìng wài, gěi wǒ jǐ shuāng kuài zi .
Chinese School, located at 1888
Deli staff: Here you are.
QianJin West Road, Building #20,
Apt #105. Feel free to contact her
Gěi nǐ.
at [email protected] or call at
Sam: Thank you.
158-6236-1966
Xiè xiè.
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 19
请送我到 苏州工业园区金鸡湖路128号/ 钟慧路108号
苏州宁德/新宁诊所
TEL： 13776352443
Sing Health Medical Clinic
No. 128, Jin Ji Hu Rd, SIP
Show this to your taxi driver:
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 昆山市经济开发区平巷路8-4
请送我到 昆山市苇城路1699号508室
艾美意家家具(昆山)有限公司
昆山加拿大国际学校
TEL： 0512-55271027
TEL： 0512-57781328 / 57779328
Emilca Homes Furniture, Southern Kunshan
No. 8-4 Pingxiang Road, Kunshan
Canadian International School Kunshan, Western Kunshan
508, 1699 Weicheng Rd.S.KSITRI Building, Kunshan
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 昆山市鹿城路251号4楼
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 南京市太平北路82号长城大厦204室
平谦国际(昆山)工业园
江苏省民政局涉外婚姻登记处
TEL： 0512-55235111
TEL：:025-84510099
Plainvim Industrial Park, Western Kunshan
F4, No 251, Lu Cheng Rd.
Jiangsu Civil Affairs Bureau
Room 204, Great Wall building,
No.82 North Tai Ping Road, Nanjing
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 昆山市开发区珠海路5号
苏州三叶园林景观工程有限公司
TEL： 0512-57683928
San Ye Garden Engineering, Eastern Kunshan
No 5, Zhu Hai Rd. KSND
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 昆山市同丰西路829－1号
请送我到 前进中路387号
昆山莱克斯西餐厅
瑞士大酒店
TEL：0512-57396616
TEL：0512-57885788
Lecker’s Restaurant, Downtown area
No. 829-1, West Tongfeng Rd, Kunshan
Swissotel Kunshan, Downtown area
No.387 Qianjin Zhong Road, Kunshan
Show this to your taxi driver:
请送我到 白马泾路46号
欧尚超级市场
TEL： 400-8203698
Auchan, Downtown area
No. 46, Bai Ma Jing Road
TAXI CARD
Show this to your taxi driver:
Each month, we’ll be printing a group of taxi cards for our readers. This month’s cards feature the shopping
locations and hyper-marts from the Kunshan Survival Guide, as well as a few other places that we’ll be writing
about in coming months.
Show this to your taxi driver:
P EO P L E O N T H E STR E E T
Ms. Zhu, 30, assistant vice
president of an IT company
Mr. Li, 24,
salesman
I will go back to my hometown and visit my parents. My
husband and I come from the city of Qingdao, and now
work in Shanghai. As we are busy with our work, we
can only stay with our parents during the Spring Festival
and National Day Holiday. We are lucky that we come from the same place so that we can see
our own parents during both holidays. Some of my colleagues come from different places with
their spouses, so they can only go back to their own hometown once a year. It is great that this
year’s Mid-autumn Day comes together with National Day Holiday, and that means we have
more time to spend with our families.
The Person on the Street:
What is your plan
for the National Day
holiday?
by Nancy Zhu
The upcoming National Day Week is the last public holiday of 2012.
I asked people what their plans for the holiday are. Next month
is Thanksgiving in Canada and the U.S., and we’ll ask people
what they’re most thankful for this year. If you’d like to share your
thoughts, email me at [email protected]. Remember to
include a photo of yourself!
Mr. Sun, 41, manager of an animal
husbandry technology company
As I am always busy with work during the workdays, I will spend
the holidays with my family. All expressways will be free to use for
the national holidays from this year’s National Day Holiday, so it
is convenient for car-owners to take the self-drive tours. We will
take a three-day self-drive tour to the Yuntai Mountain in Henan
Province, and spend another two days in the village where I was born, and visit relatives. Then
I will accompany my parents to take the physical examination, and help my son with his studies
at home.
Zhang Jian, 25, graduate student
The National Day Holiday Week is a relaxing time for everyone.
But I will spend the holiday as I would any other day, for I always
believe that life can be common, but must be meaningful. This
year’s national day will be the last holiday I spend at school. I will
look back and reflect on my school time; I will get together with
old pals to recall the past days and hope for the future; I will read
through The Beauty of Programming to deepen my understanding
on algorithm and prepare for job interviews. These things can be done at any time, but I prefer
to do them during the holiday, so that I can take it easy and get more pleasure.
22 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
The first thing that
comes into my
mind when I think
of holidays is going
home. Since my
family isn’t here
with me, I have little time to spend with them.
I also want to get together with my friends. I
believe most young people would like to meet
their friends during the National Day Holiday, for
it is hard to gather with many friends at other
time. Then I will leave some time for myself to
read books or watch movies.
Ms.
Song, 24,
a middle
school
English
teacher
I have lots of plans for the upcoming holiday.
As I just started to teach in a middle school,
which is totally different from the primary school
I taught at last year, I have to get familiar with
the teaching materials as quickly as possible
and watch some videos of real class teaching.
Besides work, I also plan to hang out with my
friends, have big dinners or go to KTV singing
songs loudly to relax myself.
Ms
Zhang,
35,
housewife
We will have a
family trip. Now
I spend all the time with my 3-year-old son,
so every day is a holiday for me. But for my
husband, the National Day Holiday is a precious
family time. We will go to some places close to
nature. We want our son to see the green trees
and colorful flowers, to listen to the birds singing,
to smell the fresh and sweet air, to touch the soil
and to run with the kitty. Such a trip will improve
the family relationship and will be a learning
opportunity for a child whose knowledge to
nature only comes from story books.
October 2012 ISSUE 14
This Month’s Dish
Lunch at Auchan, Navigating the
Deli Section
by Anna Wang
F
or me, it’s hard to shop at Auchan without getting
on the first floor of the building on my way to the
Chinese minced meat rolls – these are
like crumbly hamburgers.
肉夹馍 (Rou jia muo)
hyper-mart’s main entrance, I know before I walk
Made of flour, meat and lettuce
hungry – walking by the restaurants and bakeries
into Auchan that I’m going to want something to
eat by the time I walk out. Fortunately, the deli section has
a wide array of ready-to-eat foods.
Unfortunately, for the
uninitiated, the array of noodles, rice, dumplings and breads
can be intimidating. But fear no more, here’s our guide to the
delicacies you’re likely to find at the Auchan deli, along with
their ingredients and Chinese names. Bon Appétit!
Chinese sausage sandwiches –
kind of like hot dogs served in a
hamburger bun, with a fried egg
topping.
中式汉堡 (Zhong shi han bao)
Made of flour, egg and sausage
Fried glass noodles – stir fried
noodles that aren’t too heavy.
炒米线 (Chao mi xian)
Egg & ham rolls – a hot dog and egg
wrapped in a pancake.
鸡蛋火腿卷 (Ji dan huo tui juan)
Made of glass noodles, vegetables,
carrot
Made of flour, egg, ham, lettuce
Fried rice – a familiar treat to most
Chinese and foreigners alike.
炒饭 (Chao fan)
Fried noodles – what we in the west
mistakenly call Chow Mein.
炒面 (Chao mian)
Made of rice, egg, carrot, green onion
Made of noodles, green pepper,
carrot, yellow bean sprouts
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 23
S TAR T I NG A CO MPANY
Starting a Business
in China
Part 9: An Introduction to Financial Statements, part 2
Last month, we started looking at the financial
statements that go into a business plan, examining the
first of the “big three”, the Profit & Loss statement. In
this section, we’ll look at the Balance Sheet, a critical
statement for understanding the health of a business.
The Balance Sheet:
The balance sheet, or B/S, shows what you own and what you owe at
the beginning and end of a particular time period. Coffee Catering’s B/S
starts even before their business does: their B/S begins on December
24 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com
by Virgil Adams
2009, and they update the B/S at the end of each month.
It’s easy to understand why a P&L (Profit & Loss statement) has that
name: it shows a company’s profit or loss each month. But how did the
balance sheet get its name?
The balance sheet is called that because there are essentially two parts
of it, what you own (your Assets) and what you owe (your Liabilities). The
two sides always balance out.
For example, let’s look at Coffee Catering’s beginning B/S for December
2009.
October 2012 ISSUE 14
Current Assets:
Cash and cash equivalents
Short-term investments
Accounts receivable
Inventories
Prepaid expenses and other
Total Current Assets
Long-Term Assets:
PP&E, net
Other LT Assets
Total Long-Term Assets
Total Assets
Current Liabilities:
Short-term borrowings
Accounts payable
Accrued taxes
Accrued compensation
Total Current Liabilities
Long-Term Liabilities:
Bank debt
Total LT Liabilities
Total Liabilities
Total Shareholder's Equity
$
$
$
$
Dec-09
1,800.00
360.00
$
2,160.00
$
$
$
$
840.00
840.00
3,000.00
$
$
$
$
$
150.00
150.00
$
$
$
$
2,000.00
2,000.00
2,150.00
850.00
Assets and liabilities are usually divided into two categories: short-term
and long-term. Typically, short-term assets are those that you expect to
use in the next twelve months, while short-term liabilities are those that
are due in the next year. Long-term assets and liabilities are those that
aren’t expected to be used or due in the next twelve months.
Once business starts in January 2010, the B/S changes: inventories
might rise or fall, the company might use some of its profits to pay
off part of the bank debt, and it’s possible that the business will have
some accounts payables or accounts receivables (accounts payables
are liabilities – they’re money you owe to someone, like a supplier, but
haven’t paid yet; accounts receivables are assets – money that you’re
owed by someone).
Figure 1. Coffee Catering’s beginning B/S for December 2009
The company’s assets are Cash, inventories (supplies of food, beverages,
paper plates and cups, etc.), and Property, Plant and Equipment (PP&E,
which could be real estate owned, machinery used to manufacture a
product, or other equipment necessary to the business; in Coffee
Catering’s case, the PP&E are coffee makers and some catering
equipment). The total value of their assets is $3,000.
Coffee Catering has two liabilities when the company is starting up: $150
in “deferred compensation” and a $2,000 loan from the bank.
The deferred compensation is money that the partners “owe themselves”
for work they’ve done for the business. If one of the partners has spent
15 hours working for the company before the business has started –
buying supplies, making plans, marketing to potential customers and
doing other work – and it’s agreed that partners will earn $10/hour for
work done for the company, then Coffee Catering owes $150 to this
partner. Since the company doesn’t want to use its cash to pay partners
before the business gets to profitability, they decide to “defer” this
compensation. Once profits hit $1,000/month, the company will start
paying partners back for the work they’ve done for the company.
If you take the company’s assets of $3,000 and subtract the $2,150 of
liabilities, there’s $850 “left over”. This is known as Shareholder’s Equity
(S/E), or Net Worth. Shareholder’s Equity can be thought of as what the
company owes the owners (it shows up in the same side of the balance
sheet as the liabilities). Assets are shown on the left side of the B/S, and
liabilities and S/E are shown on the right side. You’ll see that the left side
of the B/S always balances with the right side (if it doesn’t, there’s an
error in the B/S).
Each month, Coffee Catering will make updates to its balance sheet. For
their planning purposes, though, they’re going to make 12 months worth
of balance sheet forecasts.
The P&L looks at money coming in and out of the business (the “flow”),
while the balance sheet shows what the company owns and owes at a
particular point in time (the “stock”). Both are important tools in analyzing
a business, or communicating the requirements your business will have
after starting up. For example, these documents can show you how
much money you’ll need to start and run your business, and if you have
the resources to continue operating if business isn’t as good as you
expect.
Next month, we’ll wrap up the discussion of the big
three financial statements with a look at the Cash Flow
statement. With a basic knowledge of these three
financial statements, you can effectively analyze any
type of business, and have a good understanding
of the financial needs of the company you intend to
launch.
See you next month.
Virgil Adams has started companies in three different countries, and
advised on the creation of dozens of others. He invests in startup companies, and has written a book – The Early Entrepreneur
(www.The EarlyEntrepreneur.com) – on the subject. He advises
Kunshan East-West Consulting, a company that helps foreigners
start businesses in Kunshan (www.KunshanEastWest.com)
www.KunshanExpat.com KUNSHAN CONNECTION 25
Simplicity is the
Ultimate Sophistication
Without the glitz and glamour of a
retail showroom we offer nothing else
but a good piece of furniture
emilca furniture - buy direct from factory and save
No. 8-4 Pingxiang Rd (T junction with Huangpujiang Rd)
Kunshan Economic Development Zone, Jiangsu Province
T:051255271027 | C:13915480170 | [email protected]
26 KUNSHAN CONNECTION www.KunshanExpat.com