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Q: I had spent 20k usd in the last 4 months ,I feel so bad, any advice for me?

Im a Peru guy, 24 years old , I used to live happy in my country, importing stuff from china and selling it with the help of my family, but many importers like me were saying that their chinese suppliers were just middle men who are overcharging the prices. so then I got the idea to come to china , learn chinese and deal directly with the factories, making the process more easy for peruvian / latin american customers, at first I thought this was a good idea because I already have people on the goverment and in many business sectors in Peru. from clothes for the police to tractors for the farmers, passing trought chemical insumes for factories , toys,  even tons of paper for the goverment offices, electronics , all kind of stuff for the municipalities all around my country.  

 

I decided to come to china alone, with a  student visa but I had spent a lot due my mistakes. and the chinese language is not so easy to learn. should I go back to my country and continue living happy or should I stay here suffering eating not so good food studying to get the chinese key.  I studied international business, peruvian customs and I was also a seller so the only piece to complete my puzzle is be able to speak chinese. I know I can recover my investment in a month if my puzzle is finally complete.

 

literally there are about 40 persons pushing me to continue my fight, they want a reliable peruvian in china with a peruvian mentality. but Im so tired of eating tasteless food daily, the shitty internet, the ugly golddigger strange women, the weird enviroment, the staring (my country is so mixed that nobody ever stare at others), the overpriced things, etc Im already paying all my sins here in China. the food bros, 

 

anyways here I learned a lot of things and one of them is always listen to older people, so you have any advice for me?

8 years 39 weeks ago in  General  - China

 
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if you really don't like the girls, then China is a hellhole. might as well be in prison - there is an equal amount of disfunctional, untrustworthy people there, monotonous food and little consideration for your safety.

if you want to get the best out of China, have a look at Chengdu(Sichuan). see if the spicy food can't get you excited. the women are considered the latinas of China (it's the legs).

Chinese won't respect your Chinese language skill enough to do business, unless your putonghua is on par with theirs. an average foreigner won't get there easily.

you are here to SAVE MONEY for your exports. you think this is best achieved by cutting out the middle man. you are wrong. China is corrupt to the core. middle men are your only option. make friends with them, have fancy meals in restaurants and later each other's homes. you can do business for decades with chinese, but they will only consider you a close friend and partner if they have seen where you live and approve. this will be tricky as a 24yo single who doesn't like chinese girls. if you really want this, you have little choice but to appear "settled" in China, get a Chinese partner and start building some guanxi. if you have gained "face", you earned some respect with business partners, and they will be willing to consider you a friend.

from the sound of it, you may not be the man for the job. perhaps you can switch with an older peruvian guy who likes Chinese girls, and is willing to get drunk on disgusting baijiu.

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Posts: 691

Shifu

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20K usd? That's 120K RMB...looking at your earlier post about Chinese girls, allow me to do the math. How often do you get digged by those 'gold diggers'? Twice a day? I don't know if a person at 24, having so many 'guanxi' and business can be that dull? Your mistakes teach you more than the elders even. Fix them dude!

gatoloco12:

ha I didnt spent anything on women, just my travels to many chinese cities by airplane in the first month without knowing about the high speed train, also the hotels, and the food I used to eat on nice restaurants , the scams , etc. 

8 years 39 weeks ago
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dongbeiren:

Didn't know about the high speed train? Buddy you must be pulling our collective legs here. 

8 years 39 weeks ago
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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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Would you like to have a Chinese interpreter? I've been a professional gold digger for 50 years, no other women can compete with my gold digging capability. By the way, I also make strong flavored food and sell it extremely expensive for those who don't like shitty Chinese food. I don't have to stare at you as long as you can help me count the money I'm going to dig from you.

 

By the way, since you are on a student visa, I guess you are studying here? So the question is...are you too busy traveling and burning your families' money and failed your studies here?

 

Go home baby go home. Let me know if you have trouble booking a flight home. I will charge you very good Peru price. Wink

gatoloco12:

u mad?

8 years 39 weeks ago
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SpongeBob:

I'm not mad, my mom had me tested.

8 years 38 weeks ago
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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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40 persons pushing you ('cause they're expecting to reap benefits in the future)?

Well, use them for helping you being successful. Share with them every little improvement you make, and get financed. You'll return the money in the future in discounts from the better business you can guarantee them.

Make yourself as the link they need.

 

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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if you really don't like the girls, then China is a hellhole. might as well be in prison - there is an equal amount of disfunctional, untrustworthy people there, monotonous food and little consideration for your safety.

if you want to get the best out of China, have a look at Chengdu(Sichuan). see if the spicy food can't get you excited. the women are considered the latinas of China (it's the legs).

Chinese won't respect your Chinese language skill enough to do business, unless your putonghua is on par with theirs. an average foreigner won't get there easily.

you are here to SAVE MONEY for your exports. you think this is best achieved by cutting out the middle man. you are wrong. China is corrupt to the core. middle men are your only option. make friends with them, have fancy meals in restaurants and later each other's homes. you can do business for decades with chinese, but they will only consider you a close friend and partner if they have seen where you live and approve. this will be tricky as a 24yo single who doesn't like chinese girls. if you really want this, you have little choice but to appear "settled" in China, get a Chinese partner and start building some guanxi. if you have gained "face", you earned some respect with business partners, and they will be willing to consider you a friend.

from the sound of it, you may not be the man for the job. perhaps you can switch with an older peruvian guy who likes Chinese girls, and is willing to get drunk on disgusting baijiu.

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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Spend the time looking for somebody you can trust and do business with, then go home. You're unlikely to like China better years from now. I hate the food too, but many other things I like. If you don't like anything, then you re unlikely to succeed. You will just reach your tipping point and just leave anyway. 

 

Plenty of of women here are not golddiggers. You use a broad brush. I'm sure that Peru, not being the richest country, has plenty of gold diggers too.  The staring is intensely annoying and backwards but is less prevalent in the big cities.

20k in four months? Hmm you're 24? Talking more like a 15 year old. As another poster said, your idea to learn Chinese to deal with suppliers is directly, is stupid.

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Well, you had good intentions but learning Chinese takes at least 1 year of intense study to be on a good enough level to do business. AT LEAST.

 

Even then, maybe Chinese will be tough to do business with... they will want to constantly go out to dinner, drink, smoke... and in the end may screw you over anyway.

 

Chinese LOVE their buffers, if you try to deal with them directly they may make a ton of false promises and say whatever they think you want to hear. Doing business with Chinese directly is EXTREMELY difficult. Why are you there on a student visa if you have backing from your government and a ton of people? Do you plan on being in China long?

 

Listen, you are 24 and that is a good age to put up with the crap China throws at you. I think you should stick it out now that you spent way too much money learning the hard way. It would be a waste to leave. You just need to focus on learning Chinese well, building a network of contacts, not telling business people you are a student (looking 24 doesn't help, they may not take you seriously), and dressing like a businessman.

 

There a lots of business conferences in larger cities that are hosted in English/Chinese. Go to those, talk with Chinese in clubs (usually where the ones with money go)... and finish what you came to do or go back with your tail in between your legs.

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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You are young and naive... but both can be fixed, and you can make it all work. It will take time, effort, patience.

 

Your Chinese may not help you as much as you think, but it's extremely good to be fluent enough to know what people are saying about you when they think you don't know what they're saying. (so, always have a translator at business functions - so they'll never really know how much YOU understand).

 

If you have government connections, you're obviously not using them. Not them personally or directly - but you don't seem to be advertising that you have those connections. This is face value, and therefore, increases guanxi.

 

Who cares about what you think of the women??? Are you here for business, or getting  laid/finding a girlfriend/a wife? Get your priorities right!!!!

 

However.. if it's taken you months to work out high-speed trains, then perhaps doing business is not for you.... It says you haven't done your research.

 

Have you come here merely on an idea? Cos it's sounding like it!! (note - you had an idea back in Peru, but instead of doing your research there, asking questions (such as on this forum), getting information... you decided to just come here and do it all by yourself... NOT a wise move!)

 

Also, if you've spent $20K US, and haven't seen a thing from it, you clearly don't have the business acumen to succeed... this comes from experience.... find a more experienced business partner (NOT Chinese) who you can trust. They can guide you through this quagmire that is dealing with corruption and tight-arse, the only way to win is to screw someone over, Chinese business people. Expect to spend a fair bit of money on wasted food, bad cigarettes, baijiu, KTV girls... and a lot of wasted time, effort and money on crap and bullshit!

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Tomorrow is a new day, start over today.

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8 years 39 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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dude u could do 2 things first look on alibaba for the type products u want to buy whatever it is u will find many manufactures send them a product list of what u want to buy ask them for price and delivery why did u have to go threw a middle man u can go direct que paso

gatoloco12:

pff bro, most of the alibaba english website are just middle men.

also my business is about buying entire containers. not just a few boxes.

 

hablas espanol?

8 years 38 weeks ago
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8 years 38 weeks ago
 
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Let me guess.. you came over to the Canton fair, you have buyers at home, you hired a translater and she encouraged you to get an office here and work from Guangzhou.

The translater then introduced you to lots of people you had to entertain, you had customers waiting, you had trouble finding suppliers, and in the meantime your visa is about to expire.

I meet lots of people who come over for the Canton fair, and this is a familiar story.

The people you need to talk to are other traders. They know the score, they know about quality degradation, price increments, shipping costs, what margin to turn a profit.

Find yourself an established trader and do a deal. Share your customers with his suppliers. Not as a partnership, but as a way to gain introductions. Then, once you are in the "traders circle", you might just make it.

Good luck Smile

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8 years 38 weeks ago
 
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Shifu

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actually u are incorrect alivaba puts u in direct contact with the manufactures ive been buying containers for 25 years directly from the manufacture u need to learn alot also thers a city outside shanghai that has a showroom of most manudactures in china u can walk threw the manufactures pay alivaba to put there listing on there site cmon dude pay attention dont act likea know it all

gatoloco12:

那个城市是义乌吗?

8 years 38 weeks ago
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8 years 38 weeks ago
 
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