Friday

What better place to start the day but  Austrade.  Not that I was pining for an Australian accent.  Jane Wang runs the office in Xi'An and after an interesting meeting and some sweet coffee and a CD that I need to look at later we were whisked away to the first of our 'meet the businesses' meetings.  Escorted by the Vice Director of the Software Park our first visit was with the jovial General Manager of Cenozolc, Mr Guo Ping Bo.  He provided some insight into an ISV providing software to the petrochemical industry.  We were given a tour of the business and with some light hearted conversation whisked off to meet with the General Manager of Grapecity, Mr Zhu Yuzhang.    This was a great meeting and Yuzhang provided us with some real insight into a BPO business that has been providing services to its Japanese head Office for 19 years!  Obviously the Japanese were onto this  long before we were.   Back to another huge lunch with Dr Chen and more conversations about the intricacies of doing business in China.  I was starting to understand.  More meetings back at his office and then being a Friday and the end of the week Chen suggested his favourite thing - a 'very professional' foot massage prior to dinner.  For those wondering 'Very professional' does not mean any hanky panky - the people providing the service are known as technicians so there can be no confusion between the trades.  You may be surprised just how involved a foot massage can get - if you are interested ask me sometime how my ears feel now.    Dinner went until near on midnight and I crashed pretty exhausted.

I reckon we should have foot massage places in Australia. 

Saturday

The day started off with a little shopping then a massive  lunch then meetings then the museum then a massive dinner - After dinner we went to the Royal Water Gardens.  

At the museum  I was treated to seeing relics from the Qin, Han and Ming dynasty's and a couple of dynasty's that I can't remember.  It was fascinating to see the progress in pottery and armoury BUT my favourite was a scull of Homo Erectus somewhere between 700,000 and 1,000,000 years old.  Lantian man - found of course in the Lantian area of China.  At the Royal Gardens I sat on the steps of the main building to watch a very high tech film cast on the canvas frame of a mass of water fountain on the edge of a big lake.  Confused ?  The water was sprayed up in the air and hi tech video and audio combined with the odd 6-7 lasers provided a great movie.  Not that I could understand the language but the story was pretty simple to follow even without knowing the words.  (no subtitles I'm afraid).  The images in the movie were very 3D  and the sound system very impressive.    Another late night. 

Sunday

Today was split into two.  The morning out at the 8th wonder of the world. The Terracotta Warriors. The afternoon at a Tea House with Dr Chen finalising discussions and trying to nail down all the take-aways from the trip.   The warriors are at Emperor Qin's tomb about an hour outside Xi'An.  On the way out I saw three accidents.  Two trucks rolled over and one nose to tail.  To give you an idea on how mad the road rules are - we approached an onramp to a freeway and about half way up it looked like the freeway was clagged.  The car in front just turned around and drove straight back though the traffic weaving its way until it got back to a place it could join traffic going the right way.  We were much safer - we BACKED up through the oncoming traffic - that was heaps of fun!  Felt like I was in a James bond movie :)

I reckon backing into the oncoming traffic could be a new ride a Sea World

Monday

Heading home day today.  With items finalised yesterday at the Tea house, and a visit to the IBM Software Park Innovation Centre (met the Managing Director - Rong Zhen) the only agenda items we decided to make a quick visit to the Art Gallery before one last huge lunch and a drive out to the airport.  We had said our goodbyes already to Dr Chen - What a great host he has been - particularly when you consider the number of things he has on his plate.  In addition to running Netec his portal business, Owning the Innovation Centre he is also has government responsibilities:

• Member of the Xi'An municipal people congress executive committee (provincial status)
• Member of the special committee on ethnic groups, religions, returned chinese and foreign affairs of the peoples congress
• Vice Chairman of the peoples political consultative conference of Yantadistrict (the biggest conference including the Hi Tech development zone)    

We said our good byes to our driver  Mr Liu - thanks for keeping us safe and getting us from one meeting to another (love to see him try and drive in Australia) and thanks to 'Cindy' our interpreter - what would have done without her. 

 I reckon writing the report and recommendations for the Readify Board can wait until I return. 

Sounds like a Thirsty Merc song but after one of my meetings with the Vice Director of the new Software Park in Xi'An, Mr Zhu Liming and his lovely college Ms Cindy Wang -  I now have '20 good reasons' why a business might like to setup camp in Xi'An.  

The software park was established 1998 and is nationally recognised.  Which is important in China.  It sprawls across over 100 hectares and boasts  400,000m2 of buildings.    Over 580 companies now use the Park facilities.  Amongst  these companies you'll find 40,000 engineers.

It turns over RNB 11.2 Billion and in export business alone US$55m.  Not small companies but companies such as Oracle, Sybase, Intel, Nortel and Fujitsu.  There are over 80 companies providing ITO services  totalling US$28m revenue.   The software park host the a global BPO conference here every year, attracting over 500 delegates. 

Many large multinationals come here to do R&D.  Why?  Well Xi'An is rich in hi tech talent.  94 colleges and universities have produced around 410,000 skilled engineers with 869,000 undergrads, 40,000 graduating in IT every year.    THE COST OF LABOUR IS VERY VERY LOW.  Companies pay about 2,300-5,500 RNB (Yuan) depending on the skill level per month for skilled engineers and developers.   Yes folks that's a staggering  A$383 - A$916 per month  (before you start to feel too sorry for them - I will note that the cost of living here is about 6 x less than Australia also).   How much do you pay for renting an office in the Park? That's only 40 RNB per m2 per month (about A$7).

What's the catch -  Maybe they can't get the internet? Maybe the staff turnover is huge? Maybe nobody knows who Thirsy Merc is? Maybe they speak Chinese?  Well folks - from the Park gets you access to 155 Mbps, Xi'An boasts 8.6% staff turn-over -  lowest in China (and why not its a nice place) and two expressways to airport (30 minutes). 

I have  found that the people that speak English are pretty good at it and I suspect that many others understand you but are not confident enough to speak it - I'm guess its not a high percentage though.  I'll do the Thirsty Merc survey later today.   

I was lead to believe that the Intellectual Property law's are - well kind of loose here in China.  I was assured that the Government has been working on that and it has improved in recent years.  

I reckon I heard 20 good reasons - 3 of them are very compelling.    

Travel tip of the day - No jetlag (its only 2 hours difference to Australia) - was that 21 good reasons?

Next - Next I travelled across town to Austrade to find out more about trade in China,  I meet some of the companies that use the park and after not actually walking all that far ... I have a foot massage!

Right now I'm sitting at a desk in Xi'An China.  The visit was for research on what has become a giant economy and an opportunity that should not be ignored.  After being just two days now my head is spinning and I'm really not sure where to start. 

Both Prof Christine Mingins and I we're invited to come and visit through a Chinese Government VIP program where they encourage outsiders to come and see what China has to offer the West.  Dr Chen and senior Government official and successful businessman in his own right has been the perfect host, facilitating many introductions to businesses as well as being an absolute font of knowledge on the complex nature of doing business in China.

Of the many businessmen I've met so far I've always been asked to talk about Readify and its innovative business model.  There seems to be genuine interest in the sort of things that we might be able to do in China and I've found the Chinese to be very open about there own businesses. 

Dr Chen is a bit of a history buff - so I've been treated to many long discussions about Xi'An's 3,500 year history, its Dynasty's and its people.  I'm really looking forward to tomorrow when I get to go and visit the Terracotta Warriors. 

To my surprise, the food has been a real treat. Some of the dishes don't actually look the best but as long as you can brave the look, the tastes are quite special.   

I reckon - and this is not an original though - that travelling opens your eyes.  Christine and I were the only Caucasians on the plane from Hong Kong to Xi'An - very few of the people we meet speak English although everyone speaks far more English than I do Mandarin :)

In my next post I'm going to drill in on what is on offer here from a technology outsourcing point of view and I might even squeeze in some photo's.

So what’s bad about it I hear you ask?  SMOG - and no that’s not an acronym.  Smoking laws are about the same as Australia 25 years ago and I don't think I could ever drive here.  The road rules are - "give way to everyone and don't give way to anyone" - mad, but it actually seems to work.  Lucky I have a driver!