The Hottest Pepper Blog

Aloha Pepper Heads!  I have just returned from China. Again!  And, I have to go back in another 4 weeks. In a few of our companies, we are manufacturers of outdoor/backyard products–backyardxscapes.com and bambooandtikis.com.  This requires me to go to China, the Philippines, etc. a few times per year. This year however, I have been to China 3 times. With each new trip comes a new adventure. I cannot say enough about the Chinese people They are so hospitable and are warm, and caring.  They have a very tight knit family structure and are very hard workers. I have a good friends there now as I have been visiting for many, many years.  They have many deep-seated customs that go back thousands of years and one of them is their gracious hospitality.  After they get to know you, you  become one of the family and form a long-lasting and trusting relationship. So, for those of you that think The Republic of China is a cold, and hostile place should visit China and see for yourselves. Sure, their government has a track record of civil abuses, and there still is censorship, but things are definitely getting better.  And the quality of their products is top notch. It just takes visits from people like me to make sure that the lines of communication remain open to ensure quality manufacturing.  We certainly cannot compete with their labor costs, and whether we like it  or not (and we sure do like those low, low retail prices) China is here is stay and is a force to be reckoned with. And the great thing about their government is, when they want to do something—THEY DO IT! There doesn’t have to be years of dialog, and log jams in Congress. Case in point is their solar industry–#1 in the world and growing leaps and bounds and is only a few years old.  Here in the USA, we EXPORTED our solar technology to Germany  with AMERICAN technology (we couldn’t get a guaranteed  ROI from the government). So our American company went to Germany, was guaranteed the ROI, and this American company has been manufacturing in Germany for several years growing by 50 times.  Back to China, yeah they have their environmental problems, but I have no doubt that they will do whatever it takes to fix them (or at least I hope so)– 1.3 billion people is a lot of people to clean up after.  Let’ s keep our fingers crossed…  But let us not cast the first stone–48% of our energy in the USA is produced by dirty, polluting coal.  Anyway Friends, I am back home and ready to answer your questions again.