In China once again. Here to put the wraps on the Spring 2008 season.  Things are looking good so far and projects are almost wrapped up.  The weather has been awesome.  Mid 60’s everyday and if you don’t count smog, barely a cloud in sight.  I often describe this region of southern China as being geographically equivalent to Florida.  Nothing about it is like florida except maybe its latitudinal position with respect to the rest of the country.

I am with three of my close co workers.  They have all been great to travel with but I have to say I am missing home more than normal lately.  I have been to China many times, possibly twenty.  I travel to an area just across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong.  This was the first part of China to industrialize, as the Hong Kong economy slowly spread inland.  Under British rule, Hong Kong openly traded with the world, while China remained largely closed.  The adjacent part of mainland China became the cheap source of labor and materials to fuel Hong Kong’s booming economy.  In recent times China has created five “special economic zones”  They are: the recently acquired territory of Hong Kong, The recently acquired Portuguese colony of Macau, Shanghai, Beijing, and Zhuhai.  Zhuhai is a southern city right on the Pearl River Delta, and it is where my hotel and Timberland’s China office is located.

Zhuhai is unique among these special economic zones.  It was never a colony and it is not an ancient city like Shanghai or Beijing.  It is largely a new, manufactured city designed to take advantage of the adjacency of both Hong Kong and Macau.  It is a coastal town and it enjoys an ocean breeze that suppresses the trademark China smog.   We spend our time here traveling to small offices created just for us within the footwear factories.  These factories are often substantially far from our hotel, and much of our time is spent commuting to them from anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours each way.   Quality of life diminishes pretty quickly the further you get from the coast.  Surprisingly the factories are often a bright spot in a sea of third world living conditions.