Check me out....(Part 3)

China's Best Kept Secret

Imagine, if you will, that it is the year 1849 and you have packed up all your worldly belongings and made the death-defying trek out west. You did this, like so many others before you (and many more to follow), because you heard that they found gold there. And since thing's aren't going to hot for you in the Carolina's, you figured it was worth the chance.

Now imagine that once you arrive, you find out that the California Government already has all the gold, they're only sharing it with their friends, and (most importantly) they're lying about how much gold there is.

Most of this is not at all surprising. After all, that is what governments do. They establish their power under the guise of "helping society" then, once they have won society's trust, systematically put operations in place to make sure society never gets the chance to change it's mind.

The latest illustration of that constantly repeating history has just come to light here in China. I'll get to that in a moment.

You see, things like that aren't really a big deal. If you're smart enough, you can work around any governmental roadblock. Again with my '49er's metaphor; the people who made the most of their lives back then weren't the prospectors themselves; but all the people who set up taverns, supply shops, and whorehouses in the central prospecting townships.

That was what I came here to do. I never had any interest in doing business with China, I just came here to take advantage of it's newly booming economy to jump start my own interests that were transmutable in any locale. The moment I touched down, I discovered just how non-existent that economy was.

Now, it didn't worry me at that time. Just as in California, as long as nobody else found out how big the lie was, I could still ride the wave. Even though things weren't so hot for the locals, there was more than enough pass-through economy to take advantage of. Not to mention, all those "friends" of the government that were getting a share in whatever good was coming from all this, would love to do business with an exotic white boy like me. All I had to do was find them and introduce myself.

Well, time's up. The World Trade Organization finally did their homework.

China's economy is 40% Smaller than everyone thought. There is no gold here. There isn't even any copper. I may as well be living in Mexico.

So, the FrogFaith gang and I held a meeting. After much deliberation, it has been decided that China is finished. The Fake Gold Rush is over. Now that everyone knows there is no gold here, there's no point in keeping our whorehouse open.

Not to say that we're giving up; No, no, no. Never give up. Never Surrender.

China still has it's value. It's just a matter of resetting our game plan. Finding a new market to cater to, and using our low-low Chinese overhead to our advantage. We have business connections in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Scotland that we are currently tapping.

But, we are definitely getting the heck out of here. It may be a few months before we get out, and we're not yet sure where we will go when we do. We've already been at this too long to hit the Reset button again, so we'll be working at somehow making a smooth transition of some kind. Preferably back to The States, but Europe is not out of the question.

It's funny. Looking back at this blog, I really thought I would have more to say about my two years here. Cultural quirks, travel adventures, anecdotes of local color.

I guess that's the big secret. There really isn't anything that special about China. It sucks here too.

TTFN