Where to buy cheap and reasonable quality stuff in China through the internet? Check out the following online shopping websites recommended by Rong.
Taobao
Everyone in China knows Taobao and it sells everything.
"Chinese eBay" Set up in 2003, Taobao is the biggest online shopping platform in China, accounting for over 80% of domestic online business. Most shop owners are individuals, however, more and more big-brands are opening their official shops on Taobao Mall (Tmall).
The nasty part is everything is in Chinese and most of the owners can't chat with you in other language than Chinese. Maybe this could be a motivation for some of you to learn Chinese .Or you can view online shopping taobao english-Agreetao.
How to use taobao?
1. Set up an account. An email address would be required.
2. Search items. Type in things you want to buy in the searching bar either in characters or pinyin (yes, you can use pinyin as well!!!).
You can set some search requirements as well, such as arrange the items bases on price or popularity, choose the places where the shop is located ( this affects the delivery time)
3. Purchase. You don't have to bargain over Taobao. Once you see something you want, just click the "buy" button.Then you need to fill in your address and contacts.
4. Pay. The payment part is the most complicated: you need to have a Chinese bank account and make sure it has the online payment service. Then you need to set up an Alipay account (like "paypal", but completely FREE!!! So much better). The fascinating part is almost all the online shopping websites can be paid through Alipay afterwards.
If u want to buy books...
1. Dangdang is "Chinese version of Amazon" .You can find almost every book published within 30 years in Mainland China on Dangdang and with a discount. The best part is no delivery fee is charged once your purchase is over 29 RMB(4.75USD) and also you can choose to pay when goods are delivered.
2. Kongfuzi
As the biggest second-hand Chinese book online platform, it's the best place for you to find an ancient or limited-edition book. Most of the bookstores are owned by private owners, therefore sometimes the delivery fee can be a bit expensive.
3. Taobao
You can find a lot of Ebooks (especially English ones or acedemic ones ) on Taobao for about 5 RMB (82cents) per one. I don't think they have the digital copyrights, but it is so cheap that it's hard not to be tempted. And sometime it's the only fast way you can get a book for your thesis.
2016年2月17日星期三
2016年2月2日星期二
Ethnic Fashion for Kids
With the festive season on the run, ethnic fashion for kids in India seem to be on the role recently. Parents just love the idea of introducing ethnicity to the child’s wardrobes. It helps infuse the feeling of a true Indian in the youngest generation. They allow their attire speak of culture and tradition and make fashion meet style and convention in this aspect.
What is seems to be debatable in this aspect is how to choose children's ethnic clothing. Many parents show concern on the comfort factor. But whatever it might be, kid in ghagras, salwars, kurti, pajamas and saree also rate the highest on the cuteness level.
Ethnic Wear Market for Kids
Fashion evolves with time and condition. Modern cuts, distinct styles and innovative patterns rule the online kid’s ethnic market today. Fashion designers have been continuously inventing and reinventing their designs to suit the demands of the ever-changing tastes of new mommies for their little prince and princesses in the market.
Ethnic Indian wear for kids will hence never go out of style. And in a country like India, where celebrations and festivals hit almost every month this section of attire has been blessed with the immortal boon.
Ethnic Daily Wear for Kids
If you are considering ethnic daily wear for your baby girl, kurtis along with leggings will be the best option for you. They come with immense comfort and ease, are lightweight and can be worn in any weather condition. As for your little master you may consider kurta pajamas on high quality fabric. For rainy seasons you may go for synthetic materials such as chiffon and georgette as it dries pretty fast and keeps your child’s skin harmless.
Traditional Festive Ethnic Daily Wear for Kids
India is a land of color and dynamism. This sentiment is also seen reflected on the attire fashion industry for kids. The market is full of colors galore wedding and festive occasion dresses for your baby boys and girls. Vibrant colors like fuchsia pink, turquoise blue, sunflower yellow, bottle green etc. seal the show. In the baby girl market Anarkali dresses, salwar kameez, ghagra cholis etc. attract eye candy activity for your kid. They are heavily embroidered dresses that make your kid a princess at the blink of an eye.
The boys section witnesses the blend of traditional and modern designs. Of the favorites include dhoti kurta, kurta pajama, Indo western Sherwani and others. These add to the true essence and flavors of India to help explore its deep rooted culture.
Indian Ethnic Party Wear for Kids
The Indian fashion industry also deals in ethnic party wear for kids. Designers effortlessly work to make your toddler look neither too under-dressed nor over-dressed. They make use of different fabric for different season. For example, georgette, chiffon, cotton and satin dresses for summers and velvets for winters.
For little girls designers come up with anarkali dresses, salwar kameez, ghagra cholis, lehenga cholis, sarees etc. keeping pace with the changing taste in fashion. For baby boys collection includes kurta pajama, Indo western sherwani, kurta chooridar dupatta, kurta chudidaar pajama and jacket etc.
Ethnic wear is very versatile. This addition adds class and innocence and helps your kids carry themselves on all occasions & festivities in style.
What is seems to be debatable in this aspect is how to choose children's ethnic clothing. Many parents show concern on the comfort factor. But whatever it might be, kid in ghagras, salwars, kurti, pajamas and saree also rate the highest on the cuteness level.
Ethnic Wear Market for Kids
Fashion evolves with time and condition. Modern cuts, distinct styles and innovative patterns rule the online kid’s ethnic market today. Fashion designers have been continuously inventing and reinventing their designs to suit the demands of the ever-changing tastes of new mommies for their little prince and princesses in the market.
Ethnic Indian wear for kids will hence never go out of style. And in a country like India, where celebrations and festivals hit almost every month this section of attire has been blessed with the immortal boon.
Ethnic Daily Wear for Kids
If you are considering ethnic daily wear for your baby girl, kurtis along with leggings will be the best option for you. They come with immense comfort and ease, are lightweight and can be worn in any weather condition. As for your little master you may consider kurta pajamas on high quality fabric. For rainy seasons you may go for synthetic materials such as chiffon and georgette as it dries pretty fast and keeps your child’s skin harmless.
Traditional Festive Ethnic Daily Wear for Kids
India is a land of color and dynamism. This sentiment is also seen reflected on the attire fashion industry for kids. The market is full of colors galore wedding and festive occasion dresses for your baby boys and girls. Vibrant colors like fuchsia pink, turquoise blue, sunflower yellow, bottle green etc. seal the show. In the baby girl market Anarkali dresses, salwar kameez, ghagra cholis etc. attract eye candy activity for your kid. They are heavily embroidered dresses that make your kid a princess at the blink of an eye.
The boys section witnesses the blend of traditional and modern designs. Of the favorites include dhoti kurta, kurta pajama, Indo western Sherwani and others. These add to the true essence and flavors of India to help explore its deep rooted culture.
Indian Ethnic Party Wear for Kids
The Indian fashion industry also deals in ethnic party wear for kids. Designers effortlessly work to make your toddler look neither too under-dressed nor over-dressed. They make use of different fabric for different season. For example, georgette, chiffon, cotton and satin dresses for summers and velvets for winters.
For little girls designers come up with anarkali dresses, salwar kameez, ghagra cholis, lehenga cholis, sarees etc. keeping pace with the changing taste in fashion. For baby boys collection includes kurta pajama, Indo western sherwani, kurta chooridar dupatta, kurta chudidaar pajama and jacket etc.
Ethnic wear is very versatile. This addition adds class and innocence and helps your kids carry themselves on all occasions & festivities in style.
2016年1月17日星期日
Verifying a Chinese Business License With a Factory Audit
Most small businesses look to the “East” for suppliers and China is a highly sought after destination.
However, the key concern for these buyers is identifying reliable suppliers and safeguarding themselves from any potential risks. We will take a look at some simple ways to do this .
If you are a buyer looking for new suppliers in China, you might end up with a list of a couple of potential good ones. Of course you then want to find out whether these suppliers are indeed reliable and experienced, or whether it’s a scam, so make china company verification with a Factory Audit is very useful at this stage in.
When a factory audit is conducted by a third party quality control company, they always collect as much information as possible about the supplier of your choice. A large part of an audit consists of document collection. However, at the site it is not possible to verify these documents, especially business licenses, as they could be problematic. Chinese government authorities cannot legally protect your business if you are doing ‘business’ with illegal companies. However, there is only so much you can do to find out whether or not the license is legitimate.
First, what is a business license? Each legal company has to register itself with a local Chinese Bureau of Industry and Commerce or a similar government agency. Rural companies tend to register at a provincial level, but urban companies usually register at the city level. The company then gets a unique company number, which will be printed onto a nice document: the business license.
Then, how can we help you verify this unique company number and the business license? A QC company can check the business license itself for signs of forgery. There are several common ‘mistakes’ that we know how to find, such as false names or addresses, but this requires a close look and an experienced eye. At the factory, the auditor usually has to work his way through many documents, so he simply does not have the luxury to sit back with one document and take his time to inspect it. Therefore, this is much better done at the office. If any discrepancies are found in the document you can be certain the business license is a fake.
When there is no sign of forgery on the business license, it is not necessarily a legitimate document. The unique company number could still be false. Even though we possess the skills to find out the truth, an investigation might have inconclusive results. Sometimes it is sufficient to search for the supplier directly online through the website of the relevant Bureau of Industry & Commerce. However, note that all information from the Bureaus is in Chinese. At a provincial level in industrial provinces, like Guangdong province, information about business licenses is accessible online, but in less developed regions and on other governmental levels information is usually not readily available. In this case QC staff will contact the Bureau directly. It then depends on the Bureau how long it will take to get information and they will usually ask you to come by the Bureau in person an discuss the options.
As you can see, verifying a Chinese business license is a unique company registration number requires quite some effort, because there is not one database where all the numbers can be found. The registration system in China is very decentralized, which makes it hard to just go ahead and verify the business license by yourself. As a third party inspection company, AQF can definitely help out.
However, the key concern for these buyers is identifying reliable suppliers and safeguarding themselves from any potential risks. We will take a look at some simple ways to do this .
If you are a buyer looking for new suppliers in China, you might end up with a list of a couple of potential good ones. Of course you then want to find out whether these suppliers are indeed reliable and experienced, or whether it’s a scam, so make china company verification with a Factory Audit is very useful at this stage in.
When a factory audit is conducted by a third party quality control company, they always collect as much information as possible about the supplier of your choice. A large part of an audit consists of document collection. However, at the site it is not possible to verify these documents, especially business licenses, as they could be problematic. Chinese government authorities cannot legally protect your business if you are doing ‘business’ with illegal companies. However, there is only so much you can do to find out whether or not the license is legitimate.
First, what is a business license? Each legal company has to register itself with a local Chinese Bureau of Industry and Commerce or a similar government agency. Rural companies tend to register at a provincial level, but urban companies usually register at the city level. The company then gets a unique company number, which will be printed onto a nice document: the business license.
Then, how can we help you verify this unique company number and the business license? A QC company can check the business license itself for signs of forgery. There are several common ‘mistakes’ that we know how to find, such as false names or addresses, but this requires a close look and an experienced eye. At the factory, the auditor usually has to work his way through many documents, so he simply does not have the luxury to sit back with one document and take his time to inspect it. Therefore, this is much better done at the office. If any discrepancies are found in the document you can be certain the business license is a fake.
When there is no sign of forgery on the business license, it is not necessarily a legitimate document. The unique company number could still be false. Even though we possess the skills to find out the truth, an investigation might have inconclusive results. Sometimes it is sufficient to search for the supplier directly online through the website of the relevant Bureau of Industry & Commerce. However, note that all information from the Bureaus is in Chinese. At a provincial level in industrial provinces, like Guangdong province, information about business licenses is accessible online, but in less developed regions and on other governmental levels information is usually not readily available. In this case QC staff will contact the Bureau directly. It then depends on the Bureau how long it will take to get information and they will usually ask you to come by the Bureau in person an discuss the options.
As you can see, verifying a Chinese business license is a unique company registration number requires quite some effort, because there is not one database where all the numbers can be found. The registration system in China is very decentralized, which makes it hard to just go ahead and verify the business license by yourself. As a third party inspection company, AQF can definitely help out.
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| china company verification |
2016年1月14日星期四
Something About China property bonds
To many global investors, bonds from China’s property sector are toxic nuclear waste, not to be touched at any cost. To others, they come with a more pragmatic “handle with care” warning. I belong to the latter camp.
From just a handful of bonds 10 years ago, the sector has grown to contribute 9.5% of the Asian US dollar bond market with US$51bn of bonds trading. That is nearly a third of all high-yield corporate bonds in the region.
Over this period, the sector has gone through three cycles of downturns and upturns. Several Chinese property companies have issued, redeemed and refinanced their offshore bonds. Companies with credit ratings ranging from Single A to Triple C have managed to issue bonds, which chinese trade credit actively in the secondary market. Yet, a feeling of unease persists.
Perhaps the first source of discomfort is the fact that offshore Chinese property bonds are deeply subordinated, since they are issued by offshore-incorporated entities, which inject the bond proceeds as equity into their onshore companies and service their debt only out of equity dividends received back from the mainland. The difficulties in repatriating equity funds out of China mean that the offshore principal effectively has to be refinanced. In case of bankruptcy, the onshore lenders have the first claim over the onshore assets.
While this structural weakness is undoubtedly true, it applies to every other bond issued by Chinese businesses, including investment-grade bonds far beyond the property sector, since the structure was born out of regulations prohibiting the issuance of debt or guarantees by mainland companies. (Only recently have the authorities begun to relax this prohibition, and the first few offshore bonds are now coming out with direct guarantees from mainland operating companies.)
ANOTHER SOURCE OF discomfort is the government’s meddling in the property sector through various measures, including the flow of credit to the builders, rules for financing land purchases, obtaining mortgages, and mortgage down-payment requirements. The harshest controls came in 2010 when the government restricted the number of apartments that an individual could purchase.
Property prices are a sensitive subject everywhere, and China is no exception. The government presses the brakes if the prices are speeding too fast and pushes the accelerator if property construction flags too much so as to threaten the overall economic growth.
This government intervention makes asset values volatile in both equity and debt markets, and raises the cost of capital to the sector.
Some investors have also been scared away by stories of oversupply and ghost cities. The property development business model, by definition, consists of a long operating cycle, and there may be genuine demand/supply imbalances, as in any other industry, but the overwhelming majority of Chinese properties are built in response to actual demand from a rapidly urbanising population. The same goes for talk of speculative buying, when the reality is that most of the properties are bought for self-occupation. Buyers have to put up a minimum 30% down-payment, they are not over-leveraged and there is no subprime lending.
WHEN IT COMES to investing in Chinese property bonds, one should realise that there has already been one level of filtering – only those companies large enough to go through a rating process and the expense of issuing offshore actually end up selling dollar bonds. They are all listed offshore, most of them in Hong Kong, and are subject to audits and disclosures that go with the listing status. The additional scrutiny from equity analysts and investors that comes with listing also offers additional information for bond investors.
There has not been a single default in the sector so far, and only two distressed exchanges in 2009, both at 80 cents to the dollar. Some companies did go through financial distress during previous sector downturns, but they managed to sell land or unfinished projects to stronger players and stave off default.
This is not to argue that we would never see a default in the sector. We will, sooner or later. But the sector has genuine fundamentals, strong and weak players, and saleable assets that can be realised in times of distress.
So, how should one approach investments in Chinese property bonds? First of all, investors need to be prepared for the volatility that comes with the regulatory changes. Any crash in value following a regulatory tightening offers an opportunity to pick up the higher-quality bonds at more attractive prices. In fact, such moves also enable the stronger players to buy out the weaker ones or to acquire assets from the struggling players, and increase their market share.
The current downturn in the market is no different. It is true that the stock of unsold property is running above average; that the leverage has increased in the last 12-18 months in response to slowing sales; that margins are under pressure due to the pressure to liquidate stock; and that some of the weaker companies are likely to experience a liquidity crunch in the next 12-18 months, unless they slow down their expansion. But the current downturn is also an opportunity to pick up bonds issued by stronger companies, which will benefit from the tight conditions in the sector. The challenge is reading the credit fundamentals carefully enough to identify the winners.
From just a handful of bonds 10 years ago, the sector has grown to contribute 9.5% of the Asian US dollar bond market with US$51bn of bonds trading. That is nearly a third of all high-yield corporate bonds in the region.
Over this period, the sector has gone through three cycles of downturns and upturns. Several Chinese property companies have issued, redeemed and refinanced their offshore bonds. Companies with credit ratings ranging from Single A to Triple C have managed to issue bonds, which chinese trade credit actively in the secondary market. Yet, a feeling of unease persists.
Perhaps the first source of discomfort is the fact that offshore Chinese property bonds are deeply subordinated, since they are issued by offshore-incorporated entities, which inject the bond proceeds as equity into their onshore companies and service their debt only out of equity dividends received back from the mainland. The difficulties in repatriating equity funds out of China mean that the offshore principal effectively has to be refinanced. In case of bankruptcy, the onshore lenders have the first claim over the onshore assets.
While this structural weakness is undoubtedly true, it applies to every other bond issued by Chinese businesses, including investment-grade bonds far beyond the property sector, since the structure was born out of regulations prohibiting the issuance of debt or guarantees by mainland companies. (Only recently have the authorities begun to relax this prohibition, and the first few offshore bonds are now coming out with direct guarantees from mainland operating companies.)
ANOTHER SOURCE OF discomfort is the government’s meddling in the property sector through various measures, including the flow of credit to the builders, rules for financing land purchases, obtaining mortgages, and mortgage down-payment requirements. The harshest controls came in 2010 when the government restricted the number of apartments that an individual could purchase.
Property prices are a sensitive subject everywhere, and China is no exception. The government presses the brakes if the prices are speeding too fast and pushes the accelerator if property construction flags too much so as to threaten the overall economic growth.
This government intervention makes asset values volatile in both equity and debt markets, and raises the cost of capital to the sector.
Some investors have also been scared away by stories of oversupply and ghost cities. The property development business model, by definition, consists of a long operating cycle, and there may be genuine demand/supply imbalances, as in any other industry, but the overwhelming majority of Chinese properties are built in response to actual demand from a rapidly urbanising population. The same goes for talk of speculative buying, when the reality is that most of the properties are bought for self-occupation. Buyers have to put up a minimum 30% down-payment, they are not over-leveraged and there is no subprime lending.
WHEN IT COMES to investing in Chinese property bonds, one should realise that there has already been one level of filtering – only those companies large enough to go through a rating process and the expense of issuing offshore actually end up selling dollar bonds. They are all listed offshore, most of them in Hong Kong, and are subject to audits and disclosures that go with the listing status. The additional scrutiny from equity analysts and investors that comes with listing also offers additional information for bond investors.
There has not been a single default in the sector so far, and only two distressed exchanges in 2009, both at 80 cents to the dollar. Some companies did go through financial distress during previous sector downturns, but they managed to sell land or unfinished projects to stronger players and stave off default.
This is not to argue that we would never see a default in the sector. We will, sooner or later. But the sector has genuine fundamentals, strong and weak players, and saleable assets that can be realised in times of distress.
So, how should one approach investments in Chinese property bonds? First of all, investors need to be prepared for the volatility that comes with the regulatory changes. Any crash in value following a regulatory tightening offers an opportunity to pick up the higher-quality bonds at more attractive prices. In fact, such moves also enable the stronger players to buy out the weaker ones or to acquire assets from the struggling players, and increase their market share.
The current downturn in the market is no different. It is true that the stock of unsold property is running above average; that the leverage has increased in the last 12-18 months in response to slowing sales; that margins are under pressure due to the pressure to liquidate stock; and that some of the weaker companies are likely to experience a liquidity crunch in the next 12-18 months, unless they slow down their expansion. But the current downturn is also an opportunity to pick up bonds issued by stronger companies, which will benefit from the tight conditions in the sector. The challenge is reading the credit fundamentals carefully enough to identify the winners.
2016年1月7日星期四
What is Taobao’s Tmall?
Tmall, also known as the the Taobao Mall, is China’s largest platform for B2C shopping and belongs to Taobao.com (which was founded as a C2C platform similar to Ebay).
On January 11th, 2012, Taobao Mall changed its name to Tmall.
On Tmall you can find especially well-known brand flagship stores and authorized stores for selling famous brand’s products.
Currently, Taobao Mall presents more than 30,000 local and global brands products of multiple different industries. This “vertical mall” includes for example the “Electric City”, “Shoes Collection” and “Home Improvement Exhibition”. In future the Tamll will be enhanced with by adding further vertical industry markets.
The main differences between Taobao and Tmall (Taobao Mall)
Tmall is a split-off of Taobao.com
While on Taobao private people can sell (like on Ebay), the sellers on Tmall must be China-registered companies
In Novem-ber 2010, Tmall, launched an autonomous web domain called as “tmall.com” in order to dis-tin-guish the list-ings made by Taobao Mall mer-chants, who were autho-rized dis-trib-u-tors or brand own-ers, from Taobao’s Consumer-To-Consumer (C2C) platform.
The prod-uct list-ings on Tmall are much stricter when com-pared to Taobao.
Unlike Taobao, Tmall requires a refund-able secu-rity deposit from com-pa-nies to list/market their products.
Normally, the Tmall stores display on top of the search result page when people search on Taobao.
Taobao FOCUS is not only a Taobao agent for your online shopping in China, but a friend indeed. Our mission is to help and let more international buyers enjoy shopping on Taobao – amazing China’s largest online marketplace. We help you in these ways:
Language: if you do not know Chinese or have difficulties with Taobao English translation, such as agreetao.com. we search your desired items, talk with the Taobao seller and provide you as much detailed information as possible.
Shopping: We advise you regarding the product from our own experience. Is the seller reliable? Is the item of good quality? Is it good or not to buy the item at all? We tell you everything.
Minimizing the risk: We make sure that Taobao seller really sends out the items, we check the items for visual defects in our warehouse, provide you the photo of purchased items and repack them to ensure safe shipment to your address.
On January 11th, 2012, Taobao Mall changed its name to Tmall.
On Tmall you can find especially well-known brand flagship stores and authorized stores for selling famous brand’s products.
Currently, Taobao Mall presents more than 30,000 local and global brands products of multiple different industries. This “vertical mall” includes for example the “Electric City”, “Shoes Collection” and “Home Improvement Exhibition”. In future the Tamll will be enhanced with by adding further vertical industry markets.
The main differences between Taobao and Tmall (Taobao Mall)
Tmall is a split-off of Taobao.com
While on Taobao private people can sell (like on Ebay), the sellers on Tmall must be China-registered companies
In Novem-ber 2010, Tmall, launched an autonomous web domain called as “tmall.com” in order to dis-tin-guish the list-ings made by Taobao Mall mer-chants, who were autho-rized dis-trib-u-tors or brand own-ers, from Taobao’s Consumer-To-Consumer (C2C) platform.
The prod-uct list-ings on Tmall are much stricter when com-pared to Taobao.
Unlike Taobao, Tmall requires a refund-able secu-rity deposit from com-pa-nies to list/market their products.
Normally, the Tmall stores display on top of the search result page when people search on Taobao.
Taobao FOCUS is not only a Taobao agent for your online shopping in China, but a friend indeed. Our mission is to help and let more international buyers enjoy shopping on Taobao – amazing China’s largest online marketplace. We help you in these ways:
Language: if you do not know Chinese or have difficulties with Taobao English translation, such as agreetao.com. we search your desired items, talk with the Taobao seller and provide you as much detailed information as possible.
Shopping: We advise you regarding the product from our own experience. Is the seller reliable? Is the item of good quality? Is it good or not to buy the item at all? We tell you everything.
Minimizing the risk: We make sure that Taobao seller really sends out the items, we check the items for visual defects in our warehouse, provide you the photo of purchased items and repack them to ensure safe shipment to your address.
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