WOW – Hangzhou to Shanghai in 45 mins in reclining leather. Beat that Virgin!

I’ve just arrived in Shanghai having left Hangzhou this afternoon.

We caught the 1.00pm High Speed CHR train and arrived 45mins later. It left from near the West Lake in Hangzhou, near the town centre and in less than an hour it was arriving in Shanghai. We arrived 15mins before “take off” and were shown to our reclining leather seats. With free WIFI, drinks and snacks, I wish the trip had been a little longer.

90% of the trip was spent cruising at 300KPH. Since a couple of high profile “incidents”, they’ve slowed from 400KPH. It must improve their breaking distance! This might account for the fact that we were the only people in our carriage. I asked Alex, from the Hangzhou studio, if he used the high speed trains, but he said that he didn’t trust them.

The fact that we didn’t need to get a taxi an hour out of town to check in at the airport 2 hours ahead of the flight, meant that this was a much quicker option than flying, and at £23 for a first class ticket, much better value. I suspect that for it to be worth flying, the flight would need to be 5 hours plus.

I spoke to the officials from the Shandong region about CHR. They were very proud of it and explained the difficulty of mobilising a nation the size of China. The technology  may be German, the train was from Siemens, but China is leading the way when it comes to implementation.

This is what happens to most of the catalogues that get handed out at the show!

Here are a couple of photos Alex snapped while I caught up with a some calls.

All the stands are keen to hand out as many catalogues as possible. The result, most end up on the floor in the bin.

With every buyer sporting a late model smart phone, I was surprised that non of the stands were using QR codes to give out digital catalogues. I spoke to an number of buyers who all said that lugging cases fulls of catalogues round the show and then paying excess baggage to get them back was one of their main bug bears.

It strikes me that a quick scan of a QR code that would allow the buyer to download the catalogue at the hotel or back at home would be a winner.

At a dinner on last day of the 1st Phase of the Canton show, I was invited to Shandong to help  their manufacturers prepare better for the EU & USA markets.

A couple of years ago, I visited Jinan, the capital city of the Shandong province with Mr Wang, the Deputy Mayor. Shandong is famous for it’s fruit growing, heavy steel works & cotton production. We visited some of the regions leading factories in all these sectors. The thing that struck me most, was not the vast scale of the factories or there obvious drive to export, but the level of infrastructure that has been put in place to allow for growth in the future.Immaculate 6 lane highways, linked the industrial zones, but they were empty, ready and waiting for the inevitable growth that will come.

Last year, I was invited to Qufu city in Shandong. This is the birth place of Confucius and a very popular destination for visitors from all over China. We were feeling fit, so we climbed Mount Tai, the most revered mountain in Taoism and one of the worlds sites with the longest history of continuos religious worship. We spent the night on the peak and were up early to see the sunrise over China. It’s breath taking and freezing (-10C).

Having had a some small insight into the regions commercial and historic roles in China, I was keen to see how we could work more closely together. The Shandong region is on the eastern coast, a couple of hours by high speed train south of Beijing and north of Shanghai. It’s costal location in the more northern region of China mean that commerce is less well developed that in the  south. With a population of over 100 million to provide for, it’s desire to develop the export market is clear to see.

So to be invited by the Director for The Dept of Foreign Trade to meet the leading manufactures to discuss how we can drive exports and help them prepare for EU & USA markets sounds rather exciting. We’re now discussing dates that won’t clash with the production build up ahead of the Chinese New Year on February, but will allow them time to be effective ahead of the 111 Canton Fair in April 2012.

Having a great time at the 110th Canton fair. No sign of a the global slow down in Guangzhou!

When I asked some government officials if the first phase had a been a success, they were very up beat. Any slow down from Europe and the US was overshadowed by growth from the emerging markets. The BRIC & African countries have got their buyers here in force.

I’m enjoying and iced green tea and the free WIFI in Hall 5.2 with Alex, one of the CGI team, from the Hangzhou. He’s enjoying his first visit to Guangzhou.