As promised, and despite the late hour, I'm finally finished with my article all about our trip to China. There's a lot of information inside - a good 25-30 minutes of reading if you feel like taking the time. If you just need the lowdown, read the section on the Chinese Search Landscape, then check out a few photos. I'll go through a few excerpts just for fun.
The Most Amazing Thing I Saw:
One of the Best Things I Ate:
My Favorite Experience:
The Best Part of the Trip:
I know it's cheesy, but how many people get to spend 2 weeks in China with their grandfather? It's an experience I'll never forget.
Now go read the article! And please leave your thoughts & feedback.
Nice recap of your trip to China Rand, If I knew you were going to be in Hong Kong, I would have tried to meet up with you!
I agree that the search marketing landscape in China is still in it's infancy - to be honest in most of Asia for that matter. I get calls from so-called Search Marketing companies promising they can get you to the 1st result on Google (using PPC!) - who couldn't do that with PPC?
I've been telling people who want to "break" into China's e-commerce market for ages that e-commerce in China is not a feasible channel at present due to the points you mentioned but as you also mentioned things happen at a lighting speed in China and I wouldn't be surprised to see them come out of nowhere in the next 5 to 10 years.
I thought I'd also add some more tips on travelling/visiting China:
Awesome list of tips. I may want to contact you about something soonish (next month)...
Great pics rand,
Thumbs up to the tips for travelling also.....
Im off to Hong Kong soon for a golfing trip.....1st time....should be fun.....
Rand, great knowledge dump.
Tao83, good tips.
"I know it's cheesy, but how many people get to spend 2 weeks in China with their grandfather?"
Color me jealous.
Do they allow that kind of art? Or will that place be shut down soon?
That statue was in the capital city (Beijing) in a very trendy arts area. It used to be a factory, but is now a whole bunch of art studios. I doubt if ithe area would get shut down any time soon. Not all of the art was like this, of course.
I was surprised at the statue, as well, since it has a fair amount of shock value, even if it had been erected in the US somewhere. It might be at home in a museum in LA or NY, but I could see a public outcry if it was in some of the more conservative areas in the south, for example. The fact that it was in the heart of political China is all the more amazing.
I suppose if the government began to get the impression that all the visitors only wanted to see this type of thing, then they would feel obligated to protect their image and shut it down, but so far I've noticed that most censorship there is self-censorship (like most countries) and usually the government only steps in if there is is a public fuss or if there is pressure put on them by someone.
A lot of the wierdness of government actions in China stem from pressure not from the government itself, but from well-connected competitors using their connections to further their own interests.
The statue itself disturbs me. The statement that it's very existence makes gives me hope.
Ian
PS: Rand, you are a blogging machine. I'm still just trying to recover from the jet lag...
haha, this is funny as hell
Wow, that was great coverage. You and Si really made the tour special. I love Nicole's comment, "I want my own Si". Thanks for your honest and thorough feedback of the China Search Marketing Tour. Also thanks for braving the rain and getting the photos at 798 Art District. I would have never known such a thing existed in China. Just one point on your info, that is 450 million mobile phone users and 16 million Internet mobile phone users. Please join us next year!
Wow, that picture of the Great Wall is amazing (the picture of the those unidentified organs you ate... notsomuch ;-)
Looks like fun - and no doubt you are bursting with ideas for reaching that huge market. Going to read the article now...
"Baidu's areas of heaviest usage were in the search box (to attempt a new query) and at the bottom of the page (where additional query refinement choices are offered)"
The main reason for this (and see also the eyetracking graphic) is that the Baidu results are rubbish and full of spam, so users have to (and get conditioned to) spend ages trawling the results and refining the search.
Really, Chinese internet can't move forward till the users learn to use Google not Baidu.
Nice post which covers almost all the tips for a China trip! I had a lot of trouble making people understand the explanation of the rest room. I tried to use different words and finally sign language worked. :)
Love the 1st pic Rand. Says alot :-)
Rand, I got exhausted just looking at those photos -- looks like you guys really packed a lot in!!
Prior to reading your report / looking at your slideshow, China was not all that high on my list of places to visit, but it is now. I particularly enjoyed the photo of the scorpions, starfish, etc, ready to be deep-fried (not that I would ever eat any of those!).
I have similar questions to the others who have already posted as to where the art you took photos of was displayed.
Where were the pictures of the girl with the “gun to her head” and the guy with the “red gloves”? Do they allow that kind of art? Or will that place be shut down soon?
Must be somewhere in Hong Kong?
Those art installations are in a place called 798 - an art district in downtown Beijing. It's shocking, but the district itself is government sponsored, so I don't think they'll be shutting it down.
Great article and fantastic pictures (esp. the one that Oatmeal linked to!) What an amazing opportunity. I'm especially impressed with how quickly you had all the info ready to post.
Under "Internet Usage in China vs. US", the third point has "XX" instead of stats. You probably did that as a placeholder, and meant to add the stats in later?
Great tips Rand, and pictures are awesome too. I woudn't be so brave to eat all that tradicional meals. Again thumbs up for a great post.
Awesome :) Glad you had a great time bud.
Quick idea for something for you: if you had to give someone a list of 5 things to do/see etc in China, what would it be?
Wow, amazing pictures and great article! I bet that must of been a total blast to travel with your Grandfather for that long in such a cool place. Welcome back!
Nice pics, great tips also. I would love to go to China!
That first picture is classic stuff. I'm surprised that China would allow that kind of "anti-red" art on display.