| << return to blog entries
2010-09-10 10:57:50 (3788 views) In Hong Kong again to renew the visa. It's been a rough 6 months. Avoiding China rants has required a bit of self discipline because, well, there's something to rant about multiple times a day and that wouldn't be very interesting for our users.
However some write us saying they really enjoy reading about the everyday reality of living in China getting a product done so... supposing this could be mildly exotic to some (like some National Geographic documentary featuring arctic explorers showing off their freeze burns and how they use snow to make their Frappuccinos), we too will pose as the stoics and rant a bit about six months of inconveniences (to use a euphemism)...
We've spent 180 days amidst:
- power outages (new overlays are a few days late because sometimes even the factories go offline due to lack of electricity)
- water supply interruptions (allegedly scheduled to get the swimming pool clean fact or fiction?)
- mold in the previous apartment's bedroom causing a prolonged respiratory condition (took a month to figure out it was the mold - very good to know for next time)
- insects and disinfestation adventures with magic non-toxic 20 cents per pack Chinese chalk type mattress sterilizers
- pollution (hard to describe if you've never been to a developing country: buses leave pitch black clouds of smoke behind... you can't see through the smoke sometimes, it's like a dark solid!)
- expired food still sold on supermarket shelves (always always check what you buy, if uncertain about the color, LEAVE IT)
- one acute stomach infection (will spare you the details)
- tons of rough bus rides and the silicone saunas at the factory
- but the #1 problem in China, which eclipses anything else, is renovation. No matter how many apartments you change, there's always someone who starts renovating their apartment somewhere around you. The whole country is always under construction. And when they renovate, they renovate! They dismantle the whole floor, which means weeks and weeks of hammering the floor to remove all the old tiles... starting in the morning at 7am with occasional touch ups in the middle of the night. Lack of sleep is the number one enemy we've faced; fortunately after moving the third time we're now in a relatively quiet building. But this won't last very long. We're ready to move again when they start. It's the only way...
Despite all the inconveniences though, these were also 6 insanely productive and adventurous months, living a couple hours from the factories, being able to be on the spot to fix any problems quickly, making friends with the manufacturers, receiving tons of samples from different suppliers with next day delivery (which allowed us for instance to play with the glow in the dark parts), and more. In terms of what we've accomplished, coming here has been absolutely fantastic.
China visas keep getting harder and harder to get, first the multiple entry visas disappeared leaving only double and single entry ones. Now the double entries too can't be had through the regular channels because of the "asian games".
So this time we only get a 1 month visa, and we will have to again come back to Hong Kong in a month. We really hope to be done by then but realistically even if we start selling the first few units we'll still be dealing with the PCB assembly house and doing misc touch up work so it's likely we'll be here for a few more months at least.
The adventure continues...
Comments
Post new comment
 |
I know that everyone is DYING to get details on pricing and availability, especially since you announced yesterday that you've passed all of the hurtles necessary to sell in the US, but I just keep reading the blog and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer by the day. Mpst people, myself included, probably have very little idea of what's been really going on behind the scenes and what's involved in actually setting a price and launch date.
My hat is off to you both (I think it's just 2 of you). Hopefully, you'll be able to put this one to bed soon and get back home and be able to concentrate on actually selling these things, instead of building and testing them.
Then we'll all have to see what is in your evil minds for round 2. Hey....makes me think...you might want to put some remote access thing in the datalink so that if people start bugging you for info about your next project, you can zap them. LOL!
We know we have to hurry with the roll out plan - it's really a lot more complex than one might imagine... as with everything we try to get things right even if it takes a bit longer...