The Midnight Ride to Nanjing
By James Clayton

In America I would not think much about traveling from Nashville, Tennessee to Cincinnati, Ohio in order to make a scheduled meeting. The distance is about 280 miles, too short to take a plane, so I would plan to travel by car on I-65 North to Louisville. At Louisville, I would take I-71 North to my final destination - Cincinnati. If I timed my departure right, I could miss Louisville rush hour and minimize my delays. I would probably give myself about 4 to 4 1/2 hours of travel time with one planned stop for coffee. The convenience of interstate travel in America is something that we all take for granted. I am sure that some of us would complain about the trip to Cincinnati saying that it is boring and takes to long. But if you have ever travelled in China you would be exceedingly glad for the boring ride on the interstate.

China s interstate system is still in its infancy with only 25,500 miles of completed interstate in 2005 compared to America s 56,000 miles of interstate. China is planning interstate expansion of up to 40,000 miles by 2010 and 53,000 by 2020. That is a lot of concrete! In the US, we have about 240 million automobiles for a population of 301 million. In contrast, China has about 32 million automobiles for a population of 1.3 billion. If you do the simple math, you will find there is about 5,375 US citizens for every mile of interstate compared to 51,000 Chinese citizens to every mile of Chinese interstate. The ratio of cars in America to the US population is about .8 to 1 in China the ratio is .02 to 1. I shared all these numbers with you to give you a good understanding about travel expectations in China.

In the month of August, I had to leave Wenzhou in the afternoon, about 3:00 PM, to be in Nanjing the next day for a 9:00 AM meeting. The distance between the two cities is the same as Nashville to Cincinnati - 280 miles. The one huge difference between a trip from Nashville to Cincinnati and Wenzhou to Nanjing is an interstate. The trip from Wenzhou to Nanjing is approximately 11 hours with multiple stops for the driver (Chinese drivers stop frequently to avoid falling asleep), two ferry crossings, and several dirt roads (short cuts). Although the ride was long, hot, and uncomfortable, it opened my eyes to a China that I had never seen before.

The night travel revealed a hidden industry of logistics and a supply chain like I had never seen before. The roads were loaded with tractor and trailer rigs, mule-pulled wagons, and tricycles loaded 12 feet high with various products. Unlike the regulated and efficient trucking industry of America, these trucks had people piled up on the cargo of open trailers catching a ride to their next destination. The trucks traveled slow and steady, running about 30 to 40 miles per hour. Every rest stop was crowded with drivers, workers, and families taking a much needed break. Each stop we made, I became the object of interest, an American traveling the interior of China at night. Undoubtedly, I was the first American that many of these Chinese people had ever seen. This quiet and effective industry trudges along at night to supply the global demand for low cost manufactured goods as well as sustain the world s fastest growing economy - China.

Learn more on how to develop Guanxi 7,000 miles away by going to http://www.chinabizsuccess.com

http://www.chinabizsuccess.com/

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