Traditionally, Japan has been the home of high end technological manufacturing. But over recent years China has been expanding its manufacturing capacity so that it is comfortably the second most productive nation in the world, behind the USA – and an increasing number of China’s factories are producing high specification technological goods.

Although the current recession is leaving large swathes of China’s manufacturing capacity empty, many of the world’s most famous brands still have a large quantity of their most popular goods coming out of China. As is well documented, Chinese based factories have significantly lower overheads than many other nations.

In terms of higher end manufacturing capacity, the Chinese government got one of the crown jewels of global industry, when they took receipt of Hong Kong in 1997. Though the British clearly would have liked to keep this highly lucrative island, there was the small question of a 99 year lease which had to be honoured.

We normally have a very nice scenic view of fields with horses in from our office window, however coming to work by boat might have been a little easier than using the car on Tuesday! Maybe we should design a more suitable vehicle for dealing with such weather!

Flood

We had barely got back to normal following the snow the week before having missed a day on Monday 2nd, when we were faced with trying to find a new route to the office, as several of the usual roads were flooded. Luckily our offices are well away from the water, and there is little danger of them flooding, however the issue was just finding a road to get here! Still everyone made it in eventually, and a normal days work followed. A few days later the river levels had all reduced to something more normal, and the roads were all clear again. If you are intending to visit after some extreme weather, then I suggest a quick call to the office to find the best route to come. We hope to see you very soon!