Ni hao everyone,
It's been a long time since my last e-mail so I am sure by now you are hungry for the new "Chinese stories". After such a positive feedback on my first letter I am now tied to maintain a high level of presentation.
The winter in Shanghai is very mild with temperatures around 6-10 degrees. Sometimes it's raining but rains are usually drizzling with little drops of water flying in the air so umbrella is not useful and is not necessary. Almost every day is foggy and fog is usually thick so from my 51st floor I can not see the ground and can hardly see neighbouring buildings. Sometime it feels like the office is flying in the clouds.
One evening in November my apartment got locked with the keys inside. In most Chinese houses the door-handle is done to open the door from inside so if the door is closed the only way to open it from outside is with the key. Now things got complicated when I found out that the key inside was in the lock so even with another key it was not possible to open the door. And this was a late evening already. So despite the invitation of friendly Chinese neighbours to spend the night in their apartment we went to the hotel hoping to resolve the issue in the morning. Did you ever try to get a room in the hotel without any ID (passport or drivers license)? The only place where it worked was the hotel where I stayed my first two weeks in Shanghai and only with the copy of my passport which I luckily found in the office. I the meantime I was already thinking of spending the night on the comfortable sofa at the KPMG reception. In the morning the problem was easily solved with the help of professional door opener invited by the landlord.
As I wrote to some of you I spent my Christmas holidays travelling on Fiji islands and staying three days in Sydney. What a pleasant feeling it was when everyone around understands you and you understand everyone :). Two weeks before our arrival to Fiji there was a military coup where the native Fijian army commander overturned the government headed by the Indian Prime Minister. Fiji used to be a British colony and half of its current population are Indians brought here to help harvesting sugar cane.
Fiji is undoubtedly one of the paradise spots on Earth. With beautiful beaches, uninhabited islands, cleanest waters and amazing sea and forest life, Fiji is a place of final destination for a number of rich people, former CEOs of large multinational companies etc. They usually buy an island or a separate resort and live there till death. When staying in those resorts you can spend hours talking with them about their life, experience and decision to settle in this remote and tranquil place. And they seem to be so happy as well as all native inhabitants of this banana republic. The coup could only be noticed with a military blockposts on the exits from the big cities, otherwise local people do not care who runs the government. (Fiji pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/FIJI)
Sydney, was first a bit of disappointment. I certainly expected something more from this city. Tourism is very commercialised in Sydney and you usually pay a lot for something that will not amaze you. However the nature is amazingly beautiful - from the best botanical garden I have ever seen to the nice sandy beaches with hundreds of surfers trying to catch ocean waves.
Returning to grey winter Shanghai was a bit sad but upon arrival I already had a feeling of coming back to a familiar place, almost like home. Actually Shanghai is not that grey as Kiev is as a lot of trees keep green leaves and in a lot of areas the grass is green all year long as this is a special sort of grass from Europe. It takes 8 minutes for the fast magnetic train travelling at the speed of 430 km per hour to get from the airport to the center of Shanghai. Same as with airplane you understand that when travelling that fast any accident could result is a disaster in which hardly anyone would survive.
While I was away, China and Shanghai closed another year of double digit GDP growth. For Shanghai it was a 15th double digit growth year in a row. Actually in 2006 China reached the same level of per capita GDP as Ukraine, however keeping in mind the number of people in this country you can feel the difference in size of economy.
Being a foreigner in Shanghai I can not escape being offered Rolexes and fake branded products several times every day. But I am already used to it. Local government just like in Ukraine makes it look like they are fighting with the producers of fake goods and pirated CDs/DVDs. This is what they committed to do when entering WTO. But in reality fake goods markets are just moving around the city from one place to another and fake DVDs are sold on every corner for the price slightly higher than $1. The usual shop on the fake market would have "double walls". Once you get in you will not see any branded products on the shelves but then they will open one of the shelves as a hidden door and you will get into another part of the shop filled with Versace, Louis Vouitton, Armani, Dolce Gabbana, etc bags, shoes and cloth, all sorts of Swiss style watches etc. Amazingly unlike a decade ago the quality of fake goods is very high so often you may have difficulties distinguishing where is the real thing and where the fake one. With both products produced in one country and sometimes by the same people its only the strict quality control that makes the real branded goods better.
Chinese cloth market is obviously something extraordinary. With thousands of small shops concentrated in one area they fiercely compete with each other to earn for living. Whenever you will try to approach such areas you will be immediately met by several special people who will guide you through the market and earn their commission from every shop where they will bring you. Whichever way you will go in such places people will be literally grabbing your hands asking to come to their shop.
As I already described you China and Shanghai are unmatchable in terms of services industry. Hardly in any other country (except maybe India) businesses will be able to employ so many people to provide you top quality and variety of services. Examples are massage saloons (everywhere in the city), hairdressers on every corner (different people will wash your hair, massage you shoulders, clean your ears, and make a haircut), home delivery at any time of the day and night (purchased goods, food, laundry service), shoe-shine boys. There are a lot of tailor made cloth markets in the city where you can order a tailor made suit, shirt or coat for you for the price at which you would not be able to buy a standard product in other countries. (E.g. tailor made suit or cashmere coat would cost you approximately $75, a good tailor made shirt $12, good quality ties are sold for slightly more than $1 each). To be able to buy at lowest price you will need to spend quite some time and energy bargaining so in the end you may give up simply because the difference would not be material to you.
Shanghai is the city of hundreds of sport clubs. They are everywhere - in the shopping malls, office centers and the prices are affordable unlike in Kiev. Membership in top quality club with the swimming pool in the center of the city would cost $700-$800 for two people per year.
One disappointing habit that a lot of Shanghainese have is spitting on the street. Even thought it was banned by law, when walking around the city you see it almost every minute. Some people say it is because of the number of people joining from countryside every year. Because of this and because of the dust the streets often look dirty.
Another noticeable fact is that Chinese rarely organise massive public events. The only place where you can see a big number of people in one place are stadiums, concert halls and shopping malls. There are no open public concerts, fireworks or anything like that that would organise a big number of people in the street, at least I have not seen it so far. Maybe it is because of the fear of crowd that Chinese officials have. But, as a result, all public holidays including New Year are celebrated silently in small groups at home or in the restaurant without big public events.
Having a basic knowledge of Mandarin you will inevitably start talking to the taxi drivers (taxis are cheap here so all foreigners use them every day). The first questions you will get: Where are you going? Where are you from? How long are you in Shanghai? What is your monthly income..?!?!?! For them it is a common practice to discuss such things. It is very uncommon for Chinese to keep silent: in any public transport - lift, train, taxi they will always find someone to talk to. When travelling to a neighbouring city for the weekend we met the guy who talked to us the whole way and invited us for the differ in the restaurant, where he also invited his relatives and friends. It was a common fun for us and for them.
The workload in the office seems to be milder compared to Kiev. There are people working in the evening and on weekends but this happens only close to deadlines and not for 100% of people all the time. The number of people matters in this case.
Every office event in Shanghai is supported by the lucky draw when everyone has a chance to win prizes ranging from MP3 players, photo cameras and tickets to the cinema to the trip for two to Texas (USA) (Main prize on the New Year Dinner). This seems to be a good practice enjoyed by everyone. By the way, New Year Dinner was the event for some 1500 people in one huge hall. I never saw so many KPMG staff in one place before.
China pictures are here:
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/DearShanghai
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/MyChina1
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/MyChina2
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/MajesticSichuan
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Xiamen
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Zhangjiajie
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/ChongqingAndYangtzeRiver
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/TigerLeapingGorge
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/MeiliSnowMt
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Daocheng
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Kunming
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Xishuanbanna
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/ShangriLa
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Lijiang
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Luoyang
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Wuzhen
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Sanya
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Huangshan
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Guilin
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Yangshuo
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Beijing
http://picasaweb.google.ru/Maryna.Gavryliuk/Tibet02
To be continued.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Update from China 1
Dear friends (as our President likes to say),
I feel that it is the right time to share my first impressions from life in Shanghai before I get used to what I see around me and will consider that to be a normal practice and before my excitement ends. Enjoy the reading before lunch.
Settling in took some time as well as some admin / bureaucratic procedures. I found good apartment close to the office (15 min walk). But buying necessary stuff for it was so annoying. It took 4 visits to Carrefour store. Its good that the Company reimburses expenses for any additional home appliances necessary (up to a certain limit).
Had a little adventure this week. Local embassy in Kiev issued a tourist type visa for me valid for 30 days only. So I had to extend my visa locally. But it turned out that I can not apply for an employment visa in China but should go outside of the country and apply through the embassy. Ridiculous situation. So the nearest place was Hong Kong. And I had to go to HK to open visa for China. Luckily it took me 1 day but …. It turned out that I needed a separate visa to enter HK.
So when I arrived to HK on Tuesday without visa I had to spend 2 hours in the immigration police with all sorts of illegal immigrants from India explaining why I came to HK without visa. And because I had all the documents for Chinese visa with me they finally let me in. (Unlike in Ukraine the police in HK was very polite and cooperative). HK is a very exciting place. Generally more expensive than Shanghai but prices for electronics are cheaper than in Shanghai and much cheaper than in Kiev (approximately 25-30%). And density of life here is just amazing. The business city centre is a concentration of skyscrapers with offices, trade centres with all buildings connected with each other by underground and 2nd floor passages. It would be very easy to get lost it there was no extensive information support on every corner.
Shanghai is a big megapolis with over 13 million people, thousands of shops and restaurants. It is quite dirty (not that there is rubbish on the streets but due to a dust in the air from numerous construction sites). Plus there are a lot of cars, bicycles and motor bikes on the streets and it is very noisy. I have never seen a clean sky here because of the smog. Maybe it will be cleaner in the spring. Traffic in the city is quite convenient. Metro lines cover substantial part of the city. Main highways have two floors and a lot of road junctions have 5 floors. Prices for taxi are cheaper than in Kiev and there are thousands of them around (price is the same in all taxi companies and there is a meter in every car). Sometimes it may be difficult to catch a taxi in busy hours or when it rains. None of the taxi drivers can understand any English/ International word. So if you say Metro, Carrefour, hotel or airport - they will not understand you.
Shanghai is a city of contrasts. You can see places in the city centre where on one side of the street is a fancy shopping centre or a residential compound where foreigners live (with own security) and across the road are slums where people live just like they were living there 50-70 years ago.
Shanghai is a real heaven in terms of food. You can spend years here visiting different restaurants. So far it was only few times that I visited the same. You can have a good lunch here for a little more than USD 2 (you will not be able to eat everything that is served). And if you go to a good restaurant and eat a lot of seafood, crocodile meat, drink fresh mango juice etc it will cost you around USD 30 (for 2 persons) - in Kiev this would cost at least USD 150. And you can find any sort of cuisine in this city.
It is also a heaven for shopping. The number of shopping centers is amazing. It seems like if I spent all of my 18 months in Shanghai for shopping I would not be able to visit all the shops in the city.
Very few people can speak English. The common problem for Chinese people is listening and speaking English. A lot of people can read and write but have difficulties speaking and understanding spoken language. I think this is due to the nature of the Chinese language. I am getting used to everyone speaking Chinese around me ( It does not sound funny anymore) and to "Chinese English". Especially this relates to people from HK and Singapore who know English very well but they have Chinese pronunciation and you just have get used to it in order to understand. I do not continue my language studies so far. I suspect that if I do it will take all my time and will not have time to enjoy my time in China. So I leave this burden to my wife who will have more than enough time to do it. But really without local language knowledge I sometimes feel myself like invalid. You just could enjoy a much more interesting life if you knew the language. Once more thing - due to the nature of the language it is not possible to write any international word in Chinese to make it sound the same. So they have to find characters to form the name that would sound very similar but would have a separate meaning in Chinese. For instance my name in Chinese sounds like Ge Li Lu (and means polite).
Also because of the competition for life here people are usually more aggressive in business. For instance real estate agents had to literally fight for me to conclude the contract though them. Also the traffic in Shanghai is horrible. Primarily because of motor bikes and bicycles. Also cars are frequently changing lanes and a beeping on every occasion so it is very noisy. On every crossroad there are police assistants controlling that drivers adhere to rules. A big difference with Kiev - when cars are turning left or right they will not let pedestrian cross the road for a green light first. They will go through the crowd. So you have be very careful even when crossing the street for a greed light. And in general it is not advisable for foreigners to drive in China.
Life in KPMG.
Hong Kong and China are one partnership. Currently with office in HK and 8 offices in China it includes 5200 of professional staff and 154 partners (Shanghai office - 1200 people and 38 partners). A lot of partners and senior managers in Shanghai are from HK. Expatriates in the office are from Singapore, Japan, US, UK, New Zealand, France, Sweden (in general not too many).
Last year HK practice celebrated 50 years since establishment and China practice - 20 years.
The practice structure is pretty much the same as in other countries. There is a noticeable difference between managers and senior managers - in other countries there is a subtle difference between these positions. In China SMs have a higher status. A lot of administrative work resides with SMs: Approval of expense claim, overtime hours, etc. The yearend for HK and China KPMG is March 30. Promotions and new salaries are announced in the end of June effective from July 1. Interestingly bonuses for staff below SM are not linked to individuals' performance but depend only the company's performance. Bonuses for SMs represent a percentage of the practice's profit.
Managers do not participate in management meetings (only Partners and SMs do). Also I noted that staff are not aware of practice revenues, this information is only disclosed to senior managers. Only partners have their own rooms. SMs have their own corners surrounded by office partitions. Managers just have fixed places in general room. But this does not bother me as I do not understand all conversations around me. Sometime I miss my quiet office room.
There is a significant turnover of staff in the office - growing economy places a significant demand for qualified and experienced people. So just like in Ukraine it is not uncommon for an S1 to do the work that should be done by S3 and A2 to do the work instead of A3 or S1. One client indicated that middle level management salaries in the banking industry doubled in the past year and people enjoy very fast career growth either internally of by moving between different companies within the same industry.
A significant part of KPMG's audit practice represents statutory audits. And because there is a deadline for statutory reporting workload here is very concentrated in the period of January - April as year-end here is 31 December. The rest of the year is more relaxed. Right now 90% of people leave the office at 5.30 pm (end of business day).
What also impressed me here is an availability of professional trainings. There is a modern training centre in Shanghai office and it offers a wide range of technical and soft skills trainings. So if people have time it is very easy to enrol and participate.
I was assigned to a financial services group but I will have exposure to all kinds of industries. So far I was assigned three clients - cable producer, large bank, and a hotel. All of them are parts of multinational groups.
More pictures will follow later. Because of the permanent smog it is difficult to make good photos. Besides I just bought a new professional camera and want to collect good quality shots to share.
To be continued…..
I feel that it is the right time to share my first impressions from life in Shanghai before I get used to what I see around me and will consider that to be a normal practice and before my excitement ends. Enjoy the reading before lunch.
Settling in took some time as well as some admin / bureaucratic procedures. I found good apartment close to the office (15 min walk). But buying necessary stuff for it was so annoying. It took 4 visits to Carrefour store. Its good that the Company reimburses expenses for any additional home appliances necessary (up to a certain limit).
Had a little adventure this week. Local embassy in Kiev issued a tourist type visa for me valid for 30 days only. So I had to extend my visa locally. But it turned out that I can not apply for an employment visa in China but should go outside of the country and apply through the embassy. Ridiculous situation. So the nearest place was Hong Kong. And I had to go to HK to open visa for China. Luckily it took me 1 day but …. It turned out that I needed a separate visa to enter HK.
So when I arrived to HK on Tuesday without visa I had to spend 2 hours in the immigration police with all sorts of illegal immigrants from India explaining why I came to HK without visa. And because I had all the documents for Chinese visa with me they finally let me in. (Unlike in Ukraine the police in HK was very polite and cooperative). HK is a very exciting place. Generally more expensive than Shanghai but prices for electronics are cheaper than in Shanghai and much cheaper than in Kiev (approximately 25-30%). And density of life here is just amazing. The business city centre is a concentration of skyscrapers with offices, trade centres with all buildings connected with each other by underground and 2nd floor passages. It would be very easy to get lost it there was no extensive information support on every corner.
Shanghai is a big megapolis with over 13 million people, thousands of shops and restaurants. It is quite dirty (not that there is rubbish on the streets but due to a dust in the air from numerous construction sites). Plus there are a lot of cars, bicycles and motor bikes on the streets and it is very noisy. I have never seen a clean sky here because of the smog. Maybe it will be cleaner in the spring. Traffic in the city is quite convenient. Metro lines cover substantial part of the city. Main highways have two floors and a lot of road junctions have 5 floors. Prices for taxi are cheaper than in Kiev and there are thousands of them around (price is the same in all taxi companies and there is a meter in every car). Sometimes it may be difficult to catch a taxi in busy hours or when it rains. None of the taxi drivers can understand any English/ International word. So if you say Metro, Carrefour, hotel or airport - they will not understand you.
Shanghai is a city of contrasts. You can see places in the city centre where on one side of the street is a fancy shopping centre or a residential compound where foreigners live (with own security) and across the road are slums where people live just like they were living there 50-70 years ago.
Shanghai is a real heaven in terms of food. You can spend years here visiting different restaurants. So far it was only few times that I visited the same. You can have a good lunch here for a little more than USD 2 (you will not be able to eat everything that is served). And if you go to a good restaurant and eat a lot of seafood, crocodile meat, drink fresh mango juice etc it will cost you around USD 30 (for 2 persons) - in Kiev this would cost at least USD 150. And you can find any sort of cuisine in this city.
It is also a heaven for shopping. The number of shopping centers is amazing. It seems like if I spent all of my 18 months in Shanghai for shopping I would not be able to visit all the shops in the city.
Very few people can speak English. The common problem for Chinese people is listening and speaking English. A lot of people can read and write but have difficulties speaking and understanding spoken language. I think this is due to the nature of the Chinese language. I am getting used to everyone speaking Chinese around me ( It does not sound funny anymore) and to "Chinese English". Especially this relates to people from HK and Singapore who know English very well but they have Chinese pronunciation and you just have get used to it in order to understand. I do not continue my language studies so far. I suspect that if I do it will take all my time and will not have time to enjoy my time in China. So I leave this burden to my wife who will have more than enough time to do it. But really without local language knowledge I sometimes feel myself like invalid. You just could enjoy a much more interesting life if you knew the language. Once more thing - due to the nature of the language it is not possible to write any international word in Chinese to make it sound the same. So they have to find characters to form the name that would sound very similar but would have a separate meaning in Chinese. For instance my name in Chinese sounds like Ge Li Lu (and means polite).
Also because of the competition for life here people are usually more aggressive in business. For instance real estate agents had to literally fight for me to conclude the contract though them. Also the traffic in Shanghai is horrible. Primarily because of motor bikes and bicycles. Also cars are frequently changing lanes and a beeping on every occasion so it is very noisy. On every crossroad there are police assistants controlling that drivers adhere to rules. A big difference with Kiev - when cars are turning left or right they will not let pedestrian cross the road for a green light first. They will go through the crowd. So you have be very careful even when crossing the street for a greed light. And in general it is not advisable for foreigners to drive in China.
Life in KPMG.
Hong Kong and China are one partnership. Currently with office in HK and 8 offices in China it includes 5200 of professional staff and 154 partners (Shanghai office - 1200 people and 38 partners). A lot of partners and senior managers in Shanghai are from HK. Expatriates in the office are from Singapore, Japan, US, UK, New Zealand, France, Sweden (in general not too many).
Last year HK practice celebrated 50 years since establishment and China practice - 20 years.
The practice structure is pretty much the same as in other countries. There is a noticeable difference between managers and senior managers - in other countries there is a subtle difference between these positions. In China SMs have a higher status. A lot of administrative work resides with SMs: Approval of expense claim, overtime hours, etc. The yearend for HK and China KPMG is March 30. Promotions and new salaries are announced in the end of June effective from July 1. Interestingly bonuses for staff below SM are not linked to individuals' performance but depend only the company's performance. Bonuses for SMs represent a percentage of the practice's profit.
Managers do not participate in management meetings (only Partners and SMs do). Also I noted that staff are not aware of practice revenues, this information is only disclosed to senior managers. Only partners have their own rooms. SMs have their own corners surrounded by office partitions. Managers just have fixed places in general room. But this does not bother me as I do not understand all conversations around me. Sometime I miss my quiet office room.
There is a significant turnover of staff in the office - growing economy places a significant demand for qualified and experienced people. So just like in Ukraine it is not uncommon for an S1 to do the work that should be done by S3 and A2 to do the work instead of A3 or S1. One client indicated that middle level management salaries in the banking industry doubled in the past year and people enjoy very fast career growth either internally of by moving between different companies within the same industry.
A significant part of KPMG's audit practice represents statutory audits. And because there is a deadline for statutory reporting workload here is very concentrated in the period of January - April as year-end here is 31 December. The rest of the year is more relaxed. Right now 90% of people leave the office at 5.30 pm (end of business day).
What also impressed me here is an availability of professional trainings. There is a modern training centre in Shanghai office and it offers a wide range of technical and soft skills trainings. So if people have time it is very easy to enrol and participate.
I was assigned to a financial services group but I will have exposure to all kinds of industries. So far I was assigned three clients - cable producer, large bank, and a hotel. All of them are parts of multinational groups.
More pictures will follow later. Because of the permanent smog it is difficult to make good photos. Besides I just bought a new professional camera and want to collect good quality shots to share.
To be continued…..
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