The China Road Show has started
Our China Road Tour is underway. Once again, the hurdles we faced seemed insurmountable. First among them, how do we get our Editourmobil to the Celestial Empire? We undertook intensive research. The necessary permits alone would have taken us 6 months and would have cost €30,000, and there was no guarantee at the end of it that we would be allowed in with our vehicle.
The obvious solution was to rent a motorhome. But how? There is virtually no rental market and certainly no camping infrastructure here. But then a glimmer of hope: Messe Duesseldorf is host to one of the biggest camping exhibitions in Germany and they have established a small branch in China. Through their local contacts we managed to locate a rental company in Beijing. We immediately rented their entire fleet, one vehicle to be precise.
So now here I am sitting in a Chinese motorhome in a parking area in the middle of Beijing. Outside the generator is clattering noisily, but at least it means we can enjoy a coffee, run a hot shower and recharge the batteries. The noise is a nuisance but it doesn’t seem to bother Chinese passers-by.
Yesterday our first appointment was with Jock C. Lim, founder and owner of Delvron in Tianjin. He emigrated here from Singapore over 20 years ago and built up a preform and bottle business for the cosmetics and household sector. The business became increasingly difficult for him, since transportation costs kept going up and up. So now, at the ripe old age of 72, he has decided to build a one-step system which he intends to deliver to his customers instead of preforms.
