The BBC box hits China

Money's what makes the world go round...So, the BBC is following a cargo container around world for a year to tell stories of globalisation and the world economy. For the first journey the box traveled more than 10,000 nautical miles - from Greenock, Scotland, via Southampton and along the Suez Canal, Egypt and Singapore. Watch the BBC news report here.

The BBC box arrived on Wednesday at the Yangshan port in China, one of the biggest on the planet (and so busy it's getting an artificial island in the East China Sea for its newest container terminal). Inside the box was 15,000 bottles of 12-year-old Chivas Scotch (from, um, Scotland) destined for the bars of Shanghai.

5mins to spare Watch this Google Map of the cargo's journey.

U.S. slow down But, cargo shipping has suddenly become a lot cheaper as U.S. demand for goods has slackened so ships are sailing back half full (sending the box back to Southampton will cost a third less than last year). Wait a minute - don't you think we should begin to live in a more "macrobiotic-friendly" way - i.e. consume more local stuff, or at least stuff less traveled. It'll definitely be more expensive in the short-term but it's the only way forward.

Here's a crazy example of what's happening. Most Alaskan salmon is caught, quickly frozen and then *shipped to China* for preparation (fileting, boning etc.) before being shipped back to the U.S.!? Do you think that's excessive?

No holding back With up to 250 million middle-class Chinese consumers waiting their turn to join the consumer bandwagon simple things like Marks & Spencer's digestive biscuits are in demand. "Prices in Marks and Spencer are fine for me - considering quality," says one male shopper. "But I am more careful with my spending these days. Our earnings just aren't as stable as they used to be when the economy had double digit growth."

China stands strong Here's an amazing factoid. Even though there's a worldwide slowdown predictions are that China's burgeoning middle-class can help China maintain strong growth. "If the economy is growing well globally then China can grow at 12%, if it boosts consumption, but if the rest of the world is not doing so well, they can still grow at 9%, which ain't bad," says Access Asia's Paul French.

China's factories are closing

Unemployment is becoming a Chinese issue

During the McCain presidential campaign we've heard about all the money that the Middle-East is hoarding due to America's oil dependence and how the US owes the China trillions of dollars.

That's one side of the story and both those countries are in the black, rather than the red. But it's not all rosy. In China, where I never really thought people would ever be unemployed, the US-based, but global recession is starting to bite.

Fo' real, or not fo' real?

I love new gadgets, but there's never a "right time" to buy. Now it seems, you may not even be buying the real thing?!

Nokia's latest mobile phones have appeared on eBay this week. The N96 (US$500+) and Sapphire Arte (US$1,000) mobile phone handsets are being listed for "way below the market price." Uh, an obvious hint that they're fake?!



Surprising to me is the role Dubai plays in the trade of bogus goods. It seems that the UAE is a known hub for traffiking goods from China to the West. Known as the "dragon market" it's described as "the biggest trading port for Chinese traders outside China."

Nokia UK's managing director, Simon Ainslie, told Mobile magazine, "We take [counterfeit products] very seriously. Copied phones still exist and our intellectual property team are always investigating them."

Here is a blatant advert for a website that supplies the bogus gadgets.



Helpful links
How to detect fake Nokias