Introduction

My first blog post.  It seems a little self indulgent to blog, so why am I starting?

It is out of a desire to leave some record of an adventure that started more than seven years ago in China.  I will probably never write a book or other traditional published record for my young adult kids to look at when they get to a more reflective age.   There is also the desire to share with a wider audience some of our experiences in the Middle Kingdom.   I am running a business here with my wife.  We are both fully engaged in the day-to-day running of the show.  Our perspective and our experiences here are unique, not just because we are both foreigners, but because I am Australian and my wife is Japanese and because we do not live in an expatriate community or have the support of a head office.  We are independent and small entrepreneurs.  We both came here not knowing a word of Chinese, but both being able to read quite a lot and being able to see similarities and differences at various levels with Japan, which makes for a pastiche of sharp insights, baffling mysteries and near-constant frustration.  How can these neighbours who look so similar and share so much be so utterly different, even opposites, or are they?

My wife is an accountant and the first Japanese woman to qualify as a CPA in Australia.  I have a very diverse background that started on a wheat and sheep farm in Western Australia.  See more about us here:  

Sonoe:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=101186118

Terry:

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=35251787

Our fist shipment,  December 2008.
Sonoe is holding Sammy, the mastiff.

The topics if this blog will be various.  I will use the early ones to describe our adventures to date and then I will post in reaction to whatever pulls my chain.  That is likely to be some new misadventure, such as a run in with customs or tax departments, or some uniquely Chinese business frustration.  I will avoid the temptation to use this forum to carp about all that is wrong with China.  There are enough people doing that.  If I offer anything in this vein it will be an attempt to explain rather than complain.  I hope that this blog might be useful or give succour to some other adventurous souls battling it out here on their lonesome.  I will also include just a few links to other blogs and sources of information that I have found especially useful, because sometimes less is more.  The ones you find here are, for me, only the gold.

So that is it for today.  And I am not sure how much time I will find to add more posts, but let's say once a week and see how it goes.

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