News
Weather fools Dongguan public, skyscraper NOT on fire
In downtown Dongguan, a manufacturing hub in southern China’s Guangdong Province, the Internet caught fire with chatter after images appeared to show the city’s tallest building engulfed in flames. On the foggy March 4 evening, at least two pictures taken nearby in the city’s new central business district show the upper half of the TBA Tower […]
Thriving Music Scene
When the Brown Sugar Jar, a first for alternative live music venues in Dongguan, opened in August 2013 under the 17th century Jin’Ao pagoda in Wanjiang, the nightlife scene was thought to have entered a new era. A year and a half later, the scene is expanding. With its soft opening last Christmas Eve, the […]
Wanda Slow Down
In January, news that stated Wanda Plaza Chang’an is closing its department stores in a change of its strategy went viral in Dongguan. On January 6, reporters from Southern Metropolis Daily talked to a few business owners who were having clearance sales. They were ordered to leave by the end of February. Opened for less […]
Nokia Ends an Era
Built in 1995, the Nokia mobile phone factory was once Dongguan’s No.1 exporter. This factory was an important production center for the company as well as an icon of the city’s manufacturing industry. However, in 2015, after two decades of operation, Microsoft, who purchased the company in 2013, announced, according to Beijing Youth Daily, it […]
Around Town
A Smooth New You
Since the first day of this year, I’ve been unintentionally keeping to a resolution: bring balance and more nutrients to my diet. It’s been unintentional because I never once thought, “Hey girl, let’s work on eating better this year.” In fact, since the beginning of this column—this month marks my 30th article—I’d say I’ve been […]
PRD Megacity
Perhaps many still remember the reports that went viral in 2011 claiming nine cities in the Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan would merge into the world’s biggest city. Although it was debunked two days later by the provincial party committee, the differences in infrastructure and public services are steadily dwindling. As […]
El Caliente: Find the Time
When El Caliente opened over a year ago there was a lot of excitement for the city’s first authentic Mexican restaurant. It is fair to say that at first it divided opinion. Many loved the Margarita during happy hours while others were surprised by some of the dishes. Over the past year the restaurant has […]
The Challenge of Localizing
An ongoing challenge for many international companies is localization of senior management. Expatriates are far more expensive than locals. The problem is that many local Chinese lack the international experience and expertise necessary for those positions. After all, they’re responsible not only for operations in China, but for coordinating operations with offices around the world. […]
Interests
Tigers Knock Out Leopards, Will Hall of Fame Coach Return?
Both of Dongguan’s basketball clubs, the Guangdong Southern Tigers and the Dongguan Leopards opened the 2014-15 CBA Playoffs against each other in a No. 1 versus No. 8 quarter final matchup on Friday, February 6 and completed the series within a week of when it began. The Dongguan Leopards played as hard as they […]
Learning from Experience: The Hows and Whens of Hiring Interns in China
SHANGHAI – Just like in any other country, companies in China often offer internships to young people looking to enter the job market. Typically, this is a win-win situation: the intern gets valuable work experience and the company is able to shift the work-load of its permanent staff to lower paid interns. But in actuality, […]
China Calling: A Punk Tour with Clowns
To be a band touring in China was totally a dream come true. We had been offered the opportunity a couple times over the last 12 months, and with not much else better to do, we anxiously accepted the offer. There were a few meetings with our friend Tom of This Town Touring (a Chinese/Australian […]
Pet Shipping: The Instruction Book
Let’s face it. Your pets are relying on you, and you can’t live without them. To bring them along on the adventure of living overseas, or returning from the odyssey, means that the little bundle of trust and love must often be left in the hands of complete strangers. There is little that we can […]
Living Here
Model Mandarin: February 2015
BEAR IN MIND Remember how to speak by saying things you shouldn’t. Throughout China, there are plenty of regional variants of Chinese New Year customs. In some, it is considered inauspicious to get a haircut before the second day of the lunar year (That’s February 20 this year), especially for the guys. Keeping the longer […]
Zhongtang
HISTORY Zhongtang was established as a village more than 1,000 years ago dating back to the Song Dynasty. Thanks to its watery geography, inhabitants cultivated crops with great success, mainly rice. With the males out in the fields, village women, mostly housewives, toiled away de-husking with wooden mortars. The sound of rice husking and pounding […]
Blossoming Trends: The Need to Know of Valentine’s Shopping in China
“If you consider buying a huge bunch of red roses from the flower streets for your girlfriends, you perhaps lived in the Middle Ages,” Ye Haomin, owner of a Dongguan flower shop, said jokingly. Zhu Na, another of the city’s flower shop owners, agrees that over the last few years more Chinese are buying flowers […]
Model Mandarin: January 2015
BEAR IN MIND Remember how to speak by saying things you shouldn’t. In daily communication between girls and boys, it’s always good to know how to express something in a nice way to make a happy conversation. Let’s try these sentences out next time. tīngshuō jīntiān wǎn shang de diànyǐng bú cuò, yǒu kōng yìqǐ […]
Other Recent Posts
Torn Art
Her first time in the Mainland, Hong Kong-based textile artist, Sandra Chung, took three pieces of her art to Dongguan and for an exhibit at the Aloft Dongguan Songshan Lake. On February 9, she came to the hotel with a demonstration using rice paper and ink, and explained her art to the hotel’s VIP clients. […]
It’s a Hobby for Many
Dongguan’s newest social club is breaking down another stereotype in China. William Davis Jr., a Chicago-area man affectionately known as Charlie Waffles, hopes to install his hobby into the social scene, matching a group that he started in Busan, South Korea, which hosted up to 50 people meeting weekly to play board games and socialize. […]
Spiritual Healing
While Dongguaners can find a Reiki massage table at a local factory, and Chinese traditional medicine is widespread, alternative healers are not. However, now that Megan Murray from Melbourne, Australia is in town, the city has its first certified Reiki therapist and holistic counselor. The ancient Japanese technique, used to channel energy for healing and […]
Defacing HK Permits Goes Viral
The latest brush fire in the dispute between Guangdong and their Hong Kong neighbors inspired a trend of document slashing, some using copy and paste, while others made more permanent cuts. It is the latest step since mainlanders were accosted in a Shatin District shopping center. Two weeks later, around February 26, reactionary Weibo and […]
