i’ve thought about heading out thataways…my folks are going to retire there, so at least i’ll have an excuse to visit. how does one get a job out there?
The gold rush is on in Shanghai
By Allen Wan, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 10:22 PM ET Dec 28, 2003
SHANGHAI (CBS.MW) — It’s not California during the Gold Rush, but Shanghai does have the smell of a place where anything is possible.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans, Europeans, Japanese and other foreigners are flowing into China’s financial capital, transforming the city from what was still a communist backwater back in the late 1980s into an international city that may soon rank up there with New York and London.
The wave of foreign businessmen, bankers and freelancers have been joined by another 3 million Chinese from other provinces, many of whom are migrants jamming into what is already one of the most crowded cities in the world.
“Basically, Shanghai is very hot, and lots of people are moving here — companies, migrant workers, foreigners,” said Bob Dodds, vice president at investment bank China International Capital Corporation.
Dodds, a New York native and a longtime China resident, has had a bird’s-eye view of the changes, having arrived in Shanghai back in 1988 as a student at one of the local universities. Now as a senior banker at one of the country’s top banks, Dodds gets flooded with résumés from the best and the brightest — many of whom could work anywhere in the world but choose to take lower pay for a piece of the action in China.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai has been a major beneficiary of increased interest in the city and China as a whole. Membership is up 25 percent in 2003 to 2,300 members, making the organization the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.
“There is a small rush, but it’s going to get bigger,” said Philip Branham, president of AmCham Shanghai and Asia-Pacific director of operations at construction and engineering company Fluor (FLR) . “You’re seeing a lot of smaller and medium-sized companies coming in,” he told CBS MarketWatch.
The third wave?
Call it the third wave, for lack of a better term. First were the Coca-Colas (KO) and Motorolas (MOT) of the world. Then the Intels (INTC) . Now, it’s a lot of smaller companies from middle America that have come to realize survival may mean sleeping with the enemy, so to speak.
China’s booming economic growth has had a lot to do with its allure to companies and individuals alike. The economy, which grew at more than 8 percent per annum on average over the past decade, is expected to rise another 9 percent this year, fueled by exports and foreign investment.
Shanghai’s average wages are also probably the highest in China, going as high as 5,000 yuan a month ($625), though day laborers are lucky to earn a third of that. Some young foreigners are getting 8,000 yuan off the plane — not a lot but more than enough to get by in a country where annual income per capita barely cracks a grand.
And then there’s Shanghai’s own unique charm. Dubbed the “Paris of the East” prior to the Second World War, the city is seeking to cement its reputation as the most open of China’s cities as well as reclaim its status as the country’s economic hub from Hong Kong.
It was Shanghai’s potential as a world-class city that drew Canadian-Chinese architect David Leung to the commercial capital. Leung, who had worked on London’s famous Canary Wharf development, left Jakarta back in 1999 following ethnic riots and came to Shanghai as a one-man show.
He now runs a 20-person office at DKL Maestro International and is looking to expand that by 50 percent. “I’ve got more work than I can handle,” said Leung.
But working in China isn’t without its unique set of problems. For Leung, it’s the rampant copying of his designs and work. “I had one guy I hired who left after a few years and opened an office right upstairs. The first thing he did was to call my clients.”
Unbowed by setbacks to his fledgling business, Leung said he believes “there’s still enough to go around.” He thinks the widespread piracy in China has to do with culture and education — or lack thereof, he said. “The Chinese think that copying is the highest form of praise.”
But for American multinationals that have been pouring billions of dollars into the mainland, the pervasive infringement of intellectual-property rights could ultimately sour the bullish investment mood, with nations in Southeast Asia as well as a fast-rising India picking up the slack.
burning man tix go on sale midnight, march 1st.