MY FIRST experience of China was during the Silverstone-sponsored 4x4 Adventure Club overland drive from KL to Kumming via Vientienne, Laos. This was in the early 1990s, the start of China's glasnost. Traveling overland in your own vehicle is always a broadening experience, especially if you are traveling in a convoy. Sometimes in far off lands, when there is a major breakdown, there is the comfort of safety in numbers. On that first trip to China, my main impressions were that of driving on a meandering hill road and passing through villages that were centuries old.

Two weeks ago, I was again in China, this time with the Petronas Siberia 2002 overland expedition. I was doing the Beijing to Guilin route, just a seven-day sector of the entire 38-day event organised by the Petronas Adventure Team. While there has been a lot of information about the vast changes going on in China, being there on the ground gives you a reality check. Air crews frequently mention the joy of shopping in Beijing, and when I was there, I also went "WOW!". You'd think Thailand is cheap, try Beijing. It beats anywhere in the world for high quality, branded as well as rip-off products.

Then, the drive from Beijing down to Gullin was another eye-opener. A super highway, with huge ornamental toll houses built for much of that sector. However, the journey was an eventful experience. Total stoppages of up to an hour were not uncommon. The convoy experienced two dead stops, one of 40 minutes and another of 70 minutes. Most of the traffic consisted of trucks. As a rough estimate, out of 20 vehicles, there would be about three buses and three cars. When traffic came to a stop, there wasn't any mad rush to jump queue. The drivers would switch off the engine and relax. Those who were inclined, would stroll around the highway, waiting for the traffic to move again.

But like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, the few day of traveling in China was a mere speck of experience, leaving one with more questions than answers. On the flight back from Guangzhao to Kuala Lumpur, however, I was lucky enough to have both amiable neighbours, both Malaysians. Four wheel drivers both, they willingly shared their China experience.

One of them, Tommy Tham, 43, exports papayas to China. He said he got into the business quite by accident. When he graduated with a diploma in 1985, Malaysia was in recession and he could not get any job. Then, his friend who worked in the air freight business, aware that Tommy lived in Serdang (Serdang then was a new village with many fruit farms), asked him if he could collect good papayas. There was a market for the fruits in China, his friend informed. So, Tommy went around on a motorbike and rounded up the fruits for the air cargo friend.
Eventually, Tommy did some market research and went off to Hong Kong to meet the wholesale buyers so that he could sell direct. Today, Tommy and his brother-in-law are the owners of fruit farms in Malaysia and those on Hainan Island. What do the Chinese do with the papayas?

The big papayas, especially the ripe ones, are diced and used for boiling soup. Meanwhile, the small, solo papayas are lopped off at the top, stuffed with abalone and shark's fins. They are then double boiled for a premium "RM200 per person" soup. Engrossed in our conversation, Tommy touched on the subject of how cheap things were in China, and how competitively-priced they were. If that was the case, I wonder why didn't the mainland Chinese plant papayas themselves since they had the tropical climate in parts like the Hainan Island. In actual fact, Tommy has a plantation in Hainan Island and it's being managed by a RM7,000 per month" salaried Malaysian. Wasn't that a rather large salary? It was, under a normal circumstance, Tommy agreed, but the primitive living conditions on the Hainan Island farm justified it. He himself felt depressed if he had to stay on the farm for more than a few hours.

The fact remained, Hainan Island is not suitable for commercial-planting papayas because it is in the Typhoon Belt. And once too often, a big storm would blow through, uprooting most of the trees in its way. Besides, Malaysia's papayas are superior, sweeter and sweet-smelling due to the good combination of the right soil and climate. Besides papayas, Tommy also eported carambolas or star fruits to Europe. How come the Thais aren't doing this, since they were so good at agriculture? Tommy said that the Thais rent's cultivating star fruit because they were Buddhists and their faith declared that the star fruit was an article of faith, something like the Buddha's heart.
The Taiwanese, on the other hand, had developed Malaysian star fruit into a giant fruit. But this was not popular with the European market which only needed something to decorate cocktails, not as a fruit to eat. Furthermore, the Malaysian star fruit was tastier and has less fibre than the Taiwanese'.

Tommy then went on to describe about manufacturing in China. First, it was shoes. We know that the Malaysian shoe manufacturing industry is being decimated by Chinese competition. Half of the Malaysian shoe makers have closed shop. The smart ones have opened up factories in China. Tommy, who comes from Serdang - once the heart of the Malaysian shoe industry - filled me in with some facts.

A RM80 pair of leather shoes made in Malaysia will comprise RM20 leather materials amd RM60 labour. The same pair made in China will cost RM 10 for the leather materials and RM5 for the labor. It costs RM1 to transport a pair of shoes to Malaysia, bringing the total cost to RM16.00. The final and intriguing subject he told me before the flight touched down was the case of the lighter. Can you imagine a refillable piezo-electric lighter being sold at RM0.50 renminbi (1 renminbi = 50sen). So, you can actually buy a refillable piezo electric lighter for 25 sen. So, how much does it cost China to make them?

And for those smart Malaysians who are investing in automotive component plants in Thailand like Ingress Autoventures, it would be advisable to consider China if they aren't already there. Perhaps, Proton will lead the way for all in the China-Malaysia automotive trade now that it has announced a joint venture with a Chinese company.