Training for a charity trek?… Well the Hong Kong Convention Centre is a good place to start! With 5000 exhibitors and 7 huge halls you need your runners on!

The main exhibitors are homeware gifts and premiums. Day 1 and I didn’t hear one irish accent which is unusual but its only day 1. It does seem to be busier than the show in April, which is more positive.

There are more exhibition halls open this year and the layout has been changed around, so even the seasoned show goers are walking around like newbies!!!!

Its amazing despite David Beckams best efforts soccer is still not too big in China as not too many factories have focussed on world cup related products.

We have however sourced some great soccer supporter items and related goods.    We met our Pakistani supplier of soccer balls yesterday.

That’s it for day 1!!!!

Conor.

Arrived last night into Hong Kong airport, which is the world’s largest covered building in terms of square metres. Serious checks for swine flu as you have to pass through thermal scanners to check your temperature. luckily I declined the bacon and sausage breakfast on the plane (still on european time) before landing so get the all clear!!! back is sore after 12 hour flight. Yes TPI premiums fly economy to keep our cost base low and pass on the saving to our customers.

Today we have a factory visit in Guanzghou to see how one of our orders is progressing. Its a 2 hour train journey but the train service is pretty good and the carriages are comfy enough. The factory Manager collects us from the train station.    I’m with Terri Ma our employee in Hong Kong who looks after the sourcing and production of all our orders. We spend an hour in the factory as everything is in order and the temperatures outside are pretty hot and its clamy. Coming and going into China is the same as leaving the country with visa checks and bags scans.

Out this evening with another supplier. The economic climate in Hong Kong doesn’t seem to be as bad as in Ireland and you dont seem to get a sense of the “recession” or “downturn”. Property prices are on the way back up here and the stock market is looking good so people are more optimistic about the outlook. Companies are hiring again. Heres hoping some of that translates to Ireland soon.

Conor Callinan