Unpredictable but that's just the nature of the beast. We can either dump it or deal with it. The chances are that we won't have a choice. The wind of change has started and though it's not stoking any major fires as yet but then tomorrow is another day.

65% of India is young and that could be a major storm, brewing at a distance. Many skins will be changed before we see any true colours emerging. So I don't know about world controlling but for next many years, with its bag full of surprises, India will surely remain the power that will control our collective mindspace.”

If you want to do business with China, it is important for you to find reliable suppliers to form your business relationship. Since not all the businessmen are honest, the starting of a business relationship is very hard. However, there are ways to find reliable suppliers from China. If you can go through the channels offered by the government of China, it would be the best choice. Almost no company can have the guts to cheat the government. This is the channel called official channel. Also, you can find some reliable suppliers via exhibitions and expositions. Try to deal with the companies that have the large booth, or, you can study them on the exhibition or expositions. They offer many samples with the introduction of their company, which can offer a reference for you to know if it is a reliable company.

Next, if you want to use internet to find suppliers from China. There are many places for you to go. GlobalSources.com is a good place for you to find reliable suppliers. If you know alibaba.com, you need to try to deal with the suppliers with the marks of members. The annual fee is relatively high, so the members usually have good credit records than the free members. Another place is here. If you know Chinese, you can go directly to the Chinese version. It the web site approved by MINISTRY OF COMMERCE, PRC. You can put your requirements there, and also, you can submit your inform of purchasing there.

There are meeting held by the government with the purpose to promote sales worldwide from China. If you have chance, take part in this kind of meetings. You can find reliable suppliers there, too. One thing that you have to pay attention to is that no matter what kind of channels you have used to find the suppliers, and no matter how long you have known each other, keep the quality control first. Occasionally, or now and then, or often, as you like, probe the company if possible.

The above mentioned, I think, are valuable suggestions. Wish they could help you a little bit in establishing business relationship with China. Do you want to open an office to run a business in China? If you want to know how to open an office in China, please go on reading this article. It would be very useful for you. How to run an office in China then?

First of all, you should check if your business is in the following categories that are allowed by the Chinese government:

• Energy development, the construction materials industry, the chemical industry, metallurgy industry
• Machinery manufacturing industry, industrial instrumentation, offshore oil mining equipment manufacturing sector.
• The electronics industry, the computer industry, communications equipment manufacturing industries.
• Light industry, textile industry, food industry, medicine and the medical equipment industry, the packaging industry.
• Agriculture, animal husbandry, aquaculture industry.
• Tourism and services sectors.

If your business is in the fields that are listed above, go on to the next step.

Second, you can open your office as a branch office of your company or you can register a new company with the government. You are required to submit your information, business plan in brief or details and other things related to your business to the local government. There is a bureau of each local government which controls the registration of companies--industry and business administration bureau. It takes from about two months for your information to be approved. If you want to take part in a business run by a native Chinese or you want to run the business in the name of your Chinese friend, it is slightly different. The latter is a bit easier.

Third, when you have all your information approved, you will be given permits to run the business, and during that period, you can find your place for business. It should be registered as your main work place for your business.

Fourth, after you have all the permits and licenses at hand, you can do your business there.

If you need further information, you can pay a visit here. There are many polices related to opening an office in China. Also, you can ask the staff of the web site for help. If you have already chosen a place for your business, such as Beijing, you can directly call the local industry and business administration bureau for more information.

With the fast development of China, there are a huge amount of demands from abroad. If you want to sell your products in China, or if you have entered the market and want expand your sales, you will find this article helpful to you.

The thing is, people are so paranoid these days on products made from China that people even thought of boycotting them! Insane! Without products made in these countries, we would have no Wal-Mart, dollar stores and other stores made for the working class. Business men love to get a deal and when Asian countries want money to, scam is all they give. Mass produce for low wages but it's good for the business men.

So my last words are, don't be afraid of Chinese made products because it won't have a higher chance of killing you than in a car crash. Buy Chinese made stuff and buy Canadian/American made stuff. It's ok.

My authentic, coveted bag, I will not forsake you. Let no one person cast aside the miracle of your Armani presence in exchange for a brown pleather bag with squiggly insignia resembling Y S L. Let the powers of branding sweep across middle earth, and ignite the hearts of the uninformed and rogue Chinese spenders who rapaciously banter down prices, intently attracted by the handbag that can be gotten inexpensively or thrown-in to offset a price, rather than desire with the fire of a thousand hells you, the flawless replica, that so eloquently speaks to my Occidental albeit discount-shopper self like a command issued from the heavens. You must create your identity! Create! Create!'

Need Creation

Creating a need for luxury brands in China is not a simple matter of transferring the global demand for luxury items into a new market - it requires an overhaul of cultural perception. Haier is a global Chinese brand, but is it sexy? Not exactly, and it is branding that can spin the profit of product recognition into surefooted market advantage. But if sex sells, branding in the Chinese market brings in to play an interesting question and even a prophesy about this private and closed-off world "opening" to the world. The world is coming to China through the open door but is China ready for Paris Hilton and Carl's Junior?

So Many Choices

What choices should be presented to Chinese consumers and in what context? Given the unbridled buying power teeming within middle earth, it is no surprise that branding wants to happen there. Branding is sex-y. But, one has to wonder how many Chinese consumers are as intently aware of Prada as their Western cousins, given the unparalleled number of designer replicas worried on busy shoulders in Beijing, all bearing nonsensical insignia like banners on the shoulders of the uninitiated.

Come One, Come All

There is no doubt that East and West alike are afloat in a sea of complexities that shape purchasing decisions. The answer is complex but one that marketers and CEO's are ready to untangle. Y S L is an accepted codename among brand-savvy consumers signaling "high-caliber lifestyle" or "reckless spender". How mesmerizing to marketers it must be when the North American consumer enter a market, and on the spot purchases their must-have fall bag, for then the true power of branding is as familiar as smog at Beijing dawn. Westerners will not leave without The Bag regardless of price tag. Conversely, the Chinese denizen cum consumer will leave easily with several insignificant bags, replica or not, and still enough cash-in-hand to stretch their purchasing power-experience into several tomorrows.

Bargain, or Brand - You Choose

The nub of it lies therein, nestled cantankerously between impulse, vanity purchases and the power and glory of buying Western merch for a song. At the psychological root of the Western versus Eastern consumer experience there is a difference of identity. Marketers have a challenge at hand in the creation of "The Must Have" purchases that have been skillfully striking at the core of western identity since Ford first swept Americans away in a modern, conspicuous consumption roar.

China Will Demonstrate Its Success

Catch phrases like "life-style purchases" come to mind, and Chinese CEO's and marketing executives need to delve deep into the beating hearts of their consumers to find therein a clue to successful branding in China. Western identity is cloaked in consumer choice, each individual a potential canvas whose identity need be dressed-up or down in label choices that speak volumes about personal values, success, and sex. What the world stage has past proven time and again is the bizarre changeability of people's perceived needs in the global, cult of manufactured desire. This sounds like a stretch for first and second, generation party members whose identity was wrapped in the identity of a socialist dream, or does it?

A few design firms are taking the lead in this area of design research, designing buildings in which the design's success or failure is determined by its relationship to the environment.

Conde Nast Building (Fox and Fowle, New York, 1999)

Built as part of the renaissance of Times Square, the Conde Nast building is also the first ecologically designed North American skyscraper. AT the time of its construction, high-rise buildings rarely addressed environmental issues. Today, many of its innovations are considered standard for office buildings.

A monumental catalyst for the ear, this is the first office building to be developed by the 42nd Street Development Corporation, a public/private consortium established to promote the redevelopment of Times Square. Located on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, the Conde Nast building straddles the glitzy Times Square entertainment area to the west and the corporate Midtown area to the east.

Designed with two distinct faces, the west and north facades respond to Times Square with the glitter and technology of metal and glass, while the east and south facades respond to the corporate context with a historical stone façade, creating, according to the architect's description, a “marriage of pop culture and corporate dignity.”

At street level, the tower's lobby, with its dramatically curved ceiling, connects 42nd and 43rd streets, drawing visitors through the building. Responding to the Times Square zoning ordinance, the building's base is covered with billboards and neon sign age.

This building sets new standards in energy conservation, indoor environmental quality, recycling systems, and the use of sustainable materials. The large glazed-glass areas of curtain wall maximize daylight penetration. The curtain-wall glazing incorporates a low-E coating to filter out unwanted ultraviolet light while minimizing heat gain and loss. Photovoltaic panels are integrated in the spandrel areas on the upper floors of the east and south faces, generating a meager but symbolic amount of electricity by day.

Sophisticated mechanical systems ensure high indoor air quality by introducing filtered fresh air to the office environment. Tenant guidelines produced by the architects established environmental standards for lighting, power usage, furniture systems, carpet, fabrics, finishes, and maintenance materials to ensure indoor air quality, and also to serve as a comprehensive strategy to maintain environmental sustainability for the life of the building.

This pastiche of environmentalism, historicism, futurism, and commercialism creates a complex architectural organism. Indeed, the arguments for energy conservation seem out of place in a neighborhood like Times Square, which is predicated on a spectacular excess of energy-consuming visual pyrotechnics. A difficult first in the realm of ecological skyscraper design, it anticipates the next generation of ecologically sensitive North American skyscrapers.

Deutsche Post AG (Murphy/Jahn, Bonn, 2001)

This sleek tower housing the new headquarters for the Deutsche Post is exemplary of a kind of sustainable design practice that achieves the goal of environmentally sensitive architecture without sacrificing aesthetics or occupant comfort. The tower rethinks the skyscraper as a building type by focusing on the integration of function, technology, and user comfort to create an architecture of “high technology and low energy.”

The tower is made up of two curved semicircular masses connected by glass bridges. The connecting floors, at nine-story intervals, form atrium sky gardens which are naturally ventilated and serve as interior communal spaces. A skylight annex houses additional public spaces at the base of the tower, and is clad in a “smart skin” of glass and integrated photovoltaic panels.

The façade design consists of a twin shell glass curtain wall. The clear glass outer shell allows for natural ventilation, and protects from rain, wind, and noise. The operable inner shell allows occupants to control the local interior climate. Floor to ceiling glazing optimizes daylight penetration and reduces energy consumption through the reduction of interior lighting, while integrated sun shades in the façade cavity control heat gain during periods of direct solar exposure. As the architects point out, the building's roof and façade are no longer surfaces with constant properties, but rather a highly specific system of interchangeable parts that allows the building to adapt to changes in temperature, humidity, light intensity, or acoustics. The architects describe the multi cell roof as “the technical equivalent of the biological skin.”

The building employs an integrated heating and cooling radiant-slab system, taking advantage of the thermal storage capacity of concrete. Additional heating and cooling systems assist with interior climate-control during summer and winter months.

Utilizing a computerized building management system, the building monitors its climate and controls all of the components to optimize its “operational mode.” The intelligent building creates its own equilibrium with the exterior environment through constant feedback. Careful monitoring reduces redundant lighting and conditioning, providing these only as required, and significantly reducing operating costs.

The collaboration between Jahn and Sobeek produces what they call “archi-neering,” a seamless integration of architecture and engineering design. The design for the Deutsche Post building achieves new levels of design integration with technology, in order to create smarter and more responsible architecture. Jahn describes this environmental optimization by stating, “Nothing must bed added, and nothing can be taken away.”

Adia Headquarters (Kohn Pederson Fox International, Abu Dhabi, 2004)

The curvilinear headquarters building for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) combines a sensuous formal vocabulary with a low energy design strategy appropriate to the Middle Easter climate. The building mass is draped in a glass curtain wall that folds in and out of the tower, transforming from the taut skin of the exterior envelope to the inner liner of the internal atrium.

The building is sited in a green fringe of the city, close to the sea. Its curved form gestures to the waterfront on the west, with elevators and other services concentrated on the east. The tower consists of two wings connected by an elevator core and a setback atrium. The building mass is camouflaged by the undulating ribbon like surface that projects above the tower, culminating in a sail like projection on the north façade.

The curtain wall consists of a double façade of clear glass that admits natural light and air while cutting down on the amount of solar heat gain. The taut glass skin transforms on the west façade with the introduction of horizontal sun-shading devices. The interior atrium is conceived as a series of stacked sky-gardens that act as passive means to regulate humidity and temperature, as well as contributing to a sense of community.

The architects describe the form of the tower as a “rethinking of the tall office building in a changing cultural, social, and environmental context.” The organic form of the tower seems to be derived from a concern with the fluid forces in the context, rather than a rigorous internal logic. Indeed the curvilinear geometry of the floor departs from conventional space-planning modularity. The combination of bold sculptural form a sensitive environmental systems makes the tower a benchmark in the ecological design of the skyscraper.

RWE Headquarters (Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner, Essen, 1996)

The glassy RWE Tower in the predominantly low-rise city of Essen, Germany, stands out due to its slender proportions and light materials, as well as its role as a pioneering work of sustainable design. Designed by the firm of Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner, the tower utilizes sophisticated building systems, allowing it to consume less energy while still providing a comfortable, naturally lit and ventilated interior environment.

The cylindrical tower is sited in the middle of a landscaped park, surrounded by a lightweight pergola structure that defines the street edge. The tower itself consists of two volumes, the cylinder housing the office spaces and an adjacent elevator tower. The cylindrical plan allows all the offices to be located at the perimeter, guaranteeing access to natural light and air, while a service core and conference rooms occupy the center.

A “breathing double façade” system allows the occupants to benefit from natural light and air, without adding to the cooling and heating loads of the mechanical systems. The curtain wall is made up of a compartmentalized double layer of floor-to-ceiling glass. The outer layer is formed by a taut skin of low-iron glass with an innovative horizontal mullion, which acts as an airflow valve and ventilates to the exterior. The compartments are accessible from the inside via sliding-glass doors, allowing occupants to control the amount of fresh air let in.

The building-management system monitors exterior climate data in relation to the interior temperature, and makes adjustments accordingly. Mechanized sun shades are integrated into the façade cavity and automatically raise or lower to control heat gain on the façade. Exterior sensors warn occupants to close their windows when it rains, or if it is particularly windy. Other systems allow for harvesting energy from roof-mounted photovoltaic panels.

Ingenhoven Overdiek und Partner describe their design criteria as “efficiency, ecological consciousness, economy of resource usage, and build ability.” The RWE Headquarters is an example of an integrated-systems building that pioneered new technologies in façade design, energy efficiency, and sustainable materials. Its “smart-façade” system addresses the apparent conflict between thermal conservation and daylight illumination through the use of clear glass and integrated mechanical systems.

110 Bishopsgate (Kohn Pedersen Fox International, London, 2005)

110 Bishopsgate is part of a new generation of high-rise buildings approved for construction in the City of London. The environmentally sensitive and structurally articulated tower is expressive of the technologies that enable it.

The project is located on the eastern edge of the old city, on a prominent site at the junction of Bishopsgate and Chamomile Street, and across the street from the Georgian church of St. Botolph. It forms part of a cluster of office buildings that includes the NatWest Tower and the 30 St. Mary Axe. The recent crop of office buildings in London corresponds to a demand for large floor plates to provide flexible office space in the center city. It also responds to the evolution in expectations of what a contemporary office building should be with regard to the working environment that it creates and the approach to energy consumption and sustainability.

A perimeter service core on the south organizes the building, allowing open plan offices to benefit from exposure to the west, north and east. The service core acts as a buffer against solar exposure to the south, while allowing for continuous and unobstructed working spaces on the north side. Responding to the technical and social demands of the modern workplace, the building is organized as a vertical armature of flexible spaces.

Office spaces are clustered around multistory atria that the architects call “villages,” allowing tenants flexibility in renting either a single floor or multiple floors connected by internal stairs. Other amenities include retail and restaurant spaces at grade and a public restaurant at roof level.

The east and west facades, clad in clear glass, allow occupants to control the amount of fresh air ventilation, while reducing the amount of solar heat gain in through the glass. The building's structural skeleton is expressed on its north façade, framing the atria.

Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox International, the firm's London office, 110 Bishopsgate represents the translation and adaptability of the high-rise office building type to central London and the implementation of demands for flexible space as well as environmental sensitivity.

Honorable Mention:

The Hearst Tower, New York City

Hearst Tower is the first building to receive a Gold LEED certified rating for "core and shell and interiors" in New York City. The structural steel in the construction contains over 90% recycled material and 50% of the tower's water usage - for the cooling system - comes from a 14,000 gallon rainwater tank.

The Chinese government needs to create a system to supervise their economy like the U.S. did when we went through the progressive era and created the F.D.A., along with many other reforms. All in all, China has a major quality control problem that needs to change soon, before other countries stop trading for and purchasing Chinese goods and the country's economy comes crashing down. This could be a major tragedy because China is the most populous country in the world. Over one billion people would suffer severe hardship if China's economy fails.

I think this is a serious, serious problem. Looking around my room, I would say that approximately fifty percent of my belongings are made in China. Now, I am not saying that all of these products do not work or that I am going to die because I use Chinese materials, but I am a little scared. What if the snack I am eating right now is contaminated? What if the treat I am feeding my dog is contaminated? What if all my stuff falls apart in the next few years or the toy I used to put in my mouth when I was little had lead paint on it and I died of lead poisoning (okay, probably not)?

Still, just knowing that this is happening, and that my family or friends might be hugely affected, is an unsettling thought. I hope the Chinese government will be able to quickly make the changes needed to get their production standards and economy back on track. I think that having a period of reform or a “progressive era” is just what they need. I would get them back on track and would certainly be a good sign to the whole world seeing as how their economy plays such a big part in the economy of other countries, and who knows it may lead to the stabilization of the Chinese government. In conclusion, I want to be able to buy Chinese products safely and I am sure that people around the world can't wait to also, seeing as how they are one of the biggest exporters of goods.

Dong Bu Headquarters (Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, Seoul, 2002)

Designed as the new headquarters for a Korean insurance company, this tower expresses the confidence and exuberance of the pre-1997 Asian economic boom. Employing a language of angular planes, the designers create a dynamic form that distinguishes it from the other office towers lining Teheran Road in Seoul, Korea.

While most buildings stand on the properly line to maximize their bulk, Dong Bu Tower sits towards the back of the site to create a small urban plaza that acts like a pedestal from which to view the building as a sculptural object.

The broad face of the tower is made up of a series of sloped, folded planes, which make the tower appear to be undergoing a process of transformation. All the east and west walls are clad in blue glass with closely spaced horizontal stainless-steel mullions. At the corners, these walls extend beyond the edge of the building, reinforcing their planar reading by presenting an exposed edge of the surface. The north and south walls are clad in a taut clear glass with corrugated shadow boxes in the spandrel areas.

The ground floor lobby is linked to the subway system and to an underground retail network. Escalators take the visitor up to the limestone and wood-clad lobby. A decorative glass storefront wall, derived from traditional Korean quilting patterns, allows diffused light into the lobby.

The tower's bold sculptural form sets it apart from the city fabric, making it a signature landmark building.

GPA Gasometer Tower (Coop Himmelblau, Vienna, 2001)

Recently this firm has been winning competitions and building its visionary designs, promoting the architects to change their name from Himmelblau to Himmelb(l)au, or heavens-build. One of their first large realized projects is the GPA Gasometer tower, which, true to their radical imagery, has a distinctly imparted form.

As part of the redevelopment of Vienna's industrial quarters, the government held a series of competitions for the reuse and redevelopment of several large and obsolete infrastructure works. The firm won the commission to transform a series of classically designed former gas containers into a mixed used complex of shopping, office, and residential structures.

The existing industrial structure is converted into radial residential units, while a new structure is located on the northern side. The new structure, a bent curvilinear slab, echoes the cylinder, but interprets it in new materials and new geometrics. Its combination of facets and curves suggests a deformation of a familiar form, rather than the presence of something altogether new. The design is interpretive of to context, the results of a formal process of deformation and transformation.

Roppongi Tower (Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, Tokyo, 2003)

The Roppongi Tower forms the massive centerpiece of a 27 acre redevoplment project in the heart of Tokyo's Roppongi retail and entertainment district. The 58 story tower house three million square feet of office space in its shaft and an art museum at its top. Also part of the development is a 550 room hotel, a performing arts theater, and a shopping mall.

The tower derives its unusual shape from a design process that is dictated by its immense size. The tower is so large that the city authorities feared that it would disrupt the television broadcast signal from Tokyo Tower.

The architects looked to origami for a language of folded planes that could inform the shape of the tower. In plan, the tower is an oblong shape made up of various curved line segments that crease and peel, breaking up the tower's mass. The base of the tower's shaft is gathered through a series of facets to accommodate the larger public facilities. The tower's articulated crown will house the Mori Art Center in its top five floors.

The curtain wall consists of lightly reflective glass and painted, pre-cast concrete panels. The material selection was designed to avoid metallic surfaces that would reflect the television waves.

The sculpted mass of the tower minimizes its presence through the selection of its material and the manipulation of Its surface. The tower employs strategies analogous to those of the stealth bomber, which is invisible to radar due to its angular geometry.

Hotel Nova Diagonal (Dominique Perrault, Barcelona, 2004)(Designed)

Dominique Perrault's design for a new hotel along Barcelona's Nova Diagonal consists of a dynamic composition of slab elements suspended in the process of slipping past one another. Perrault conceived of the hotel as a composition made up of two parts: one horizontal, relating to the low scale of the existing city fabric, and the second vertical, relating to the monumental scale of the civic landmarks.

The horizontal podium will house the hotel's public spaces, including the lobby, conference rooms, swimming pool and bar. The upright vertical slab will house the hotel rooms, each with a view towards either the sea or the mountains. The lobby is entered across a bridge that spans a sunken garden, which corresponds to the footprint of the hotel bar hovering above. The underside of the suspended bar aligns with the top of the podium roof, creating the sense that the individual parts of the tower have slipped and then interlocked like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The tower was designed to be clad in a system of metal panels, perforated with an array of circular windows. The slender slab refuses the familiar grid of mullions and glass, appearing instead as a porous and diaphanous volume. The windows consist of red, blue, and green glass distributed randomly across the façade, creating the effect of a large stained glass window. From within the hotel rooms, Barcelona will be viewed through the array of circular windows, transforming the city into a framed mosaic.

Perrault's implied tectonic slippages give the viewer the sense that the tower is frozen in a moment of transformation. The gestures of its implied movement allow the tower to create relationships to its urban context, while the use of porous material gives the impression of dramatic weightlessness.

Parkhaven Tower (Kohn Pederson Fox Associates International, Rotterdam, 2002)

The design for Parkhaven Tower, a new high-rise development along the River Mass in Rotterdam, is derived from a design process that involves the gentle transformation of the tower's shaft as it rises. The mixed used tower will house office functions at the base and residential accommodations above. IT will be a focal point of the new master plan for the area and, it is Europe's tallest tower.

The tower's dramatic spiraling form is derived from a torque triangular plan. The design is based on an equilateral triangle, in which each side of the triangle has been modified into a compound curve. The tower's form is derived by tapering and rotating the triangular footprint of the tower as it rises. The resulting form is sculpturally bold and vaguely biomorphic.

The tower was conceived with the help of extensive computer modeling software, which allows the design of complex forms that would have been difficult to document with conventional two-dimensional tools. The tapering and torquing of the tower are modeled, manipulated and visualized in the computer. Complex three-dimensional forms can be documented and quantified in the construction process by sophisticated software that is shared with the contractors.

At the base, the building's skin peels away to create petal like canopies. These botanical references inform the massing of the tower and the articulation of its elements. Processes like flowering, blooming. Sprouting, and rotating are generative of the tower's language.

Hong Kong Shangai Back Headquarters (Foster & Partners, Hong Kong, 1985)

The de facto cathedral to Hong Kong's Commerce. Hong Kong Shangai Bank Headquarters plays a critical symbolic role in the image of the city. Foster's striking steel and glass tower stands in sharp contrast to the bank's former headquarters, a monumental structure symbolic to the community's financial stability.

The building was conceived as a modular system, consisting of megatruss armatures and suspended infill modules. The suspension structure allows for column-free banking walls, while building services, elevator banks, and fire stairs are located on the perimeter.

The building occupies a site of almost spiritual significance in the geomantic atlas determining Hong Kong's fortunes. According to Feng Shui principles, the flow of energy from the peak of the harbor is critical to the financial well-being of the city.

The Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building epitomizes the high-tech strategy of design through its celebration of building technology, assembly, and methods of construction.

Century Tower (Foster and Partners, Tokyo, 1991)

This tower is often criticized as generic and placeless, the high-rise office building suffers from programmatic banality - office space is homogeneous, repetitive and largely generic. Century Tower proves a rich exception to the norms of the speculative office building type. Within the Tower's articulated shaft are house a mix of uses and amenities, including a museum, tea house, health club, restaurant, and office space. The expression of the building's diverse parts becomes the central theme of the building.

Century Tower extends concepts first explored in the Hong Kong Shangai Bank. Its façade is articulated as a series of eccentrically braced frames that span across the site to allow for a column-free office space, but also respond to Tokyo's stringent seismic engineered requirements. The tower is broken into two layered blocks joined by an open internal atrium. Each block consists of stacked double-height office floors bridging between structural frames. The atrium connects all the office spaces and creates a sense of community.

At the foot of the atrium a staircase leads to a museum for the client's collection of oriental antiquities at basement level. A health club and a pool are housed under curved galls sky-light that slips in under the tower's braced frames. Century Tower celebrates the skyscraper as an assembly of different parts, both structural and programmatic. The various building components are clearly visible from the outside, articulating the building as an architecture of inventory of coexisting programs.

Debis Headquarters (Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Berlin, 1999)

The Debis Headquarters forms the centerpiece of the 1990's redevelopment of Berlin's Potzdamer Platz. Master-planned by Renzo Piano and Christoph Kohlbecker, the urban-renewal projects have transformed an area left desolate by the Cold War back into the vibrant cultural and commercial center that it was prior to the Second World War

Piano conceived of the Tower as a hybrid building with a horizontal slab, vertical tower, and open court-yard, carefully combining object and void. The mass of the building is broken up into a composition of discrete blocks, organized as bundles of parallel slabs rising to different heights and culminating 350 feet (106 meters) skyscraper on the southern end of the site. The atrium is a semi-public central void that invites people into the building and brings natural light into its center.

The facades are made up of layers of delicate screens and operable glass panels filtering out the sun while allowing for natural light and ventilation. The “opaque” facades are made up of prefabricated terracotta screens that are held in front of an operable insulated-glass curtain wall.

The “transparent” or “ventilating” façade consists of a layer adjustable glass louver that can be closed to trap an insulating layer of warmed air, or partially opened to remove warm air through convection. In addition to the energy-saving approach to the design of the facades, the juxtaposition of the terracotta and glass screens gives the building a visually rich texture.

With a building of innovative composition and careful detailing, the Debis Headquarters project anchors one and of a redevelopment project celebrated for being regenerative and reconciliatory, and for healing the wounds on the city and the psyche.

New York Times Headquarters (Renzo Piano, Building Workshop, New York, 2000)

The decision to build a new headquarters for The New York Times west of Times Square marks a decisive return by the company that gave Times Square its name. Times Square has been the site of large-scale urban renewal since the mid-1990's, when new legislation and private funds were used to drive out the peep shows and strip club area, making way for family entertainment.

The selection of Renzo Piano as the architect for the 52 story, 748 feet (228 meters) The New York Times headquarters was the outcome of an international design competition. Piano's design for the tower as a rectangular volume with a layered façade systems stands out for its deceptively simple massing and elegant exterior. The curtain wall is designed to use clear glass behind veil-like layers of thin ceramic cylinders captured in steel frames, and held two feet off the glass. Piano's design celebrates the detail while maintaining a disciplined design vocabulary.

Behind the screens, the activities within will be visible through the façade. Glass-enclosed stairs located on the perimeter will animate the facades with the movement of people. On the ground floor, a large internal garden will open the building up to the public, drawing the city into the lobby and providing amenities such as an auditorium, restaurants and shops.

Bank of China (J.M. Pei & Partners, Hong Kong, 1989)

The abstract sculptural form of the Bank of China stands out from the thick forest of skyscrapers that made up Hong Kong's eclectic skyline.

The building's sculptural form is derived from the correspondence between the tower's volumetric expression and its structural system, a triangulated perimeter tube truss. The tower's volume fills out the triangulated frame in a stepped bundle of prismatic volume that culminates in a 1,209 foot (369 meters) peak and twin masts. The legibility of the system of support is the source of its dramatic visual strength.

The frame systematically distributes the building's loads and transfers them to four composite corner columns. A fifth column extending through the center of the tower transmits its loads from the top of the apex down the prow and transfers them out diagonally, leaving the interior of the base of the tower column-free.

The glass-and-metal tower rests on a three-story granite base, which house the banking hall. A multistory glass atrium connects the banking hall to a skylight at the first setback. The site for the tower is sloped and extremely tight, resulting in access from two different levels. The tower is integrated into a network of abstracted Chinese gardens, which include cascading pools of water and distinctly formed Chinese stones.

The originally intended X-bracing on the facades was perceived as an aggressive and negative gesture. Although bank officials ignored the warnings of local Feng Shui masters, Pei chose to conceal the horizontal member, transforming the X into auspicious diamond shapes. The tower is still regarded with reservation by many locals, who claim that its sharp corners direct negative energy towards its neighbors.

China is located in the continent of Asia with the highest population in the world of 1.3 billion people. They are the fastest growing economy due mainly to foreign direct investment in which occur because of cheap labor rates and manufacturing costs. With the tremendous progress in the last decade China has reduced poverty dramatically thanks to an economic system increasingly open to trade and foreign investment.

Their political system is run by the communist party in which according to the corruption index rated from 0-10 with 0 being absolute corruption in the political system. China ranks 71 out of 145 nations with the index at 3.4. Although China is a communist country they are taking a very western approach to how they are run with trying to become a much bigger player in globalization and using strategies in order to promote economic growth and development.

On the 17th of September 2001 China was admitted membership into the World Trade Organization after 15 years of lobbying for the position. They were then able and were participants of the Doha round on the 10th of November 2001. “International economic cooperation has brought about this defining moment in the history of multilateral trading system,” said Mike Moore, WTO Director-General, at the conclusion of the meeting of the Working Party on China's Accession.

Under the chairmanship of Ambassador Pierre-Louis Girard of Switzerland, the Working Party agreed to forward some 900 pages of legal text for formal acceptance by the 142 member governments of the WTO.

As a result of these negotiations China has agreed to undertake a series of important commitments and rules it must follow by, some of these include:

China will provide non-discriminatory treatment to all WTO members. All foreign individuals and enterprises, including those not invested or registered in China, will be accorded treatment no less favorable than that accorded to enterprises in China with respect to the right to trade.

Price controls will not be used for purposes of affording protection to domestic industries or service providers.

The WTO will be implemented by China in an effective and uniform manner by revising its existing domestic laws and enacting new legislation fully in compliance with the WTO agreement.

China will not maintain or introduce any export subsidies on agricultural products.

“Now this economy will be subjected to the rules-based system of the WTO, something which is bound to enhance global economic cooperation “, said Mr. Moore.

As a result of this negotiation, China has agreed to undertake a series of important commitments to open and liberalize its regime in order to better integrate in the world economy and offer a more predictable environment for trade and foreign investment in accordance with WTO rules. This more stable environment with hopefully then lead to a decrease the level of corruption in the political system which will lift its index and ranking as so then will become more attractive for foreign investors, to China's benefit and to the traders.

ECONOMIC GROWTH

The 2003 statistic provided by the Market Economy textbook displays China Producing their Gross National Income of $1417 [US Billion] with a ranking of sixth.

This indicates that a lot of output comes out of China, but one must encounter the population when calculating the real output of a nation and which China has a GNI per capita of only $US4980 with a rank of 119.

Between 1965 and 1979 the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 6.4 per cent a year, and between 1980 and 1988 the increase was 10.3 per cent annually. The growth rate dipped below 4 per cent in 1989, but returned to well above 10 per cent annually in the early and mid-1990s.

The 2005 growth rate started at strong at 9.5% and flattened out to average to 9.4% for the 2005 year. Since 2002 the Industrial production has increased by 15% along with the Consumer demand, which increased by 10.1%.

With reference with the agriculture sector as a % of GDP, has decreased from 29% in 1997 to just 13% in 2003, this is a result of more industrialization, more infrastructure and investments into China, and so some farms have been converted into cities and factories. Another factor due to the decrease into agriculture is the fact that this is a percentage of the GDP and expresses the fact that all other industries are producing a lot more and growing more than the agriculture industry itself.

Much of the growth as stated before is attributed to the Foreign Direct Investment increase, this is a very attractive market for western expansion. This is the result of a more market-based economy with globalization and deregulation by the Chinese government. These recent trends of growth that averages 9.4% growth rate over the past decade is 1.7 % higher than the Asia region which stands at an average growth rate of 7.7%, while the average growth rate of the rest of the world is at approximately 2.65%.

With China being a major economy in the world, they are usually only influenced by another major economy which now is the USA.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

While economic growth has resulted in improvements in the general quality of life in China, these gains have not been shared equally within the economy.

According to the Human Development Index China is ranked in the middle Human Development with a GDP per capita of $US 4580.

This shows that over the past two decades or so that the Human Development Index has increased by more than a third in the past twenty-three years as shown below. The current situation in China now only sees 16.6 % of the population in absolute poverty.

• 1980 HDI = 0.554
• 1990 HDI = 0.625
• 2005 HDI= 0.745 [ranked 94th currently]

These inequalities that exist in China are divided into certain sections in which you would find that especially qualities of life differ to these factors of rural/urban areas, east/west provinces and whether you are a male or female.

Examples of this are seen in these statistics provided by “The Corporate Classroom”.

• Urban incomes are an average of $US828: up 8.5% from 2002.
• Rural incomes $US211: up 5.7% from 2002.
• These growing income gaps between the rich and poor causing economic and social imbalance.

Positive factors that have occurred with the help of globalization is due to the rise in the HDI level and the statistics that contribute to the factors used in determining the HDI are as follows:

• Life expectancy at birth improved from 63.2 in 1970 to 71 in 2005.
• Infant mortality rate decreased from 35 in 1997 to 32 in 2003 [per 1000 live births]
• Adult literacy [% aged 15+] from 78.3 in 1990 to 90.9 in 2005.

Although you can argue that the income inequality rising is a negative effect, you cannot dispute the fact that even though this occurs, the rise in income for everyone is a major positive effect with the astounding amount of Chinese people coming out of absolute poverty and even with the HDI index rising. China is in a rapid transition from the once third world nation into one that is almost first class.

In 1997, savings deposits of urban and rural residents reached US$560 billion, over 218 times that of 1978 with an average annual increase rate of 32.8 %. Plus foreign currency savings, debentures and stocks, the amount of financial assets owned by rural and urban residents had exceeded US$725 billion.

The pattern of consumption underwent positive changes- the Engel Coefficient of both urban and rural population lowered by 11 and 12.6 percentage points. In conclusion of the economic development I would have to say that China has experienced positives from Globalization, even though I have en-taken that they now have a higher Gini index, but the fact is that it has increased peoples living conditions, HDI levels and income to the poorer people.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The increased exposure to the global economy has resulted in millions of jobs being cut from state owned enterprises. The statistic shows that in 2001, 5.15 million workers were retrenched from state owned enterprises; it was mainly due to that the restructuring in many inefficient industries.

Although China used to have really good employment in the past, today the unemployment is increasing as in 1997 the unemployment rate was 3.1% and in 2003 the unemployment rate had risen to 7.8%. This is not a very good sign to the government and some reorganizing needs to be made by the communist party for the China's welfare and the budget because by the end of 2003 almost 3.13 million people were receiving unemployment benefits.

TRADE

Prior to 1978, China's trade was conducted under a strict system of state trading where approximately a dozen foreign trade corporations monopolized all foreign trade. Under the central planning regime, imports were minimized and exports authorized only to the extent needed to pay for imports. Over the last twenty years, the system has changed dramatically and China's trade has expanded enormously. Its share of world trade has risen from 1% to 3% over the last quarter century and the World Bank projects that it will triple again by 2020, making it the world's second largest trader.

According to the statistics made in 2003 by “The corporate Classroom 2004” China is currently the 10th largest trading nation. 2004 forecasts may increase this ranking to 4th.

The accession into the WTO since the 17th of September 2001 encourages trade liberalization and opened more accessible markets to China. The total net volume of trade in 2003 increased by 7.5% on the previous year.

In 2003 China's exports were up by 32.3%

Imports were up 40.5%

Tourism is an increasing industry, which is up 9.7%

In the last decade globalization and the entry into the WTO has made China a more attractive country to invest and travel to, along with this and also their quick response to the rest of the worlds interest in China they have managed to turn around in less than ten years a CAD into a CAS.

These trade flows are very positive in relation to China with the second biggest trading nation in the world.

DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME

A main indicator to measure the income inequality is to use the Gini coefficient method as in 1990 the level was as 0.25 and then calculated in 2005 the level has risen to a level of 0.447. This is the comparison to Australia's Gini co-efficient index that now stands at the rate of 0.294 [2003-2004]. This increasing gap of income inequality is becoming more one of the extremes-causing economic and social imbalances.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS AND TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

FDI and TNC's have increased rapidly since globalization and the opening of markets and deregulation by the Chinese economy. The FDI has increased by 19% since 2002. Some statistics and developments concerning the development in TNCs and FDI include:

In 2003 some 34 000 new FDI projects and enterprises were approves.

FDI and TNCs encouraged in modern agriculture, in high tech industries, infrastructure and construction.

Focus is on the development of the western regions, and the re-engineering of State Owned Enterprises.

Foreign investment capital became a major factor in growth, with US$30 million of investment in 1994. This rapid growth has caused some problems, such as high inflation rates in urban areas and increasing economic inequalities between regions and social groups.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

There is concern that China may pursue unsustainable practices in an attempt to maximize opportunities of globalization. China perhaps has become too absorbed in becoming the fastest growing economy with such high growth, development, and HDI levels that environmental issues are not seen as being so important and the issue is just being ignored.

The air pollution in South East Asia is a particular problem with almost five times more pollution in the air than some parts of Sydney's pollution. These environmental problems occur due to the increasing industrial production contributing to poor environmental quality and increasingly frequent blackouts. With their increased use of oil used in production of such industries the rest of the world can feel the impact on the increase on a barrel of oil due to the demand created by China's increased consumption.

STRATEGIES USED TO PROMOTE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:

OPEN TO THE WORLD POLICY

In general China has adopted a more open policy that is in keeping with the WTO stance on trade liberalization. China continues to actively seek FDI and develop links with the international economy.

FDI AND TRADE POLICY

• Sustained economic growth rests with continued investment and trade.
• China actively seeks FDI and will continue to do so.
• Removal of some 120 regulations that limit private capital inflow
• China's export base is being broadened.
• Businesses are being encouraged to invest and compete for foreign contracts
• Key equipment and technologies are being imported to develop domestic industries.
• The liberalization had a fairly significant impact with the removal of government controls over prices, reduction of trade protection and also with the liberalization of investment and financial flows.

MICROECONOMIC REFORM

• China is committed to the reduction of administrative intervention
• The financial system is being reformed and to some extent deregulated.
• Consumer credit developing.
• Continued reform of SOE's.

FISCAL POLICY

• Much of the government expenditure is directed towards infrastructure economic redevelopment and job creation.
• Spending on education and health is increasing.
• State is committed to an active role in stimulated the economy through fiscal policy.
• In 2005 the fiscal revenue soared 18.2 % or more than 50 billion US$ for the first 10 months.

WELFARE POLICIES

The immature welfare system must be developed to address rising unemployment. Income protection insurance schemes being proposed for rural areas.

Job creation is important to addressing welfare problems of the economically disadvantages regions. As stated before, China is paying out welfare payments to over 1.3 million unemployment benefits. Will careful and accurate restructuring of the Chinese economy not so much payouts would be required thus a high budget to spend on other things.

The current position that China is in [as quoted by the “Gittins on Saturday” article by Ross Gittens in the Sydney Morning Herald, weekend edition on the 3rd of December 2005.] is a transition from industrial to knowledge-based development. “Since 1949, rural China has for the most part broken free from economic isolation thanks to investments in basic infrastructure, development of a road system, basic disease control, lower fertility rates, increasing literacy and so on.” He also mentions how China has moved to a more market based economy due to the globalization and China being more opened up to the world market.

Deflation Looms: These extracts come from William Pesek Jr.

Officials in Beijing have used administrative measures to reduce over investment. Doing it slowly to achieve a soft landing means capacity growth remains high, causing an oversupply even when China's annual growth of more than 9 per cent slows.

Cutting the interest rates may even worsen deflationary pressure by encouraging capacity growth regardless of corporate profitability; the plentiful liquidity keeps interest rates low and, hence sustains the on-going investment projects and funds new investments in bottleneck areas.

Pushing China toward deflation is a high savings rate. While Americans save too little, Chinese save too much.

China needs to get consumers to spend more. To do that, the government should privatize state owned assets, shift fiscal expenditures away from investment and modernize pension, health-care and education systems.

The impact of globalization on the economic performance on China has proved to be a positive one as summarized throughout this essay. Globalization has created positives in the Human Development Index, there is more literacy and a longer life span as well as higher incomes and less and less people coming out of absolute poverty each year. China are not just benefiting themselves by becoming a more market based economy but they are also creating positives through the rest of the world by selling their comparative advantage of cheap labor to many transnational corporations and Foreign Direct Investors.

Although that they do have had an enormous positive out of globalization they also had negative in pollution levels and the income inequality. Although these are not what an economy is looking for the fact is that the positives that China has experienced outweighs the negatives a thousand to one.

As stated throughout the essay China has embraced globalization with open arms and uses many strategies to help the impacts that globalization has to offer which included their entry into the World Trade Organization, their active role in NAFTA, deregulation in many industries, privatization of many government owned organizations and the reduction of tariffs by almost 35% since 1980.

We witness that there are a lot of nay sayers also, who are coming up with the various problems that arise from this type of economic investments, from distrust of the motives of the Chinese to distrust of the business competence of the African people, including the well-known corruption of African businesses.

Certainly all African business professionals are not corrupt, however, if this is the perception it is problematically for honorable African business people to do business. So certainly the Chinese when doing business with African business people are going to have to work with these Africans to prove that these are honorable businesses and honorable business efforts. This is a problem of proof for both the Chinese and the Africans.

It's also possible that the nay sayers are corrupt in their motives.

Nevertheless, we don't want the Africans again to become the pawns of another people. Certainly the Chinese might make better colonials than the Europeans, nevertheless we don't want the Africans to just become the pawns of another colonial power after their own self-interests and not the interests of African peoples.

Nevertheless, this is something for African peoples to determine. It's good that the Chinese are interested in doing business with African peoples, and are taking an interest in the development of the peoples of Africa. It's good if the Africans are able to relate to the Chinese.

Certainly Europeans who are concerned about both "colored peoples" are going to be wary of this coalition, and possibly might try to disrupt it.

If so, it's probably not going to be the type of disruption that you even notice European involvement.

The Chinese and Africans are going to have to make sure that they work together wisely and that both have a perceptual problem as it involves Western powers and Western hegemony. Much of these perceptual problems are stereotypes that Westerners have of non-Westerners, others have been the mistakes, misdirections and corruptions of the peoples themselves. Yet, no different than the mistakes, misdirections, and corruptions of European peoples.

Nevertheless, we applaud the interest of the Chinese in the African peoples and the interest of the African peoples in the Chinese peoples. However, the interests of neither should be just rank "self-interests."

The Chinese and Africans in working together on these projects should learn from their own histories and the histories of other peoples.

And if the Chinese just want to be the world's new colonials, don't make the same mistakes as the world's old colonials.

But in the meantime--message to the schoolchildren--continue to learn Chinese.