Happy New Year!!

Already it's January 1st, 2009, geez, where did the millennium go?  For ChinaFubar it was a quiet New Year's Eve, spent snuggling with Mrs. ChinaFubar and watching the festivities on Hong Kong TV. 

Currently sitting at the local pub having a post new year's lunch, and catching up with the New Year's Eve happenings.  Apparently there was the usual antics,  foolishness in the bathrooms,  people drinking mass quantities, etc.  Seems, as in the U.S.  New Year's Eve is "amateur night" here in China also.   But, some expats tend to be professional drinkers, so those dedicated souls consumed much more than usual apparently.

The pub itself is still showing the affects of the party, bits of silver confetti on the floor, chairs, and cracks in the bar.  Currently the barmaid is trying to get the confetti from on top of the flat screen TV behind the bar using a pool cue.

For ChinaFubar, this year has held a strange mix of events.  New jobs, no jobs, and moving around the country.  Looks like next year will bring more of the same.

It's said that an optimist looks to the new year ahead, and from the sounds of things in the news, it's going to be an interesting year.

Will China pull out of the recession faster than U.S.?  Will China wind up bailing out the U.S.?  A recent article in "Christian Science Monitor" discusses the restoration of export tax rebates beginning Jan 1, and fears that China will let the currency revaluate, reversing the devaluation of the last couple of years, again in order to give Chinese exporters an edge.

But then while there seems to be lots of articles about the "Financial Tsunami" going around.  I'm finding that it's the same 3 stories being recycled from paper to paper, website to website, with different takes on the subject.

Story one, the closing of the Mattell Toy Factory and the mass closings of toy factories in Dongguan in general.  For sure, Smart Union was a big factory, and a major player. but a lot of the factories that shut down were the usual temporary manufacturing facilities put up to supply the trade during the Christmas rush.

China Top, a major footwear factory didn't make the big news, but left one of their major customers scrambling for their production.  Rumors have it that factory had gone in debt to unsavory characters, and couldn't pay the debt.   Figures run as high as 2000 shoe factories in Dongguan have closed.  I've been to some of those "shoe factories."  Remember the "Our Gang" comedies where the gang puts on a play, and Darla and Froggie sing?  Some of these factories had that sort of feeling to them.  "I know, lets open a shoe factory, we'll make lots of money!!!"  By people that wouldn't know a shoe if the horse it was on sat down on them..

The other news is the worker's being locked in at Jianrong Suitcase Factory, not being allowed to protest that they haven't received their wages.  Still in progress.

What ChinaFubar did observe today, at least in his part of the world of Dongguan was a massive amount of people, all shopping, and looking for the usual New Year's Day bargains.  From the news reports I was expecting to see a lot less people than I did, but I couldn't imagine more people crowding into the local Wal-Mart and surrounding area.  No recession here.

Never fear though, the leaders of Shek Pai Town in Dongguan (where the heck is that?) are on top of it with a fact finding mission to Macau to study visiting tour to Macau to "exchange urban planning experiences with the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT), wherein the delegation extolled the prominent urban and economic development in Macau in recent years."

Then a trip to Wynn's to do a study on the odds on blackjack I suspect.

To be sure, 2008 was interesting in these part, and 2009 definitely  is NOT going to be a dull year.

Here's wishing my loyal readers a healthy and happy New Year.

ChinaFubar