Chinaversary

I just had my Chinaversary, it’s now been fourteen years since I’ve first moved to China full time. It’s an easy date to remember, October 10th, 2010.

Like most anniversaries, it’s a good time to reflect on my time here, where I’ve been, and what’s next. 

I’ve been traveling a lot recently. Everywhere that I land, I look for answers to the question I and many of my colleagues are asking, which is, “what is the next China?” 

I’ve come to the conclusion that, at least for the next five years, for manufacturing, we are at best going to be in a situation of China and someplace else. Even then, for the vast majority of the production I see today, China is now and will be for the foreseeable future, the only reasonable option. 

I’m in the back of an Uber (well, we call it Didi in China but it’s the same thing) on the way back from a factory, where I had the deliver the unfortunate news that the factory needs to remake all their packaging as we failed the packaging test. 

It’s a common issue here in China, one that I have dealt with countless times before. So I started looking for documents I might have that outline what a “good” shipping carton looks like, and it struck me that this is a frustration for lots of folks, and I’d be better off posting something here that anyone can use to send to their vendors. 

So here we are at the start of me giving back to the China manufacturing community. Unless I am unable to do so for a particular item, everything here is licensed under the Creative Commons; please take it, use it, massage it, and make new things from it. 

I wish something like this existed when I landed here fourteen years ago. So time to be the change that I want to see in the world. 

Enjoy! 

Michael Diliberto 

P.S. Random video I made not about work….