Thursday 19 February 2015

Chinese New Year, 2015

Source in Asia Limited would like to thank their Customers, Suppliers and friends for the support given to the company over the last year.  This year, it is the year of the Goat.

Some fun facts:
  • The phrase 'Happy New Year' in Chinese is 'Gung Hei Fat Choi' which means 'May You Have Good Fortune'.
  • China witnesses the world's largest human migration (famously known as Chunyan) during the festival as over a billion people board planes, trains, boats, buses, and cars to reunite with their families.
  • During the festivities beautiful red-coloured paper cut-outs are used to decorate doors and windows. The themes of these paper cut-outs are of happiness, good fortune, longevity and wealth.
  • Children in China receive red envelopes filled with cash as gifts on New Year's Day. The amount they receive is usually an even number but it cannot be divisible by four as number 4 means death in Chinese.
  • The lantern festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year which takes place on the 15th day of the celebration. While the lanterns are believed to light the way for the rest of the year, they are also meant to guide lost or mischievous spirits to heaven.
  • On New Year's Day, the Chinese don't wash their hair as they believe it might wash away their good luck for the rest of the year.
  • People stay at home and welcome the God of Wealth on the 5th day of the New Year which is called Po Woo. Visiting friends or family is believed to bring bad luck for both the families.
For the year of the goat:
  • Lucky Colours:  Brown, Red, Purple.
  • Lucky Numbers:  2, 7.
  • Lucky Flowers:  Carnation, Primrose.
  • Chinese for goat is Yang.
  • Lucky Months:  August, November.
  • Lucky Direction:  North.

Thursday 19 December 2013

Thank you to our Customers.

Source in Asia Limited wish to thank all their customers for the help given through 2013, and look forward to successfully working with them in 2014.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Illuminated Plant Containers Coming Soon.

COMING SOON.

Make your gardens and homes look stunning and create the "WOW" factor with your friends by using Illuminated Plant Containers.

The pots combine garden lighting with your planting in a quality product.  The products look fantastic both intenally and externally with the products being safe for use both inside and outside.

LED Illuminated Plant Containers and furniture are becoming Vogue for both homes and Businesses and Source in Asia Limited are adding a comprehensive product range to their website shop.

The product range will incude illuminated plant containers, decorative cubes and balls, tables stools and chairs, with Bar/Restaurant Furniture being added later.

All products will be offered at VERY COMPETATIVE PRICES, with the products being shipped directly from the manufacturer.

For more details on these products and costs, please contact the following:

SOURCE IN ASIA LIMITED.
Tel:  +44 (0) 1772 466658.
Mail:  info@source-in-asiatoday.co.uk

Thursday 29 August 2013


China Trivia – 3


·         The modern word “China” most likely derives from the name of the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty. First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (260-210 B.C.) of the Qin dynasty first unified China in 221 B.C., beginning an Imperial period which would last until A.D. 1912.

·         Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only.

·         Despite its size, all of China is in one time zone.

·         Chinese is spoken by 92% of China’s population. There are at least seven major families of the Chinese language, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Min.

·         Suspension bridges were invented in China in 25 B.C, 1,800 years before such bridges were known in the West.

·         The bicycle was introduced into China around 1891 by two American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. The bicycle is now the primary transportation for millions of Chinese. The last Qing emperor (Puyi) rode a bicycle around the Forbidden City in Beijing. China is currently the leading bicycle manufacturer.

·         If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

·         About 700,000 engineers graduate annually from schools in China.

·         China has more English-speaking inhabitants than England.

·         China's money is called renminbi, meaning the "people's currency".

·         The world's largest producer of apples is China.

Hope you enjoyed these Trivia items.

China' first wine cellar opens in Changli county

The Moutai wine cellar, China's first deep storage wine facility, opened in Changli county, Hebei province on Aug 12, 2013. Built over the course of seven years by the Moutai Wine Company, the wine cellar ushers in a new form of wine-storage in China. It is the only constant temperature natural wine cellar in the country, representing elements of Moutai wine and a traditional wine cellar.

Changli county is known as "the home of the Chinese wine grape" and also "China's dry red wine city." The county sits at 39 degrees north latitude, the same as Bordeaux in France, a region recognized as one of the best areas in the world for growing grapes.

In July 2002, through investments from the Kwei Chou Moutai Group, the Changli Moutai Wine Co, was formed and began making wine with techniques imported from Bordeaux. Currently, the company's annual wine production has exceeded over 10,000 tons, with fixed assets extending beyond the hundred million yuan mark.

 

Wednesday 28 August 2013

How to conduct a social compliance audit of a China factory.

How to conduct a social compliance audit of a China factory.

Corporate Social Responsibility audits, also commonly referred to as Ethical Sourcing audits or Social Compliance audits should be an integral part of every global supply chain. These audits are often conducted in such a way that suppliers are evaluated in their compliance with local laws. Some brands and retailers have additional standards and requirements that must be met by suppliers who wish to manufacture their products.
It is important to ensure that each participant in your supply chain (possibly even subcontractors) is evaluated to determine the conditions that their employees work under. Besides the obvious damage to individuals and communities that unethical manufacturing practices can lead to, they can also cause significant damage to your brand when they are publicized.
When conducting a CSR audit, auditors will need to address three key aspects of the supplier’s operation:
  1. The physical facilities of the factory
  2. Employment policies and other documentation on file
  3. Employee interviews
Below, I have described each aspect, and the types of common issues that are found during CSR audits throughout mainland China.

1. Complete facility walk-through
A walk through of the entire facility – production area, warehouse, dormitories, canteen, etc – will give your auditors insight into the physical conditions the employees work in every day.
Local Chinese law requires that basic amenities be upheld at all factories: Enough space to move around and work in production areas, adequate ventilation, clearly marked and unobstructed emergency exits, sanitary cafeterias and restrooms, and easy access to potable water.
The majority of a supplier's compliance issues are usually discovered during this walkthrough. Common issues include machines lacking proper safety equipment, exposed or unmarked electrical wiring, chemicals that lack warning and information labels, and a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).

2. Thorough documentation review
Complimenting the facility walk-through, a documentation review will illustrate the kinds of policies and atmosphere employees are surrounded by. These are less tangible aspects of their employment situations (at least for observers) that have a huge impact on their daily lives.
Complimenting the facility walk-through, a documentation review will illustrate the kinds of policies and atmosphere employees are surrounded by. These are less tangible aspects of their employment situations (at least for observers) that have a huge impact on their daily lives.
Employee attendance records and payroll records are heavily scrutinized during this phase of the audit. Thorough auditors will request the previous 6 to 12 months of records for review. By comparing these records, auditors will be able to determine if the factory is adhering to labour regulations related to minimum wages, over time wages, and maximum working hours. Not surprisingly, non-compliance with those exact regulations are the most commonly reported issues from this stage of the audit.
Additionally, auditors will request all documentation regarding hiring practices and conditions of employment. Auditors will try to establish what the factory’s official policies are regarding discrimination, disciplinary action, retention of employee identification, termination conditions, and many important factors. These can be a good barometer for the attitude of employees towards management.

3. Employee interviews
A walk-through of the facility and documentation reviews yield valuable information, but there is no substitute for talking to the employees themselves. CSR is inherently a human-centric issue, so the people that work (and sometimes live) at the factory must be made a focal point of any investigation of working conditions.
Interviews with randomly selected workers will serve to gauge the employees understanding of the policies they work under and their feelings on the physical conditions as well, putting the information gathered in the steps above into much-needed context.

If employees report discrimination, or do not understand how their wages are calculated, feel that they are obligated to work excessive overtime, or bring up grievances about the state of their dormitories, these should all be considered red flags. Such claims will warrant further investigation, and suppliers should be counselled on how to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

Service outsourcing increasing rapidly in Nantong area

The contract amount of service outsourcing in Nantong Economic & Technological Development Area reached 510 million yuan ($83 million) a year-on-year growth of 65 percent in the first half of the year, and the real amount amounting to 430 million yuan, up by 64 percent over the previous year.

The area has taken the lead in the city of Nantong in the number and scale of outsourcing companies, Nantong Economic and Technological Development Area reported.

The government of the area has spent more than 500 million yuan on service outsourcing sites on 200,000 square meters of ground and has worked hard to establish a comprehensive production and living area, including nearly 100,000 sq m for living.

Wang Jianhua, of the Federal Software (Nantong) Co, said that they are providing after-sale outsourcing services for many Chinese software enterprises, such as Kingsoft and Rising.

Meanwhile, the Aisin (Nantong) Spare Parts Co, which supplies Toyota, will provide R&D services for China’s auto manufacturers.

The area has nearly a hundred outsourcing enterprises focused on call center services, software and information services, innovative design, and bio-pharmaceuticals R&D outsourcing.