Day 1

大家好
that means hello everyone! pretty neat huh?
last night--after many hours of flying-- we finally arrived in Hong Kong...we took off from New York at 4pm on Wednesday and arrived Thursday evening at 7:30 pm. Then we drove through the Hong Kong border to get to Shenzhen where I am writing to you from. In Shenzhen, facebook along with my blog cite was blocked, but we figured out a way to go on the internet from the coach homepage or something...pretty bad ass i know, in your face communism.

So, anyways, my day began at 5:00 am...after sleeping for 10 hours on the plane I was really surprised to even sleep as late as 5. My dad, Wendy and Philip (who work for coach and live in china and will be traveling with us to the different factories) keep on asking me if i am jetlagged and honestly i don't really know. I simply feel extrodinarily disorientated like not really sure the time or date, so does that mean i'm jetlagged? ...ok back to my day...after ordering some breakfast from room service my dad and I went to the hotel's gym, it was really nice and the fitness trainer there did an abe work out with me for about an hour. His name was George. He wanted me to come to the gym and work out for an hour everyday "to stay fit and be in good health, unlike many americans" i told George that would be very nice but we had to leave tomorrow. He also offered me mandarin lessons in exchange for english lessons, this is as far as we got on the mandarin--- Xie Xie means "Thank you." Miao Tiao means "slim." Qian Zhuan means "strong." Jian Mei means "healthy and pretty." Then I told him how one would greet a friend in America which consisted of, "Yo man whats good," no just kidding.

The afternoon portion of my day, which was the Annual Coach Compliance Meeting, was very educational and interesting. Most of the people who attended the meeting were factory managers or people from HR, and different executives of companies. I won't tell you all about it because it was a 4 hour meeting but the speech Wendy and my dad gave was truly fasinating. They spoke about China's booming target population and economic opportunities and how in the next 4/5 years there will be a growth of 10 billion dollars in the luxury handbag market. The purchaser population of Coach is expected to grow to about 7 million--many of which will be 1st time purchasers. However, Japan's market and population is shrinking. Apparently in 2050, 40 percent of the population will be 65 years of age and up. Also, this past year, China over took Japan from a GDP stand point and is only expected to increase. Another major point of the presentation was to discuss the high expectations Coach has for the factories they employ, and how failure to comply will result in significant penalities. They mentioned how in the last 3 years they have been very accomodating because of the financial crisis but no longer will violations be tolerated. The minimum wage has been updated and must be met, social insurance is not an option, and health and safety requirements (like annual water/air tests) have to be enforced. This is only a taste of what i learned from the different speeches and i took lots of notes-- not because i have to hand them in when i get back or anything--it was just pretty interesting material about stuff I had no previous knowledge of.
k im done for now, it is 10 pm on friday here but 10 am friday by you, goodmorning america!