A question of patience

If you must deal with the chinese real estate black market, the most important thing, more than any other one, is to have patience. "A nervous person will have a big problem in China", remembered me recently a high ranked spanish banker.

In fact, I can already say that a european mentality in China isn't the 'healthiest' thing for a nervous person like me. I'm talking about the situation to negotiate during 4 hours in a coffee shop in Beijing how much money will you pay to forget a nightmare of possible court procedures, illegal real estate agencies and ficticious property apartments. You get so exhausted and you perceive in your counterpart such a quiet but endless energy focused on taking your money that it is hard to trust again a chinese for several days, weeks, months or in some cases, years.

I don't judge them, the chinese: The "white man" came here several times to fool them, to win from them as much as they can: war colonialism or capitalism. Maybe it is a natural reaction.

I think the chinese are the most warmful people that I've known, but sometimes there is this reaction... To resume it I will quote the CEO of Carrefour China, Jean-Luc Chereau, for the Mckinsey Quarterly:

"Another aspect was Chinese business dealing... I started talking with one of our Chinese partners who had signed those contracts, and nothing seemed to be happening. Finally, my assistant told me, "Just because he signed a 20-year contract two years ago with your former boss--a person who is not you--does not mean he will respect the contract." That was a big shock to me; the contract was notarized and everything. But we started to renegotiate article by article.
Five years later, during the Asian crisis, I invited this same partner to my office and said, "Just because I signed a contract with you does not mean I will respect it. We are in a crisis." So he said, "Fine," and we started to renegotiate, to reduce the rent.
It was these very interesting experiences that showed me that we are in another world. If you come to China with preconceived ideas after having been successful in Europe or the U.S., you make mistake after mistake."

C.