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As many will know February 14^th is also known as Valentines’ Day.

It originated as a Christian holiday and developed a “romantic” twist in the middle ages.

It has also grown in popularity in China with flower shops doing fantastic business.

None the less, like Thanksgiving, it is somewhat misunderstood in China.

Many Chinese will send out emails and instant messages to all of their contacts wishing a happy Valentines’ Day, which feels a little weird for many westerners.

Sometimes it is an eagerness to make westerners feel welcome, in some cases it is a way for Chinese to demonstrate knowledge of western holidays to their clients and colleagues.

Just to clarify for all our Chinese readers…..

Valentines’ Day is more of a romantic holiday than a business holiday, just as Thanksgiving is an American holiday rather than for all of the west. See our Thanksgiving Blog.

For Valentines’ Day, normally people give a gift or card to someone that they are or would like to become romantically involved with!

Timid people may send a “secret Valentine” to someone they like but are too shy to approach.

In conversation you may ask closer friends and colleagues if they have any special plans for Valentines’ Day.

It is less common to “Wish Happy Valentines’ Day” to everyone you know.

Though like with Thanksgiving it is unlikely that you will offend anyone by wishing “everyone” happy Valentines’ Day, though that may find it peculiar or amusing.

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To all our American friends and colleagues, in USA and especially the ExPat community in places like China, Happy Thanks giving from all of us at QPI Ltd.

We hope you get to enjoy some Turkey & Pumpkin Pie.

我所有中国朋友们, To all my Chinese friends….

Thanks Giving is very much a North American holiday and it is really only celebrated by Americans and Canadians.

For the Americans especially it is a very important holiday for the family to celebrate a feast together.

There are various stories about its origins being the celebration of the end of the harvest, safe passage from Europe, and especially about the Native American Indians helping early colonists.

The hallmarks of a Thanks Giving feast are Turkey and Pumpkin, both of which are from North America.

While I have enjoyed some Thanks Giving Dinners with American friends as I am Australian, so like most parts of the world we do not make a point of celebrating it as a holiday.

I may be amused if you do wish me a happy thanks giving, but I certainly will not be offended if you do not.

QPI Ltd prides it self in taking a practical and flexible approach to meeting client needs.

We recently posted a poll on Linked In.

Vote on most important element of Quality Control

The polls only allow for five questions, so we suggested:

Pre Shipment Inspection

DUPRO

Product Specification

Lab Testing

…and invited people to comment on other single elements or mix.

Obviously QC will never come down one element, however we are interested to hear what people view as most important.

Unix creator Dennis Ritchie has passed away aged 70

With the passing of Steve Jobs last week, there was big flurry of tributes online and in the press and rightly so.

Steve was an inspirational character, as a person, as a CEO and as visionary.

His legacy has been clearly visible in society at large.

I had brief and direct contact with Jobs in email correspondence when QPI Ltd was talking to Apple about issues with their production facilities here in Shenzhen, but we did not feel we had much to add to the tributes that flowed.

This week Dennis Ritchie has also passed away. While he is less well known or wealthy it could be argued that his contribution to the IT industry is on par with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Many have commented over the years that Apples operating system is based on Unix, so the passing of Ritchie, so soon after Jobs is all the more poignant.

Quite apart from that link with Apple, Ritchie’s direct influence on Unix, “C” and the open source software movement can be noticed in all our lives on a daily basis regardless if an Apple or Windows Icon shows when we boot our computer, mobile or other the myriad other high tech devices that permeate our lives.

The Hong Kong office of QPI Ltd is relocating as QPI’s China office plays more dominant role
Quality Products International Limited has based its headquarters in Hong Kong since 1989.

Soon after Hong Kong’s landmark IFC opened in 1998, QPI Ltd moved its offices to IFC One. With its convenient location for the local “MTR” subway, as well as the Airport Express train service with “in city” Airline check in counters, for our international guests and executives it proved very convenient.

Times have changed both globally and locally, QPI Ltd too has changed.

China is playing a far more dominant role on the world stage, many elements including quality and business practices have improved and more of our clients are keen to work more directly with factories across China, rather than through HK offices of local Chinese factories.

While QPI Ltd had always been active in China, it was not until 2008 that QPI Ltd opened a permanent office in “Mainland China”.   That fast evolved in to our operational base and gradually more of the business was conducted from our Shenzhen office.

While we enjoyed the facilities in One IFC, they are simply under utilized, to the point where we cannot justify the expense of maintaining it.

As a result the QPI Ltd Hong office will relocate from October 2011, to:

Quality Products International Limited
1/F, Xiu Ping Commercial Building
104 Jervois Street,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2850 8228         Fax: +852 2544 1693

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Quality Products International Limited (QPI Ltd) has an operational base in Shenzhen, China.

Shenzhen has recently completed some renumber of some streets as part of its overhaul of street numbering.

In many cases this has included assigning numbers for many buildings that previously were not formally assigned numbers.

The building where QPI is based is one of the original government buildings in the “modern Shenzhen” that started some 30 years ago.

Our entrance was originally 2069 – 2071  Renmin Rd South, it is now only 2071 Renmin Rd, South. Thus the full address for QPI Ltd China office is:

508 International Commercial Building
2069 Renmin Road South, Gou Mao
Luo Hu District
Shenzhen, 518001
Guangdong, China
Phone: +86 (0)755 8218 0736

QPI Ltd Commodities division is continuing to work with a number of commodities including Coal and some food items such as Peanuts.

By far the most interesting at present is our work with physical Gold.

It is interesting to see continued media coverage talking about macro economic reasons for gold to remain steady and probably continue to increase.

Gold Steady on Greece Debt Fear

Gold held steady on Monday, buoyed by the ongoing debt crisis in the euro zone, while silver trimmed gains as a hike in margins by the Shanghai Gold Exchange kept sentiment in check.

Fung said $1,500 should offer strong support to gold, and prices are likely to reach $1,600 by the end of the year as investors continue to buy bullion to protect themselves against economic uncertainties, a view echoed by other market players.

“Gold is likely to slowly move up during the summer unless we see big headlines, such as the U.S. raising interest rates earlier than expected.” Sluggish consumer spending and a seven-month low pending home sales in April stoke worries that the U.S. economic recovery was losing momentum at beginning of the second quarter.

Technical analysis suggested that spot gold may retrace to $1,513, said Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.

Kilo Bar of .9999 pure gold

Full Article: CNBC

Our experience at QPI Ltd and some of our key associates in this trade, is that we have many, many people looking for Gold, however sources of fresh supply of gold remains limited. Much of the gold trade is currently ”vault to vault” cycling of existing stock.

We recently visited Africa to asses new suppliers. Many of course were simple scam operators, and some proved to be legitimate, however all are limited in what they can offer.

While I am not in a position to speak with authority about economics, it would appear that the basic supply and demand theory would keep upward pressure on gold at least at the micro economic ”coal face”.

QPI Ltd has an operational base in China, and talks frequently to branch offices, clients and suppliers in varous countries around the world. Often we use Skype and other computer based systems when they work and landlines and mobiles as an alternative.

Interestingly, some companies like to use full price land lines to demonstrate they are legitimate and have funds to pay for calls, as is especially the case in the scam rife gold trade in West Africa.

At QPI Ltd we typically feel it makes sense to all keep costs down where practical.

Skype has been a good option for many years, and the paid version “skype out” for calls to phones. As many users know when it works it is fantastic value for money however it can often be temperamental, especially if band width is low.

Skype can sometimes be improved by closing some or preferably all browser screens, however it is often not worth the risk for an important call.

Unfortunately we find even full price mobile or land line calls can sometimes be marginal or patchy especially between China and either West Africa or some parts of India, possibly as more of the carriers are routing through some sort of VOIP to keep their own costs down.

Some of our staff have recently started using Jumblo VOIP service. It mainly focuses on call services from your mobile or land line to another mobile or land line. It has both paid and free call options depending on the locations and unlike Skype it has both web based and download options, so very useful when traveling!

The site is a little “clunky” and we certainly hope they improve by building more options into the settings etc.

None the less, so far we have been very impressed with it, so we are happy to recommend the service hoping that it is helpful to you in your business!

If you have found a better options please contact QPI Ltd and tell us about them!

There have been strong fundamental reasons for gold to continue rising, with geo-political instability, weakness in major currencies such as US$ and Euro, a crisis in Japan and so forth.

The end of the worlds biggest manhunt may have been a potential respite in Golds surge.  None the less US markets ended down on Monday and oil prices did not appear to be effected.

In fact some analysts say that Bin Ladens death may have a negative effect on the markets which could further strengthen Gold.

The Death of bin Laden: What it Means for Pakistan, the Dow and Your Financial Security

….the death of bin Laden brings to light some highly worrisome revelations about Pakistan. And those revelations have some potentially serious long-term implications for the Dow Jones Industrial Average

QPI Ltd is continuing to offer physical gold at competitive prices from our at source supply.