Winter storm wallops Chinese & US fireworks making
February 1, 2008
How today’s weather in China could impact your July 4th fireworks
If you are making fireworks yourself or are a consumer of Chinese fireworks, what is happening in China right now, today, will be affecting you.
The man who makes many of Skylighter’s Chinese fireworks products possible is Matt Palaszynski. Matt has a company in Liuyang. Liuyang is basically the center of the fireworks universe. He splits his time between there and his home in the US.
Matt works with each factory making consumer fireworks for us. He also helps us find all sorts of wonderful things we need in making fireworks. Things like screens, comet and star pumps, ematch blanks, the wonderful array of colored effect fuses we carry, and many other items that we now consider essential to fireworks making.
Matt sent me the following note yesterday. It affects all of us who are concerned about buying and making fireworks for July 4th and other events. This year, the fireworks industry worldwide is experiencing the most significant cost increases in a decade. Matt’s note explains graphically why some of these increases are happening, even as I write this.
Matt’s letter:
Hello,
I would like to update you on the weather situation in China as well as the impact on your order.
Central China is experiencing the worst winter storm in 30 years. For the last two weeks the weather has been poor and has been causing disruption to production. However, several days ago much of central and southern China was hit with an exceptional winter storm which has knocked out major power grids and shut down most transportation arteries. The forecast is for the weather to remain poor for at least the next week.
At this point, all production and transportation has ceased until at least mid-February. For those of you that were expecting shipments before Chinese New Year for arrival in March, the weather will delay your shipments.
For everyone else, production was progressing in January and shipments planned for late February and March are not likely to be significantly impacted. However, expect a delay of a few weeks vs. where we would have been without the poor weather. We were prepared for a difficult spring due to the Olympics and therefore, our production is ahead of schedule vs. typical years.
The storm is of natural disaster portions and will likely have some direct impact on the Fireworks Industry in the form of further RMB/USD appreciation. The poor weather is crippling food and fuel movement at a time of the highest annual consumption due to the holiday.
Because of this, food and fuel prices are climbing and the government is responding by allowing further appreciation of the RMB [the Chinese currency] in an effort to combat domestic price inflation. This means the RMB is likely to continue to appreciate further, further increasing the cost of importing fireworks into the USA (source China Daily Business Section, Feb 1st, 2008). Currently the RMB is at 7.19 per dollar, down from 7.5 at the beginning of the production season.
I personally have been in Liuyang since January 10th and was delayed in leaving for several days due to the weather. All roads and airports were shut-down. I just managed to get to a warm Beijing hotel room only after waiting with tens of thousands of other stranded holiday travelers for a standing room only seat on a local train.
The normal 12 hour trip took 18 long hours and was truly a once in a lifetime experience that I seem to have all too often here in China. Back in Liuyang, my team is struggling with below zero temperatures and only have a few hours of electricity (and heat) each day.
Under these conditions, we have given up on making any progress at production and the team has started their own difficult journeys to visit family and begin the most important Chinese Holiday.
Chinese New Year is an unusual holiday for us in the West to understand because all of China is shut down for several weeks. Many workers in China have left behind friends and family in the rural areas of China to work in and around the cities. During Chinese New Year they make the difficult trip back home and don’t return for several weeks as they enjoy the company of friends and relatives.
As China has become more prosperous, and especially this year, workers have begun to leave for home much earlier then in years past. The reason for this is the relative prosperity in China.
Factory workers no longer are living day to day and when the weather turns cold in early January, they are leaving for the warmth of their fireplace at home with family savings accumulated from two income sources, prosperous children sending money back home, etc.
What this means for you is a more difficult production environment. We have taken steps to plan your production carefully to ensure timely delivery, however please understand that the situation is becoming more difficult: lack of workers, exceptionally poor weather, the Olympics (factories will begin to produce European orders immediately following Chinese New Year in anticipation that shipping will cease during three months of the Olympics), and other factors are combining to make spring production more difficult then usual. Rest assured we have taken steps to manage these difficulties.
I will end this update on a positive note and wish everyone a prosperous and healthy Lunar New Year.
Please see attached some photos of production from this month.
All the best to you and your families,
Matt Palaszynski
Dominator Fireworks, Liuyang, China
Consumer Fireworks Making In January
What this means to Skylighter’s fireworks makers and buyers
Matt ain’t just awhistlin’ Dixie. The front page story in the Washington Post today reports that hundreds of thousands of people are stuck in railroad stations throughout central China.
We have a number of new products coming in our next container from Matt. But between the weather and the normal two-week holiday for Chinese New Year, it looks like it’ll be arriving later than we originally planned. The wait will be worth it. There are a couple of surprises in that shipment that most of you have never seen before. Stay tuned. Holler if you have any questions. And start making those July 4th fireworks!
Pitfalls of Buying Fireworks In China Yourself
I am finally back on the ground at our warehouse in Virginia. Whirlwind trip: Virginia to Vancouver to Hong Kong to Shezhen to Changsha to Liuyang to Changsha to Shenzhen to Hong Kong to Vancouver to Virginia in 15 days. I have learned to do it all out a single carry-on bag, too.
If you’ve been following my trip to China to buy fireworks for Skylighter, you’ve seen me mention Matt Palaszynski. While I was on the road, Dave, one of Skylighter’s customers, asked me to contact a particular Chinese fireworks company in Liuyang for him. He had had several phone and email interactions with the Chinese company and was considering ordering some fireworks from them.
I hooked my customer up with Matt. Here’s a slightly edited copy of Matt’s letter to Dave, my customer. The important thing is this. It is VERY HARD for us in the US to deal directly with any Chinese fireworks factory (or sales agent) right now. I would not advise it, unless you are prepared to have your own translator, make several long and expensive trips to China for each order you place, and have low expectations of delivered product quality. You simply have no idea what the complexities are, nor how many things have to be handled correctly in order for you to get your order. Matt’s letter to Dave is right on target.
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Dave,
Don’t know if you care to hear my pitch, but…
I will start by saying that I think [name deleted] is a good company. They have been around for awhile, have an established customer base, and are legitimate.
However, they are not a factory. They are a fireworks trading company. Which is exactly the same thing that my company is–a fireworks trading company. We take orders from you and we place and manage orders with various China factories.
For the most part, factories do not sell direct. They sell through trading companies like [name deleted] and my company. I guess about the only way that I can prove this to you is through our pricing. I am fairly confident that I can meet or beat any prices that [name deleted] is offering you. Not that you want to buy from the lowest bidder, however. My point it that if they were a factory, they should be much cheaper that I am. I am willing to bet that I can compete pretty much head to head, as I am willing to bet that they are buying from the same factories that I am.
Harry at Skylighter’s point is that you don’t want to deal directly with a factory. He is correct in that most factories are not set up for sales. Legally, they do not have government export licenses, and commercially they typically do not employ sales staff. A good factory is just that, a factory. It is the trading company that invests the time to understand the customer requirements and transfer them into technical manufacturing documents that the factory uses to produce to your specs. That service is part of the value that we add to earn our profit.
Finally, I think my company has been successful due to our deep knowledge of fireworks and our professional business structure. I don’t know Julie at [name deleted], but I know her job profile. She most likely graduated from the Changsha or Liuyang foreign language institute with a 2 year degree in English. She is probably anywhere from 18 – 25 years old. She probably has never shot a Class B display herself. I can guarantee that she has never shot one in the USA. She is paid a very low fixed wage and she is given a commission for all new customers that she brings in. She most likely does not get a whole lot of support from [name deleted]. Because of the desire of the company to quickly grow, she is expected to coordinate most of the details of your order. Critical details like factory down payments, production schedules, and shipping are often to be dealt with after the customer contact has been signed. I am certain that she is pleasant, bright, and very hard working. Most likely, she can spend an inordinate amount of time on you… most likely because you are one of her only potential customers. Maybe she will get lucky and all the details will fall into place for her. Maybe not. She does not have much to lose… as opposed to you.
My company is also a Liuyang Trading Company. Yes, I am an American, but I am not your competitor. I only sell full containers direct from China. I do not wholesale or retail in the USA. I don’t shoot displays. Right now almost 50% of my business is manufacturing private label product for some of the USA’s biggest companies. We have a large account right there in MO. We manufacture for large US fireworks retailers whose names you know, including Skylighter. So, if you are looking for your own brand, we can help.
I have years of first-hand experience in fireworks displays and consumer fireworks design in the US market. Our staff all have deep experience; even our equivalent of Julie was the teacher at the Liuyang foreign language institute, not just the student. None of our staff are paid by commission. I personally think it just leads to problems in the long run. I see lots of upfront sales effort and then little follow through for commission based employees. We stick it out to the gory end with each of our customers. For the most part, I am the main person to interface with the customer to ensure the smoothest communication.
All the best,
Matt
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What Matt didn’t say, and I want to elaborate on, is this. You need someone to shepherd your order through the whole process. From specifying what you want to getting it delivered to your doorstep, if you do not have someone like Matt managing the process, you are in for a lot a trouble and disappointment.
Bottom line: if you want to import Chinese fireworks, and you have never done it before, do not try this at home. Questions?
Harry Gilliam
Chinese Fireworks Importer Survivor
An Improbable Travel Schedule
Here’s a before and after of a typical travel day. I gotta get 500 miles from Changsha to Hong Kong. Let’s see how it goes.
Currently sitting in the Lucky Shamrock Irish Pub in the Changsha airport waiting for my connection. The Shamrock’s décor is somewhere between a purple and a pink–that’s what Irish green morphs into after it’s been in China awhile. On the menu are 14 kinds of tea.
"Make mine oolong," I I say to Su Ling, the pretty waitress.
Big steaming beer mug o’ oolong lands on the table with about a pint of loose tea leaves inside. Mmmm.
Today started with emails at 5:45 am. Then, breakfast with Matt where, as usual, we plot the complete overthrow of the fireworks industry.
If we ever do 1% of what we dream up at these breakfasts, we’ll die rich men, and be interred in burial mounds outside Liuyang. They’ll surround our central tomb areas with thousands of cakes, fountains, and sparklers all laid out in the outline of the United States. Our actual bodies will be draped in great lengths of Tau strings, and protected forever inside locked forty foot cargo containers, with two ATF-approved 1/4 inch thick steel covers over the locks, to protect from tomb robbers and 27th century archeologists.
After breakfast, we say our goodbyes and Matt hands me off to the same lunatick driver we had the other night, who just dropped me here at the airport.
Shortly, I am to meet David, the chemical guy, here at the airport to examine an assortment of rare and unusual fireworks chemicals, many of which we haven’t seen in the US in 30 years. Stuff like realgar, which we cannot find anywhere, anymore, at a price mortals can afford. He wants to sell me vast quantities of them. Let’s see, two guys in the parking lot in front of a big airport hunched over a plastic baggie of white powder…. hmmm. I can see how this could go…
"It’s not what you think it is, officer. Officer? Officer? Officer, do you speak any English?"
Blank stare. Uh, oh. More officers. No smiles. Oh shit.
After I meet David and hopefully elude the chemical police, my plane is supposed to leave at noon for Shenzhen down on the coast right next to Hong Kong an hour and 15 later. If… all goes according to plan and schedule. Then catch a shuttle bus from the airport to the Hong Kong Ferry, which leaves at 2:30–tight connection. If not, wait around for the next one to leave at 4:30.
As soon as I know which ferry I’m on, I’ll call Mark on my cell phone using my China phone chip and tell him my arrival time in Hong Kong.
He will then leave from somewhere inside China, and drive to Hong Kong with a box of Sky Lanterns for me to see. As soon as I get off the Ferry, I will quick scramble out and up the street to the cell phone store and hope to God it’s still open Sunday afternoon, and get more minutes put onto my Hong Kong phone chip, because the China phone chip does not work in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong chip is outa minutes, which I cannot just replenish with a simple phone call to an 800 number with a credit card. Noooo. Then switch chips on the phone and wait for him to call me.
Then I will scurry further down the street and check into my hotel.
Once Mark arrives, me and him will go out on the parking lot on top of the big cruise ship pier sticking out into the harbor in front of the hotel, with ocean liners on each side, and light one or two of those suckers and send ‘em up into the air over the middle of Hong Kong and find out if you can get put in jail for violating some arcane law against launching UFO’s in the middle of one of the most densely populated cities on the planet called Earth.
Then we will slink back into the hotel and get drunk, laugh at our good fortune, speculate on what laws we may have violated, and do a deal on some Sky Lanterns.
Somewhere in all that, I will need to find Ricky Law, and confirm that I will meet him at the Ferry dock in Zhu Hai tomorrow morning, so he can give me a tour of his mammoth tusk carving factory.
I’ll let you know what percentage of all this stuff actually happens.
UFO Seen Over Hong Kong Harbor!!!!
Everything worked according to plan. It’s now around 8 PM. Mark has arrived with the Sky Lanterns.
Now, gaze down from your imaginary hotel room upon the concrete toppa the pier stretching out before you perhaps a football field long. Many Chinee-Sunday-shopper BMW’s parked thereupon. Three cruise ships flanking the swanky cars. Two guys, hunkered over a glowing flame-bag. Coupla Indonesian women standing by, watching, waiting.
What the hell is that?! Combo parking lot attendant, uniformed security guy with rank-stripes on his shoulders semi-authoritatively moseys over (this IS Red China, donchu forget) to the flaming bag guys.
"Howda hanga pitty banga row!" assertively wagging one finger first AT the glowing bag, then side by side as if to censure the thing.
"Uh huh, just watch," instructs the Virginian to the Chinaman, bluffing, not knowing at the time if he is dissing a cop or ignoring a parking lot attendant, the Canadian still trying to wrassle the glowing bag in the 10-knot wind, the two Indonesians expertly saying nothing.
The glowing bag sways, starts to lift. The wind smooshes the hot air out of its soft sides momentarily. Then the Canadian, adept at bag launchings, feels the sensual swell of the hot air as it fills the paper to bursting, as it nears its climactic rising… rising, ever hotter, swelling, swelling against the strong Chinaman’s censorial finger, the finger wagging, wagging, instructing the keepers of the bag-flame to cease, to somehow stop this thing, right now, for it must be illegal, and then…. and then, right at the edge of all sanity…
Right on the edge of all control, the Canadian yields to the softness of the hot bag, to the throbbing heat on the sides of the softness he gently holds in his hand, and he knows, as only a man can know, that the release is near. So very near, and he simply takes his hands away.
And she soars; she soars out over the rail of this giant concrete pier, up, up into the night, as only the lightness of a woman can. But then she drops, as if abandoned at her moment of ecstasy by her lover, she drops. Getting colder now, she drops over the side, and down toward the cold of winter’s South China Sea. And all, even the wagging fingered Chinaman, all watch to see her as she is about to drown in the cold of the harbor, and she dips ever lower, grazing just past the incredulous lower deck man and his wondering gaze.
And she goes right for the water, as if to drown her sorrows, her sadness at losing the Canadian’s soft caress… and then… and then… she lifts just an inch or two above the water. And holds herself there, quivering there, for a moment.
And then, she swells, she swells as a woman’s breast swells at the touch of her lover, and she heaves another precious foot above the grasping wave tops, as all on the pier wait breathlessly.
And she lifts yet another foot or so, swelling even more. And the wind catches her and starts to move her flaming, glowing swollenness out across the light green of the harbor, and finally… UP! She lives! She LIVES!
She was still going up when we lost her among the clouds, out about a mile from the pier, her spirit soaring perhaps two thousand feet above and out and away from all her earthly bonds.
And this night, we were not consigned to the jail of the Red Chinee. Once again, the pyros triumphed.
Click here to view a video of a Skylantern being lit.
Question for all of you: What are the best uses for Sky Lanterns? Do you need to know anything more about them?
Harry Gilliam
Chief of UFO Launch Facility, Hong Kong
Fireworks Testing in Liuyang
Matt, Annie, and I head out into the cold and damp. We need lunch in a hurry, so we stop at a familiar place and see a familar face. You know you’re in Liuyang, when even Ronald McDonald is a fireworks man!
My agent over here, Matt Palaszynski, lives in Wisconsin with his wife and kids. He commutes to Liuyang for weeks at a time, and manages the process well from either place. His job is to get the fireworks made that companies like Skylighter order, get them packed into containers and shipped to us in the US. Part of what that entails is testing the fireworks.
And testing fireworks every night. Basically, you load the car with people and fireworks and drive around ’til you find a place where you want to shoot. Then, everybody piles out, and we start watching how each firework item performs. Videos are made of each particular firework fountain, cake, rocket, or whatever. Notes are taken, critiques given, and instructions for Matt’s people to pass along to the various factories.
"Change the elapsed time of this cake from 17 seconds to 14. Make the last shots all green, not red."
"We told them we wanted a silver-tailed star, not the orange one."
You and I mostly take all this for granted. But you cannot begin to imagine the number of details that have to be handled. And if you don’t, you get a mess. My favorite was the shipping carton whose contents were clearly labeled in big, bold letters: "20 Inch Sparkler — Needs Better Performance."
Matt patiently goes over it all. Annie takes notes in Chinese and translates for the guys who have to interface with the factories. So it goes, every night. Working in Liuyang is a 14-16 hour day. Everybody, including yr. hmbl. svt., works 7 days a week like this. Except I get to go home.
This process goes on for hundreds of 40-foot container-loads of fireworks, each containing about a thousand cases of many different kinds of fireworks. And for the US consumer fireworks market, most of that fireworks production crammed intensely into the time slot between September and April. After April, it’s almost too late to get any fireworks made and shipped to the US in time for the Mighty Fourth of July.
The Coming Fireworks Shipping Crisis
This year, the window is even tighter. This year, there’s a major fireworks shipping problem. A series of shipboard accidents have resulted in there being fewer ship companies who will carry fireworks any more. That reduction in carrying capacity is quickly looming ahead of us.
Matt says the real squeeze has started. Some shipments are being delayed a couple of weeks. By March, he expects the delay to be perhaps, fatally long. The Fourth of July fireworks containers are going to be piling up, waiting for a ship, which will take them.
His prediction is that as much as 30% of the product which has been ordered for this year’s July Fourth season may not make it to the US in time. Supply and demand being what it is, that, of course will mean higher prices at the fireworks stand.
But the snowballing shipments jammed up at the ports will also create a supply and demand situation for shipping. The few remaining ocean shippers willing to handle fireworks product will start to charge more. Much more.
Matt thinks you’re really gonna feel it in your pocketbook this year. My advice: Whether you’re a dealer or a fireworks user/addict, if you know what you want, get it as soon as you can from dealers who already have it stock. If you snooze, you lose.
Last Day in Liuyang: The Confetti Cannon Factory
I have decided to try selling confetti cannons. They’ve been around for a few years. But I have resisted selling them.
I took a bunch of them to my friend, Christopher’s house on New Year’s Eve, and they were the hit of the party. Bright red, white, and blue Mylar confetti was everywhere within minutes. And people were REALLY having a ball shooting them. That’s when I got sold on confetti cannons. I really had no idea that confetti shooters could be so much fun for people.
I think they are a natural for just about any festivity, and in particular indoor weddings. We already sell a lotta sparklers to pyrotechnically inclined brides who want to have a sparkling exit from their receptions. Confetti cannons look to me like a natural complement to wedding sparklers. Clearly people love ‘em, so you add some fun and excitement during the indoor part of a wedding reception, where the confetti and streamers can easily be vacuumed up. You can put confetti cannons on all the tables for the guests, and at the appointed time, if the in-laws are all still controllable, everybody blasts them up into the air at the same time.
There’s nothing pyrotechnic or hazardous in them, so they can be shipped anywhere as fast as you need them. That’s a good thing: customers are forever calling on Friday to get stuff for a wedding on Saturday.
Matt had a couple of prototype confetti cannons at the office. I had requested red Mylar hearts and silver streamers. But, they weren’t quite right. So, we ask the confetti cannon factory owner if he can do smaller hearts, and thinner, shorter silver streamers. I can tell he thinks we don’t know what we’re talking about. Sure enough, through Annie, he says that doing what we ask will make a shorter blasting effect.
I explain that I want these made for indoors, with shorter distances to cover and lower ceilings.
"Ahhhh so," says the owner in Chinese. I ask for 4-mm wide, silver Mylar streamers; he can do 6 mm. We agree. He asks how long. I guestimate (how the hell do I know?) one meter long streamers.
"Okay, okay, okay. How many," asks he. 24 in a box. 4 boxes per case. 40 cases.
"Okay, okay, okay. Which label?" Too late to get a wedding label designed. We pick a label he already has, conveniently written in Engrish. Don’t laugh; the best looking one was in Russian.
"Okay, okay, okay. When you need?" January 31st.
"Ohhhhhhh…," he says in Chinese. His expression goes south. Only two weeks. He confers with his wife. They jibber-jabber some. We poker-face and wait patiently. This goes on for a few moments. The trick, we know, is to get everything completed and shipped to us before the 10-day Chinese New Year starts early in February. At that point, everything Chinese stops. Nothing gets made and nothing gets shipped until afterward, as much as two weeks later. And with fireworks carriers being scarcer and scarcer, we don’t wanna risk that.
We want our container on the water the first week in February. He looks up.
"Okay, okay, okay." And that deal is done.
Pop-quiz question; let’s see who’s really paying attention. The building behind me in the picture has a slanted, lower wall. It’s an old warehouse, now recylced by our (new) fiberglass mortar manufacturer and the confetti cannon guy. But in its former life it was used to store something else, that needed those slanty lower walls. What?
Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Confetti Shooter
One Bad Product, A Close Call
The new Yintian hotel in Liuyang is another steal. Great room, way up near the top, super view of Liuyang, with an honest-to-Buddha pagoda all lit up on top of a little hill across the river from me, overlooking the town and the river. The room comes with not one, but two free breakfasts, every day. You wanna bring a friend to breakfast? No problem; it’s on the house.
And what a breakfast. Everything imaginable from regular ole Western eggs and suchlike, to a huge variety of fruits and Chinese food. 
Matt steers me over to the dim sum, little steamed packets of orgasmic stuff of every shape and taste imaginable. I’ve had ‘em back home, but believe me; the stuff that passes for Chinese food in the US is NOT!
Hey, I have to fess up: I didn’t come over here to look at fireworks. I came here to do some serious eating. And when even the hotel food is incredible, you know you’re in the right place. If you come to Liuyang in Hunan, be forewarned, it can be hot schtuff, as you will see.
After chewing the fireworks fat over dim sum and coffee, Matt and I headed next door to his office. While he met with his staff, I got to work checking packaging and labels, and testing the samples they had gathered for me of each different product in my current order, as well as some first-pass prototypes. Most of this was stuff like sparklers and poppers, so I just tested right there in the office with a window open to get rid of the smoke.
You need to understand Liuyang is a Fireworks Town. People test anything, anywhere. It’s the way it’s done. Nobody complains. It ain’t like where we live. Nosireebob.
I found some problems. Some with product performance, some with packaging, and one product I just don’t like the look of. Not one bit. I make notes, take photos, decide what changes have to be made.
For some of the items, all I have to do is give Matt a list of changes, and they will get done without any further work on my part. Other changes cannot be made this time. We’ll have to make the changes next time; production is too far along, and we definitely want my container to ship around the end of the month. But we find a couple of problems and opportunities that we really need to go to the factories to work through.
So, Matt, Annie-our funny and fabulous translator, and I head off to visit factories. Now, some of the products I’m buying are fireworks, but many are not. And, in some cases, I’m not going tell you exactly what we were looking at, because, frankly I don’t want my competitors knowing about these new products before we get them. The first stop is for one of my secret products.
Matt had gotten some samples from one factory for this product. To me, everything about them was wrong. The packaging sucked. The product didn’t look good. They didn’t work consistently. Basically, they were just made sloppily, and obviously without any love.
They were so crappy, I told Matt I wouldn’t take them. Not only have I rejected the product, but I think it’s so bad, that I don’t even want to get the manufacturer to try and fix it. It’s that bad. Two weeks to go before my container ships, and I have just rejected 25% of what goes into it. This is a big deal.
So, now we’ve arrived at a restaurant out in the country to have lunch with the woman who owns another factory that makes this product. (I have high hopes their quality is superior.) Now, I could write a whole blog post just about any one of the meals we get here. The locals laughed at me taking lots of pictures of what to them is commonplace and ordinary. But there’s one from lunch that you need to see: steamed fish completely covered in a nice crust of crushed red pepper. Also swimming in about half an inch of red pepper and chili oil. I think they only left the head and eyes alone we’d know who we were eating.
This is how you meet the people you’re going to buy from—over eye and mouth-watering firecracker fish and tea. It’s very much part of the process over here. They meet you and they feed you.
Annie handles a slew of questions I have for the factory owner. I get good vibes. The owner, a woman, looks me in the eye when she talks. She’s straight, no b/s. I think I see integrity. Auspicious. I really want the product her factory makes. In a big way. This one visit is the most important one of the trip for me.
We leave the restaurant and drive over to her factory. We get a tour of the production areas. I snap millions of pictures, to the eternal glee of the (mostly) women there doing the work. This product has a lot of parts, some of them very small. I see a lot of attention to detail. I see people looking at the parts carefully, checking how they fit together, clipping and trimming off stray bits. Best of all, I see big boxes and bags of rejects, at every workstation. That is a very good sign.
I see the product finally assembled, and look at them. Carefully. I know this product already; so I know what it should look like when done well and finished. This product is done well.
The owner lady takes us to the testing area with a big box of products. Cups of tea come, and big plate of pomelo sections. Always food and tea. Always. The samples come in a lotta colors and configurations. We test them all. Matt has never actually seen one these work they way they are ‘sposed to. I wait with bated breath for the first one to be lit. Hoping. Hoping it’ll work right.
It lights, it does its thing, and it is absolutely flawless!
And we light one after another, and they all perform perfectly. I am happy. Really happy. More than any of the products in our order this time, I have come half way around the world to get this particular one right. Four hours ago, I had rejected our order for the product completely. Now, we have an excellent product and, after some haggling and compromise, a promise from the owners that they can get my order for 200 cases finished by the end of the month! In time for our scheduled shipment.
This has made my whole trip worth it. I know this product. I know how much people like it. And I know how to sell a lot of them. And as far as I know, nobody else in the US has them. So, if I can get my hands on this first 200 cases, I can do what I like to do best in this business—marketing. I know who wants the product, how to reach them, and how to sell them. It’s just getting a good, solid product that remains. And it looks good in that respect. It’s never a sure thing over here, of course. Something can still go wrong. But at least we have all the pieces in place.
So, after many smiles, hand-shakes, and thank-you’s, off we go to visit a new sparkler factory.
Here’s a puzzle for you. It has two parts: What do you think the red things are, and what are they doing? First person to post a comment with the right answer to both parts wins a ????? I’ll give you the answer next time.
Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
Mao’s Alarm Clock
On the Ground in Hunan Province
Signs here are often in Chinese and English. That can be a good thing. Especially, like me, if you don’t understand the language and are cursed with an innate fear of abandonment at all airports. (Hey, it’s happened to me!)
For instance, as I entered the Shenzhen airport yesterday, I was immediately put at ease by this reassuring brass sign posted right over the front door.
Even the Chinese have their problems with terrorists. So, it’s good to know that the Shenzhen airport was not one where you have to worry about such things.
There was, of course, a little glitch with the plane, but they managed to put me and about 120 of my Chinese friends on a spare one they had lying around out on the pavement. Bused us all to it. I got on, and because the flight from Shenzhen to Changsha is only an hour, the flight attendants scrambled to get us all something to munch on. I was happy to receive a drink of something claimed to be tea, and a pack prominently labeled in big-lettered, easy-to-read English: “Aviation Food.”
Again, that was comforting to me. I was definitely glad they didn’t send any of the other kinds of food along on my flight. I want the real stuff. Good, wholesome aviation food—manna in heaven (although some call it rice cake).
Landed late in the day in Changsha. Weather was cool, but not really cold, and for the first time in three trips in as many years, I actually saw the sun for the first time. What strikes one immediately here, is the amount of air-pollution. I have never seen blue skies in China. Not once in a total of six weeks of travel.
So, seeing the sun setting in Changsha was an event.
As usual, too much to take in on my ride through town. I did however, appreciate the big neon sign archway over the entrance to “Business Street” so I would know what they do on that particular street.
Got to the hotel, a stupendous place. My absolutely luxurious 18th floor room cost about what some Super 8s in the US do. Had yet another great Chinese dinner 
(check out the desert rice/sugar/spice thingy) and headed up to my room early. Around 9, the doorbell rang, and two pretty girls were there to wish me good night with a complementary basket of fruit and cocktail tomatoes. Wonderful hotel. About 80 bucks. Back home, it’d run you $300-$500 in any big American city.
Caught up some email and did some real work before turning in. Around 3 AM, the clock radio went off. I reached for it, but there wasn’t any clock radio. But Chinese flute music was playing. Loud. From outside!
At 3 AM. In the street…moving down the street. From a loudspeaker on a car or truck. Weird, Chinese flute music being played on the street, while everything else was quiet as a church mouse. Well, thank God it was heading down the street, and fading. What the hell was THAT about? Tried to drift back to sleep.
Zzzzzz…. That FLUTE again! Coming back. What IS this? At 3 o’clock in the morning. This went on for 10 minutes, back and forth up the street, then finally stopped.
Zzzzzz…. Took two hours to finally get back to sleep. I never did figure out what it was about. Maybe a holdover from the days when Mao figured out a way to keep people from sleeping in too late for work.
You know what? It works! I was fully awake, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, pecking away writing this post at 3:15 AM. That Mao. He knew. He knew.
Which birds’ nest for supper?
Well, it’s morning here in Hong Kong. As I look out my window here, the harbor is buzzing. A cruise ship is docked at the pier out front. Another one being pushed into the dock by a tug. The funny looking, old-timey Star Ferry running it’s ten minute trips back and forth between Kowloon and Hong Kong. The turbo jet ferries heading down the coast to Zhu Hai and Shenzhen. Freighters, tugs, junks (still!), and container ships going back and forth. It really looks like a busy street out there, there’s so much ocean traffic. All with the magnificent backdrop of the sun just touching the tips of the skyscrapers with the peak in the back of them. Past couple of days had nothing to do with actual fireworks; more about being a tourist and an antiques addict.
Even managed to snag a bunch of dragon eyes to munch on and had ‘em for breakfast this morning. You can’t get good dragon eyes in Round Hill, Virginia. Just peel a good dragon eye, and pop it in your mouth. Doesn’t get any better than this.
You see the damnedest things in Hong Kong. Like the street with all the birds’ nest shops. Dozens of them. Open Sunday, even. Guys sitting right inside the doorway, waiting for somebody to come by and get a nice birds nest for supper.
I can just hear it now: ‘Oh, and honey?’ my little woman chirps.
‘Yeah?’ says I, on the way out the door to run a couple of errands.
‘Honey, would you pick up some birds’ nests on the way home?’
‘Sure, babe. Not a problem. What kind you want this time?’ ever the doting, caring husband, chimes I.
‘mmmm’ we had crows’ nests last week. Let’s do swallows.’ She’s such a great kid, sometimes. She knows swallows are my favorite.
‘Okey dokey. 52 swallows’ nests, coming right up.’ And I am out the door, heading down the hill to get the dry cleaning, and hit the money machine. I’m finished in record time, and jag left up a side street. There it is, the swallows’ nest shop.
My pal, Sue Choi, is sitting just inside the door picking feathers and stuff out of a pale white, translucent nest. Takes her about a half an hour per nest. But when she’s finished, they’re clean as a whistle. That’s why I shop here. I think they have the cleanest nests on the street.
Cheap, they ain’t. Oh, I can get cheaper ones, the nests that still have the little baby bird down in them.
And my brother-in-law’s uncle’s cousin says you can’t taste the difference.
Bull. Those feathers have that little-birdy taste. And who the hell wants little baby bird down fluffing up the top of their soup? Not I, said the fly. Nope. I’ll pay twice as much to get Sue Choi’s handpicked nests any day.
And those nests are just like consumer fireworks. You probly think that we just drive up to the big ole fireworks Costco here in China, point at what we want, and then they ship it back to the good ole US of A, whereupon we mark it up 200 times and foist it off on you.
Not quite. Other than marking it up that much, it ain’t that easy. Nosireebob.
(By the way, in less time than it took me to write what you’ve read so far, two whole cruise ships have parked themselves at the dock out front. 
Look. Hey, I never knew it takes 10 or 12 guys and a tug boat to tie up a big ship. And they can do it in about 5 minutes.)
Nope. Somebody has to make sure that every single little detail is looked after. Little things like making sure the tips of the finished sparklers are dipped in a black powder slurry prime so they’ll light easier.
But’s an extra step. It costs. And somebody has to make sure the factory does it.
Which is why ‘brands’ of fireworks are a good thing. Brands are something you can rely on. Because, whether you know it or not, somebody is picking at all the little details to make sure every single type of firework is done right.
And you cannot imagine the work that goes into making just one kind of firework thing, one fountain, for instance, and getting it all the way to you, safely and legally. It is amazing. And what’s more amazing to me is that they are so cheap, even after we mark them up 600 times.
And like the feathery birds’ nests, you definitely can get cheaper fireworks than the branded variety. But, you can also depend on the cheaper ones having more problems, performing less reliably, and not looking as good.
Now, I doubt if I took this whole trip to describe all the things that go into making one type of consumer firework, I doubt if I could do justice to describing everything that goes into that one’all the people, effort, R&D, testing, compliance, packaging, shipping, etc. But I will give you a shot of some of it, as we go along together.
I’m leaving Hong Kong today, and going into Hunan, the province with more fireworks factories than any other place on the planet. I’ll meet up with Matt Palaszynski, who picks the feathers out of the fireworks that Skylighter imports. He’s an Americano, married to a Chinese lady he met when he worked over here for GE.
Now, he’s another fireworks man.
I used to buy from one of the big brands. They make great fireworks. But now I get everything through Matt, because he gives me really personal service, and helps me get all the weird and wonderful things that fireworks makers want. He manages the whole process for me, and is a terrific host when I’m in Liuyang, to boot. And Matt and I have fun doing this. We’re both fireworks nuts (how could you be in this crazy business and not be?) And we like working on getting new stuff made and into your hot little hands.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, I’ll post another one of these tomorrow (internet connections are painfully slow here). Maybe tell you about how good dragon eyes taste.
By the way, there’s free potassium nitrate at Skylighter again. Click here to check it out.
Harry Gilliam
Chief Cook & Bottle Washer
