Re:Business ideas: proving ideas are a dime a dosen
by briggsbio on Thursday June 09, 2011 @05:18PM
(#2638833)
I wouldn't call Xiamen a "town" or a "village." My cousin lives there with his wife and two children. It has a population of over 2.5 million people, and was voted (by whom, IDK) one of the "most livable cities in China." He worked for EDS for years and wanted to be transfered to China because of how much he loved it. When they wouldn't transfer him, he FOUND a way to move there. He ended up building a factory there to manufacture leather goods. Get the best leather he can from N&S America, and manufactures it there. He now has hundreds of employees, many with some form of disability, and is incredibly happy.
So I wouldn't call Xiamen itself a village, but you may be referring to a small village nearby.
There is actually a town in china where the entire village makes their money painting caricatures of monkeys. Not saying it's a good career move, but at least that's the context for where the idea came from.
Interesting enough, the majority of the world's oil paintings come from this one tiny village with 5,000 painters who spend all day slavishly copying the same templates over and over:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen
You can find all their stuff on ebay and alibaba.