Take a quick scan through the trade leads and you’ll notice the large number of Chinese companies selling shoes - mainly sports shoes with big brand names. Here’s one such trade lead.
I couldn’t help thinking about them whilst I read ‘A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers‘, a book that’s recently been published, written by a Chinese woman - Xiaolu Guo.
It’s a romantic comedy about a young lady whose parents run a shoe factory in China. She’s sent to England to learn English and we get an amusing look at how she grapples with the differences in language, custom and her new found sexual freedoms. Well worth a read.
It’s Spring Festival time, the Chinese New Year - Xin Nian Kuai Le!! Gong Xi Fa Cai!!
The Year of the Pig is supposed to be a good one in which to have babies, any child born this year will, according to custom, be happy, honest, hardworking and lucky.
What have our traders got to offer any fortunate couple? We’ve picked out three products:
Moses Basket
This delightful basket is from a trader in China. The unit measures 82cm x 35cm x 25cm (L x W x H). It is lined with sweet waffle and a check fabric that comes in different colours.
Crystello is a computerised and digitised hot and cold water purifier from Lebanon. It can be used for preparing milk for new-born babies.
Take Note
There is significant world trade in babies’ garments and clothing accessories. In 2005 over $4.5 billion of these goods were imported into countries around the world. The top 5 importing nations were the USA, China/Hong Kong, UK, France and Germany.
Interesting to learn that 50 years ago South Korea’s main export was human hair. How times change! Electronics is obviously far more lucrative.
These days, whilst most human hair comes from China, a lot comes from the Indian sub-continent. 
A large quantity of Indian hair, which is valued because of its European like texture, comes from temples - Hindus shave their hair off as a sign of religious devotion.
But did you read about all those girls and women in India who have been forcibly having their heads shorn to make weaves and extensions?
You may think it’s not a great hardship but in most cultures long and healthy hair is valued as a thing of great feminine beauty - so not very pleasant for the poor ladies concerned.
Of course none of this would happen if not for the huge worldwide demand for these hair pieces. Pop stars, models, the rich and the famous all want to look even more glamorous by attaching strands of hair to their natural locks. Many black hair styles depend on the use of hair extensions. Think of all the wigs that are used, whether for vanity, medical or religious reasons.
There’ll always be a need for hair pieces and until the artificial ones match the quality of the natural there will always be some poor woman walking around bald.
There are a variety of human hair products and trade leads on the trade portal (though none of them are from India they are all from China). Take a look:
Long 100% Human Hair
Human Hair
Human Hair Extension
Blow these creatures up and they’ll walk around as if they’re alive! 
They come as a range of different animals: Dogs (including Corgi, Retriever, Terrier, Dachshund, Shiba Inu), Cat, Duck, Dinosaur, Pig, Tortoise and Fowl.
Submitted by wly111 who is based in Hong Kong, their $1.50 per unit price tag should see a whopping profit for the canny Ebay seller (similar items are selling for ~$10.00 on www.ebay.co.uk !!!).
The latest changes are up and most of you will be pleased to be able to market your products at last. We know you’re limited to only 2 products at the moment but eventually more will be allowed on a subscription basis.
Both company profiles and products have to be approved before they go up (like Buy and Partner leads). This is to stop people spamming with inappropriate information. We should really extend this to Sell leads as well - hopefully if/when we get more staff.
It’s nice to see that most people are submitting images with their products - here’s an interesting one: Green Life Mud Crabs, submitted by liveseafoodpng who is based in Papua New Guinea.
Apparently Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse countries on the planet with over 850 languages - the population is under 6,000,000!!!
The country’s exports include a variety of minerals (oil, gold, copper), timber, agricultural product (palm oil, yams, coffee, cocoa) and, as liveseafoodpng has shown, fish products. Machinery, chemicals and manufactured goods are amongst their main imports.
