Products include: copper windchimes and mobiles, many photo frames, pewter items, motorbike clocks etc.

All the factories we deal with in China are in the so called 'Special Economic Zone', the coastal belt near Hong Kong, where capitalism has been allowed free reign after decades of Communist control.  Labour pours in from all over China, attracted by wages that tend to be at least 20 times the average rural income.  Many of the workers are young, perhaps moving down there after they leave school, and they are working in order to save money.  When they have enough savings, they will return to their own areas in other parts of China, usually the much poorer North, and use their capital to start a family and to fund a local business.  Others already have children, and are sending money back home to feed and educate them.

Our former buyer Victoria Clark visited a pewter factory, where windhorse gifts such as boxes, picture frames and oil burners are manufactured.  It was in beautiful countryside, with tall green hills (on top of one of them, a huge Buddha can be seen from miles away).  The factory is in the middle of a town – they tend not to have separate industrial areas.  It is not very attractive, but clean and spacious, full of natural light, and very airy.

The pewter is cast, and often it is also enamelled and drilled.  Surprisingly, everything is done by hand: they melt the pewter in little pots, then pour it into moulds the size of a dinner plate made of a foam material.  Then they squeeze the items out of the moulds, finish them by hand and glue them together, enamelling them or adding jewels as necessary.  There are no signs of noxious fumes, and the workers wear masks and take other precautions. It is certainly not a sweatshop, and people in this factory are paid a wage, rather than piecework (per item).

The workers in this factory mainly choose to live in the dormitory provided, because it is cheaper, and they can save more money this way.  In another factory Victoria visited on her previous trip, most of the workers find lodgings in the local area, rather than living in the dormitories.

One of our main Chinese suppliers already have their own 'Relief Fund' set up, and they have been providing scholarships to children at Koa Chau Primary School in rural North China, attended by the children of some of their employees. We found out that the school wanted to begin computer training for their 800 pupils, hoping to match the opportunities that children in urban schools would have. We have funded everything needed to set up the computer room, including the cost of 19 computers.

As well as buying direct from Chinese companies, we also buy from one other trading company (based in Holland) who supply us with goods made in China, mainly in smallish workshops like the ones that we deal with directly. We always prefer to deal with manufacturers directly when we can and only use this sort of middleman when it is necessary to keep stock levels up.  We have cut down to only one European wholesaler, and have halved what we buy from them, with a view ideally to not needing them at all.

Given the poor human-rights record of the Chinese state, particularly the terrible treatment of the people of Tibet, should we be trading there at all?  We consulted the Tibetan Government in exile and were told that the Dalai Lama’s policy is that the Tibetan people’s argument is with the Government of China, not with the people of China, and since it is the Chinese people who would suffer they are not in favour of a trade boycott.

Incidentally, we now have hardly anything made in Taiwan.