Warm breeze good, but warmer weather needed

QINGDAO: He was dejected and depressed. His visits to China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou last week and later to Dongguan were not at all what he expected them to be.

Chinese exporters at the fair had a worried look on their faces, "unwilling to talk too much about the future" because foreigners were reluctant to dig into their pockets.

Dongguan, a thriving industrial city, was no better. Many factories had closed by 6 pm. "That's unbelievable," says Li Zheng, who runs a textile company in Qingdao. "Plants in Dongguan used to run 24 hours before Christmas."