Dong Xuemin can not wait for the weekends while he will go out with this friends or family to mountains that are north of Beijing. He will also be going to a lake for picnic. Dong is ‘Red Ant’ and is a member of club of the Chinese urban who will look for any excuse for hitting road, not in the ordinary automobiles but in the recreational automobiles, the quintessential Western charits of leisure transportation that is used by the ‘Snowbirds’ for North America that is typified by the retirees of white hair that are heading towards south for winter.
Dong is aged 41, and he says that RVs have really glorious and long history in West. He runs storage and logistics business at Beijing where is storing all the RVs, all terrain autmbiles and boats along with motorized surf board. He says that Chinese are all the same and they really love outdoors. Hence, they are learning the Western and American culture of RV. The market of China of RV is pretty small as compared to that of North America. The buyers of Chinese bought estimated thousand RVs last yr compared to above 250,000 that are sold USA. Lack of the government regulations, camp grounds, plumbing & decent roads in a lot of parts country are amongst challenges that stalwart faced by road-warriors.
But experts say that the RV business at China will take off soon, benefiting the domestic manufacturers & foreign manufacturers alike. RV China Association is expecting the sales for increasing about 40% between 2012 & 2015 for close to about 4,000. Bill Liu whose Santa Clara, a California-based firm, China Motor home, is exports some American-made RVs at China says that RV market needs guys with money & time. The Chinese have usually have one, but not other.
Liu is predicts the sales of RV at China will sky rocket to about 500,000 per year in about 20 years because, along with China’s 1st generation of the modern entrepreneurs will retire, “for 1st time in the history of China there are people having money & time.” And most of the Chinese right now take to air for traveling south for the balmy vacations of winter, in ten years which will be pretty different, believes Liu. He says that they will see snow birds of China may be even the Russians.
Home grown Vs. Imports
Domestic manufacturers of RV are currently dominating along with around sixty percent of market of China & offer lot of choices for the buyers of RV. China people seeking luxury life for road can go for high-end Wuzhouxing bus of touring, made at Henan province Beijing south & selling for around two million yuan. They are using Nissan chassis and engines and build every thing on the top. This was said by Li Jian who is CEO, who started this company post some difficulty in finding places for staying on the trips for remote Tibet. If the camp grounds get developed, RV market will be taking off, says Li.
Meng Qiang, one more Red Ant, had started company that was producing entry-level & small trailer known as Sojourner which sells for around 45,000-55,000 yuan & it is outfitted along with out door range of cooking, AC, plenty of storage & 19-inches flat screen TV. The people for China will ask strange questions says Meng. People ask if they can really take on the road?
The domestic makers like Great Wall Motor Co & Zhongtian RV are making the RVs for around eleven years & each sold around hundred last year. Huang Fei, who is sales executive along with at Zhongtian at Tianjin, whose carriages had sold for around 780,000 yuan says that they need more people who have chance for coming and seeing RV, how it fits for their lives. 1 of the ones who may take chance for RV was Xie Tongyang, one engineering contractor @ his fifties, who looked at the rigs at recent trade show of RV.
Xie who is who learned around the RVs by looking at Winnebago Industries products very online says that at his age, they can simply about affording this, and hence he wanted to come taking look. China is quite big, and hence some thing like this will be really convenient & he likes driving. The fast-rising imports in to China can help in reviving the makers of American RV like Winnebago, Thor Industries, Navistar International Corp, & others.
The RV shipments for United States are now expected to go 265,200 for this year, which is really below 390,500 that are sold in the year 2006, says RVIA or Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, as the consumers of U.S. put off some spending on the items of big-ticket in weak economy. Winnebago is exporting for China for around 2 years through to China Motorhome. The prices are double due to shipping & import duties of around 100 percent or more; 24-ft Winnebago View, @ about $102,000 in USA, costs about $220,000 at China. Luxury, bus-like Itasca Sun cruiser, costing around $170,000 in USA, is around $400,000 for China.
Sheila Davis, the Winnebago spokes woman said that China is developing market having expanding middle class who are believing having big interest for pursuing lifestyle of RV. He realizes that there is a lot of more that needs to be done for building infrastructure at China for supporting RVs. But it looks like China appears as if they are interested for making the changes. Currently there aren’t any centralized programs for developing the RV camp grounds nationally & none of large camp ground chains like the KOA for United States. The small and local companies are now starting for investing for building the campgrounds, primarily for coastal provinces like Zhejiang, Shandong, & Fujian, & to lesser extent in the popular regions of tourist like the Sichuan province.
Let’s get this party started
The enthusiastic Red Ants just like Dong & Liu Shixiong will be really important for expanding the industry of China’s RV. Red Ants & the other owners are now leading push for some better roads, campgrounds, and service areas along with electricity & water hook-ups. Liu, aged 41, owns 4 identical Ford vans of RV which sleep 4 each & which he lets all of his friends drive. He says that he really likes traveling along with friends, but they do not have the RVs. As industry grows, the prices of RV will drop & masses will afford them.
For recent over night stay @ camp ground at southern suburbs of Beijing, a lot of Red Ants & the families circled the wagons close to lake. The grown ups made the way through 3 types of beer, 2 brands of the cigarettes & huge jar of seeds of water melon as the songs of Western pop from Abba & Celine Dion had blared.
Dinner time had arrived, and along with skewers of barbecue & ear stew of pig’s came more of beer & “baijiu” rice liquor. The men challenged the others for arm wrestling. 1 started reading the palms of other campers’. The boisterous talk & laughter had blended along with aromas of the grilled chicken & lamb. Liu Jun, aged 46, who has business repair of vehicle & cargo trailers says that people in China have plenty of money but the wealthy China people do not know anything about enjoying themselves well. He has Zhontain RV which is priced at about 560,000 yuan.
A lot of RVs have had decals of Beijing Red Ants Outdoor Power League which are really big as the basketballs on the sides. Liu Jun had hoisted big flag along with logo of Red Ant over the Jeep Cherokee as if staking out claim of land. The trailer had words of China for “Ant Nest” which painted. He says that China is getting urbanised; and people in the city spend all the time for buildings, reinforced with concrete & steel, says Wang Xudong, who is secretary of Association of RV China, who was amongst campers. He says that it isn’t really fun but if they get to where there’re plenty of trees & water & grass, then it is terrific feeling.
