I spent the past Saturday night at a private dinner in Changchun. Unsurprisingly, the dinner consisted of Chinese food. It included seafood, for instance rose fish and mackerel. We washed the seafood down with Chinese beer and Chinese wine. I can’t honestly claim to be into alcohol. Yet sipping a glass of wine or a glass of beer bolsters my well being at times, in particular over dinner. The dinner on Saturday night gave me the opportunity to taste both Chinese beer and wine.

Chinese beer seems to be available across the globe these days, especially in Chinese restaurants. The brand Tsingtao’s made plentifully inroads. So far I haven’t sniffed Tsingtao out. Instead, we sipped a Chinese lager whose name I can’t recollect. Its taste comes across as rather mild. My host vouched that it’s the right sort of beer for a state banquet. Which made me respond that it thus perfectly fits the bill for us.

Anyway, I didn’t forget the name of the Chinese wine we sipped over Chinese seafood. The Chinese wine we sipped is known as Dynasty. Dynasty’s said to be one of the few Chinese wines that are leaving a mark all over the world. Dynasty may have reached a similar stage by now to Chilean wine loads of years ago. Loads of years ago, the reaction to Chilean wine presumably sounded like “what’s that?” Things have changed a little since then. It may play out quite similarly with China’s Dynasty wine. In case you feel like keeping a watchful eye on things, have a look at http://www.dynasty-wines.com/.

World Economic Forum In Tianjin

There’s recently been a market in Tianjin for both Chinese Dynasty wine and the Chinese beer we sipped over dinner. The World Economic Forum held its summer session 2008 in Tianjin. Tianjin’s a coastal city in Eastern China near Beijing. The gathering there brought together a blend of international businessmen and pundits as well as policy makers. These movers and shakers debated how to keep the show on the road given that the drumbeat of less than satisfactory economic and financial news intensifies. They’re likely to have chatted about whether or not my present stomping ground China can continue to shore up global economic growth. It looks a little tricky because of happenings in the financial sector.

The financial sector in the United States has made an almighty stink. Financial institutions in Europe have made an unholy mess. However, things in China presently look quite robust. An educated guess relays to me that China will broadly remain above the fray. Be that as it may. If I resided in a western nation at present, I’d be ultra - cautious with banks and dough. Yet there are a few striking safe havens that would draw my undivided attention. They range from an Irish Bank to under the mattress and an old sock at a hidden spot. In Asia a Singaporean bank too does the trick.

Never mind. You’re familiar with my take on that sort of thing. The present almighty stink contributes to dethroning the US Dollar. But the US Dollar won’t fall from grace in one go. It will gradually take place. After all, the US Dollar prevailed against the British Pound in the 1920s. In the 1930s the British Pound surpassed the US Dollar again. If the 1920s and 1930s are anything to go by, the world’s in for plenty of volatility and interesting times.

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