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ask some native person for help

Well, in case anyone else has a similar question I will share what I have found out so far. First, I found a manufacturer right here in Kaifeng. Price as expected about half of the best price I can find in a retail place, but made with elm (yu mu) instead of the huang hua li (flowering pear?) to which I am comparing it to. They will make custom furniture so I will do a design (that will accommodate a "western" mattress thickness) and have them quote using a better wood (although yu mu is not a bad wood at all). The owner's father came to Kaifeng because he had too many children and wanted to escape notice. His hometown is dongyang (zhejiang) which just might be the sort of place I am looking for. This city has a long history of wood carving. But it is not the only city and may not be the best. I am still looking. If anyone knows something more I am still curious. If anyone wants an update from me they should ask. I will post more information if I know it will be useful to someone else, otherwise not.

As for asking a native person, that is both good and poor advice. Most Chinese citizens do not travel, at least not to any great extent, and typically know relatively little about such things. The sort of furniture I am looking for would normally be purchased either by someone quite wealthy (by Chinese standards)or by someone who really appreciates this part of Chinese culture and looks upon the purchase as an investment in art. The former group would rarely do much research and the latter group may do the research but represent a small minority. While I have put my question out to many natives any useful information I have found has still been from my own research. However, my wife knows someone in the travel industry and I have asked her to ask that person as this is one industry where people ought to know such things.

I know a place in Shandong Province,the address is Xi'he Town,Zichuan District,Zi'bo City,it is the country of the redwood furniture.If you are interest in that,you can go there to check if there are something you want.Please let me know if you need more help.

and that must be the worst shock and painful moment after all the efforts, time and money used and to your surprise things never worked out as you expected.

Hello James_ kiarie,

This thread is inactive since 2010. Thank you for your contribution, however, it will be better if you react to more recent threads on the China forum.

Cheers,
Bhavna