China Speed
In April, I pulled the door of an air taxi shut behind me in Guangzhou.
Two seats, no pilot, no control stick.
People were standing outside filming.
The fact that I was sitting there has to do with an idea that originated in Belgium a good year earlier.
And with a competition I entered without giving it much thought.
I
An idea from Belgium
At the beginning of 2025, I spent two months at our national subsidiary in Belgium.
Different country, different team, different workflows.
That is precisely why you notice things there that you have long since overlooked at home.
The idea came spontaneously.
I wrote it down quickly and pitched it to my colleagues.
Afterwards, I was allowed to present it to an audience I hadn't counted on.
Sitting among the listeners was Wendelin Wiedeking, the former CEO of Porsche.
It was about process optimization.
We won.
The prize was not a certificate.
The prize was an educational trip to China, together with Porsche Consulting.
The mission: to find out what "China Speed" actually means.
II
Two days in Hong Kong
A fourteen-hour flight, a six-hour time difference.
Anyone who lands in Hong Kong is awake at the wrong time at first.
The first espresso therefore didn't come from the lobby, but from the suitcase – more on that later.
We had two days before things kicked off on the business side.
We made use of them.
And it was hot.
Over 30 degrees, plus more than 85 percent humidity – in April.
After ten minutes outside, you're soaked, no matter what you're wearing.
That's why these two days are the only ones in this report where I am not wearing a shirt.
The Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan dates back to around 1847.
It is dedicated to two deities: Man Cheong for literature and Mo Tai for war.
Pen and sword, the two paths to the top.
Incense spirals that burn for two to three weeks hang from the ceiling.
The next day we went to Lantau.
There are 268 steps leading up to the Tian Tan Buddha.
The figure is 34 meters high and was completed in 1993.
Opposite lies the Po Lin Monastery, which has been on this site since 1906.
Up there the clouds hang low, down below lies the sea.
It was the last quiet day for a while.
In the afternoon, we went to the rocky coast in the south.
It is easy to forget that this is also part of the city.
III
China Speed
The Greater Bay Area encompasses Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong.
Over 88 million people live there in an area of around 56,000 square kilometers.
That is roughly the area of Croatia, with more inhabitants than Germany.
Until 1979, Shenzhen was a county with about 30,000 inhabitants.
In 1980, it became China's first special economic zone.
At the end of 2024, nearly 18 million people lived there.
You can tell the city is young.
New universities, parks that are illuminated in the evening, construction sites everywhere in between.
You notice the pace in small details.
Coffee, for example, arrives in Shenzhen by drone.
You place an order, the drone flies to the pickup station, you enter a code, and take the cup out.
That is no longer a pilot project there, but everyday life.
We traveled parts of the way in driverless cars.
Since November 2025, commercial robotaxi trips without any safety driver have been operating in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Beijing.
You get in the back, and the steering wheel in the front turns on its own.
And then there was the air taxi manufacturer.
The model I was sitting in is called the VT35 and was introduced in October 2025.
Two seats, eight-meter wingspan, around 200 kilometers of range.
Eight propellers lift it vertically, then wings and a pusher propeller take over.
A pilot is not intended.
IV
Factory halls, models, screens
The days all went similarly.
Get up at the hotel, put on a suit, bus.
In the evening, the same in reverse.
Inside, the heat was not an issue.
In Shenzhen and Guangzhou, everything is air-conditioned – hotel, bus, factory hall, restaurant.
In a suit, it was bearable as soon as you had a roof over your head.
In Foshan, we visited an industrial park for robotics.
On the board at reception, it stated what was being built there: 560,000 square meters, five billion yuan investment, together with Midea.
Next to it was the model where every hall already stands.
What occupied my thoughts about this was not the figure.
But how naturally calculations are made there between the model and the finished hall.
A few stations further along, two robot arms were depositing engine parts.
Again and again, always in the same spot.
The manufacturer is from Guangdong and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
In another plant, a wall of screens hung in the corridor.
Production was running on them in real time: utilization, cycle, faults.
Not in the factory manager's office, but right where everyone walks past.
On one company site, there was a private landing pad.
A white H on the pavement, right next to the entrance.
Anyone expecting visitors from the air apparently plans them in.
V
In the evening at the round table
Meals are taken at a round table.
In the middle, a glass plate rotates; everyone takes what is currently passing by.
There is no starter and no main course; everything just comes one after the other.
The rooms are often private, with their own door.
You sit together for two or three hours.
The actual business part of the meeting rarely begins before the second course.
In between, there was time for a few steps through the old town.
One thing in particular struck me during these evenings: how quickly decisions are made there.
Not frantically.
But without the loop in which a decision back home first has to ripen for three weeks.
VI
What was in the suitcase
I don't buy anything new for a trip.
I had three things with me that made the difference.
The portable espresso machine
After a fourteen-hour flight, the first coffee isn't a matter of indulgence.
With the machine in my luggage, I get it in my room, just the way I like it.
And I’m not standing in a lobby at six in the morning waiting.
The three-piece luggage set
Business and private in one trip, plus two climate zones.
I took the large and medium suitcases together and had the right compartment for both.
The small one flew as carry-on luggage.
The canvas weekender
In China, we traveled by train a lot.
For one night in another city, nobody drags a suitcase through the train station.
That is exactly what this bag is for: one night, two shirts, charger, done.
VII
What I brought back
"China Speed" sounds like frantic activity.
But it isn't.
What happens quickly there happens quickly because someone made a decision beforehand, and nobody questions it afterward.
The pace doesn't come from the doing.
It comes from the deciding.
For ZINKE, I'm taking exactly that with me.
Better a small range that I am fully responsible for, than a long list that I have to rethink every week.
And a second thought:
Many things we discuss here as the future are long since everyday reality for customers there.
You don't have to think everything there is good.
But you should have seen it.
Pascal Zinke
Founder of ZINKE
