Oct. 13--HONG KONG -- Someone in Kansas City woke up this morning worried about water mains in this city halfway round the world.

Someone in a midtown office works on designs for a sports stadium in China. Down at Crown Center, an executive thinks about opening a new Hallmark store in Shanghai.

Mention you're from Kansas City in Hong Kong, a bustling business city of 7 million people, and you're likely to get a shrug or maybe a "Wizard of Oz" reference, but Kansas City-area companies play an increasingly significant, if unheralded, role in transforming the world's largest economy.

The Overland Park-based engineering firm Black & Veatch is creating China's 21st century infrastructure, building power plants on the mainland and replacing 600 miles of water pipes in Hong Kong.

The KC-based sports architecture firm Populous built swimming pools in Shenzhen, a massive sports park in Nanjing and a stadium in Hong Kong.

Overland Park-based YRC Worldwide ships millions of tons of goods through China every year.

Smaller companies are getting in on the action, too: Global Ground Support of Olathe now is China's largest supplier of airplane deicing equipment.

"It's a very competitive market over there and getting more competitive every day," said Bruce Turner, Global Ground Support's China expert. "If you want to stay competitive from a global standpoint, it's not a question of whether you're in China. You have to be there."

Supply side

Cracking China takes more than a phrase book and a mastery of chopsticks.

Ask Hallmark Cards, the Kansas City-based company with perhaps the most experience in the Middle Kingdom.

For years Hallmark relied on suppliers based in Hong Kong and Taiwan to manufacture Christmas ornaments and other labor-intensive products, but after Chinese reformer Deng Xiaoping worked to open the country, the mainland became an enticing alternative.

"We've been in and out of multiple countries in Asia, but China has been a little different," said Craig McMonigle, Hallmark's vice president for global procurement, who once oversaw Chinese suppliers from the company's Hong Kong office. "It's extremely dominant compared to the other Asian countries, in terms of how efficient and cost effective it is."

In the 1990s, Hallmark was one of the first companies to require its Chinese suppliers to meet certain labor standards. The code of conduct mandated fire escapes, smoke detectors, overtime pay and basic working conditions. At first, the suppliers didn't get it.

"They looked at us like we had two heads," McMonigle said. "The labor laws and the safety laws were pretty good, actually, but they just weren't being enforced."

Fifteen years later, there is almost no objection, said Paul Weise, who leads Hallmark's printed products division in Hong Kong.

"You want to make sure people are being treated fairly. All of that reflects on our brand," Weise said. "I would say 99.9 percent of Chinese suppliers understand that now."

Nearly 400 employees work with suppliers in the mainland. Product prototypes lay on desks next to purchase orders and timetables. A conference room known as the Kansas City Room serves as a reminder of a distant headquarters.

The recession hit many of Hallmark's suppliers hard. Most have other customers, and orders are down. A few have closed their doors, but Weise expects things to turn around in a year or so.

Chinese officials concur, saying they expect their country to lead the world out of the recession. China is on track to post 8 percent growth this year.

Forecasts of continued growth have Hallmark eyeing China as a potential consumer market, too. A growing Chinese middle class has money to spend on crayons, greeting cards and plush pandas.

"There's a lot of optimism," Weise said. "Could it be a great market for our brand and what we stand for? Absolutely. People are people. But finding the right products that fit the Chinese market? That's the challenge."

Hallmark already operates a handful of retail stores in China, including one in a luxury mall on Hong Kong Island. Apart from its small size -- about 400 square feet -- it would have seemed familiar to any American. Crayola crayons. Greeting cards. Teddy bears. Capitalism.

Winging it

Fly on a plane in China and chances are the equipment that deiced the wings came from Olathe.

Global Ground Support, a 75-employee company, holds 80 percent of the market share for deicing equipment in China.

Global has sold about 800 deicers to customers throughout the world, but China's rapid economic transformation has made it a market like no other. More economic activity means more airports and planes. More planes mean more deicers.

The deicers are built onto a truck or a fixed pedestal. The company also makes other airplane service equipment such as decontamination trucks.