A Guide to Doing Business Face to Face in China

By a wide margin the best spot to begin is with the Canton Fair in Guangzhou – cantonfair.org.cn which runs in April and October. The most ideal way of arriving is by flying into Hong Kong either immediate or circuitous (a short visit in Dubai is normally least expensive) an economy ticket should hinder you around 395. Once in Hong Kong there are an assortment of methods of making it up to Guangzhou however I observe that the most straightforward and least expensive way is via train, all trains run from Hung Hom station in Kowloon and show up at Guangzhou East station in Guangzhou, tickets are around $190HK one way.

What desk work do I really want?

You will as a matter of first importance need a Chinese Visa which you acquire through a Chinese international safe haven here in the UK – chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/lsyw/chivisa/. You will require a Letter of greeting from an organization or establishment in China or Visa Notification Form gave by an approved unit in China (Visa warning alludes to the type of visa notice gave by the Chinese government offices, organizations and social associations approved by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. For nitty gritty data, you can counsel the international concerns office of the region, independent area or region straightforwardly under the Central Government where your host is found ie Guangzhou. You can likewise apply through the Canton Fair site. You will likewise have to enroll for the reasonable, again should be possible through the site.

What’s in store at the show

The show is HUGE and covers pretty much every area of item that you can imagine. The show is comprised of stalls each addressing a processing plant, exchanging organization or specialist. It is difficult to measure the size of the organization just by their stall, don’t pass judgment prematurely, the absolute littlest corners are possessed by the biggest organizations. A couple of years prior we halted at a tiny corner simply showing a small bunch of items, we presently spend around $1.5 million per year with them!!

Take as much time as is needed and meander around for the principal day and recognize the helpful looking corners and make a note of them to return to. There is no good reason for going through hours at the primary intriguing organization you go over just to find exactly the same thing 50 meters away yet 20% less expensive.

Whenever you have recognized the organizations you wish to converse with then backpedal on day two and set up the accompanying data…

1. It is safe to say that they are a manufacturing plant, intermediary or specialist?

2. What port do they send from? (in case you are purchasing loads of items attempt to bunch them in a similar region, it is then simpler to unite)

3. How long have they been doing business?

4. How are their MOQ’s?

5. How are their costs?

Whenever you have observed somebody you are content with you can either attempt to do an arrangement there and afterward however to be straightforward it is undeniably challenging as there are many individuals around and not every person has our norm of British habits. Individuals will intrude on you constantly and butt in, it truly pees me off and numerous a period I have yelled at discourteous individuals!! It is smarter to take their contact subtleties and do the exchanges by email once you are home. China sourcing agent I can’t ensure that all organizations at the show are genuine, you should investigate them cautiously yet to be straightforward the Canton Fair is VERY costly to display at and this will in general debilitate most if not all tricksters.

For individuals who are beginning I would recommend going through a specialist regardless, you should pay them 5% however they remove all the problem from doing the exchange. They sort all the administrative work, organize cargo to the shipment port, unite with different people groups merchandise in case you are purchasing in under compartment loads. This is particularly helpful in case you are purchasing an enormous spread of items. They can likewise be utilized to examine and review merchandise before they leave China just to make sure that there are no ‘curve balls’.

Your other choice (if you have time) is to organize with merchants at the show to visit their display areas after the show, contingent upon where they are, recollect China is gigantic. Sitting in a pleasant cooled office is a vastly improved way of leading business. As an aide here are the primary creation urban areas – Shenzhen, Shantou, Ningbo (predominantly wooden things), Shanghai, Xiamen and Fujian.

The following stage

Whenever you have set up a provider or gathering of providers you want to go through the administrative noise…

1. How would I get the merchandise to my entryway? – Use a cargo forwarder, somebody like Cedar Forwarding to deal with all your administrative work – delivering costs, cargo transport, import obligation and so forth They will put together everything for you. My prompt is use ocean cargo as it is a lot less expensive than airship cargo.

2. Does the thing adjust to EU orders and will it require testing? – this is a genuine minefield. I just truly know about my space of exchange – toys however most items will have some sort of guidelines connected to it. In case you are in any uncertainty reach out to a test house who will actually want to direct you better. The Northern Test House in Leicester are generally excellent – nthleicester.com/

3. Ensure the specialist/manufacturing plant realize how to name your products. It is LAW that all brought products into the UK convey the merchants subtleties – organization name and postcode so that assuming there is ever an issue with the thing, it very well may be followed back to you. If you don’t do this you are violating the law