Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“This essentially means that you should not get too taken in by China and you should still
examine each deal for its business merits, just as though you were in Peoria.”
There are various ways to start a business in Beijing. Many go it alone, others use agencies,
and others find a local business partner. There are four major structures available to
you: representative offices, wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOE), joint ventures, and
foreign-invested partnerships. These differ in the amount of capital you need to have, the
business scope, and the number of foreign employees that you'll be allowed to hire. Rep-
resentative offices are the easiest to set up and don't require any registered capital. Their
business scope is extremely limited, however, and are mostly just for market research and
liaison with the home country. WFOEs are the most common structure that foreigners set up
in China, and they can deal with just about any kind of business. They're most commonly
used for manufacturing, service provision, and trading. Joint ventures are typically for those
kinds of companies that can't be set up without a local partner, and foreign-invested part-
nerships are often used as investment vehicles and also for services. Each has its own pros
and cons, and it's recommended that you speak to a professional who is thoroughly clued
up on doing business in China, not just in your home country.
Starting a business in Beijing is time consuming and complicated. First you'll need
to apply for an F visa (business visa) to get into the country. This gives you six months
of validity and can be used simply for investigating business opportunities or for setting
something up. Establishing the business can take between three and six months to achieve
and involves numerous government departments—including the Ministry of Commerce,
the Administration of Industry and Commerce, the State Administration of Foreign Ex-
change, the State Administration of Taxation, the Customs Office, the Quality and Technic-
al Supervision Bureau, and the Statistics Bureau. About the simplest step of the process is
making a company seal and getting the company name approved. You also need to set up
a business bank account. This can be an extraordinarily complicated and exhausting pro-
cess—you will probably be at the bank for around five hours on several separate occasions.
If you're not competent in both written and spoken Chinese, find a patient and trustworthy
Chinese person to help you through it.
If you're unfamiliar with the Chinese business scene, a soft approach into the market is
via partnerships, starting with “soft partnerships,” such as website mentions or co-hosting
events, and finally moving to stronger commitments. Your partnership should begin to de-
velop before you even set down in Beijing. Partnerships with Chinese people can help you
