Frequently asked questions

<p>Business visitors normally enter on an M (business) visa, issued on the basis of an invitation letter from a Chinese host entity. We issue that letter from our Shanghai entity once the agenda and participant list are confirmed — usually 5 working days. Many nationalities additionally qualify for visa-free transit (currently 240 hours at major ports) or unilateral visa-free entry; we check your passport nationality against the latest rules before you book flights. We do not file the application for you, but we provide the exact document pack our clients have used successfully.</p>

<p>Four to six weeks is comfortable for a custom tour, which leaves room for counterparty scheduling, NDA processing and visa slots. The hard minimum is 10 business days, though this limits the seniority of people we can put in the room — senior R&D heads usually need two weeks notice or more. Virtual tours need five business days.</p>

<p>Yes, and we treat this as a hard rule rather than a preference. We never publish client names without written permission, we never place two competing clients at the same host company in overlapping periods, and host companies receive only the job titles you approve. Published case studies are anonymised by default — every case on this site uses a sector-and-size description rather than a name, except where the client explicitly asked for attribution.</p>

<p>It depends on the host. Roughly half of the companies in our directory require a mutual NDA before confirming a date. Where both parties have a standard form, we reconcile them and usually land on a short mutual agreement. We flag NDA requirements on every company card in the directory so you know before shortlisting, and we can circulate your own form in Chinese and English.</p>

<p>Sometimes, and it varies line by line rather than company by company. Each company card in our Industry Directory carries explicit photography, video and cleanroom permissions negotiated in advance. Common restrictions: no photography at all in semiconductor cleanrooms (phone cameras are sealed), no photos of unreleased prototypes, and no video where an end customer's product is on the line. Where shooting is blocked we arrange official imagery and process diagrams instead.</p>

<p>Four things cause most friction. First, arriving without a written agenda signals tourism rather than business — we always circulate one beforehand. Second, asking for pricing of a competitor's product during a visit is considered rude. Third, punctuality is expected but the schedule may shift at short notice because your host usually has production priorities; accept the change without visible annoyance. Fourth, business card exchange is two-handed and you should read the card before pocketing it. We brief your delegation on all of this during the pre-trip call.</p>

<p>For technical dialogue the sweet spot is 4–8 people; above roughly 12 the conversation degrades into a briefing and the host stops answering candidly. Each company card lists its own maximum group size, which is often driven by cleanroom gowning capacity rather than meeting-room capacity. For larger delegations we split into parallel tracks or alternate site visits with roundtables so that technical questions still get answered properly.</p>

<p>Yes, but deliberately as a supporting layer rather than the product. We book business-class-standard hotels near the industrial parks you are visiting rather than tourist districts, provide a vehicle with a driver who knows the plants, and arrange working lunches — often in factory canteens, which clients consistently rate as a highlight. We do not sell sightseeing packages. Every site on the itinerary answers one of your business questions, and the rest is logistics around that.</p>

<p>A custom on-site tour starts around USD 480 per participant per day with a four-person minimum. Virtual tours start at USD 350 per 90-minute session, meeting blocks from USD 1,200, and a research report from USD 2,800. The variables that move a quote most are interpretation requirements (simultaneous vs. consecutive), the seniority of the counterparts you need, NDA and compliance preparation, and how much pre-trip screening work is involved. We quote a fixed programme fee rather than a daily rate once the scope is agreed.</p>

<p>Within five working days you receive written minutes for every meeting, a contact map of everyone you met with their decision-making role, and any data the host agreed to release. If you are comparing plants we deliver a scoring matrix using the criteria you set before departure. Most value actually comes after the trip — sample requests, second-round technical calls, contract introduction — and we coordinate those during your programme window at no extra cost.</p>