Most first-time visitors arrive in China underprepared in two specific ways: their phone doesn’t work, and their first factory meeting goes badly because they didn’t know what was coming. Both are fixable in advance. Here’s the checklist I send to clients before they board.
Before you fly
Visa. Confirm you have the right category. Business (M) visa is standard for sourcing trips. The 144-hour visa-free transit policy works for a quick stopover from select countries but won’t cover a real working week. Get the M visa if you’re staying more than a few days.
eSIM or roaming. Set up a Chinese-friendly eSIM before you leave home. Without one, your phone will work but most things you actually need — Google, Instagram, Gmail, WhatsApp, Slack — will not. A travel eSIM with a route through Hong Kong or Singapore solves this transparently.
WeChat installed and registered. Every supplier will ask for your WeChat. Registration requires either a Chinese phone number to verify, or a referral from an existing user. Set this up before you fly. Bring a passport-photo of yourself in the app — Chinese suppliers expect to see a photo when they add you.
Payment apps. Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept overseas cards (Visa, Mastercard) without a Chinese bank account. Set up the international tourist version of Alipay before flying. Cash is genuinely uncommon in China now; cards are accepted in hotels and major restaurants, but small-vendor transactions assume mobile pay.
Translation app. Pleco for Chinese-English dictionary. Microsoft Translator or DeepL for instant text translation. Both work offline; both are useful when WeChat translation falls short.
What to pack that’s specific to China
A power bank, fully charged. Long days, lots of WeChat, plenty of map navigation — phones drain fast.
Business cards in English on one side, your name in Chinese on the other if you have one. Suppliers exchange cards seriously. Receive theirs with both hands.
Comfortable shoes that can survive factory floors. You’ll walk more than you expect.
A small notebook for the meetings where pulling out a laptop feels heavy. Useful for sketches when language drops out.
Factory meeting etiquette, briefly
Punctuality matters, but so does the buffer time before. Arriving 5–10 minutes early is normal. Arriving exactly on time is fine. Arriving late without warning is read as lack of seriousness.
Tea will be offered. Accept it. The first 10–15 minutes of a meeting are typically lighter conversation — about your trip, your country, your impressions of the city. This isn’t filler; it’s how trust starts. Don’t try to get to business too fast.
Decision-making is rarely visible in the room. The senior person you’re meeting may need to consult internally before committing. Don’t push for a yes-now answer on price or terms. Push for clarity on what they need to confirm and when you’ll hear back.
When you ask a sensitive question — pricing, capacity, lead time — and get a vague answer, the answer often lives in the body language and the silence, not the words. If you can’t read it, bring someone who can.
After you leave
Send a thank-you within 48 hours. WeChat is fine; email is fine; a brief one is better than a long one.
Confirm any commitments in writing within a week. “We agreed to X by Y date” — keep it short, keep it bilingual, keep it on the record.
If you’d like help running the trip itself — itinerary, factory bookings, interpretation, on-the-ground operations — that’s one of the things I do.