This is a complete guide to rent an apartment, or just a room in a shared flat, in Shanghai. You will learn:

• The best websites to rent an apartment in Shanghai (both in English and Chinese language).

• The pros and cons of looking for a room or an apartment on the internet.

• A nice trick to get a better price if you are looking for a room in a shared flat.

• The pros and cons of using an agency, how to spot an honest agency.

• What are the expenses beside the monthly rent (security deposit, agency fee, electricity and so on).

• Why you must ask for a regular contract.

• The most common scams while renting an apartment in China.

• Which is the best zone to live in Shanghai if you want to have a social life without spending hours in a cab.

Looking for an apartment on the internet

If you are just landed to China and you don’t know anybody, the fastest way to find an apartment is probably to check the websites in English language. I recommend Smart Shanghai, Craigs List, City Weekend and Inter Shanghai.

The pros are that you won’t have to hunt for an agency on the street and most luckily you will deal with a landlord (or an agent) that can speak decent English.

Also, if you are in a tight budget (less than 3,000 RMB per month, that is about 500 USD) and you don’t want to live too far away from downtown, getting a room in a shared flat will be your only choice.

In this case, since very few agencies deal with “rooms” (they usually want you to rent the whole apartment), internet is your best bet.

The cons are that the apartments and rooms are usually more expensive (this is logical because the landlord knows that he’s addressing foreigners, often newcomers that can’t speak Chinese) and they get rented fast.

Especially for rooms in shared apartment, you either visit and take the room straight away or someone else will. It’s frustrating.

However, if you can speak Chinese or have a Chinese friend that is willing to help you, you can also check on the websites in Mandarin. Here the most popular: Sou Fun, Bai Xing (that is Chinese’s Craigs List) and Hao Zu.

Also on the Chinese websites the best rooms and flats get rented fast. However you will have much more choice and the prices will be way cheaper.

Another option for getting a room in a shared apartment

There is a Couchsurfing’s group called Shanghai Living / Apartments / Real Estate, which is quite active. You could sign up and see if there is anybody looking for a room. In this case you could propose to him/her to join you and look together for a flat. If there isn’t any people that already posted a message, you can still post a message yourself saying “Hey, I’m looking for a roommate. Anybody interested?”

Why? The reason is that, if you team up with one or two other guys that are also looking for a room, you guys can rent a whole apartment.

This has three advantages:

• You will have much more choice because Shanghai is full of empty apartments (while empty room in a shared apartment are rare).

• You can address an agency (they usually only deals with empty apartments) so that you don’t have to rely solely on the internet.

• You will get a better deal as renting a whole apartment is usually cheaper (if you find a couple of roommates willing to share the rent with you).

This is how I found my current room. After two weeks of worthless calls and emails to people that were renting rooms in shared apartments, I teamed up with two other guys (yup, I met then on Couchsurfing).

We walked to an agency in Jing An, asked for an apartment in downtown with three bedrooms and a rent under 7,000 RMB (for the whole apartment) and got it in two days.

Looking for an apartment through an agency

Even if some agents can’t speak English, many of them will. Remember that you are in Shanghai, not in a small Tibetan village!

In this case your best bet is to choose the zone where you want to live (Jing An for instance) and start to walk around till you find an agency. There are plenty of agencies so you shouldn’t have problems to find a couple of them.

Then ask for an apartment with the characteristics you want (remember to specify your budget).

The agent will probably start by showing you an apartment that doesn’t respect your budget. The reason is that they work on commission. So if he can convince you to get an apartment a bit more expensive, he will earn a slightly higher commission.

Don’t freak out. Remember that you are in China : )

Be polite but inflexible. Tell him again what’s your budget and that you won’t accept anything more expensive than that. However remember to be realistic: find a decent room in downtown for less than 2,000 RMB/month is impossible.

Don’t forget to bargain the price. This is widely accepted in China and usually you will get some small discount (within 1% and 10% according to your bargain skills).

Another tactic pretty common used by the agents is to start by bringing you to a very shitty apartment. They know you won’t take it. They are just trying to scare you so that, after you see two or three flats that look disgusting, you will be happy to rent an apartment that is just so so. Don’t fall for it.

If an agent brings you to a very bad apartment, tell him that you want something better. If the second flat is like the first, just tell him to fuck off and walk away.

There are plenty of honest agencies so there is no reason to deal with someone that is trying to rip you off.

What are the expenses beside the monthly rent (security deposit, agency fee, electricity and so on)

In Shanghai you should pay the rent every month or, at worst, every two months. Also, you will have to pay a security deposit. Be aware that the landlord may ask you for a two or three months rent deposit. However you shouldn’t accept to pay an amount of money higher than one month of rent as a deposit.

Personally I would walk away if someone insists to want more than one month deposit as this is the standard.

When you find an apartment that you like, you must “block” it. This means that you have to anticipate a small amount of money. Our landlord asked 2,000 RMB to us but we only gave him 900 RMB (our rent is 7,000 per month). In exchange, he gave us a signed receipt.

The day after we came back to the apartment and, after we checked that everything was working (air cons, hot water and so on), we signed the contract and paid two months rent + one month deposit (all in cash, welcome to China!).

We also paid a commission to the agent, which corresponded to 35% of one month rent. If the agent ask for more just tell him that 35% is the standard fee (I suggest you to ask what the agency’s fee is before you start to check apartments).

Usually you will have to pay the electricity, water, gas and internet bills. The total amount shouldn’t be more than 400 RMB/month. So if you are three people it’s about 130 RMB/month each.

If you live in a big building there will be some maintenance fees (which may vary but usually it’s around 100-200 RMB/month). Our landlord pays it by himself, but some landlord will ask you to also pay this fee. Again, it’s up to you to bargain.

Why you need a regular contract

There are two reasons.

First at all, as soon as you arrive in China you are required to go to police station and register your address.

If you are a tourist or you are living in a students’ dorm you don’t need to worry about it because the hotel’s or the dorm’s manager will register you at the nearest police station.

However, if you rent an apartment, you need to do it yourself. It only takes five minutes and you don’t need to speak any Chinese. However you need to bring the original copy of your house contract and your passport (you also need to bring a copy of the contract, of the passport’s first page and of passport’s VISA page).

In the past years this wasn’t that important. However since this year the police is putting a lot of attention on address registration. If you don’t register your address, they will call the number that you gave at the customs the day you entered China. If you don’t answer, they will just start to look for you.

Again, it just takes five minutes. But you do need a regular house contract. Also, you should ask to your agent or landlord where is the police station because you only can register at the station that is responsible for your zone.

The second reason for which you need a contract is that you can’t fully trust your landlord. What are you going to do if, after three months that you rented the apartment, your landlord decides to rise the price of your flat?

If you have a regular contract, you just tell him to shut up or you will go to talk with the police. But if you don’t have any contract you don’t own any right to stay there.

Also, how are you going to get back your security deposit? This isn’t your country. So just play it safe and ask for a contract.

How should the contract looks like?

• First at all, the house contract should be in English or both in English and Chinese languages. Don’t sign any contract in Chinese if you don’t speak the language.

• The name of the landlord should be in the contract. I would also ask to see his ID card and get a copy of it.

• The address of the apartment should be on the contract.

• The monthly rent fee, the deposit fee and the rent scheduling (every month or every two months) should be on the contract.

• The duration of the contract should be specified. And by the way, the duration is also something that you can bargain.

• The contract should states that the landlord is responsible to fix major damages (like a broken fridge or air con).

• The contract should state that, in the case the landlord asks you to live before the end of the contract, he should pay a penalty (at least one month rent).

The most common scams while renting an apartment in China

• Read your contract and check that everything I mentioned is written there. If it’s not written, it doesn’t exist. And you have no power to enforce the landlord to respect his word.

• Get a receipt for anything you pay. I know it seems obvious, but there are still people that forget to ask for it.

• Don’t accept to pay more than a month rent deposit. Anything higher than that sounds like a scam to me.

• If you don’t want to use an agency, avoid to sign a contract with a landlord that doesn’t live in the apartment (or next door). Also, avoid intermediaries! The problem is that they could just run away with your money. And this doesn’t only happen with Chinese intermediaries.

  In late 2011 eighty people were scammed by Ryan Fedoruk, a Canadian guy that sublet thirty apartments in Shanghai and then flew away with the money (300,000 RMB).

  So, either you go with an agency (and check if the agency is legit by visiting its office) or trust the landlord (because he will live with you or next door).

Where to live in Shanghai if you care about your social life

Many people will choose their location in order to be close to their office or university. However other people prefer to live in downtown so they can have a better social life (remember that Shanghai is huge). I’m one of the latter.

First at all, you should look for an apartment close to a subway station. Shanghai subway system is massive (the longest in the world) so you can go pretty much everywhere with it (here you find an interactive map). Also, it’s quite cheap.

In particular, I advice you to live along the subway line 2 (the green one), which crosses all Shanghai from East to West. This will usually allows you to reach any part of the city with only one of two changes (and often without changes at all).

The best places to live are, in my opinion, between Nanjing East Station and Zhong Shan Park Station. Most of bars & clubs are located on the old French concession, that is on the South of these stations. But it’s not only about nightlife, I like this zone because it remembers me of an European town, with a lot of tiny alleys, small restaurants and old cafés.

Be aware that the apartments inside the French concession are either bloody expensive or pretty old. If you still want to live downtown and get a modern flat but, at the same time, you have a small budget, then I suggest you to look at the North side of the line 2.

In general Zhong Shang Park and Jangsu Road are cheaper than Jing An, Nanjing West or People Square (check the map of the line 2 if you feel a bit lost).

Well, I think that by now you know everything you need! Good luck and let me know if this guide was useful ; )

The purpose of this guide is to show you how and where to book an hotel (or an hostel) in China, especially if you are traveling on a budget.

If you can afford it then just book at the Hilton or at the Marriot and you will find everything you need : P

First at all, keep in mind that Chinese hotels must register all the customers at the police station. Thus you will always need to show your passport when you arrive at the hotel.

Which type of hotel should you choose?

If you don’t speak Chinese I suggest you to book your room in an international hostel.

Here you will find at least one person at the desk that speaks decent English. The situation on cheap Chinese hotels is different as often nobody speaks English.

Also, if you are traveling alone and want to have a chance to connect with other travelers, international hostels are your best bet (this holds true everywhere).

Another important point to keep in mind is that, if you don’t speak Chinese, organizing an outdoor trip by yourself (for instance visiting the Great Wall if you are in Beijing or the Stone Forest if you are in Kunming) may be difficult. In another hand, international hostels will usually offer cheap day-trip (or even longer tours) to any relevant touristic destination.

Internet connection

Cheap Chinese hotels usually don’t provide an Internet connection. Even if international hostels are more luckily to offer it, you will have to face two problems:

• Many websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are blocked in China. The only way to access them is to use a paying VPN service.

• Even if international hostels almost always offer an internet connection, it may be so slow that it’s basically useless.

If internet is important to you, I recommend you to read the reviews on Agoda, HostelWorld or TripAdvisor before to book the hotel. In particular, you should check if the internet connection is working well and if the hotel offers a free access to a VPN (some international hostels do so in order to make Facebook’s addicts happy).

Which online portal should you use to book your hotel?

For years I’ve been booking my hostels’ rooms on HostelWorld.com. Then I discovered by chance that Agoda offers more or less the same hotels’ choice, with the difference that is cheaper (in some case much cheaper). So now I book all my rooms on Agoda.com.

You don’t believe me? OK, I will show you an example. The 22 April I checked the prices for a twin private ensuite room, that is a room for two people with private bathroom, at Beijing Drum Tower Youth Hostel (which is located in Beijing’s downtown).

I’ve checked how much would cost me to get the same room for seven nights, from Monday 6 May to Monday 13 May, on HostelWorld and Agoda.

The final price was 283.36 USD on HostelWorld and 268.14 USD on Agoda (see pics below).

The difference of price was quite small (15 USD). I also did a similar research for the Blue Mountain Bund Youth Hostel located in Shanghai.

In this case the final prices was 295.06 USD on HostelWorld and 263.35 USD on Agoda. That is, if you book on Agoda’s website you save 32 USD.

Last month I did a similar test for the Sawasdee Khaosan Inn Hotel (I stayed there for a week while I was in Bangkok) and it resulted that the same single room from 25 to 31 March would cost me 233.35 USD on Hostelworld e 145.39 Euro on Agoda. The prices for a double room were almost the same.

This means that in this case Hostelworld was 50% more expensive than Agoda!

However if you choose to stay in a dorm the prices are quite similar. I tend to avoid dorms because if I travel with a girl I prefer to have some privacy and if I travel alone I usually work and I need a room where I can actually sleep at night.

Where to book your hotel?

Chinese cities may be huge. I’m not only talking about Beijing or Shanghai. Also “smaller” cities as Hangzhou, Tianjin, Suzhou, Kunming, Chengdu or Guangzhou have between five and ten millions people.

Even if taxis are quite affordable in China, I suggest you to find an hotel in downtown or at least close to a subway station (almost all major Chinese cities have an efficient subway system).

Are Chinese hotels safe or not?

China is by far the safest country I’ve visited (and I did travel a lot). So I won’t recommend you any special precautions (if you were going to Thailand I would tell you to buy a robust padlock as over there many hostels allow you to lock your door when you live the room).

Having say that, when I stay in a hostel I tend to always bring my expensive photo camera and lens with me.

Well, have a nice trip and let me know if you need any other information!

Read the disclosure of Sapore di Cina.

But how to get started?

Well I’m not an expert. This is why I asked some advices to my friend Fredrik, who’s been helping Western companies to import from China since 2008. Here’s what he has to say!

Alibaba.com and Aliexpress.com are well known among importing business worldwide. Both websites are owned by Alibaba Group, based in Hangzhou, China. The difference between the two websites can be hard to spot at a first glance, but its two very different business models with equally different strengths and weaknesses. This article will help you to choose which one you should use.

Alibaba.com key facts

• A B2B (business to business) portal that connects manufacturers – mainly Chinese – with overseas buyers.

• No built-in shopping cart system, the order terms are negotiated and confirmed using email or the built-in chat.

• No transaction fees or commissions paid to Alibaba.com, the main revenue stream is the “Gold Supplier” membership fee paid by the suppliers. Alibaba verifies that each Gold Supplier is a legally registered company. However, it’s not a guarantee for quality products.

• Focused on “make to order”. In practice this means that suppliers on Alibaba don’t advertise “ready made” products but rather manufacture products based on the specifications provided by the buyer. The suppliers are basically listing reference products.

Aliexpress key facts

• A transaction based B2B and B2C (business to customer) platform that connects trading companies – mainly Chinese – with overseas buyers.

• Focused on small volume orders of “ready made” products instead of “make to order” and thus more suitable for the medium and small importers who can’t afford to buy a container of goods.

Alibaba and Aliexpress comparison

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

A supplier needs to manufacture a certain number of pieces before he can make a worthwhile profit. The raw material and component suppliers also impose MOQ requirements on your supplier, since they also need to provide a certain amount of products to your supplier in order to reach profitability. This translates into the MOQ. If you can’t reach it, the supplier won’t do business with you.

Alibaba: The suppliers tends to have rather high MOQ requirements. The reason is that they don’t keep products in stock and need to purchase a minimum quantity from their sub suppliers. They also need to manufacture a minimum quantity of products in order to make a profit. Many consumer products, such as wristwatches, can easily have MOQ requirements on 300 pieces and above. An MOQ requirement is usually valid for a specific product, so if you want to order two different products you need order 2 x MOQ requirement. This is often too much for small businesses that don’t have fairly large sales volumes.

Aliexpress: Most suppliers here can offer an MOQ from 10 pcs and above. The simple reason is that Aliexpress suppliers can split up a larger quantity between many small buyers. This eliminates the issue of reaching a high MOQ requirement, but will of course affect the prices.

Pricing

The price paid for a product are based on two main factors: its quality standard and the quantity you buy. The approach an importer should have to pricing is very different when comparing the two portals Alibaba and Aliexpress.

Alibaba: There are no fixed prices but everything is quoted from scratch to a various degree. You send your product specifications (colors, dimensions, materials, certification requirements etc.), the delivery terms and the quantity you want to buy; then the supplier gets back to you with a price. A wristwatch can anything from US$2 to US$200, the pricing is a question of which quality standard you require.

Assuming that you can reach the suppliers MOQ requirements you will also enjoy lower prices compared to if you are ordering a 10 to 20 pcs at a time from Aliexpress suppliers.

Aliexpress: The supplier lists a product, and they list prices for different quantities. It’s usually not up for negotiation. Prices on Aliexpress are higher compared to if you would order a larger quantity from an Alibaba supplier.

Custom designed and branded products

Creating a brand instead of just importing random no name products can increase the customers perceived value of the product, even if it’s not a well-known brand name. A brand can consist of a logo, certain colors or design. Some importers also want to develop a completely new product or modify an existing design.

Alibaba: Most suppliers can offer custom design and logo print. However, developing a new product from scratch is not easy and you’ll need to have very well-drafted product specifications and graphical material at hand. This includes, but is not limited to, material specifications, components, Pantone colours, product packaging design, product body artwork and logo design.

Aliexpress: Products on Aliexpress are already manufactured and waiting for a buyer. It’s not possible to send back a few pieces to the factory to modify their design or print a logo. Thus, Aliexpress is not the right choice if you’re looking for custom designed or branded products.

Product certification

Certain products such as electronics, toys, plastics and food require product standard compliance. Different countries (USA, Canada) and markets (EU) have different product standard certificates. Many importers assume that exporting suppliers are compliant by default, but this is completely wrong. Importing products that are non-compliant is illegal can result in having your shipment confiscated, so you better take this part seriously. Below is a list of different product certificates:

• Electronics: CE, RoHS, EMC Class A and B
• Toys: EN71
• Plastics: REACH
• Fire retardant: FR B1 and B2

Alibaba: Since suppliers “Make to Order” you have the option to ask your supplier to make the products compliant with a certain certificate whereafter the supplier use the materials and components that are required for compliance. Remember that not all Alibaba suppliers have the experience or knowledge required to manufacture compliant products, but there are plenty that do. The conclusion is that if you are importing products to the EU or USA, that at the same time require compliance with a standard such as CE, then Alibaba is your next destination.

Aliexpress: The products listed on Aliexpress are already produced and it’s very unlikely that the supplier has made products that are compliant with western product standards. Compliant products are more expensive and it would make the supplier less competitive to their Russian, African and Latin Americans buyers. This group tends to be larger than American and European buyers so it does make sense for the average AliExpress trader to not bother with American and European certification standards. Plenty of consumer products are not required compliance with a certification standard in the US or EU, so simply avoid those that do from Aliexpress.

Quality Issues and Risks

It’s risky to import products from China. A whole industry focused on quality assurance and fraud prevention has grown in China, unlike anywhere else. There‘s anything from small details that don’t follow through in the final product to outright frauds. This costs business money, some issues can be overlooked while other issues force businesses into bankruptcy.

Alibaba: Far from all suppliers are qualified to take your order, especially if you want to import custom made products or have a certification compliance as a requirement. You’ll need to invest many hours into questioning your suppliers regarding their manufacturing capabilities. The risk of quality issues will increase if you don’t know which product specifications define the quality of the product. In other words, the more you know about your product, the more quality issues can be avoided.

Aliexpress: It’s very straightforward to order from Aliexpress, and you get what the supplier got on offer. Nothing less, nothing more. Keep in mind that “quality” is subjective, and you should order a sample before placing a larger order. What’s considered to be good quality in Ecuador or Russia (no offence!) might not be considered to be good quality in the United States or Italy.

It’s not unheard of that Aliexpress suppliers have cheated their buyers by sending the wrong or defective products. Unlike Alibaba, Aliexpress provides buyer feedback directly on the site. Review your suppliers negative buyer feedback to get a rough overview of what kind of mistakes this supplier has been making.

Lead Times

Time is money and that becomes especially clear when importing from China. Below we list the different lead times you need to take into consideration when buying from a Chinese supplier:

1. Order preparations
2. Production time
3. Shipping time

Alibaba: It can take months before you’ve identified the right supplier, confirmed samples, negotiated prices and have a signed and stamped Sales Agreement in your mailbox. On the other hand you can just ask a random supplier to send a digital invoice and transfer your money right away, but that’s obviously risky. The order preparations can take anything from 15 days to 6 months. The larger the order, and the more complex the product is, the longer it takes.

Production time is easier to predict since its usually around 30 days in total, counting from the day the supplier receives the payment.

How long it will take to ship the products from China is basically a question of mode of transport. Air Freight usually takes 5 – 7 days while Sea Freight takes around 4 weeks. If you’re sourcing suppliers on Alibaba, you’re likely to order fairly large volumes and then Sea Freight is more competitive than Air Freight.

Aliexpress: Since the products you see on Aliexpress are already manufactured and ready for delivery you don’t need to worry about any time consuming order preparations and production time. Since you’re sourcing from Aliexpress your order is probably not large enough to make Sea Freight viable. Thus the only lead time you’ll need to take into consideration is the Air Freight delivery time. Alibaba Group didn’t name this portal Aliexpress without a reason.

Summary

We recommend Alibaba.com if…

• You can buy a few hundred pieces of each product

• You want to import custom designed products

• You want to import products with your own logo print or custom product packaging

• Your products are very price sensitive

• You are importing electronics, toys, plastics or any other product to the EU or USA and thus needs to comply with a certain certification standard (CE, FCC etc.)

We recommend Aliexpress.com if…

• You buy 10 – 100 pcs per product

• Custom design, logo print and custom product packaging are not important to you

• Your products are not that price sensitive

• You are not importing products to the EU or USA OR your products don’t need to be compliant with any certification standard

• You need your products right away

Fredrik Grönkvist is the Co-Founder and Limited Partner of ChinaImportal.com, a Shanghai-based information services company who provides start-ups and small businesses with an online system for managing sourcing and production in China and other Asian countries. Connect with Fredrik Grönkvist on Google+.

This article is a complete guide for getting a Chinese VISA. You will discover:

• The requirements and how long it takes for obtaining any type of Chinese VISA.

• Where to get a Chinese VISA (either in your country or abroad).

• The different kind of Chinese VISAs (Tourist, Business, Student and Work VISA).

• How much it costs to obtain a Chinese VISA.

• How to convert a Student or Work VISA in a Resident Permit (it’s compulsory).

Do I need a Chinese VISA?

Yes, you do. The only exceptions are represented by people that own a passport from Singapore, Brunei or Japan (they can stay in China 15 days without VISA).

How long does it takes to get a VISA?

If you have all the required documents and own a passport with at least six months validity and two blank pages, it should take between one (if you can apply for the express service) and four working days to get a Chinese VISA.

The best time to apply for a Chinese VISA is within two months and fifteen days before departure. You can’t ask your VISA too early because, if you don’t use it, the VISA will expire after 90 days starting from the day you obtained it.

How much does it costs?

The price may vary from 30 to 140 USD according to your nationality, the type of VISA and the number of entries.

Usually for European people it’s cheaper while American people are often required to pay more than 100 USD.

Where to get a VISA?

Generally speaking, you should apply at the Chinese Embassy or Consulate in your country (here you find a complete list), especially when it comes down to work and student VISAs.

However the people that are already traveling or working in Asia may also apply at the Consular Department Office in Hong Kong.

It will take several working days and it may be an hassle. If you browse the web you will discovered that several people weren’t able to get their VISA on this way.

Another possible solution is to apply, always in Hong Kong, through an agency like Forever Bright. It’s a bit more expensive but you will get your VISA faster (within five hours!) and without any problems (I know several people that tested it and it works).

Keep in mind that the government may abruptly decide to restrict VISA requirements as they did in 2008 (before the Olympics game in Beijing any days). I don’t want to scare you, just be prepared to deal with the unforeseen : )

Technically you can apply for a VISA also in other countries but do it at your own risk as it’s possible (probable?) that your application will be rejected. It also depends on your passport: Italian and German people, for instance, seem to experiment much less problems than French and American people. It usually depends on how good (or bad) are the relationships between China and your country.

The different types of Chinese VISA (and the requirements to get it)

The basic requirements to get a Chinese VISA are a passport with at least six months validity and two blank pages, a recent photo of 2×2 square inches and an application form.

You can download the application form here, just choose the one that corresponds to the country where you are planning to apply because it may be slightly different.

Tourist VISA (or L VISA)

Tourist VISAs are issued to people that want to travel around China or visit their Chinese related.

The basic requirements listed above are usually enough. However, sometimes the Chinese Embassy or Consulate will also ask you for a financial proof, a copy of your return flight ticket to China and a copy of your Chinese hotel booking (p.s. for booking an hotel I recommend Agoda because often has the cheapest offers).

Hence, before going to the VISA office, be sure to send them an email or call them to know the documents that you need to bring.

Single Entry Tourist VISA (that is you can’t go out China and then enter again with the same VISA) lasts from 30 to 90 days.

Sometimes, depending on your passport and on the mood of the immigration officers, you can also get a Double or Multiple Entry Tourist VISA. It means that you are allowed to go in and out the country twice with the same VISA (for double entry) and you can go in and out all the times you want (for multiple entry). Usually these VISAs last for 180 days but you have to leave China at least one day after 90 days (you can just to Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan).

If you are planning to go to Tibet be aware that, beside your VISA, you need a special entry permit issued by the Tibetan Tourist Bureau. Actually at the moment you can only enter Tibet with a travel agency so just ask it to your favorite travel agency.

Business VISA (or F VISA)

Business VISAs are issued to people that intend to do business, investigations, studies or training (such an internship) in China.

It’s usually quite easy to obtain and it may last 180 days or – but it’s more difficult to get – 360 days.

You are required to provide an “Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Unit” issued by a registered Chinese company or organization.

Even if many people use a Business VISA to work in China, this is illegal. If you want to legally work in China, you need a Work VISA.

Student VISA (or X VISA)

If you want to study in China for less than six month, a Business VISA will do the trick. However if you want to stay more you need a Student VISA.

You are required to provide an healthy certificate (check the details with the Chinese Embassy on your country), the JW201 (or JW202) form issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the Admission Notice from your school.

Your school should get these documents and send them to you.

A Student VISA is only valid for 30 days starting from the day that you enter in China. Then you should transform it in a Temporary Resident Permit (Check below to learn how to transform your Student VISA in a Temporary Resident Permit).

Work VISA (or Z VISA)

Holding a Work VISA is the only way to work legally in China.

Be aware that not all employers can get you a Work VISA. For instance, small private English schools often can’t. This is the main reason for which they often try to convince you to come to China and work under a Tourist or Business VISA.

Do it at your own risk because it’s illegal. If you get caught working on the wrong VISA you will have to pay a fine of several thousands USD and risk of being expelled from the country.

Having said that, many firms and public organizations (universities for instance) are accredited to employ foreign and can help you to get a work VISA as long as you qualify as a “foreign expert.”

Depending on the field, you may just need to prove to have English as first language and own a Bachelor degree (if you want to teach English) or you may provide a Ph.D. degree (if, for instance, you want to become a professor at the university).

The logic behind this rule is the following: you have to prove that you are useful to China by bringing some skills and expertise that the country needs. If you can’t do anything why a Chinese company should hire you instead of hiring a Chinese person?

So, if your employer is accredited to employ foreigners and you qualify as a foreign expert, your employer can apply for your Work Permit (also called Foreign expert certificate or in other ways according to your field of expertise).

Beside the Work Permit, in order to apply for the VISA you should also provide an healthy certificate (check the details with the Chinese Embassy on your country) and “Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Unit” or “Confirmation Letter of Invitation” (your employer should get the letter for you).

The Chinese law states that you can only get a Work VISA in your country. Then again, if you surf the internet you will find a lot of stories from people saying that you can also get it in Hong Kong.

The work VISA will also allows you to bring your wife, husband or children to China. They will only need to provide a marriage or birth certification.

A Work VISA is only valid for 30 days starting from the day you entered in China. Then you should transform it in a Temporary Resident Permit (your employer should help you to do so).

How to transform your Student or Work VISA in a Temporary Resident Permit

In order to get the Resident Permit, which must be renewed each year, you will have to provide a bunch of documents and an Health Certificate issued by China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau or HK public hospitals. So yeah, get ready to know Chinese hospitals!

Here the complete the procedure for obtaining a Temporary Resident Permit:

• You get a Work VISA in your country and fly to China.

• You go to the local police station and register yourself (at the beginning your company will provide you a “fake” address if you are still looking for an apartment).

• You pass the physical examination (they will basically check your lungs and blood to make sure you don’t have tuberculosis, AIDS or some nasty STD). You may have to pay yourself for the examinations (about 500-800 RMB).

• Your company or organization makes an appointment with Public Security Bureau (PSB) Exit and Entry Administration office. It must be done within 30 days starting from the day you arrived in China. You will have to go yourself to the PSB bureau and bring your passport, two photos, the Accommodation registration document that you got from the police, the results of your physical examination, your employment or student documents (provided by your company or university) and cash (I paid 800 RMB but it may vary according with the province).

If you got all the documents it should be a smooth procedure and, within 5-10 working days, you will get your passport back with the Resident Permit stamped on a page. The Resident Permit looks like a VISA, the only difference is the name and the background color (blue instead of green).

Remember that if you arrive in China with a Work VISA you CAN’T leave the country before to get your Temporary Resident Permit. If you leave the country even for a day, your Work VISA will expire. So arrange your travel scheduling according to that.

Transit VISA (or G VISA)

In this case you only need a valid VISA for your country of destination and a round trip plane ticket.

How can I extend or change my VISA?

Yes, you can extend the duration of your VISA within China. However, to change your type of VISA (for instance from Business to Work VISA) you will have to go to Hong Kong.

I wish you good luck and a safe trip!

[Photo Credits (Flickr Commons): http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcgreer/,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cucchiaio/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/hendry/].

World is small. And the internet is even smaller.

In early February I joined the Hacking Chinese Characters Challenge.

One of the rules decided by the guy that proposed the challenge, Olle Linge from Hacking Chinese (check it, it’s one of the best resources out there to learn Chinese), was that we had to connect via email with the two people that joined the challenge before and after us.

This is how I got in touch with Julien Leyre who, after we introduced ourselves and our goals with Chinese language, followed up with this email:

“Hey Furio,

Julien here, French guy living in Australia – possiamo anche parlare Italiano si preferisci. I run a digital organization called Marco Polo Project – we crowd-source the translation of new Chinese writing, and bring together language learners online and through workshops to help each other learn.”

Now, that sounds interesting to me. And this is how this interview was born : )

The Marco Polo Project

Julien, what’s the Marco Polo Project?

The Marco Polo Project is a digital organisation promoting Chinese and China literacy through peer-to-peer and crowd-sourcing models.

In more everyday terms, our website offers a selection of new writing from China – short fiction, opinion pieces and social commentary by intellectuals and popular bloggers – and we invite language students and enthusiasts to collaborate on their translation. We also run collaborative translation workshops with native Mandarin speakers and Mandarin learners.

Through Marco Polo Project, Chinese learners can practice their language skills, read new Chinese writing and join a community that actively promotes cross-cultural dialogue; and non-Mandarin readers can discover the voices of Chinese writers.

So we’re both a specialized online magazine, and a language-learning community.

How does it work? Who can participate?

Our editorial team browses through the main Chinese blog aggregators and online magazine, and selects pieces for the website. Our users use a simple interface to type in their translation, or revise an existing translation. And a color code indicates how advanced each translation is.

Anyone can register, anyone can translate – it’s all free. All translations are peer-produced and peer-assessed. And results are surprisingly good. We’re doing a few tweaks now, improving the website and gamifying the system so there’s more incentives to translate, but that’s our basic model.

What do you mean for “gamifying” in this context?

Basically we’re trying to give users a sense of progress. There’s various elements to it:

• Validate translation paragraph by paragraph – so after users spend, say, 45 minutes on the site, they have completed 2 paragraphs, rather than 1/12th of a text.

• A progress bar, indicating how much of a text remains to be translated.

• A better profile page, listing all the interactions of the users, texts they translated, and how much remains to translate.

• Finally, points and badges for each interaction.

Julien Leyre

Your project looks very ambitious and, I believe, will express its real potential only in a couple of years. What is the main motivation that pushed you to start something like that?

Well, I thought something like this should exist. When I started working on Marco Polo Project, in 2011, I’d been studying Chinese for four years or so. I was desperate to start reading the real stuff, but I had no idea where to find it.

I also knew, because I worked as a language teacher for years, that students do translation as part of their course, and all of them go to the bin. I thought we could bring the two together – recycle the work done by students as part of their learning, and bring Chinese voices to Western readers. So I pulled a group of people together, and we built this.

Which are the biggest challenges on developing such a project?

With a project like this, the work hits you from all directions – admin build up, and editorial selection, engagement and marketing, and web-design and development. But the biggest challenge so far is around money – rather, making do without it.

It’s a problem that most not-for-profit organisations have to face: they have a very limited amount of money, so how will they be able to do good work and attract good staff, or keep their good staff, with so little money?

On the other hand, it’s also what most of ‘contents’ industry now struggles with: people want access to good stuff online, but they (mostly) want access for free.

So where’s the money coming from? Freemium? Ads? Government subsidy? Philanthropy? ‘Honesty’ pay-per-view system? Donations? Or indirectly, through public speaking and consulting gigs? It’s not very clear yet, and the answer is probably some combination of all the above.

Also, because our model is new, it’s really hard to get kick-start ‘institutional’ support, government or university. We fall in-between silos. We’re global in scope, and so we don’t qualify for many government grants or even deductible gift recipient status in Australia – which in turn reduces our chances of getting philanthropic funding.

We fall in-between ‘arts’ and ‘education’ grants or scholarships, so typically qualify for neither. And we’re an innovative digital start-up, but not-for-profit, no-good for business R&D grants. So bureaucratic silos are clearly the biggest enemy.

People love our project, institutions can’t place it.

You define yourself as a “community builder.” And looking at the number and the quality of your partners (Danwei, École Normale Supérieure de Paris and so on) it seems that you are quite good at it. What are, in your opinion, the characteristics of a successful leader on the web 2.0 era?

I guess the core characteristics of leadership haven’t really changed: it’s always about patience, courage, and authenticity. But there might be one thing which has become really more central: the capacity to build, inspire and manage a community with blurry boundaries. In a non-web 2.0 context, I believe there’s a relatively clear distinction between your team, your users or clients, and your partners. Not so with us.

I’m the main staff member of Marco Polo Project, I’m also the number one user; some people on our board run partner organisations, while partners often double as advisors; and all our translators are both ‘clients’ of our ‘education platform’ and ‘volunteers’ for our ‘online magazine’. This is the reality we’re dealing with, and we’re embracing it: success for us is about developing a sense of collective ownership.

I think it also reflects in the way we develop partnerships. We publish a regular column on Danwei, based on our translations, and they link back to our website, giving us traffic, new translators and legitimacy.

École Normale Supérieure de Paris, now also La Trobe University, encourages their students to use our website; we provide a free learning platform they can use in their classes. We regularly talk to various other online and offline institutions, and the goal every time is to build similar partnerships, based on the principle of symbiotic collaboration.

So to come back to your question, I think as a Web 2.0 leader, you must be comfortable thinking along those lines: see where your proposal fits in, take time to discuss collaborations, and inspire trust.

So practically speaking, don’t be shy of approaching people, put your cards on the table, and if it fails, try again.

Beside the internet, you also run Chinese translation workshops in Melbourne, the town where you live. What’s the goal?

I think it’s important for a digital community to develop an offline presence, and give participants a chance to meet face to face. We tend to think of the web and the ‘real world’ as completely different spaces – but the same people actually live in both. You and I met through the web, and I’ve met many friends online, in some way or other.

Workshops are an opportunity to build that connection locally. It’s also a model that can be reproduced anywhere in the world, especially by language schools and universities. So to an extent, it’s a strategic development: it’s a kind of ‘free service model’ we can pitch, that will bring on more users and translators to our platform, and grow our community.

A Marco Polo Project’s workshop in Melbourne

I see, this is how also TEDx conferences could grew so fast. On your blog, you admit the necessity to add new features to reach a “critical mass” of visitors. What’s your plan?

The web is an incredibly competitive space. Why would anyone visit our website rather than, say, Facebook or Wikipedia? We put a lot of efforts in selecting good contents, and that’s clearly playing in our favour.

But I think internet users have become used to getting super-usable interfaces for free, and have little patience with minor design flaws. When you don’t have money to pay for a proper web-designer and developing team, you get serious headaches over that.

As far as new features go, there’s three main things we’re planning to do. The first is to gamify the translation experience, so translators can measure their progress better. We raised money recently through Pozible.com, and a few plug-ins are in the pipeline. The second is to develop a better ‘reading’ interface – tablet compatible, with better targeted RSS subscription. The third is to bring in more languages – we’ve had people contact us to translate into German, Portuguese, and Polish. But before we do that, we’ll have to re-think our design a bit.

The plan is to find some kick-start money to pay for solid web-development – or a committed web-developer to do pro-bono work for us. Meanwhile, our beta version is functional, and enough to start growing the community.

About the internet, foreign languages and social interactions

I’m Italian, I lived five years in France and I spent a huge amount of time with hispanohablantes (from both Spain and Latino America).

If there is something that I blame to us Latin guys, is our “resistance” against foreign languages. We translate ALL movies, books and TV series. We clone neologisms so that we don’t have to use English words. We just don’t give a shit. In your opinion, what are the causes behind this behavior?

I like you talking about us ‘Latin guys’ – Marco Polo Project is named after one like that. I think we’re in a good position to understand China. The country’s had revolution after revolution – like France – and my Chinese friends spend all day talking to their mother on the phone – like my Italian friends. Joke aside, I think China’s definitely closer to Latin or Mediterranean cultures than to the ‘anglo-american’ world.

I wouldn’t say that we don’t give a shit – you and I are conversing in English in this interview, and we both also studied Chinese. But yes, we’re not all desperate to anglicize, and why should we?

OK, I’ve got this theory, which may be wrong, or have some part of right. My grand-parents live in the South of France, in a Medieval town, with a 12th century wall around it.

My father studied in Nimes, and hung out as a teenager around 2nd and 3rd century Roman monuments. My aunt was born in Marseille, which had a rich and complex urban civilization in the 5th century BC.

Latin countries have long histories, and that brings a real sense of cultural strength. There’s also lots of exchanges between Latin countries: my grand-mother doesn’t speak English, but during World War II, she got the news from Radio Rome – and because she speaks Provencal, she could understand Italian pretty well.

I think ‘Latin’ cultures offer an alternative to the ‘anglo’ model, with a different set of assumptions and values. I think it’s a model ‘the West’ should explore, especially when it comes to better understanding Asia.

I agree. Countries with a long history tend to preserve and value their language much more than “young” countries. Let’s say it: “Latin guys are f*cking snob haha.” And I also agree that we are in a good position to understand North East Asia. As an example, China, Japan and Korea react in a similar fashion to foreign languages. In China they even translate brand names. Thus Starbucks became 星巴克, Xingbake, and KFC became 肯德基, Kendeqi.

A Chinese Starbucks

Anyway, while I was browsing your blog to prepare this interview I stumbled upon a very interesting article, Second-tier languages on the web, where you pointed out that English language accounts for about 50% of all contents on the Internet while in the real world there are much less native English speakers.

The corollary is that “second-tier” languages – Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, etc – are often under-represented on the web. I know that it’s difficult to forecast it, but I’m going to ask you anyway. Are things going to change any soon? If yes, in which direction?

Multilingualism on the web is a question that fascinates me. From what I’ve read, no-one really knows what the future will be like. But one trend at least is very clear: the share of English on the web is decreasing. English represented 75% of all internet contents 10 years ago. Now it’s only 50% – and in all likelihood, that percentage will decrease. So, if I was to predict anything, I would say that the web is going to become a more multilingual space.

Learning Chinese

A last question. You speak several languages and are obviously an expert on the topic. How it’s going your Chinese study?

It’s hard!!!! I’ve been at it since 2007, but I still have a long road ahead of me. Marco Polo Project really helped with my reading – learning new words and ‘integrating’ common ones. But listening and speaking are lagging behind a bit. I followed advice from Olle Linge, and I’ve got an MP3 reader full of Chinese podcasts which I listen to when I walk around: that really helps. Hopefully, I’ll get some sort of grant or scholarship to spend some time in China this year, and cement the things I’ve been learning. I guess learning Chinese is a really good character-building exercise: it does take a lot of patience!

Julien, thanks a lot for taking the time to answer to my questions : )

p.s. Last week I asked to the developers of Skritter – the software that I’m using to learn how to write Chinese characters – whether they could offer a discount for the readers of this website. And they did. So if you are interested you can just jump to Skritter’s homepage from this link and use the coupon “FURIO3952″. Yup, in the case you sign up I do get some money for referring you. It’s win-win ; )

This story is a present from Pietro Acquistapace, the author of the blog Butterflies and Foxholes (sorry, the website is in Italian language).

Uchka’s point of view

My travel in China began in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. The Mongolian capital was the arrival point of a trip in Fiat Panda through East Europe, Iran and Central Asia.

Once arrived to my destination the goal was to meet up with my friend Alfredo, who lives in Mongolia since a couple of years, let him my Panda and then… who knows.

The fact that I was arrived in UB (how the local people call Ulaan Baatar) just after my friend left the town for awhile let me fifteen days to explore the town, which by the way I already knew.

First at all I handled the documents for the change of property of the car to Uchka, a Mongolian friend of Alfredo, who explains to me how Mongolia is risking to become an unpopulated country: it’s five times bigger than Italy but with only three millions of people, whom two live in the capital.

This describes the situation outside UB: an empty country, inhabited by nomads and with very few towns, which would be more correct to define villages. Of course there are no infrastructure at all, as I was able to find out by myself while crossing the country with my car. Actually the tarmac stops 300 km away from the capital while the rest of the country is covered by mule tracks.

The situation is even more complicated because Mongolia is undergoing an urbanization process: more and more nomads are leaving the countryside, which may reach -50°C in winter, and moving to the capital with the hope of a better life, especially for their children.

This internal migration risks to alter the social balance of the country, transforming UB in a (mini) megalopolis in the middle of… nothing. In the city there are more and more neighborhoods of gher, the Mongolian tents, where the poor people live. This is also the main cause for the increasing of criminality in the country.

You have to add to the mix the building boom that is creating a lot of new jobs (also for women) but, in another hand, is transforming the urban landscape and leading a strong flux of immigration from Korea which, according to Uckha, is connected to the explosion of prostitution and other social problems.

Outside the capital, the uninhabited areas are becoming “prey” of those multinationals that see the opportunity of making money by extracting the mineral, whom the the Mongolian subsoil is rich.

Drinking and sightseeing

Coming back to me, I found a room on one of the worst hotels in UB (but also one of the most economic). I will discover soon that the owner rents the rooms to the youngsters, also for just a couple of hours, who come here to drink alcohol, which is forbidden in the street.

It’s clear that there is no peace. At the same time, it gives me the possibility to get in touch with one of the aspects of the Mongolian life: drinking. In Mongolia alcohol is omnipresent and you have to drink in order to show that you are a man and that you respect your friends.

I’m telling you, refusing to drink may get you on troubles ; )

Sightseeing around the city I notice a lot of beggars with their cats, people that rent phones on the street and a group of homeless that camp under the statue of Lenin.

Beside the statue, there is no trace of the past Communist regime. UB appears as a modern city. Even the music seems to be “global” so that it’s easy to stumble upon an hip hop concert.

I decide to visit the Lenin Museum but I discover that, instead of the museum, there is a telephony center. Before they drive me away, I still manage to make a pic of a statue of the Bolshevik leader that is arranged just below a huge advertising panel.

Art is in a bad shape too: the entry of the Modern Art Gallery is hidden behind a building and half of the collection isn’t exposed because there is exhibit of photos dedicated to China. This looked weird to be, knowing that the two countries aren’t really in a friendly relationship.

With Alfredo

Luckily with Alfredo I discover the Tsagaandarium, a new museum dedicated to Contemporary Art.

We also visit the Zeisan, the hill where the monument of Mongolian-Russian friendship is located. From here you can see a new neighborhood full of tall buildings: it’s where the new rich people go to live.

At night I have an interesting conversation with a girl that works for a NGO: she tells me that the Mongolian government doesn’t facilitate adoptions, especially when it come downs to girls. The reason seems to be an attempt to preserve the Mongolian “race.”

Also, it seems that a large majority of the children that live on the orphanages are left there from the parents that want protect them from the cold.

It’s a difficult country, full of conflicts and with a capital more and more westernized. Overall I find it extremely fascinating.

After fifteen days it’s time to leave again. Ma I don’t feel like to come back to Italy. Well, let’s go to China!

p.s. I translated the article of Pietro by myself. The translation is probably shitty because I find extremely difficult to translate from Italian to English (I usually think and write in English and only after I translate in Italian, which I find way easier).

p.p.s. The photos on this article are by Sara Cavatorta.

p.p.p.s. If you think to have a story that may be of interest to the readers of Sapore di Cina just contact me by email.