How to Plan successfully for your first business trip to China and Hire a qualified Chinese interpreter
 

Day by day, economic news about China hit the headlines of international press. It apprears that no organisation or company with international ambitions would afford not to be in China as China become second large world economy.
A large number of business people from abroad travele to China to look for business opportunities, visit suppliers, buisness partners, clients and events etc. Undoubtedly, an actual visit to the country can help one quickly ramp up relevant country knowledge and to even initiate a profitable business relationship with a Chinese partner. However, if one does not prepare for the trip carefully, a first-time visit can easily be turned into an unproductive and wasteful exercise.

We show you tips on how to plan for your first business trip to China

Plan well before china visit
1. Ensure you have applied for a visa to travel to China
2. Change plenty of Reminbi notes as credit cards and US dollars are not widely accepted
3. Reserve hotel rooms and domestic air tickets ahead especially if travelling during golden travel peak periods in China.
4. Prepare a small medical kit as you may fall sick from the local food or from too much hectic travel
5. Have a handy English to Chinese phrase book as most Chinese do not speak nor understand English
6. Get a useful business guide on insider guide to Chinese business culture
7. Prepare mentally that some parts of China will be crowded, nosiy and dirty
8 Hire a qualified Chinese interpreter to escort you during china business trip

A city is much the same as a living organism. When overlooking the city from high above, one finds that it is closely linked by crisscrossed roads like numerous blood vessels. Those roads are variously addressed in different times and areas. In Shanghai they are called "Longtang".

It is said that a good understanding of Shanghai should start from Longtang. The appreciation of the legacy of longtang is like reading the history book of the metropolis, which helps us identify her culturul essence. With the speed up of old neighborhood redevelopment projects in recent years, many Longtang have been replaced by modern office edifices and high apartments. Yet Longtang will, as a part of history and a style of culture, linger in the deep of enduring memories of Shanghainese.

Notes:                                                                                                                                                                   The old residential neighborhood in Shanghai is also called "Shikumen", stone framed gate in literal translation, which is now more often used than "Longtang" to represent this traditional style of living organism.                                                                              

Likewise you will find the similar relation between "Siheyuan" (quadrangle courtyard) and "Hutong" of Beijing. If Longtang or Hutong is described as the the blood vessel, then Siheyuan or Shikumen is the cell.

In the prespective of the architectural genres, Longtang is more cramped hence half open to neighbors next door or opposite as the public facitilies such as bathroom, sink and kitchen are shared by every a couple of adjacent households, while Hutong is composed by individual compound in which houses of one family are enclosed.

So in old times of Shanghai, it is quite usual to pass something to a neighbor without going out of the door. People call this hands-shaking houses, as it were.

The Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone in Pudong New Area is now the most glamorous place in Shanghai, as well as a symbol of China's reform and opening up to the outside world. However, not many people know that this piece of magic land is connected to two Shanghai personages in ancient times - Lu Shen, a great litterateur in the Ming dynasty, and his wife, Mei. According to the local chronicles of Shanghai, the Huangpu river, after meandering a long way, takes a nealy 90-degree turn here and leaves a protruding alluvial plain. Looked from the west bank, this piece of alluvial plain is like a giant golden-horned beast drinking water from the Huangpu river. As the former residence of Lu Shen and his ancestral tombs are all located here, this area is therefore named as Lujiazui which literally mean mouth of Lu's.