Despite travelling to Hong Kong many times over, I entered into the mainland for the first time less than a month ago. Not knowing what to expect, I prepared myself by reading and talking to frequent travellers to China.

With absolute readiness to accept what comes next, I opened all my senses to what China as a country and people had to offer.

Here are a few things that jumped out at me. They may be basic things to experienced travellers but I’m writing this for the sake of newbies.

Mad scale

It’s a different world. I can jokingly say, “in China, just add three zeros behind everything” and I won’t be too far off the mark. China and India are the two most populous countries in the world, accounting for 36.28 per cent of the total world population.

China tops India by 41 million with approximately 1.42 billion people in 2018. India is the second-largest country by population with approximately 1.35 billion inhabitants in 2018.

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Coming from Malaysia, a country of 34 million people and a GDP of USD 354 billion; the scale of things in China simply appear mad to me. It’s not just the population, but size, revenue and valuations of companies are sky-high compared to those in Southeast Asia. Despite having done lots of work in India and Indonesia, it doesn’t prepare you for China and I’ll tell you why.

Protected Economy

China’s economy is not an inclusive one. Entering the Dragon means having to warp your mind and business practice to cater to the Chinese way. No access to Google, Whatsapp and western-influenced social media platforms does make one feel disconnected fairly quickly. Unless you are roaming, which can be pretty expensive or using a VPN to connect to the outside world, you will feel like you are in the 1990s where you ask the locals for directions using sign language instead of using Google Maps.

Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu and other giant Chinese companies were able to achieve great scale (not to mention enormous valuations as well) due to the peculiarities of the Chinese market.

That presented opportunities to close gaps and provide services that the Chinese people were yearning for. It’s not as easy as it sounds because many of these founders had to battle against China’s bureaucracy and at times the fear of imprisonment in rendering their services. Due to the lack of competition from global companies, local companies could step up and close that gap while competing domestically.

Generally, Chinese businesses do not wait for handouts from the government.

Granted that there are many incentives offered by China nowadays, especially from second-tier cities with the mushrooming tech parks and subsidies, but mostly it’s about attracting foreign companies into China. China knows that everyone wants a piece of it and the FDI play is at its peak at the moment.

Government representatives in associations and large companies

A word of warning – do not talk bad about the Chinese government or its policies and make sure that your presentation materials are kept neutral avoiding political references that could be deemed damaging to China.

Government representatives are usually part of associations, societies and larger companies to ensure that these bodies comply with China’s rule of law.

Company stamp

I’m old enough to remember company rubber stamps that were popular in the 1980s and 90s. They are almost redundant in today’s business world; unless you are dealing with certain government departments.

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In Malaysia, there are still stores where custom-made stamps are produced within the hour. What I didn’t realise was that in China, many companies still use company stamps when it comes to official documents. After raising an eyebrow, I got over it. But what really surprised me was that it takes at least 3 days to get a company stamp done anywhere in China.

The reason being, it’s illegal for stores to produce a company stamp without viewing company incorporation documents. You may be able to find someone who is willing to close an eye and make a stamp for you quickly, but it will cost you and you can never be certain when you will actually receive your stamp. My suggestion is to avoid the risk of getting into the bad books of the Chinese government and take a company stamp with you when you travel for business.

The translate feature on WeChat

This feature saved me. Prior to my trip, I rarely used WeChat although I had it on my phone. Naturally, I didn’t realise that it had a “translate” function until someone pointed it out.

I was able to have chat conversations with non-English speaking people via WeChat and the app’s points went up in my books.

There is certainly a lot more to learn about China but these few pointers should come in handy for first-time business travellers.

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Image Credit:  Toby Yang

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