One of the trends inherent to the economic growth in China, is the fact that more and more people are taking Chinese language classes. The best way to do that? Go to China and talk to Sally Zhang. She works as Program Director at the Chinese Language Education organization in Beijing. Conveniently located in the middle of Beijing’s business center.

Beijing is home to most of her students. “At this moment, we are teaching Chinese to 82 students. Mostly Westerners, but also people coming from Japan and Korea. The continuously increasing amount of students can to a degree be explained, by the steadily increasing number of foreign companies in China. A few years ago, there was only the Chinese bank, nowadays I have five students who work for foreign banks operating in China. These financial professionals need to be able to read newspapers and documents in English as well as in Chinese. Fortunately for them, they work at companies where English is, at this point in time, the most common language.”

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By Donny Huang

In 2005 numerous public relationship crisises have haunted multinationals operating in China. Big brands such as P&G, Nestle, KFC, Johnson & Johnson, and Sony have suffered severe damage to their brands’ reputation. An analysis of the underlying reason for the problems encountered shows that they are due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the intricacies of Chinese culture on business. This reaches far deeper than most people think. Read the rest of “Mentality, Mindset, Mianzi - How to Avoid a Crisis” or post a comment

By David Dayton

Once again, I’m in a factory working through production issues that would be impossible to solve over the phone, with email, or even with photographs. What’s the issue this time? Among other things, my primary task this trip is to define the factory’s actual capabilities compared with the overly-optimistic sales pitches presented in their brochures. Qualifying a factory is definitely something that you can’t do from across the globe or even from a great distance within the same country! Read the rest of “Working With Chinese Factories - Part I: The Initial Visit” or post a comment

By Eric Castro

Chinese people arrive on time for meetings and other occasions (and sometimes 5 or 10 minutes in advance). It is considered rude to arrive late for engagements of any kind. Traveling from one point to another in many cities in China can be extremely time-consuming due to traffic delays. Make sure you leave early enough to make it to your destination on time.

Take time to get to know your counterparts. You will need to establish a high level of trust in your partner. Business style in China relies on personal relationships based on trust rather than legalized, impersonal obligations. Don’t rush things. Read the rest of “Special Things to Consider When Negotiating in China” or post a comment