By Vincent Cheung

To open restaurants in Shanghai, you’ve got two options:

1. Establish a wholly foreign owned catering management company.
2. Simply open a restaurant

If you want to franchise in Shanghai or intend to sell your restaurants in the future, option 1 would be fit for you, or you can simply open a restaurant. You don’t have to rent a room in an office block to have the catering management company established. For setting up a catering management company, a suitable place for opening a restaurant is sufficient. As soon as it’s established, you can start to open restaurants, bars or coffee houses as its branch companies. Since the catering management company, which is licensed to engage in investment consultancy, business consultancy, corporate management consultancy, catering (food, dessert, beverage, alcohol) already has most of the required licenses and permits for engaging in catering business, you don’t need to apply for them when you are opening branch companies. Read the rest of “About Opening a Foreign-invested Restaurant in Shanghai” or post a comment

By William Dodson

One of the senior partners of my consultancy Silk Road Advisors is a Chinese Lawyer. Ms. Zhang is certified to practice law in China, not in the States. She typically takes on corporate cases that Western international law firms gain on behalf of their Western clients, but for whom the practice can only do so much in moving agreements through government channels. Also, many of the Western law firms prefer to stay within the city limits of the First-Tier cities, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. She prefers to stay outside the city limits of the First-Tier cities: the noise, pollution and overall pushi-ness of Big City China doesn’t impress her, though she is a native of Beijing.
Read the rest of “Chinese Lawyers: The New Generation” or post a comment

On his first visit to China in 2004, Alexander de Nerée liked what he saw. So when he was asked to set up De Nerée Advocates in Hong Kong, it did not take him long to decide.
“I am really fascinated by China, but I also feel fortunate to be living in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is really ‘China-light’. Not so much fun, but healthier for you. With the fairly Westernised attitude of the Hong Kong people and the relatively high standard of English, the business climate for foreigners is better here then in most parts of China. It’s like Switzerland in Asia. Everything is well-organised and clean.”

So there is not much work to do for lawyers in Hong Kong then? “Quite the opposite. Many businesses choose Hong Kong as their base to start operations in Asia. An obvious choice: all the leading banks, insurers and accountants are around the corner. Hong Kong also plays an important role because of its favourable tax regulations and the excellent legal infrastructure. It is actually a sort of ‘home away from home’. A safe haven to start if you are looking to do business in mainland China. Where of course other legal concepts and basic business rules apply. In that last category, when clients ask about do’s and don’ts I generally advise them to Read the rest of “Lawyer’s advice on legal self-protection in China” or post a comment