We Make China Easy 易

Shenzhen moves fast and runs almost entirely through a phone. Without a working WeChat Pay or Alipay wallet, a lot of shops and restaurants simply cannot take your money. The first thing we usually sort out is not an itinerary at all — it is the wallet, the SIM, and how to call a car.

For buyers, Huaqiangbei is the reason to come: electronics, components and accessories at a scale that is difficult to picture until you stand in it. We come along for the negotiating, check that the specification you are quoted is the one you leave with, and help arrange shipping.

For families, Shenzhen is a comfortable place to spend the first days: parks, the waterfront, and dinners that do not require anyone to be brave in Mandarin. For parents weighing up universities, several campuses here can be seen in a single day.

Guangzhou is what our business guests ask for most. Its wholesale markets are organised by category, scattered across the city, and almost none of them operate in English. The difference between going home with one supplier and going home with five is usually not luck — it is whether someone with you knows which building to walk into.

On the ground, our job is translating trade terms rather than conversation. Minimum order quantities, per-unit against per-carton pricing, payment terms, production lead times: misunderstandings at those points are the expensive ones, and they happen most often through an interpreter who only has everyday language.

The Canton Fair takes over the city for three weeks each season and changes everything about it: hotels fill, prices rise, and the calendar splits into three phases that do not overlap. That has a page of its own.

Hong Kong feels easier than Shenzhen or Guangzhou because English is widely used, and it is. What is not easy is the crossing: which border to use, what paperwork to have ready, and how long the queue runs on a given day. Getting that wrong costs half a day.

For business guests the city is often where the things that cannot be done on the mainland get done: accounts, documents, meetings with people who would rather meet here. We come along and interpret where it helps, without giving legal or financial advice, which is not our field.

For families, a day or two is usually enough: the view from the peak, the ferry across the harbour, and food that needs no explanation. What we add is the order, so the day is not spent in transit.