China

• China has been said to boast of some of the world’s most impressive ‘hardware’ – high-speed railways, gleaming office towers and supercomputers – but the country’s ‘software’ has yet to catch up. China has had more success building world-class infrastructure than world-class innovation.

• The hardware vs. software distinction is said to be a reflection of China’s education system as a whole with the prevailing system focusing the primary and secondary education system towards test preparation, leaving limited classroom time for the cultivation of analytical and creative skills.

• China for so long was considered as the world’s workshop, but industry in China increasingly demands employees who can see the bigger picture, manage a team and communicate effectively with partners and colleagues both in China and overseas. According to business surveys in China, wages are rising fastest at the level of middle management, where soft skills are more important for success than technical knowledge.
• This suggests that higher education institutions in China are not failing to prepare graduates to enter the workforce, but may be struggling to impart to their students the soft skills they need to get ahead. Soft skills, by their very nature, are centred on personality, meaning that they do not fit neatly in textbooks and lesson plans. In fact, to the extent that soft skills are socially imparted, teaching young people to make better team mates, managers and leaders may be a task that has to start at an earlier age and take place outside the classroom.
• Foreign education institutions need to operate in a limited capacity and an unfamiliar environment in China.
• The true skills gap in China is said to be the rarest of things: massive in scale, hard to define and nearly impossible to address.

China has re-affirmed its goal of becoming a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and become a high income country by 2030 through a strategy combining high levels of investment with rapid advances in technology. Productivity in the next decade is expected to come from technology absorption and adaptation supplemented by incremental innovation. High levels of investment will remain an important source of growth in China through deepening and embodied technological change. By 2030, China expects to be at par or surpass technologically with the most advanced countries by its continuous growth of innovation and technology.

The peak travel season in China is in the months of July to August. Places like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi’an are the places that are the most visited. Tibet and Hainan (also referred as “Hawaii of China”) are best visited during summer. The months of April–May and September–October are also best times to travel months to be in China. Winter time is from November-March; best places to be in are in the south, including Hong Kong, Macau, Hainan and Yunnan and Harbin, known for its ice festival

China uses a five-day workweek from Monday to Friday, with Saturday and Monday off. The normal business hours are from 08:00 to 18:00, with two-hour break from 12:00 – 14:00.  There are local variations in different sectors and cities.

• Government offices, institutions and schoolsbegin at 8:00 or 8:30, and end at 17:00 or 17:30 with two-hour noon break, from Monday to Friday. They usually close on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.
• Companiesusually start at 8:30 and close at 18:00, with one or two hours noon break. Though usually open from Monday to Friday, companies have some staff on duty at weekends.
• Banks and post officesopen daily from 9:00 till 17:00. During weekends and public holidays, their business hours are shortened by one or two hours. But self-service banks and ATM machines operate any time.
• Hotels and hospitalsoffer round-the-clock services every day. Community clinics are also open every day from 8:30 till past 22:00.
• Most tourist attractionscan be visited every day from 9:00 till 17:30, with some remaining open in the evening during summer time. Museums usually close for one day (mostly Monday) for every week, and extend opening hours by one or two hours on public holidays and summer/winter vacations.
• Restaurants and barsstart around 10:00 till late at night, and usually extend their business hours during weekends and holidays. Some bars open till wee hours or even for the entire night.
• Shops, supermarkets and department storesopen every day for long hours from 9:00 to 22:00, including weekends and public holidays. Small shops and grocery stores open earlier and close later than that time. However, during the Chinese New Year (happen in January or February), stores close early in the afternoon on the Eve.

GMT/UTC + 8h during Standard Time

China does not utilize daylight saving time.

Visa Application Requirements

Basic requirements

1) Passport – Original passport that is valid for at least another 6 months with at least one blank visa page, a photocopy of the passport’s information/photo page and emergency contact page.

2) Visa Application Form – You must submit truthfully completed and signed Visa Application Form of the People’s Republic of China. Do not leave any field blank. Write N/A if the question does not apply to you.

3) Photo – Affix one color photo on the Application Form. The photo should be recent, front view, white background, in 48mm x 33mm size without head covering. Glue the photo to the appropriate field. Stapled/taped/clipped/detached photos will not be accepted.

Visa Types:

For Work Visa

Work visa is required if you belong to the following categories:

• Those who visit China for technical support, R&D, management or consulting etc., unless for any business activity regarding winning projects, or technical support or training for machinery equipments imported to China, or for any business activity for subsidiaries, branches or representative offices in China and will stay in China for less than 90 days.
• Those who visit China for film production (including advertisement and documentary), fashion shows (including car model, plane advertisement etc.).
• *Those who visit China for commercial entertainment performance or shows.
• Commercial entertainment performance or shows for less than 90 days: The original and copy of Approval of Short-Term Employment for Foreigners Working in P. R. China and Approval for performance issued by a competent Cultural Department/Bureau and a copy of Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Unit or Confirmation Letter of Invitation issued by an authorized Foreign Affairs Office in China.
• Other short-term working for less than 90 days: The original and copy of Employment Permit for Foreigner and Approval of Short-Term Employment for Foreigners Working in P. R. China issued by a competent Department/Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security in China, and a copy of Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Unit or Confirmation Letter of Invitation issued by an authorized unit in China.

The above mentioned invitation letter must contain the following information:

1) Information on the applicant : full name, gender, date of birth, etc.
2) Information on the planned visit: purpose of visit, arrival and departure dates, place(s) to be visited, relations between the applicant and the inviting entity or individual, financial source for expenditures, etc.
3) Information on the inviting entity or individual: name, contact telephone number, address, official stamp, signature of the legal representative or the inviting individual.
The invitation letter may be in the form of fax, photocopy or computer printout, but the consular officer may require the applicant to submit the original of the invitation letter.

The proofs of kinship refers to marriage certificate, birth certificate, certification of kinship issued by Chinese Public Security Bureau or notarized certification of kinship.

Additional requirements

1) First Time Chinese Visa Applicant – Information about your finances and employment or studies is required, which you should consider providing bank certificate of deposit balance including the past 6 months history of your bank account and the receipt for payment of this certificate, or BIR-stamped income tax return form, or letter from your employer detailing your salary and the length of your employment, or business registration certificate if you are the owner, or professional ID, or student ID, etc. A letter of explanation is required if you could not provide the above-mentioned documents.

2)Previous Chinese Visa – If you had obtained a Chinese visa before, you should submit a photocopy of the visa, and if the visa is on your old passport, you should also submit the old passport.

How to Apply

An applicant may submit his or her visa application in person or entrust someone (immediate family member/household staff/co-worker) or a travel agency to submit on his or her behalf.

No appointment is required.

Mail applications will not be accepted.

You may be required to go to the Chinese Embassy for an interview if the visa officer deems it necessary.

Official Currency: Renminbi (English definition: people’s currency)

Basic Unit: yuan

Currency Code: CNY

Equivalent: 1 CNY = 0.150235

1USD = 6.65 CNY

The Chinese language consists of seven local dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Wu, Min, Xiang and Gan. Mandarin (known as Putonghua, which means common language) is the official national language of mainland China. Cantonese is the common language in Hongkong and overseas Chinese communities. A combination of Mandarin, Hakka and Taiwanese (a variety of Min) are the languages in Taiwan. Mandarin is spoken in the northern and western parts of China.

Less than 1% of the total population of China (about 1.3 billion as of 2015) can speak the English language. Although the English language is taught as early as kindergarten, the English education is more focused on reading competence and speaking gets the least attention.