The formalities to go through before setting off on your China Business Trip are quite simple. Besides buying yourself a travel ticket, you must apply to a Chinese embassy or consulate for a visa to be stamped on your passport.  Usually, you need an invitation from the Chinese party you are going to visit before you apply for the visa. 

INVITATIONS: You can get an invitation from nearly all major government bodies, organizations, institutions, or enterprises.  Choosing the one you want to be your host depends on your interests and what to do in China. 

SIMPLER WAY:  As there are restrictions and limitations on a business travel visa, it probably is simpler to go on a tourist visa.  This way you don't even need a formal invitation from your Chinese counterpart.  All you have to do is contact a local travel agency in your country, and in most cases, it shall be able to get all the related documents, including the tourist visa, for you. 

CHINESE CONTACT:  Most travelers would not worry about getting a taxi at the airport to go to the reserved hotel by themselves.  However, if you have a lot of luggage to carry, or really feel the need of someone meeting you at the airport, you can either tell your Chinese counterpart to be available, or you can tell your travel agent to contact Yamei Travel, so that Yamei can have a local guide , along with a car, to meet you at the airport - any airport in China. 

Yamei Travel CPTT

Beijing Office - Regent China Tours
Scitech International Tours
Tel 0086 10 84085266 / 84085277 / 84085288
Fax 0086 10 84085299
Email: beijing@regenttour.com
Url: http://www.regenttour.com
Add: West Lobby, Ping An Bldg No 68, Dong Si Shi Tiao, Dong Cheng Distr. Beijing 100007 China

Services from all above companies include: 

Guide-interpreter. 
Airport and railway station transfer. 
Travel arrangements in and outside China. 
Baggage handling. 
Processing entry, exit and transit visas and travel and residential permits. 
Accommodation reservation and taxi reservation. 
Buying, booking and endorsing air, train and ship tickets. 
Arrangement for customs declaration and clearance. 

Yamei Travel CPTT is among the few that have the license to issues international and domestic airline tickets directly from within its offices, therefore providing business travelers convenience and competitive pricing. 

If you have any travel related questions, please forward them to: 

Yamei Travel CPTT  
Phone:  86-10-64155486,  86-10-64155825.  FAX: 86-10-64155341.  Or Email Yamei@public.bta.net.cn 

Upon arriving at a port of entry, a foreign visitor must undergo passport, health, customs formalities before entering China. The first control point you will encounter in China, like many other countries, will check your passport to ensure that it is in order and that the visa entry is correct. 

QUARANTINE: The second control point will check your health documents. Normally, it is a routine procedure of filling out a form and presenting it to the check point, no certificates or smallpox vaccination, or cholera or yellow fever inoculations are required, unless you travel from or via regions where such diseases have occurred recently.  But if you feel indisposed on the way to China, you should report, for your own good, to the Chinese frontier quarantine personnel at the airport, seaport or railway station of arrival. 

At the third control point you and your baggage will be subject to customs formalities. You must fill in a baggage declaration form, on which all valuables should be listed, such as cameras, watches, jewelry, calculators, radios, tape recorders, typewriters, money and travelers' checks.  After inspecting your baggage against the declaration form, the customs officer will sign and stamp the form and return it to you. Keep this form safe, because your valuables will be rechecked when you leave China. Your valuables as listed should not be sold or given away, and any loss should be reported immediately to your host organization. 

(A helpful note:  Because of the large traffic volume in major city airports, you can expect that only the first control point is strict as normal while others are routine only - you don't really have to report that you carried a laptop with you, unless when you are asked to.) 

You are allowed to carry into China a limited quantity of duty-free goods and personal belongings, including two bottles of liquor and 400 cigarettes. Foreign liquor and cigarettes are now available everywhere. 

To make exit formalities smoother, please retain invoices on all major purchases (those over US 100), just in case. 

Incoming passengers may be allowed to bring with them, under temporary admission, one piece of the items listed as follows: Camera, portable tape-recorder, portable cinecamera, portable video-camera, and portable computer.  

Passengers carrying personal items in excess of the limit listed above shall declare accurately to the Customs and fulfill all the necessary Customs formalities.  

Gold, silver and ornaments made there of:  

Passengers shall make declarations to the Customs if the amount of gold,silver and the ornaments made thereof they carry exceeds 50 grams. Any consignment for export of gold, silver and the ornaments made thereof (including handicrafts of inlaid gold ware and silverware) purchased in the territory shall only be allowed with special invoices issued by the People's Bank of China.  

Foreign exchanges: On entering, no restrictions are imposed on the amount of foreign currencies, traveler's checks, credit cards. However, non-residents carrying more than 5,000 US dollars in cash shall declare to the Customs. The Customs shall permit foreign exchange to be carried out based on the declarations or on relevant regulations issued by the National Administration of Exchange Control.  

Cultural Relics:  

Cultural relics intended for export shall be sent in advance to the cultural administrative departments for verification. The Customs shall release them on the basis of authentic marks affixed on the works by the cultural administrative departments and the invoices for permitting cultural relics out of the territory or export license.  

Chinese herbs and patent medicines:  

The maximum limits on the value of Chinese herbs and Chinese patent medicines to be carried out to foreign countries shall be 300 yuan per person, and 150 yuan for traveling to Hong Kong or Macao per person. The maximum limits on the value of the medicines sent by post shall be 200 yuan abroad, and 100 yuan to Hong Kong and Macao. Export of musk and any other Chinese herbs and medicines in excess of the prescribed limit mentioned above shall be prohibited.  

Articles prohibited for import:  

1. Arms, imitation arms, ammunition and explosives of all kinds;  

2. Counterfeit currencies and counterfeit negotiable securities;  

3. Printed matter, films, photos, gramophone records, cinematographic films, loaded recording tapes and video-tapes, compact discs ( video & audio), storage media for computers and other articles which are detrimental to the political, economic, cultural and moral interests of China;  

4. Deadly poisons of all kinds;  

5. Opium, morphine, heroin, marijuana and other addiction inducing drugs and psychedelics;  

6. Animals, plants and products made thereof infected with or carrying diseases, insect pests and other harmful organisms;  

7. Foodstuff, medicines and other articles coming from epidemic-stricken areas and harmful to man and livestock or those capable of spreading diseases.  

Articles prohibited for export:  

1. All articles enumerated as articles prohibited for import;  

2. Manuscripts, printed matter, films, photos, gramophone records, cinematographic films, loaded recording tapes and video-tapes, compact discs ( video & audio ), storage media for computers and other articles which involve state secrets;  

3. Valuable cultural relics and other relics prohibited for export;  

4. Endangered and rare animals, plant (including their specimens) and their seeds or reproducing materials.