Questions buyers ask before they book a flight

No. Tell us the product, the target price and the quantity, and we shortlist three to five factories that can make it. Most clients arrive with a product idea and a budget, not a supplier list. We check business licences and export rights before you book a flight.

Six to eight weeks is comfortable. We need two weeks to collect quotes and confirm visits, and a Chinese business visa takes five to seven working days. Canton Fair weeks fill up earlier. If your dates are already fixed, send them now and we plan backwards from your flight.

Yes. An interpreter stays with you from the airport pickup to the last factory. We cover Mandarin and Cantonese on site, with Russian and Arabic on request. Factory owners rarely speak English, so every price, lead time and payment term is translated while it is being said, not afterwards.

Five full days. That is enough for two cities, six to eight factory visits and one market day, with a buffer for a rescheduled meeting. Three days works only if you stay inside one industrial belt, such as Foshan or Dongguan. Anything shorter and you spend more time in traffic than in factories.

Yes. Send your passport scan, company name and travel dates. We issue a business invitation letter with our company seal, plus the hotel booking and itinerary the consulate asks for. The PDF reaches you within two working days, and we post the original when your consulate requires paper.

A passport valid for six months, a photo, the invitation letter, hotel and flight bookings, and a short letter from your own company. Requirements differ by consulate: some ask for a business licence copy, some for bank statements. We send the exact checklist for your country before you apply.

You book the international flight. We book hotels, high-speed rail and the driver, and put those costs on your invoice at cost with receipts attached. We choose hotels near the factories, not near the sights, because a 7:30 start beats a view of the river.

Send us the refusal note. Most refusals come from missing papers rather than the trip itself, and a second application usually clears once those papers are fixed. We reissue the invitation and adjust the dates. If the trip cannot happen, any service fee paid is held as credit for a later date.

Three ways. Trip support is from US$280 per day for one person, including interpreting, city transport and itinerary. Sourcing or inspection work is from US$600 per project, or 3 to 5 per cent of order value. Logistics is quoted per shipment as a handling fee.

Yes. Thirty per cent of the quoted fee holds your dates, and the balance is due seven days before the trip starts. Cancel more than fourteen days ahead and the deposit moves to another date. We never ask for money before you have a written quote.

No. You pay us, and we say so to every factory on the first visit. A supplier who pays us cannot be the supplier we recommend. If a factory offers a commission anyway, it appears on your invoice as a deduction you can see.

Yes. You get a service invoice with our company details, the service period and the line items, plus receipts for hotels and transport. A Chinese VAT invoice takes three working days and needs your company details. Tell us what your accountant needs and we match the format.

Yes. Many of our inspections are done for buyers who stay home. We visit at the pre-production, mid-line and loading stages, shoot photos and video, and send a written report with every defect categorised. The report is in English and can go straight to your own customer.

AQL 2.5 for major defects and AQL 4.0 for minor, on general inspection level II. That is the same standard your customer auditor will use. We photograph each defect, count cartons and check packaging and labels before the container is sealed.

The factory is responsible for the goods; our job is to find the problem before your money leaves. If an inspection fails, we document it, hold the balance payment and negotiate rework or a price adjustment. Our written report is the record both sides work from if a claim is opened.

We collect the purchase order, confirm the deposit and the production schedule, and check progress every week. You get written updates with photos at the start of production, mid-line and before loading. If the factory slips a date, you hear it from us the same day.

Yes. Goods from different factories come to our Guangzhou or Yiwu warehouse, where we check carton marks, repack and load one container. A 20ft holds about 28 cubic metres, a 40ft high cube about 68. Consolidation adds three to five days and usually saves more than it costs.

The rate depends on your product HS code and the country of origin, and it changes. Before you approve production we give you the HS code we would use and the rate in force. We do not under-declare value. Duty is paid by the importer through a broker.

Yes. We quote FOB, CIF and door to door, so you can compare the full landed cost before booking. Door delivery includes destination charges that forwarders often leave out, such as unloading and last-mile trucking. You get the final breakdown before the container moves.

Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, and Form E, Form F or whichever certificate your tariff agreement needs. We check names and HS codes against the bill of lading before the container is sealed, because one wrong digit can stop the shipment at destination.