If you are planning to expand your business to china, make sure to understand the Chinese business practices well. This will aid you in your business endeavours in China, and give you an opportunity for a good and everlasting business relationship.

A knol by James Chan on Chinese Business Practice offers you tips on the most common Chinese business practices, as follow:

1. Respect their business cards.
2. Make friends first, do business later.
3. Let people save face, especially in public.
4. Avoid certain colors.
5. Avoid giving a green-colored hat to a Chinese man.
6. Never give a Chinese person a clock.
7. Respect Chinese superstitions.
8. Cultivate ‘guan xi’, or connections.
9. Smile.
10. Speak slowly.
11. Avoid being too casual.
12. Don’t expect much eye contact.
13. Let them smoke.
14. Don’t take their saying ‘yes’ literally to mean affirmative.
15. Watch your language.
16. Talk metric.
17. Introduce your people to the Chinese personally.
18. Arrange one-on-one meetings.

A very useful list, in my opinion. Please make sure you visit the knol if you are serious about your business expansion to China.

Image by phogel.