Every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday;

Depart: Dalian – 7.30h Arrive: Ordos – 9.20h and Xining – 11.50h

Depart: Xining – 12.40h Arrive: Ordos – 14.05h and Dalian – 16.45h

In China, in order to be allowed to drive a car you will need a local driving license. Indeed, your home driving license is not enough as you will be required to obtain a Chinese license as well. Below you will find all the information you need to obtain this license in Chengdu and you can download it in pdf format.

For getting the driving license in Chengdu the Traffic Management Bureau has the following regulations:

Preconditions:

Foreigners should bring the driving license from their home country; if the driving license is not already in Chinese, the applicant should also provide the Chinese translation. For translations, please call local translation agency: 028-86283116.
Have your original driver’s license scanned(both sides) or photographed, send the pictures to

ClC lnterglobal:
E-mail: clc@clc-interglobal.com or quote@clc-interglobal.com

The Vehicle Management Bureau will execute the Vehicle License Protocols Signed with other countries and other related Agreements.

For the foreign driving license holders:

You need to have:

-physical test form filled and verified by hospital staff

-residence verification form by local police station 境外人员住宿登记表

- a visa which is more than 6 months from expiration

-your passport and one copy,

-four 1-inch photos;

-your driving license, one copy of the driving license and the translated version of the driving license from the Notary office, foreign affairs office or local translation agencies

-application form

Note: You can only apply to local driving licenses for the same kinds of vehicles, providing that you meet the application requirements. This means if you drive a car in your home country you will only be able to apply for a car license here, not one for large trucks or motorcycles. If you want to get a license for trucks/motorcycles you will need to attend driving school and complete all of the steps listed in the next section.

For those who do not have driving license:

You need to register in a local Driving School and get the training from the School before passing the examination.

Note: A Translator can be provided for those languages that are not available in the data bank;

Available foreign languages: English and Japanese

Getting the local driving license:

At the Vehicles Management Office, ask for the Driving License Application Form and Vehicles Driver Physical condition Form and fill them.

After that, you will take the physical examination. Hand in the two forms from the exam, and the required documents mentionned above before paying the related fees at the counter.

Hand in the bill in the hall and reserve the date for the examination;

Then, obviously, pass the examination to get your Chinese driving license.

Examination Fee:

Applying Car Driving License: 280 RMB / Person (Can take written test two times before having to pay again)

Applying Motorcycle Driving License: 140 RMB / Person / Times

Retake Examination Fee for Car Driving License: 140 RMB / Person

Retake Examination Fee for Motorcycle License: 70 RMB / Person

Driving License Issue Fee: 10RMB

Note: A translator can be provided for those languages that are not available in the data bank;

Available foreign languages: English and Japanese

Contacts:

Vehicle Management Dept, Traffic Management Bureau, Chengdu

Tele: 028-87850133/134

Information on how to obtain a Chengdu Drivers license –

The level of difficulty in setting up your company depends on your industry. The reason is that China encourages foreign investment in certain industries while discourages it in others.

There are several different registration classifications for foreign companies doing business in China. You will need to decide which one best suits your needs. The main classifications are Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE), Joint Venture (JV), Representative Office and Partnership Enterprise (PE).

A Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise is a business that is 100% owned by a foreign company or companies. These are often established in Special Economic Zones. Only businesses in certain industry categories are allowed to set up as a WFOE. A WFOE requires a minimum capitalization, can generate income, pays tax in China and can repatriate profits. (Ref. 2)

A Joint Venture is a partnership between a foreign company and a local partner. A Joint Venture may be appropriate if WFOEs are not permitted in your industry classification.

A Representative Office is easier to set up than either a WFOE or JV. It costs less and does not require capitalization. However, Representative Offices may not engage in trade, receive fees for service, sign contracts or directly generate income. They are typically used for market research, promotion, and establishing or maintaining China business contacts.

A Partnership Enterprise is a new classification that came into effect March 1, 2010. It allows partnerships between foreign companies and individuals, and Chinese companies and individuals. (Ref. 2)

It typically takes 4 to 6 months to register a WFOE or JV, depending on scale and industry. (Ref. 3)

A number of government offices are involved in the process including the Ministry of Commerce or its subsidiary, the Local Industry and Commerce Administration Bureau, the State Taxation Bureau, the Local Taxation Bureau, the Foreign Administration Office of Police, the Bank, the Foreign Exchange Administration Bureau, the Public Security Bureau, and the Customs Office. (Ref. 3)

Basic Steps

Here is an outline of the basic steps to setting up a WFOE or JV in China. (Ref. 1) The process is simpler for Representative Offices.

1) Name Approval
2) Approval to Establish Company
3) Registration of Business License
4) Filing and Carving Seals
5) Enterprise Code Certification
6) Statistics Bureau Registration
7) Foreign Exchange Approval
Registration with City Tax Bureau
9) Setup of Bank Accounts
10) Customs Bureau Registration
11) Capital Verification
12) Business License Update

References

1. Orientation China Guidebook, First Edition, American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai

2. Types of Business Presence in China, Path to China

3. Register a Company in China: Full registrations, Authority and Timeframe, NSW Chamber

Recommended Reading

How to Start a Business in China – WFOE, China Law Blog

How To Start A Business In China — The Minimum Capital Requirements For A WFOE, China Law Blog

Setting Up a Representative Office in China, Export.gov, US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration

How to Form a Representative Office in China, China Law Blog

8 Must-Knows about Business Set-up in China, NSW Business Chamber

Starting a Business in China, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group

Wokai was created with the idea that everyone deserves a chance. This was realized by the founder Courtney McColgan and Casey Wilson when they were traveling through the rural parts of China. She saw the extreme poverty and hopelessness in the people she met and decided to dedicate her life to create opportunities for those living in poverty.

By granting micro finance loans, Wokai watch as their clients grow their businesses, repay their loans and lift themselves from poverty.

Utilizing the principle of micro finance, they connect you with people in rural China who want to start small businesses, but just need a little help getting there. You make a tax deductible contribution to sponsor that person’s loan, watch as they grow their businesses, repay their loans, and lift themselves from poverty. At the end of the year, you re-invest your contribution and help another borrower start a business.

Since their founding in 2007, thousands of people from all over the world have joined the Wokai movement, supporting borrowers in Sichuan and Inner Mongolia. Working closely with field partners on the ground, Wokai have achieved a 99.5% on-time repayment rate. The entrepreneurs they fund are not only being lifted from poverty, their success is changing their entire communities, reversing the cycle of poverty around them.

With the 2012 festival we will continue to serve as a model and partner for local organizations who wish to develop their own cultural discussion programs and Chinese language literary events. In this way, The Bookworm and all associated partners and sponsors support, and contribute to, the development of open intellectual debate in China and the central role played by literature within that model.
The festival is a focus for literary activity in the English language. The Bookworm Literary Festival presents a unique opportunity for potential sponsors to gain exposure across a diverse and influential spectrum of the community. The project sends strong positive messages in terms of promoting engagement with the arts and intellectual enquiry, and will serve as an excellent project for sponsors wishing to increase their appeal as companies supportive of educational and creative aims in Chengdu. Support for bilingual events included in the program will also promote the image of sponsor companies as being both inclusive, and aware of the needs of a wide spectrum of the community.
With more than a total of 70 authors attending the three simultaneous festivals in Beijing, Suzhou and Chengdu it is of course a very big undertaking. To offset some of these costs we have already secured nationwide sponsors who are supporting the festival in three cities in the five venues (two in Beijing and Suzhou, one in Chengdu.)

Foreign nationals are generally restricted to buying one property for their personal use, although business organizations may purchase more for the use of their employees. These properties can be anywhere in the municipality apart from areas classified as “sensitive” by the government. And you should check that the developer or seller has been given clearance to sell to foreign nationals. You should also check that your agent has conducted thorough checks on the seller, including, in the case of developers, their registered capital and commercial credit.

Each property should generally have five certificates: a certificate for the use of state-owned permit, a project planning permit, and a permit for the advance sale of the property. Contracts are generally standard, but should still be checked thoroughly. Some points to double check include:

• The hand-over date
• What responsibilities fall to the developers in the case of late delivery of a property
• Special stipulations regarding any changes to the standard property layout
• Quality guarantees
• Provision of utilities and broadband

When buying the property, the funds must first be converted into RMB. Foreign currencies cannot be used, even by transferring from the buyer’s foreign exchange account. If the deal cannot be completed, the funds can be converted into a different currency and remitted to a foreign exchange account or overseas account.

Obtaining a mortgage can be difficult for foreign nationals in China. Banks tend to have their own individual regulations, so it is worth shopping around. Normally you will have to provide a revenue certificate, education certificate, credit certificate and a local guarantor.

It is worth pressing the developer for a payment by installments methods of purchase, with the final payment made upon delivery of the property. The money can also be entrusted to a third party such as a law firm to avoid any “misunderstandings” with the developers.

When the property is ready for the handover, you should first inspect it thoroughly, and maybe bring in some experts recommended by your agent to check the quality. The developer should give you a “letter of guarantee,” and you will have to sign to confirm you have received the keys and a “letter of handover.” However, make sure that you are satisfied with the property before signing these last two documents. If you are not satisfied, you should raise any concerns with the developers and ask for a response in writing to protect your rights later. Finally, you should check that everything listen on “the form of final acceptance of construction” has been completed and that the form has been sent to the relevant supervisory departments.

After selling a property, paying all relevant taxes, and being granted permission by the departments responsible for foreign exchange, the funds may be converted out of RMB, transferred into a foreign exchange account or out of the country.

What started five years ago as a small service (printed books) for expats in China, grew exponentially with the launch of the Applications in June 2011.

It allows foreigners to alleviate communication issues with local cabbies as well as overcome language barriers in all Chinese key cities.

Taxi-Book – Handy city guides for all key Chinese cities:
• know your position + help you find your destination
• know thousands of key locations
• different search functions
• speak Chinese for you!
• 10 handy categories
• frequently updated
• GPS

With 34 Chinese cities launched in the App store and Android version/ worldwide development in progress, we are targeting potential investors and custom made apps.

We are currently talking to KLM & Shangri-La, please check our presentation down below.

Hope we can help your company reach a new level of customer service and make you clients feel at home, worldwide!

Feel free to contact our GM Dieter (13730871837/ info@taxi-book.com) if any questions

Your destination, our drive!

KLM Taxi-Book Application – Branding and customization options for corporations- –

This is having a big impact on China’s local governments. They carry out over four-fifths of the country’s public spending, but pocket only half of the taxes. To help make up the difference, they rely on expropriating land from farmers and flogging it to bullish property developers. But as developers struggle, land sales are dwindling. As a result, local-government revenue is drying up. Popular resentment, meanwhile, is not. In Wukan, in the southern province of Guangdong, aggrieved villagers rose up in December against land-grabbing officials, chasing the local party chief away.

In other parts of the world local governments raise revenues by taxing homes based on something like their market value. In China taxing property is a touchy subject. The government had tried imposing a variety of levies on the sale, size and historical cost of property, but none on the market value of homes. That changed a year ago, when Chongqing and Shanghai, two giant cities, introduced a pilot tax on some up market homes. The tax was largely symbolic, levied at low rates on a few thousand homes in each city. But it nonetheless set a precedent. China should now broaden that tax to as many properties as possible, in cities across the country.

For local governments a fully fledged property tax would provide a stable source of revenue. Unlike workers or businesspeople, homes cannot up sticks and leave. A property tax raises revenue year after year, in contrast to a land lease, which can be sold only once. What’s more, such taxes allow local authorities to capture some of the value they create: as they invest in local amenities, property values rise, and so do the taxes they are able to collect.

Home truths

A property tax could also temper the wild swings in China’s housing market. A recurring levy would make it costlier to buy and hold a second or third home as a speculative bet on rising prices. That would force some absentee homeowners to sell their vacant flats or rent them to the many citizens priced out of the market. Some economists believe that the light taxation of land in Japan contributed to its ruinous asset-price bubble in the 1980s.

A property tax would by no means be easy to implement in China. It would require homes to be registered, title to be clear and the appraisal of property values to be credible. But similar obstacles have been overcome in other developing economies, including many cities in India.

Under Chairman Mao, taxes on private property all but vanished along with private property itself. Today’s Chinese set no store by the old socialist doctrine that “property is theft”. But many urban Chinese now think of taxation that way. They feel, with some justification, that they already pay too much to a state that provides too little.

This antipathy is not lost on China’s local governments. They are wary of angering the urban middle class, who own their own homes, and the city elites (including party officials and their families), who usually own several. So they continue to cause anger by throwing rural folk off their land. China must now act boldly to reform its taxation of property. Otherwise it will have to face the consequences of continued weak local-government finances and even more social unrest.

Source: Economist

According to statistics from investigate.800.com.cn, a real estate website based in Shaanxi, 935 units of commercial housing were sold last week in Xi’an, a decrease of 39.89 percent week-on-week. Property market turnover also dropped in the six districts in Xi’an, of which the new home transactions in the southern part of the city dropped the most, falling 63.88 percent week-on-week.

Industry experts found that the property market environment is likely to shift to a difficult place this year. Given the tight controls unveiled by the government and the banks, property buyers can hardly expect to see a funding catalyst in the upcoming quarter. On the other hand, with land prices likely to drop this year along with an increased supply of premium land, this will serve as a signal for being the right time for buyers to make land acquisitions over the next three years.

(Source: Global Times)

Additionally, thanks to concerted government efforts, issues such as crime have been decisively dealt with and crime-rates have fallen drastically making the city one of the safest in China.

Chongqing’s unique culture and situation in the heart of China make it a fascinating place from which to explore western China and beyond. With a history stretching back millennia, the municipality is home to a fascinating array of ancient sites and monuments whilst its stunning mountain scenery, home to rare species such as the golden monkey and the south China tiger, offer expats a range of outdoor activities. It is also a growing transport hub for central and western as western Sichuan or Tibet, city-breaks in Shanghai or Hong Kong, or holidays throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Relocation services

For expat staff, relocating to a new city, and maybe city in a new country, can be an arduous and worrisome task. To smooth the transition, Maxxelli Real Estate provides a complete relocation service for foreign nationals.

Maxxelli has experienced multilingual staff, and an established track record of providing excellent professional assistance to employees of small, medium and large international companies.