Most consultants and advisers you come across when you dabble in doing business in China will tell you to forget everything you know and not expect that China will be anything like doing business back home. Now there is a half truth that needs some explanation before one can say that this is a correct statement…
Since the earliest days of China’s “open door” policy, savvy (and not so savvy) business people have been writing books about China, how to do business here but perhaps more importantly, how not to do business in China… Most of these books are however valueless, as many are either just copies of other peoples work or more often outdated by the time they hit the shelf because of the fast pace the society in general is evolving in the major Chinese cities.

Seeing China for what it really is...
I am sure you have been told many times that the Chinese will do whatever it takes to avoid confrontation in business negotiations, is incapable of saying no and will run circles around the simplest of question marks that could easily have been settled quickly with a simple NO.
Well, in my experience, the Chinese are more than capable at saying no, and the further north you find yourself in China the easier it gets…
