Business Group Tours in China: Factory Visits, Sourcing Trips and Delegations

• Factory and supplier visits. A sourcing trip or technical visit to the plants of suppliers, usually two sites a day at most. See factory visits.
• Trade fair programmes. The days around a fair such as the Canton Fair, with supplier visits before or after. See trade fairs.
• Delegations. An association, chamber or company group that visits several sites in one programme. See delegations.

See delegation visits for associations, chambers and company groups, and the sample itineraries for how five and seven days fit together.

Much of China's manufacturing sits in a few belts: the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim and Chengdu–Chongqing, with specialised towns inside them. A belt is an area, not a point, and a good programme is drawn around the cluster that matches the product. See industry clusters.

• The programme is designed together with the overseas organiser.
• PreeChina books and coordinates the hotels, the site visits, the tickets and the transport inside China.
• An English-speaking guide and Chinese-language local coordination travel with the group.
• Technical interpreting is a separate line, quoted for each session.
• PreeChina does not recommend or assess suppliers and does not promise any purchasing result.

Factories, company offices and industrial parks are not open to the public. Access depends on the company and on the visitor. Parts of the supply chain open more readily than the research lines of well-known makers. The access and confidentiality page says what is agreed before a group travels.

PreeChina charges a ground service fee per person, about USD 100 to 150, which covers the English-speaking guide, the ground service and the coordination of hotels, transport and meals. Hotels, tickets, transport and meals are separate lines in the priced itinerary and are paid by the group, directly to the suppliers or through PreeChina, which can coordinate the payment and pay on the group's behalf, with no handling fee. International flights, travel insurance, personal shopping and upgrades are not included. The fee table is on the For Associations and Agents page. Groups of two to six are quoted per project.

• A buyer with one target factory and a known address. A visit arranged directly will cost less.
• A buyer who needs a formal third-party factory audit report. That is the work of an inspection company.
• A buyer who needs only low-cost generic parts. An online marketplace is faster for that.
• A group that wants guaranteed access to a named company. PreeChina can ask; the company decides.

• What China Makes, and Where. The cluster map: which region and which town makes which product, and what is visitable.
• Chinese markets. Why a market is a time and not a place, and what the wholesale hall looks like.
• Shopping in China. The wholesale floor, Huaqiangbei, the Guangzhou supply chain and the factory towns.
• China Now. The contemporary industrial landscape, from robots to electric vehicles.
• Getting around China. Distance is measured in hours: how to move between clusters.

Business groups usually visit a cluster of factory cities joined by rail. These are the cities and provinces the programmes run through, with the routes between them.

• Cities: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Foshan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Yiwu, Ningbo, Chengdu, Chongqing, Quanzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin.
• Provinces: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, Fujian, Shandong. All regions are on the province map.

Routes and day trips that fit between these cities, from the experience guides:

• Guangzhou to Shenzhen: sights along the route
• Hong Kong to Guangzhou: sights along the route
• Shanghai to Suzhou: sights along the route
• Shanghai to Hangzhou: sights along the route
• Chengdu to Chongqing: sights along the route