Echoing a few words of wisdom I heard from Global Traveler, our woman in Hong Kong, Daisann McLane reminds us that if you go there (and I believe the same applies in rest of China), if there is an item that she advises you ‘don’t live home without it’, it would not be your American Express card but first and foremost a big stack of business cards.
Should they offer information both in English and Chinese?
That I am not sure of.
Her warning in Hong Kong: “Do You Have a Card?” (Globespotters) surely is very strong.
She writes "Woe to the hapless newcomer who neglects to pack a thick deck of Hong
Kong’s most essential accessory. No matter what the occasion, casual,
formal, business or social, business cards fly through the air like
those flicking disc-shaped razor knives in the kung fu movies."
A friend of Daisann gives an idea of what your social standing would be "“In Hong Kong, if you don’t have a mobile phone, you’ll have no
friends. And if you don’t have a business card, you don’t exist.”
Thank you for the wake up call Daisann…
Related: Disaster Proof Tips to Doing Business in Dubai, Shanghai and Mumbai
Hi Serge!
Glad you enjoyed the piece. Just so you all know, it’s NOT necessary to have your Hong Kong card info translated into Chinese. Hong Kong, at this level of business, is a fully bi-lingual society.
But the addition of Chinese characters makes your card more graphically interesting. And if you plan on doing a lot of travel or business in Mainland China, having Chinese on your card becomes a plus (they’re not fully bi-lingual yet there).
The folks at most any Hong Kong printer shop will be glad to help you out with this.