Doing Business in China For Dummies®

Developing Your Own Guan Xi

Many people who arrive in China don’t have a good sense of whom they should have guan xi with. In that case, reaching out to other foreigners who have some experience in where you want to be, or are doing what you want to do, is a good start. They can hopefully give you some idea of whom to create guan xi with.

After identifying your guan xi targets, you often need to build bridges to reach them. Along the way, you have to remember two of the cardinal rules of guan xi:

✓	Follow through on your promises.
✓	Reciprocate.

The following sections help guide you through this process.

Starting from square one: Reaching out

The key to developing guan xi is to be proactive. In general, your goal should be to interact with as many people as possible. Don’t be afraid of being an obvious networker — in China, most people are networking pretty much all the time. In fact, at many networking events, you encounter Chinese who are “serial networkers,” people who pass you their business cards without saying hello or introducing themselves first. Although you don’t want to come off as a serial networker, you should exercise good social etiquette (see Chapter 16) and be upfront that you’re in China for a particular purpose.

In your initial contacts, you want to

✓	Get introductions ...