YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS. PRESENTED IN CHINESE.EXPLORE THE DIRECTORY ↗
Shoujia
Guides

Serving Chinese-speaking customers

Practical guides for local businesses outside mainland China: payments, names, language, menus, discovery, holidays and everyday replies. Each guide starts from a task, cites the rules or research it relies on, and gives you something you can copy.

  1. 01Start here · The playbookHow to attract Chinese-speaking customers to a local businessMost advice is written for brands entering China. This guide is for a shop, restaurant or clinic outside mainland China that wants more Chinese-speaking people to find it, trust it and walk in. It puts the work in the order that usually pays off first.
  2. 02PaymentsHow to accept Alipay and WeChat Pay outside ChinaYou do not open an account with Alipay or WeChat Pay directly. You add them through a payment provider. This guide explains the three usual routes, the questions to ask, and how in-store QR payments actually work.
  3. 03Names & identityHow to choose a Chinese name for your businessA good Chinese name is short, easy to say, does not sound like anything unfortunate, and is used the same way everywhere. Here is a method a small business can follow in a few days, with a worked example and a brief you can give a translator.
  4. 04LanguageSimplified or traditional Chinese: which do your customers read?The choice is not about which script is “correct”. It depends on where your customers grew up. This page gives you the map, a quick decision path, and the word differences that a simple converter will miss.
  5. 05Restaurants & cafésHow to translate your menu into ChineseA Chinese menu works when each line tells the reader how the dish is cooked, what is in it and how it tastes. Literal translations of creative English names rarely do. Here is a line-by-line method, a vocabulary table and a brief for your translator.
  6. 06DiscoveryHow Chinese visitors find local businesses abroadDiscovery happens in three moments: planning at home, deciding on the street, and choosing at the door. Different channels matter at each moment. This guide follows that path and tells you what a small business can realistically control.
  7. 07Google & mapsAdding Chinese to your Google Business Profile: what the rules allowMany owners try to help Chinese-speaking customers by adding Chinese words to their Google business name. That can get a profile suspended. Here is what Google’s guidelines say, and the safer places to put Chinese information.
  8. 08PlanningChinese holidays calendar for local businesses (2026–2027)Mainland China’s public holidays decide when many people can travel. This page lists the official 2026 dates, what is already known about 2027, and a countdown plan for preparing your business.
  9. 09Everyday serviceReady-made Chinese replies for customer messagesMost messages from Chinese-speaking customers ask the same eight things. Save these bilingual replies in WhatsApp, WeChat or your email, fill in the brackets once, and answer in seconds even if nobody on your team speaks Chinese.
  10. 10Prices & checkoutHow to explain prices, tax and tipping to Chinese visitorsVisitors from mainland China are used to the shelf price being the price you pay, and to no tipping. Where your rules differ, a one-line explanation in Chinese prevents most awkward moments at the till. Here is what to explain in different markets, with signs you can copy.
  11. 11Social mediaXiaohongshu (RedNote) for a local business outside ChinaXiaohongshu is where many Chinese travellers plan what to eat, buy and see. A small business can join, but it helps to know what an ordinary account can do, what verification involves and what kind of posts get saved.
  12. 12Profile checklistWhat Chinese-speaking customers check before they visitBefore choosing a restaurant, salon or shop in an unfamiliar city, people look for a short list of facts. If those facts are missing in Chinese, they often choose somewhere else. Score your business against this list in ten minutes.