When we want to start doing business with China, first thing we need to choose is what products or services we want to involve in. Are we buying or selling or are we doing both(trading).

For selling, what products or services that we can offer to China? We need to find out what China customers want. Surprisingly, though China is regarded as world's factory where we can find anything that we need, just name it, but at the same time now the customers are also craving for foreign or imported products. China produces all types of processed food; but at the same time the country is also importing all types of processed food from all over the world. A simple example, China produces biscuits and confectioneries, at the same time they also import a lot of biscuits and confectioneries.

What can we say about this? This shows that customers' mindset has gradually shifted in China from China-made only products to now foreign or imported products. The increasing purchasing power has changed the lifestyle and customers with money is willing to spend more for expensive foreign or imported products as a symbol of high status in the society. This is happening not only to big or 1st tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou but also to other newly emerging cities like Nanjing, Dalian, Qingdao and Chengdu. The middle class which can afford foreign products has increase in numbers, at the moment 300-400 million population in China is categorised as middle and upper class.