This page covers what you can do without Chinese, when you must pay for an interpreter, how to add a supplier on WeChat, and how to read the Chinese on a quotation. It is part of our China sourcing series. If you have not been to the market yet, read where to stay and how to get around first. This page is about the ten minutes after you sit down.
Can you come to China without speaking Chinese?
Yes. Most of a market trip runs on numbers, samples and a phone. Four situations need a real interpreter, and you will meet at least one of them on a buying trip.
What works without Chinese:
- Asking a price. Point at the item, hold up fingers or type the quantity, and let the calculator answer.
- Comparing two stalls. The two numbers sit next to each other on the same calculator.
- Ordering food, checking into a hotel, taking a taxi with an address card.
- Sending a specification as a file. Drawings and photos cross the language line better than sentences.
What does not work without Chinese:
- A negotiation about why the price moved.
- A quality argument about a batch that is thinner than the sample.
- A contract clause about defects, penalties or tooling ownership.
- Anything at a government counter.
The market has trained itself to sell to buyers who do not share a language. That is why the calculator is on every table.
When do you need an interpreter, and when can you manage alone?
Pay for an interpreter in four situations: a factory inspection with a defect list, a contract negotiation, a dispute, and any government office.
Factory inspection and rework talk. "Thinner than the sample" has to become "wall 1.6 mm against 1.8 mm on the approved sample, on this batch, on these cartons". That sentence needs someone who can say it twice, once politely and once precisely. The sample guide shows what belongs in the defect list.
Contract terms. Who owns the mould, what counts as a defect, what happens if the goods are late, which standard the test follows. One misunderstood clause costs more than a week of interpreting.
Disputes. Money, deadlines, who is responsible, what happens next. In a dispute you need a record, not a chat. An interpreter who writes the summary in both languages is worth more than one who only speaks.
Government counters. Customs, inspection and quarantine, market supervision, tax. Staff there work in Chinese and the forms are in Chinese. A Chinese court also works in Chinese, and if you ask for interpreting there, you pay for it. Customs is the exception: when it questions a foreigner who does not understand Chinese, it must provide an interpreter.
Also worth paying for: a hospital visit, a police report, and the signing of any document you do not fully read.
Manage alone for: price checks, sample collection, a first look at a new category, and the social half of a supplier visit.
How do you find an interpreter, and how is the work charged?
Three sources, and three different billing shapes. Ask how each one bills before you agree to anything.
Local interpreter, by the day. A freelancer or a small local agency. Billing is per day, usually built on an eight-hour day, with overtime charged by the hour after that. Ask four things: the minimum booking, the overtime rate, whether travel time counts, and whether meals and transport are on top.
Escort for the market, by the day or half day. Someone who walks the halls with you, translates at the table, and writes down the stall number, the price and the condition. Half-day bookings are common. Ask whether the written summary is included, because that summary is the real deliverable.
Remote interpreting, by the hour or by the session. A phone or video call for one question. Billing is per hour with a minimum block, or per short session. Good for a single price check, useless for a factory walk-through.
Three billing details that decide the real cost:
- Minimum booking. A four-hour minimum is common, so two short errands in one day cost the same as one long one.
- Waiting time. Ask whether waiting at a factory gate is billed.
- Cancellation. Ask what happens if the supplier cancels the meeting.
Our own service: interpreting and market escort are paid services, charged by the day or by the session, quoted after we know the scope. We do not publish a rate card.
How do you add a supplier on WeChat?
Scan the code on the stall, or search the phone number, then send one text message that says who you are and what you want.
- Scan. Most stalls have a QR code on the counter or on the business card. Scan it, add, and send your message in the same minute, before the owner forgets which buyer you are.
- Phone number. Ask for the number on the card and search it in the app.
- First message. Your name, your company, your market, the item, the quantity. Four lines, in English with a Chinese translation underneath if you have one.
- Send text, not voice, for the first message. The owner forwards it to the boss or the factory. A voice note cannot be forwarded as a quotation request.
- Send files. A one-page specification, a photo with a ruler in frame, a target price if you have one.
- One group per order. Supplier, you, and the forwarder. Decisions go into the group in text, so the record exists later.
- Voice-to-text. Long-press a voice message and use the convert-to-text option. It turns a 40-second voice note into a paragraph you can copy into a translation app.
- Confirm in text. Anything agreed by voice gets one text line back: "So: 2,000 pcs, USD X, delivery in Y days, 30% deposit." A short confirmation prevents most later arguments.
What do the Chinese words on a quotation mean?
A Chinese quotation uses about seventeen repeated fields. Learn those and you can read most of a quote without a translator.
- 品名 (pǐn míng) — product name.
- 规格 / 型号 (guī gé / xíng hào) — specification / model number.
- 数量 (shù liàng) — quantity.
- 单价 (dān jià) — unit price.
- 金额 / 总价 / 合计 (jīn é / zǒng jià / hé jì) — amount / total.
- 交货期 / 交期 (jiāo huò qī / jiāo qī) — lead time or delivery date. Ask which one it is.
- 付款方式 (fù kuǎn fāng shì) — payment terms.
- 定金 / 预付款 (dìng jīn / yù fù kuǎn) — deposit / advance payment.
- 尾款 (wěi kuǎn) — balance.
- 含税 / 不含税 (hán shuì / bù hán shuì) — tax included / tax not included.
- 起订量 (qǐ dìng liàng) — minimum order quantity.
- 包装 (bāo zhuāng) — packing.
- 毛重 / 净重 (máo zhòng / jìng zhòng) — gross weight / net weight.
- 箱规 (xiāng guī) — carton size, usually length × width × height and units per carton.
- 有效期 (yǒu xiào qī) — validity of the price.
- 备注 (bèi zhù) — remarks. Read this line first; conditions hide here.
- 人民币 / 元 (rén mín bì / yuán) — RMB / yuan.
Two traps: 交货期 can mean "days needed" or "date promised", and 定金 can mean a refundable deposit or a non-refundable one. Ask which, in writing. Once the numbers are clear, the price guide covers what to ask next.
Which phone tools do you actually need?
Four tools cover a trip: a translator, a map, a payment app and the supplier's chat app. Set all four up before you fly.
- Translator with a camera mode. Point it at a label, a menu or a carton. Download the offline language pack, because the market halls have weak signal.
- Translator with a conversation mode. Two people, one phone, one sentence each. Slower than an interpreter and fine for a price check.
- Map with Chinese search. Save the hotel, the market gate and the warehouse as favourites. Show the screen to the driver.
- Payment app. Link your card before you travel and test a small payment. Some foreign cards work in some shops; carry cash as the fallback.
- The chat app. One app for suppliers, one for the forwarder, one group per order.
- Camera and notes. Photograph the stall number, the sample label and the quotation page. Name the photos by date.
Tools fail in three predictable ways: no signal inside the market, a battery flat by 3 pm, and a translator that mangles a technical term. A power bank, a paper address card and an interpreter for the important meeting cover all three.
Do-this checklist
- Learn the seventeen quotation words before you fly.
- Set up a translator with an offline pack and a camera mode.
- Save the hotel, market gate and warehouse in Chinese on your map.
- Put a power bank in your bag, every day.
- Send the first WeChat message as text with your name, item and quantity.
- Create one chat group per order, with the supplier and the forwarder.
- Use voice-to-text on long voice notes, then translate the text.
- Confirm every spoken agreement in one written line.
- Ask whether 交货期 means days or a date, and whether 定金 is refundable.
- Book an interpreter for the factory inspection and for the contract.
- Ask the interpreter for a written bilingual summary.
- Ask how the interpreter bills: minimum hours, overtime, waiting, travel.
Related reading
Related products
Sources
- Standing Committee of the National People's Congress — 中华人民共和国民事诉讼法, Article 273, text as republished by the Liaoning tax authority policy database — https://gtm-cn-2r42llmgk0b.liaoning.chinatax.gov.cn/art/2023/9/1/art_5869_7534.html — checked 2026-10-28. "人民法院审理涉外民事案件，应当使用中华人民共和国通用的语言、文字。当事人要求提供翻译的，可以提供，费用由当事人承担。" (A people's court tries foreign-related civil cases in the standard Chinese language and script; if a party asks for interpreting, it may be provided at that party's cost.)
- General Administration of Customs (PRC) — 中华人民共和国海关办理行政处罚案件程序规定（海关总署令第250号）, Article 34 — https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2021/content_5631818.htm — checked 2026-10-28. "查问、询问不通晓中国语言文字的外国人、无国籍人，应当为其提供翻译人员" (When questioning a foreigner or stateless person who does not understand Chinese, customs shall provide an interpreter.)
- YIWU RUIHA TRADING CO.,LTD. — service terms, confirmed first-hand with staff — checked 2026-10-28. "Interpreting and market escort are paid services, charged by the day or by the session; we do not publish rates."
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