We're undertaking a similar project in Shanghai. We are also doing this through a contact. We've been quoted about £800 Stirling for web development, hosting etc. To be honest, we assumed that it would be cheaper than in the UK - and it should be. The developers are making a mint.

However, this is only part of the problem. To get money to them is tricky, and we've agreed that we pay about £200 up front, and not a penny more until the work is complete. Then we've asked them to hand over everything to us.

We are using a naitive Chinese in the UK. He phones them on his mobile which is quite cheap. I've also asked a colleague to visit them since he will be in Shanghai next week.

Once one can crack getting a site up in China to avoid filtering, designed for the Chinese market by Chinese developers, and do this quickly - then one does have something special.

We're in West Sussex.

W.

Thanks Wonderstuff. I've found a uk based domain name seller selling .cn domains for £14.99 p.a.Send me a pm if you want their details and I'll send it to you. I'll let you know how we get on with our person in Beijing.

Currently China's .cn names cost only 1 RMB. That's about US 14¢ (14 cents). See this thread for more info:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Sounds like they're making a good profit margin on you there. ;)

I went to China and interviewed a bunch of design/development firms. There were quite a lot of issues with price. I actually found it cheaper to develop the site locally, get the content professionally copy-written in China, and then setup a dedicated server at one of the Chinese telecoms.

There were simply too many control and communication issues giving the entire project to a Chinese web development firm, not to mention the price. Just because you're making a Chinese site doesn't mean you have to have the entire site developed there.

It's easy to make "take it or leave it" decision for you. But before doing that, i suggest you do some research and , most important, make sure WHATS are included in their "terms and services".
For Example: Buy chinese URL: 5,000RMB. I assume it will not be that high for just a cn domain. The average market price for cn domain here in the Mainland is USD 1 dollar for the first promotional year. It will increased to around USD 10 dollar in the next year and then stay stable. In your case, i asssume the service provider has included services like ICP licence and etc. Sometimes, ICP licence is a more value-added service!
The deposit fee is quite fair. Just like Adword, Baidu will require up-front fee to start an AD account there. The price ranges with topics.

Ronanq - thanks. I don't have a problem with the .cn. My ongoing problem has always been 'filtering' by the Chinese authorities.
However, we should stay in touch.

Bill, you may have solved my problem. I can get translation done by Chinese nationals in the UK. I can get the site developed here. However, hosting with a Chinese telecom could be our answer!

Can you recommend one please?

W :)