Greater Bay Area toolkit

Three things we kept rebuilding for ourselves while working between Zhongshan and clients abroad. Everything here runs in your browser.

Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Macau and Zhongshan all sit on UTC+8, so the awkward part is never within the Bay Area — it is the client abroad. Pick where they are and see which hours you actually share.

A plain invoice in RMB, HKD or USD. Nothing is sent anywhere — use your browser's Print to save it as a PDF.

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If you want your site hosted inside mainland China, it needs an ICP filing. This is the short version of what that means.

What it is

An ICP filing (ICP备案) is a registration with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Any site served from a mainland server must have one. Without it the host is required to take the site offline.

Who can get one

A filing is tied to a legal entity registered in mainland China — a company, or an individual with a mainland ID. A Hong Kong, Macau or overseas company cannot file directly; it needs a mainland entity, which is the single most common reason a filing stalls.

Two kinds

  • ICP备案 — the ordinary one, for a site that informs. A company brochure site needs this.
  • ICP许可证 — a licence, for a site that earns directly: paid memberships, marketplaces, anything where the site itself is the transaction. Materially harder and slower.

Roughly how it goes

  • Buy hosting from a mainland provider first — the filing goes through them.
  • Submit the entity's documents, the domain, and a responsible person with a mainland phone number.
  • A verification photo of the responsible person is usually required.
  • The provider checks, then the provincial authority. Expect two to four weeks, longer around national holidays.
  • The filing number must then be shown in your site's footer.

When you can skip it

Host outside the mainland — Hong Kong is the usual choice — and no filing is needed. The trade-off is that traffic crosses the border, so mainland visitors see it load more slowly. For many businesses serving both sides of the Bay Area, Hong Kong hosting is the pragmatic answer.

This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice, and the rules change. Confirm the current requirements with your hosting provider before committing to a timeline.