Opinions, knowledge and resources from China Checkup's expert contributors
With China stock exchanges occupying 3 places amongst the world's top 8 it is no wonder the world is noticing China's economic might.
Stop to consider for a moment that the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Shenzhen are each home to stock exchanges with market caps rivalling Europe's biggest.
In addition to these 2 Mainland China stock exchanges, this article also covers the Chinese stock exchanges operating in Hong Kong and Taipei.
There are two stock exchanges in mainland China but neither are based in the capital of China, Beijing.
Wisely keeping business and politics separate, these stock exchanges are located in two of China's other Tier 1 cities - the metroploises of Shanghai & Shenzhen.
Here are some details on each:
Located among Shanghai's famous skyscrapers in the district of Pudong, as shown in the photo above, the Shanghai Stock Exchange is China's largest stock exchange and the 4th largest in the world overall.
When the Shenzhen Stock Exchange opened in 1991 Shenzhen was a relatively small city of 2 million inhabitants. Since then the city's population has grown to more than 12 million and is home to many famous Chinese tech companies including Tencent and Huawei.
In addition to the two stock exchanges in Mainland China, there are two other Chinese cities which have well established and successful stock exchanges.
These are located in Hong Kong and in the capital city of Taiwan, Taipei.
Once home to 4 separate stock exchanges, a unified Hong Kong stock exchange was launched in 1986. Approximately half of the companies listed in Hong Kong are actually Mainland China companies, including an increasing number of tech companies.
Situated in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, the Taiwan Stock Exchange operates from what used to be the world's tallest building - the Taipei 101. Although it is the smallest of the Chinese stock exchanges, their currently ranking of 17th worldwide is actually quite impressive for an island of just 24 million residents.
The below map shows the relative position of each of the stock exchanges covered in this article.
The 2 blue markers represent the Mainland China stock exchanges of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The red marker identifies Hong Kong and the green marker Taipei.
If you are looking for data on China stock exchanges, we found the following websites useful whilst researching this article:
The data used in this article was taken from the above websites in November 2018.
Although not technically a stock exchange it would be remiss of us to not mention the market that is commonly referred to as Mainland China's "new third board" - the "National Equities Exchange and Quotations".
The purpose of this market was succinctly explained in this Xinhua article as follows:
The exchange was launched in early 2013 to supplement the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges to serve small and medium-sized enterprises. It is seen as an easier financing channel for small businesses, with low costs and simple listing procedures.
Located in Beijing, the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) is an over-the-counter (OTC) trading market for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs)
View this comprehensive list of cities in China from Ankang to Zunyi!
We have included all cities in China that are either at, or above, prefecture-level and they are listed both alphabetically and grouped by province.
This list of Chinese AMR websites includes links to the AMR branch website for each province/administrative region in China.
In case you're wondering, the acronym "AMR" stands for "Administration for Market Regulation", which is a newly-launched Chinese government agency created by the merger of many previous agencies, including the AIC and AQSIQ.
This super regulator is now responsible for a wide range of regulatory matters in Mainland China, so if you need to get in touch with them you should find this list of Chinese AMR websites useful.
The China AEO Certificate is a document held by companies in China engaged in import and export activities.
Issued by China Customs, the certificate specifies the company's enterprise classification, which determines their level of inspections and more.
Requesting and verifying a supplier's China AEO certificate can be a sensible measure to understand if they are registered with China Customs as an "Authorized Economic Operator" and to check their AEO type.
Matt Slater
Author
Hi there, I'm Matt, the Founder & CEO of China Checkup. Originally from the UK, I am now based in Brisbane, Australia.
Frustrated by the scarcity of concise, high-quality and timely information about Chinese companies, I setup China Checkup whilst living in Shanghai in 2013.
My team are proud that China Checkup's company verification reports have now helped thousands of clients from all corners of the world to do business in China more safely.