According to recent news article, Vietnam now offers free 15 day visas to people from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It also previously waived off visa requirement for visitors from four Nordic countries, and Russia, Belarus, Japan and South Korea.

More info at www.ibtimes.com/[...]

However, be warned it's not always easy to get Chinese visas in Hanoi.

"if you are a dual citizen and you leave the country and re enter the country while changing passports in the process then your residence registration must be done again"

Actually your residence permit is tied to your visa. So to even consider letting you in you would have had to go and get a second (new) visa that was valid for a new entry on your second passport. So that's extremely unlikely that anyone would ever encounter, but yes .. in theory you should then re-apply for a residence permit.

"When leaving the country under no circumstances show them your other passport"

This is not the case at all, as in all cases with immigration bureaucracy your best bet is to be open and honest. As a triple citizen resident on and off in China for 15 years I have had these experiences many times. Chinese immigration officials know their job, worst case they call their shift manager and it's sorted pronto. (It's the little munchkins at Tuodong Lu you have to worry about!)

"Issues arise when you depart the country but your onward visa is in your second passport and they check for it in your first passport. They usually refuse you the right to exit the country until a superior overules them. That could mean holding your plane on the ground or removing your luggage from it."

I think you are conflating two different things here. The first is the airline check-in staff, who are often pretty new to the job and clueless about international travel and visas. The number of times I have seen them cause huge delays for people just because they don't know what, eg. a Shengen visa is, or whether citizens of country A can enter country B without a visa, or how all these things work with dual or triple nationality is innumerable. However, they are just doing their job - if you are patient then it usually sorts itself out. Once you have your luggage accepted by the airline staff and get a boarding pass, Chinese immigration are extremely unlikely to prohibit you from leaving.

In my experience, having a visa in another passport (different to that with which you have your current visa for China) is never an issue, whether at the Vietnamese, Laos or airport immigration points.

Alternative day-trip for swimming...

1. Get the metro to the Daxuecheng Nanzhan. (6元)

2. Pay 100元 for a car to Chengjiang (Fuxian lake). (Alternatively, get off at the bus station, pay 18元 or so .. but this takes more time overall)

3. Swim all you like. Optionally, get a horse and cart, climb a mountain, or go sailing (I have two trimarans there, and mike4gair has a catamaran).

4. Get a bus or car back (the last bus leaves at ~7PM) or stay overnight for cheap (rooms ~60元).

I believe the OP meant 'consultant' not 'contractor'.

Hotwater is correct: the most straightforward method is to register a WFOE. However, this is a pain in the ass. Instead, I would very strongly recommend registering in Hong Kong and applying for business visas from there. Why?

For example, it took me 9 months to get all the paperwork together to register my WFOE in Kunming. This was stuff like going back to my country, getting more paperwork, bringing it back, transferring funds, evidence of funds, re-stamping of triplicate copies of forms about every possible element of the whole process, visiting about 20 different government bureaus, having my blood taken at a government approved hospital, yadda-yadda. A great education in Chinese bureaucracy, but a complete waste of time for your purposes. In Hong Kong, with the aid of an agency, I had registered the company and opened relevant bank accounts within 2 hours. If you value your time, use Hong Kong.

In addition, HK has tax benefits: personal income tax is effectively zero if you don't live within HK or work is not performed within HK. However, there is some corporate tax (not high by global standards).

Finally, HK has first-world banking infrastructure, meaning you can get internet banking that works in your language on your device on your chosen browser... a rarity on the mainland.

What kind of consulting are you considering?

Faraday is incorrect: different consulates have different rules and it also depends on your application and circumstances, phase of the moon, etc.

But yeah, China are really not welcoming these days... at all.