Do you have any experience or knowledge of getting a Chinese visa based upon doing consulting work (NOT as a regular employee) with a company in China?

If so, I would very much appreciate talking or corresponding with you.

I am an American, currently living in Kunming, China.

My email is Dwight@GoldWinde.com.
My wechat ID is goldwinde.
My Skype ID is goldwindedwight.
My mobile is 153-9867-5712.

@liusha: For a work visa in China, you have to be employed full time by some company. If you're going to be doing a lot of work for this one company, and mainly this company, then you're supposed to sign a contract as their employee (the actual terms of your pay can vary).

Many choose instead to set up their own company. It allows you to provide services to various companies, and not have to worry about changing your visa status from one job to the next

Ex-felons need a good behavior Z1 release form from the warden...you really should of taken laotou's advice.

In all seriousness. The abbreviation 'cons' is short for convict which mean criminal. You need to be careful when posting.
Here's a list of how to abbreviate 'contractor'.
www.allacronyms.com/contractor/abbreviated

Best thing to be fully legal would be to set up your own WFOE (Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise) but you'll need a minimum starting capital (Guangzhou is 200-300,000rmb, don't know about Kunming). You'll also need to get an office for the business address. You then emit yourself as owner, get Z visa & convert to work permit & residence visa.

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?

Options, WOFE, Foreign Representative office of your foreign company, Joint Venture with a Chinese company and working for Chinese company all lead to a possible annual one year resident permit. Invest millions in approved government project or be an expert the national government really wants can lead to more. You can marry a Chinese national to be able to live here legally for a year or more but not work. Business visas are usually good for 60 days at a time and eventually those who frequently come and go will lose them.

Dwight
As I understand your consulting business - it's more along the lines of "life coach", based on previous postings. Until your consulting business reaches a critical mass - you may want to consider the Rep Office route - which is essentially testing out the market (aka building up sufficient clientele) to justify formal registration of an operating business.

Speak to @Long-Dragon - he may be able to help or guide you to achieve your goal at nominal (nominal depends on one's perspective) cost.

The only other alternative is the business visa - as LD described above.

Don't you just love it when the QP posts one time and never response.

Rep office isn't worth the trouble these days. It's almost as difficult to set up as a full company, but you're not allowed to do any business in China. It also comes with many other restrictions, and you have UNLIMITED liability, so even a lot of the banks won't want to work with you.

Setting up in Hong Kong won't get you a work visa in China, and your clients will have to figure out ways to pay you in HK, which still counts as an international transfer in most situations.

WFOE is the way to go for a proper business here, but it's only worth it if you expect a decent amount of business. The various fees for accounting and maintenance add up to about 10,000 a year. There is no minimum registered capital requirement anymore, but they'll probably want you to have about 100,000 to start. There's also that nonsense about the 300,000 deposit for setting up the visa (if you have less than 300,000 registered capital).

You might just want to wing it for a while, and see if there is a company willing to process payments for you for a fee.