GCR

Crypto and blockchain communities in China exist all over the place, with the most popular cities for crypto startups and communities in China in the cities of Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Here are some quick and simple things to help you understand the ecosystem and improve your trip experience should you decide to visit. For start, just for some background:

Beijing is home to many of the exchanges such as Huobi, OKEx, DDEX and Bitmain.

Shanghai houses Neo, Ontology, and MakerDao China.

Hangzhou is a crypto hub for Ethereum fans, and local reputable crypto companies like Imtoken and Nervos Network.

Shenzhen is a cryptohub for large tech conglomerates such as Tencent.

Get familiar with Mainland China and its Crypto ecosystem

1)Read the latest about China’s crypto ecosystem:

-Recent news about China’s blockchain and cryptocurrency on Cointelegraph. Generally you can read the headlines of Cointelegraph’s coverage of China’s happenings to get high-level el idea of what’s going on.

Note: China’s macro cryptocurrency happenings are largely driven by regulations, so understanding where the regulators stand around the topic is pretty important.

-A Quick Guide to Cryptocurrency-related regulators, history and companies in China by Global Coin Research

-Read up on our book recommendations about China and its internet economy

-Checkout the current corporate companies in China that are involved with Blockchain

2) Listen to learn about China’s crypto ecosystem and the regulators involvement:

–An interview with MakerDao China on Chinese regulators exploring its digital currency, and adoption of stablecoins and DeFi in China

–An interview with Leo Weese from the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong on China and Hong Kong regulators’ approach to Bitcoin from a political, cultural and humanitarian perspective.

-An interview with Lily Liu, co-founder and former CFO of Earn.com. Lily shares her views on how the crypto industry is evolving between the East and West, and what China may be doing with Crypto and Blockchain

-An interview with Joyce Yang, founder of Global Coin Research, on China and bitcoin with Anthony Pompliano (“aka Pomp”)

3) Follow these local blockchain communities for news and announcements around events:

There is not a single local site to find high-quality crypto and blockchain events in China. In the Chinese crypto community, folks get information and news via subscriptions in Wechat, the messaging app, and these media outlets will also hold events for its branding.

We have listed all the popular media outlets below. These sites all have websites, but almost all of their subscribers follow them by either their mobile app or WeChat account. Unfortunately, they are also mostly in Chinese. So meetup.com is probably the best bet for finding English events happening in China.

Here’s the whole list and their WeChat accounts ( to get news on China crypto):

– meetup.com

–  Huodongxing (https://www.huodongxing.com/)

Huodongxing is a site that has all kinds of crypto and tech events. Many teams will use it to delivery events and provide access to registration of those events.

-ChainNews(“??”) ( https://www.chainnews.com/)

WeChat ID: chainnewscom

Chainnews is a Crypto Media publication.

–  Neutrino (https://www.neutrino.global/)

WeChat ID: neutrino-global

Neutrino is an Ethereum foundation backed Co-working space. It has ran events with SNT, POLKDOT, Near protocol

– BlockBeats (https://cryptoslate.com/event/blockbeats-2018/)

WeChat ID: BlockBeats

Blockbeats is a Crypto Media publication. It has ran events like the Grin Meetup in China

– Odaliy (https://www.odaily.com/)

WeChat ID: o-daily

Odaily is a Crypto Media publication. It has ran events like with the Lightening Network

– EthFans (https://ethfans.org/)

WeChat ID: ethfans

EthFans is a Crypto Media publication. It has ran events like with Beam

– Orange fans “???” (https://orange.xyz/)

WeChat ID: orangefans

Orange Fans is a Crypto Media publication.

4) Go visit the local crypto community spaces and tech-y neighborhoods, but subscribing to events mentioned in 3) is probably more helpful to get you started if you don’t have any idea where to go 🙂 :

“The most crypto-friendly one I would say is the Neutrino, it is a coworking space designed for crypto startups. In China, they have spaces in Shanghai and Beijing.

Other spaces that are common for crypto working spaces and meetups throughout China include Starbucks, KrSpace, People squared (both Wework- like working spaces in China), and WeWork.

Beijing

-Neutrino (https://www.neutrino.global/beijing/)

– DClub is a coffeeshop founded by DGroup (Chinese crypto/VC investment firm) founder Zhao Dong. It’s members only though.

Shanghai

In Shanghai, there are some crypto companies located around Jing An Temple area, but the concentration of companies is not high and companies tend to be pretty distributed. People often host the event at co-working spaces, such as People Squared, WeWork and Neutrino.

-Neutrino (https://www.neutrino.global/shanghai/)

–   Wanxiang Blockchain Lab (https://www.wxblockchain.com/index_en.html)

-Fenbush Capital (http://fenbushi.vc/index_en.html)

-Yangpu (Blockchain Hub)

Shanghai also has hi-tech neighborhoods with active crypto communities:

– Zhangjiang Tech Park area

– Lingang Tech Park area

–Wujiaochang area

– Zhongshan Park area

Hangzhou

-In Hangzhou, there is a P2 co-working space which is located in Wenhua campus of Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics (near West section of WenYI Road).

Shenzhen

Shenzhen also has hi-tech neighborhoods with active crypto communities:

–Shenzhen Software Park

–Shenzhen Bay Technology Park

5) Take the advice from the locals:

“For Shanghai, I would say definitely attend one of the meetups that Neutrino host, they have high-quality meetups frequently and open to everyone to attend. They could also be a contact point for visitors to connect with different projects.”

“The events in China are often centered around key influencers while distributed in wechat groups.”

6) Do not miss the most important crypto event in China:

From numerous people, we’ve been told that Shanghai International Blockchain Week (aka Wanxiang Blockchain Week) should not missed. It is an annual event hosted by reputable Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and usually attracts many high-quality projects and speakers around the globe.”

7 ) Follow these local blockchain community connectors on Twitter!

We thank them also for their contributions to this post: Kyber China, Bowen Wang of DDEX, Chao Pan of MakerDao, Ajian of Ethfans, Maomao Hu from Eigen Capital, and Zhou Kang.