Chinese Translation

Two decisions govern Chinese translation: which character set to work in, and whether the document is going to mainland China or to Taiwan. Both change the certification route.

6 min readLast updated 1 September 2026

Short answer

The People's Republic of China has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 7 November 2023. For documents going to the mainland an apostille is now sufficient and the consular chain is no longer required. Taiwan is a different case and still follows the consular route.

Apostille (mainland China): Valid since 7 November 2023
Character set: Simplified on the mainland, traditional in Taiwan
Name order: Family name first, then given name
Unit of measurement: Characters, not words

The 2023 change: an apostille is now enough

For many years the People's Republic of China stood outside the Hague Apostille Convention, and every document leaving Türkiye had to pass through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Chinese consulate. That changed on 7 November 2023, when the Convention entered into force for China.

The practical result is a shorter chain for documents going to the mainland. Sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are enough; there is no consular appointment to wait for. That is a saving measured in weeks.

Certification route by destination
Destination	Apostille	Route that applies
Mainland China	Valid	Sworn translation → notary → apostille
Hong Kong	Valid	Sworn translation → notary → apostille
Macao	Valid	Sworn translation → notary → apostille
Taiwan	Not valid	Notary → Ministry of Foreign Affairs → Taipei mission
Singapore	Valid	Sworn translation → notary → apostille

Certification route by destination

Writing system

经公证的正式翻译件

jīng gōngzhèng de zhèngshì fānyì jiàn

An officially notarised translation

Chinese is written with characters rather than an alphabet. One character carries a syllable and usually a unit of meaning. There are no spaces between words, which is why text length is measured in characters rather than words.

Simplified or traditional?

Chinese is written in two character sets, two written forms of one language. Simplified characters are the mid-twentieth-century reduced forms; traditional characters keep the older shapes. Which one applies depends on the destination, and the wrong set leaves a document readable but foreign.

The two character sets and where each is used
Region	Character set	Example: 'translation'
Mainland China	Simplified	翻译
Singapore	Simplified	翻译
Taiwan	Traditional	翻譯
Hong Kong	Traditional	翻譯
Macao	Traditional	翻譯

The two character sets and where each is used

The difference is not only visual: terminology diverges too, and some legal and administrative concepts have different equivalents in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Telling us the destination at the outset avoids a second round of correction.

Name order and pinyin

Chinese names put the family name first: in 王小明, 王 (Wang) is the family name and 小明 (Xiaoming) the given name. Carried into Latin script with pinyin, a passport shows WANG XIAOMING, family name still first. Turkish institutions can take this for given-name-then-surname order and fill the two fields the wrong way round.

Tone marks in pinyin (mā, má, mǎ, mà) are usually omitted on official documents. That means one latinised spelling can correspond to several different Chinese names, which is why the original characters are also preserved in the translation.

Seals rather than signatures

In China, corporate documents take their validity from a seal (公章) more than from a signature. The round company seal, stamped in red ink, is more binding than a signature on most documents. Separate contract seals, invoice seals and legal representative seals may all exist.

01
The seal text is translated
The institution name on the seal, and any number it carries, is read and translated, and the presence and position of the seal are stated.
02
Red ink can vanish in scanning
Some scanner settings wash out red. If a seal cannot be read, a note is added in the translation, and that can count as a deficiency at some institutions.
03
The seal image is not reproduced
A translation does not carry the image of a seal; it reports the seal's existence and content in text. Producing a visual likeness is not the translator's job.

Why pricing is based on characters

Because Chinese has no spaces between words, a word count is not a measurable unit. Length is measured in characters. One Chinese character corresponds on average to more than one Turkish word, so a text that looks short in Chinese can expand considerably.

Chinese words run together: 0 spacesChinese words run together
usually one syllable and one unit of meaning: 1 characterusually one syllable and one unit of meaning
simplified and traditional: 2 setssimplified and traditional

For Chinese documents we therefore quote on the character count and convert it to pages under the Turkish Act of Fees No. 492. Send the document and we do the arithmetic; you do not have to count characters.

Frequently asked questions

Does my document for China still need consular legalisation?

Not for the mainland. China has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 7 November 2023, so sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are enough. For documents going to Taiwan an apostille is not valid and certification by the mission is required.

How will you know which character set to use?

Just tell us where the document is going. We work in simplified characters for mainland China and Singapore, and traditional for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. If you are unsure, send the name of the institution requesting it and we will determine it.

How should my Chinese name be registered in Türkiye?

Turkish institutions follow the latinised spelling in your passport. Because the family name comes first in Chinese, the two fields often get filled in reverse. Our translation states explicitly which element is the family name, and showing that note at the registration desk makes things easier.

How does the red seal on my document appear in the translation?

The text on the seal is read and translated, and its position on the document is stated. The image itself is not copied into the translation. Scan in colour mode so the red does not wash out.

The Chinese text looks short. Why is the price high?

One Chinese character corresponds on average to more than one Turkish word, and because words run together the text looks shorter than it is. We calculate on the character count and show that figure in the quote, so you can see what the number rests on.