You don't need a brokerage account in Shanghai to get China exposure. Here is the simplest path, in plain English, for someone outside China.
For most foreigners, the cleanest first step is a US-listed China ETF (e.g. MCHI, FXI, KWEB, ASHR, CQQQ). You can buy these from almost any normal brokerage account you already have — the same one you'd use for an S&P 500 fund. They bundle dozens or hundreds of Chinese companies, so one purchase gives you diversified exposure without picking winners.
Use our China ETF Comparator to see fees, size and what each fund actually holds.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) let you trade individual Chinese giants — Alibaba (BABA), JD (JD), NIO (NIO), PDD (PDD) — on US exchanges in US dollars. Convenient, but they carry a unique risk: US delisting pressure under the HFCAA/PCAOB audit dispute. Most large ADRs now have a Hong Kong listing as a safety net, but not all do.
Before buying any ADR, run it through our ADR Delisting Risk Checker.
Many Chinese companies are also listed in Hong Kong. These "H-shares" are generally easier for foreigners to buy than mainland A-shares, often through international brokers or a Hong Kong account. They trade in Hong Kong dollars and follow Hong Kong market hours.
A-shares are the stocks traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen in renminbi. Direct access for retail foreigners is limited and usually goes through the Stock Connect programmes or special quotas. This is why most beginners skip A-shares and get the exposure via an ETF instead.