November 7, 2026 · GlobalStudyConsulting database

China's Consultancy Map: 251 Offices in 61 Cities

China spreads its consultancies wider than any market except India, but five chains account for three quarters of the offices. Reading the map province by province.

China lists 251 consultancy offices across 61 cities in this database, the second widest city spread after India. It is also the most chain-dominated market here. New Oriental Vision Overseas holds 54 offices, EIC Education 44, JJL Overseas Education 39, Aoji Education 28 and Shinyway International 25. Together that is 190 of 251 offices, three quarters of the market, under five names.

The geography follows money and students. Guangdong leads the provinces with 30 offices, powered by Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Jiangsu and Shandong follow with 20 and 19. Beijing, as a single city, holds 14 offices, the most of any Chinese city here, ahead of Guangzhou with 13 and Shanghai with 11. Chengdu and Chongqing anchor the west with 10 each.

Destination lists from Chinese offices lean toward the USA, the UK and Australia, with Canada and New Zealand close behind. Two honest gaps: Chinese offices publish almost nothing about fees in this dataset (no fee statements at all, and only 4 free counselling flags), so a student comparing Chinese agencies must ask for terms directly. The database gives you the map and the services; the price conversation still happens at the desk.

For students outside the biggest cities, the chain structure is genuinely useful. A JJL or EIC branch in a provincial capital runs the same process as its Beijing flagship, which is why the chains built these networks in the first place.

What the chains mean for a Chinese student

In most markets in this database, choosing a consultancy means choosing a firm. In China it usually means choosing a branch. The five big networks run standardized processes nationwide, so the real variables become the branch's destination bench and its counselors' caseloads. A branch in Chengdu may process more Australian files than its Shanghai sibling; the destination counts on each office profile hint at those local strengths.

The independent remainder, about 61 offices outside the big five, concentrates in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and tends to sell specialization: a single destination, a single level such as undergraduate admissions, or premium counseling. For a student with an unusual target, that tail of the market is where this database earns its keep, because those offices are invisible in chain directories and findable here by city and destination.

Data: the GlobalStudyConsulting database of 1,506 consultancy offices in 384 cities, collected from consultancies' own websites and verified November 7, 2026. Try the Agency Fit Finder or browse consultancies by city.