Script comes first
China reads official files in Chinese, but Chinese is written two ways. Simplified is the mainland standard. Traditional is used in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The choice is made before a single line is typed, because the two are not interchangeable on a signed page.
You order a certified translation into Chinese in Liverpool and name the script at that point. Getting it wrong is not a small edit. The text has to be rebuilt, the stamp reapplied and the set signed again, which is a second run of the same pages.
Nothing about the English paper changes. It keeps its wording, its seals and its place in your file. The Chinese sheet is added to it, so a reader can hold the two side by side and match them line for line.
The stamp that carries the file
The mark that matters is the stamp. A Chinese office accepts a translation carrying a company stamp, and that stamp is applied to the finished text alongside a signed line of accuracy. It is the first thing a clerk looks for and the fastest thing to check.
Behind the stamp stands a certified Chinese translator working in Simplified or Traditional as asked. There is no court and no oath on this route, which is why an official Chinese translation in Liverpool moves through fewer hands than a sworn European job.
Seals on the source page get particular care. A red company chop, a raised embossed ring, a wet-ink signature: each is described where it appears rather than quietly dropped. That is why a colour scan is asked for and why a grey photocopy is refused.
Rate, speed and the source page
The rate is about £25 a page, counted on pages of the source rather than on words. The stamp and the signed line are inside that figure. A single birth record is one page; a company file with schedules can run to a dozen and is priced the same way.
Standard work takes 3–5 business days from a clean colour scan, and the express lane closes in 48 hours. Chinese text is slower to set out than a Latin-script language, so the honest advice is to send long files early rather than lean on the express lane.
The source copy itself never has to travel. Where the record is a Liverpool civil entry, Liverpool Register Office issues fresh certified copies of births, marriages and deaths from St George's Hall, St George's Place, Liverpool L1 1JJ, so the sheet you own can stay at home.