Not all countries have good Chinese visa agencies so if there isn’t one in your country then do not bother. However, if there is an experienced and reliable Chinese visa agency in your country, it is usually a good idea to use them. Chinese embassies are in general very unreliable at communicating what exactly is needed at the moment to apply for a visa. An experienced Chinese visa agency knows what the current situation is at your local consulate and can advise you in advance which additional documents might be required and how to get them. An embassy might ask you to provide your travel and health insurance documents, flight bookings or any other kind of stuff they might come up with – or nothing at all. It all depends on the visa officer. This is different at each consulate, frequently changes and is usually not published anywhere. However, a good visa agency will know, as they apply for Chinese students visas every day and are familiar with what visa officers currently want. Having a visa agency check your documents before applying can often save you several wasted trips to the application centre. At some embassies visa agencies also receive preferential treatment and can apply for visas faster and with fewer documents required than for people who apply themselves.