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I consider myself an old China hand, especially after being in China for so long but I found myself stumped today when I needed to send money to Hong Kong. I'm sure there are a good number of poor students working off their student loans as English teachers in China (I know I was) but just how do you send money out of this country?
I always personally go to the man with the hip bag outside of the main branches of Bank of China [to change money] and then take a plane home but, how does one do it legally? -- Ash, Shanghai
Well Ash, Shanghaiist definitely doesn’t know anything about people working illegally in China, especially, as English teachers (or freelance journalists). And, after three years here, Shanghaiist has only had to send money home once. However, if more people fill out the Shanghaiist Reader Survey, we are confident this situation would change dramatically. So please Donate five minutes of your time ... feed a blogger for a week!
But, begging aside, Shanghaiist’s friends send money through Western Union. They are located in many, if not all, Agricultural Bank branches around town. You can wire up to $2,000 USD per day (so you will still need to change your RMB into USD with your friend the hip-bag-man) without raising any eyebrows.
However, if you have lots of money you need to send, on one hand, you are much luckier than Shanghaiist, but, on the other, you face a lot more difficulties. We have heard you can set up an account through Citibank, HSBC, or other international banks and access your RMB in Hong Kong (which can be changed to other denominations). However, the details are a bit hazy, so we suggest calling the banks up directly.
We also recommend checking out Shanghai Expat's forum, which has lots of borderline illegal innovative suggestions here, here and here.
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Photo from kidplastik.
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The Post Office also offers Western Union, with a much shorter wait. I'm a big fan of the location at Sinan Lu and Huaihai Lu, which, interestingly, also seems to be where all the Philippino Cover Band members in town send their money home! ;)
you can send back up to 5,000USD at any Bank of China, the fees and taxes are higher for other currencies.
Best os to exchange your money into the foreign currency first, as most banks you can't change into foriegn currency
It is actually easier to go to the post office and not use Western Union. The post office has come up with their own system to wire money anywhere around the world and they are undercutting Western Union by about half. Then again you do have to entrust your money to the post office which is risky.
Thanks for the all the comments! It's been awhile since I've sent money back. Good to know there are better options!
Two words of warning to anyone who's thinking of changing money with the guy at the street corner...FAKE NOTES. Be careful!
Exchanging US$ from foreign banks (ie. HSBC, Citibank) can be tricky for foreigners due to the paperwork required. ">http://www.standardchartered.com.cn/cb/easigo/apply_now.html> Standard Chartered has a quick reference on what is required to exchange foreign currency.
As apparent from the website, more documents are needed if you bring US$ rather than RMB to the bank for remittance, so I would carefully before I do anything.
In China and HK everything legal has limits on doing anything with RMB. I opened a foriegn currency account with China HSBC, then changed money on the black market in Shenzhen (at the border crossing of HK, EVERY small shop changes money, even very large amounts. It's the backbone of their business!) Then I was going to deposit the money in China HSBC and transfer to Australia, but turns out tranferring money with HSBC is expensive. So I went to HK and opened an account with Hang Seng, then used the Shenzhen black market guys to deposit into my HK acocunt. Then transferred from my HK account to Aus.
Didnt I ask this question two months ago ;)
I found Bank of China to be somewhat of a pain and an obstruction to sending money out of China. CITIC (Zhong Xin) is much better, but you have to open an account there. They let you send HK $ as well as US $.
Was it really 2months ago?!?! Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you! We'll do better next time!!