I was recently traveling in China.
I didn't give much thought to currency before leaving; not enough it turned out. I planned to stop at a currency exchange desk once landing at the airport, get some Reminbi's, and pick up a SIM card for my phone. I also had loaded Wechat app on my phone, and located a couple of banks in the vicinity of my lodgings (Changsha city).
The plan started to break down when the price for the SIM card turned out to be rather inflated at the airport, however I needed the phone to work to get in touch with my ride from the airport. So that used up most of the RMB cash supply I had just changed. I didn't take this too seriously, expecting to top up at a bank or an ATM, once I got settled.
No luck. Among the things attempted, which failed:
[ul][li]Accessing my bank at either the China Bank of Communications or Bank of China branches,[/li]
[li]Accessing my bank at any ATM,[/li]
[li]Accessing my credit card using an ATM,[/li]
[li]Phoning my credit card company (in the middle of the night),[/li]
[li]Transferring money from my credit card into Wechat (but I could enter the card data),[/li]
[li]Using credit cards at point-of-sale[/li]
[/ul]
The only solution that finally worked was to have a friend transfer money to me, and that money already had to be RMB.
I could guess that anti-laundering laws would prevent currency conversion in the Wechat phone app, so I didn't even bother asking my friends with north american currency to transfer money to me, because it would also be a dead end.
So now that I'm back and I've paid back all my friends, clearly I need to think that through much better next time. Any recommendations?
This kind of travel may become more frequent for me and my co-workers, so I'm thinking of asking the company to open a bank account in China for us to use. Settling the balance when several of us are using the account at once will not be easy, but I've already noticed that they are all pretty diligent with receipts. Anyone expect any problems with that idea?
No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF
I didn't give much thought to currency before leaving; not enough it turned out. I planned to stop at a currency exchange desk once landing at the airport, get some Reminbi's, and pick up a SIM card for my phone. I also had loaded Wechat app on my phone, and located a couple of banks in the vicinity of my lodgings (Changsha city).
The plan started to break down when the price for the SIM card turned out to be rather inflated at the airport, however I needed the phone to work to get in touch with my ride from the airport. So that used up most of the RMB cash supply I had just changed. I didn't take this too seriously, expecting to top up at a bank or an ATM, once I got settled.
No luck. Among the things attempted, which failed:
[ul][li]Accessing my bank at either the China Bank of Communications or Bank of China branches,[/li]
[li]Accessing my bank at any ATM,[/li]
[li]Accessing my credit card using an ATM,[/li]
[li]Phoning my credit card company (in the middle of the night),[/li]
[li]Transferring money from my credit card into Wechat (but I could enter the card data),[/li]
[li]Using credit cards at point-of-sale[/li]
[/ul]
The only solution that finally worked was to have a friend transfer money to me, and that money already had to be RMB.
I could guess that anti-laundering laws would prevent currency conversion in the Wechat phone app, so I didn't even bother asking my friends with north american currency to transfer money to me, because it would also be a dead end.
So now that I'm back and I've paid back all my friends, clearly I need to think that through much better next time. Any recommendations?
This kind of travel may become more frequent for me and my co-workers, so I'm thinking of asking the company to open a bank account in China for us to use. Settling the balance when several of us are using the account at once will not be easy, but I've already noticed that they are all pretty diligent with receipts. Anyone expect any problems with that idea?
No one believes the theory except the one who developed it. Everyone believes the experiment except the one who ran it.
STF
