FINANCE - Living Abroad in Beijing - page 300

Chinese bank account you need to create an account from scratch via Paypal China, which
is all in English, so it's simple. You will need to set up online banking with your Chinese
bank account and connect the two. This can be helpful when it's time to buy gifts for family
or friends, or for paying off credit cards. Some people even use it as a method for returning
money to their home country.
Banking
If you ever wonder where the trees have gone in China, it's probably to make the endless
sheets of paper used by the banks. A simple transaction at the bank can yield four or five
copies of receipts, each “chopped” with the all-mighty red chop (a stamp).
This is perhaps one part of life in Beijing that will make you cringe. Despite the focus
on wealth, banks seem somehow out of step with the progress happening elsewhere in the
country. People wait for often an hour just to make a simple deposit, and the elderly start
queuing outside the bank in the morning so they don't have to sit inside and wait when it
does open. A trip to the bank can be the most baffling, exasperating moment of your week.
While times differ, most banks operate 9am-5pm Monday to Saturday. Many, however,
also open on Sunday.
It's hard to say which bank is the most expat friendly, as they all seem to have a defi-
ciency in some regard, but the ones that have the most obvious affinity with foreigners in-
clude China Merchants, Bank of China ( www.boc.cn ) , the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China (ICBC, www.icbc.com.cn ), and China Construction Bank ( www.ccb.com ) . There
is definitely no shortage of banks, however. Other big players include the Bank of Com-
munications ( www.bankcomm.com ) and the Agricultural Bank of China ( www.95599.cn ) ,
although it's rare to hear of expats using that latter, which specializes in financing the rural
and farming sector.
ICBC is the largest bank of them all in terms of staff and branches. Its branches are so
prolific that they can quite often be found within a kilometer or two of each other. The Bank
of China, which specializes in foreign-exchange transactions and trade finance, is a bank
often used by those in international trade. Citibank and HSBC also have strong presences
here. The Chinese branches of such banks, however, typically use different systems to their
branches elsewhere in the world, so you will not be able to manage your money directly
from China. China Merchants Bank can generally be relied on for having branch and phone
staff that are more fluent in English.