hello
iam not in beijing but i gues it is the same everywhere in china
i am french my wife is chinese and she told me that the day we want to go to france the bank oc hina can give us a little amount of euros i think it is the came for dollars. i think you got to order some at the bank but itgot to be a limited amount
people that goes to foreign countries need some local currencies so i guess they giv you a little bit how much she could not tell me but it is not much
good luck anyway
nanar747

Hi, i forgot to login. This is my post. Thank you

BR,
Mary

Right next to the first south gate (as you walk from Wudaokou station) is a small door. Inside you can change rmb to us dollars for about 8.1 rmb = 1 dollar. (810=100)

really, no limit?
that's pretty interesting

destroyed, torn down, demolished, over...
i just went there this week to change some $ and found a gaping hole ...

on the verge of falling in a bottomless abyss
but still there

I think you can only change money at airport banks if you have the original money change receipt. come to think of it, does a withdrawal slip from an ATM count???

I believe that chinese people can change RMB to foreign currency in advance of their trip providing they have flight tickets already.

I went to a bank of china with flight tickets and a passport, to change 3000rmb and was refused.

I agree with redtomkidd (above). I’m in Tianjin (just down the road), and here changing money is cheap and easy. I’m sure it would be the same in Beijing. I’ve had a money-changer offer to do it for me at the bank’s rate.

There’s one thing you must be careful of, though. If you are getting US$, they may be giving you the fake US$ that are produced in North Korea. (You sometimes meet guys in the street who offer you wads of these at 50 cents for a dollar, but that’s another story). The way to change RMB to US$ safely is to first open a US$ bank account in the bank. Then go to the bank with your money-changer and get him to transfer the money from his US$ account to your US$ account. You probably won’t even see any cash, but your bank-book will be updated. Then, just before you leave the country, you go to the bank and draw out the cash, and you know it’s the genuine article.

I was surprised at how openly these transactions are done. I guess that strictly speaking it’s illegal, but you and the money-changer are standing right in front of the teller doing this. The tellers must know what’s going on. I guess it’s another one of these victimless crimes that the police ignore.

There are some other things to be careful of, but for me the above is the main one. I don’t want to get back home and have all my money confiscated!

I mean: If you want to send the money to a bank account in USA by T/T, they charge RMB150 plus 0.1% of the total amount.

Look - you guys tha are saying you can convert RMB to dollars are right ... but are forgetting a critical element.

You need to keep your receipt.

Another words - you can't convert RMB to dollars without a receipt.

don't forget the outfit with the mobile offices - on north sanlitun street. Ask for Mr. "Hao Pengyou" - he'll take care of you

if you have a work visa and a foreign experts permit, then you can legally get a certain amount of your salary exchanged into usd at the bank (you just need to bring your foreign experts book)... if you don't have the book, you should be able to get some kind of certificate from your place of employment that allows you to do the same thing.

you could also think about wiring the money home if it's more than 5,000 USD cuz that's all you're legally allowed to take out of the country these days.

i personally find that the easiest way to change money are the same money changing 'gangsters' that have already been mentioned that hang outside the bank of china in guo mao (in the basement). you tell them how much you want to change, and then go to the counter with them while they take that amount of money out of their bank account and then you count it together, and THEN you give the guy your money after you've got the USD in your hands.

the same guy has been there for years and the bank is in on it, AND i've never had a problem (i've been exchanging money this way since 2001)...

of the course the other thing to do is to swap with friends and/or foreigners at hostels. they're always in need of rmb.

I can help.

We stopped getting paid in USD at our int. school so all of us had a big problem. We tried pretty much everything. The Bank of China in Beijing in the Lido hotel told us no individual can exchange money, unless you exchanged it from USD-RMB before and had the receipt, even with our Z-visas, and that our school would have to do it.

Well, after trying everywhere and everything, my buddy stumbled upon what appears to be a legal exchange place right inside The Friendship Store. Looks just like a small bank counter. No documents or forms needed, not even a passport. It seems almost too good to be true. Not even a limit on how much you can exchange either. The rate was 8.05 and I walked away a happy man with $5000 USD. They also pass each $100 bill, one at a time, through a machine to verify it. I even sent some of the bills home via Western Union a little later.

Just go to jin guo men station, exit B. Walk out and turn left. The Friendship Store is about 5 mins down this street on your left.

Does any one know where one can buy Travellers Cheques ??

I wouldn't trust myself to know the difference between fake bills and real. And if you're exchanging thousands of dollars US, the risk is just too high. Either go to someplace you trust or, like was mentioned above, go to the Guomao Bank of China and have them transfer the money electronically into your account.

Address: the small grocery store near the Russian embassy
6405 1944
Dongzhimennei Beizhongjie #18
东直门内北中街18号

To make the long story short, just bring along a local with you. Everything's gonna be alright. That's what we do monthly after payday. We bring one of our HR/Admin folks from the company to change the RMBs to USDs so we can Western Union them over to Manila. .

~ Tobal.