Opening a Chinese Bank Account

In order to open a bank account in China, the documents that you will need to bring depends on which bank you choose. Two of the major banks in China include The Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China. Each bank will have slightly different requirements (for example, Bank of China requires a passport and $500 US; while Agricultural Bank of China requires a passport and $100 US). Generally, for proof of identification banks will require either a passport, or a passport as well as some form of Chinese identification. Regardless, you should still take with you any form of Chinese identification you may have. To open the account, take your passport, any Chinese identification you may have, and the cash for your initial deposit, to the bank of your choice. Opening the account should be a relatively simple matter of completing the bank’s forms and making your initial deposit of US dollars (or other) or RMB. The initial deposit should be in cash, to make the transaction easier to conclude.

Once you have opened your bank account, your bank should then issue you an ATM card. ATM’s are common in Beijing, Shanghai, and the cities of Eastern China, but can be difficult to find in remote and less developed areas. You may have money wire-transferred from your home country to your Chinese bank account, however please be aware that wire transfers could take 10 business days or more for the transaction to settle and the funds to become available to you in your host country. Also, please be aware that wire transfer fees can be $20-$50(USD), charged by the sending bank for the outgoing transmission of the wire transfer, and approximately $50(USD) as an additional fee charged by the receiving bank in China (such as the Bank of China). Please check with your bank in your home country and your bank in China to learn what the wire transfer fees will be. In addition, once you have a Chinese bank account, you should be able to deposit checks drawn on foreign banks into the account, however it may take 4 weeks or more for the checks to clear. Additionally, check writing is virtually non-existent in the Chinese economy, so you should not expect to receive a checkbook with your Chinese bank account.