Job Discussion Forums

[dialogger]

This has been discussed before and one of the key points is that '70%' refers to 70% of a standard salary ie around 4000pm.
If you get 8000pm then you may only get to exchange 35% of that higher figure.
An exchange tout lurking around a major BOC office will give you a rate for RMB.
Once you have the US do the transfer by Western Union - no trace of remittance there (Agriculture Bank is Western agent but service variable at smaller suburban banks).
Also make sure the US bills aren't forgeries.
As only one branch of BOC does exchange - at least in provincial centres you must of necessity go to the same branch.
My recent experience is that they copied my contract documentation.
The teller seemed to have a good pile of other copied contracts on her files.
On other occasions I have not needed my contract - just the FE (red) book.

[HunanForeignGuy]

[Joe C.]

[Super Mario]

As I posted previously, in Shanghai my up-front salary was 8,000. I converted that amount legally whenever I chose to. The tax receipts are critical here.
It has been and is being done. People quoting 70% or whatever are ignoring the realpolitik of China.

[HunanForeignGuy]

Well, sorry, Joe C., it does happen here.

And failing that, there are always the money changers right outside the bank.

Last week I accompanied a new teacher for this purpose. We walked into the Bank, and right inside the Bank, we were greeted by the money changers. This teacher then did that transaction.

Three weeks prior to that, I accompanied a male teacher from New Zealand into the same Branch and he transacted this over the counter. Are you aware that for an overseas trip the authorities now allow a certain amount of RMB to be converted into hard currency?

I will be in Guangzhou this week. I will go to the Bank of China Head Office in GuangZhou to verify what you have said. I will attempt to change money as I have said and I will report back to you.

Here anyway, it happens.

[Joe C.]

[tirelesstravelerasia]

I think the obvious answer from the variety of posts here is -- there is no standard answer. It seems to depend on a variety of factors from where you live to where you work to what your contract says.

When I managed a university program in Nanjing, teachers there, making 8-10k yuan per month, were allowed to legally exchange 70% of their income at the Bank of China. They had to have a copy of their contract (in Chinese), passport, foreign experts booklet, and tax certificate. They could make this transaction once a month, and the clerk wrote the amount and date into the experts booklet.

You're probably going to have to ask your particular employer for what's legal there.

On the plus side, you can now legally take 20,000 rmb out of China, 4 times what the limit used to be. And Hong Kong usually has the best rates available.

[chinaboytian]

One time I had excess RMB and got a lousy exchange rate for it in Hong Kong. It would have been better had I arranged to change the money into US $ with one of the students, who could find a black market friend.

But never try this directly yourself on the street. They will cheat you.

[jammish]

All this may well be moot soon anyway. The RMB is soon to be made a fully convertable currency, meaning these interminable threads will be null and void...

[Joe C.]

[jeffinflorida]