China Travel Forum

[Lynn Lawson]

Hello !

Has anyone recently came back from China that has problem exchanging US dollars to Chinese Yuan?

My friends were in China in January and reported they had such a difficult. time exchanging money at their hotel and banks.

They had to take the taxi to the airport to exchange their US dollars to Yuan.

I am just wondering if the drop in value of the dollar has anything to do with the exchange problem.
I'll be leaving for China soon and I want to know rather I should change the dollar to another currency first or should I just do all my exchanges at the airport on arrival.

I had never encounter this before and just want to know if anyone has any problem in exchanging money. Thanks so much in advance.

[Ice-man]

It shouldn't be too much of a problem to change money. You, of course, need a passport, and make sure the USD you give them is fairly new and without writing or markings on it. That can cause some problems. It's best to change at the airport, for the sake of ease, though you'll have to deal with the loss if you have to change it back. Carrying yuan can get thick (lots of bills)

If you use ATMs, make sure you go to ATMs that say Visa and Mastercard, for example, and not the UnionPay ATMs, which are for Chinese bank cards only, which you can't get unless you live here. Make sure to call your credit card company before you go to let them know you'll be traveling in China and any other places you're going. It's annoying enough to have to call them, so better to do it from home.