Culture, Daily Living, & Adjustment

A have a few random questions about going to China (I'm going in two weeks):

1) How much cash should I bring? Where do I exchange dollars for RMB?

2) I want to bring my desktop computer (just the box, not the monitor, speakers, etc.) What's the best way to do so?

3) Should I try to get a international cell phone in the states and use it in China, or get a phone there, or just not use a cell phone? (I don't know that I would need one, seeing as I would have no contacts. On the other hand I could use this opportunity to get a new phone with my current provider for free.)

Thanks,

Joe M.

Hi Joe,

You mentioned in another thread that you will be teaching in China, so you'll need to bring enough money to last you until you get paid, which could be anywhere from four to six weeks after arrival depending on your schedule.

You don't mention where you will be teaching but, assuming housing is provided, I would suggest you bring at least $1,500 USD (10,200 yuan), which should provide you with enough of a cushion for buying things for the apartment, eating well, a cell phone (see below), and computer parts, etc. until you receive your first paycheck. Any bank will easily and gladly convert your U.S. dollars into renminbi. The problem is when you try to convert back to U.S. currency—you'll need a Chinese national to help you with that.

As for your desktop computer, leave the case and power supply at home. You can securely pack the motherboard, CPU, DRAM chips, sound and video cards (if you have them) inside one of your suitcases but you'll need to carefully wrap and carry your hard disk drives onboard with you, otherwise they will never survive the journey. After you arrive in China, have someone from the school take you to the local computer center for a new case, power supply, and monitor. The Chinese will rebuild the computer for you at no additional expense. Go with the highest rated power supply they sell (500w) and most definitely purchase a universal backup power supply. Electrical line conditions in China are horrendous and you will need one as a line conditioner if nothing else.

Unless your Chinese is fluent, you'll need a cell phone in China for communication (i.e., calling interpreters). If your current carrier supports the GSM standard and your phone is either tri- or quad-band (i.e., supports either the 900MHz or 1800MHz frequency bands), it should work in China. In that case, you'll just need to buy a new SIM card (150 yuan). Otherwise, you can pick up a new cell phone in China ranging anywhere from a few hundred yuan to several thousand for a Smartphone that can do anything but wash the dishes.

I did get an international phone before leaving Australia, guess what? It didn't work when I got here (damn salesman, haha). I got a pretty good phone here in China for about 1200rmb. I did have a close friend of mine haggle with the price at 2 or 3 different shops (list price was about 2200rmb).

If i didn't have a cell phone here it would have been a nightmare in those first few months trying to get around and buy things, find out where I was, where things are etc., etc.

Chinese that can speak good to fluent English will become your best friends and then when you meet some decent expats they will too. What's the easiest way to keep in contact with them? It's a cellphone.

I once ran out of money on my cellphone in the first month or so and you know it's weird to think of a world before cellphones, the pay phones here in China run on cards not coins or money. I could speak some standard Mandarin but you know if you don't know how to ask in the exact right way you will just get funny looks (also don't assume that people will even speak Mandarin and not the local language) so having a cellphone and a good local contact on the end of it will be invaluable.

Hi Joe,

Regarding bringing the money, I would definitely recommend the use of a prepaid travel debit card such as those provided by Travelex and Caxton FX. You load money from your U.S. bank account in dollars either online or over the phone and you can withdraw the cash in China from any ATM in RMB. The fees are very small and the exchange rate is very good too. If you lose it, you can have it replaced with funds intact where if you lose a wallet full of greenbacks it's gone forever.

Regarding your phone, I like China Mobile and they have regular promotions, such as getting 50 RMB free if you top up 100 RMB in a certain timeframe. You MUST, however, buy the SIM card in the city you will be living in and get a phone number registered to that city otherwise you will have to pay roaming fees everytime you call someone.

I had this problem after the recruiter I initially worked for bought me a Guangzhou SIM card but I was living in Shenzhen, so it cost me a fortune before my girlfriend informed me. International SIM cards are way too expensive--if you want to call the USA whilst in China I fully recommend Skype as the best and cheapest option.

Well I guess I will follow your advice on the computer problem, makes sense.

I think for cash I will use travelers checks, is that a good idea?

As for cell phone, I would like to get a phone that works in the states and China so I dont have to buy a new one over there, as I was also planning to get a new one in the states anyways (when I return in a year). I suppose I could get one there, but I would want it to work here when I get back. I also wanted to take advantage of Verizon allowing you to turn in your old phone for a new one for free (if you have had it for two years and renew your plan).

Joe M

Musicjunkie wrote:Regarding bringing the money, I would definitely recommend the use of a prepaid travel debit card such as those provided by Travelex and Caxton FX. You load money from your U.S. bank account in dollars either online or over the phone and you can withdraw the cash in China from any ATM in RMB. The fees are very small and the exchange rate is very good too. If you lose it, you can have it replaced with funds intact where if you lose a wallet full of greenbacks it's gone forever.

This is perhaps a bit late for joe but for others I would just like to add something here regarding Travelex Debit Card. Their fees are definitely low but they don't give good rates. I have this card in Australian Dollars and I have found that using my Visa Debit from my Australian bank (Suncorp) actually comes cheaper even with all the "hefty" fees that my bank imposes. So I think it would be worth investigating all the fees etc with your current bank and making a decision on that.

I will give you an example of the kind of rates I get with Travelex vs Suncorp. I still use my Travelex to make small purchases and give the details of this card to people I don't necessarily trust, since I don't have a lot of money in this card anyway.

Example:

I bought something in GBP on 19th of October using Travelex. I got a rate of 1 GBP = 1.72 AUD. While the official rate on the day was 1 GBP = 1.61 AUD. I know Suncorp uses this rate for sure as I have verified this over hundreds of transactions. Now if the amount you are withdrawing is small then the differences are negligible but they widen if you withdraw large amounts of money at once. This is of course preferred as you don't get charged fees multiple times. Let's watch the numbers at work.

I withdraw 500 GBP from both banks:

Travelex => 500 x 1.72 = 860 + 3.50 AUD transaction fee = 863.5 AUD
Suncorp => 500 x 1.61 = 805 + 5 + currency conversion fee (comes to around 10 AUD for every 400AUD withdrawn) = 805 + 5 + 20 = 830 AUD

A saving of about 30+ AUD.

You also have to remember that there is usually a 1% loading fee for putting your money onto Travelex. All the costs add up. So for the above transaction that would cost 860 AUD you would have already paid 8.60AUD to have that much money put onto your card. Making the total cost of Travelex: 863.5+8.6 = 872.1 AUD. You'd actually be saving about 42 AUD by withdrawing from Suncorp.

The bigger you withdraw the bigger you save.

From my experience alone, I would highly recommend you study your bank rate carefully. Of course, this is trivial if you don't plan to use this card often or for large withdrawals.

Since I knew my travels will last 15 months (most of it china), I figured that I would actually end up saving hundreds of dollars by forgetting about Travelex - and I have

Downside is of course you don't have the extra backup card that Travelex provides you with as well as the guarantee that they will get you access to emergency funds wherever you are if you lose both cards. But if you don't plan to move that much then this shouldn't be too big a concern. I got around this downside by having my bank issue my girlfriend (who is also travelling with me) another card attached to the same account. So if I lose my card, I still have access to the money through my girlfriend's card. It didn't cost me anything extra.

To summarise, the point of this post has really been to make you aware that the rates given by Travelex aren't the best - although some might call them good. So I would highly recommend doing some detailed research before deciding to choose them.

Regards,

Parth

If that's the case regarding Travelex then that's fair enough and thanks for the information. I posted their name simply because I am aware they provide this service. I used Caxton FX myself, they are British based. They don't charge a loading fee and make their profit by charging a 2.5% commission on the exchange rate. They don't charge any fee for using an ATM either. The only issue with them is that there is a minimum load of 100 GBP per time.

All banks obviously differ regarding their own fees, charges and rates, but it is still preferable to bring the funds on a plastic card as opposed to bringing cash, and I am pretty certain that the bank rate is going to beat the commission charge imposed when cashing a Travelers Cheque.