China is still, for the most part, a cash society although the use of credit cards is becoming a little more common in the big cities. As an ESL teacher working in China you often get paid in cash so having a bank account is critical. I was very surprised the first time I was called into the accounting office to receive my month’s salary, doled out in 100 RMB notes and counted with an abacus. This is not a joke by the way.
Money and Banking in China
The local currency in China is the Yuan or the Renminbi. Renminbi is the name of the Chinese currency, it literally means "the people's currency". Yuan is the name of a unit of the renminbi.
Jiao is a unit of the Yuan. Like saying 4 dollars and 10 cents. the Jiao is becoming far less used in China today. There is even a smaller unit still, the Fen. The Fen is a unit of the Jiao. 1 Jiao=10 Fen.
So how does it work and what is the currency like. Good question. There is a lot to get used to and I highly recommend that you learn to be frugal with your money. The Chinese highly respect good negotiators.
Currency demoniations are: ¥0.1 (1 Jiao), ¥0.2 (2 Jiao), ¥0.5 (5 Jiao), ¥1 (1 Yuan), ¥2, ¥5, ¥10, ¥50 and ¥100.
As mentioned in the Chinese teaching contracts section, you are going to be earning a very decent salary in China. It may not seem like a fortune to you, it might even be considerably less than what you were earning before. You might even have made more as a petroleum transfer engineer (gas jockey) when you were 14 years old. So what. You're in a different country - you're in China where a BigMac costs around $1.60 (not that I am recommending eating one)... A teacher's salary will leave you lots of room to have fun in China as long as you are smart with your money.
A great reason to go to China is to save money (which you actually can do if you live like a Chinese person) but that shouldn’t be your principle focus. If you want to save for a house back home you might consider teaching in Korea.
One of the most common questions we get asked is how foreigners can conduct their banking while living in China, particularly with an eye towards sending money back home to pay off student loans or the house mortgage. Don't expect to pay these off immediately.
The pay in China is lower than Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong but the cost of living is a fraction what you would pay elsewhere and typically you are working less hours.
Once you arrive in China with your Z visa, you will be taken by the school to the local immigration office to register for your alien residency card, which usually takes a week or two to process. Once you have this card, you are a legal resident of China for the duration of your contract and can legally open a bank account with a Chinese bank for the duration of your stay in China.
Major credit cards are accepted in China, however Chinese society is largely a cash based society- personal checks are largely unheard of- and don’t expect your debit card from your local bank in Omaha or Moose Jaw to work in China.
Like most countries, there are a few banks to choose from in China. The following five are the largest.
- Agricultural Bank of China - www.abchina.com
- Bank of China - www.boc.cn
- China Bank - www.chinabank.com.ph
- China Construction Bank - www.ccb.com
- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China - www.icbc.com.cn
Sending Money Home from China
On my first Footprints assignment in China I encountered some problems trying to close my account and convert my RMB to Canadian dollars. The bank wanted a variety of documents including my contract, pay subs and a letter from the headmaster of my school. Luckily my Chinese friend, who had accompanied me, arranged to do the transaction with her ID card. Last year I simply carried the money back and exchanged it to Canadian dollars in Canada.
