Do I need to bring money to China?

When people travel to China, they often ask questions like:

• Do I have to bring money to China?
• How much money do I have to bring for my China Holiday?
• Should I exchange my money in my homecountry?
• Are traveller cheques useful in China?

These questions are obviously asked by people new to China. Bringing money to China for travel is pretty much useless. Even more useless is to trying to exchange money, like Euro or US Dollar into RMB (人民币 – Chinese currency). If You need money in China, simply withdraw it from Your regular banking account. You can easily withdraw money with Your ATM card in China from ATMs. Not even a credit card is needed. Simple ATM cards are enough to withdraw. For convenience I only take a small amount like 200 Euro to be sure with me on a trip. Mostly I won’t need it anyways. Cheques are pretty much a waste of time and money, stick to ATM cards in China.

Beware of the Chinese number pad

The only thing You need to care about is the Chinese number pad at their ATM machines. Some are upside down. If You just remember how to type in Your PIN (top left, middle bottom, …) instead of the actual number You might get an wrong number entered error. So look first before You type.

This is true in huge cities like Hong Kong, as well as in big cities like Chengdu and even true in medium sized cities like Kunming. Enjoy Your trip to China.

Money in Chinese:

人民币 rén mín bì – the Chinese currency.

元 yuán – Dollar, basic unit of the Chinese currency, worth about 0.1 Euro at the moment of writing.

块 kuài – a piece, informal word meaning the same as 元.

美元 měi yuán – US Dollar.

Related Articles:

• Rich in Hongkong
• What to do on a holiday trip to China?