Banking in China

Hello! Long time no post... sorry.

Live has been busy and distracting... and I did say that I wasn't any good at this. But excuses aside I went on our field study trip, which was an educational field trip with everyone in the program. We went to Guangzhou [g-wong-joe], Hong Kong, Macau [ma-cow], and Zhuhai [juu-hi]. Pictures and more information on the trip to come! I promise!!

But for now I wanted to share some information on something that is important when coming to China for an extended period of time. That is banking. China is still for the most part a cash economy, with that said, it is hard to find places that will take a credit card, let alone a foreign credit card. Places that are international brands like major hotels, restaurants, and clothing stores will take credit cards. But your average day to day things will require cash. So this means you will be at the ATM a lot.

Before coming to China I did a ton of research on which banks had the best deals and partnerships in China. This is what I have compiled between that research and what I know now. I am not saying that these are the best options, or that it is completely necessary to do any of this, but it does save you quite a bit of money in foreign ATM fees.

Banks and deals are:

1) Bank of America

Bank of America has a partnership with China Construction Bank. With this partnership you can use your Bank of America debit card to withdraw money from the China Construction Bank ATM. The only charge is 1% fee of whatever amount of money you withdraw. Not bad huh? The drawback to this deal is that you have to use China Construction atm's. If for some reason you have to use another ATM you are then charged an outrageous fee. I believe one of my friends said it was in the $15 area. This is the most popular method amongst my peers.

2) Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo also has a partnership with a bank in China. This partnership is with China Agriculture Bank. The terms of this partnership are different that with that of Bank of America. With this partnership you have to set up an account with China Agriculture Bank, then have money transferred into the account from your Wells Fargo account. You have to let your banker know ahead of time so that they can be ready for it. You also have to give your banker at home your account information from the China Agriculture bank. The pros to this are that there is only a one time, flat rate charge of $8 to transfer money. So you can transfer over as much as you want for a flat rate fee. Then you can withdraw money from the Agriculture Bank ATM without any charges. You will also get an online card.(You have to have a special card to order things online here in China) The downside to this offer is that you will need someone who speaks Chinese to help you set up the account. The assistant program director went with me, so it was no problem. The other con is that once you transfer money over, you have to use it all in China, because you will not be allowed to transfer the money back to the USA. This is a Chinese policy. They try to keep as much money in China as possible. This was the banking option I took. And if for whatever reason I have to use my Wells Fargo debit card at another ATM, then I am charged a flat $5 non-Wells Fargo ATM fee.

3) Citi Bank
There are Citi Banks in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. And I am willing to bet they are in other cities as well. Had I known they were over here I would have set up an account with them. That way I could have used their atm's without any charges, and without any transferring. Citi used to have this awesome international student checking account that was virtually fee less. Unfortunately it is no longer an option for those who don't already have it. I didn't stop to think that Citi might actually be in China. I just assumed that foreign banks just weren't allowed in.

Anyways... I have friends who use their regular banks at home and just pay the ATM fees... but it adds up after a while. I thought this blog would be helpful for those preparing to come to China for a semester :) Of course I am no expert, and you should always talk to your own personal banker, but hopefully this will help shed some light.

Posts coming up are:
-Field Study trip and pics
-What to bring to China, and what to leave at home
-random videos of my life here

Pictures from Independent Travel

How the majority of my time was spent

In Beijing, outside of the Forbidden City. So many people!

Front of the Forbidden City

Great Wall

Just for size, also in the Forbidden City

At the Temple of Heaven

Our flight from Sanya to Beijing.

You have to have Peking Duck when in Beijing

Independent Travel Week

Sorry guys! I actually had my independent travel week September 28th through October 4th. Normally we would be doing our group travel during this time, but because things booked up so fast our program advisor had to move things around. And I am just posting about it now because I have been sooo busy [aka too lazy] to sit down and upload photos. But fear not! I will post pictures all over the place this time!!!

The first part of our independent travel a large group of us, 13 people, went down to Sanya, China. This little town is the second most furthest city in China, and is often referred to as the "Hawaii" of China. Fun fact: most of the signs were in Russian and Chinese. I guess this is also a hot spot for Russian travelers. Not such a great place for English speaker, but alas... it made us use our Chinese that we have been trying to pick up.

We basically spent 5 days laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. One of the days down there we went on an organized tour with our group to a remote town. There we kayaked on the ocean to a snorkeling spot, went on a short hike, then kayaked back to the private beach to have a barbeque. Fun day, but also very tiring.

The second part of the trip was spent in Beijing. The group broke up after this. It was just me and my four other girl friends out and about. All blond. Lots of attention. Should have charged people for all the pictures we had taken... We did all kinds of fun stuff. Saw the Forbidden City, The Great Wall, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market. Lots to see in little time. But hey, it was great action-packed fun. We took a high speed train back to Shanghai and proceeded to sleep for hours.

Our routine thus far has been basically the same. Chinese class Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 am to noon. And of course my Management class on Wednesday and Economics on Thursday. We have also had some small field trip like adventures around Shanghai that I will share more with later. (Can't talk about everything I have done in this post... I wouldn't have any more stories to tell later on)

Hope you enjoy my new videos and pictures!!

 

 

 

 

First Vlog (Video Blog)

So I am now going to start uploading some videos along with other pictures and blog posts. I feel like it adds dimension and character to my overall blog. And I feel that you get better first hand experience on my life in China! No worries, it won't be just video based, just a bunch of random things that I want to share with all my family, friends, and anyone else who is following my journey.

Hangzhou

Pronounced hong-joe :)

So the weekend of September 22nd and 23rd my friends and I made a quick weekend trip to a nearby city. Famous for its Temples, Pagodas, and of course the West Lake!

Early Saturday morning we loaded up a high speed train and ventured to the beautiful city. It was really breath taking in its serenity. The main attraction being the lake, we all walked around the lake and made rounds in the city.

Sunday morning we woke up early again and made way to the Lingyin Temple. It was so huge, the scenery was gorgeous. There were several smaller temples inside as well as several tea fields growing. My friends and I didn't really know what to do when we would walk through a temple and awkwardly watch as Chinese people prayed. One of the Chinese roommates was kind enough to explain the different temples, and the different statues and what they meant or did.

Where you go to pick out what food you wanted

Around noon we were famished and made way back into Hangzhou for some food. We found our way to an interesting Chinese restaurant. As we sat down the waiter came by and told us to follow him... confused we followed to see what he wanted. He led us back to a room filled to the brim with tons of live fish and crab and various still alive marine creatures. Apparently you are supposed to pick out what you want, they cook it for you, then you eat it. I stuck to fried rice and shrimp, the others had some crab, fish, and noodles.

After the interesting lunch we finally got to the lake. Paid for a boat and floated on the river/went sightseeing for about an hour.

Boat Tour

The last and final stop we made was to the Chinese Traditional Medicine Museum. Everything dating back to the beginning of Chinese Medicine was to be found in this place. Unfortunately by this point I was so tired that nothing could interest me more than the sight of my bed, after walking all day I was ready to be back in Shanghai.

The trip to Hangzhou was a short, simple, and sweet getaway that is just what we needed. It is nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of such a large city. You take for granted not hearing the subway or the sound of car horns.

Well... That's gonna be it for now, I have another Chinese Test tomorrow that I need to study for.




Still to come are my most recent trips to Sanya, China (the "Hawaii" of China) and then Beijing. And in a couple of weeks our whole study abroad program will be going to Hong Kong, Macau (the Las Vegas of China), and some hot springs.

Part of the hike to the top of Lingyin Temple

Food In China

In my last blog I mentioned a bit about the food here. But I mainly hit on the fast food, and food that is delivered to your door. So I am going to dedicate this blog to some of the food here in China that I have come to love, and eat quite frequently.

One of my major concerns when coming to China was if I would be able to find food that I would like. I always heard food poisoning stories and people told me horror stories. But so far I have been fine and haven't been sick once :)

I would also like to add that it is not hard to find good food here. It is not as cheap as the street food, but its still not expensive in comparison to the USA or Europe.

** Please note that I am a very picky eater. So the things I post here are not as adventurous as what my classmates might have. **

Real Ramen! It is noodles with meat, veggies and a hard-boiled egg. This is about $4.



An Irish coffee I indulged in when we were at M50 (Textile factories that they made into several art galleries)

At Hibachi (a Japanese style restaurant where they cook all food in front of you on a flat grill.) We paid a flat rate of about $20 for all you can eat and drink. We had sushi, shrimp, fish, lamb chops, pork chops, steak, chicken and so much more.



This is at a place called Xiabu Xiabu. Basically you get a pot in the middle of the table to cook your food yourself. You pick the broth you want (we had two kinds) and then what meat and veggies you wanted to put in. About a $5 meal.



I ate street food here. It was actually very good despite my original skepticism. I liked that I was able to watch him cook my food thoroughly. I paid less that a dollar for 3 skewers.



A fried rice dish that I sometimes get at the ramen restaurant. It comes with miso soup and is great! Costs about $4.

This is basically the same meal I get every time I go to the cafeteria on campus. It costs about $1 for everything you see here. And it is what they recommend for us to eat because it is safe food.

Week 3

I have officially made it into my third week of living in China!

Everything is falling into a routine, and I am amazed at how much I am learning and progressing in everyday life. I do not feel like I am in school over here. It's a weird feeling, but I guess I don't associate living abroad with school. Even though I go to class everyday, I guess I have just categorized that as part of the living abroad experience.

This blog is hard to write, because I feel that I haven't really done much of anything. But I realize that even the most mundane of things here is something completely different and new for everyone back at home. And then I realize that since even the small things count, I should include them here in the blog. But then I have no idea how to organize my thoughts, and what to include.

But here goes, this blog is going to concentrate mainly on the day-to-day things that I noticed are completely different than back at home.

1) Traffic: This includes everything when you consider driving. I have not once seen a speed limit sign. Not that it matters because the traffic is so bad that you never can go too fast. People have no fear when it comes to driving here. I haven't yet decided if this is incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. People constantly cut each other off on the road. There is no such thing as taking turns. It is a fend for yourself situation. I hear cars honking all the time. But it does no good to honk your horn when you do it so often. People don't even bat an eyelash at the noise. Mopeds here are a very popular form of commuting. But these guys follow even fewer rules than the cars do. At least cars will stop at red lights, mopeds just keep right on. If I ever get run over, it will be because a moped driver didn't allow me to walk EVEN THOUGH I have the right of way. I would also like to mention that I have only seen like 5 police cars while here. And not one of them were patrolling traffic or trying to stop crime.

2) Food: Food here is completely different. But of course, you all probably know that. Just thought that I should mention here in case anyone had any doubts: Chinese food in America is not the same as Chinese food in China. And of course the same goes here. The American food here is completely different, and doesn't even taste, or have the same ingredients. This is simply because both places have different recipes and food availability. Don't forget that just because the food says "American" on it means that they want to appeal to the Americans in China. Overall, they still want to sell food, and as such, the Chinese people want it to be more similar to what they like.

Almost everything here can be delivered. This is so awesome! My friends and I have had McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and sushi delivered right to our door. I have also seen Subway deliver as well. Pizza Hut can also deliver a bottle of wine if you so choose with your pizza. But, the wine here in China is not a specialty, so not only will you pay more, chances are you will also not enjoy the wine you get. Pizza Hut here is also considered a "nice" restaurant. Literally, when we went in, it was like a nice Italian place, my friends and I were genuinely confused at first. We have also tried Carl's Jr. and Burger King. Both were near misses. Not the same thing as back home.

I also pay about $5 for a meal here. And that is if I go somewhere kind of expensive, i.e. when we go to eat sushi. Most of the time we can go to local places and find full meals, with all the works, for about $2. I foresee having issues when I go back home when it comes to meals because everything here is so cheap.

3) Beauty/Fashion: So here the ideal Chinese woman has big eyes, very pale skin, and looks like a doll. Because of this I have a very hard time trying to find lotion or moisturizer that won't try to make my skin lighter than it already is. Almost everything here has something that will make you "100% White" or something along those lines. I have also seen many Chinese women with orange looking hair because they want to dye it blond, but it doesn't work out that well.

As for fashion... everything is either very cute and little girl like, or edgy with rock undertones. And the clothing here runs super tiny because most of the women don't need huge sizes. Shoes sizes for women that are bigger than an 8 are very hard to find.


4) Animals: There are a ton of stray cats running out and about in Shanghai. They are everywhere. Dogs are not seen as much. Maybe because they are not as independent as cats... maybe because they are used as meat in street dishes. I do not know, and I do not want to think about it too much. I knew this was a part of China, but it is still hard to deal with.

Hmm... That's all I can think about for the moment. There are other things too that I want to talk about, but I don't want to put them all into one blog.

Hope this was interesting for those who read!