Opening bank account in China?

I'm planning to visit China after the covid 19 situation got handled and the international flights resume to normal.

From my experience visting ShangHai last year, having wechat pay and alipay makes paying for everything super convenient in China, such as paying for taxi fare, restaraunt bills, ordering tickets and shopping online. These two are the most popular and used paying apps in China, you can almost pay for everything with them installed on your phone. But the problem is to be able to use them you must bound your account to a Chinese bank card.

Since I'm an Australian citizen I can not just go apply for one like any Chinese citizens. According to the staff at the bank short stay visas granted to forgign passport holders are not eligible, only long term stays are.

I forgot to ask back then that which visia is "long term" stay, does "Multiple entries valid for 1 year from the date of issue" count as such?

Most of the revenues support mastercard in China now days but not all of them, and there's a processing fee for every transaction, which is quite expensive. So having a Chinese bank card while travelling in there is a must for me.

I usually only go to China for visiting families and travelling, is anyone on the same boot and can provide some advices? Thanks heaps.

 

It's easier to open an account here with BoC, you need to deposit $1000-2000 (depending on limit and type of account) to open one with them. You can use this overseas. Do note this was over 7 years ago when I inquired about opening an account, ToC and things could have changed.

 

Thanks mate.

I have tried with BOC in ShangHai last year and they didn't approve my application because of the reason I've list in the thread.

 

Can you have a member of your family there open a sub account for you to use?

 

I can, but how does that work? Can I use it under my own name and use it anytime I want? Cheers.

 

It wouldn't be in your name, but if they gave you a card or a wechat pay account it should be okay. I know the government does like to monitor the digital payment systems so not sure if you'd get pinged for it... maybe not worth the risk.

 

Arm yourself with that family address, a family member, a Chinese sim card/Chinese mobile number tied to you and some sort of visa and try your luck at branches in a shopping mall in a place frequented by foreigners,