If you’re coming to yangshuo to work for a season or just find yourself staying a while, it’s wise to open up your own Chinese bank account. This will give you access to a range of services that make life in China extremely easy, such as Wechat pay and Alipay.
Further, it is also extremely easy to open an account in Yangshuo, even if you don’t have a residence card. Here’s how you can do such a thing!
Now if you don’t speak Mandarin, first try find someone who can help you, if you’re unable to have no fear because it is definitely still doable. Our top pic is the China Construction Bank (CCB) located at the intersection of Shenshan rd and Diecui Rd near the small entrance to walking street. You’ll need your passport and a Chinese phone number. If no one speaks English simply show them or try to pronounce this phrase “Da kai yi ge yinhang zhanghu” (打开一个银行账户). You will then be given a ticket and shortly after called up to open your account. They will take scans of your passport, a Chinese address to use (must be in Guangxi province) and take down your mobile phone details.
During the process, your phone will be sent codes which you will tap into the small keypad next to you for security verification. You will then be asked to select a pin number, which you will have to enter twice for confirmation (all passwords in Chinese are at least 6 numbers long). They will then issue you a card which costs about 50 RMB. They will also ask you if you wish to put any money on the card, which you can deposit into the account immediately there.
The whole process takes about 15 minutes and is fairly painless (which normally isn’t the case when dealing with services like banks in China).
Top Tip! Make sure you keep your paper work as it will show how they have entered your name into their system. This is very important for those wishing to use their bank card with Wechat or Alipay. Sometimes (actually most times) they put foreigner’s names into the system in weird orders and sometimes they use capitals and sometimes don’t. This is extremely frustrating as Wechat and Alipay both have case sensitive input methods for your details.
Once you have your bank card it will save you so much time and hassle and can even be used throughout China and overseas in any union pay accepted ATM machine.
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