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YES, there are Western Union services in Beijing

Thanks Manlin. Would you know where I might find one in the Chaoyang area - anywhere, say, between Huixinxijie and Liangmaqiao?

Most China Post offices have Western Union

@Alexrou - many thanks. I never knew that. Guess I might have known it if I had ever been inside one! Cheers!

Could you reply on whether you were successful with this? The banks here have been very difficult about sending money. We've been told that it's actually illegal for foreigners to send money out of China, you have to go through this whole process to prove you aren't sending more than your salary home which our employers have been very reluctant to help us with. At the moment one of my Chinese friends has been letting me send money through her bank account. It only costs about 160Yuan when we do it online so it's not too bad but it means having to rely on somebody else. We tried to inquire about using moneygram and they all said they don't know how (these are the bank employees!) but when we left we saw a sign advertising moneygram!

All I have to do in Guangzhou is go to a China Post office and take my passport with me. Some ABC bank branches here also can help you send Western Union. I've done that few times with no problems whatsoever. It only costs $15 U.S. to send up to $1000 U.S.( less than 100 RMB), Forget about Moneygram. It's much more expensive.

thank you! I'll try it out 

If your bank can't do it, get a different bank.  For a communist country, there is a lot of capitalist competition.

We've tried three different banks and get the same answers (after much translation confusion!) It's like you can earn money here sure, but we expect you to spend it here too! I'll have to try a bank in Guangzhou when I'm there again. But if using the post office means not having to open a bank account here I'll do that gladly!

You can have a bank account at the post office.  It seems weird, but it's perfectly normal around here.

What is with people having so many bank accounts here? One of my Chinese friends has like 5 different bank accounts and she says it's perfectly normal. I can barely manage one. It's no wonder then that even the post office offers one!

Costs nothing to open an account

[Moderated: too generalised post]

melis82 wrote:

What is with people having so many bank accounts here? One of my Chinese friends has like 5 different bank accounts and she says it's perfectly normal. I can barely manage one. It's no wonder then that even the post office offers one!

I don't know about South Africa, but American bank accounts are insured by the federal government.  Most people only use 1 bank because their money is safe - more or less.  It's different in Chinese banks.  Your money is far less safe and the government may or may not step in if you get royally screwed.  People use multiple banks to hedge their bets.

Transferring of money is  a big headache here
if you are not sending to USA than convert it to $
and bank will not convert more than $500 at one time
last time I went three days to convert money than transferred money to India
its a big headech

Can we convert to $1000 in one time from post office

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