Travel China and Beyond

Using ATMs and Mobile Phones if you travel to China

I have come across some travel sites lately that give suggestions that are not exactly quite acurate — there were a number of posts on those sites that suggested that ATMs are difficult to find or not to be used if you travel to China. So I decided to post some information that should help you in case you are visiting Beijing for example:

ATMs — they are actually widely available in the big cities in China. I can find plenty of ATM machines that accept foreign (US) ATM cards and can be a good source for local currency for both a traveller and also a resident in China. I lived in Beijing until end of August 2006, and have also traveled and lived in several places in China…and have been able to use ATM cards (both Chinese and US ones) in most places.

Places like Holiday Inn Lidu hotel in DaShangZi area in Beijing, China World area in ChaoYang district in Beijing, WnagFuJing area in Beijing, among others have many ATM machines — e.g. HSBC (Bank), that accept foreign ATM cards.

Telephone — I would strongly advise your customers to get an unlocked tri-band (multi-band) mobile phone from the States and buy a local SIM card as soon as they arrive in China. The cards are prepaid — e.g. RMB100 will get them quite a bit of talk time and at lower cost than the hotel IDD service….