Banking and Currency Exchange

If you’ve got currency from your home country, you can exchange it for RMB (also known as the Chinese Yuan) at some hotels and branches of major banks such as the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and the Bank of Tianjin. You’ll get a more favorable rate at a bank than at your hotel, but you may have to wait in line. You must present your passport when exchanging money. Exchanging RMB for foreign currency is capped at US$500 per day. If you want other currencies, be sure to check well in advance if they are available. There are also some ATM machines in Tianjin that can draw from your home account. Look for ones that have the MasterCard and Visa logo. Citibank, Standard Chartered and HSBC all have some ATMs around which provide access to your funds back home.

To open up a bank account you will need to take your passport along. Copies of passports will not be accepted.