When I go to China, I usually go for a week straight, and that's a lot of mongering for me.

Typical day is:

Sauna= $1,000 min (threesome)
Hotel = $300
Meals= $500 (we go somewhere nice and I pay for a group of friends)
KTV= $2000 (3-4 friends, DJ fee)
KTV Girls = $1600 (another threesome)

That's like $5600 if you're the one paying.  Assume you go with two friends, you are paying that every third night, and 3k each other night.

You need about $20-25k to get through a week, but man will your dick be sore.  They call me Floyd "Money" Pandaboy in China!

I always carry at least RMB4,000 and HK$20,000 in one thousand dollar notes. It's easier to carry 20 HK$ notes vs 200 RMB notes bulging in your pocket. Also carry one credit card and ATM card. You could get a good exchange rate (better than the banks) at most connivence stores HK$ to RMB. For safety, always dress like a local to be less conspicuous of if you're a foreigner, dress like a poor one.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 5-5-2010 11:28 ]

ur credit card should have insurance which protects against skimming.. if the transaction is not urs, u can dispute it and they will reimburse... although it is a bitch to go through the hassel

thanks but i'm a melb boy...
the trouble i was referring to was the long waits. I have tried to change aud to rmb in smaller corner shops, this is a little harder.
I have arranged for a wizard card. Its a credit card, however if u place cash in there it will work like a debit card. All international transactions including withdrawals from any atm are free from fees. purchases will not attract a transaction fee. I use to pay for shitloads from the international transaction fees.

i pay for everything with cash, so it's the only thing i carry with me.

I agree...but I prefer to not carry credit cards...I had an account with $25-50K RMB  in it....and I bring that card to China with me most of the time...In case I need to bribe the authorites...

Cash I try to bring anywhere between 3k-5k for a weekend?

i don't carry credit card/debit card on me in case i lose it, i withdraw money and keep it in a safe (cards). Don't want to be overseas without a way of withdrawing money.

[ Last edited by  reggid at 6-5-2010 18:31 ]

with most of us not being locals, the convenience store is kinda scary bc as noted, there are a lot of fake currency around.  Some of the major banks won't even take my REAL USD $100 dollar bills bc they are too new & they wanted the old old one!

yeah, they are fucking backwards, now they dont take the old bills only the new ones.  I had a couple of Red RMB 100s and I couldn't get rid of them.

Once in Qingdao, i tried to pay in new clean RMB100 x 2 bills, the resto refuse to accept it. It was stoopid and I complained the fuck out of them. What? They think me and my colleagues are robbers and swindlers.
End up going next door hotel (same group) to swipe my union pay card. Fucking troublesome.


In china, whenever I have to change my RMB100 bill in a convenient store, I'll usually refuse the RMB50 note and l insist on RMB5, 10 or 20 notes.
RMB50 fake note is more prevailing in convenient store.


Another word of advice. When u go punting, especailly BBS or apartment, never ever exchange your note with the gals/mummy.
This is how they do it:
You pay them say RMB 200 before or after the deed. After shower or you ready to go, they will paster and complain that you gave her a fake RMB100 note and want another RMB100 note.
Whore Shit!!!!! This gal/mummy is fast, after they take your money and keep it in their bag/pocket, they will reproduce another RMB100 note. This is the fakey one....

So, never ever be too gentleman and believe the gal and exchange the RMB100 after you pay them. You end up paying additional RMB100....

^^that is seriosuly fucked up.  all these games are kinda scary in the mainland.

I had almost the exact thing happen to me. I was coming back from some grocery shopping when I saw some village women selling eggs from a straw basket lined with pine needles. I agreed to buy 10 and gave the only note I had at the time a 100rmb, she pocketed it rummaged through her change and indicated that she didn't have enough to change the 100rmb. I told her to forget it, she gave me back my 100rmb note and I went on my way. Wasn't till a few days later when I tried to buy something else that the shopkeeper pointed out that it was a fake. The innocent looking village woman had swapped it, have always been super vigilant after that. The Chinese shopkeepers always have a laugh when they see me "a wiguoren" rubbing the mao figure and holding the notes up to the light to see the watermark.

There u go, listening to your friend's sister's BF's sister's Bf's cousin about exthortion and how scary it was in China.

Shit happens everywhere in the world, especially when people dont use their common sense.

You should also consider the not-fuckup things in China, outweight your negative perception.

When in rome do what the romans do.  I'm quick to all the scams in NYC but in China I am still a noob.  I remember going into a KTV once, not realizing that there was a bathroom within the room.  I went to use the "public" bathroom outside and had a Chinese acquaintance chase in after me and asking if I was looking for a death wish.  Apparently in that particular KTV, people get robbed in those bathrooms, I'm not sure if it was real or not, I just went with the program.  I ended up using the in room bathroom, then making out with one of the girls, when things got hot and heavy, we didn't even go to the hotel room, we just snuck into the bathroom for a quick shag!

Came across this article on the new 500rmb note, even has a mock up of what the bills would look like.

Proposal of issuing RMB 500 yuan bills
China Net March 11 reports, the largest denomination of RMB is too small, 100 yuan notes can no longer meet the rapid growth of economy. CPPCC national Committee member, Chairman of the Board at Hong Kong Yu Zhen Holding Group Co. Ltd. Chen Zhendong (陈振东) submitted a proposal at the CPPCC National Committee yesterday that the time for issuing 500 yuan RMB notes has come.

[ Last edited by  atomic3d at 11-5-2010 13:02 ]

Seems the PRC really needs these big bills. I change RMB about 3 times a week from mainly money changers operating out of convenience stores and have noticed in the past 6 weeks that most of the notes are new. 6 months ago, 80% of these notes were old and dirty. Seems like the Central Govt is printing a lot of new notes lately. This could be bad news as an increase in M1 usually is the precursor for inflation thus saunas and KTV's may be raising prices and WGs would ultimately cost us more. This will eventually lead to an increase in price for WG's in Macau and 141 DB WGs as well. Double jeopardy if the RMB exchange rate is adjusted upwards against the US$. This would really be bad news for us all.

This is just my personal observation as there's no reliable monthly data on M1 in China and sorry for going off topic.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 11-5-2010 18:41 ]

Just dip them is some pussy juice to dirty them up

On that note now i know what to use in an emergency if i don't have any toilet paper with me on the mainland, i'll start with the 1's though......

Why would they do this?  It would just help money laundering like the 500 Euro bills, albeit it is a much smaller amount.  $100 RMB bills makes taking RMB out of China much harder for those who smuggle.

you dont know what you are talking about.