How to transfer money to Zhu Hai legally?

one can exchange US$50,000 in one year. You can wire the money to any China bank and exchange that to RMB.

For buying apartments, you can wire the amount to the bank that process your mortgage application or to the developer's account. Show the bank the relative document and it will be fine.

missed one important word:

"one can exchange US$50,000 in one CALENDAR year". I did that once last month at China Construction Bank, so this info is pretty sure.

Anyone can exchange $50K each calendar year, so you can also wire $50K to your wife, to anyone in your wife's family, to your friends, basically anyone that you trust. I exchanged $100K to buy an apartment this way just this year so I know it can be done.

You can also draw cash from the ATM directly from your accounts in the US. This appears to be limited only by the number of different accounts you have and the number of different banks that have ATMs in Zhuhai. You can conceivably transfer 20K or 30K rmb that way every day.

Can you really own property in China? I mean..is it always yours..forever??

What's the fee of a international bank transfer? I often draw cash from ATMs and know that, depending on what bank you have at home, there are fees of 1.5% to 2%.

wire transfer cost you US$25-30 and the wire fee. around $40-$60 depends on the banks.

"Can you really own property in China?"

Zurdo,

As a good Communist sympathizer, you should know the answer to that question! ;)

Oh, and...no.

"Titles to residential properties in China are 70-year leaseholds."

Source: 'Buying abroad- Risk and reward in China'

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/15/news/rebuychina.php

I opened an account with the NYC branch of Bank of China for the sole purpose of wiring funds into China. I pay a $20 fee. I just do an electronic transfer from my everyday bank to BOC-NYC. Last time, I did the exchange to rmb in the US first and then didn't pay any fees to the local Chinese bank (I now use Bank of Communications in Jida). I was afraid to check the exchange rate.....

ddbough,

Did you open the account with the local chinese bank using your passport and used a English name? I have accounts with the local bank now but the names are in chinese, I wonder how can I do wire transfer since the banks in the States do not know how to write chinese.
Thanks.

US passport and English name.

BTW, the Bank of China branch in NYC (and I presume the branch in LA as well) is staffed by Chinese who read, write and speak Mandarin.

I initially had a BOC account here in Zhuhai, but moved to Bank of Communications because the staff at the main BOC branch in Jida were so incompentent, lazy, and non-customer service oriented I couldn't stand it any longer (see the thread on tipping.....). In fact, I ultimately made the decision to switch after two meetings with the branch manager when he stopped in mid-sentence of our discussion to answer his cell phone. Nothing pisses me off more than that behavior.

Anyway, I now make my wire transfers quite simply by doing an online transfer from ETrade Bank to BOC-NYC (free of charge), then the wire transfer from BOC-NYC to Zhuhai ($20). I have wired to both myself and my Chinese gf. Opening an account with BOC-NYC can be done remorely, but requires notarized documents and a letter from your existing bank. A bit of a hassle, but doable. If you would like contact info at the BOC-NYC send me a PM.

Regards

if your wife has an account in HK, she can actually change up to 20k RMB per day.
if she has a china a/c under the same exact name, she can remit 80k RMB daily.

that's the legal limit.
but...

if you are using the money for the purpose of buying property,
there's another way.

check with the developer of the property u intend to buy, ask if they have any supporting banks to help customers remit HKD from HK.

e.g,
the new estate, Wanke along Lover's Rd.
they use Xiamen International Bank to remit money.
all u have to do is open a Xiamen International Bank a/c.
the apartment costs 4 mil RMB.
remit HKD 4 mil from any HK bank to your Xiamen a/c.
when the money arrives, it will be changed to RMB at the current rate.
they will then auto transfer the money to the developer, Wanke.

the only catch is that, u must not have any properties still under mortgage.

Canrun...this is one of the reasons I'm not going to invest here. It's never yours!