Chionggirl in Shanghai

I have been trying to send money over to Singapore and have met with much challenges.

Yes, challenges because in China, you can only remit up to USD$500 if you are an overseas passport holder, while the locals can remit up to USD$50,000. That is a very tight rein on money earned by foreigners here.

So when I got to know that I am unable to remit as much money as I need, i decided to open turn on the internet bank service with ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), cos the page on the website says I can do remittance online. Because of the size of the country and notable banking crimes in China, I was given a USB key to proceed with the online transaction, which I didn't use eventually, because... yes, the service is only reserved for Chinese. Oh well.

I finally tried to remit the money across using Western Union. The money was converted into USD (mandatory procedure in China when bringing/sending money out)P at the agent and then banked into the Singapore Western Union branch. I addressed the receipient to my brother, and he was able to collect the money from the Singaapore branch (any). If you would like to take this route, do note:

1) Money is remitted within 15 mins.

2) Ensure that you provide the EXACT name of the recipient, otherwise, it will be bounced back. THe receipient should also have an identification document to prove his identity.

3) If you wish to convert RMB to USD that is over USD$500, you must provide your employment  contract for verification. Don't ask me why. Otherwise, you can bring USD directly to the Western Union agent and they can deposit for you.

4) There are charges to the Western Union service is about 15%, which is relatively compared to remitting it through the banks, which will cost a few hundred dollars for each USD$500. (Speaking of which, in order to remit one lump sum, you can only put in USD$500 at a time and there are charges EACH TIME you put in the money. Not very worth it.)

So there you go. I am sure there are other more intelligent ways to send money home. But for now, this is, to me, the most hassle free method. I will post up any updates pertaining to this matter.

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IKEA membership here in Shanghai is FREE :) Yay! We only need to fill up a form, provide an identification paper, and voila, I was given a card! :) Unlike Singapore, you need to spend SGD$300 to qualify for a card (well, China has the numbers, Singapore doesn't, I reckon that's why).

There are nice privileges that comes with this card. Like a set of loungewear I bought at RMB49 (UP RMB199) :D oh, and of course, the free coffee. I didn't redeem that cos there were too many people at IKEA when I went there last Saturday.

But IKEA, like McDonalds and Burger King, really made me feel like home, cos the food taste pretty similar to those restaurants back home, ie, they stay true to their international standard taste (is that the right way to put it? Haha. ). I have tried KFC the same day I applied the IKEA card by the way  *Shakes head* Ur-uh. Not the same, KFC, no good.

Okay, report over :)