I'm very excited to go, but...

[poly_99]

Hello!

I'm very excited, I'm moving to Kunming in less thanks two weeks to study Mandarin for a year at Yunnan Normal University! I've already studied a year in Wuhan so I'm not completely unprepared or too nervous. I do have a few questions if someone could help, both in general and about Kunming. I already have my X visa (it took only an hour, dropped it off with no queue, came back in 50 mins and picked it up with no queue).

I have a bank account (Bank of China) in Wuhan but i lost my ATM card while I was traveling and was told I could get money out using my yellow passbook anywhere but couldn't do anything else. So when I'm in Kunming, using that account, I may not be able to change foreign money which is wired to my account? So I want to open another account in Kunming, I know this is quite easy but can I do it before i get my residence permit? I plan to get there a week or so before school starts.

I want to rent an apartment when i get there, again, can I do this without a residence permit?

Finally, about the apartment. I want somewhere very close to YNNU, a few minutes walk, one+ bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room, furnished to a reasonably high quality (TV/DVD, kitchen stuff, bed, etc). I'm thinking for this about 1500RMB a month, does this sound about right? I was planning on staying in a cheap hotel/hostel and go around the local estate agencies and hoping from arriving to Kunming and moving into a nice(ish) apartment will take a week or less. I expect to pay 6months rent up front, is that right? How do i pay the estate agents fees, what is a reasonable amount?

Thanks you all, and maybe see in China!

[mr.stinky]

if i recall correctly, i opened my account in kunming my first week there, so at that point

i only had my passport. had not moved into an apartment yet, so was still staying at

the ynnu student housing. just moved to baise, opened a new BofC account here just

using my passport. was then able to transfer funds from kunming to baise with the

two account books. was only able to transfer rmb, as the baise branch employees

had no idea how to transfer usd from the kunming account.

you may need to wire foreign funds to the kunming branch office, otherwise could get

stuck in wuhan. this may be wrong, but.......i think you need to go in person to the

branch where the wire is sent in order to access those funds.

there's a convenient BofC branch at the main intersection outside ynnu. they'll give

you an info sheet with wire instructions but will be incomplete. i send this info

to my stateside bank for wire transfers:

Wire to:

Bank: Bank of China Yunnan Branch

Kunming Jianshe Road Sub-branch

Address: Jianshe Road No. 494

Kunming, Yunnan, China

Swift Code: BKCH CN BJ 640

Account Name: __________________

Account No.: __________________

Correspondent Bank:

Bank: Bank of China, New York

Address: 410 Madison Ave.

New York, NY 10017

Swift Code: BKCH US 33

ABA No.: 026 003 269

Telephone: 212-935-3101

Fax: 212-593-1831

[liuzhou]

You don't need a residence permit to open a bank account or to rent a place to live. For the bank you need your passport; for the accommodation you need money. End of.

[studymandrn]

On the bank application they ask you for an address, just bring the school's address or dorm, whatever. I also needed a phone number to open my account at Bank of China.