bank account in mainland with alipay ?

[kotukorsan]

I have been researching about that for months and i found that there is no way to use alibaba group shopping websites and alipay without a bank account in china mainland.

Then i applied Bank of China and ICBC RMB account in mainland. But there is problem again. I cannot top-up (recharge) my alipay account. Because i can only transfer USD and china banks do not allow foreign exchange to RMB online for foreigners with Passport ID. There is no way for me to come back to China again. I am in europe now.

I really wonder if there is a way to use my alipay account with USD or HKD remit. This situation really made me upset. I hope there is way to use it.

Thanks for your kind replies

[imron]

There are private companies that will do remittance to Chinese bank accounts for you. I don't know about Europe, but in Australia I've used Anying both for sending my Chinese account money, and for sending others money. It generally works out faster and cheaper than an international transfer anyway because once they have your money in their local account, they just do a transfer of funds from their Chinese account to your Chinese account so it's as fast a local Chinese bank transfer.

I'm sure there are equivalents in Europe.

[suliuxing]

You can save some USD or HKD in your ICBC account, then you give the bank a call to ask for the help of exchange. But your account should be a dual-currency(RMB&USD) card.