Thank you for your answers. My school managed to get some USD to send through Western Union. The fee was pretty low but the money can't be deposited into an account(+I don' t want to bother friends on a regualr basis)and you can't open a bank account with W.U in China.

It seems there are many ways to get around the problem, but some of them are quite risky, ie some people just mail cash to friends/family, or buy $ on the black market = could be fake, or you can go to Hong Kong if you live in the area, but I've read the limit is 5.000rmb, unless you' re Canadian?

Bank of China can transfer to an overseas account(200 rmb fee for exchanging + sending AUS$ 500) but like other banks, they need pay slip, tax payment receipt,passport, foreign expert certif + contract. I went to Quzhou city yesterday but they wanted to keep the original of the tax receipt which I may need to exit China (could mean trouble at the airport if asked to produce it), so I didn' t proceed with the transaction. They can' t just exchange rmb, but the lady said it would be easy to find a Chinese citizen or a travel agent tobuy US$ from. Anyway, I'll wire some money next week through my new employer who has a family member in Honk Kong.

An other way is to open a US$ cash account from which you can then easily do an internet tranfer, but back to square one, where to buy US$? It also seems to be a good idea to have a clause in the contract that allows you to remit (up to 70%) of your salary to avoid problems at the bank. Then again, someone managed to send 150% of his salary to Europe through Bank of China, and others seem to be able to exchange money in booths outside banks just with their passport- only in big cities.

Some foreign owned schools offer to deposit the salary into an overseas bank account, but the feedback I' ve got from esl sites is not so good. Have the school pay in $? or help exchange rmb? but I guess there are no guarantees.

Will keep you posted if I hear of anything else

All the best

christine