Before travelling to China,  organize a variety of ways to access your money overseas, such as credit cards, travelers’’ cheques, cash, debit cards or cash cards. Australian currency and travelers’cheques are not accepted in many countries. Consult with your bank to find out which is the most appropriate currency to carry and whether your ATM card will work overseas.

The Chinese Customs Administration requires that travelers carrying over US$6,000 (or equivalent in foreign currencies) in cash must declare it upon arrival in China. The declaration should be kept safely and shown to customs officials upon departure. Travelers who wish to depart China carrying between US$6,000 and US$10,000 (or equivalent in foreign currencies) should obtain permission from a Chinese bank to do so. When you travel to China, take note of this.

Make two photocopies of valuables such as your passport, tickets, visas and travelers’cheques. Keep one copy with you in a separate place to the original and leave another copy with someone at home.

While travelling in China, don’t carry too much cash and remember that expensive watches, jewellery and cameras may be tempting targets for thieves. Be careful about your possession when you go on a China holiday.

As a sensible precaution against luggage tampering, including theft, lock your luggage. Information on luggage safety is available from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority.

Your passport is a valuable document that is attractive to criminals who may try to use your identity to commit crimes. It should always be kept in a safe place. You are required by Australian law to report a lost or stolen passport. If your passport is lost or stolen overseas, report it online or contact the nearest Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate as soon as possible. You must also report your loss of passport to the nearest police station and obtain a confirmation report of passport loss before you are able to secure an exit visa to leave China.

You are required to pay an additional fee to have a lost or stolen passport replaced. In some cases, the Government may also restrict the length of validity or type of replacement passports.

Compared to many other countries, serious crimes against foreigners who come china for travel is rare. However, you should take care of yourself and take notice of the safety when travelling in China.

Hope these tips useful to you.

We had no problems exchanging money in all the big hotels that we stayed in. Some of the travel books will tell you to go to the official banks to get a better rate, but there didn’t seem to be enough of a difference to make us want to 1) find the banks, 2) find out the operating hours, 3) venture in there and hope that we found someone that spoke English (once you get out of the big American hotels it can be very difficult finding someone who speaks English).If you travel to China, take note of the basic problem.

Also, be sure to get some of the small bills/coins (China has tiny paper bills that are worth about 1 cent). There are plenty of things that are very inexpensive, and people/vendors are not always able to change big bills. (I’m talking here about bills the equivalent of our $5 and $10 – they are too big in many cases).

As far as prices in China, things are less expensive there than here. Taxis are very, very inexpensive. Guided China tours are about half what you would expect to pay most anyplace else. Hotels (Sheratons, Hyatts, etc.) are also about one half of what you would pay here. Restaurants are very reasonable. We were able to get some good prices on some gold jewelry; but jade was very expensive.