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Paying in China for Romanian travellers

How Alipay, WeChat Pay, a foreign card and cash work in mainland China does not change with your passport, so none of it is repeated here. The wallet setup is on How foreign tourists pay in China, and the cash rules, the carry and declaration limits, converting leftover yuan back and the ATM terms are all on Cash in China and ATMs and getting cash. Four questions are genuinely Romanian, and they are the ones below: what your own foreign ministry tells you to expect from card acceptance, whether you can buy yuan in Romania at all, how a Chinese hospital expects to be paid, and two customs requirements that only the Romanian side spells out. Cards issued by Romanian banks have their own page.

Should I do it before China?

Partly — some of it belongs before you fly

The money itself is handled in China: Romania's MFA points its citizens at Chinese banking institutions and says nothing about buying yuan before departure, and no first-party source was found on whether Romanian exchange houses sell CNY at all, so the safest assumption is that you arrive without yuan and exchange there. The pre-departure half is the medical case. Hospital care is paid on the spot and the insurance behind it has to be bought while you are still at home.

How

  1. Can do in ChinaRead your own government's acceptance statement as a planning input, not a promise. Romania's MFA tells its citizens that bank cards are accepted for most payments in China, that outside the large cities cards are not always accepted, and that ATM availability is limited. That is a government-level statement about the country, not a confirmation that a particular Romanian-issued card will be accepted at a particular terminal.1
  2. Can do in ChinaPlan to obtain yuan in China rather than in Romania. The MFA directs its citizens to exchange money at banking institutions in China, where presenting the passport bearing the visa or the entry stamp is compulsory. The same page gives no advice about buying CNY in Romania in advance, and no first-party source was found on whether Romanian exchange houses sell CNY, so there is nothing here to plan a Bucharest exchange run around.2
  3. Do before arrivalKeep a physical credit card and the passport together for medical costs, and buy travel insurance before you fly. Romania's MFA states that medical services in China are not free and can be very expensive, and that hospital care and medicines must be paid for on the spot in cash or by credit card.3
  4. Do before arrivalCount the metal as well as the money before you pack. Romania's MFA states that amounts over USD 5,000 must be declared on entry to China together with precious metals over 50 grams. The USD 5,000 half of that is also stated on the Chinese side and is on Cash in China; the 50-gram precious-metals line is stated only by the Romanian source, which is why it appears here. Note that the threshold is given in dollars by a Romanian page, so a traveller carrying euros has to convert it mentally at the border, and the Chinese customs rule itself was not read directly for this record.4
  5. Do before arrivalIf you declare on the way in, keep the copy for the way out, and know the second Romanian-side requirement: the same MFA page states that a copy of any customs declaration made on entry must be kept for exit, and that taking more than USD 5,000 out of China requires an authorisation from a Chinese bank and the approval of the national foreign-exchange administration. Those are two separate permissions, and neither is something that can be arranged at the departure gate.4

What can go wrong

You planned to buy yuan at an exchange house in Bucharest before the flight and could not find one that sells it.

What to do instead Nothing official establishes that you can. The instruction your MFA does give is to exchange at a banking institution in China against the passport, so land with a widely accepted currency or a working card and settle it there; a bank counter at the port of entry covers day one.2

You leave the tier-1 cities carrying only cards, and the small restaurants and market stalls have no terminal.

What to do instead Your MFA's own warning is that outside the large cities cards are not always accepted and ATM availability is limited. Carry cash and set up at least one mobile wallet before the trip.1

You need a doctor and your only working payment method is a mobile wallet.

What to do instead Hospital care and medicines are paid on the spot in cash or by credit card, and the European health card has no effect in China. Carry the physical credit card, the passport and the insurance documents together.3

You plan to leave China carrying the foreign cash you did not spend, and it comes to more than USD 5,000.

What to do instead Taking out more than USD 5,000 is described by Romania's MFA as requiring an authorisation from a Chinese bank and the approval of the national foreign-exchange administration, and the copy of the entry declaration has to be kept for the exit. The fallback recorded against this record is to carry well under the threshold in cash and rely on card and wallet for the rest.4

You exchanged money at a bank counter but arrived through an automated channel with no visible entry stamp.

What to do instead The passport has to show the visa or the Chinese entry stamp as applicable, so a visa-free entrant with neither visible may need the entry record retrieved. Use a bank branch rather than a hotel desk, and keep the exchange receipt.2

Last verified and sources

Each record below is shown as provenance: who published it, what kind of document it is, how far it reaches and when we last checked it. The source’s own wording is not reproduced here — most of these documents are published in Chinese, and a translation of ours would be a paraphrase standing where a citation should be. Follow the link to read any of them in the original.

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