Before you start

Passport and valid residence permit
A Chinese mobile number in your own name
Work permit or employer letter
Proof of address and the temporary residence registration slip

Step-by-step

1
Get the SIM before you try the bank
Account opening requires SMS verification to a Chinese number, and the number requires real-name registration against your passport. The order cannot be reversed.
In personWho: YouDay 1–2
2
Use a branch in Shinan or Chengyang
Branches around May Fourth Square, the shipping district and the Korean community in Chengyang deal with foreign customers regularly. Bank of China, ICBC and China Merchants Bank are all workable. Ask a colleague for the specific branch.
In personWho: YouWeek 1–2
3
Bring the full document set
Passport, residence permit, work permit, employer letter, lease, registration slip, phone number. One missing item costs a whole appointment.
In personWho: You
4
Keep personal and business flows completely separate
In a trading and shipping city, banks watch personal accounts for patterns that look like undeclared business activity — frequent inbound payments from multiple counterparties, round-number foreign receipts, rapid in-and-out flows. An account frozen for review takes weeks to release and there is no fast appeal.
In personWho: You
5
Link the card to Alipay and WeChat Pay the same day
This is what makes the account usable — the metro, shared bikes, seafood markets, utility bills and the winter heating charge all expect the phone rather than a card.
Mobile appWho: YouSame day
6
Learn the outbound currency rules early
China operates capital controls with an annual individual conversion quota, and remitting salary abroad requires evidence of the income and the tax paid on it. Keep contracts, payslips and tax filings from the start.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Residence permit
Chinese mobile number in your name
Work permit or employer letter
Lease and temporary residence registration slip

Things most newcomers don’t know

In a port city, a personal account that resembles a trading account gets reviewed.

Qingdao's banks handle enormous volumes of shipping and trade money and their compliance systems are calibrated for it. Frequent inbound payments from multiple counterparties, round-number foreign receipts, or rapid in-and-out flows through a personal account will trigger a review, and a frozen account takes weeks to release with no fast appeal. If you trade on your own account, use a company account; if you do not, avoid patterns that look like one.

Source: People's Bank of China

Real-name registration binds SIM, bank and wallet, and a passport renewal breaks all three.

Your Chinese number, bank account and payment wallets are registered against your passport number and cross-referenced. Renewing the passport changes that number and each needs updating separately. People find out weeks later when a payment fails or the account is frozen. Do all three in the week you collect the new document.

Source: People's Bank of China

Foreign cards in Alipay go further in a cheap city than in an expensive one.

The payment-convenience reforms allow international cards up to USD 5,000 per transaction and USD 50,000 cumulatively per year after verification. In Qingdao a deposit plus three months' rent on a central one-bed may well sit under the single-transaction cap, which makes the foreign card a genuinely workable bridge for your first weeks. It is still not a substitute for a local account for salary, utilities and the winter heating charge.

Source: People's Bank of China payment guidance

Getting money out of China is documentary, not technical.

Individuals face an annual foreign exchange conversion quota, and remitting salary abroad requires proof of income and of tax paid on it. Your employment contract, payslips and annual tax reconciliation are the enabling documents and they need to exist as you go. Waiting until departure to move several years of savings is how people find the process slow or blocked.

Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange