On my trip I heard of many ways to get money in and out of China. There are actually multiple ways to do this legally and illegally. Some context: China has a $50,000 USD transfer limit[1] per year per person. This was put in place to prevent government officials or businesspeople from transferring large sums of money out of the country and escaping. This limit is a problem for businesses because they often have to transfer large funds for payroll or inventory purchases. Over the years, there have been many creative ways to overcome this limit.
The Institutional way
Let me describe legal ways first: there’s a Hong Kong company called Hsu Financial Services.The sole purpose of this company is to move large amounts of money in and out of China from Hong Kong. For example, if you have a factory in China that has a 3 million-RMB-per-month payroll, you would use this service in the following way: You have factory in China and an accounting or sales office in Hong Kong, and all the money would normally be sent to the sales office in Hong Kong. Whenever you sold a thousand hairdryers, for example, all of them would be in a Hong Kong facility. In this case, a thousand hairdryers, you would actually go into the Hong Kong branch of Hsu Financial Services and deposit 3 million plus a small transferring fee. The China branch of Hsu Financial Services instantly would pass the money over to your China factory for payroll/purchases.
The Gold Bar Method
Out of all the methods I heard of this is my favourite, and the most illegal. To perform this trick, you need to be rich, which you should be already if you are transporting gold bars. You must buy a Hong Kong to China license plate (1-5 million RMB), buy a really expensive car in China and gut this car completely. By gut, I mean remove everything except the frame and engine. Then proceed to stuff the entire lining of the car, all those nooks and crannies, with gold bars. Then put back the seats and panels. Finally, drive this car across the border from China into Hong Kong. This works in many ways; if you have a fancy car, such as a Bentley, they would not really look so thoroughly. If by chance someone does look, you just throw them a bribe and you’re good to go.
[1]http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/11/11/getting-cash-money-rmb-out-of-china.html
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Swimming with Asian Sharks - Business Secrets from the Pacific Rim
Non-FictionEver wonder what it takes to do business in Asia? How do Asian business executives behave and think? Do you want to create a business from scratch in under 24 hours? If so, this is your guide. This book is a compilation of over one hundred business...
