A rejected card at a Chinese ATM usually means you picked the wrong machine, not that your card is blocked. The network coverage is genuinely uneven.
Which machines to use#
Stick to ATMs at branches of the large national banks — Bank of China, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China. These are the machines most likely to carry the international networks, and they have English interfaces.
Airport arrival halls and major train stations are reliable. So are machines inside bank branches during opening hours, which has a second advantage: if the machine retains your card, there is someone on the other side of the wall who can retrieve it.
Avoid standalone machines in convenience shops and hotel lobbies. Many are domestic-network only.
Before you leave home#
Tell your bank you are travelling. A first-ever Chinese withdrawal is exactly the pattern fraud systems block, and unblocking it from China — where your bank's app may need a VPN and their phone line is an international call — is genuinely painful.
Check your card carries a Visa, Mastercard, Plus or Cirrus mark. Bring a second card from a different bank, kept somewhere separate. This is the cheapest insurance in travel.
How much you can take out#
Per-withdrawal limits are set by the machine and are lower than many travellers expect, so a large withdrawal may need several transactions. Your own bank's daily limit applies on top. Since each withdrawal typically carries a flat fee, fewer larger withdrawals cost less than many small ones.
Plan not to need them#
Set up Alipay with your foreign card before arriving and you will use ATMs perhaps once. Cash in China is now mainly for small rural vendors, temple donation boxes and the occasional stubborn machine.
For exchange rates, declined-payment troubleshooting and how much to carry, see the guide to money and payments in China.