Withdrawing cash in China with a foreign card: three limits, one machine

The short answer

Yes, major Chinese bank ATMs accept overseas-issued cards, and yes, you can usually get cash — but three different parties set three different limits, and travellers routinely confuse them. Bank of China publishes a single-transaction limit of 3,000 yuan for foreign-card cash withdrawals on its ATMs, while it states that other limits, including daily and annual cumulative limits, are determined by your own issuing bank, and that the fees are set by the overseas issuing bank too. [1]

So the honest answer to "how much can I take out?" is: 3,000 yuan is what this bank's machine will dispense in one transaction, and everything above that depends on a bank you should ask before you fly. This is desk research checked on 24 September 2026; we did not test a machine, and no figure here is a promise about your card.

1. Separate the three limits before you plan around any number

Per transaction. Bank of China's ATM page states that the single transaction limit for ATM cash withdrawals using foreign cards within China is 3,000 yuan. [1]

Per day and per year. The same page states that other limits, including daily and annual cumulative limits, are determined by the issuing bank. A public traveller thread shows the confusion this produces: one commenter insisted 3,000 yuan "is not the daily limit, it's the transaction limit" and described taking out 12,000 yuan in four attempts, while another commenter had told the same thread that the daily limit was around 3,000 yuan. [4] Treat the thread as evidence of the question, not as a rule: it is the bank that issued your card that caps your day, not a forum. [1]

Fees. Bank of China states that the specific services available and the fees for cash withdrawals and inquiries are determined by the overseas issuing bank. [1] Ask your own bank what it charges for an overseas ATM withdrawal and for currency conversion, because that is the number that reaches your statement. It is also the question the public threads keep asking with no numbers attached: what fees should be expected, and what the typical withdrawal limit actually is. [5]

2. Which cards, and which machine

Bank of China publishes that its ATMs support withdrawals and balance inquiries around the clock using major international bank cards issued outside China, including UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, JCB and American Express. [1] Its cross-border guide for short-term visitors repeats the same network list for cash withdrawal on ATMs linked to the bank, and adds that supported services are subject to the card issuers under the rules of the international card organizations. [2]

The practical reading: network acceptance is published at the level of the ATM operator, but whether your transaction succeeds is still a decision your issuer makes. Look for the card-network logo on the machine rather than assuming every ATM in view will read your card. Travellers themselves disagree on how common this is — in one thread a commenter reports that most machines only accept Chinese accounts, and two others immediately answer that the major banks take foreign cards — and no official page we retrieved settles how any particular machine is configured. [5] A different experience at a standalone machine in a small town from what you get at a bank branch is a distinction travellers raise publicly, again with nothing official behind it. [4]

3. PIN length and other machine-side failure points

A recurring public report is that some Chinese ATMs expect a six-digit PIN and behave oddly with a four-digit one; commenters in the same thread describe opposite experiences, including a four-digit PIN working without a problem. [4] We found no official page that states a PIN-length requirement, so this guide does not assert one. What is defensible: confirm your PIN length and that your card's PIN is not blocked for overseas use before departure, and if a machine rejects the PIN, stop rather than retrying repeatedly — repeated failures can trip your issuer's fraud controls and leave you without cash on the day you need it.

4. If the machine keeps your card

Bank of China's visitor guide gives a specific procedure: keep the printed slip, contact the staff of the institution managing the ATM or call the customer service centre at 95566 to confirm the time and process for collecting the card, and collect the card within the time prescribed by the bank for collecting a swallowed card. [2] This applies to that bank's machines; another operator will publish its own route, so read the notice on the machine in front of you rather than assuming.

5. Cash is a fallback, not your main plan

The same Bank of China guide describes exchanging cash at branches: settlement and sales services for up to 38 foreign currencies, with small-amount exchange available on presentation of a passport or other valid ID without opening an account, plus authorised hotel reception counters and airport exchange counters where a person may exchange up to 10,000 yuan per person per day and up to 50,000 yuan for the year. [2] Those are that bank's published figures for its own counters, not a national rule for every exchange point.

None of this changes the ordering that our existing payment guide already argues for: do not make your arrival depend on one method. An ATM withdrawal is a useful way to hold a small cash buffer for the cases where a QR payment or a card terminal is unavailable, and it is a poor reason to arrive with no mobile-payment fallback. Cash also has a practical limit in the other direction — travellers report that small vendors may not have change, and a public thread records both "there is absolutely cash everywhere" and "nobody has change", which is an argument for carrying small notes, not for carrying more cash. [4] [5]

6. What this guide does not establish

We tested no ATM, made no withdrawal and hold no issuer confirmation. The 3,000-yuan figure is Bank of China's published single-transaction limit on its own ATMs and may change; other banks publish their own figures, which we did not collect into a comparison table because we could not verify them for your card. The Agricultural Bank of China figure we cite is a credit-card cash-advance limit for that bank's own cards and is not a foreign-card rule. Fee amounts, your issuer's daily cap, your eligibility for mobile payment and the acceptance situation at any particular machine are all questions for your own bank and for the operator of the machine you are standing in front of. For the Chinese version, see the Chinese edition.