Quote:
Originally Posted by kidwang
Sorry, should have clarified: bringing USD bc I'm from the US going to Hong Kong/Macau for the Macau Cup in February
Go to a mainland Chinese Bank like Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and ICBC. They exist in Macau but easier to find in Hong Kong. I assume rates of exchange at Hong Kong banks is solid too but unsure. The one thing Chinese banks are good at is exchanging limited amounts of money at fair rates.
Your own Bank in states should be able to exchange a decent amount for you at a decent rate as starter cash.
Never change money at the airport, professional money changers also rarely a good idea but some can be reasonable - just do the math ahead of time to know what you should get - more than a few times I've been handed a smaller amount, asked them if they are sure and then they're like "oh whoops I must have hit the wrong button" - that's where most their profit comes from when they do fee-less transactions like any good bank. Airports will often charge about 10 bucks just to do an exchange and then do really bad rates. Western Union and other wiring services often give a ****ty rate and don't even let you know.
You should also be able to use your ATM card at some atms there but being on the china side I haven't done this first hand and can't vouch for rate of success but know plenty of people that have done it (with lots of complaints).
I could be totally wrong but I'm pretty sure even when dealing with a proper vendor and not treating a jewelry shop as a pawn shop, you still never get fair value reselling gold because they need to make their profits when they try to turn around and resell that later that day.