There is an American Express business travel center in the Swissotel Beijing Hong Kong - Macao Center in Beijing. American Express has four other travel service offices in Beijing , Shanghai , Xiamen and Guangzhou and 23 representative offices throughout China. There is one in the Beijing World Trade Center Shopping Arcade. Credit cards are becoming increasingly accepted. In most banks it is possible to obtain cash.
Chinese people are very good business people that can smell money when it's lying around.
They consider Westerners to be living and walking money bags. Even if it is sometimes a nuisance, they reason that even if you pay several times the price that a local pays, you still can afford it. Always ask for the price first, especially in restaurants. However, it seems that still a few circulate. The disappearance of the FEC also caused the black market to virtually disappear.