My wife, my son and I arrived in Urumqi on 6/9/2000 for a 3-week tour of Xinjiang, China. We were travelers on our own and did not book any tour in Xinjiang before our departure from Malaysia. We intended to hire a 4-wheel drive vehicle with a driver to travel around Xinjiang.

Upon checking, I was surprised to learn that only some hotels (4 or 5-star) accept International Charge/Credit Cards for payment and though some banks in Xinjiang has ATM machines they would accept only ATM cards issued by them. Other outlets, including restaurants and even tour agencies accept only cash!

Under the above circumstances and with the total amount of cash that we had with us, we found that we would be short by about US$1,000. Therefore, our only source of getting sufficient fund would be to use our credit cards to withdraw cash from banks in Urumqi.

Upon inquiry, we were told that there was only one branch of Bank of China located on Guangming Road, near Hongshan Park that would allow one to use credit cards to withdraw cash. So, we went there in the afternoon of 07/09/2000.

At this branch of the bank, I approached a teller and handed to her my Amex Card and told her that I wished to withdraw some cash. She accepted the Card and said that she had to phone Beijing for approval (whether to Amex Office in Beijing or Bank of China in Beijing I was not sure). After the phone call, she returned the Card to me and told me that my Amex Card could not be accepted for cash withdrawal. No reason was given. I next handed to her my UOB Master Card. She made another phone call and again returned the card to me and told me that it also could not be accepted.

My last resort was to see if any of my son's credit cards could be accepted. He produced his City Bank Master Card and handed it to the teller. Again she made a call to the person she spoke to the last time as I overheard her saying that the new card belong to the son of the previous cardholder. After her call she told my son that his card was acceptable for cash withdrawal.

We were relieved that at last we could have sufficient fund to last the whole duration of our sojourn in Xinjiang. However, the episode left me wondering whether the Bank of China considered me less credit-worthy than my son or whether UOB was less credit-worthy than City Bank.

A S Toh

19/10/2000