Originally Posted by
deltame
Best ATM option for withdrawing cash (in China) is to use BOA Visa debit card, no fee from any ATM that belongs to China Construction Bank (widely available in most cities in China). If you don't have an account with BOA, you can open a basic no fee checking account (eBanking) then use online ACH at the BOA site to transfer in some money from Chase before you fly out to China. Keep in mind that there is a daily ATM withdrawal limit and the amount could vary, e.g., up to 2500 or 5000RMB/day in Shanghai.
Best credit card option is Discover card (processed via UnionPay in China) or other credit cards that have no foreign exchange fee (but do watch out for DCC as eluded by another poster).
BofA is far from the best ATM card to use in China because it's only fee free at CCB ATMs, which are sometimes hard to find... and, the one's near me in Beijing tend to run out of money every Sunday/holiday.
The best ATM cards are those issued by banks that are fee free everywhere in the world. Schwab is the most popular one here because it is completely free and many of us tied them to our Schwab Visa cards back when they existed. But, there are numerous others out there (e.g. small banks, credit unions, and brokerage companies that don't have their own ATMs).