Originally Posted by 889

As I recall, almost precisely the same question was asked here a while ago, and the OP there finally asked at a Chinese bank in the U.S.

The answer was no. If you want to open a Chinese bank account that lets you do the things you can do in China these days with a Chinese bank account, then you have to open the account with a Chinese bank in China.

Be forewarned that it's become more difficult for foreigners without a work permit to open bank accounts in China the past couple of years. Not necessarily impossible, but it might involve a great deal of legwork, since the only way to be sure is to show up at a particular branch and ask.

Note that step one, opening a bank account, will get you a UnionPay card, which you can use to pay at a lot of places in China. With many banks, you can also use a UnionPay QR code to pay with your phone, just like Alipay and Wechat.

If you want to move to step two, linking your card to Wechat or Alipay, this can be relatively simple, or an impossible hassle, depending on the phase of the moon at the time you were born. Which is to say, try, but don't count on getting it to work.