Originally Posted by
travelinmanS
Go ahead and try with just the Chinese bank info (SWIFT). I've never had a problem using just that and wiring to ICBC from the states.
Agreed. I wire money directly from the US to ICBC on occasion, and the process from the US side is no different than any other international wire. That having been said, I only do this drill as a last resort because it is a serious PITA on the Chinese side (e.g. you actually need to go into a branch with your passport and fill out forms* in order to move the funds from your --pretty much useless-- USD account to your CNY account). I'd much rather spend 5 minutes at a CDM machine pulling money out from a US account and depositing to ICBC than do the above drill. If I wasn't in China, I'd Gpay money to someone I trust in China, and ask them to deposit into my account at an ICBC CDM for me (no ATM card is required for this).
*Our company also ran into an exceptionally annoying snag on an inbound wire to CMB recently. Basically our (English) company name on the remittance form was ~4 letters shorter than our registered company name (because the field on the remittance form wasn't long enough). This issue took a solid month, including 3 long bank visits, to resolve.
*A more frequent hold up is that when wiring USD (or HKD) to Chinese people, our company often needs to provide them with a letter (e.g. XXX is a contractor for our company.....) for them to bring to their bank in order to get the funds released.