Before you start

Passport and valid residence permit
A Chinese mobile number in your own name
Employer letter or work permit, requested by most branches
Proof of address, and often the temporary residence registration slip

Step-by-step

1
Get a Chinese SIM before attempting the bank
Account opening requires SMS verification to a Chinese number, and the number requires real-name registration against your passport. There is no way around the ordering.
In personWho: YouDay 1–2
2
Pick a branch used to foreign customers
Branches around Liangmaqiao, Sanlitun, the CBD and Wudaokou handle foreign residents daily; a suburban branch may never have done one. Bank of China, ICBC, China Merchants Bank and the mainland arms of HSBC and Standard Chartered are all workable. Ask a colleague which branch they used, and go to that one.
In personWho: YouWeek 1–2
3
Over-prepare the documents
Passport, residence permit, work permit, employer letter, lease, registration slip, phone number. Being sent away for one missing item costs a whole appointment and Beijing branches are busy.
In personWho: You
4
Link the card to Alipay and WeChat Pay the same day
This is what makes the account usable. Almost nothing in Beijing — the metro, a bike, a hospital appointment, your electricity — expects a physical card.
Mobile appWho: YouSame day
5
Learn the outbound rules before you have money to move
China operates capital controls with an annual individual conversion quota, and remitting salary abroad requires evidence of the income and the tax paid on it. Keep contracts, payslips and tax filings rather than discarding them.
In personWho: You
6
Keep a working foreign account and card
You will need one for anything unreachable from a Chinese card, for travel, and as the destination for transfers out. Do not let your home banking lapse.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Residence permit
Chinese mobile number registered in your name
Work permit or employer letter
Lease and temporary residence registration slip

Things most newcomers don’t know

The whole system chains off real-name registration, and a passport renewal breaks the chain.

Your SIM, your bank account and your payment wallets are all registered against your passport number and cross-referenced. Renewing a passport changes that number, and the bank, the carrier and the payment apps each need updating separately. People discover this when a payment fails or an account is frozen weeks after a routine renewal. Do all three in the same week you collect the new passport.

Source: People's Bank of China

Foreign cards in Alipay work for daily spending and fail at the amounts that matter.

The payment-convenience reforms allow international cards in Alipay and WeChat Pay up to USD 5,000 per transaction and USD 50,000 cumulatively per year after verification, with a lower ID-free tier below. Coffee and taxis are solved. A rental deposit plus three months' rent up front in a central Beijing flat can sit at or above the single-transaction cap. Treat the foreign card as a bridge for your first fortnight.

Source: People's Bank of China payment guidance

Getting money out of China is a documentary problem, not a banking one.

Individuals have an annual foreign exchange conversion quota, and remitting salary abroad generally requires proof of income and of the tax paid on it. That means your employment contract, payslips and annual tax reconciliation records are the enabling documents, and they need to exist as you go rather than be reconstructed at the end. People who wait until departure to move several years of savings find the process slow and occasionally blocked.

Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange

Which branch you walk into matters more than which bank.

National rules leave discretion, and how a branch exercises it depends on how often it has onboarded a foreign resident. Two branches of the same bank in Beijing will give different lists of required documents. This is unfamiliarity rather than obstruction, and it is entirely solved by asking a colleague for the specific branch and, ideally, the specific counter they used.

Source: community-reported