Latou thanks for all the advices... the BoA is the one that contacted the CCB here and their reason is they cannot contact the recipient (maybe they just made one call then that's it or not at all? crazy) so they are holding the money... but they gave a number to my friend for me to call here.. but yeah everything is okay now and yeah you're right CCB told me it's still in USD though my friend told me that he already converted it to CNY...welcome to china...

Bertholt Brecht, on John Dillinger: "What is the (something - problem? crime? importance? significance?) of the robbing of a bank compared to the FOUNDING of a bank?"

I understand that many Chinese banks and their staff don't have the best service, but surely here they aren't to blame because OP failed to properly check his account and waited so long before going to the bank and asked about the transfer. The bank usually don't need to call you when you receive a transfer. You might get an SMS if you subscribed to the notification service for movements into your account. You're already supposed to know that a transfer is coming. Also, they aren't "holding the money". You make it sound like they don't want to give it to you. The money is already in your account and you are free to use it, even if it's in foreign currency. There's a section in your online account where you can transfer and/or convert all or part of the money to your card, and that amount will then show up on your card when you check the balance at an ATM. Don't blame this adventure on them because you failed to properly follow the steps.

Yes, welcome to China, the land where western expats are quick to make negative assumptions.

Sorry to break it to you man, but I keep coming to the bank almost three times a week to check if the money has already arrived..and yes I subscribed to the bank's notification but received nothing 'till today...and since this is my first time of receiving wire transfer outside China I'm expecting that the money would arrive in my CCB account and I will receive a bank's notification since that my friend in US told me that he already converted the money into RMB but to my surprised, after I made several calls with different bank's personnel they finally told me to go to the branch near Parkson and the money is still in USD... and asked them to kindly convert it to RMB and deposit to my account and that's the time I received a bank's notification... the bank where I opened my account didn't even know that the money had already arrived 5-7 days after my friend wired. (though they made a lot of calls each time I went there)...

and hey man, I didn't mean that they don't want to give it to me.. of course they are holding it because they cannot contact me "according to them", what do you want? they'll give it to other people?? they are holding it because they are waiting for me... thanks for your post here anyway...

@yankee
The money is NOT in your account until you manually verify your identity with your passport. It does NOT show up in your USD savings account, as it's in TT (wire transfer) limbo - the bank hasn't transferred it to your account yet, hence @jan-jan's consternation.