Regrets I can't provide addresses - but many music stores that sell drum sets - especially the smaller ones - have drum practice and teaching rooms (for obvious reasons). Shouldn't be too difficult to rent time for a nominal fee.

SHAMELESS UNCOMPENSATED PLUG FOR CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK
I use China Construction Bank (10 years now). I get charged CNY 0 (zero) for incoming international wires - both from myself and family - pretty much regardless of which US bank the payment originates from. Same with Paypal transfers to myself. The disadvantage - I have to go the bank EVERY time to manually move the currency into my bank account and then manually convert it into CNY.

If you're a Chinese national - you can avoid these fees on Paypal and Alipay using direct USD/EUR/etc to CNY transfer fees by subscribing to a direct exchange service company - in china - but you have to have an international paypal/alipay account and a domestic account in the same name.

This currency exchange service is STILL not available to expats in China for whatever reason. They recoup their fees from the currency exchange markup (typically ~1%).

SWIFT sending fees are typically USD 35, regardless of size, so if you're a Chinese national - this service breaks even fee wise around USD 3500 (1% = USD 35) - but can't beat the convenience of NOT having to run down to the only branch that provides this service to expats.

Chinese people including overseas Chinese generally wear contemporary Western garb and fashion, drive western styled vehicles, computers, mobile phones, etc ad infinitum.

The "cultural appropriation" comment by that kid merely shows a lack of depth and maturity in logical thinking - as hopefully demonstrated by the above counterpoint.

As for the young woman - if one can make a qipao work - glory and praises...enjoy the moment and the memories, take lots of pictures...

@here
The caps were for the originator's reference. They are NOT intended as a counterpoint. What you said is correct - I also tried to use offshore PayPal - but it wouldn't link to my bank account.

As for WeChat and Alipay - not sure about WeChat - but alipay needs a Chinese ID card to move cash to yourself overseas along with the currency exchange.

Paypal - FYI - also requires a Chinese ID card to register for currency exchange - avoiding the SWIFT wire transfer fees. Hopefully - expats will be able to also use that system in the near future - but no promises from PayPal.

@herenow
To connect PayPal to a Chinese bank account, you MUST register and use PayPal China, which does NOT require a VPN.