“Can use my credit card in China? Are there any hidden fees for buying stuff with credit card in another country?”

The short answer is, yes, you can use your credit card in China.

Hotels and restaurants tied to hotels make it easy to use your credit card for payment. Credit card companies typically charge some kind of small international processing fee for overseas transactions, but it’s usually very modest.

Outside of major hotel chains, using a credit card gets a little more complicated. Many of the places I tried to use my credit card in China, including clothing retailers and bookstores, were very suspicious if the signature on the back of my card didn’t look exactly the same as the one I had just written on the sales receipt. There were also many places I went where credit cards simply weren’t accepted methods of payment. There are plenty of ATM machines around, so obtaining additional RMB for cash purchases was no problem.