Send money from South Africa to China
African importers buy from Guangzhou, Yiwu and Shenzhen, and most of them pay in dollars and lose a second spread when the supplier converts. A sender in Cape Town shouldn't need a spreadsheet to work out what will land at ICBC. Grey shows the CNY figure before the money moves.
ZAR
CNY
-
Trusted by 3M+ people around the world
GOOGLE PLAY •22K REVIEWS
APP STORE • 12K REVIEWS
South Africa to China without the detour
South Africans earning from foreign clients or employers hold USD on Grey and send onward without touching rand. Looking at Guangzhou, the picture is clear. African importers buy from Guangzhou, Yiwu and Shenzhen, and most of them pay in dollars and lose a second spread when the supplier converts.
Grey converts USD to CNY in one step and pays into ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China or any other bank in China. Your recipient sees a normal CNY credit and never needs to open a Grey account.
How sending to China works
Sign up
A SA ID or passport and a few minutes in Johannesburg. Your account arrives with dollar, euro and pound details for receiving money from abroad. Grey works with licensed partners serving South Africa.
Fund
There's no local currency top-up in South Africa. Your Grey balance is whatever foreign income you've received, and that's what pays for Guangzhou.
Send
Chinese banks reject payments where the name doesn't match the account, so copy it from the supplier's invoice. Then confirm the yuan figure and send.
Why the rate matters more than the fee
The CNY figure Grey quotes in Johannesburg is the figure ICBC credits. There's no second conversion on the China side to eat into it.
No adjustments after the fact
The USD to CNY rate you see at confirmation is the rate applied. If the dollars move between your tap in Johannesburg and settlement in Guangzhou, your recipient's amount doesn't.
That matters when you've promised a specific figure in yuan.
Why South Africa to China deserves a proper rate
Anyone in Cape Town who has sent to ICBC the old way knows this. When you wire dollars to a Chinese supplier, their bank converts at a rate you never see and sometimes holds the funds for review. Yuan lands as a domestic credit. Grey gives a sender in Johannesburg a locked rate, a visible fee and a CNY deposit that arrives whole.
Your recipient's view in China
Your recipient receives CNY at ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China or any other Chinese bank as an ordinary deposit. The transfer shows as settled in your Grey app in Johannesburg at the same moment.
Any Chinese bank
Enter the account number and bank name. The CNY posts directly to that account.
Save the recipient
Paying the same person every month? Save the details once and resend in three taps.
GreyTag for Grey users
If the person in Guangzhou is also on Grey, GreyTag moves the money instantly at no cost.
Funding, step by step
South Africans on Grey are funded from abroad: a foreign employer, a US client, a family member. That dollar balance sends to any destination without a rand step. A transfer to Guangzhou is then one conversion, shown before you confirm.
No local deposit
Grey in South Africa is funded from abroad only.
Three currencies in
USD, EUR, GBP all accepted, all convertible to CNY.
One conversion out
Rate shown before you send to Guangzhou.
Term fees and rent in Guangzhou fall on fixed dates. Set a reminder, keep the balance ready, and the transfer from Johannesburg takes under a minute.
Who uses this corridor
Importers
Deposits and balance payments to factories in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Yiwu and Ningbo.
E-commerce sellers
Recurring payments to suppliers on 1688 and Alibaba who accept bank transfer.
Students
Tuition at universities in Nanjing, Wuhan and Guangzhou, paid in yuan.
Agents and freight
Paying Chinese sourcing agents and forwarders in local currency.
Three kinds of sender use this route from Johannesburg: families with someone in Guangzhou, parents of students, and businesses with a supplier or contractor in China. African importers buy from Guangzhou, Yiwu and Shenzhen, and most of them pay in dollars and lose a second spread when the supplier converts.
What Grey does differently on this route
African importers buy from Guangzhou, Yiwu and Shenzhen, and most of them pay in dollars and lose a second spread when the supplier converts. Grey exists on this route so that the CNY arriving in Guangzhou is never a surprise to the person who sent it from Johannesburg.
Senders in Johannesburg see two numbers, fee and rate, before anything moves. CNY then lands in any Chinese bank.
Get digital banking
at your fingertips
