china ....currency exchange...food, any advice

Welcome to China! For currency exchanging, I havn't been abroad, so I don't know whether it can be done out of China. But in China, you can find any subbranch of four major state-owned commercial bank to exchange currency. The four banks include Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agriculture Bank of China. Among them, Bank of China used to be the only bank which can do currency exchange, but now all of the four have this service. For food, you don't need to worry about. You can find restaurant everywhere in China. Unless you have a special diet, food will not be a problem.

vandamn, If you are visiting the big cities like Guangzhou, Beijing, Kunming or Shanghai - you will not have any problems finding a bank in the airport to get your China currencies. You can also use your bank cards with certain ATM which has the corresponding Global ATM Locator like Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard, Maestro or Cirrus. Overall, I just find the ATM of Bank of China, Construction Bank of China and ICBC to have these locators. If you are really hard press for time which usually happens when you arrive on a delayed flight, you may consider looking for an ATM at the arrival hall otherwise, you can exchange your local currencies with the hotel's reception preferably US dollars or UK pounds or travelers checks in those denominations. Never exchange your money from other sources like souvenir shops or street peddler for risk of being swindled with counterfeits or worse get yourself robbed or pickpocketed. Always stash your cash in several pockets or better still carry a anti-theft wallet with you. The biggest denomination of the China currency (Renminbi) is 100 yuan so do not be sold for other bigger denominations. Be very careful when you are changed with a 50 yuan which is green in color, there's quite a lot of counterfeits for this denomination that even the locals are wary and cautious. For a quick test, rub the prints with your thumb to see if the ink would come off onto your hands. Don't be shy - do the test in front of the person who gave the money to you, so that there will not be a plausible deniability situation. I hope the tips above will be sufficient and of help for your trip. Should you need any further information, just respond.