Renminbi runs on a ceiling system, not a declaration threshold
The State Council measure establishes 限额管理制度 — a ceiling-management system — for currency crossing the border, and says the renminbi a person carries 不得超出限额, may not exceed the limit. It is written for Chinese citizens and foreigners alike, in both directions, and counted 每人每次: per person, per crossing. The measure itself names no figure; it delegates the number to the People's Bank of China, which is why the figure lives in a central-bank announcement rather than in a customs document.
State Council Order No. 108, Article 3
Source: State Council of the People's Republic of China, full text published by the People's Bank of China, which Article 7 makes the interpreting authority — 《中华人民共和国国家货币出入境管理办法》 (Measures for the Administration of National Currency Entering and Leaving the Border), State Council Order No. 108 (State Council Order No. 108, in force from 1 March 1993; read 2026-10-06)
The number is 20,000 yuan, and it has stood since the start of 2005
The central bank's announcement calls its own figure a 限额 — an allowance — and describes itself as adjusting the currency entry and exit allowance. It raised the per-person-per-crossing figure from 6000 元 to 20000 元 and repealed the earlier announcement that had set the lower number. If you find a 6,000-yuan figure in an old guidebook or forum post, this is the document that ended it. It took effect on 1 January 2005 and nothing we opened shows it adjusted since.
People's Bank of China Announcement No. 18 of 2004, first paragraph
Source: People's Bank of China — sealed original, served from the bank's own Legal Affairs Department path — 中国人民银行公告〔2004〕第 18 号 (People's Bank of China Announcement No. 18 of 2004), on adjusting the currency entry and exit allowance (Signed November 2004, in force from 1 January 2005; read 2026-10-06)
Declaring and staying under the ceiling are two separate obligations
The duty to declare national currency truthfully to Customs sits in its own article, stated without any figure attached: anyone carrying it across the border declares as the state rules require. So the two obligations coexist rather than substitute for each other. Staying under 20,000 yuan does not exempt you from declaring where the declaration rules bite, and declaring does not buy you a way over the ceiling.
State Council Order No. 108, Article 4
Source: State Council of the People's Republic of China, full text published by the People's Bank of China, which Article 7 makes the interpreting authority — 《中华人民共和国国家货币出入境管理办法》 (Measures for the Administration of National Currency Entering and Leaving the Border), State Council Order No. 108 (State Council Order No. 108, in force from 1 March 1993; read 2026-10-06)
Posting banknotes across the border is separately prohibited
Enclosing national currency in postal items crossing the border is prohibited in its own right, as is transporting it without authorisation. The mailed-item allowances further down this page are about goods. They do not open a route for sending cash in or out instead of carrying it.
State Council Order No. 108, Article 5
Source: State Council of the People's Republic of China, full text published by the People's Bank of China, which Article 7 makes the interpreting authority — 《中华人民共和国国家货币出入境管理办法》 (Measures for the Administration of National Currency Entering and Leaving the Border), State Council Order No. 108 (State Council Order No. 108, in force from 1 March 1993; read 2026-10-06)
The penalty article deliberately names no sum
Violations are referred to the competent state authorities to be handled under law and, where serious enough to constitute a crime, to the judicial organs. The article fixes no amount, no multiplier and no confiscation formula. So the missing fine figure on this page is a feature of the instrument rather than a gap in our reading of it.
State Council Order No. 108, Article 6
Source: State Council of the People's Republic of China, full text published by the People's Bank of China, which Article 7 makes the interpreting authority — 《中华人民共和国国家货币出入境管理办法》 (Measures for the Administration of National Currency Entering and Leaving the Border), State Council Order No. 108 (State Council Order No. 108, in force from 1 March 1993; read 2026-10-06)
Foreign cash coming in has no ceiling, only a written declaration above the US$5,000 equivalent
An arriving person carrying foreign cash worth more than the equivalent of 5000 美元 declares it to Customs 书面申报 — in writing, which is the sharper version of the instruction the English clearance guide gives. There is no inbound limit on the amount itself. People crossing more than once in a day or more than once in a short period are carved out of this article and handled separately.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 3
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
Declaring on arrival is what makes leaving with the same cash a formality
If the foreign cash you take out does not exceed what you declared on your most recent entry, you need no permit at all: Customs releases it against that inward declaration record. This is the Chinese-law spine under the two-form endorsement procedure described above, and it is the single cheapest thing a visitor can do — declare properly on the way in, and the entire outbound permit regime stops applying to you.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 4
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
Foreign cash going out is a permit regime, not a declaration threshold
Where there is no inward declaration record to rely on, or you are carrying more than it records, departure is graded in three bands by amount, and above the top band Customs refuses release rather than asking you to declare. Stacking several bank-issued permits does not get round it: where the stamped permits total more than the equivalent of 10000 美元, 海关不予放行 — Customs will not let the money through.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 5
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
Above the US$10,000 equivalent you are in special-case territory
The measure states as a principle that a departing person may not carry foreign cash worth more than the equivalent of 10000 美元, and that anyone who genuinely needs to applies to a foreign-exchange bureau branch for the permit. In the same breath it names what it expects people to use instead for larger sums: a bank remittance, a draft, traveller's cheques, an international credit card. The answer to moving more money is a different instrument, not a bigger pile of banknotes.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 7
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
A second exit in the same day or the same fortnight is capped much lower
The measure defines 当天多次往返 as leaving or entering more than once in one day and 短期内多次往返 as more than once in 15 天 — fifteen days, which is an ordinary itinerary for a visitor fitting in a Hong Kong or Macao side trip, not an edge case for border traders. Without an inward declaration record to rely on, a second exit on the same day is capped at the equivalent of 500 美元 and a second exit within fifteen days at the equivalent of 1000 美元, with Customs refusing release above those figures.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Articles 2 and 6
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
The outbound permit is single-use and runs out in 30 days
The 《携带外汇出境许可证》 carries either the foreign-exchange bureau's approval seal or the issuing bank's dedicated seal, and is valid for one use within 30 天 of the day it is issued. This is the permit's own validity. It says nothing about how long the Customs-endorsed copy of your inward declaration form stays good for, which is a different piece of paper from a different regime and still unanswered below.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 11
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
Traveller's cheques, drafts and cards are outside Customs control under this measure
Drafts, traveller's cheques, international credit cards, bank and postal savings certificates and foreign-currency securities crossing the border are 海关暂不予以管理 — not administered by Customs for the time being. Read it exactly as it is written: it is a statement about what Customs administers, with 暂 (for the time being) in the text, and the issuing notice explains these instruments were being folded into the banking system under separate rules. It is not a statement that money held this way is unregulated.
Interim Measures on foreign currency cash, Article 18
Source: State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the General Administration of Customs, jointly, in the State Council Gazette on the Central People's Government portal — 《携带外币现钞出入境管理暂行办法》 (Interim Measures for the Administration of Carrying Foreign Currency Cash Into and Out of China), issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号 (Issued under 汇发〔2003〕102 号, in force from 1 September 2003; read 2026-10-06)
These are the national instruments behind the two figures at the top of this page, read off their own promulgated texts: the State Council measure and central-bank announcement that set the renminbi ceiling, and the joint foreign-exchange and Customs measure that governs foreign cash. Each states its own date and what it replaced, and nothing we opened shows any of them amended since — but the foreign-exchange administration's own site could not be opened from here, so this page says 'in force from 1 September 2003' as the measure itself states, and does not claim more than that. The instruments also say nothing about the exchange rate used to test an equivalent, nothing about the size of a fine, and nothing about a balance held in a wallet app.