If you have the minimum RMB needed to open an account, then probably the best on the mainland are the mainland branches of the HSBC.  Following that, I might recommend the Shanghai Pudong Investment Bank, if there is a branch of that in your city, or Merchants' Bank of China -- although MBC is not a relatively large bank, they do have quite an international sense about them.   I use BOC myself and yes, the online just drives me mad at times.

bank of china.

Unfortunately, Bank of China is the best that I have seen from the major banks I have tried.  It just isn't a very mature market here for that sort of thing yet.  Most people don't trust it, so they don't use it. Not getting used means not getting valuable customer feedback for updates.  No updates, means no incentive for merchants to take online transfers, etc...  In the end, it just stagnates and becomes next to useless.

But the good news is that China is slated to allow more and more foreign banks into China.  They will bring their mature products with them and that in turn will put much needed pressure on the Chinese banks to finally update their offerings.

Thanks guys. I guess I'll stick to China Merchants Bank. I need a Chinese bank account for shopping on Taobao, so HSBC is not an option in this case, even though it has always appealed to me.