I am also interested in a way to transfer money electronically so i will share my (unsuccessful) experience to date. I had my money in Bank of China and armed with my home account details i went in expecting a smooth (ha ha) transfer of accounts. I wnet to the main branch of Bank of China in the city. The money involved was in my local currency in a Chinese account. Easy, you would think. No. I was told that the only countries Bank of China recognised were the US, the UK and Germany. Because they also refused to let me have a bank draft, i was left with a choice. Leave the money or withdraw it in cash. I took the cash option. Not ideal, but i had no choice. So like you, i would like a simple solution to this problem (sorry i couldn't give you an answer.)

I'd look into WesternUnion.

If you do anything through a bank, remember that the bank employees generally know nothing, always get a second opinion from a different branch. Often you will get a "can't be done" when in fact most is possible. Transferring money out of China is a bitch for non-Chinese though. 

I had the same idea!

Theoretically, there should not be any problem if your intention is to transfer the money outside China. The inconveniences rise when you want to transfer funds from abroad.

As you know, PayPal’s fees are quite reasonable, in fact, are cheaper than my country’s Western Union.  However, the Chinese banks will ask you another fee (around 300 RMB the last time I check) for transferring from your PayPal to your bank account.

Another hindrance could be verifying your PayPal account with a Chinese bank but if you can solve this, the rest suppose to be easy.

Now, just remember two things:

1.  
2. 1) You can’t have two PayPal accounts with the same name

2. 2) The data (name and address) in your bank account must match with the information that you will provide to PayPal.  

I have used Paypal to transfer funds into my British account. It's not as easy as you might think, but a damn lot easier than trying to send money home through the conventional banks. First of all, you need a Chinese bank account with internet payment enabled. Each bank gives you a different tool for online banking...ICBC is a "calculator" thing, the Bank of China is a key code, China Construction bank is a USB thing...and so on. Once you have this, you just set up a chinese paypal account and transfer it into your home paypal account and send the money home - but be careful because when I tried paypal locked me out of my account for thinking I was a hacker and wanted all sorts of obsurd documentation...so try not to send too much home in one go if you can't get this documentation (bank statements, etc). One last thing...as a foreigner you can't verify your account so each bank account you get allows you to send 1000USD and that's it before you need a new bank account and a new paypal account.

Just to add 

China merchant bank(CMB) have some sort of co-operation with Western Union.I use that to transfer funds from China to my country and its quite simple.You have to do the following:

1.Open a bank account in CMB.Give your tax receipt and work permit photocopy to open the account along with your passport.

2.Get a letter from the company that you are working there and need to send money to your country at regular basis.

3.Go the CMB and ask for an international transfer form.

4.Now depending upon the availability of $ in the branch at that time make the transfer.

Note:

1.They charge 80 rmb flat + 0.01%(cant remember exactly) of rmb converted.

2.You need the SWIFT code,account number,name,address of branch of the recipient(I never tried on my own account).

3.In the reason column of transfer write : family maintenance 

4.They said they use Western Union but my Chinese is very bad and their English was not so good, so i cant enquire further.

5.It take around 1 week for the transfer.

PM me if required

It's a good idea and can work but I'd be a little mindful of the limits. You'd be better of taking your money to HK and sending via Western Union.

I've had so many problems dealing with Paypal. I hate that everything is in US funds. I pay and even when the Cdn $ is up, I pay exchange so I loose, then if I get a refund, I pay exchange again to get CDN, because buying and selling do not use money value exchange rates, but buying and selling rates. Just dealing with Paypal can be difficult. They are not your bank. They cut me off last time I was in China, wouldn't accept who I was no matter what I told them, even my visa number. They told me to make a new account and use my visa number. WTF?

 But even getting a refund, can only get for 45 days. So if you wait too long, you get screwed. If you use Visa, you are covered for 3 months, so I use Paypal from my Visa and bypass the dispute claim and phone Visa if I have a problem.

 Paypal also charges you a commission on sales, You could end up paying for the transfer.

 I have used Western Union to send money and found if I go to a WU office the fee is much smaller than if I send on line from my bank account.

From reading the above posts it seems the paypal method only allows you to send up to 1k USD from your chinese paypal (linked to chinese bank account) to your paypal abroad?

Western Union, going to Chinese banks with passports, ridiculous fees. This is all BS people. It takes me approximately 2 - 3 minutes to transfer funds from my Chinese bank to my Australian bank with the final step, that is the money appearing in my Australian bank taking 2 - 3 days.

I use Paypal and the Construction Bank who supplies the USB style and it's just short of fantastic.

1. You need an international Paypal account - use China drop down box.

2. Set up your internet account at the CCB. I used a Chinese assistant to do this.

3. Go through the steps with the assistant once you are at home because while the CCB does have an English page that does not apply to the transaction you are about to do.

3. You need a USA Paypal account, connect that to your USA bank account. Steps in Paypal show you how to do this.

4. Once you have those things in place the only time you will ever have to go to a Chinese bank is to deposit your salary.

5. Plug in your USB. DO NOT use a VPN or Chrome. IE or Firefox is fine. I might mention that you need to download the security set up from CCB into your computer. Get your assistant to help with that because that also is NOT in English.

6. Open your Chinese Paypal and make a payment to your USA Paypal. You will be asked by Paypal to start the banking process. A window in CCB will open.

7. Enter your Username which will be your passport number, then your password and the captcha number

8. Do the transaction. The limit is 5000RMB I think. The screen will take you back to the Paypal screen. The transaction goes thru and within 10 seconds your money is in your USA Paypal.

9. Log into your USA Paypal and transfer the money to your bank account there.

10. Go to bed and stop worrying. The money will appear in your account in 2 - 3 days.

While the setting up seems long winded it really was pretty efficient, certainly a damn sight better than my experience with BOC and infinitely better than the BS I went through with Western Union. Honestly, the transfer takes me about 2 - 3 minutes. Fees are minimal and I assume Paypal makes some money from the exchange rate in their favour but it's not outrageous.

Feel free to message me for any clarification. Please note, you CANNOT transfer money from your Chinese bank into your Chinese Paypal. The Chinese Paypal acts really as a middleman through which the money is transferred.

QED.