Once, on a backpacking trip to Xinjiang (China), the train
journey was so long & tiring, that we decided to fly domestic
back to Chengdu (instead of by train), but we din have enough cash
or travellers' cheques for that unplanned flight. So I went to the
main HQ of bank of China and asked to withdraw cash by charging to
my cr card. The staff had never done this b4, and had never seen Sg
cr cards, but they finally allowed it after I talked to the
manager, all bec they know the visa or mastercard logo, and base
their trust on that logo. 
