House purchase and Banking options?

The process of sending money to a bank in China can be very straightforward and easy. You dont really have to go through a foreign bank and pay premiums.

The other way around is where you will hit many walls, there are only two legal ways I'm aware of:
1) You are employed in China with a resident permit or business owner, example consulting firm, WOFE
required documents: residence permit, wor k contract, proof of tax from local tax office, filling a form, converting the RMB to USD.

As mentioned above, the property market in China is almost closed for speculation. Many new regulations were introduced to stop families from owning more than one home! Since 2012 it's no more a gold mine, but for long-term investment it could be rewarding assuming you are buying in cash without a loan!

Construction quality: it's mainly crap and so much monkey-business involved, unless you can afford houses from top developers, still they only offer 10 to 15 years insurance on water leakage and material breakdown from facades.

Property management, facilities, parking lot:The property developer will hire a company to manage the compound, facilities and parking lot. Assuming you bought that apartment because the salesman mentioned residence will have access to gym, swimming pool, parking lot, kids playground etc. etc. well, those things are not for free. for 120m2 small apartment you will end up paying in average 4000RMB/year as management fee and almost the same to park your car and maybe 2000RMB per year to use the gym and swimming pool. and I'm not talking about high-end compounds!