Years ago, before I met my Thai wife, I had a Chinese girlfriend who was taking a Business course at University in the UK. Her dad was a board member of a large construction company and every so often sent his daughter a very substantial amount of money to her in the UK for her studies. This arrived by way of a courier, a stewardess, with a major airline. My girlfriend would arrange to meet her at her stopover hotel in Heathrow Airport and collect her money. I'd imagine connected individuals are still using methods like this.