Adventures in banking and auto racing...

Tuesdays I don’t teach any classes, and this Tuesday I had a mission. I was going to open a Chinese bank account and I was going to buy tickets for this weekend’s Formula 1 race. This was, as things always are, easier said than done. I enlisted the help of my department’s secretary to call and see if tickets for the race were available. The tickets were available although slightly more expensive than I would have hoped. No matter, this is a special occasion and I have never been to an F1 race before. Since the race was so close, I couldn’t have the tickets delivered and must go to a ticket counter to purchase them. I made my way into town and found the ticket office with not much trouble at all. It did take me about 2-3 minutes to find the right counter. Just slightly embarrassed after realizing it was likely the one with F1 and then a bunch of Chinese writing. Capitan Obvious strikes again. I was mentally reviewing how I would ask for tickets when a woman behind the counter got my attention and asked me what I needed, in English. This gave me a twinge of regret for not being able to hammer out the details in Chinese, but made the process go smoothly.

Before the ticket business was taken care of, I had gone to accomplish my first task of opening a Chinese bank account. I wanted to deposit my salary for teaching, as carrying that much cash is never a good idea. My first attempt was with Citibank, a US company and a preferable option. As I walked in the door, the kind lady at the info desk informed me that this branch only handles minimum deposits of 10 thousand dollars, depending on the account. This was out of the question so I asked if she recommended another place. She said to try the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. Seemed like a good idea, and it was even right next door. I walked and got my number in line, slightly inspired by the number-giver’s good English. The line was short and I only had to wait a few minutes. Tellers at a Chinese bank must cringe a little bit inside when the see an obvious westerner coming. They can’t know the level of language proficiency or what they could possibly want. I decided to start small and see what I could manage. I greeted the teller with a friendly hello and asked “Can I open a savings account?” She seemed confused and said no. I asked if I could deposit money in the bank. This seemed to make more sense and she asked for my passport and money. I produced both and she asked if I wanted US dollars. “No I just want to put money in the bank…open an account.” This turned into a flutter of activity behind the glass windows. She ran around to a few of the other tellers and dragged another young woman back. I restated my request and she said yes. I was handed forms that I’m pretty sure I filled out correctly. Asking such hard questions such as my address (ran out of space, but got in the important info) and ID (used my passport number) I felt a bit uneasy signing it as I could not read parts of the agreement. After much more fluttering around she printed a savings passbook and a piece of paper for me to sign denoting all the information was correct. I read as much as I could and took a look at the last item, which I believed to be the interest rate. It seemed a bit high, so I asked about it. After another 5 minutes of conferring with colleagues, drawing some interesting diagrams, we did come to an agreement that was what it was. Even though I was still a bit uneasy about the whole deal, it could be expected with the language barrier. However, it was easier that trying to deal with Greek and Czech postal systems.

Thus far I feel I accomplish both tasks. My opinion may change, but I think the F1 is a sure bet. Dan and I are sitting right on a hairpin turn, so there is sure to be some good action.