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Comment on Bank of Stupid by Who?

Who? — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:18:29 +0000

Well… you can at least be thankfull that you don’t need to make money exchange in China! They came up with the most ridiculos rules just to make you waste a whole day (sometimes many days) in something that should take 2 minutes.

At least this is a one time thing, and hopefully you won’t have to go throw it again anytime soon!

加油!!

(PS. Maybe you should try with ICBC, so far they have been pretty decent in my case)

Comment on Bank of Stupid by Due-East

Due-East — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:14:50 +0000

Steve – It’s funny, right? When you go to the bank, they hand you some garbage bills, but when you go to deposit money, you can only bring in perfectly crisp, unused bills. For as filthy as the money that exchanges hands here is, they sure do worry a lot about bill quality.

Tom – I think I’ll take your advice and just make it easy on myself. IF they’ll let me take all but one RMB out without my actual card in my hand. You never know when the old “make up a regulation on the spot” game will pop up around here.

Comment on Bank of Stupid by Tom

Tom — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:19:30 +0000

I had a friend with nearly the exact same problem. Pull out all but one RMB, and then just never close the account. Since the banks are not in any substantive way connected, they have no idea if you have an account somewhere else. Save yourself the headache and take the easy way out.
I like to think that bank of China is losing tens of dollars (or more) managing accounts with 1rmb in them simply because they were too stubborn to let a foreigner close the stupid account with out their stupid ATM card.

Comment on Bank of Stupid by Steve

Steve — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:48:30 +0000

HSBC China recently gave me a bedraggled pile of notes over the counter. I queried their condition and was told they were fine.

Unconvinced, I asked to deposit them back immediately, to which they replied that they weren’t of high enough quality to accept…

Comment on No smoking please by Due-East

Due-East — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:26:00 +0000

I agree with you wholeheartedly. And while I don’t see it happening extremely quickly, I think little examples like ours will help in the long run…Thanks for reading!

Comment on No smoking please by Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 02:25:47 +0000

Good for you. I’ve done the same thing on several instances and I know exactly what you mean about how ashing on the floor pushed you over the edge. To become a civilized society, China needs people to stray from the status quo and exert effort to make it a better place.

Comment on Chengdu Living: “Five must-see websites to advance your Chinese” by Charlie

Charlie — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 12:00:20 +0000

Thanks for the link! If you have any suggestions for other sites to add, I’m already working on a follow up post so you can leave those in the post comments.

Comment on The whole world’s a….uhh…toilet? by Due-East

Due-East — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 23:48:04 +0000

It’s not that bad! Otherwise, I wouldn’t stay here. I’ve been here for a while now, and this is the first time I’ve seen a grown man poop on the street. And I’ve only seen one grown woman pee in public, but she was trying to do it out of the way. China isn’t designed with bathroom convenience in mind, and when you gotta go, you gotta go! I suspect that things like this, which are already rare, will become more and more rare as time goes by because they’re building public bathrooms more and more here. So, again, I’d say at least come VISIT China before you go to Taiwan to see for yourself how it is here…

Comment on The whole world’s a….uhh…toilet? by nikki

nikki — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:14:58 +0000

Thats it! Forget China, I’m going back to Taiwan. I don’t think I can handle that.

Comment on Dear China – Take action or quit complaining by nikki

nikki — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:41:13 +0000

sounds like you’re having a meltdown. hang in there