Classes are Over, but the Lessons Keep Coming

Tuesday we had our last class, and immediately afterward I cracked open a 13 cent beer (not really, but they are cheaper than dirt--or at least cheaper than Coke). Now we're into finals. These last few days I have felt my Chinese language abilities come to a pinnacle. While I have everyday conversations with my classmates, it's not the same as talking with a real Chinese person--when talking to another student you have to lower your vocabulary, because maybe the other person doesn't know a word that you know, or you don't know a word they do. The end result is a dumbed-down conversation.

But yesterday starting with the conversation with the taxi driver about all kinds of stuff, including China's and the U.S.'s pollution; continuing through my 15 minute oral report/Q&A on China's non-public economy; and finishing up with my 20 minute oral interview/test with my Chinese Spoken Language teacher today, I can finally see the full effects of two months of not speaking English. I think the real topper was when Ren Laoshi, the director of this CET program in Harbin, personally sat in on my oral report, and in the end commented on how much I had improved (My teacher at Vandy also has an advisory position with CET, and a relationship with Ren Laoshi and other teachers at the program, so many teachers knew me before I even got here). She has been so helpful through this program, and I hear from others who had her as a teacher here last year that she was an extremely good one. I'm really not surprised.

Anyway, so the continuing lessons I was referring to in my title actually concerns the aforementioned taxi driver--I was with him on my way to Bank of China--the main bank of China and the only place you can exchange money. To simplify China's banking system, it has 4 banks: Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of China (BOC). From what my teacher tells me, there really is no difference, except that Bank of China is the main one (the names have nothing to do with the customers' occupations).

So I'm at BOC at about 12 noon, and the first thing I notice is the mass chaos of probably more than 50 customers banking/waiting to be served. I'd been there before, but not when it was this busy, so I only knew that you had to take a number when I saw other people holding them. But where to get them? After looking around for a good few minutes I figured out that the BOC "manager on duty" was handing them out next to the printing machine. After waiting behind 3 or 4 other people waiting to talk with him, I finally told him what I wanted to do--exchange travelers checks--and which window I needed to go to. He gave me my number--only 7 people in front of me--but failed to give me the form to fill out while I wait.

Well no problem, I'll just go to the Form Table and find it. After digging through the unorganized forms, I realized that it wasn't there. I went back over to the "manager" and waited another few minutes behind people, then asked where the form was. He dug around a bit, and finally found it. I sit down and fill it out in all of 3 minutes, and then notice that there are still 7 people in front of me. But this is because they only have 1 worker behind the Foreign Currency Exchange windows. After waiting 20 minutes only to have 1 person in front of me finish, I go over to the "manager" and ask him if it is always this slow. He said because it is between 12:00 and 1:00, it is "rest time." I've also noticed this practice at the hospital I went to for my leg x-ray: between 12:00 and 1:30 there, things just shut down.

This is one huge difference between China's economy (banks especially) and the U.S.'s economy: in the States, when you have a room that full of customers, your private banks are going to alternate workers in and out, or tell them to take their lunch break during the slow times; in China, when all the banks are owned by the government, who cares? What are your customers going to do, go to one of the other 3 banks you own?

So after waiting another 10 or so minutes while one more person is served, it's my turn: the other people in front of me have given up. I get the window and tell the lady that I'd like to exchange travelers checks. At this point, as expected, she tells me that from 12-1:00 you can't exchange travelers checks--for what reason I didn't understand, but I don't think there's an international law about exchanging travelers checks during lunch time. I tell her that the "manager on duty" said that I could exchange them now, and she said "he doesn't know." (Now you know why I've been putting "manager" in quotations) So now I've got 15 minutes to kill until 1:00, and I didn't bring anything (material for my oral presentation later that day) to do, so I walk outside and just kind of stare into space.

Nearly 15 minutes later I'm back in the bank and sure enough, 20 or so workers march into the room and take their positions--the staff has just doubled. I go to the first open window I see (the lady said since I already waited an hour, I didn't need a waiting number). It takes me all of 5 minutes and I'm out of that god-forbidden place.

As you can tell, my experience with Chinese state-owned-enterprises wasn't exactly a positive one. While I have been saying that China just has 4 banks, this isn't completely true. China entered the WTO in 2002, and their 5 year grace period for implementing economic reforms, such as opening up their banking industry to foreign and private competition, has just expired. Citibank already has branches in Beijing and Shanghai, and is the first-ever bank in China to launch a drive-through ATM.

This is what opening up their banking system and economy will do--increase the quality of service. And as you can tell, I definitely think it needs it.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...nothing that interesting happen lately, except getting little sleep and studying until my head hurts.