Lessons in patience
To the editor:
Chairs are an obvious difference between Chinese banks and American banks. It should be considered a warning sign when you walk into a bank. Chairs are at the teller stations. Chairs are also in the waiting area, lots of chairs. There is a reason for this being the standard. Banking is a full-time job.
My grandfather would tell stories of countersigning early forms of traveler’s checks for a customer. Many hours spent writing the same thing on each line. At the time, in the 1950s and ‘60s, it was customary to have lots and lots of paper involved in a relatively simple transaction. Longtime tellers blanch at the thought of what they had to do to reconcile their drawers. As banks modernized and better tools have become available a new attitude has also emerged. A line begins to form at the bank and most managers are dashing out of their offices sorting through the issues and trying to get the customers out the door. Bank tellers are people too.
Dante tried to describe Purgatory. Dante was a wimp. When you enter a Chinese bank the first thing you do is get a service ticket. The belief is that this will speed your time at the bank. Please note, there are seven people in front of you.
Paper was invented in China. Modern banking has taken full advantage of this. A typical bank transaction here involves enough paper to cover a bare backside. Useful if there are problems in the future. My situation was modest. I needed to pay a fee for my new visa documents. The officers at the Entry/Exit Bureau accepted my collection of documents and after much discussion with other officers presented me a bill for the service.
It was a nice bill, clearly printed in black and white, perfect margins and clearly indicated fees for me even if they were almost all in Chinese. I was then told to pay the fee at the office of the bank. The EE Bureau deals with foreign nationals on a daily basis. It is here that we get our visa stamps, negotiate the labyrinthine maze of bureaucracy that permits us to live and work in the country. They are very adept at making certain that their paperwork is in order and explicit in instructions. Since they have modernized the office they have handed off the collection of fees to the bank. This is a nice feature because any office of the bank is able to accept payments.
Having an hour between classes I dashed to the bank. No luck. After an hour I went back to the classroom. Lunch time came. I returned. Sounds of stamps hitting desks. Every document in China needs a stamp of some sort. And the love of triplicate and quadruplicate forms knows no bounds. Thump, thump, thump, rustle, thump, thump, rustle; tearing forms in two followed by more thumping.
China’s largest bill is the 100 RMB note. This is still a cash country. Most people use cash for everything. This means lots of pieces of paper. Lots of counting has to be done. Every teller position has a mechanical counter but the clerks still have to hand count lumps of cash. It is a long, involved process.
After much stamping of papers; sorting them out; stamping more forms; feeding paper forms into the printer; stamping the newly printed copy; folding that copy a certain way so that it held its attachments together; pointing to a digital counter; nodding my head I finally received the receipt I needed. Total time for a simple transaction — one hour 45 minutes. At this rate, Methuselah is still waiting for his pension check. Thankfully there is a chair at the teller window.
Orpheus Allison
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
