T minus 4 days and counting...
Yesterday seemed like a good day to tackle a chore we knew (or thought we knew) we had to do: When I returned my rented piano back to the piano store, they refunded to me the sizable deposit I had put down (less rent and moving fee) — in cash, in Chinese rmb. Foreign nationals are only allowed to purchase a limited number of US dollars in exchange for Chinese currency per day — $500 to be precise. Of course, as currency controls typically are, this rule is quite porous, as it is enforced by recording your passport number at the exchanging bank — and no place else. The rule therefore actually applies only per bank per day. You can simply trot from one bank to the next, changing the equivalent of $500 in rmb at a time at each, all on the same day, and nobody says boo.
As the deposit was a little more than twice the limit, I had to find two banks nearby that do foreign exchange, and I would be set. I had good hopes for the bank down on the ground floor of our apartment building, but a sign on the door advised that, sadly, foreign exchange prestidigation is beyond the powers of those within, and would you please visit their more capable branch (about a mile away). On the way there, I passed two other banks that would do the exchanges, and about an hour later I had 10 crisp $100 bills, and about 70 fewer not-so-crisp 100¥ notes. If it hadn't been so cold and windy, it could have actually been a pleasant time that I had doing this.
Banks in China all work the same, which is to say, the same in the main, but completely differently in the finer details. On entering the bank you need to get a number. Without a number you will never interact with a teller. The thing is, each bank has a completely different scheme for sorting its customers out. You don't want just any number, but a number in the range of numbers for whatever it is that you want to do. Nobody beats the Chinese for inventive schemes for sorting things by type.
The first bank I went to was easy. There was a machine with around 10 different buttons labeled in Chinese and English. I got a number for "international cash transaction" and settled in for what proved to be 20 minute wait, and a further 20 minutes later, was ready to go find another bank. The second bank was harder. A similar machine, yes, but only three buttons, and only one had any English on it. That one simply said "VIP." While I was pondering, things were taken out of my hands, as another patron reached around from behind me, pressed the VIP button, and handed me the ticket produced, and then kind of pushed me out of his way for having his own go at the machine. I felt more "important" after that. With my VIP ticket, the wait was only 5 minutes. The exchange still took 20 minutes.
At both banks, much paper had to be produced, everything in multiple copies, and stamped, multiple times with multiple different stamps, and shifted from place to place before it was all over. At the first bank, some of the pieces of paper, I am not kidding, was actually folded into charming little origamis so that it would fit into the pigeonholes of the ancient desk the teller was manning. Astonishing really, when you realize that all of what was on each of those sheets of paper got there as the result of using some pretty cutting-edge high tech gear, including, at the first bank, a lightning-fast scanner that made pictures of everything to do with the transaction from my passport, to the exchange invoice, to the little pile of 100¥ notes I was exchanging. Nobody but me actually wrote by hand on any of those pieces of paper. One wonders what future lies in store for those pieces of paper, so carefully produced, stamped, and distributed?
After returning home to our apartment from my banking excursion, and thawing out a bit, it was time to tackle the next chore we knew we had to do: to arrange for two suitcases, one with winter weight clothes, the other with my music, to travel back to the states. You see, we are going home from Shanghai (average daily high temperatures this week in the low 30s F) to San Diego (average daily high temperatures this week in the high 60s F) via various countries in Indochina (average daily high temperatures this week in the 90s F). So methinks we won't need our woolly sweaters and other cold weather garb during our week in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, or immediately on return, and we will surely enjoy our travels more with less baggage to shift.
Knowing what you want to do and why doesn't make it any easier, though, when you need help to do it, and the help has to come from someone who may work for a multinational corporation, but may nonetheless not speak much English. So began the web searches, the phone calls, the taxi trips to office branches that weren't really much help, or to others that are simply no longer there (because the entire office tower they were in is in renovations, a common occurrence in Shanghai these days).
After much exploration, we narrowed things down to two options: use one of the firms that claim to make the arrangements for you (but use FedEx themselves), or make the arrangements with FedEx yourself. It eventually turned out the leading firm who will do things for you — called Luggage Forward — is unable to arrange international service with less than 4 business days lead time. Of course their web site clearly states "same-day pick-up is available" if you call a number in the Boston area code. That number isn't staffed during hours convenient to China, though, and by the time I actually connected with a person there, I was given the bad news that we didn't have enough lead time. So, I obtained the number for the FedEx China "hotline." After a few calls I connected with a very nice man who was very helpful, and even told me that our shipment qualified for a 25% discount from the standard rate. Unfortunately, they are completely and totally unable to take an order for a pick-up with more than 1 business day of lead time. So yesterday the best he could do for me was to promise to save all my details and promise to call me back today to finalize the order, which he just did. Whew!
Just one thing, though. You'd think if you're dealing with FedEx it would be possible to make the payment by credit card. Not so. When the pick-up occurs next Monday afternoon, they will take our payment in cash in Chinese rmb. So about half the cash I changed to US dollars yesterday will have to be changed back. Of course, changing US dollars into Chinese rmb is much easier than the opposite and can be done even at the front desk down in the lobby of our apartment building.
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