PRC Madness
China is fucking crazy. I mean retarded crazy. Anyway, here's just a few tales of banking madness:

* You need a card per province that you plan to use your Bank of China account

* If you use one province's card in another province, they will not only charge you to take money out of your account, but to put money IN.

* In some regions banking is stupid difficult - expect problems on opening a dual-currency account, receiving money from abroad (they don't understand middle names or how banking can route money around the world in different ways)

* In at least one region in which I have lived, FOREIGNERS couldnt change money into US Dollars. Only Chinese could. Yeah, cuz so many Chinese need foreign cash when they can't bloody leave the place.

* Queues generally mean nothing, and if the cashier looks busy and doesnt glance up as you wait in line (another concept they dont get), just walk up there and try your luck, nine times out of ten it will work.

Tossers.
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 0:29, 5 replies)

"You need a card per province that you plan to use your Bank of China account"
I've read that sentence over and over and I don't get it.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 10:01, closed)

I do believe ...
The Yeti-man means that China is divided into Provinces, like for example, how the UK is divided into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

And each different Chinese Province requires a different keycard? Is that it? Shit ... that's weird.

I studied Chinese at uni. Can write my name and order in a Chinese restaurant, but that's about it. They smile at me and pat me on the head.
(Que?, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 11:09, closed)

yeah essentially ...
there's 23 provinces in China, much like there's 50 states in the USA, or god-knows-how-many counties in the UK (geography of my own country not being my strong point) - imagine if you held an account in Shanghai and Jiangsu and lived on the border between the two. end up in the wrong one with the wrong card and you'd get charged for any transaction (not a lot, but still, charging me for putting money IN, wtf?) ... or if you did a lot of travelling round China with just one province card, the alternative being carrying 23.

*mind boggle*
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 20:03, closed)

Being a communist country wouldn't one expect money things to be weird there?

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Tue 21 Jul 2009, 20:25, closed)

rofl!
you think it's communist. that's quite cute.

china is the most capitalist motherlicking place going. they have a false economy which is entirely controlled by their govt (and not related to the gold standard, or so ive heard - that could be bollocks, but they seem to be remarkably unphased by the "financial crisis" which "the rest of the world" is experiencing but not them).

in short they call it "socialism with chinese characteristics" (not shitting you either) which boils down to "capitalism but we can't say that because it's not politically correct". there are SEZs (special economic zones) in places like shanghai and shenzhen with "more autonomy" which really means "capitalist infrastructure" because they've seen how capitalism works (hongkong, macau, taiwan, rest of world) better than communism anyway.

communism in theory was / is quite good. in practice it is bollocks and fell apart in china before it could ever really start, perpetuated long beyond its use by the shithead they insist on putting on the vast majority of their coins (i refer of course to mao). anyway, long story short, china is not communist :)
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Tue 21 Jul 2009, 23:33, closed)