Memoirs of Beijing

Living in Beijing for more than 5 years, I’ve heard and lived through my fair share of new changes implemented by the municipal and national government and establishments.  Some are acceptable and fair while some are stupid and ridiculous.

Here are some new rules or laws implemented in China which I’ll live it up to you to interpret if it’s stupid or good:

-  Internet Security  -

To individuals who like to use free wi-fi in public places, you might as well just leave your gadgets at home as the government ordered your friendly places to install an expensive software to monitor internet usage.  This monitoring software costs RMB 20,000 and the establishments has to foot the bill.  Those who refuse and continues to offer this service will be fined RMB 5,000.

I don’t mind them monitoring our internet usage but if they want to install a software, they should offer it for free.  Moreover, they should at least upgrade their mobile network service as even though it’s supposed to be 3G, the only thing I’m picking up from China Mobile is 2G.  Last week, our engineering team was saying that the telecommunications bureau would like to conduct a survey in our building if the people would like to upgrade from 2G to 4G.  I’m just like, they can’t even make their 3G network run smoothly, now they’re upgrading to 4G?  Geez!  Talk about priorities. 

Also, when will they bring back the sites which they’ve blocked because they want to protect children from pornographic and violent web content?  They have a Chinese version of twitter, youtube and Facebook which practically offers the same thing.  Maybe I should pursue my Chinese studies further to use those sites.

Late October last year, I posted a dummies guide to banking in China.  To start the Chinese New Year, I’m posting part 2 on my dummies guide.  Of the banks in China, I’ve banked with Bank of China, Bank of Communications, ICBC, China Construction Bank and China Postal Bank.  Among the services that these banks offered, I’ve only used online banking, credit card, savings account, time deposit account, salary account and bills payment.

Between October and the present, here are some stuff I missed in my previous note:

• ICBC can only provide either a passbook or an ATM account.  Bank of China on the other hand can provide you both passbook and ATM when you open an account.
• You can use your ATM card to withdraw in other countries as long as the ATM machine has the Unionpay logo.  Make sure it’s Unionpay as it also look similar to the JCB logo.  Maximum withdrawal per day is RMB 5,000 worth of whatever currency you’re in and RMB 15 for each withdrawal.  RMB 4 will be charged for balance inquiry.  This is a cheaper alternative than Western Union or Moneygram.          Read the rest of this entry »

Banking in China is a daunting and painful process for foreigners. In this post, I will be writing 5 years worth of experience in doing business with the local banks. The top 4 banks in China who also has branches in the hinterlands are Bank of China (BOC), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) and China Construction Bank (CCB). There are other banks which are branching out to more provinces such as Bank of Communication, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Bank, CITIC Bank and China Post Savings Bank.

Here are some tips and trivia about banks in China:

• Most Chinese Banks are open 7 days a week from 9am to 5pm. Banks in office buildings are usually closed on the weekends.
• Queues are sometimes short but are usually long. Upon entering the bank, make a beeline right away at the number issuer machine. If they call your number and you aren’t there, you will need to take another number.      Read the rest of this entry »