 | Credit card in China! part 2 I applied for a debit card in Merchant Bank of China to link both my 2 cards together (the credit with the debit), so that I don’t have to pay back manually my credit with my BOC account. It was farely easy and got the card ride away. Then I asked to link it with the credit card. They told me after trying several times that it cannot be done because there is a mistake with the name of my credit card. The names does not match… Can you then fix it? no, we ae in charge of the debit card department only, so you have to fix our mistake by calling the hotline support, here is the number, bablabla… I asked my girlfriend to call them as I got trouble to understand their chinglish on the phone. They say they cannot let her do it as she is not the owner of the card… so I called and reached the english service. They say: ok, I will do it no problem. I waited quite a time and he finally said that it doesn’t work because the passport number on my debit card is not correct. So they ask me to call the debit card hotline support. I was at this point quite annoyed with their service. Anyway, I called the debit card hotline support. Same you have to wait forever to get a hold on someone. After that, I explain them what is the issue. They checked the name on my debit card and apparently it was correct. So I asked to change the passport number. She asked me for the new number, I told her and she put me on hold while she changed it. It took about 10min and she came back telling that she cannot do it because it does not match the passport number on my debit card?! wtf!!! Why would I want to change if it would match? that makes completely no sense! She told me to call another number to change it. I was really mad, my girlfriend screamed on her and she hang up. So I think I will go tomorrow to the bank and don’t leave until they fix it… I really wonder how people don’t get crazy in this country… UPDATE: I tried to use my credit card yesterday night, but the password does not work anymore. I guess they changed it when I called them…. damn it! Seems like I will have to write a part 3 for this article |
Credit card in China! part 1 Credit card here in China gives me many times headache. So I decided to write a 2 parts article on what I have been through. Here is how it started: I needed a way to use my money out of China. The VISA or MASTERCARD seemed a good option. So I asked my bank (Bank Of China) to apply for a credit card. They told me to bring tons of paper to apply for it and also a tax receipt, so I went to the tax office to get it. It took a bit time because they made a mistake when they copy my passport number, soi they couldn’t find my file anymore. Once I got to the bank with all the needed papers, they explained me that if I apply for a debit VISA card, I cannot use it outside of China, because it is a sort of fake VISA… weird. So I asked for the credit card. I am not eligible to apply for it because my company does not use BOC for their business accounts…. alright thanks BOC. Next bank, I went to ICBC (another famous Chinese bank). Same sort of excuses, my company is not part of the top 100 companies in the world, so they refused… Finally, I learnt that I can get one from Merchant Bank.of China, it seems to be the only solution for foreigners to get a VISA card, at least in Shanghai. So I’m happy, I go there, I fill tons of papers, like always, wait for at least 1 hour (again), and they accepted my application and told me to wait for 2 weeks and I will receive it by mail. Seriously I couldn’t believe it, it seemed too easy. 3 weeks later, still nothing, so I asked my girlfriend to call the local bank and they replied that they lost my file… the manager of the bank said that they will make it up and process it asap. 2 weeks later I received my VISA credit card. I was really happy, seriously after all what I have been through to get it. I just noticed a mistake with my name on the paper that goes with the card but strangely, no mistakes on the card itself. I cannot understand how the names doesn’t match.. well it’s China….
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 | The “made in China” 3-brand car Have you ever seen the 3-brand car? These pictures have been taken form the same car:
Made in China (and only in China)! |
How to cross a street in China In China the rules on the road are a bit like juggle rules. The stronger (the bigger), the more priority you get. So as a pedestrian, it’s always a mission to cross a busy street. Basically, the trucks and buses have the highest priority, my Chinese colleagues told me not to step on the road when a truck is approaching, it will never stop. I saw in my neighborhood a truck crossing at a red light a non-busy road. It did not stop or even slow down at the crossing. Then cars followed by motor-bikes, bikes and finally pedestrians. So when you cross a street, first you need to watch on the both sides even if the street is only 1-way. There are so many bikes or motor bikes (even car sometimes) driving in the wrong side. Then if you are at a crossing, and even if the light is green for you, it does not mean that no one will come, so also watch at the cars in the crossing. In China cars can turn at anytime to the right side and… they (seems to) have the priority, even against pedestrians. In other word, don’t trust the signalization, just look around if you can cross. Crossing on a crosswalk does not make any difference, pay as much attention on those as if you were crossing any road. If you cross and a vehicle comes, it will usually honk at you if you are on the street to tell you “move I want to pass”. Even if a crowed is crossing, cars or bikes will force their way by honking, honking and… honking until they have enough space to go. In some cases, cars don’t even honk and don’t even slow down, so in that case make sure you don’t change your speed while you cross and that you trajectory stay the same. So to summary, when you cross:
… and you should be fine! | |
Massage in the plane! Spring airlines is a cheap air plane company in China. I took it from Shanghai to Shijiazhuang during the national day holiday. Despite the fact that the airplane was totally packed (normal it’s a Chinese holiday), and the seats too smal, something really kept my attention: At the end of the flight, a stewart went to the front row to guide the passengers to make a massage to their face. So everybody followed in the plane and starts to massage their eyes followed by their ears. That was quite entertaining to see everybody doing that. At the end everybody claps on their hands to thank the stewart. Apparently, during primary school they do the same during the breaks. A voice (from the speakers) will guide the kids to massage their face the same way the stewart did.
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 | Pollution in China Since 8 months, I barely seen a blue sky here in Shanghai. I heard people saying the pollution is even worse in Beijing. 2 days ago, the american embassy in Beijing states that the pollution in the capital has reached its maximal level. In fact China has different standard to measure the pollution level than what the World Health Organisation (WHO) specified. They use of course the same mean to make the measurement, and what is counted, is the amount of particles floating in the air which can enter the respiratory system. This measurement is usually expressed in PM unit. The difference resides in the scale they are using. In average, Beijing is 5 times more polluted than what the WHO consider as “okay”. The following map speaks by itself (it reflects the level of pollution in the world):
Source: http://chine.aujourdhuilemonde.com/une-etude-revele-lampleur-de-la-pollution-de-lair-en-chine http://chine.aujourdhuilemonde.com/comment-pekin-manipule-les-chiffres-sur-la-pollution |
 | Meet the dumplings
Food takes a big part in Chinese culture. With more than 80,000 different dishes I can guess that China has the most diverse cuisine in the world.
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Car license in Shanghai In the past few month the price of the car license in Shanghai has reached very high levels. The price is based on the demand and Shanghai is known as the most expensive city in China. And of course in addition to that, you have to buy the car have a valid driving license. | |
Online payment frustration with Chinese banks – episode 2 After the success of the episode 1, I had to make a part 2 and this time 3 banks are involved. Here is the story: So we had to pay for airplanes ticket to Beijing from Shanghai. After finding the right trip, I checked out my order and tried to pay online with my Bank Of China debit card. As usual, I went through different steps before going to the secured page of bank of china. I had to install again their tools because I was on a new PC. And after you install their tool you have of course to restart from the beginning the payment process. Then IE (Internet Explorer) blocked the tool so I have to click on the yellow banner on top of the screen to allow this tool to run with this website. But once you do that you have to refresh the page, and of course, refreshing is not allowed by Bank Of China, so, hop! let’s restart the purchase process again! Finally, on the BOC page again, I filled the information (password, username, security code) but it failed with no error message. I tried 2 other times, same, so after that I gave up. It’s okay I have another card, from Merchant Bank of China, a credit card this time. So let’s try with this one. Same as the Bank Of China card, you have to use Internet Explorer and install another little tool from this bank (and of course restart the purchase process at least 2 times before everything is in place). So first I have to allow my credit card to pay online. Hopefully my girlfriend helped me. No problem for that, I was actually impressed that it worked with no problems. So we started to make the payment, received the confirmation code on the cellphone and… an unknown error from the bank website. alright, this can happen, let’s try again… same. So my girlfriend called the bank. Once someone replied, they ask her to speak to me (the owner of the cqrd). But of course they do not speak english. So wait again… they found someone else to speak to me. The girl said I cannot pay more than 500RMB a time (around 50€). She said that I can use a third-party tool to make the payment and pay 4 times there. So which means if I have to pay for a plane ticket back to France, which costs around 8000RMB, I will have to make 16 payments! Anyway, so we gave up, it’s way too complicated. Last solution, we use the card of my girlfriend. The problem is that she does not have enough money so we had to go to a bank terminal to charge her bank card first. We went back home and make the purchase (must be at least the 10th time by now). And of course it did not work again. So she called her bank but nobody picks up the phone… retrying… waiting…. retrying… waiting… retrying… awwww… I’m tired, I will go to bed and try again tomorrow… good night. | |
How to become frustrated when paying online from a Chinese website Recipe:
When you need to transfer some money to another account, you can use the on-line banking website from Bank Of China or directly go to the bank to do it. I chose to use the on-line service. First this website only works with Internet Explorer, so I had to use Windows and install IE. That was the first “restart”. After I tried to login, they asked me to install an application on my computer to secure my login. After doing that you need to restart your computer and once again, loose all the information you previously filled until the login prompt (2nd restart). To pay, I had no much choice and had to choose the bank transfer. They gave me the account information for the transfer but they forgot to give me the account type (there are 5 different account type you can choose from the list). So I asked my girlfriend to call for me to ask for the required information (my Chinese is bad). Once done, I filled the last information and pressed the submit button. The website displayed this annoying “Timeout error” message. So once again, I had to restart everything from the beginning. Finally, after the 4th time, I managed to pass the submit button step. After this step I have to use the electronic device from BOC to get a e-token and fill a number I received by SMS. I finally pressed the ultimate submit button… and… haaaaaa! Frustration… the website shows “The transfer can only be done during working hours”. God damn it! They couldn’t tell me this before!!! Alright, so I have to do it tomorrow… When you are in China, you learn to be patient for everything (especially the banking stuff), but sometimes, you just cannot hold it anymore. |
 | mongolia 2010 (part 2) www.blaizard.fr - Slideshow of the last pictures I took in Mongolia. |
 | Mongolia 2010 (part 1) www.blaizard.fr - Slideshow of my trip in Mongolia. I took a classical route, using unclassical way of transportation. This made my trip even more random and of course more fun! |
 | 20minutes - Blaise, futur pambassador? www.blaizard.fr - Il concourt pour devenir gardien de pandas en Chine... Blaise a 25 ans et va peut-être bientôt réaliser son rêve: partir en Chine pour devenir gardien de pandas. Depuis que le zoo de Chengdu a lancé un concours sur le Web pour recruter ses six nouveaux gardiens, le jeune breton s'imagine bien partir dorloter les animaux pendant un an. C'est un article de 20minutes.fr qui a appris à Blaise l'existence du concours: nous l'avons donc mis à l'épreuve, pour tester ses capacités à devenir un bon Pambassador. |
 | Pambassador in China! www.blaizard.fr - I sent this video on http://www.pandahome.com for the pambassador contest. I hope it will lead me to success! :-) |
 | Dombas to Oppdal (Norway) www.blaizard.fr - I made a little video summarizing my trek from Dombås to Oppdal in Norway. It took me 6 days to achieve the trip and I walked through the mountains alone for about 120 km. Have fun watching it and I hope it will give ideas to people! check my blog (http://blog.blaizard.fr) |