Day 19 in Beijing: Look Ma, No Hands!

I’m waiting, in person, to get my online banking account at The Bank of China today.

Did you notice the verb in that sentence, Dear Reader?

I’m waiting, in person, to get my online banking account at The Bank of China today.

Yep, read that sentence one more time.

Let it sink in.

Ponder it.

And now move on.

I waited about two hours to be seen and it is an amazing way to spend some quality time.  I met a wonderful man, Alejandro Ramirez, who is basically the whole tourism board for the country of Mexico.  We had a great conversation about China, red wine, salsa dancing and our lives.  It was enriching to both of us and we’ve now become friends.

I don’t think connections like this really happen in America.  Maybe in New York but not anywhere would you run into people as diverse as I have in line waiting to be serviced at a bank.

Again, after two hours, I hear my number being called and I walk to the teller and hand her my passport and bank information.  She spoke excellent English and was very sweet and laughed a lot at my inane attempts to decipher what I was reading and signing.  Pretty much just signed it and hoped for the best.  Took about 10 minutes total.

I was given my login number and this crazy little device:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is basically a random number generator that counts down in about 20 seconds and changes the number.  When you log in, online, you have to enter this number because there is so much fraud in the banking world in Beijing from what I’ve been told by others.  Either way, it is a cool little gadget and I went home and set it up and it worked perfectly.

By the way, I forgot to mention that when Mr. Ramirez was called to the teller for his transaction, this gentleman sat down in his place and started having a  15 minute conversation.  Dude has some serious skillz, as they say in the States.