In the Waiting Line

Today's post is brought to you by the Jinan International Exchange Service Center.  When you are staying in China more than thirty days, you are "invited" to register with the local authorities or face fines or deportation. Bureaucracy is the standard in China and you can expect nothing less than their best examples of paper shuffling, esoteric rule enforcement, and waiting. How awesome is the waiting ? So awesome that I arrived at 7:00 a.m. took an hour lunch break ( the employees did too) and finally was called up to the desk at 2:30 p.m.

Why does it take so long? For starters, they have a single employee who speaks English. This is completely logical at a center for processing waiguoren( foreigners-外国人 ) who speak limited Chinese. Second, even though every piece of documentation is carefully prepared before arrival, they must carefully inspect the documents to determine validity and scrutinize possible forgeries. Finally, after everything is prepared, they carefully hit print on the computer and issue your certified residence permit, complete with stamps, embossing, and other security measures. This last sentence is pure theory because in my case, my medical documentation was not matching their standard...So, I then got to go to the hospital where they had to verify my forms.  The hospital was more of the same, including a quick trip to a nearby photo shop to take headshots for my new hospital paperwork.

I wish I could say other official business is faster but, regettably, it is also tediously slow. The simple act of opening a bank account took approximately one and a half hours. Forty minutes were spent waiting in the lobby and another fifty minutes were spent redoing the same form three times and explaining U.S. passports. Ultimately, they couldn't even exchange the fresh wad of twenties into RMB. So, for all that effort, I left with a bank account containing zero monies. As for my monthly payment, that involves talking to three different workers at the school accounting office. The first takes my receipt, the second validates the receipt, and the final person collects the receipt and credits my account. Did I mention they all work in different rooms?

There is one upside to the dreaded Jinan International Exchange Service Center. If you are interested in meeting other foreigners (the primary reason people go to China /sarcasm) you will have ample opportunity. A veritable smorgasbord of nationalities pupulate the waiting area. So, if you wish to meet a 外国人, skip the bars and just head over to the IESC. Not only are you guaranteed to have your pick of ethnicities, you also have a captive audience that will be waiting hours upon hours. You literally have all the time in the world to become friends.

P.S. I get to complete the process Monday morning which means another trip to the IESC with my new med documentation. As a bonus, here are two photos of the hospital. The first is a picture of the ground floor entrance, and the second is a photo of the examination area.