Our first day in China, what a mess!!

The sun is bright, the air is warm and it's our first day in China!! Our plan is to get some currency (because we have zero) and then take the train into Shanghai to tool around for a while.

We head down to the lobby to ask the people at the front desk the best way to get to Shanghai and an ATM. A common problem we encountered throughout China is that not many people speak English and very few speak it well. Not only that but when a non-English speaking person (in any customer service job) sees you coming towards them, they get a kind of deer in the headlights look at the thought of the what is about to transpire.

The girl we talked to was friendly but had “the look”. To aid in translating she got her three coworkers involved to answer our questions. The conversation consisted of a long series of repeated words, energetic hand gestures, vigorous nodding and lots of confused looks. After ten minutes of talking we think we know how to get to the train station by bus. Then something she says to us right before we go makes us think we now have it all wrong! We leave the hotel confused but did decipher that there is an ATM at the train station.

We are standing on the curb contemplating what to do next. We are just coming to the sound decision to walk around and look for an ATM when the porter from the hotel comes over to us pointing to a bus coming up to the curb. He can't speak English either so he just gestures frantically at the bus while trying to herd us in its direction. At this point it is about to leave and I’m thinking that if we want to get to Shanghai today, we should catch this bus, get some money at the ATM at the station and we’re on our way. So we get on the bus (MISTAKE!! MISTAKE!!! DONG, DONG, DONG!!!!!!!!).

No sooner than it pulls away, do we realize that we have no damn money to pay the fare! Now this wouldn’t usually be a problem because I’d just apologize and ask the driver to let us off, however…..NO ONE speaks English. Not only that but the bus is packed getting to the driver was impossible. So, we spend about ten minutes going back in forth with the fare collector trying to convey our situation. At this point the whole bus is getting a kick out of two foreigners providing a comic interruption to their daily routine. Eventually, this kind girl understood our situation and paid our fare for us, which was the equivalent of US $0.20 total. We were so embarrassed and grateful at the same time. We just kept saying “Xiexie!” (thank you, pronounced shea-shea) over and over. We eventually settled in to the bus ride and tried to look inconspicuous until we get to the train station.

We eventually get off the bus but had no idea what was in store next.

The train/bus station is crowded and is a funky mix of station, outdoor mall and impromptu food market. There’s a guy selling cute puppies out of a cardboard box right next to a vendor selling steamed dumplings stuffed with vegetables and meat. We meander on over to the train station entrance while soaking it all in. With the bus incident fresh on our mind we head straight to the ATM in the entrance area. I put in my card, punch in my password and up comes the screen saying, “card invalid”. I try it again….same thing. Christine steps up with her card…..same thing. One more time each for good measure……shit, not working. We take a look around the entrance area and there are no other ATMs. Fuck.

We now realize that we have a situation. Were about a 20-minute bus ride from the hotel. We have no idea which way it is and the train station appears to be in the middle of an industrial park with not much around. Not only that but it’s Sunday and everything outside the train station is closed. We were screwed on many levels but hadn’t fully come to understand this yet.

We start by fully investigating the rest of the train station/mall area for another ATM but to no avail. We decide that we’re going to have to leg it around the general area in search for an ATM. Long-story-short, we walk around for about three hours in the high-noon sun. In that time we found one bank (closed) with the ATM inside and two other banks with ATMS that don’t want to give us money either. After the third bank we have pretty much exhausted the area of ATMs. Any inquiries with the locals point us back at one of those.

We head back to the train station and stand there in the midst of the bustling crowd. No money and no one to talk to. We decide next to try to go to a restaurant and see if we can use our credit card to eat (because it’s well past lunch and we haven’t eaten or drank anything since early morning) and possibly forward us a few Yuan in cash from our card. However, none of the restaurants in the mall take credit cards. This is still a problem in China. Credit cards are only now just now taking off there.

At this point we are at our wits end. We’ve exhausted all rational possibilities so we decide to walk around the area one more time. On this walk we can see Shanghai in the distance and we get the bright idea to try to walk there. There are ATMs in the city, right? Let’s go!! Our plan is to follow the elevated train line. This lasts about one mile until we are crossing over a highway and the path leads into a very seedy looking neighborhood and also, in the distance, the train line disappears underground. We turn around and head back to the station in a bad state of mind. This is the point in a crisis situation where people start turning on each other. We keep it together though and drag our dehydrated asses back into the station.

It’s serious now. We have no idea where we are, how to get to our hotel and no means to get there. We sit down for a serious think. We come up with the idea to call the hotel and see if the exchange desk in the lobby can give us money off of our credit card. We’ll take a cab back and make him wait until we get the money. Now we just need to find a phone.

We look around and eventually come to the House of Flour (bakery and coffee shop). We stagger inside and begin to explain our situation to the people working there. Luckily one guy speaks English really well. After they understand what’s going on they look very sympathetic and get us a big glass of cold water. This was heaven sent!!

I call the hotel on the House of Flour phone and after another long conversation (don’t forget the communication barrier!!) we find out that they can’t help us. The English-speaking guy is watching me during this conversation and witnessed the last iota of hope drain out of me and trickle across the floor. I could feel myself deflate. This guy feels bad for us and goes into his own pocket and gives us 20 Yuan. We couldn’t believe it. One day in China and we’ve twice been on the receiving end of excessive acts of generosity and kindness.

We thank them profusely and then proceed straight to the bus, get on, PAY(!!!!), get off near the hotel, go directly to the first ATM we see (which happens to fucking work!!) and take out a large sum of money.

We ended up leaving Shanghai for Beijing the next day but we vowed that when we return to Shanghai at the end of our trip, we would go back to the House of Flour and return the money. And so we did. That is the picture at the top. The guy remembered us and looked surprised to see us. Xiexie.

We made sure that didn’t happen again.