A few days have passed and I thought thoroughly about my next move. The question was: Buy cheap like colleague A and possibly risk and live with a low quality scooter or spend more and go for quality? I tend to go for quality, because as people say, you get what you pay for and buying cheap can be more expensive in the long run. However, I ask a few friends. Most say to buy cheap, but I listen to my best friend’s advice who goes for quality. So quality it is.
My next challenge is to exchange money. I know from my flatmate that he tried to exchange a small amount of CAD at the ICBC branch we all opened our accounts and they refused. Exchanging money is another problem in China. You simply can’t do that. Only very few places offer this service and next to the rather small fees you have to pay, there are some ridiculously low limits for Laowai - foreigners. While a foreigner is allowed to exchange 500 USD per day, and has to fill in some forms, etc., a Chinese can exchange up to 10.000 USD per day. Because the banks have to report transactions over 10 grand, they accept up to 9.990 USD.
I ask the local expat community on WeChat where I can exchange my USD and what do I have to do. They all tell me to go to either the headquarters or visit a big branch downtown and take a Chinese person with me and let them do all the talking and paperwork. Because in some cases the name has to be written in Chinese and not in Roman characters. Luckily I find a girl who needs USD because she’s travelling abroad in a few days and we arrange to meet.
A few days later, I meet her in front of a busy shopping centre and we exchange envelopes like in the films. Straight after that, I take a taxi to the X-Union to have a closer look at the scooter I want. The driver drops me off a block after the shop and I discover more scooter shops. Most of them are closed at this late afternoon time, and the others have nothing that interests me. My goal for today is to either buy the one from the X-Union or one of the two I saw in the shop next door. There was a light blue and a red one. Both looked quite similar to the one I want, but there’s a 100 quid difference in price. I’d like to know why. The other thing is that I’d prefer to buy the flat black from the X-Union.
I arrive at the shop and it is still open. I have a look outside and notice that the light blue e-motorbike colleague B likes is gone. He won’t like to hear that. I go inside and see six men and two women sitting around a round table having dinner. Typically Chinese, noodles are on the menu and rice on a hot plate in the centre of the table. They all stop eating when they see me and stand up. One comes to me while the rest clear the table and put it aside. I point at the scooter I’m interested in and ask for price and specs. Since we don’t speak the same language, we use gestures. But again, there’s a communication barrier, because some gestures don’t exist in this country or have a completely different meaning. Rubbing your thumb with your index and middle finger to indicate or ask how much, doesn’t work here. Since they don’t get what I’m asking for, I take my mobile phone and use an online dictionary. The Chinese do the same. So here we are, all typing and talking into our phones and showing each other the screens. They’re surprised to hear that I want to buy and pay cash. They seem not to believe me, and open their eyes wide when I put my hand into my pocket and produce a handful of red bank notes with Chairman Mao on them. I’m immediately offered a seat, a cup of tea and noodles. They put the notes through a money counting machine and give me my change. Like Antonio Marcipane in Jan Weiler’s German novel ‘Maria ihm schmeckt’s nicht’ (Maria, he doesn’t like it), I know that I’m paying too much, but I accept it. Antonio is a Gastarbeiter who emigrates from the south of Italy to Germany, meets the German Ursula, gets married to her and leads a bourgeois life somewhere between the Italian and the German mentalities. The novel is written from the son’s perspective and describes all the ups and downs of an immigrant. Antonio wants to buy a house and signs a mortgage, which he knows is a rip off and any other German wouldn’t be offered. I feel exactly the same. If I were Chinese, I’m sure they’d go down in price and offer me instalments, etc. Never mind.
They pull the scooter out, dismantle the seat and bring a set of batteries. It takes them a while to install them and I’m being offered more tea and a cigarette. When they are done with the batteries, they check if the lights, brakes, etc. work and ask me to pose next to the scooter and sit on it and take many photographs. Then they roll the scooter out of the shop and show me how to start it, how to lock it, how to use it, etc. They give me a helmet, a brake lock and a raincoat for free and then I’m good to go.
I finally have my scooter! I am an official member of the zillion two-wheel-family. I need to learn the streets now. This will take a while, because there are no maps and no Sat Navs.
My first ride is eight miles to my school in light rain in the late evening. There’s not so much traffic towards my direction and I have to go around two roundabouts, which is fun squishing between the cars and busses. Macklemore’s tune still in my ears:
Downtown, downtown (downtown)
Downtown, downtown (downtown)
She has her arms around your waist
With a balance that could keep us safe
(downtown)
Have you ever felt the warm embrace
(downtown)
Of the leather seat between your legs
(hey-ey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey-ey)
(hey-ey-ey-ey, hey-ey-ey-ey)
(downtown)
You don't want no beef, boy
Know I run the streets, boy
Better follow me towards
(downtown)
What you see is what you get girl
Don't ever forget girl
Ain't seen nothing yet until you're
Downtown
It’s quite a difference between my 1300 ccm Yamaha and this little 72V scooter. It feels like a toy. A really beautiful toy, even though my best friend prefers Italian design and disagrees with my choice.
Macklemore's Downtown (opens in a new window)
My scooter
Light impressions
Instruments
Flashy helmet I got for free.
I bought a full face with neck and throat warmer/protection
Macklemore's Downtown (opens in a new window)
My scooter
Light impressions
Siblings
If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.
No comments:
Post a Comment