Electric Company

Hey, you guys! 

Utilities are handled in a different way here in Beijing. I hear it might be different in other parts of the country, but around here, you pay ahead using little cards. So, you go to a bank or a service company or a self-serve kiosk with some money and a card with an electronic chip in it. You put money on the card, and then you insert the card into a slot on your meter to add value to whatever the account is. 

So, I have a card for gas, for electricity, for reclaimed water, and for hot water. (The actual water water is the only thing that gets billed monthly. Actually, I think phone/Internet also just gets a monthly bill.) 

Getting money on the card is also a hassle. Since none of us have residency permits yet (it takes a good 3-4 weeks to get them set up), we don't have bank accounts. Without bank accounts, you can't use the self-serve kiosks. (And even then, maybe we won't be able to get whatever the credot/debit card you need to use them without spending more time and money in the country.) You wait in line at a bank, except maybe for water, which maybe you turn on in the office at the apartment complex... 

Are you confused yet? You and me both. 

Yesterday, the power went out. Oops. I guess I go through about 100 units of power in a week. (I don't know. I don't even know how much a "unit" is in any sort of scientific sense.) Maybe it's a lot, probably because it's hot and I actually have AC so I use it. I imagine my usage will decrease as it gets colder. (Maybe heat is procided by the building, which probably means it will be very, very cold inside.) 

So, I call my handler. It's Sunday, and it's not the best thing to do, but he'll get ready and come over. We get the card and walk to the bank. He decides he will show me how to do it myself. Great! We get a number and wait. (Imagine the DMV except sometimes the line moves.) We have number 365 and they are on 320. Grrr. So we wait. And wait. Some old woman gives me her number for some reason (maybe she got tired of waiting or had to leave?) so now we're 359. I get up to the window and give the man my card and some money. But he says something. 

The card isn't activated, so they can't put money on it without some serial number that's on the meter that's behind a locked door in my apartment. (For some reason, the electric meters are all in a supply closet in the hallway behind a locked door. My handler calls the apartment and they say they'll go look for the number. We leave, but take another number with us, but it doesn't matter because the bank closes at 5 and it's 4:50. We walk through the market and wait for the apartment complex to call back. They do, but they say the landlady put money on the card so the account is set up. 

OK. We go to the self-service kiosk, where my handler uses his credit (or debit) card to put money on my account and I give him the cash. Except there's an error message that the account hasn't been set up. 

So he needs to take the card to the place on the ground floor of his building that is maybe the actual electric company. I go home and get the man in the office to get the technician to get the number off the meter. (Actually, I call my handler and give the phone to the man in the office and he explains what I need.) 

I text the number to the handler. He calls back to say that the problem is that it's the wrong card. The landlady (for some reason) got two cards (she thought she lost one) and she left us with the card that hadn't been set up yet. So he's got to go to the office where he has the landlady's number and call her up and see if she can find the card. 

It's now about 6:30 at night. I made chicken stock last week and it's sitting in the freezer ... getting ready to thaw damnit! There's not much else to go bad (the milk is all in aseptic packaging juice box thingys), but I don't want to lose my chicken stock! 

I go to a colleague's to do set up his Internet and we watch Alice in Wunderland (not bad, but not Tim Burton's best). My handler calls to say that the landlady found the card, but she still has to take a taxi across the ciry to bring it to him. Then he has to put the money on it. Then he has to bring it to me so we can put it in the meter. It'll probably be 9-9:30 when he gets there. 

Anyway, I did get the power turned on. It was pretty simple once I had the right card. As soon as the man put it in the meter (behind the locked door) the power came back on. My stock didn't thaw (thankfully) and I could turn the AC (which, incidentally, all the Brits call air con) back on. 

It was quite an adventure. I have a lot more units of power now, and I hope (at least) it'll make it through the month. The trick is to always have some units on the card, so when it goes out, you just get the man to unlock the door. THEN you back to the bank to recharge it. Maybe, once we get paid at the end of the month...