Good China, bad China...

I just managed to get out of a local branch of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China in only a little over half an hour.

In the restless, hectic, impatient 'West' we might complain that that's a rather long visit for a single, very straightforward transaction (particularly when there were only four people in the queue ahead of me), but in China..... well, I think it represents quite substantial 'progress'. Most expats I know - and most Chinese, too - absolutely dread having to go to the bank. Getting in and out in anything under an hour is likely to fill you with the euphoric conviction that the gods are smiling on you today.

Even more uplifting for me, though, than the relatively short wait was the counter service I then received. The charming Ms Wang politely ignored my bumbling attempts to speak Chinese and responded to me in English throughout. What's more, she dealt with my principal transaction (I paid my phone bill at the same time, but that's a fairly trivial matter) in under a minute. I was depositing a fairly large sum of cash to an account of my landlord's to cover my next quarter's rent. At the very minimum, this requires checking and filing a paper record of the deposit, putting the money through the cash-counter twice and then bundling it before putting it into the cash drawer, swiping the account passbook, and then printing the transaction into the passbook and on to the tear-off receipt slip from the deposit form. It also involves - if the clerk is taking their job seriously - perusing your passport to make sure that you are who you say you are; and, usually, throwing out a few impertinent and pointless questions about why you are trying to pay money into somebody else's account.

Gosh, it takes me over a minute to write it all out! I don't think I've ever before encountered a bank clerk who could accomplish this in much under 5 minutes. Ms Wang, I think I love you.

Has China finally discovered time & motion studies, I wonder? Or was this just an insignificant statistical blip in the generally prevailing culture of extraordinarily surly and slow-moving customer service in China?

After my errand at the bank, I went shopping. That immediately burst my short-lived bubble of optimism about the upward trajectory of China's 'social development'.

I've complained before about the erratic stocking policy of Chinese supermarkets. Even the most basic items will suddenly disappear off the shelves for weeks at a time, for no conceivable reason. Today, it's onions!

Nope, no onions today - either loose or pre-packed. And it's not even as if there's an empty space on the counter where the onions might go, an indication of temporary shortage soon to be redressed. When nearby staff members were quizzed about the possible whereabouts of onions (Would they perhaps have started shelving them amongst the canned goods, just to keep us customers on our toes?), the reply was a brusque meiyou yangcong - "We ain't got onions." Not even a qualifying "now" or "yet" to give you a ray of hope, just the blunt finality of a "not got".... accompanied by that incredulous or outraged tone and expression which seem to say, "What do you think this is? The fruit & vegetables section of a food shop?!"

Ah, China, I'll never get the hang of it.