Three Months Pay

I had a little mishap at the ATM machine today. It was my first attempt at getting cash at the ATM, which should really be a non-event. Usually. Anyway, I did all the usual things: inserted my card, keyed in my pin, pressed the withdrawal button, etc. And then the usual things happened: my card popped out, the receipt was printed, the money door opened. Hmm. Almost. Everything was going fine until that last part...no money. aka "mei you qian" I went inside the bank to try to get it figured out, and a lovely older woman who was in line behind me at the ATM also came inside to vouch that no money had come out. Since I couldn't understand what was happening, and some of the talk was beyond Linda's vocabulary, it also involved several calls to Shaoguang, one of Linda's employees. After the dust settled, it turned out that my receipt indicated that the transaction had been declined, which is why I hadn't gotten the 2500 yuan that I was expecting. I couldn't understand why it would have been declined, but international transactions don't always go as expected. I was just dismayed to think I was going to have trouble getting cash while I am here; although I don't expect to spend a lot of money, I do need cash (credit cards are accepted very, very rarely) for snacks, Christmas gifts and any personal items, plus our travel to Hong Kong to renew our visas.

Back at the apartment, I decided to check my checking account...just to be sure. And there it was -- a debit processed early today courtesy of the Bank of China for 2500 yuan! Yikes. So Lou Huan and I made a trip back to the bank to try to get this straightened out. Were we successful? I guess we will know in a few weeks. It will take that long for the bank to research the issue and credit my account if they find that a charge was made incorrectly. I have been assured that these things usually work out just fine, but I am not holding my breath. How much will I potentially lose? More than I'd like but not so much that it will cause us undue hardship. 2500 yuan is probably all the money we would need while we were here -- it's equivalent to nearly three months salary for one of our ayis. But how much in US dollars? Just under $400. Does that put your financial struggles in perspective? It does for me.