Bank account, massage and mahjong!

Bank account

On Saturday I finally went to pick up my residence permit. We had already tried last Monday, but apparently they had a long weekend too. So now I'm a resident of Shanghai and in principle I can come and go in China until 30 July, but I don't know yet whether I'll actually make use of that.

Right after that I went to ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to open a bank account. That's handy for several reasons.

1. Topping up your metro card is easier
2. AliPay and WeChat Pay
3. Ordering online from Taobao

So it has lots of advantages, and it takes no effort at all. I walked into a bank and said 'I want to open a bank account'. I had to fill in a few forms and pay 5 RMB, and less than half an hour later I was back outside. That's literally less than a euro: 0.68 euro. I got my card and everything straight away.

AliPay and WeChat Pay are really easy too. You link them to your Chinese bank account, and then you can move money from your account straight to the app on your smartphone. When you buy something in a shop or go out to eat, you scan a QR code, enter the amount, confirm with a PIN and it's paid. Easy, right?

We'd also like to order a few things online that we can't easily find here. The solution we found was Taobao. Taobao is a bit like a Chinese Amazon, but to order anything you needed a bank account. Luckily now we can!

Massage

After all the exploring and working in Shanghai, my back had started to bother me. Luckily Hutong organised a trip to a massage parlour on Sunday, so I signed up right away!

A good, firm one-hour massage cost me 128 RMB, or 17.47 EUR. That's nothing! The masseurs and masseuses were extremely professional. Within five minutes they had found the spots that bothered me most and gave them plenty of attention.

I really needed it and it did me a world of good!

Mahjong

There was an activity planned for today as well: mahjong. We went straight there after our internship.

Everyone knows it from the computer or something, but apparently that isn't real mahjong. You play mahjong with four people, and it's a bit like Rummikub.

It was a really fun evening. I won twice, too!

So everything is still going really well here in Shanghai!

I also recommend keeping an eye on the Photos page, since I post a lot on my Instagram.