efficiency is not a concept that has been fully embraced in China. this is not only banks. for example just this morning at my local supermarket, i had to tell the lady what i wanted, go pay it, come back to get it, go to the front check out and get another stamp. what did i buy? some expensive appliance? nop, a can of shaving cream. yes i had to do all that for a 40 kuai can of Nivea shaving cream.

China Merchants Bank is a little bit better. But all banks are the same. A VIP card will help a little bit. They count the bills at least three times: with the machine then with the hands then with the machine again... and prepare to sign your name in about 4 different papers.

rich: same process for a 2rmb pen.
logic and reason does not exist here unless you know where to find the black jails (thinking independently gets you locked up)

slaves to tradition slow to adopt new ideas

Well, I'll put it simple. Once you make a transaction, there must be a meeting, and then before the money comes to you, there must be a meeting, and after they finally get you your funds, well, another meeting is in order. This, of course is if you make it past the b**** at the front desk when you ask her where the financial advisor is while pointing at the sign saying wealth managment and speaking broken Chinese and her response would be , we dont do that. Which in turn, causes another meeting. Next question please.

Everything takes forever in China. Get used to it. One time it took a week for a deposit to be processed when it would have been done in seconds at a US bank.

I have the same experience with banks and supermarkets in China, and feel ashamed that our fellow people work in this way. The reason is: 1) Banks are monopolised. No matter how inefficient the bank staffs work, there are always people queuing up around the bank wating for service eagerly. Even if they work terribly bad- as bad as pieces of shit, other efficient people have no chance to replace them. 2) Super markets hire less-educated people. No Chinese wants to work for supermarkets if he or she can find a job anywhere else. But if he can't, supermarket is a place to go. Those people generally have worse performance for their schooling, get less education because they are just inefficient in doing everything. So I'm not surprised to be irritated everytime by the way the supermarket staff handles my purchase.

Banks were a big suprise to me. Of most things banks should be one of the easier things to make efficient. There are always 2 or 3 staff just hanging around greeting people and then it is the usual take a number and wait while each person takes an age to sort out their problems. This is not helped by random customers who just amble up to the window and but in to ask who knows what. Looks like many dont trust the electronic way of doing things either and need the old passbook or bags of cash to believe they have got their money sorted. Watched a women come into a bank one day and fill up about 5 plastic bags with 100Y bundles, stuff it into a sports bag and walk out. Must have been a couple of hundred thousand in there.

Even if thinks are "networked" and on a "computer", someone somewhere HAS to put a red stamp on a piece of paper.