Jen in China: Lights Out!

Friday was quite a night. It started out calm and then turned into a Chinese adventure that I’d rather not repeat.

So, while watching Netflix, the electricity went out. I opened the apartment door to check and see if the lights were on in the hallway. They were. Plus, the elevator worked. I figured out that it was just my apartment that was out. Well, this could only mean one thing: we were out of electricity.

I know, that sounds weird. In Beijing, China, however, this makes sense. See, in the other places I’ve lived (the US and South Korea), you use electricity and then get a bill for the month. Not so in China. Here, you go to a bank and load up a card with money. Next, you take this card home and insert it into a card reader slot on your electrical meter. Then, your account gets recharged and you have electricity. You don’t have to wait until your electricity is used up. You can add money to your account at any time. I, however, am not used to this system and I let the balance get too low. Thus, my electricity went out on Friday.

After figuring out why my electricity was out, I took my card to a nearby Bank of Beijing branch to load money onto the card. While at the machine, I got a funny message that said “See a bank employee.” The bank was closed so, this was not possible. I ended up calling a bilingual staff member from work, Sophie, to help me. Originally, I thought the recharge machine was broken. It wasn’t. It turns out that my job forgot to give me a new electricity card. See, recently, our building got new electrical meters. We were also so supposed to get new cards. My current electricity card was useless.

Sophie suggested that I go home and either get the serial number off of my meter or get my electricity account number. She thought that with this information, she could go online and add money to the account for me. So, I trudged back home and tried to get this information.

I couldn’t get the information. Since my apartment was pitch-black, I couldn’t find my key to the meter closet. Also, since I can’t read Chinese, I couldn’t figure out which of the many bills, papers, and receipts we get was from the power company. At this point, I thought that I would have to wait until Monday to get electricity. I decided that a weekend without power was simply not an option. I needed reinforcements.

I called Sophie and told her that I had a plan. I was going to knock on my neighbor’s door and give him/her my phone. Then, Sophie would explain the situation, in Chinese, and see what the neighbor could do to help me.

I knocked on the apartment next door and waited. An older man answered. I said “Nihao,” and handed him my cell phone. To his credit, he looked confused but, he took the phone without hesitation. I guess Sophie explained things well because he immediately put on his shoes and got a flashlight and his meter room key.

The man, Mr. Wong, read Sophie the serial number off of the meter. Then, I gave him several utility receipts. He kindly sifted through them until he found one with the electricity account number. He also gave Sophie that number.

It turns out that Mr. Wong speaks a little English. He told me he was leaving the meter closet unlocked for me and to knock on his door if I needed more help in the future. All in all, he spent about 20 minutes helping me. It’s nice to know that I have such a good neighbor.

Well, after all of this, Sophie was able to add money to the power account and the lights came back. I will now be checking my meter balance every week to make sure I don’t have such an adventurous Friday night again.