@Rick: no offense, I am extremely surprise each time I hear people complaining about the ” process” or the ” procedure” I wonder , if I am in America or I am in Canada, I can carry my money to the bank to exchange , without none of this ” process” or the service fee ?
Yeah, you actually can, it’s incredibly easy in other countries, not just America or Canada. China has strict monetary controls which prevent people from freely exchanging currency, which is why there’s so much hassle (and illegality) associated with exchanging between currency types.
These processes are often vastly different for Chinese people than they are for foreigners, so in many cases it’s just easier to have a Chinese person complete tasks like this for you.
A Suggestion here , if I were a foreigner in china , I don’t complain all those stuff all the time, and I experience I learn , that things like passport, your labour contract, your tax payment proof, your social security payment proof …. All those stuff are important everywhere, so I d make tons of copies and bring them with me whenever I wanna do something with the government or state owned company just in case.
I think this would be impossible. I have all those things but would never walk around with copies of them, I would just find an easier way to get those things done without them.
I see Chinese people do this all the time every single day: just find ways to sidestep the laws and procedures which everyone knows are ridiculous. We’re all inside a system that often makes little or no logical sense. That’s China, a lot of the time, and that’s why foreigners can get so frustrated with all the various systems of control here. In my social circle we call that The China Blues.