numbers!

[randall_flagg]

Hi!

I'm sure most of you have seen those weird telephone numbers scribbled on walls all over China. They look something like this 332139..... What happens when you call these numbers? Is that where people buy fake documents? I'd really like to know (without having to call).

Thanks,

Randall

[roddy]

Shamelessly copied from a post I wrote up for another forum recently.

There are a number of different kinds.

The only ones that are regularly handwritten, like this one, are the 'arrange certificates' one. They claim to sort out ID cards, university degree certificates, etc. I've seen newspaper reports of people being ripped off via these - they tell you to send a cash 'deposit' to a bank account, then you never hear from them again. You also get these in sticker form, often offering similar services, such as providing official chops, and free internet (friend of mine had her internet hijacked once, they got the password somehow, and changed it).

Here is an example of a 'buy medicine' sticker. These are very common. Basically, if you have health insurance that is giving you expensive medicine that you don't need you can sell it on to a middleman who'll sell it to someone who needs it, but doesn't have insurance.

There are slightly more legitimate versions from tradesmen, often stenciled - example. I say slightly more legitimate as at least the business is legit, even if the advertising method is vandalism.

Depending on how far out of the city center you were, it could be that what you saw was just cheap advertising - it's quite common for businesses to spray paint a number on a wall by a highway.

If anyone sees any they are curious about but can't figure out, take a photo and send it to me - I'm quite happy to try and decipher it and then stick it on signese.com.

Incidentally, you'll now and then see guys walking down the road putting the adverts up. You get occasional news stories about some citizen who tries to stop them and gets beaten up for their trouble - they'll work in gangs - with a couple of guys working their way down each side of the street and others working other streets not too far away. There was a guy hospitalized recently because he tried to remove a sticker that was stopping him from reading the sign at a bus stop. He happened to be seen by the guy who'd just put it up, and got knifed for his trouble.

Roddy

Roddy

[Ferno]

Incidentally' date=' you'll now and then see guys walking down the road putting the adverts up. You get occasional news stories about some citizen who tries to stop them and gets beaten up for their trouble - they'll work in gangs - with a couple of guys working their way down each side of the street and others working other streets not too far away. There was a guy hospitalized recently because he tried to remove a sticker that was stopping him from reading the sign at a bus stop. He happened to be seen by the guy who'd just put it up, and got knifed for his trouble.

[/quote']

Seriously? I thought Chinese weren't violent like that, especially those who have been conditioned under Socialist rule for so long.

[gougou]

Seriously? I thought Chinese weren't violent like that

One guy who got stabbed for billions of stickers placed all over China, and you make it a Chinese character trait? Be careful not to stereotype!

[roddy]

especially those who have been conditioned under Socialist rule for so long

Yeah, it's bizarre. From 1949 onwards everyone was holding hands and dancing in the street, right up until Comrade Xiaoping said '致富光荣' and all of a sudden it was chaos, people knifing each other in the street, the whole capitalist, dog eat dog, scenario.

Still, at least the country flicks between the two extremes, making it so much easier to understand.

Roddy

PS The above is not true

[randall_flagg]

Thanks for helping me out yet again.

[hakkaboy]

Chinese culture is not the same as Japanese culture. In Japan you could leave a 10,000 yen note on a bus and no one would pick it up until it was handed in at the terminus. This doesn't happen in China! Also as regards violent crime, foreigners are usually excluded from being on the receiving end of this, but the figures in the China Statistical Yearbook do show that serious crimes are not at a low level any more in China. So whereas Japan and Korea (?) are almost eerily stable societies, China is more individualistic. Does this mean that when China is rich she will be like Japan is today stability-wise? After all, there is the example of Singapore. Or, does it mean that in Chinese culture there is a dialectic between stability and instability? Think of the rebels and bandits in history. Rebels of the Marsh;. Monkey King, admired by Chinese for being insulting to the gods. Mao Zedong. It is almost as if Chinese social stability is fostered for fear of the other side of Chinese culture, which all Chinese know is there. Any thoughts?

[gougou]

Here is an example of a 'buy medicine' sticker. These are very common. Basically, if you have health insurance that is giving you expensive medicine that you don't need you can sell it on to a middleman who'll sell it to someone who needs it, but doesn't have insurance.

Slightly different topic, does anybody know whether this scheme exists on a charitable basis? If so, where (in Beijing) could I find it?

[roddy]

I very much doubt it - the premise is that someone's health insurance (or danwei, whatever) is paying for medicine they're not actually in need of, and if said person is then not using it and selling it on, then it's fraud. It'd have to be a kind of 'rob from the rich, give to the poor' kind of arrangement.

[liuzhou]

Although it is true that violence against laowai is rare, the British Foreign Office, did add this to their website, just a couple of days ago

There has recently been an increase in the number of pickpocketings and bag thefts at Beijing International Airport. There has continued to be a spate of robberies, some including violence against the victim, in Guangzhou and Shenzhen over the last few months. British nationals have been amongst the victims. Day-trippers from Hong Kong appear to be those most targeted in Shenzhen. There have also recently been a number of muggings targeting foreigners in the Jianguomenwai area of Beijing. If you resist a robbery attempt it could lead to serious violence; knives are fairly common.

[roddy]

That's interesting to read. Beijing Airport have been at least making noises about cracking down on the 'let me help you pay your airport tax' kind of scams, perhaps that drove some people to snatch bags.

Roddy

[cjbaker]

I've actually been surprised at how many fights I've seen here in Baoji, it seems like more than in Boston where I'm from for example, or on my college campus. I've seen 5 daytime physical fights in public places since August, usually 2 people on the bus trying to kill each other, once with a knife, and once a man and woman really fighting viciously with a broomstick. I still feel like the lack of guns makes it less scary than the US when people start going at it, though I don't think generalizations about any country being "less violent" hold.

[winnipegli]

that the communism was invented by some drunken westerners(大鼻头洋鬼子） who never been to east...... it just cannot be incorporated smoothly into a traditional eastern society (like china, korea, vietnam, japan). it only won through violence and lies and the support of the ugly russians. any confucious society without the influence of commies became a heaven ( japan, south korea, singapore, hongkong, taiwan). commies go to hell!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kudra]

... by the guy who'd just put it up, and got knifed for his trouble.

So the police had a number to call to contact their suspect, right? An open and shut case, right?

Note to roddy -- in view of some of the previous posts, perhaps you need to add a sarcasm smiley. But that wouldn't be nice.

[roddy]

I used invisible ink, look closely (sh)

I'm not sure what lifespan those phone numbers have - a while ago at least they were shutting down any number appearing on those adverts.

[randall_flagg]

Reading about those fights in Baoji is scarry! They really go at it with knives on a public bus? Let's just hope you just chanced upon these occurences, otherwise Baoji would sound like a terrible place to be, esp. since you've seen so many incidents in what doesn't appear to be a whole lot of time.

I am not sure whether i would consider Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan to be heaven. But then, that's so ovbious that it doesn't even need to be stated.

[adrianlondon]

I'm of the opinion that the same "volume" of crime gets committed, per person, anywhere in the world.

So, in the UK we have lots of muggings and occasional knifings and shootings. In Japan there's hardly any low level crime but every now and again someone tries to kill trains full of people, or chops the heads of schoolkids and puts them on spikes.

It's like playing the lottery. Ideally, you'd play a game where the chances of winning were high but the prize was low but the reality of it is that everyone wants that 1 in 14,000,000 chance of winning a bucket full of cash.

[gougou]

I'm of the opinion that the same "volume" of crime gets committed, per person, anywhere in the world.

I'd like to see empirical data supporting that...

[adrianlondon]

I'm afraid it's all in the section of my head labelled "made up stuff that sounds good".