Black Market Receipts

Emma and I have spent a lot of time in Shanghai's Railway station over these past few months because of our many trips to and from Shanghai. On every corner surrounding the train station there are ladies mumbling under their breath "fa piao, fa piao, fa piao, fa piao" (fa piao means receipt in Chinese). So, I knew that these ladies were interested in receipts for some reason, but I didn't really understand why. I learned that they were interested in both buying and selling fa piao, but couldn't get any further because of my lack of speaking skills. I asked my friends in Shanghai about fa piao and found out that they are the official form of receipts and businesses use them for expenses and companies use them for tax purposes. These women in the railway station buy fa piao from anybody and sell them to people who need them for expenses.

Fa piao (note the red chops, Chinese people love that stuff)

This past weekend I was in the eyeglasses market with Milan and Mary (they were shopping) and we passed a fa piao lady. I got so excited that I scared my friends... I convinced Mary (who is fluent) to pump the fa piao lady for information. They had a little conversation that involved a lot of pointing at me, some laughing, and eventually some knowledge. It turns out that a fa piao for approximately 100 RMB is worth 2 RMB. So, for every receipt that I collect I can get 2% back on the black market! I'm going to collect all the fa piao I possibly can!!!! I'll be keeping track of the amount of $$$ I make from fa piao on the blog (although I haven't decided whether I should measure it in RMB or in fractions of Teppanyaki). All in all, this is a very exciting moment for me :)

- Jon