Under the hashtag #old couple living in Chengdu wracks up 15K in gas fees in four months, Peng Pai News writes,“15,000 RMB for four months of gas? All of Mrs. Fan’s family thinks it’s unbelievable. And yet, no problems was detected with the gas meter. The gas company claims that there might be defects in the gas meter transmitter, resulting in a lag in the transmitted gas volume. The high gas fee is due to the system logging all the gas delay wracked up from 2011 to February 2023. Mrs. Fan says that a year after she complained about the problem, the gas company agreed to only charge them 8000 RMB for the remaining 12K owed, but Mrs. Fan is still not happy.
On the 17th of April, Mrs. Fan tells Peng Pai news that her gas has been cut off after refusing to pay the gas company. She has elders at home, and so had to pay the 8000 RMB this morning, but her whole family is very upset about being subjected to such exorbitant charges.
Mrs. Fan says that everyone in her family works out of state. Their house in Chengdu’s Longquan subdistrict rarely has anyone living in it. It’s only every year in the winter that elders come by from Xinjiang to Chengdu to spend the holidays. Since elderly people like the house warm, they installed floor heating and it consumes a lot of gas every winter, and their gas fees have always been high, but for the winter of 2022, their gas bill skyrocketed to over 15,000 RMB, 3-4 times what they usually pay.
Mrs. Fan says that her elders came to Chengdu on the 28th of November 2022, and returned to Xinjiang on the 6th of April. On the 29th of March, her elders went to the Longquan Utilities Centre and paid off all their water, electricity, and gas bills before leaving as usual. Little did they realise that when paying the gas bill, not only did all 2000 RMB they had in their bank account get drained, they ended up with 12,000 in overdraft. Their total gas bill was 15,024.72 RMB.”
Comments say, “What bullshit. You’re telling me they waited 10 fucking years to charge delayed gas fees?”
“Show us your gas payments over the last ten years then. Surely you know whether you’ve been paying gas fees or not.”
“They could’ve robbed you, but they still gave you a meter.”
OP reblogs someone else’s post, “Before I left the country, I was always jealous that you own your house permanently in America. If you buy a house, you own the land beneath it too. It’s only after I came to America that I realise how much it costs to enjoy permanent property ownership. Ignoring the quality of the house and any maintenance, HOA fees and property taxes is the most expensive aspect of owning a house in America. And the fees will rise with the value of your house and inflation, it’s not just a set fee determined at the price you bought your house at.
Taking the median house in New Jersey, it costs 7424 USD in property taxes every year, with another 2400-4800 USD HOA fees per year. That’s well into five figures in USD, about 3.5% of the total value of your house. It’s basically equivalent to buying your house all over again in 30 years. After 70 years, you’ll have paid a million USD for this 300,000 USD house. And that’s just the cost of owning it, whether you live in it or not. Compared to China, American housing prices may not be too bad, but it’s costly in other areas.
If you don’t pay your fees on time, whether it’s property taxes, HOA fees, medical bills, or other debts, all kinds of different departments have the legal right to foreclose your house, including your HOA. The controversial case back in May of the Chinese PhD who got beaten to death in her house by police was due to her owing HOA fees. Her house got sold by the HOA, and she refused to move out of it and fought the police who came to evict her with a knife. In other wise, if you can’t afford the fees, you lose your house. And if this is your only or last house, then you’ll easily become homeless.”
OP says, “Another perspective. In China, so long as you have your own house, you can get by just eating plain bread every day. But in America, if you lose your ability to make money, you won’t even have anywhere to live.”
Comments say, “If you owe HOA fees in China, though, they’ll cut off your water and electricity and eventually take over your house too.”
“More brainwashing.”
“Even if you had a house, if you lose your ability to make money, how would you buy bread?”
“I opened a nail salon in my house, and my customers want to go to my bathroom. Just wanted to ask, how do I deal with this? I’ve only got one bathroom, and all my personal items are in it. Plus, I’ve got a bit of OCD, so I don’t want strangers using my bathroom.
How do you guys solve this problem? Or do you guys just not mind?”
Comments say, “You’re the one who opened a business, and you don’t want to let people go to the bathroom? Unless you just don’t have a bathroom in your nail salon, there’s no way this is okay.”
“Why would you open a nail salon in your own home if you have OCD?”
“All the nail salons I’ve went to don’t have their own bathroom. Even my nail artist has to go outside to the public bathroom, since her store is too little to build a bathroom inside. If you don’t have nearby public bathrooms around your house, you can’t exactly make people pee their pants, can you?”
A tiktok video about Chinese students decorating their desks that’s apparently getting really popular outside the Wall:
Comments say, “School days run from 6AM to 10 PM. They’d be terrified if they knew.”
“I had a shitton of stuff on my desk in high school. I even got a thick blanket to share with my deskmate for winter. It was so comfy.”
“Figuring out the best spot to quickly hide your phone in your fort.”
“My Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor told me to quit fruit.
I went to see a TCM doctor, and he said my stomach and spleen are too weak, and I’m lacking chi and blood. Told me to quit coffee and fruit, because it’ll make it worse, and to eat more red dates and red meat. Also told me to quit sweets.
What the hell am I supposed to do when I’m obsessed with coffee and fruit? Is there another way, guys?”
Comments say, “Sigh, this is Chinese constitution. I don’t know if we’ve been made too weak by drinking only hot water from birth. I don’t dare to eat fruit either, because I’ve got rhinitis, and the doctor says I can’t have anything cold. But foreigners get to drink ice water every day and they’re fine. Our constitution is just too weak.”
“Real story, I definitely got better after quitting fruit. My tongue coating went from thick and white with serrated edges to pretty much normal now.”
“Apples are the least tasty fruit. You could try quitting apples first.”
Question: “Why do North Koreans seem so much happier than South Koreans?”
Answer: “Last year, at the Asiatics in Hangzhou, I met a bunch of North Korean athletes at the airport. They saw we were having coke and were staring at us nonstop. Eventually, they came over and gestured whether the coke was free. Out of hospitality, I gave them a couple of cans reflexively, and they thanked me profusely. There was light in their eyes when they took the coke. But when they turned around, they saw their group leader looking at them, and they instantly threw the coke to the ground and yelled something at us while waving their fist around. And then they turned and walked away.
I was just shocked. But a Asiatics translator behind me told me that they were yelling, “Don’t even think about corrupting us with your evil imperial American drinks!”
Maybe this is what you mean when you say North Koreans are happy?”
Comments say, “When I went on vacation to North Korea in 2013, a big bottle of coke in their supermarket was 20 RMB. Same for sprite. I don’t know whether OP lacks perspective or intelligence. What a joke.”
“My head hurts when I think about tens of millions of North Koreans living their whole lives like this.”
“Without sovereignty, no amount of coke would help.”
A video of Guangdong. “Went to Guangdong and almost thought I’d left the country.”
Comments say, “Guangdong is a huge textile exporter. Why is it strange to see a lot of foreigners there? Don’t act so sheltered. With how strict immigration is these days, we gotta welcome all the foreigners we get. This is where our money comes from. Have a little more perspective.”
“So many Muslim spies.”
“It’s not that we don’t want black people in Guangdong, but that’s way too much, isn’t it? Aren’t we putting some kind of limit on it?”
wise -> words