Smuggler's blues
After my initial visit to the OB and before she called me back to tell me if she was able to secure me a bed for delivery, we had the chance to review the brochures for the hospitals. What would happen is that after we secured our booking, we would work through the rest of the pregnancy with the hospital and the OB selecting the appropriate "maternity package."
I have had two pregnancies, both of which ended with unpredictable results. With Myles my water broke four weeks before my due date. We remained in the hospital for one day extra beyond the normal post-natal stay. Maeve died suddenly six weeks before her due date, and after less than a day of labor and a few hours more in the hopital, I was discharged. Nothing could have been planned.
I was reading these brochures, wondering exactly how my doctor would be able to choose for me a "three-day stay," a "four-day stay," or a "5-day stay with elective c-section." What would happen if I commited to a "four-day stay" that then resulted in a c-section? Oh, that would be covered under penalty for unplanned c-section(20% penalty during office hours, 50% penalty at any other time of day). Epidural charge was priced differently for private rooms, semi-private rooms, and wards. There was also a surcharge of HK$20,000 if I had my prenatal care with a non-Hong Kong doctor. Several people have recommended to me as a possible cash-savings measure to have prenatal taken care of in China and then just deliver in Hong Kong. Seems the surcharge would wipe out some of those savings.
The exclusions to the set-prices were interesting, too. One notable one was meals. In most Chinese hospitals, meals are the patients' families' and friends' responsibilities, not the hospital's. This is certainly one way they keep their costs down. At the private Hong Kong hospitals I would be able to choose to buy their meals or bring our own. Randy and I were amused at this because it definitely took us back to Myles' birth when we were alarmed at the meals served in the hospital in Mississippi. One day neither dinner or lunch included any green vegetables. For breakfast one morning I was given a biscuit that seemed to have been fried in butter or bacon grease. The nurses frequently mentioned suspicously to me that they noticed that Randy was bringing all my meals in to me and I wasn't eating what the hospital provided. Talk about being treated like a foreigner!
I didn't have much time to develop any strong opinions about any of the hospitals because by that Friday the OB called me to tell me she had secured a booking for me. I had to come into Hong Kong early the following week, as soon as possible, to get the referral letter from her and give the hospital a HK$40,000 deposit. Monday was out of the question because it was ANOTHER legal holiday in Hong Kong, so it would be Tuesday.
Monday was not a legal holiday in China, so off to the bank I went to withdraw the necessary amount. Earlier this year we were switched over to Chinese payroll, which required us to bank in China. We are able to maintain some finances in the US, but none that would enable me to show up at the Hong Kong hospital debit or credit card in hand. Like most other Mainland Chinese, I would have to make this a cash-only transaction. I would have to carry more than HK$40,000 in my purse. But even before that, I would have to make the withdrawl in Chinese money and then exchange it.
There are funny laws pertaining to money and cash and who can carry how much and where they can go with it in China. I am sure that we have similar laws in the US, but I am unaware of them. As a foreigner I can bank in China, make all kinds of cash transactions in China, but I cannot withdraw anything but RMB from my Chinese bank. A Chinese citizen can withdraw HK funds. And further, with the increasing strength of the RMB (especially compared to the HK$), the border police have been keeping a much closer eye than usual on how much RMB in cash crosses the border. My Chinese debit card does work in some places in Hong Kong, but I cannot withdraw enough cash in any given day even to come close to HK$40,000.
The plan would be simple. I would go to my bank branch and withdraw the cash in RMB. Then I would have to exchange the money in China (somehow). I needed to be certain that I as much of it converted as possible into Hong Kong dollars before I left. I did not want to be stopped at the border with that much Chinese cash, if I would get stopped at all.
At my bank I had no problem withdrawing the cash. However, in China the largest single bill is the 100 Yuan. Do you have any idea how thick a stack of 40,000 RMB is in 100 RMB bills? It was about 6 inches thick, and they stuffed it in a grocery bag for me. As I rearranged my purse to accept the largest wad of cash I have ever carried, I felt like a Law&Order character on my way to make some sort of cash drop for a sting operation.
From here I headed over to Shekou to an unofficial money changer. At first I was going to board my regular bus, but then I thought better for it. All for the sake of saving 10 kuai would I be getting on that bus (which Randy calls a "den of thieves") carrying my purse bulging with a ridiculous amount of money. Myles happily hailed a cab and we went to see how much we could change into HK dollars. I really thought this would take a few trips to different money changers.
I asked them how much they could exchange into HK dollars for me. In English the man replied "No problem." I didn't believe him, and showed him the contents of my grocery bag. He put the stack through his bill counter, told me what I would get in HK dollars (I love the current exchange rate!), and disappeared into another room. Out he came with a much more manageable stack of bills, as Hong Kong prints money up to $1000 dollar bills. He counted and recounted. That much Hong Kong money was still too much for my wallet, but I was able to stash it in my planner.
The next morning, we crossed to Hong Kong without any difficulty. My OB gave me a letter to take to the admissions desk at the hospital. The people at the hospital did not blink when I said it would be a cash transaction. I was just about to leave when one of the women at admissions called out to me, "Oh you live on the Mainland? Not in Hong Kong?"
I replied that was the case, hoping that it didn't mean some glitch in a plan that was now appearing to run smoothly. She asked me to wait as she printed something out for me. It was only in Chinese, but very important. It was an official letter from the hospital that declared that I was under the care of a Hong Kong OB and had secured a maternity booking at a Hong Kong hospital. I had to carry this with me at all times, and especially be prepared to show it at Hong Kong immigration whenever I entered the SAR.
I had read about this in the newspapers in the last few years, but I don't know how much is true and how much is rumor. Apparently, "many" pregnant Mainland women were showing up in Hong Kong to deliver their babies, sometimes skipping out on their bill. Again, I don't know how big this really was (once, twice, a thousand times?) but it caused the SAR to take extra measures to prevent this from happening. While the USA Today article I linked to above said that only ethnic Chinese women were being stopped, the women at the hospital said I could also be questioned once I started to show.
So the first part of the process was over. I was secured a coveted Hong Kong maternity booking. I didn't get stopped for "smuggling" a large amount of cash over the border, and now I had a letter to prove I wasn't trying to "smuggle" my unborn child into Hong Kong either.
I have had two pregnancies, both of which ended with unpredictable results. With Myles my water broke four weeks before my due date. We remained in the hospital for one day extra beyond the normal post-natal stay. Maeve died suddenly six weeks before her due date, and after less than a day of labor and a few hours more in the hopital, I was discharged. Nothing could have been planned.
I was reading these brochures, wondering exactly how my doctor would be able to choose for me a "three-day stay," a "four-day stay," or a "5-day stay with elective c-section." What would happen if I commited to a "four-day stay" that then resulted in a c-section? Oh, that would be covered under penalty for unplanned c-section(20% penalty during office hours, 50% penalty at any other time of day). Epidural charge was priced differently for private rooms, semi-private rooms, and wards. There was also a surcharge of HK$20,000 if I had my prenatal care with a non-Hong Kong doctor. Several people have recommended to me as a possible cash-savings measure to have prenatal taken care of in China and then just deliver in Hong Kong. Seems the surcharge would wipe out some of those savings.
The exclusions to the set-prices were interesting, too. One notable one was meals. In most Chinese hospitals, meals are the patients' families' and friends' responsibilities, not the hospital's. This is certainly one way they keep their costs down. At the private Hong Kong hospitals I would be able to choose to buy their meals or bring our own. Randy and I were amused at this because it definitely took us back to Myles' birth when we were alarmed at the meals served in the hospital in Mississippi. One day neither dinner or lunch included any green vegetables. For breakfast one morning I was given a biscuit that seemed to have been fried in butter or bacon grease. The nurses frequently mentioned suspicously to me that they noticed that Randy was bringing all my meals in to me and I wasn't eating what the hospital provided. Talk about being treated like a foreigner!
I didn't have much time to develop any strong opinions about any of the hospitals because by that Friday the OB called me to tell me she had secured a booking for me. I had to come into Hong Kong early the following week, as soon as possible, to get the referral letter from her and give the hospital a HK$40,000 deposit. Monday was out of the question because it was ANOTHER legal holiday in Hong Kong, so it would be Tuesday.
Monday was not a legal holiday in China, so off to the bank I went to withdraw the necessary amount. Earlier this year we were switched over to Chinese payroll, which required us to bank in China. We are able to maintain some finances in the US, but none that would enable me to show up at the Hong Kong hospital debit or credit card in hand. Like most other Mainland Chinese, I would have to make this a cash-only transaction. I would have to carry more than HK$40,000 in my purse. But even before that, I would have to make the withdrawl in Chinese money and then exchange it.
There are funny laws pertaining to money and cash and who can carry how much and where they can go with it in China. I am sure that we have similar laws in the US, but I am unaware of them. As a foreigner I can bank in China, make all kinds of cash transactions in China, but I cannot withdraw anything but RMB from my Chinese bank. A Chinese citizen can withdraw HK funds. And further, with the increasing strength of the RMB (especially compared to the HK$), the border police have been keeping a much closer eye than usual on how much RMB in cash crosses the border. My Chinese debit card does work in some places in Hong Kong, but I cannot withdraw enough cash in any given day even to come close to HK$40,000.
The plan would be simple. I would go to my bank branch and withdraw the cash in RMB. Then I would have to exchange the money in China (somehow). I needed to be certain that I as much of it converted as possible into Hong Kong dollars before I left. I did not want to be stopped at the border with that much Chinese cash, if I would get stopped at all.
At my bank I had no problem withdrawing the cash. However, in China the largest single bill is the 100 Yuan. Do you have any idea how thick a stack of 40,000 RMB is in 100 RMB bills? It was about 6 inches thick, and they stuffed it in a grocery bag for me. As I rearranged my purse to accept the largest wad of cash I have ever carried, I felt like a Law&Order character on my way to make some sort of cash drop for a sting operation.
From here I headed over to Shekou to an unofficial money changer. At first I was going to board my regular bus, but then I thought better for it. All for the sake of saving 10 kuai would I be getting on that bus (which Randy calls a "den of thieves") carrying my purse bulging with a ridiculous amount of money. Myles happily hailed a cab and we went to see how much we could change into HK dollars. I really thought this would take a few trips to different money changers.
I asked them how much they could exchange into HK dollars for me. In English the man replied "No problem." I didn't believe him, and showed him the contents of my grocery bag. He put the stack through his bill counter, told me what I would get in HK dollars (I love the current exchange rate!), and disappeared into another room. Out he came with a much more manageable stack of bills, as Hong Kong prints money up to $1000 dollar bills. He counted and recounted. That much Hong Kong money was still too much for my wallet, but I was able to stash it in my planner.
The next morning, we crossed to Hong Kong without any difficulty. My OB gave me a letter to take to the admissions desk at the hospital. The people at the hospital did not blink when I said it would be a cash transaction. I was just about to leave when one of the women at admissions called out to me, "Oh you live on the Mainland? Not in Hong Kong?"
I replied that was the case, hoping that it didn't mean some glitch in a plan that was now appearing to run smoothly. She asked me to wait as she printed something out for me. It was only in Chinese, but very important. It was an official letter from the hospital that declared that I was under the care of a Hong Kong OB and had secured a maternity booking at a Hong Kong hospital. I had to carry this with me at all times, and especially be prepared to show it at Hong Kong immigration whenever I entered the SAR.
I had read about this in the newspapers in the last few years, but I don't know how much is true and how much is rumor. Apparently, "many" pregnant Mainland women were showing up in Hong Kong to deliver their babies, sometimes skipping out on their bill. Again, I don't know how big this really was (once, twice, a thousand times?) but it caused the SAR to take extra measures to prevent this from happening. While the USA Today article I linked to above said that only ethnic Chinese women were being stopped, the women at the hospital said I could also be questioned once I started to show.
So the first part of the process was over. I was secured a coveted Hong Kong maternity booking. I didn't get stopped for "smuggling" a large amount of cash over the border, and now I had a letter to prove I wasn't trying to "smuggle" my unborn child into Hong Kong either.
Comments
Love and miss you,
Aunt AM