Everyday Chinese
shidakai
November 26, 2008, 08:05 AM posted in General DiscussionHi all,
Every time I go to the Shanghai railway station I hear people saying what sounds like "fapiao fapiao". Could someone please explain the meaning and clarify what is actually being said if I misunderstood? Also, does anyone know the reason why tons of Chinese sit outside of the train station with their bags? I usually see them in groups and they look like they are travellers given their luggage. But I do not understand why they would wait outside the train station and not inside of it if they have tickets.
谢谢
pearltowerpete
November 26, 2008, 08:12 AMHi shidakai
Those rascals are definitely saying 发票, 发票。 There is a huge underground market in receipts, which can be used for reinbursement. Depending on their job, some people can get cash back reimbursement for everything from Karaoke to dinner if they have the receipts.
The guys you mentioned buy up receipts (in this case, used train tickets, but there are all kinds) from those who can't get any reimbursement and will sell them cheap for a little extra money. Then, they sell these to the people who probably ate at home or somewhere cheap, but need receipts to claim their allowance for dinner, or travel, or whatever. So at the end of the month they get a bunch of extra cash. Isn't corruption fun?
I believe you can only go into the train station about four hours before the train. So the people you see sitting on bags probably just got there early.
shidakai
November 26, 2008, 11:48 AM谢谢你们的回应。 我对这件发票的事有意思。 Dare I ask, how did you guys find out about the underground reciept market? Are there any readings or articles about it?
sushan
November 26, 2008, 05:33 PMIt's kind of a fact of life. Many jobs in China offer part of your compensation or bonus as expenses - this saves on taxes for the employee and must also benefit the employer, or it would not be so widespread. The catch is that you have to dredge up enough receipts to cover it.
So many businesses will give you receipts for more money than you've spent if you ask for it, and many people hang outside grocery stores like Carrefour asking for your grocery bill. They then take the tab to the service counter and get an official receipt with the red stamp. My building management office gives me a receipt for utilities with the description blank so I could fill it in however I wanted.
Besides the corruption aspect, it can be very 麻烦 to scrounge up all these receipts each month so I've always opted to take the tax loss and get paid as part of salary.
johnb
November 26, 2008, 08:10 AMshidakai,
They are indeed saying 'fapiao' (发票, "receipt"), and are offering forged receipts. Good for homebound businesspeople to pad their expense reports with, I would guess. If you walk around long enough, you'll hear people offer you all sorts of unseemly things :)
As for why people wait outside, I believe you're only allowed inside the station at some fixed time before your train is scheduled to leave (2 hours, maybe? I'm not sure). Otherwise all of those people would be in the station, and it would be impassable.