The Time Warp, the Metric System and UPS

Before moving to China, I had no inkling of just how different things would be here. What would seem a simple request from a realtor has turned into Mission: Impossible. The e-mail stated that all I had to do to close on our house was print out an attachment on legal-sized paper, sign it and have it notarized, and UPS it back to Knoxville within 3 days. In order to do this, of course, I had to UPS it back by Tuesday...except that it was already Tuesday when I got the e-mail because we are 12 hours ahead.

There is no legal-sized paper in China; it is an American size. There is A4 paper, which is a bit larger than our letter size paper, A3 is twice the size, and A5 is half as large, from what I can understand. Because we don't use the metric system, we are pretty much the only ones in the world who use letter-size 8 1/2 x 11 paper. It definetly had to be legal-size paper, and I was definetly not going to be able to locate any. That was my first obstacle. My second obstacle was getting to a notary: either to Guanzhou, which is 1 1/2 - 3 hours away, depending on traffic, or to the Hong Kong U.S. Consulate, which requires an appointment booking. Either way, it is an all-day trip. Either way, it was not going to happen on Tuesday!

To UPS something to the US and expect it to arrive in a few days is, at best, naive. Nobody can guarantee overnight service to or from here; 3-day service is a gamble, as well.

Needless to say, the closing was postponed for a week; the documents were hand-delivered to Tim, who happened to be in Knoxville this week, and we will be making an appointment to get them notarized in Hong Kong. The return to the US will be taken care of by Tim's office here in China, by someone who understands how to communicate that time is of the essence.

A simple request certainly isn't so simple when it's made from someone in the U.S. to someone living in China!