Mobile me, mobile you

Staying connected by mobile phone in China is affordable, as least it seems so to me after the rate-gouging I always felt subjected to in the US. When I first came here, I discovered my slimline Motorola Razr phone didn’t work here, wrong band. So, I had to go shopping for a new phone. Most folks back home seem to think electronics are cheap here, but not! Even though most everything is made here, it’s not cheaper. Sometimes even more expensive.

When I landed here three years ago I looked at other (and cheaper) phones, but eventually stuck with the Razr phone because I knew it inside and out. And, in line with my traditionally conservative fashion sense, I switched from the bland, chrome color I already had (subsequently handed down to number one progeny) to safe, basic black. At a cost of 2,300RMB, about $300, much the same price as they were back then in the states. (Much, much cheaper these days…sigh.)

This year, when we landed back in Xiangfan, I had to go to a China Mobile store to get a local SIM card/phone number. Here you get to pick your phone number…in that numbers have meaning in the local culture, ranging from good as in the number 8, or bā…to something not so good like the number 4, or sì, which sounds like the Chinese word for to die, which is sǐ…just a different tone.

And now you know why the Olympics this year began on 08/08/2008…at 8:08pm.

I wanted a lucky number, too…and the shop girl very kindly turned her computer screen so I could peruse the possibilities. I scanned the numbers. Scanned again. And pointed to one.

“Oh, so sorry! You can’t have that number!”

“Wèishénme bù?” (Why not?)

“That number is reserved for the lǐngdǎo (leaders),” she explained.

“Oh…” More scanning. Scan some more. “Okay, this one then.”

“Um,” with a pained look, “You can’t choose that one either.”

“Let me guess…for the lǐngdǎo, dui ma?

“Oh, dear, yes…so sorry.” I’m not quite sure why she kept showing me these reserved numbers. This happened several more times until I finally went outside and asked Jenny to pick my lucky number. It’s an okay number…it has just one 8, but no 4s, so I may have some longevity while I’m here in Xiangfan, maybe even some good fortune.

The SIM card cost 20RMB, about three bucks. My monthly fee is 10RMB, about $1.50…for which you get no minutes, but you do get 200 text messages. (And no one uses voice mail here.) Minutes cost sān mǎo, about four cents each. Although for a 3 kuai monthly fee, about 45 cents…Jenny and I can now call each other for 6 fēn per minute, which is about as close to free as you can get. (For the record, 10 fēn make one mǎo and 10 mǎo make one yuan/kuai/renminbi.)

About the only thing on my wish list now…

China Mobile and Apple haven’t been able to hit a high note together yet, though rumors abound. At present, China Mobile’s 3G network isn’t quite up to snuff anyway, so the new iPhone technology would appear to be fairly useless here.

Anyone got an old 2G iPhone they wanna unload?