Chinese bankcard gave me more than cash Down Under
A Chinese bankcard isn’t just an easy way to spend money in Australia. It’s a bridge to international camaraderie among the Chinese with shops and souvenir stalls throughout the Antipodes.
Case in point: My first day of vacation didn’t involve a visit to Sydney’s iconic Opera House or cuddling a koala (these came later) but a hunt for an electric plug adapter for my smartphone. The concierge at the hotel suggested I head to Paddy’s Markets, a short tram ride from the city center to the Haymarket neighborhood, right next door to Chinatown.
I was surprised to discover Paddy’s ground floor is a scaled-down version of Beijing’s Silk Market, complete with Chinese people hawking a variety of goods. Souvenirs, backpacks, luggage and clothes were piled up in flea market stalls. Just past a display of Ugg boots a Chinese woman sold electronics. She had the adapter I needed, and when I pulled out my Bank of China/Union Pay debit card, she hesitated.
“You have a Chinese bankcard?” she asked, looking somewhat doubtful that a pasty-looking white American woman would have one.
When I told her I’m an expat living in Beijing, her eyes lit up and her face broke into a wide smile.
“We are from Guangdong!” she exclaimed, and suddenly, we were chatting away like old friends.
That was a scene repeated many times as I used my Chinese bankcard in the shops of the continent’s biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, during the next two weeks. A young man working in a duty-free shop at the Sydney airport, born in Australia to Chinese immigrant parents, said his mom and dad missed China.
I met the proprietor of a souvenir stall in Paddy’s Markets who was born in East China’s Anhui province and talked a little about my life in China. When she rang up the sale, it was 20 percent less.
“You get a Friend of China discount!” she grinned.
I knew Australia had a large Chinese population, but what I didn’t know is that of the country’s estimated 24.8 million total population, per capita Australia has more people of Chinese ancestry than any other country outside Asia, according to official statistics. Those of ethnic Chinese origin numbered about 1.2 million, or 5.6 percent, of those counted in the 2016 Census.
And overseas Chinese make up the largest ethnic group in Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and the South Pacific islands. The number includes recent immigrants and those whose families moved there decades or a century ago.
The earliest Chinese migration of note to Australia came during the mid-19th century during the gold rush and many of those immigrants came from the Pearl River Delta, according to history books.
That explains why many of the Chinese-Australians that I talked to, often courtesy of that bankcard, were from South China’s Guangdong province or Hong Kong.
On an excursion along Australia’s stunning Great Ocean Road, I chatted with a middleaged man and his two teenaged daughters from Perth in Western Australia. His parents immigrated from Hong Kong before he was born but no one in the family has gone back to China for a visit. He said he’d like to have a vacation in China, and take his girls with him to Beijing and Xi’an, Shaanxi province, so they can learn more of their cultural heritage.
“But our family doesn’t speak Mandarin, only Cantonese,” he said. I assured him that wouldn’t be a problem in the big cities, where many people speak English.
On that same day trip a Chinese couple asked me to take their photo as they stood in front of the spectacular coastal formation of rocky cliffs and limestone pillars known as the Twelve Apostles. I asked where they were from. “Beijing,” they replied. “So I am I!” and we chuckled about the unlikely coincidence.
It’s been said that a smile is the most effective form of nonverbal communication — and that was certainly the case every time I encountered a Chinese tourist or business owner during my travels Down Under. Without exception, their friendliness filled me with a reassuring sense.
Besides, I always had my trusty bankcard to make the introductions.