Changing Dollars into Yuan

I'm getting some feedback on this, so let me clarify a few things. Yes, we had to wait a long time while the people did all of the paperwork, and had extra people sign off on it, and all of that. But there were rarely any lines. At most we may have had to wait on one or two people, but most of the time we made it a point to do it when there were people at the counter of the hotel just standing there waiting to help someone. My DH even went down one evening to do it while the baby and I were in the room, because we realized we'd need some the next day and oftentimes the lobby was busy in the mornings with people checking out. So, yes, it did take 15 minutes a few times, but that was without standing in line. That's just how long it took them to do it. The problem with the White Swan is that they only exchange money during certain hours, the rest of the time they send you next door to the bank. This was not a pleasant experience. We were treated as if we were trying to pawn off bad money. In the end they exchanged it, but we were not treated very nicely at all. We will avoid going to that bank next time if we can help it. The point of yesterdays rant was that much of the Chinese way of doing things is terribly inefficient, and I think it would be helpful if the CCAA had one of those companies that streamlines things to come in and help them streamline their system. Maybe they have already done that, I don't know... it was just an idea, based on other things I saw in China. Take for instance what you have to do in a department store. The salesperson writes up what you want to buy and then keeps it, you find the cashier (usually a long ways from where you are, sometimes on a different floor than the one you are on), stand in line until it's your turn at the window, then show her your three part form(s) and you pay her. She stamps the forms and hands two of them back to you. You go back to the original salesperson (often she is with someone else so there is yet another wait) and give her the forms. She keeps one, and gives you the other one, and then gives you the items you just bought. Each salesperson has a small area they can sell in. So, sometimes you have forms from four or five salespeople, after you pay the cashier you have to go find them all to get your stuff. I realize I'm being a typical American and saying that our way is better and I know there is a lot more to it than that. I realize that in China the people that handle the money get paid a lot more than those that don't handle money, so it doesn't make sense to put cash registers out and let just anyone take money from people. I was also told by our guide that when someone exchanges money, if they don't do it exactly right, and if the money turns out to be counterfeit, that it comes out of their pay. So, I also understand why they took so much time making sure the money was good. Yes, this is all a difference in cultures. And I'm not saying their way is bad. It's just different, and in my American eyes, often not very efficient. But it also seems that efficiency is one of those things that is important to Americans and not so important to the Chinese. So while I'm bellyaching about how incredibly slow the CCAA seems to be going with everything (logging in dossiers, revewing dossiers, matching dossiers, getting Travel Approvals out), I just pointed out that maybe they could go faster if they streamlined things. Perhaps that was bad form. But, it was not meant to be a slam towards China... just a pointing out of the differences.