A knock on the door.

So I generally spend Friday and Saturday nights in because of early and long Saturdays and Sundays. This past Saturday was no different. I was watching yet another episode of Bones, minding my own business when someone starting knocking on the door. I ignored it as usual, because I don't have guests over my house, and so there is never a reason to answer the buzzer or the door. But this woman was persistent. And I could tell it was the voice of an older woman, and the rational thought "if i have to I can take her" came into my mind.

So I answered the door and say "who are you?" She rattles something off to me that I don't really understand, sees my blank face and asks me if i can understand chinese, I say yes. She speaks a little slower and shows me this paper. She is apparently the woman who cleans the stairwell(indeed there is someone that does this), and has come to collect her annual cleaning fee. Immediately I think fraud, and tell her I don't believe her. I say, why wouldn't I pay my landlord this fee? And she says that she's indepent from them, or something like that.

She goes on and on about how she's tired, been doing this all day (it's hot and she's super sweaty and does look tired), and she's not cheating me, collects the fee from foreigners and native people alike. I sigh, and rationalize paying her by the relatively low amount of money, 24 yuan for the year ($3.50USD). She gives me some little piece of paper with a red stamp and a phone number (red stamp means 'official' in China), and says i can call the number the next day to verify.

After I close the door I watch her give the same schpeel to my neighbors through the peephole and decided either she wass telling the truth or at least everyone was getting ripped off.

The next day she is sitting out in the common courtyardish (think rundown courtyard with stray cats, garbage, and plastic flowers planted in the garden) area handing out fliers to everyone.

Monday I take the fliers to my chinese teacher and ask her about this. The fliers are a reminder to not litter in the area, and a survey of public services. legit. okay. But She agrees that I should pay this fee to my landlord (though the fee itself is legit), so still unsure whether or not i've been had. But at least I got a blog post and chinese lesson from it. :-)