I went to ChinaClear, the Chinese securities clearing house. I don’t know what’s the equivalent in the States? I do believe they have something similar but it’s just behind the scenes. In other words, we don’t need to know all the details.
ChinaClear is in Pudong Lu Jia Zhui area, the place has most high rises in Shanghai. They are mostly developed in last 10 years so I felt I entered the 21st century everytime I went there. It feels so different from St. Louis. Anyway I went the China Insurance building (the one has China Life sign at the top), and then got lost. The reason? Again I think it’s two fold: the signs inside the building are insufficent; and I myself become a little dumb after been in the States for long (I think US has the better signs in airport, highways, other public places). The signs in the states are clear, informative, sometimes even a little excessive; on the other hand, the signs in China Insurance building are not obvious, they are small; basically they assume people should know where to look for signs, how the building is laid out etc. Maybe different philosophies in two different cultures? Being a software engineer, I know “user friendliness” is very important. I do see the difference on the Chinese and US web sites for hotel booking. I am not saying the US one is always better, but I think maybe our Chinese colleagues can learn something from the west…
OK, back to topic. The service at ChinaClear is fast, basically I got a paperwork for my previous Shanghai A shares account. That account was opened in Feb 1994. This process took only 5 minutes. But when I brought the paper work to my broker at Zhao Shang Securities, she told me I need to wait 2 more days to get my Shanghai account reactivitated. I think it may be a good thing now I have some time to do some research before pulling the trigger.