Published by Swiss James on 24 Jan 2008
Fa Piao, Fa Piao mother
One of the first things most ex-pats learn about in Shanghai is the “Fa Piao”- the tax receipt.
These bills come in preset amounts (1, 5, 10 all the way up to at least 5,000 and probably beyond) that don’t describe the goods and services you’ve paid for, just how much you paid for them.
It’s a daft system that’s wide open to abuse, thus providing a useful introduction to Chinese culture for the new arrival. Examples of places you can get a Fa Piao include:
- market stalls selling fake hand bags,
- girly bars,
- people on the street who will sell you whatever amount you want for a 5% cut,
- KFC.
To encourage people to ask for these things, (and thus to force businesses to put everything through the till) there’s a little scratch-and-win silver panel on the right of the ticket, that I’ve ofen scratched and never won. Until last night, eating in a Turkish restaurant with friends, when we hit the jackpot.
Read it and weep (or get someone to translate for you) suckers- 10RMB!
The restaurant swapped the ticket for cash, we split the booty 6-ways and hit the town. P Diddy style.
YaoHua with the loot