Thursday, October 23, 2014

Chung, Manly to Sydney airport, 96 dollars

After a five minute drive I notice a noise. What is that noise?

"Is there something wrong with the car?"
"I do not know. Sometimes there is. This car drives 24 hours a day. But it is serviced every month. Sometimes I have to go in between. But it needs to be worse than this if I should go to the workshop".
"Hmm, I wonder what that noise is... Well it seems like it is something with your wheel. I can hear how it is getting lesser when we turn left. "
"Ahh, maybe!"
"Yes, you noticed when you stopped that the noise stopped to? It seems like it is coming from the right back wheel"
"Ahh, thank you."

Something is telling me though that he is not going to bother about this one. The problem is not big enough.

"You know, we change tyres every 3 months. Only three months before it has to change. And we never buy new tyres. Just by used ones. You know, remove the rubber and put on new one. My boss has 130 cars and this is the cheapest way to do it. "
"Hmm, you would think that you would profit from buying new tyres that would last longer? "
"No, no. All big taxi companies do it this way. "
"I see, interesting. Where are you from?"
"I am from China. I have been here for 14 years".
"Do you miss it?"
"No. Haha, not really. I have everything here now. And you know, China is not stable. And expensive. I probably could not afford it anymore. "
"Really?"
"Yes, you know how much a unit costs in China? If you would get a 2 bedroom in a city it would cost me 500,000 Australian dollars. Ha, I could not afford to live there!"
"Wow, I thought China was cheap!"
"No. Too many rich people there now. And it is easy to become rich in China. You just need to know someone that can help you. You do not need money to start with. A friend of mine knew someone in the government so he could buy land from him. The land was worth 3 million dollars but he got it for 30,000 dollars. Then he goes to the bank also owned by the government and pays someone on the bank to lend him money without deposit. And then he builds a house on the land. Then he sells everything and gets a lot of money. Just sells it to someone that has made the money in the same way as he just did. "
"Interesting. There are so many rich people in China. And a lot of them come here and by units"
"Yes. They just need to get the money out of China. They have made money illegally and need to get it out as fast as they can. "
"But it seems like they not always cares about the units they buy or the property they buy. Manly Cinema property is owned by someone in Hong Kong and it has been closed for more than a year now because the owner is not agreeing on rent with the guy who is renting and running the cinema. But it seems like the owner does not care about the vacancy. He does not care about the loss of income. And that kind of behaviour does not really serve the people living in Manly"
"No, he does not care. He just wanted to get the money out of Hong Kong. They just park the money outside of China. Too many rich people in China now. "

We arrive at the airport and I swipe my card and get out of the taxi. The development in China is really interesting. I want to learn more about this.

"Have a great day, nice talking to you"