BEIJING TIP: Be proactive when purchasing electricity

Last night I was blogging, Denis was ironing and watching TV and we had the air con on full blast and all the lights on. Suddenly we were drenched in darkness! Denis had forgot to pay his electric bill -_-

After a trip to the property management office, we find out that over here, electricity use is not billed to you, it must be bought beforehand. 

Denis apparently has an electricity card with which he was supposed to take to the bank and buy units of electricity with. The card is then inserted into the electricity box next to the back stairwell and then however many units of electricity you bought is then allocated to your flat. But the thing is, none of the tenants have direct access to the electricity box which displays how much electricity you have left, only property management has access. So you cannot know easily how much credit you have left....over complication in China makes for interesting situations. 

Zero electricity credit at night is not a good position to be in. Luckily we were able to buy a few units from the convenience store downstairs. 

Moral of the story - be proactive when living in China!