Need help translating Chinese note on our door. Looks serious.

[Tom Riggle]

I would be much obliged if some one could translate the following note that we just discovered on our door. We have already had one surprise two weeks ago. Returning from a short trip to Mudanjiang we found we had no power - had to throw all of our food out. Our employers were supposed to take care of that.

Is this note along those same lines. I'm just so tired of being nervous over things that supposedly we weren't even supposed to have to worry about.

Tom in Jilin

[Tom Riggle]

The school knows pretty much all about this situation. We are the ones having to ask and ask for information. "Television" was included in the contract - as well as paid phone - but that, along with other things was not honored.  Well, I better not replay this theme.

[Chris Knight]

You'd better bring that up with the school. It may not matter to you very much if you don't need or want cable, but whoever lives there after you leave is going to have to pay that bill before their cable gets hooked back up. If the cable is included in your contract, the school needs to pay that bill. I've had that happen to me with a telephone bill. The previous FT's were phoning back to the States a lot, then pulled a midnight run. My phone got cut off after a month, and when I inquired about it, the phone company said I had to pay off the phone bill, which was about 5000 RMB, before I could get it reconnected. They don't care who pays the bill, as long as it gets paid.

[Tom Riggle]

Apparently it has to do with our cable TV being cut off. Which is weird because we didn't even know that we had cable. Sure hope we weren't paying for it.

But thanks for the response.

[The Choonies]

Service companies here in Changchun don't put up notices on one door. They put individual bills on each door. If you don't pay they just cut you off - no real warning.

So if it is an individual notice then yes you should get it translated pronto.

[David Emmerson Nicholson]

It could be a school thing, maybe they didnt put enough money on the bill, or as you said you went on a trip- maybe your neighbours had the same notice but already took theres down so you didnt see it.

[Tom Riggle]

Thanks, both of you, for the translation.

Yes, I realize that China is a lot different from Kansas. The concern I have is not if this were just a general notice for everyone - We didn't see notices on other doors - but that is is just us. Specifically, something being turned off because of our school not paying something. I do intend to bring this up to the school. But, given that they have not always been upfront with us, I wanted also to run this by you guys, a disinterested party.

Thanks.

[David Emmerson Nicholson]

Weve had outages here too, due to the roadworks and rebuilding they are doing along Qing Nian Lu. As Choonies says, its common for things to be turned off and obviously its an inconvenience but theres nothing really to be done about it.

As for the note, maybe they were just warning the power/water would be off, but get it checked.

[The Choonies]

It is quite common for electricity, water and gas to be switch off and at least they are posting a warning on your door. Usually they post on the main door which is totally missed by the foreigners.

There is nothing your school can do about this - it is just part of our life here.

So take a snap of the notice and post it here or get someone at your school to translate it.

Serious - yes sometimes things can be turned off for long periods - once here we lost water for over a week - that was not too nice. Usually they give an exact time when the service will return and they are always on time.

But Tom we are not in Kansas anymore.