That's a first...

Just when you think you've heard all the crazy things that can and could happen in China, a new one comes along.

On Saturday evening, I was meeting some friends for dinner. We were having a picnic aka everyone picks up some food to go and we eat in the living room. I quick swept up before hand since I was "hosting" (as much as one can host at an apartment they don't really live in). When I finished, I noticed that I had missed ten phone calls on my cell! I was worried that people were calling me because they were having trouble getting in the apartment building. Nope, all the calls were from three different numbers that I didn't have saved in my contacts. Strange... I waited to see if they would call back.

And they did. I answered "Hello?" (first clue that you've just called a foreigner). Response: blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: Dubuqi, wo ting bu dong (I'm sorry, I don't understand your speaking aka I don't speak Chinese). Response: More blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: (in Chinese) Sorry I don't understand you. I'm a foreigner. Response: blah, blah, blah, really fast Chinese. Me: hung up. The same thing happened with the next number. The third time I caught the word "fangzi" which means apartment. Teri who had just arrived suggested that maybe some real estate agent had mistakenly wrote down my number instead of their client's. Possible, but it didn't explain the large number of calls from so many different numbers. Amber, Teri and I each answered a couple more calls to see how long it would take for people to hang up on us.

Then I got a text message asking "Do you have an apartment to rent?". Ambiguous... "Do I have" as in I have one to rent out to other people or I have one that I'm already renting. I responded with "who are you?". The answer was incoherent. They sent another message saying "I see you have rented a house from the internet???". I told them no and it must have been a mistake to which they replied "sorry feel shy" (which is a great example of why dictionaries are terrible for translating because they must have meant embarrassed). So then, I knew what all the phone calls were about. I started to reject them as they came in but people just called right back. I answered a few of them and explained that the ad was wrong but they just kept coming. I tried googling (actually bai du-ing - China's Google knock-off) my phone number to find the ad but no luck. I wanted to see what kind of property I was renting out since it was so popular. It must have been a great place for a great price.

I ignored my phone for the next two hours during study during which time I received another twelve phone calls. Thankfully, they stopped after 9pm. I forgot my phone at home on Sunday and came back to another 25 missed phone calls and one text message. On Monday I got a few more calls and only one today. Hopefully, the ad has been changed. The moral of the story is that Beijing real estate is very hot and knowing the word for advertisement in Chinese (guang gao 广告) can be very useful.