Piano Rental

Saturday morning Rebekah headed out with an American colleague, Kitty, to rent a piano. Kitty had lined up a driver to pick us up at 9:15am outside her apartment. At 9:15am no driver appeared. Kitty called him and he had misunderstood 9:15 as 9:50 - a common mistake when working in a foreign language.

We soon arrived at a piano workshop on the fourth floor of a small building. The owner, Mr. Wu Fa, greeted us and ushered us into his showroom. He showed as a Pearl River console that was ok, but not a great piano. Then he showed us a better brand that I had never seen before. Kitty and I started uncovering pianos and trying out Yamahas and Kawaiis. I found an upright Yamaha with a beautiful mellow tone and great touch. The rent would be 200 yuan per month (approximately $30).

Mr. Wu Fa disappeared into the building and returned with his 14 year old son. I thought he was there to translate for us, but he spoke almost no English like his father. His father wanted him to play for us. He sat down with a sigh, adjusted the bench, closed his eyes, and with a deep breath played a Rachmaninoff Prelude with passion and technical perfection. Wow!

In Mr. Wu Fa's office we discussed details. Kitty and I were stunned when he wanted 15,000 yuan for a deposit ($2,150). Immediately we said it was too much. Finally he agreed on 10,000 yuan with a delivery fee of 150 yuan. He could deliver it that afternoon at 3:30pm. Throughout this transaction his son, his wife, and another teenage girl were in the room watching and trying to help with the translation of my address, the time, the amount. Twice Kitty had to call bi-lingual friends to help translate.

Later, on the bus home, Kitty called a Chinese colleague, Lucia, and discussed the high deposit. Lucia called Mr. Wu Fa and discovered that he didn't really want to rent the Yamaha to us. He was hoping to sell it soon. Thus he wanted a lot of money to cover his overhead costs for the year. Lucia negotiated the deposit down to 8,000 yuan.

At 3:30pm I met a delivery truck outside the apartment. Five average size Chinese men hopped out of the truck and lifted the piano onto a piano dolly. Our apartment is on the fourth floor, with no elevator and two tight stairwell turns. I highly doubted anyone could get it past those two stairwells. I tried to get the men to come look at the situation before starting up the stairs, but they just stared at the first set of steps, jabbered in Chinese, and then strapped themselves to the piano. Chanting in unison, they marched up the steps with the piano strapped to their shoulders, not even hesitating at the tight stairwells. They were up the four flights in less than two minutes. I was stunned.

The delivery men disappeared and Mr. Wu Fa appeared with his briefcase in hand. We signed the contract, but not before a long confusing discussion with lots of numbers written on paper, and finally a phone call to Lucia. Mr. Wu Fa wanted the 8,000 yuan, plus the entire year's rent and the delivery fee. Kitty had loaned me the 8,000 yuan (since we can only get 2,000 yuan out of the ATM per day), but I only had the first month rent and delivery fee with me. When I said, "Wo mei yao" (I don't have) and pointed to the 2,000 figure on the paper, he waived the rent money away and indicated I could pay the balance in October.

We ended the transaction with smiles and a hand shake, and we became the happy owners of a new piano for a year.

The Easy Part

Up The Steps

Around the Corner

Almost There

Our New Piano!