The main sections of the bank are the tills and offices. They are the main parts of the bank where most of the services took place. A green plant in the corner decorates this large and open room. The two red sofas that set against the window for people waiting lighted the whole room by its color. Behind the windows, there are two offices equipped with leather chairs, a large desk and a computer. Opposite to the offices, two tills are decorated with glass windows with loudspeaker on them. In front of the tills, while we queue in front of each till in China, a queue of people is usually standing between a rail and a sliced desk.
People and their activities
The customers of HSBC are variety. During my whole stay in the bank, people in all age groups, nationalities, ethnics, and in different careers are observed.
Young people wearing jeans, polo shirt, sport shoes with a bag on the back and earphones in the ears are seen frequently in the branch that I visited. They usually get into the bank, withdraw some cash from the ATM and leave quickly. Some of them went for advise in front of the information desk or inside of the offices. Seen from their appearance, they might be university or collage students in the city. Overseas students are always found as well in this bank doing bank transfer or
bank drafts from their home counties. As an important industry of the UK, education is attracts millions of international students studying in the UK and gaining a great fortune to the government. The reasons why this branch attracts so many students are the location of this branch is the nearest one to the university of Portsmouth and services that HSBC provides specially for international students..
Old people are found in the bank as well. They wearing warm clothes, glasses and probably sited in the wheel chairs. In China, old people may not able to drive wheel chair to get into banks or other public spaces for the steps in front of buildings. Amazingly, while the Chinese old prefer till services, old people here are able to use cash machines and seem to be quite familiar with them. This phenomenon reflects different society between the UK and China. People in China live with their son or daughter when they getting old, the money they get from our government and all their financial issues will all authorized by their children. In this case, you will not see many old people in Chinese bank actually.
A middle-aged man was found at the tills, when I was waiting in the queue. The man wears jeans and a casual jacket with a suitcase was asking for a large number of different coins. According to the amount of coins he colleted, he might be works in a small shop or a restaurant as an accountant. Those coins are probably prepared for changes. Banks in China may not provide service like this.
I have seen many people in uniforms of ASDA, Tesco in the branch that I visited. Far from the students, they leave the bank quickly but not always withdraw money. What they did most frequently is print a mini bank statement or a transaction script on the ATM. I noticed that, some times they check the statements or scripts with other documents. As my own experience of part time job, they are regarded as shop assistants in a shop or super market. The reason why they need to have a copy of their statement is to double-check their payroll list. You will not see this phenomenon in China because shop assistants and cashiers in China are working full time and that would be the only job of them. More differently, the wages of them are fixed monthly or paid by cash. Working class people may not need to go to bank to check their saving often.
