life - Cashing a check at the BOC

One of the more tiresome activities in China is cashing in a check. American companies have for one reason or another a preference for this small piece of paper, while here in China it is seen with suspicion. Checks never took off in China, because of the large number of bounces: bank employees would always find that your signature look different from how it should look.
In the past year I already was too late a few times, because there is only a week or so between the arrival of the check and the expire date. But this morning I took a morning off to cash in my first Google adsense check of almost 90 US dollar: it was the first money I really made online. A bit of a historical event.
I have a favorite Bank of China outlet at Hengshan Road, where unlike other outlets, not dozens of other clients force you to wait hours, before it is your turn. This morning I was unlike. Three counters were open, three people were doing their business, but each of them kept the counter busy for at least half an hour after I arrived. And they seemed to be working there already for a long time.
Then it was my turn. I counted about twenty different form the bank employee had to deal with, he made a photocopy of my pass port, let me sign at least six forms and chopped six others. One new form was from the State Administration on Foreign Exchange with many strange entries, I even could not understand in their English translation.
The whole procedure will take a month, and probably many more form I will never notice.
One and a half hour in total and this for only a fee of 30 renminbi. China is still the country of cheap labor.