So I should have my visa extended by 1 month -enough for me to getto Hong Kong to then get another visa; very relieved as the fine foroverstaying your visa is at least £50 a day!
It was not easy though. well, actually getting the extension waseasy, but getting the certificate of residency in order to get thevisa was tough.
Chinese law says that foreigners who are not staying in a hotel haveto register with their local police station within 24 hours ofarriving (in the cities, 72 hrs in coutryside). Easier said thatdone, when the relevant person was not in the police station allweekend. You may have realised that trying to register this weekendis hardly 24 hours after I arrived, and you would be right; but as Ihad not registered yet, but needed to to get my visa (no otherreason to, to be honest), I 'arrived' in Beijing from 3 months oftravelling on friday night.
Getting this permit thing required the landlady to be there thewhole time (she lives 3 hrs away); it also required 1 hour 30minutes of..well I don't know what, but the guy was filling lots offorms in (3 or 4 times, even though there was a working photcopierin the corner..?). Unfortunately as I was late registering (not myfault as police guy was not in at the weekend, and landlady is ateacher so couldnt take monday off work) I was punished.
As long as it didnt involve expulsion or arrest, I didnt reallycare. In the end it was even financial, just an offical verbalpunishment. Then I realised what this meant...it meant 2 hours and30 minutes of even more form filling, essay writing and stupid-assquestions such as:
-do you understand this punishment? [yes]
-do you understand what this means? [yes]
-do you agree with this punishment? [yes]
-do you want to appeal? [no]
-if you want to appeal.. [I don't]..if you want to appeal, this isthe procedure...do you understand this? [yes]
-are you sure you do not want to appeal? [no]
-if you change your mind, do you understand the procedure [yes]
and on, and on...so pointless, then I had to sign this and that. Iaccidentally forgot to date something so the AIESEC member who washolding the pen, went to write the date in for me -oh dear, what amistake. Only I can date the piece of paper, so that involved somedisapproving looks (and laughs from us!). Have I mentioned how Chinasometimes has the strictest of laws (rarely obeyed) and mostly hasthe most lax?
Then to top it all off the other guy didn't beleive that I waswithin my 90 days of original visa (from sep 11th) -anyone wouldguess 90 days would go till dec 11th, or 1 day either side of it, sothis being dec 7th, i thought i was fine...no, he spent 20 minutessearchin for a calendar, and then went through counting the days! ialmost screamed. In fact, I might well have done a bit, and notstifled it. grrrrr.
so stupid! anyway, its all sorted out :) Its an interesting learningexperience anyway about something that is so simple. I was impressedwith the multiple appeals procedure anyway!
Other news: The CSR programme I am working on is going well, I amhaving a toss-up between choosing Tsinghua and Beijing Langauges andCulture University for a 1 semester long Chinese course starting atthe end of February (but got to decide this week), I am having anearly Birthday Party this Friday night and yesterday I saw anamazing Gong-Fu show (a king-fu type musical/show) -very spectacularand Chinese (had free VIP tickets too!!).
Enough from me, what about you?
Adam
p.s. did you read about Lenovo (Chinese PC company) buying part ofIBM? the takeover begins...
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