没事 (Mei Shi) No Problem

The VISA Journey Continued!!! What A Way to Go!

The Olympic year has been a tumultuous one for the Chinese, the Central Government  and foreigners as well. There have been frustrations of inflation, which has almost doubled the price of many foods, which has the locals limiting their diets. The Central Government has been working non-stop to put things together in Beijing, get rid of the unwanted types and clean up the city (more on that to come) and at the same time they have had to deal with protests (not only in Tibet) and tragedy, weather and of course they had do complete all of these things with the efficiency and attention to detail that the Chinese are so famous for...

So then you have the foreigners; the over-paid, over-privileged,  under-worked, and over-sexed group of people that have come all the way to China to get paid big bucks...but they also have problems. No one has been without some effect of the new VISA practices, either by losing a friend or by having to be the lost friend.

One of my friends from darts, got employed by a company who did the whole process and all the paperwork for this person to get a Z (working) VISA. This man went to Thailand to process it, and sit on the beach for two weeks, and was finally sent back to his home country - there'll be no VISA from here!

My VISA journey has been different than some others, as I am going from a work to a tourist VISA, For two or more months I have been calling the people in Hong Kong asking, "Can I still get a VISA?" and they have always replied...

"Where you from?"

"America!"

"OKAY, No Problem, when you come here?"

But all the times that I called I must have been on crack because I forgot to ask if I was going to be able to get a VISA and then actually be able to watch the FUCKING Olympics. HAHA

I have been here for nearly five years and I stayed this last year only for the Olympics and actually only for Jiao Jiao, so she could see the Olympics in her hometown. What kind of knit-wit would take his wife out of her town before the Olympics?

Well, I guess I should have done that anyway because the VISA that they are giving in Hong Kong requires that you leave the county every thirty days. HAHAHA. What a bunch of SHIT! I waited a whole year to watch the over-hyped Olympics and I have to leave for a couple days right in the middle. It is not like I am in Guang Zhou and I can take a bus to Hong Kong, I am in Beijing and there is nothing close.

When I got to the hotel and asked the woman about the VISA and she told me about that restriction, I nearly didn't get a VISA. I said, "If you would have told me that on the phone one of the five or six times I called you, I would not have come!" I stopped, sat down and thought hard about whether it was worth all the trouble of staying...but now I have some sweet tickets, so I want to see the action...and I have already purchased two plane tickets to our next destination after the Olympics. So fuck... I took the shit VISA!

Even though Hong Kong is said to be the place to get your VISA to China, I have never had any luck down there. In 2004 when I went the first time to get a VISA, they tried to give me one with the same bullshit restrictions. To combat that, I took a one month VISA and bought a new VISA when I got back to Beijing, but now there is a higher price on that route...So I will be going to Hong Kong in the middle of the Olympics...Oh Joy!

New Visa Restrictions

Since I am coming up to the end of a contract and I decided not to renew, I am traveling back in time to a situation when I did not have the nice and tidy Z Visa all taken care of, but rather had to find relationships and companies and money to keep my Visa current.

The Visa situation in China has always been one of constant flux. I came on a 3 month Tourist (L) Visa and after that three months, I was able to find an organization which would help me change to a Business (F) Visa for a fee. Essentially, what they did was that they told the police that they were helping me go to markets and export something...when actually, they were just selling Visas.

My first summer in China was my first trip to Hong Kong and I was going to Hong Kong to go for fun, but also I was going to renew my Visa...it was too hot for much fun. I took the 24 hour train down to Hong Kong and met another American man who was traveling down to Hong Kong to do the same thing. My plan was to get a 6 month F Visa and then travel back into Beijing. However, when I arrived in Hong Kong...things had changed.

In retaliation to America requiring all international travelers to give fingerprints at their point of entry, the Chinese government required all Americans getting a visa of more than one month to leave the country every 30 days, which would be nothing for someone living in Guang Zhou, but in Beijing there is no border for days, so I ended up getting a one month tourist visa and changing it once again in Beijing.

As of some date in April, the Chinese government has made some serious changes to the Visa system. There is no more F Visa after July 31 and they are not renewing the Student (X) Visa of international students until something like October....so they have to go home. I have tons of friends who are searching high and low for some sort of way to stay in China, but to no avail. Soon, there will be many foreigners leaving China because they have no other option. Hong Kong businessmen are making some noise about the new situation because they have no idea when they will be able to get a Visa to come and do business and there is no "transparency" to the whole process.

So has the situation really changed? Surprisingly, the answer that I conclude from the whole business is NO. Realistically speaking, the whole situation is the same, just inflated. Companies with relationships with the Visa office are setting up programs for people to "study" for a couple months for the fee of 10,000 rmb and they only have to attend a couple of classes. The requirement in Hong Kong is that a person must have a hotel reservation in China and a plane ticket to China....which can be manufactured for a price...so the situation has not changed, just the price has been inflated.

One thing that has changed, which I heard about yesterday, is that landlords have to register their apartment in a special way to be able to hold foreigners and foreigners have to tell the police when they are leaving the country and when they return, like businessmen have time to run downtown and talk to their local police every time they need to take a trip. For the majority of foreigners that I work with, who have no idea how to take care of any issue in China without their Ayi or the Human Resources Department, the problem will be very large...but they will get HR to do it for them, I am sure.

I will find a way to get my issues taken care of, I hope...but we will have to see what happens to the rules between now and tomorrow.

Reply to comments: Jeff - I would say that it is getting worse that when you were here. I know you had your incident near the Lidu, which was bad, but things are getting worse the more foreigners that come in. Did you read about the American that was beaten outside of Carrafour? 

Ashley - Don't thing we will make it to Europe soon. Things have really changed her recently, that is true. Steve still works at the Korean School and he is getting married in July to a girl from Wuhan, with whom he has been living for a long time. Lots of the teachers from the Korean school are having to get out of town soon. How is Germany? We are taking a new adventure soon...

Teresa - We have traveled different paths to China and around, so we will have different perspectives. I remember what I was feeling at the beginning of my stay, the first two years is "expert" time. But, if those Fengtai people are really from Beijing, they are not poor - though they might be extremely cheap. I found out yesterday that one of the nastiest little apartment areas in Wang Jing is known to be a compound of millionaires...they all had big farms before. The "Wai Di" people are often poor cause they have to work for little and pay rent. Wai Di means "outsider" and only Beijingers use it in Beijing. I think that Shanghai people use it in Shanghai... I will also say that the insulation that people get by coming to China with a company or school keeps them safe and secure from problems...enjoy that, but know lots of people who come on their own or with lesser companies have to deal with a lot that gets them pretty disappointed about life here. Here is a story that happens everyday...Foreigner rents apartment, rent is due, gives to landlord (28,000), landlord's sister comes and asks for more money saying her sister has no right to previous money, apartment owner is actually grandma, lease is with one sister but other wants to give to grandma (so she says), they all go to police maybe 5 times, foreigner has to go to court... This was not me by the way.

A Pause in Our Trip (Emergency)

I would like to take a pause from the recount of our travels to talk about my Sunday afternoon, it was highlighted by an event that had not happened to me in a long time and it made me nostalgic about my early days in China.

Sunday morning, we did not feel like cooking and we had a relatively full day planned. So, while we ran some errands at the local market, we also picked up some Bao Zi at the corner shop. I can call this place a corner shop because it literally fills up a corner, there is one seat in the place and they only have room to make a bit of Bao Zi. For the longest time, we have not eaten Bao Zi and we were in the mood. But, this Bao Zi is made by Si Ren, which I guess would translate as "local street vender." These sorts of stalls are often put on the news for using second hand oil, storing meat in unsanitary ways and a number of other violations of the strict health code of the PRC (tongue in cheek), but their food tastes awesome.

When Jiao Jiao and I first started dating, we often would eat Bao Zi from a place near my apartment at the time. A couple weeks ago, I rode by and noticed that place had been demolished. So, we had some delicious Bao Zi for breakfast and then went about our daily business.

We ended up at Jiao Jiao's mother's house in the early afternoon and we had a nice lunch, played some Chinese chess and had a nice chat. At 4:15, I decided to go out and watch my friend's soccer match and Jiao Jiao stayed behind. However, as I got about 100 meters from the apartment, a boulder fell from my intestine right to the main exit of my body and made me stop in my tracks. My stomach was turning, my glutes were quivering and I was stuck in the age old dilemma for foreigners in China;  which direction do I go to get to the nearest bathroom which I consider to be sanitary enough to use in my current state?

I decided that my condition was not SUPER urgent and I continued on towards the McDonald's down the road,  walking with a conservative gate at a brisk pace and all the while chanting under my breath, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God."

Finally, I arrived at my destination and I held on until I was upstairs, turned into the bathroom and the stall was, of course, OCCUPIED. So, I stood next to the door in the two urinal facility and waited. I must have just missed beating this man in and I could hear a newspaper rattling as the pages turned. "Great, he is taking his sweet time!" I thought to myself. When he finally came out, I noticed that it was a squat toilet and it was situated so that there was no handle in front of me to keep doing the Asian squat without falling into the toilet, so I was forced to use both hands to hold onto the wall.

After leaving, I wondered how in the world a person could take their time, reading a paper while trying to squat in that way. For me, it is David Copperfield business. I remember going into the steaming summertime toilet at the Nan Hu Market, (featured in my video about lamb balls and baby chicken, and the sight of many a drunk night in my first three years in China) and smelling the most putrid concoction of ammonia and ass ever known to man. As I walked into that shit hole, literally, I was shocked to see two Chinese men squatting over holes in the ground with newspapers in their hand and having a conversation. It is strange to think of what a person must have lived through to think that the bathroom at that place was somewhere you could relax, read the newspaper and do your business. Eventually, when we drank there, we would piss outside behind a tree or car...

I also thought back to the many instances where I was walking from a restaurant or the bus station back to my apartment, every ten steps or so I would have to stop, push my stomach back into place, wipe the sweat from my brow and continue walking towards my apartment which seemed miles away, only to eventually make it. I have yet to give into the temptation to "just go" and worry about it later.  Thankfully, these situations have yet to be teamed up with lots of beer before they arrive. When I first arrived in Beijing, my friend and I would often need to take a pit-stop before going to the bars. We usually chose the Zhao Long Hotel for it's wonderful laboratory. 

Anyway, you know you have been an expat for a long time when you can speak freely about your movements... Going on my seventh year now!!!

October Holiday Finished

Before I move farther into the Christmas Holiday, I would like to finally put down my last video from the October Holiday. It features cricket fighting and a heap of other exciting Beijing cultural items. Check it out.

Merry Christmas Everyone

From Jiao Jiao and I...We Love You...
We are traveling...Enjoy your time with your loved ones.

Dry Your Veggies For the Winter

It is common during the autumn months to put vegetables out to dry so they can be stored and cooked throughout the winter. I think that in some cases it makes sense if you can find a low traffic place with some sunlight...not likely. One day I saw a really extreme example. This was a sunny area, but it seems a bit dangerous to put the vegetables in that place because the cars on that road drive extremely fast.

Of all the things that get stolen in China and the way people protect their bags and coats when they go out, I cannot believe they will put their food in such a public place. Must be too cheap to be worth taking. It was a beautiful day that day.

I think I would be worried about the possible oils, rubbers and fumes that might get absorbed into my vegetables. Don't you agree with that?

CPW

Chinese Pro Wrestling
During the October Holiday, Jiao Jiao and I decided to stay in Beijing. We did find plenty to do during that time and one of those great things was going to a place called, Shi Hao Yuan. At this traditional little Beijing market which is just down the road from Guo Mao, you can find a great deal of interesting cultural items. We went in search of the famed cricket fighting, which we found by following little chirps. But, before we hit that attraction, we caught about an hour of the Chinese equivalent to Pro Wrestling.

Here is the video I made to the theme music of the Ultimate Warrior.

This movie and the others taken on that day have been sitting in my computer waiting to be edited for nearly two months. My year has been busier than any other year has been thus far and so my posts are becoming less frequent and things that I think are interesting and just going past my eye. That is unfortunate. As the weather gets colder, I am losing the motivation to stay outside.

Stay tuned for the rest of Shi Hao Yuan's videos.
Michael Vick should have learned from the Chinese on animal fighting.

Su Fei's New Video

Asian Squat Video

I found this video about the Asian style squat on Youtube. It is a classic video, and actually true in many ways. After being in Asia for so long, I still cannot keep my heels on the ground unless I get a hugely wide stance or...fall over backwards. It is a real trick to use those toilets!!!

I Rode Line Five Too!

Just a few days back, Danwei Videos put out a video about the new subway line in Beijing, Line 5. I thought, "Maybe it will be interesting to see what Danwei thought about Line 5."

Unfortunately, when watching the video I realized that this person was simply toeing someones party line. I have embed the video here for you to watch.

Now, what the gal did not tell you is that the line is packed full of people that you would not really want to bring downtown. We took the train from nearby the northern origin and I must say, it was packed with people that you would not want to stand too close to on the train. The area that it comes from and where it goes to is barely Beijing. It will not be long before the trains are soiled and dirty. Here are a couple pictures of the people standing in line.

Check out that hair man. HAHA

The new train line does add technology that none of the other train lines have had up to this point, the gated doors, electronic displays and lighted maps.

It is not the most advanced display I have seen, but it is sufficient. Again, if the contractor was to use the very best, where would he be able to cut corners? HAHA

One of the best things that I found on the train that day were the public service announcements. Sort of strange really.

This is one that has always been annoying to me. It is like the line does not exist. If you want to ride up, give people room to pass you. This will never happen and the Olympic guests will be annoyed. Even on the flat ones in the airport, they just stand on them on both sides like it is a ride. It is actually faster to walk on the normal floor than the belt drive in the airport.

So, back to the Beijing transportation issues; on the day they opened this subway line, they also decreased the fare from 3 rmb to 2 rmb and you can see the people saying, "Yeah, it makes a difference!!!" And most Chinese would agree because since they decreased the fare, use has gone up by 40% which means that now it is even more crowded than it was before, and it was crowded before. The person making the movie purposely left that bit of information out. I heard that the subway in Bangkok is nice, but to expensive for the locals...which might be what is nice about it. The subways in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore were very modern, spacious, clean and uncrowded which might lead me to believe that they overprice the common person - or the common person can afford to take the subway...any help with that assumption? However, in Beijing, the subway has now made itself cheap enough for the common person, and Beijing has a lot of common people, so it will be inconvenient for everyone to use. This sort of information has been on the news, but Danwei is giving it a sweet smell.

Finally, the bus system that is shown in the video was something that was talked about two or three years ago, when they first made buses line up to pick up passengers instead of constantly cutting each other off.. We often take the bus around and we have never come across a station like this. There are a lot of new buses on the street, and that is nice. There were some nasty pieces of work when I first arrived. More than once I pushed a bus out of an intersection when it died. But, the long distance express bus...it is as rare as a driver that does not honk.

 

The woman was right though, you can take the bus and subway with  your IC card, but that is all it is good for.  I heard in Korea you could use your transport card to buy things at shops and I am pretty sure the Octopus card does that in  Hong Kong. So, it is not as modern and advanced as you would be made to believe.

But, one the other side, the station at Yong He Gong (Llama Temple) is gorgeous. They really did a great job on that station, because it will be one of the more popular tourist destinations during the Olympics. It is worth a look.