Visa to happiness

My crappy humanitarian visa is about to expire and I need to do something if I want to stay in the country. Expiry date is tomorrow and I'm nervous about it, because I don't know if I will get a new one or not. 

The last few weeks have been some kind of troublesome and I have tried to find out if I can apply for a new visa, what the procedure is, etc. The first information I had, was that my humanitarian visa is not extendable or renewable. When I received my passport from the PSB - Public Security Bureau in Guiyang, they told me the bitter news. One of the officers suggested to travel to Hong Kong to apply for a new visa, but he said that I better contact an agent or speak to someone in HK before I fly out. 

This is what I did. First step was to ask the expats in our WeChat groups. One of my friends suggested to try the Forever Bright agency. He goes there every time his family needs a new visa. Another one suggested to try CTS, because they have many branches and are quite reliable. Another friend suggested to go to a shabby Indian guy on Nathan Road, because she was helped a few times. A search on the internet showed that CTS, Forever Bright and Sunrise are the best. However, Sunrise is quite expensive wrote a user and he went down some steps to the official China visa office. 

My question is, can I get another visa after the humanitarian I have? I couldn't find any reliable info about it, but a handful of people who had been in a similar situation as I, said, it is possible. The shabby Indian agent from Nathan Road however, told me via email that it is my final, my exit visa and it's not possible to get a new one. I would have to leave the country for good. Crap!

Forever Bright on the other hand gave me different information every time I contacted them, so I'm totally confused. Once they said I can apply for a business visa, once they said I can apply for the S2 private affairs, etc. Once they said I need an invitation letter, then they said I didn’t need one. A search on the internet showed that the S2 visa is a family affairs one and the info was slightly different. 

Anyway, I have to leave and go try my luck. I booked a flight from Shanghai to HK and a hotel room at the Best Western Plus. Finding and booking a room in HK is a difficult task and if you haven't been there before and/or have nobody to suggest you a place, you might end up in a crap hole with a bug infested mattress. The photos on the websites look nice and the comments are usually positive. They are mostly fake. Can you really get a room (spacious, nice, blah blah blah) for under 20 pounds in the centre of HK and find nothing to complain about? How can a hostel have better reviews and a better rating than a five star hotel? My tip is, don't look for anything under four stars. You can find a four star hotel, often a western chain, at a really good price. A superior twin room at the Best Western Plus cost me 40 pounds a night. A one way flight to HK cost me 55 pounds. 

So here I am at the Hongqiao airport waiting to board. Hongqiao is the second airport in Shanghai. It's a lot smaller than Pudong and looks old and provincial. 

The trip on the metro is quite time consuming, I had to take three different lines and it took me about an hour. Now I'm waiting at the gate to board and notice that it hasn't opened yet. A delay? That's nothing unusual in China. Even though it is a massive country, only a ridiculously low percentage is open to commercial aviation. I read a figure once that said 6%. Not sure whether this is true or not, but delays occur frequently and a look at the punctuality figures will underline this. 

The gate finally opens and we check in. The plane is huge for such a trip. There are two seats on the left, four in the centre and two on the right. I didn't expect such a big plane on such a short journey. Once all the passengers are in and the doors closed, I notice that the flight attendants go back and forth and speak on the phones and don't look happy. More than half an hour later, the captain makes an announcement in English: We will have a 2 hour delay due to traffic over Shanghai. No one seems to care about it. What is wrong with the people? The announcement is made one more time, but this time in Chinese. And suddenly all heads raise from the mobile phone screens and you hear sounds of disappointment. Aha, the fellow Chinese travellers don't understand English. 

Two hours of delay, plus another two and a half hours flight, I'll be in HK around midnight. Damn! I hope I can get a train and a metro to the centre and to my hotel. It will be a very short night. The flight attendants decide to serve dinner while waiting for taxiing and take off. After the dinner I ask for a blanket, put in my ear plugs, put on my sleeping mask and drift off into the realms of Morpheus. 

We land indeed around midnight. First we have to take a train to another terminal, then go through immigration and show our passports and a card you have to fill in before queueing up. The queue is very long, but we're making quick progress. Then I try to remember the way to the train and get lost, because the signage is a bit confusing at some point. However, I manage to catch the last train to Central. There's an announcement that says that metro has stopped for today. Another announcement at Central tells you to leave the station, as they are closing. 

I need a cash machine. Go to one and it doesn't accept my card. Crap! Ask a guard if there's another one somewhere and he tells me to follow him two floors up. There it works. I go down to flights and get a cab to the hotel. By the time I enter my room it's already past 1am and when I go to sleep it's almost 2am. The room is spacious for HK. Hotel rooms tend to be very small here. The last one I had during my last visit was small. This one is divided into two parts. There's a large bathroom, something like a living room and the bedroom. The bed is small and the mattress rock hard, very Chinese style. 

I get up at 6.30 because I want to search some info on the web and find my way to two agencies. CTS have an office near the hotel, but on their website it says 'no same day service'. A friend who happens to be in HK for the same reason confirms that. I decide to go to the Forever Bright agency in Kowloon. They told me if I get there before 9am, I'll get my visa around 1pm. That gives me enough time to travel back to Shanghai. 

Unfortunately, when I go downstairs and check out, I see that it is raining heavily. I check the weather forecast and see that it will be bright and sunny later on. I wait half an hour for the rain to stop, and when it calms down, I make my way to the MTR station. It starts raining again and I get wet on the last few yards. When I get off the MTR in Tsim Sha Tsui, I see that it has stopped completely. Great! But my joy doesn't last long. Heavy showers come down when I reach the first crossroad. I go inside a bank and wait. More than half an hour later, it is still raining, but not as heavy as before. So I go out under a shelter and look to the right and left to see if I can spot a shop with umbrellas. I walk to the left and have to stop when a guy with an umbrella blocks my way under the shelter. I ask him if he knows a shop, but he doesn't understand. Instead he offers me to walk with him under his umbrella. Someone else who is behind us understands and says that I should try the '7 eleven' shop in front of us. The guy with the umbrella takes me there, and to my luck, the shop does umbrellas and raincoats. I buy both to be sure. Then I walk a few more minutes to the building where the agency is housed. 

The building is a posh shopping centre with many shops, restaurants, offices, companies, etc. I go up a flight and take from there the lift to the ninth floor. I walk to the agency and see a few people writing applications, waiting or submitting their papers. I wait for my turn and show them my invitation letter, passport and photo. They look at the letter and say that it’s not good. I need a new one with slightly different wording. They show my some sample letters hanging on the walls and tell me to take photos of them. I do as I’m told and send the photos to the office of the university. Wait a quarter of an hour, and since no one replies, I ask if instead of a business visa I can apply for a different one. They say I can apply for an S2 private affairs and all I need are the details and a copy of the ID of a friend. I have both with me and show them that. They give me a form to fill in, a sample letter to write with mine and the details of my friend and then I leave them my passport and a photo. While I’m filling in the form and write the letter, I get to know a French guy who has applied for a business visa. We have a short chat and he answers me some questions. While talking, a Brazilian guy comes to the table to fill in his form. Since his English is very limited, we help him. And this is where it starts to sound like a joke. Leo the Brazilian speaks Portuguese, Lio the French speaks Spanish to him, and me Theo try to remember the Spanish I did at uni many years ago. Since it is the second time from French Lio, he knows the procedure and what we have afterwards. We decide to stick and go through this together. 

Leo and I finish with our papers and submit them. We are told to return around 6pm to pick up our visas. The three of us are hungry now and decide to go for lunch. Lio the French says that he knows a place, that is good and economical, but it’s in a different building. We follow him downstairs, out to the square, across the road and into another building. We go up two floors and enter a totally crazy place. It is crowded and loud. People of all ages and all walks of life sit here at the tables, chat, laugh and enjoy their lunch. Suddenly a half naked young man comes in and sits at the table next to us where his friends are. Some businessmen sit at the other table next to theirs, but they don’t seem to care about him. A waitress comes and takes the order. We order some drinks to the food, but the drinks never come. We look at the paper she’s left on the table and discover that she didn’t write them down. I ask Lio the French how he discovered this place and he says that the last time he was here to apply for a visa, he went out in search of food and didn’t know where to go. He bumped into a group of Chinese who seemed to be going for lunch and followed them to this place. 

We pay and leave. It’s not raining anymore. In fact it’s sunny and warm. We decide to walk around and kill the next five hours somehow. I’d rather stay somewhere indoors, because my backpack is heavy and it’s humid outside, but I follow the other two. I tell them that I saw a park on the map, and Lio the French says that there are some gardens nearby. We walk for a few minutes and arrive at the park/gardens. It is a very beautiful place with trees, grass, flowers, traditional pavilions, ponds, etc. We walk around for a bit and when our backs ache from the heavy backpacks, we sit down at a bench. Later we continue our walk and discover a swimming pool. Our first thought is, that it might belong to a hotel, but we discover that it is a public pool. We find the entrance and ask for info, so we know for the next time how to kill the waiting time more efficiently. 

We want something to drink and ask a young lady if she knows a shop or supermarket in the area. Her English is very poor and shows us the way with gestures. We walk for a few minutes and find a 7 eleven. 

After that we walk back to the park and an hour or so later we decide to pay the science museum a visit. When we arrive there, we see a big sign saying that it’s closed today. We cross the square and go to the history museum. The entrance is free and they have a cloakroom for our Rucksacks. We have finally got rid of the weight! This is something for the next time. Come to the museum to leave the luggage and then walk around freely. 

The museum closes at 5pm and we leave. We sit on a bench for half an hour and walk back to the agency. Our visas are ready. Now begins part two of the process. I am happy that I got my visa, despite the shabby Indian saying the opposite. The other good news is that the agent says, that I can apply for a one year business visa and tells me in short how to do it. What we received just now is not the actual visa. Because we went for the same day service instead of the standard four day service, we got our passports back and an approval of the application. Now we have to go to Luohu in ShenZhen and pay the visa office a visit. The agent gives me a paper with a map of the premisses in Luohu and explains where to go and what to do. Since the French guy knows all that, I just follow him. The three of us walk to the nearby MTR station and take the metro to Luohu. The ride lasts approx. 45 minutes. It’s from one end to the other. We don’t get any seats when we get in and have to stand. A few stations later, we get lucky and find somewhere to sit. The train is full of people, but it is very quiet. HK people are civilised and behave says a Chinese friend of mine. This is true. Suddenly a loud voice is heard. It’s a Chinese man talking on the phone. He sits next to Leo, the Brazilian guy and when he’s done with his call, he turns to Leo and tries to start a conversation. Leo however doesn’t understand a word, but Lio does, so he translates. The Chinese man wants to know where Leo comes from. Leo tells him Brazil in Portuguese, which the Chinese tries to repeat but fails. Leo insists and repeats the word again and again, the Chinese doesn’t give up and tries again and again, but he fails repeatedly. Lio, some other people and I can’t help and start laughing and giggling. Then it’s time for Leo to get off. He is not crossing the border in Luohu and has to take another line to another place. The journey to Luohu is beautiful. The route goes through mountains and villages. Three quarters of an hour later we arrive at the final stop. First we have to walk along the platform, then we enter the train station building and have to go through the turnstiles and place our tickets on a reader. Then we have to fill in a departure card and go through customs. Then it’s no man’s land, but you’re still in the same building. We go up some stairs to the visa office. Here you have to take a number and wait to be called. Then you go to the counter and hand in your passport and the approval letter from the agency. You have to wait again to be called. Ten minutes or so later, you get your passport back with the visa sticker in it. In the visa office there are a bunch of other foreigners waiting for their passports and visas and we start a chat with them. While waiting here in this windowless and grey office, I feel like being in a film. A scene of the German film ‘Im Juli’ comes to my mind and I hear the words: No passport, no Romania! and see the scene in front of me. I shudder at that thought. The film is about a young teacher from Hamburg who falls in love with a Turkish lady and tries to follow her to Istanbul. He decides to do this trip by car, but everything goes wrong, and when he has to cross the Hungarian - Romanian border with no passport, because it was stolen, the officer shouts at him: No passport, no Romania! 

As soon as I get my passport back with the long-desired visa, I fire up booking.com and search for a hotel at the airport. I hope they accept laowai and don’t tell me ‘sorry, but we don’t accept foreigners’ once there. This is one of the difficulties foreigners face in this country. Not all hotels accept foreigners. You might be able to book it online, but when you get there, they tell you ‘sorry mate!’ and you have to find a new one. Better hotels register you with the police when you check in, cheaper ones, if they accept you, don’t. You have to do it yourself. Greetings from Orwell, George Orwell. 

Once done, you have to go down a flight, fill in a yellow card and go to immigration. There you show the yellow card, your passport and your visa. The French guy is quickly served, but I seem to face some problems. The officer looks at the photo in my passport and then at me. He does it a few times and I smile friendly and hope he lets me into the country. I had similar problems before the Schengen era and know how to deal with it. His problem seems to be the length of my hair. It’s short in the photo, but long in reality. He asks for my name, date of birth and something else. Then he enters something into his computer and asks where I’m going. I say ShenZhen, but he doesn’t seem to be pleased. Then I add: ShenZhen for the night and to Shanghai tomorrow. This answer pleases him and he hands me back my passport. I walk pass him and am happy to be back on Chinese soil. Should I play Pope John Paul II and fall on my knees and kiss the ground? Rather not. The Chinese don’t joke with such things.

On the other side of immigration and still in the same building, there is the metro station from where you can get into ShenZhen. We look at a map to see where we are and were we have to go. I have to take the metro from one end to the other, 29 stops. Lio has to get off after 20. We buy tickets and walk to the train. We get some seats and place our rucksacks on the floor. More people get on after a few stops and it gets crowded. Unlike the quietness on the HK MTR, on this metro it is very loud. People talk, shout, and do all sorts of noise. A few adults with four little kids get on the train and pass by in front of us. The little ones stare at us and I greet them and say hello. They are shy, but one of the adults encourages them to say hello to us. Two of them do it. Then they continue walking down the carriage to some empty seats.

I message Jiali, a former student of mine who is from ShenZhen and ask if she has time to meet, but unfortunately she lives far away from where I am and from where I’m going, so we won’t meet. Such a pity!

Lio gets off and I need another quarter of an hour to reach my destination. When I get off at the last stop, I look at the signs, but can’t figure out where to go. I fire up Apple maps and walk out of the station. A few taxi drivers approach me and I show them the hotel booking with the name of the hotel and the address. They show me the direction and off I am. After half a mile I see a massive building across the road, my hotel. I enter it and it feels like a communist hotel from the 1960s. Even though it’s across the airport, the receptionists speak very little English. This is strange. I expected to find someone with better skills at such a location. I show them my mobile phone with the booking and hope they accept me and my credit card. I’ve got cash with me just in case. The credit card is swiped and I believe to see a glow in the eyes of the receptionist, but in reality, he has a poker face on. He gives me the receipt to sign and my eyes glow. Why? What’s the big deal, you may ask? Well, another difficulty in the long list is, that foreign cards often don’t work in this country. When I wanted to withdraw money many months ago, I tried my German, British and Greek cards, and none was accepted by the various cash machines. The Canadians who were with me, managed to get money from two ATMs. One was from the Bank of China and one from the CITIC Bank. The room is 28 pounds including breakfast and shuttle bus to the airport. I check in and take the lift to the fifth floor. When I open the door to my room, I see a massive room in front of me. The decor is outdated and really remembers a past communist era. It’s definitely not four stars. The bed is huge and comfortable. No rock hard Chinese mattress? Hmm… 

I decide to walk a little around and explore the area. I’m hungry and go in search of food. I go along a road with many food places, small shops and restaurants. I take the first street to the right and walk down a street with various shops, such as mobile phone shops, clothes shops, mini and supermarkets, food places, restaurants, street kitchens, and basically whatever you can imagine. To be honest, I didn’t expect to see a traditional neighbourhood just a stone throw away from the airport. I expected to see something modern, western maybe. I stop at a stand of what I believe is a crepe stand. The basis is not freshly made, but comes straight out of the fridge. The lady makes it the Chinese way with egg. There are three things to choose from to put inside: sausage, carrot and salad leaves. I choose all three of them. The lady surprises me with her English skills. I continue my walk around the neighbourhood and when I get thirsty I enter a mini market and walk to the fridges. The young shop assistant stands up and comes to me and asks me in very good English what I’d like to drink. I have some small talk with him. My mobile phone buzzes, it’s a message from Jiali. She needs some help with a reading exercise. I decide to walk back to the hotel to do the exercise for her and book a flight to Shanghai for tomorrow. 

It’s past midnight when I fall dead tired to sleep. In the morning I go down to the cafe where breakfast is served. It is not very rich, but it’s quite tasty. As I’m the only westerner there, I get stared at by nearly everyone. After checking out, I wait for the shuttle bus. A shabby bus with a shabby looking driver stop in front of the entrance and I am told to get in. I’m the only passenger. The journey takes almost a quarter of an hour. When the driver passes the place I got out of the airport building yesterday and drives into a tunnel, I fire up Apple maps to see where he’s driving me. I see that the entrance for cars is indeed a long way around the building. When we arrive at the departure terminal, I get into the building and see a spectacular and futuristic decor. Then I remember the photos Jiali posted on WeChat a while ago. 

I check in, go through various checks, walk down endless corridors and arrive at gate 59. The flight is again delayed, but this time only 45 minutes. The plane is a lot smaller than the one to HK. It’s three seats on either side.  The journey is rather boring, so is the food we’re served. I sleep for a while and wake up when we land. Now I have another hour on the metro until I reach home.

Map of the border station in Luohu

Ticket for the ShenZhen metro

Shop 'enterance' in the area around the hotel near the ShenZhen airport

Telephone in the bathroom. I wonder who will pick up when you dial '1'. And what will they do?

Sign in the hotel lift and corridors

Hairy monster at ShenZhen airport

ShenZhen airport

Sign at Hongqiao airport Shanghai. What a red dot is for us, is a red communist star for the Chinese.

Restaurant we went to in HK to have lunch

From right to left: Leo, Lio and Theo, on the metro to Luohu.

Best Western Plus hotel in HK (opens in a new window). My room looked somehow similar to photo 14. 

Sunday hotel in ShenZhen (opens in a new window) None of the photos is anywhere near to the room I had.

Video of a girl trying to sleep on the metro from Luohu.

If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.