So in someone's infinite wisdom, when I applied for my Chinese Visa while in the US, I was granted a 30 day tourist visa...for my more than 30 day stay. So this means the fun task of trekking over to Pudong (and taking time off work). I've done this before, so I thought it would just be one trip, pay my money, come back in a week... boy was I wrong.
I take the metro over and refer to the helpful map outside the exit, but it was in Chinese and I had brilliantly forgotten to write down the characters. Started off in the direction that I thought it was and turned out to be correct. Got to the building, took a number, waited a bit, and when it was my turn I got a bad sign. The nice service lady looked at all my things and told me to go to the "Special" window. That's never good. Seems I didn't have my documents in order and the ones I did have did not have an official stamp. In my haste, I had forgotten the Chinese obsession with rubber stamps. Also, I did not have the proper registration documents that proved I had a residence in Shanghai. I would have to go to the local police station for that. Because I still had some ambition I got the address for the main police station in my area and headed over. Luckily by the time I got there, the office had been closed for 15 minutes and I was advised to come back tomorrow.
So I did. The next afternoon's adventure to my district's police station was initially not good. When I explained what I wanted to the clerk, she called someone else and then told me to come back Monday at 14:00 (this was Friday at 15:30). I said that this was unacceptable, and then I was told to wait until 16:30. I couldn't continue my visa quest without this registration paper, so I had to wait. Luckily for me, the man came early but did not have good news. Apparently there is some law in China that no one really tells foreigners about. Within 24 hours of arrival in China, a foreigner is supposed to register with the local police station. This is neither publicized or seemingly enforced... unless you need to do anything official such as get your visa extended or changed. Not only that but they could not do my registration but because I was outside the 24 hour window (by a few weeks) I would be fined 500 RMB (63 USD). That was pretty much the last straw and I had them write down the address and as I looked at it, realized it was right across the street from where I live. This caused the expected reaction. I burst into tears. This officially sucked.
I was able to compose myself and showed up at the second police station of the day. Here they did not speak English, so the Chinese lady next to me was kind enough to translate. This new person told me that I would have to produce a copy of the contract that I signed for my apartment. This was going to be a problem. I'm effectively sub-letting this place and just paying my flatmate in cash. No deposit, no lease, in my mind, no hassle. At this point I had no idea what to do, so I went back to my flat. My flatmate, Luan, happened to be home at the time and I explained this situation to him. He said that getting a contract signed would not be a big deal, but kind of a pain. Luan gave me a rent receipt and said to try it first before we got into contract details. This was better than nothing. I went back across the street to try my luck again. This time there was a British woman who spoke fluent Chinese. I chatted with her a bit and she was facing the same problem that I was, did not register and needed the stupid yellow bit of paper to take care of her visa. She was able to help me fill in my sheet and told me the process would involve a short interview, and then I would be fined 200 RMB not the 500 RMB I had been told at the previous place. This process moved at the speed of government and I ended up spending about 3.5 hours in the police station. I paid my money, got a lecture about how I should register in broken English, and got my stupid piece of yellow paper. I celebrated getting that part done, so ended Friday.
Monday morning, I got up bright and early went to the visa office. My own fault on this one, I assumed that it would open at 8am. Wrong. Let's try 9am. To give you and idea of the area where I was, Pudong had been developed since 1992 and it's very new. This means that there are not necessarily the same conveniences, i.e. not even a Starbucks or McDonald's which seem to be on every other corner. So where was I to hang out for the hour I had to wait? I walked around the block and ended up finding a 5 star hotel. Waited there a bit, went back to the visa office when it opened, got in line, got to the window, was told to go to the "special" window again.
I knew I had all my documents, so I smooth talked my way through thier need for more documents and was successful. This was so complicated, I advise anyone coming to China to have everything in order before you go. This is easy for tourist who will only be here under 30 days, but if you're going to be here longer... good luck.
