Tag: China

Tips for Getting a Chinese Visa

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This is a cautionary tale.

I had a very messy ordeal trying to get my visa, primarily because of a bit of lack of planning and a lot of changes since the last time I got my visa (back in 2010). It was also tricky because the Chinese Embassy website is a bit out of date, so it doesn’t seem to account for this information. Later, I found a website called mychinavisa.com that would prove to be a lot more helpful.

However, I thought I’d just throw up a little guide here because you never know.

Note: I am an American-born Chinese person, and I have been to China before. If these 2 stipulations don’t apply to you, the process may be different.

Also, some details are specific to the Washington, DC office. This is a whole bundle of headaches in and of itself.

Documents to Bring

  • Valid passport (with enough pages for a visa)
  • Copy of passport page with important information
  • Copy of previously granted visa
  • Invitation letter*
  • Copy/scan of the front AND back of invitation letter writer’s ID*
  • Hotel reservation receipt (if you are not staying with invitation letter writer)
  • Flight itinerary

*This was the part that got me a bit tripped up. They have made visa applications a bit stricter since 2010. Essentially, you need proof that you are actually going to China and you will have your stuff together while you’re there.

The website I provided has a guideline for the invitation letter, as it does need to have specific information in it, apparently. ALSO the ID thing is very important. They need to verify that a Chinese citizen or permanent resident is inviting you.

Make sure you have ALL OF THESE DOCUMENTS when you go. If you don’t, you will not be able to have your visa application processed. And that’s that. You may be able to print/copy (for a fee) at the location, but you’ll have to wait in the line all over again. AVOID THIS.

Maneuvering the Visa Office

The visa office nearest to me is the one in Washington, D.C. This sucks big time because it’s an hour long drive without traffic or incompetent drivers.

The problem is that getting into DC means dealing with both traffic and terrible drivers.

ALSO parking. If you are parking at the DC visa office, you can either park on the street in front (if there is room) or at a lot/garage. I parked in the lot behind the building next to the visa office’s building. This lot is kind of sketchy. You tell them which car you have, they take your keys, and then you ask for your keys back and pay with your ticket that they give you when you turn over your keys. It’s sketchy because:

  1. They don’t seem great at keeping track of which cars they have the keys for
  2. They don’t have a system for making sure they don’t give keys to the wrong drivers.

If you park here, make sure you have a distinctive keychain. Or try to find somewhere else. It is the most convenient place to park, but I always felt uneasy.

At the DC office, you can go upstairs to print things out (for a fee, of course). This can be anything from your visa application, to copies of your invitation letter, etc. Use this resource if you must do something last minute. For me, I had to run up there to get the copy of the ID, which I didn’t know I needed until they told me I couldn’t get my visa otherwise. I ran upstairs, furiously sent out emails, and waited for the photos to come back.

ALSO plan for traffic and then know the hours. At the DC office, they are open from 9:30-12:30 and 1:30 to 3:00. They are open for a grand total of 4.5 hours AND if you get there before 12:30 but you aren’t served by then, you will have to wait until after they come back from lunch.

That is some BS but oh well. I had to come back since I got stuck in a lot of rainy-day traffic and arrived at 3:15, missing the hours by 15 minutes.

Sigh.

I hated the whole process. I hated driving back and forth. I hated getting in a car accident on my way back from an infuriating trip. I hate DC driving (it is the worst in the country).
BUT. I got my visa and was able to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my family.

BOOM this is what I got.
Courtesy of ix-global.com

What else would you like to know about my trip to China?

Quick China Highlights

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My trip to China for the new year was pretty relaxed. It wasn’t like my Europe trip, where we were in a different city each day and were sightseeing constantly.

So, I’ll just give you all a bulleted list of some of the highlights of my trip for now rather than an in-depth recap. I’ll also be posting up some other thoughts I had while I was in China before going on to put up the rest of my Europe posts (sigh…) and a couple of travel tips that I’ve picked up along the way (do as I say and not as I do, for those!).

This is going to be kind of… stream of consciousness. Sorry in advance 😛

  • I saw a North Korean on-ice acrobatics troupe and it was amazing. It was also a very unique experience, since you can’t see North Korean performers anywhere else in the world except maybe North Korea. But you likely will never be able to go to North Korea, so China is your best bet.
  • I set off big a** fireworks!! Fireworks are illegal in Maryland, so it was extra exciting for me. Plus, while I did set off firecrackers, these were giant, blooms of green and red fireworks.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y60k_H3A6Sk
  • Chinese New Year in China is a big deal and I got to celebrate accordingly.

    Lunch at 姥姥’s, Chinese New Year Eve’s dinner at 姑姑’s, new year wishes
  • I spent time with my family, who I haven’t seen in 4 years

    My cousins and aunts (on my mom’s side) and I being cheeseballs (we’re matched up with our respective mommies)
  • I watched the 春节晚会 (annual televised New Year variety show) all the way through and then some, due to the multiple multiple multiple re-broadcasts
  • I was able to visit my grandmother’s grave.
  • I set a new record of 5 nosebleeds in 2 days while in Harbin, due to the extremely dry and polluted air.
    (I only had about 3 nosebleeds during the several days that I was in Beijing. “Only”.)
  • Reading Dan Brown’s Inferno before going to the most populous country in the world is not a great idea. (Premise of Inferno: The antagonist decides he will personally address the overpopulation problem.)
  • I went to the cinema and watched 2 Chinese movies: The Man from Macau (澳门风云) starring Chow Yun-Fat and The Ex-Files (前任攻略) starring Han Geng (formerly of Super Junior).

    I didn’t watch the movie on the left, but it’s a spin-off of a popular TV show about celebrity dads and their adorable kids!
  • I kind of got into a show called Sing My Song (中国好歌曲) which is a The Voice-esque kind of show that features original songwriters.
  • It was really warm in Changde, Hunan, which is my dad’s hometown. 26°C, and I was bundled up because everyone in Beijing told me that it feels extra cold in the south because they don’t usually turn on the heat. Heaters were completely unnecessary, as was my puffy coat.
  • It was balls-to-walls cold in Harbin, of course, where the warmest days were about -10°C.
  • The Ice & Snow Festival was pretty impressive (although it didn’t distract me from how cold it was)

    Their dedication to ice and snow sculptures is really impressive.
  • However, it was comforting that I never once saw a single white dude wearing shorts and flip flops. Chinese people believe in bundling up very well when it’s cold, as is the sensible thing to do!

    You can't see in this photo, but I was wearing 5 layers on my legs and 6 layers on my torso.
    You can’t see in this photo, but I was wearing 5 layers on my legs and 6 layers on my torso.
  • I’m not sure why, but I heard Psy’s song “Gentleman” more while I was in China than I think I had ever heard it before my trip.
  • I slid down an ice slide or 3

    Video coming soon! (“Soon”)
  • I seem to be on a mission to see aquariums and TV towers everywhere I go

    Harbin’s Dragon Tower and Polar Land
  • I paid my respects for the new year at a temple, where I totally hit a bell that was hanging in the middle of a giant coin by throwing a regular-sized coin at it and, yes, I felt like I had hand-eye coordination for just a moment!

    I was too busy throwing coins to get a photo, so this photo comes courtesy of the Beijinger
  • I got highlights in my hair again! The last time I dyed my hair permanently was almost 10 years ago, and it left my hair so dry that I was terrified of chemically treating it again.
  • I saw a play in the gorgeous Chinese National Centre for the Performing Arts

    The theater runs underneath this pool, so you can look up and see water and sky above you.

     

  • I was harassed by a shop owner in 秀水街 (Silk Street Market) who insisted I buy a polka dot top that I didn’t want when I wanted to buy some of his OTHER merchandise. I left with my mom buying the top and generally unhappy with the shopowner. XD

Things that did NOT happen during my China trip, much to my disappointment:

  • Completely avoiding squat toilets (ughhhhhhhh)
  • Eating my favorite items from American fast food chains in China
  • Meeting my cousin’s husband
  • Seeing one of my uncles
  • Eating hotpot at a hotpot restaurant
  • Karaoke T^T
  • Have a nice foot soak (but it is winter, so)
  • Get my head massaged while getting a haircut
  • Sleeping through the entire evening when I shared rooms
  • Breathing easily

It was an interesting trip, for sure! Full of ups and downs, my trip proved that I couldn’t live in China as a permanent resident but that it is full of reasons to go back for visits.

Friday Favorites! (Special edition: China)

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I was inspired by Julie aka PBFingers, who has her own “Things I’m Loving Friday” series on her blog, to start my own little roundup. (P.S. Julie is one of my favorite bloggers; I highly recommend PBFingers if you are into fitness, food, and fun.) This will just be a roundup of things that I am currently a fan of, or dedications to single things that I like, so much so that I wanted to share them here!

Although I likely won’t have a roundup/dedication available every single Friday, I’ll try to post whenever I have a nice list of things that I really enjoyed recently.

Without further ado, here is today’s roundup, which will be a special edition  that focuses on things I am a fan of from China, to be followed soon by another recap post.

Condiment Caddies

A dumpling shop caddy with soy sauce, black vinegar, minced garlic, brown mustard, and chili sauce

American condiment caddies usually have ketchup and mustard. (Unless you’re at IHOP, in which case, you get lots of syrup.) I’m not knocking ketchup (I love ketchup!) but in China, soy sauce is king. And in lieu of mustard, Chinese chili sauce/oil is super yummy. Also, if you go to a place that specializes in dumplings or noodles, they will have vinegar (usually black vinegar for dumpling shops, sometimes red for noodle shops). Other possible things could be things like brown mustard (none of that bright yellow stuff) and minced garlic. Lots of yummies going on, and I don’t know why exactly but I was such a sucker for it!

FOOD

Say it with me: omnomnomnomnommmmm

Okay, let’s be real here, you guys. Chinese food (which is just regular food in China, yes) is SO good. Here are a few of my favorite things that I eat when I go back:

  • Peking duck, which tastes even better with an accompanying duck soup and is a delicious nice meal to have. Someone served it to me with pop rocks, and it was weird. Peking duck is a treat and I enjoy it loads. You can have too much, though, so be careful!
  • Hot pot is something that I eat here really often, but it’s extra special over there. They do it up proper, yo. There aren’t enough hot pot restaurants in this country. (Yet?)
  • 拔丝地瓜 (basidigua) which is a kind of sweet potato/yam that is cooked with sugar and when you pull a piece off, the sugar is still sticking to it so you have to dip it into cold water to harden it and eat it. There is no way to not be messy while you eat this, but it’s pretty fun. I also have not had this in America before.

Fireworks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y60k_H3A6Sk

As the country that invented fireworks, China does not disappoint here. Where I live, setting off fireworks is illegal, so when I see them outside of big shows, they’re little dinky firecrackers. But I set off some big deal big kid fireworks in China and it was SPECTACULAR although it was way loud.

Unabashed Bundling Up

Not a single pair of shorts or flip-flops in sight!

I don’t know why, but I feel like in America, fashion trumps warmth in the winter. And sometimes, I see boys walking around in gym shorts and flip flops when it’s snowing outside, making me wonder what is going on because gym shorts are no more fashionable to sweatpants. Personally, I always wear at least one pair of leggings/thermals in the winter under my pants because I just cannot stand being really cold. In China, I will never see someone in shorts in the winter, and I’m glad. In fact, when I decided I was going to wear 6 layers to Harbin (and 5 layers of pants), I was encouraged and given down-lined coat to boot. Walking around the streets were guys AND girls with maybe-too-cute mouth covers to keep their faces warm. These are my kind of people.

Unabashed Love for SPF

Again, I get ridiculed quite a bit here for being so very into sun protection, but China is the nation where I can always count on getting a sunbrella in the summer and where all the daytime skincare products have SPF in them. When I cover up any and all exposed skin, I only had one person ask me “Are you trying to avoid getting too much sun exposure?” and when I said yes, that was that. Accepted. No ridicule. Yes thank you very much.

Asian Street Style

You know, even though it’s sometimes way over-the-top or way cutesy for my tastes, I appreciate that I could wear my panda hat around without anyone looking twice, mostly because they had little foxes on their mary janes, or giant lips on their mouth covers, or a badger hoodie, or their own panda hat. So that was kind of nice, despite how overbearing it seemed on particularly cranky days. Also, Asian girls seem to be very into the skater skirt/dress & tights combo, and I dig it. (I don’t like baring my legs, personally, so I’m always down for tights.)

WeChat

This app is available to everyone in the App Store and the Google Play Store, and I like it a lot. My favorite feature is the small voice messages that you can leave in your chats. I like this feature because a) I can hear someone’s voice and b) I really hate typing on my phone. Really really. Talking comes so much more easily to me, you don’t even have to look at the screen to do it. WeChat is HUGE in China. Most companies and TV shows have their own WeChat IDs that you can interact with and it’s one of the online media giants in China along with Weibo and Baidu. (So instead of companies having Facebooks and Twitters and Instagrams and etc. etc., they all have a Weibo and a WeChat.) I wish more people here would use it so that I could type less on my phone and have more friends to talk to with it!

What have you been a fan of lately?
Do you bundle up a LOT in the winter or bundle the bare minimum?
Are there any apps that you wish more people used with you?

Updates!

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I will be away from social media for a little bit so two quick updates:

– I had a small accident yesterday coming back from the visa office. I’m perfectly all right; at worst, I’m mildly concussed but most likely just a lot stressed over the whole situation. Mine is a cautionary tale about not driving over 10 mph in bad weather and also making sure you have good tires.

– I was picking up my visa to go to China, where I will be spending the new year for the first time! I haven’t seen my extended family in nearly 4 years, so I’m very excited to go back. I’m slightly less excited to have my relatives ask me when I’m getting married, why I’m so tan, and how round my face is getting.

Due to the Great Firewall of China and my general tendency to keep away from social media while I’m on vacation, I’ll be reachable by email but you may not have as much luck with everything else.
Otherwise, be back in touch with everyone in under 3 weeks!

(I have a post about my ghastly visa experience ready that I may publish before I leave, or after I come back. I haven’t forgotten about my Europe posts that are left! Please lemme know if you’d rather I put those up when I get back or my China posts first.)