so..the last two days I have been immersed in trying to etend the visa – we did this last month in Shanghai, and now this is our last visa extension. We had initially asked to get a six month visa outside of China, but the chinese embassy gave us a 1 month tourist visa instead, so with in China, we have had to extend twice. This is the last extension they will give. Yesterday we first had to register with Police, then with She, we sped off in a cab to to Public Security Bureau, armed with passports, invitation letters, photos, birth certificates and marriage certificate.
The smog yesterday was so heavy, it was hard to breath. The cab driver was a wild women, weaving in and out of the traffic. We sit in the back, holding on for dear life, as She, my assistant, falls asleep in the front seat. I decide I want to shoot some video, so I have my camera out the window, while trying to hold on. The petrol fumes and the cab movement got to Pablo, and he tells me he feels sick. The next minute he is vomiting all over the back seat and himself and us. Poor guy, Great start to the day. I was worried – thought he might have had food poisoning, but I think it was just the wild driving, because he was fine after the cab experience. We cleaned up what we could, offered the cab driver more money, she says no, then she races off again into the smog.
We line up at the visa office – and are told we need to show that we have $3000 US dollars in each of our bank accounts – including Pablo’s bank account? He is 4…Then they work out, as we are with Organhaus, we won’t need this but we need the invitation letter to be in Chinese. Back in the cab, and back to organhaus. More forms to fill out, and then back in Cab. The pollution was so bad – you couldn’t see a few hundred metres,flying about in a bubble of grayness, with the bridges accross the yangste dissapearing into nothingness of smog. As we zoomed alongside the yangste – I looked out to a wall of grayness. There was no river, no buildings, just gray. We are then told by the visa people, we need new photos – ones taken here (our other photos were a month old..). So off to the photo place, I get my photo, and then pablo walks up to get his. He then decides he doesn’t want a photo, and turns his head. We try to bribe him with lollies, then icecreams – didn’t work, we then try threats with removal of toys, then removal of DVD’s. Its worse. He is now crying, and nothing is persuading him to get a photo. Since he has been in China, he gets his photo taken so often by everyone, he now hates the camera. The photographer takes one of him crying, then edits it in photoshop, making his head straight, removing my arms that were around him trying to coax him, and then finally copying and pasting someone elses lips on the photo. Strange. But the visa office accepted it.
We arrive back to the visa office and they tell us the invitation letter is still wrong – we need more information in it. Also, we need to do another set of photos taken by the visa people as well, this one via webcam… Back in the cab to organhaus, more paperwork, official stamps.
