Eric's Beijing Diary

Well, back to Yonghegong with the proper paperwork. The ten day deadline really makes things troublesome. I can't renew my visa without my foreign expert certificate. But it takes a couple weeks or so to do that, and the time limit for getting my new passport current is 10 days. Makes things confusing. Even confuses them. The lady doing my paperwork chided me for bringing my old Foreign Expert certificate. "I cannot renew your visa without your new Foreign Expert Certificate," she said. I said, "There's nothing I can do. Your time limit is ten days." She said, "Your right." So I have to turn in a visa renewal application to have my current visa moved to my new passport. Then I have to take it back and get my new Foreign Expert certificate and go through the same process all over again. Ironically, it would be a lot less trouble to just ignore the deadline, and do it all at the same time. Writing, "I have disobeyed the laws of China." would take a few minutes, and could be done in one trip. Oh, what contortions I go through to be a law abiding citizen!