Chinese visa

Now here comes a shitload of trouble which is my own fault for my stupid choices about three months ago. When I was in Hong Kong last time I decided against getting a 6 months F (Business) visa to save some money and trouble, so instead I got a 3 months tourist visa with a certainty that I could without too much cost and trouble just extend it where I was. This I found out quite soon was not possible anymore though, people started telling me about a month and a half ago that a visa issued in Hong Kong can only be extended in Hong Kong, 'OK', I though, 'I'll just plan for another visit to Hong Kong and get the visa there, my schedule would allow for it at least and with my currently larger income it would just be a nice trip.

So I started planning and bought tickets, I decided to go and visit Sharon and Tracy in Shanghai too while I were at it and everything was fine, until perhaps two weeks ago when I started hearing about the new visa rules in China, so this is how it works now:
1. There is no such thing as a 6 months business visa anymore
2. There is no such thing as a 3 months tourist visa anymore
3. To get any visa you must have a departing ticket
4. To get any visa you must have a hotel reservation the night before your departure
5. The price has gone up from about 300 HKD to 1000HKD
6. Number two is actually not true because there is a 3 months double entry tourist visa, except that each stay can never be more than 30 days.
7. Urgent service is now 2 working days instead of an hour.

So when I started hearing these rumors I started researching a little about it, but the Internet is not really updated except to confirm that the rules are not the same anymore, not saying anything about the new rules themselves so I asked Janice in Hong Kong to call the office and inquire about it, after about 20 or so calls (I think) we finally got some information, which actually turned out to be insufficient but at least I had some heads up of what was coming.

Well I had to go to Hong Kong anyway, my tickets were bought and my visa expiring so early this morning I crawled up, since I couldn't sleep last night, at about 6.30 and managed to get myself to the bus. The bus seemed to run slower than it should and I arrived at the airport about 30 minutes before departure and found my flight already boarding. Two guys grabbed me and Checked me in, without checking in my luggage of course, and dragged me to the security demanding 200 yuan, which I paid them in the confusing, I doubt they would have given me back my passport and ticket if I hadn't but that is probably just an excuse for letting me get cheated. The security staff refused to let me pass of course since I had a bottle of pear/Cognac in my bag, a long overdue gift for Sharon, but I actually managed to convince them to let me pass and a girl ran with me to the gate and did a late checking of my bag there.

Extremely tired I arrived in Hong Kong, after an hour on the bus, two hours on a plane, another hour on another bus, half an hour on the Metro in Shenzhen, about a half hour more through the border checks. half hour yet again on the train in Hong Kong and some 20 minutes or so on the metro in Hong Kong, and found my hostel without any problem at all.

I actually found the Chinese visa office without any problem at all too, just 5 minutes walk from my hostel, but then the problems started; I hadn't heard anything about the hotel reservation rules before so they refused to even let me apply without that, I had to spend some time reserving a hostel in Shenzhen the night before my flight to Singapore on July 5th, at 11.35pm so I'm not very likely to actually stay in the hostel, for a booking fee of 1.05 euro.

Then back to the visa office again where a girl who was much nicer than the old man helped me out instead, this time I had all the papers but I still ran in to some problems, it was now too late to get the passport back the day after, which I had been told would be possible, so instead I will get it back on Thursday at around 3pm, this is a problem because I had planned to meet up with a friend in Shenzhen during the day before I fly to Shanghai in the evening, fortunately it is at least early enough for me to still catch my flight. And to that I'm not even sure if I can get the double entry visa, I can only hope.