Howdy y’all!!

Yup, I met a Texan.

Anyway, i haven't written in a while, truth be told, everyone is a little bit paranoid right now.  China can be funny at times, I see all over the media how the Chinese are making it easier for foreigners to be in China, and how easy it is to get a visa right now.  I find that this is interesting when they’re busting people left, right and center, revoking visas, and throwing foreigners out of the country.  Recently, some Canadians were busted in Beijing as spies, they were apparently sending information freely obtained via the internet in China, and it was unclear whether they posted the info on a blog, or were sending it to a variety of different emails… I read 2 different newspapers that gave 2 different stories.  They were told that they were still state secrets, and I’m not sure if they’re still locked up or not right now.  Due to paranoia over things like this, I decided not to post anything on my blog, and to just keep my head down, study Chinese, and not send out mass emails anymore.  The thing with the visas isn’t really an online thing, Shenzhen decided to give the “sheriff” over Shenzhen the power to revoke visas on the spot for foreigners not complying with the laws of China.  This means that you must be registered with the local PSB, and you must carry your passport on you at all times – no photocopies, no pictures, no other ID but your passport.

The problem with carrying your passport in China is what happens if you lose it, or it gets stolen.  When you don’t have a passport, you must find your nearest embassy and make your way there.  Keep in mind that in order to purchase a plane ticket, train ticket, or bus ticket, you must have a passport.  Also, to book a hotel room, you must have a passport.  So, if I lose my passport, I must go to Guangzhou to get a new one, which means that I’m going to take a very expensive taxi ride, and, I have to arrive during business hours since I can’t book a hotel room in Guangzhou.  Additionally, the USA and Canadian embassies also don’t allow cell phones or bags or anything within their embassies, so, you must find a place to lock up your belongings, and hopefully be able to find it when you get out.  There are lockers available from Chinese people surrounding the area, but… do you really trust anyone with your phone locked up in a place that’s very easy to break into?  It’s a bit nerve wracking.  You then have to take a taxi back to Shenzhen, and wait for a few days before you can go get your temporary passport.  Once you get the temporary passport, you can then apply for an exit visa from China.  From there, you must go back to your home country, get a real passport, then re-apply for your new Visa, and you can come back to China within a month of losing your passport.  I know 2 people who have done it, it cost them a month and about $5,000 USD. 

So, these officers are going around to places where expats hang out in the expat zones, engaging them in conversation to see what they do for a living, then leaving and coming back with a police escort.  They demand to see your passport, and, if you’re rude, they revoke your visa, if you don’t have your passport, you need to be able to call a friend to go get it for you while you hang out in the nearest police station.  If you’re staying at a hotel, they generally just call the hotel, verify who you are, and let you go.  I find it’s easier all the way around to keep my passport in a secure place, and avoid going to big expat hangouts. 

So, at this point, you’re probably all wondering if it’s worth living here.  To that, I would have to respond, absolutely.  Yes, there are a lot of hassles, and a lot of craziness, but… overall, it’s more than worth it.  I’m actually thoroughly enjoying myself, and I’m learning a great deal as well.  I’ve had a lot of very strange experiences, and my Chinese has improved a great deal.  I can now take a taxi easily, carry on a conversation for the most part, and make my way around very easily.  This year, I’ve decided that it’s wholly unhealthy for your state of mind to not vacation outside of China for at least a week, every 6 months or so, but, that’s only for your own sanity.  Sometimes you need to hear your native tongue, sometimes you need to know what’s going on around you and why, and sometimes you need to be able to read everything on a menu, know what it is, and not be a little bit frightened every time you order food.  Fortunately, the Philippines is about $400 USD round trip tickets from here, and I think Thailand is similar.  I’ll write more on those places when I actually go, probably next year.  I’m also looking at getting into traveling around to different areas of China next year, to get a better idea of what the country is like.  My thought is to pick a city and go live there for a week or two, we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve had quite a few crazy experiences since I last wrote.  I’m not going to write about them in any particular order, just as they come to me.  So, about 3 days ago, I was waiting for a taxi.  The area that I was waiting in turned out to be completely devoid of available taxis, and I saw a black taxi pull up.  A “black taxi”, for those of you who don’t know, is an illegal taxi.  These are cars privately owned, who will drive you places, usually for a very marked up fee, but, they’re not licensed, and if they get caught by the police, they can lose both their car and their license.  (NOTE:  no single woman in her right mind should EVER get into a black taxi by herself…it’s not safe, there’s been a lot of problems with that this year, for Chinese and foreigners alike).  So, this girl got out of the black taxi, and I hopped in.  I told him that I was going to Coastal City Mall, and asked how much, he shrugged and said, “I don’t know… 40?”  A taxi is about 36, so, no big deal, and I said, “Let’s go!”  When we got near Coastal City, I asked him if he had a business card, because he was easy to talk to, a good driver, had a clean – non-stinky car, and I’d love to be able to call him again.  He said that he didn’t, that he had, in fact, just dropped off his girlfriend, and he had no idea what to do when a foreigner jumped in the back of his car speaking Chinese.  He decided that it was safest to just take me where I wanted to go, and that that was his best guess of how to have no problems with me.  I apologized, he laughed, and I still got to where I was going, and I’m now the first foreigner to successfully pull off a carjacking.

I’m going to try to get back into writing a blog, going for about once a week.