Everybody wants my passport!

Well, the past week or so has been a bit frustrating because I've had to deal with Chinese bureaucrats, customs, police, etc. Tuya and I are applying for visas. She got her student visa which went well. She has enrolled in a Chinese language school near my work. She will study every morning during the week.

My work visa application has suffered a snag and I can't work until I get it. I did the medical part ok. But now they want my college diploma stuff and my passport. Problem is that I had a bag sent here from England by air cargo. Course the diploma is in that bag. The bag comes on a separate plane. Takes a 7-10 days to arrive and then sits in customs until you can figure out how and who can help you retrieve it. Because nobody tells you how the process works. I went to the airport 3 times before being told that I can't get it that way. The irony is I've never been asked for my diploma for a job before. Also, the shipping company in Beijing took my passport to give to customs. So even if I didn't need the diploma I couldn't proceed with the visa because the visa needs it.

Also, to add another wrinkle to this mess, the police want to see my passport to give me my resident's permit. This has nothing to do with visas, it's just a police thing to keep track of foreigners. Tuya got hers at the police station, but the next day at 10am the cops showed up at our house when we were still in bed asking to see all kind of papers. I think they suspected us of something terrible, but all they could find on us was the fact I had not registered yet for my resident's permit. But with my passport in the hands of customs, the police and my visa will have to wait. It was quite a scary thing. Apparently, they don't trust Mongolians but then they had to hassle me too. I suppose they were professional but to come to my home twice in a day to follow up on a stupid resident's permit just seems like massive overkill.

What I have learned from this is: never to ship anything cargo; never give my passport up unless completely unavoidable in a foreign country. Unfortunately, I've also managed to arrange to ship my motorcycle to Shanghai (being the nearest seaport) for a ridiculous sum of money. It may arrive in a couple of months and knowing my luck it will then be impossible to retrieve because of Chinese bureaucrasy. I'll probably need some sort of chinese agent to help me with that part. So far it has cost me about $2000 to ship a $4000 motorcycle. I wish I'd sold it in the USA but I wasn't able to. Also I wish I had sold everything that didn't fit in 1 bag. It just costs too much in cash and frustration to ship internationally, especially to China.

On the pleasant side, Tuya and I found a nice sauna and swimming pool in our apartment complex. It's not free but the price isn't bad. We will probably go there quite often because nobody knows when our hot water will be available. Perhaps, this month. Perhaps not. And winter is coming. So a cheap sauna may really add up in total costs if we use it often. It's funny because you have to wear swimming caps. I haven't worn one since my swimming race days. I also got a scrub down massage from a guy which was all right until he started trying to scrub my "privates". I wasn't into that at all. Call me a prude, but that's an area reserved for Tuya.

Another pleasant thing was I met up with Gordon Kutil last night and some other ex-pats. I stayed with him and Ben, my ex-Disney co-worker on my previous 2 visits to Beijing. We had drinks and played pool last night at Rickshaw bar. We may go out for dinner tonight but Tuya is out with Mongolian friends, so I'm not sure what will happen.

Stay tuned, as they say.