My girlfriend is wondering what she has to do to get a visa for HK. She is from a small town about 2 hours from Kunming, just wondering if anyone else here has taken their friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/chauffeur to Hong Kong and if so, what did he/she have to do to get the visa.
So far my girlfriend has had about 3 different stories, everything from "visa on arrival" (bollocks I suspect) to "you have to go with a travel agency who will have someone with you at all times" (also bollocks I suspect). I know it must be somewhere in between as I see umpteen mainlanders in HK all the time. I suspect she just has to go to the local PSB in her hometown and get a permit (and maybe a passport?).
Something to remember though is that although this is the way it was for me (having a New Zealand passport), it is most likely different for other nationalities and depends on your demeanour and the stamps in your passport. The border crossing staff the world over treat you completely differently based on what you look like, your nationality and the visa stamps in your passport. While travelling with friends from other countries I have walked through immigration 99% of the time while sometimes friends are given the third degree because they have been to Indonesia or even Italy (as in the case with my travel agent friend in France) or present themselves aggressively or as complete messes.
If your trip is limited to SE Asia though and you are a westerner, its likely you will be waved through, stamped and smiled at a lot so I wouldn't worry. China and HK are a bit more hardcore, but not by much.
Don't know about anyone else, but the number of times I have been asked to show an onward ticket for visas on arrival = 0. If you are crossing land borders I think its less of an issue than arriving at airports. But again, even flying to airports I have never been asked to show onward travel documents.
Incidentally my travel agent friend in the west said what she did was book an onward travel ticket, print it out then cancel the ticket straight away to get around this problem (though she also tells me she only once got asked for onward travel documents when going into France). I think she used one of those travel agent booking systems though, gullivers or something to do it. If you are really concerned and know someone thats a travel agent, they can probably send you a fake ticket.
The problem with Skype is they have a myriad of technical credit card rules which they don't tell you about anywhere on there site or in their terms of reference. Suddenly and inexplicably you create a red-flag which blocks your account or stops you from purchasing and gives you no reason why or how to change it. Then once you are "black listed" your only option (and this is straight from the words of their customer service) is to reverse any credit to the credit card it came from and cancel your account.
Go figure. If that's the way they want to play, I won't play with them :-)
Google chat didn't care when or how I got credit on my account, all I needed was a working credit card. OK, sweet.
I used Skype for a while, but then they inexplicably blocked my account as apparently I used 2 credit cards in 3 years and that "broke the rules". After having a running argument with them for a month (of which I pointed out it had that clause nowhere in their policy) they still didn't want to unblock it. OK, refund the money! Now I use google talk - all my gmail contacts are in one place and the quality is much better. I thought it would be as bad as skypes but its so much better - I guess google have a bigger network of (good) servers.
And for the love of god, prioritise the currently useless line that should run all the way to the airport! Anyone notice that it doesn't look like they have left enough room for the train just West of the East Bus station? The raised bridge appears to be a little close to the vehicle bridge above it... maybe this was why they haven't done anything, somebody screwed up and nobody wants to take responsibility?
I saw what I am almost sure was a black bear in Cangshan about 3 weeks ago. I was walking the cloud path, the northern part past Zhonghe temple towards the road leading down to the 3 pagodas. The first thing I heard was a loud angry grunting sound from something LARGE, as I was rounding a bend, the sound from behind. Being by myself (not making much noise on the lookout for birds) and not knowing what it was it was a bit of a brown pants time. So I legged it for a few hundred metres and got to the point where I could look back, to see a large black shape through the first line of forest through the trees. A couple of days later I saw a sign on the southern end of the cloud path that said black bears roamed Cangshan...
I aren't in Kunming for the foreseeable future, just left.
Clearly you aren't interested in answering the question, I withdraw it in the face of the inane/inept responses that you have provided. I suggest you stop telling others how to think/behave if you can't provide thoughtful, respectful advice/experience yourself.
Wow, just wow. Possibly the best Chinese food I have had in Kunming. And in one of the nicest, traditional courtyard style restaurant I have been in. A woman dressed in traditional qi pao playing a gu zheng just adds to it.
We had okra, mushroom soup, dried beef and chou dofu. All top notch with the bill coming in at just over 250 kuai. But we could have fed 3 people for that so not too bad at about 80-90 kuai each. Not the cheapest but for the quality, it's damn good.
If you have people visiting and want to take them to a traditional Chinese style restaurant with Yunnan style food, or want a romantic night out with a gal, you can't go wrong here. Close to Green Lake (down a little alley) for a romantic walk... Just perfect.
Pretty good place for getting all your documents translated and/or notarised. Note that there are a number of notaries in the building which you can find by going up the stairs (the elevators are impossible). But you have to find the stairs to do so... go in the door, head over to the right, go up the big wide stairs which head up a floor, turn right then right again into the elevator area and right again into the stairwells. Whew!
One point off for the elevators never being available and having to hike 7-9 flights of stairs (not good if you have to go 3-4 times a day like I often did!)
This does not stop at the Jinanya hotel at Da Shang Hui as the flyers state (and is on the images tab here). They need to have another stop in the same area or else they are missing out on covering a big chunk of the city.
You can take another bus, the 919C, I believe, if you are nearby Da Shang Hui, which leaves from the bus station on HeHong Lu, nearby the Qianxing road intersection. This bus goes every hour and is white, found at the western end of the station. It is operated by a different company and takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to the airport due to a large number of stops especially near the airport.
Friendly people, even got to the talk to the vice consulate, who told me she had done a stint in Malaysia's Siberian Consulate!
English is spoken by some of the Chinese girls working at the desk who are pleasant to deal with. I assume they do Visa's as well but I wasn't here for a visa, this time!
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Infrastructure money continues to pour into Kunming
发布者And for the love of god, prioritise the currently useless line that should run all the way to the airport! Anyone notice that it doesn't look like they have left enough room for the train just West of the East Bus station? The raised bridge appears to be a little close to the vehicle bridge above it... maybe this was why they haven't done anything, somebody screwed up and nobody wants to take responsibility?
Infrastructure money continues to pour into Kunming
发布者Forecast: Dust for the next 10 years.
The inaugural Kunming International Business Conference
发布者Great stuff, good work for organising what I am sure will be a popular and successful event!
Bear attacks increasing in northeast Yunnan
发布者I saw what I am almost sure was a black bear in Cangshan about 3 weeks ago. I was walking the cloud path, the northern part past Zhonghe temple towards the road leading down to the 3 pagodas. The first thing I heard was a loud angry grunting sound from something LARGE, as I was rounding a bend, the sound from behind. Being by myself (not making much noise on the lookout for birds) and not knowing what it was it was a bit of a brown pants time. So I legged it for a few hundred metres and got to the point where I could look back, to see a large black shape through the first line of forest through the trees. A couple of days later I saw a sign on the southern end of the cloud path that said black bears roamed Cangshan...
Man misses 1 billion yuan jackpot by single number
发布者I aren't in Kunming for the foreseeable future, just left.
Clearly you aren't interested in answering the question, I withdraw it in the face of the inane/inept responses that you have provided. I suggest you stop telling others how to think/behave if you can't provide thoughtful, respectful advice/experience yourself.