Dec 13 2007
Chinese are coming
Ok, the Russians are coming .. Putin’s disciple will be the president and in return, he promised to appoint Putin as the PM, in order for him to maintain real power. Well trained puppet! How cool.
China is allowing US food inspectors, in return, US will relax the visa for Chinese tourists .. Guess China holds better hand. Did Polish president asked for free entry to the US as the rest European countries do soon after he sent few soldiers to fight in Iraq? - he didn’t get it.
Visa to the US has always been difficult .. that’s what I heard. I applied three times before I got one on my fourth try. Couldn’t say it’s difficult, because I wasn’t serious .. once in Paris, once in Frankfurt and once in Beijing where I was only in transit. When I finally wanted to come, I applied in HK and obtained one easily. I still remembered the chubby American lady consul who conducted the interview. It’s a long counter, shared with many others. She had a young Chinese interpreter who was very rude, reminded me of a little lackey, or 借虎生威( lol .. not sure this is an idiom .. ok I made it up). Ignoring the loutish girl, I offered: “English or Mandarin?” The consul picked it up right away. We had an amicable chat. It turned out, she did rotation in Frankfurt and enjoyed the city too. .. then told me to pick up my visa that same afternoon.
In the morning, after our routine swimming at the Repulse Bay, my friends dropped me off at the US consulate and told me to expect denial: first I was single; 2nd I was from China and 3rd I was pretty. So running off in the US was obvious. One even big mouthed to say he’ll buy me lunch and dinner for a week. When we re-converged at the restaurant for dim sum as we planned, the first thing they teased me was, “oh .. don’t cry baby.. ” .. .. so they came up with three new reasons why was I granted one: I live in a prestigious building on MacDonald Road over looking the Central, a part of Midlevel area; 2nd I work for a blue chip company, and third I’m not all that pretty. The big mouth insisted he’ll fulfill his promise, as giving farewell meals. Wait a second, I wasn’t going to leave till the summer, 2nd it’s only a three weeks vacation. .. they all bet that I’ll stay in the US. Even my boss joked on my last day before the vacation, “be careful of the American boys..”
Years ago, few friends told me the similar story as how difficult the visa had become in China. They had to pay a fee to just apply (too many applicants?) that weren’t refundable regardless they’ll get a visa or not. And some visa staff were profiting from some illegal activities, like selling access, etc. And there were scores of local Chinese companies that charged fees to apply visa for you.