Getting a Chinese Visa

For Spring Break, my cooperating teacher invited me to go with her to Shanghai! I was all over that idea, however, I needed a Chinese visa in order to go. Today one of the male student teachers and I went to the Chinese Government office in Macau. When I finally got my visa, I had gone back and forth to the visa office on three separate occasions because they needed more documentation.

On Tuesday, we left after our morning classes and took the shuttle to one of the hotels that put us within walking distance to the visa office. When we got to the visa office, we had to fill out a form but when we went to the teller at the counter, we were told we needed more information explaining where we would be going, a letter saying where were currently living, and our flight itinerary. Disappointed, we left and tried to find a taco stand that he had eaten at before with no luck =[ However, we did find a nice Portuguese restaurant. I had lobster and shrimp bisque, seafood pasta with squid, octopus, calamari, shrimp, and mussels. It was really good. I didn't care for the squid though, a little too tough for me. At least I tried it!

When we got back to the school one of the Chinese teachers gave me a stamp with my Chinese name inscribed into it: Er mei lin. It means beautiful flower and precious stone. I use this to stamp the students' handbooks after then turn them in with their parent signature in the morning.

The second time we went back was Wednesday morning with a letter from the school explaining that we are student teachers and will be entering mainland China for our spring break and then returning to Macau. They still didn't let us get our visa. Since I'm going to Shanghai, they wanted to know how I'm getting there, where I'm staying, and how long I'm going to be there. When we left the visa office we tried to find the taco stand again and had success! Unfortunately, it was closed until about an hour later. We decided it would be fun to have lunch at the top of the Macau Tower because there is a buffet for fairly cheap. When we got the tower, we found out that like the taco stand, the buffet wouldn't open until after we needed to be at school. So, we ended up eating at a small cafe on another floor in the tower. The Macau Tower is the tallest building that you can jump off of, its about 100 feet taller than the Space Needle. One of the male student teachers bungee jumped off of it the first week he was here! I'm pretty sure I won't be doing that. After lunch, we took the city bus back to school except the bus went on a very long route and we ended up going to the end of the cycle and had to get on another bus. I used the time on the bus to rest and take a little nap.

When we got back to school, I talked to my cooperating teacher about what I still need before they can give me a visa. Since it takes about 4 days to process visas she said I should go back that day so I would have it in time for spring break. After getting the rest of the paperwork I needed, I got a cab and went back for the third time to the visa office. Since the others had changed their mind about going to mainland china, I went by myself which was fun. When I was at the visa office, I was talking to the lady at the counter for about a half an hour. She seemed reluctant to give me a visa but finally did thank goodness!

On my way home, I tried to walk to the post office to pick up a package but got a little turned around and ended up getting a cab to drive me there. As it turned out I wasn't nearly as far away as I thought I was. When I got to the post office, it turned out the package that I got a notice for was the one I already picked up. Oh well. At least I got some exercise!

It was such an ordeal trying to get my visa but I was finally able to go pick it up on Monday which was earlier than I had anticipated.