A China Moment
Interesting China moment today: I went to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago this morning to apply for our travel visas (no TA yet, but we are advised to apply to travel). I was there 35 minutes before the Consulate opened to get a good place in the line. I was third. The guy who was first was a travel agent who was getting 60 visas for a travel group. His process is a bit different from ours. We chatted about this and that. I asked about his process of getting a "group visa" and he explained it. He had driven from Michigan to get this done because there is no mail ins for visa applications. He goes to China a few times a year and after four years of guiding tours, he feels pretty comfortable traveling.
The Consulate opened and we straighten up our line. The travel agent went up to the window with his paper work and 60 passports. The woman at the window explained that he did not have everything that he needs. He must not only have the 60 original passports but a copy of the first page of each passport which has a signiture of the passport holder. He told the woman that he has done it the way it is now prepared each time he has come there. He has been coming for four years. He told her that he called yesterday and asked to make sure the process was the same. She told him that her way is the way it has always been and she will not deviate. He asked to speak to a manager and was still there when I left.
The travel agent wanted what he had done previously to work this time. Is that his American-ness coming out? Did the woman at the Consulate mean that once they changed the process, it was as if it had always been in place as she was now explaining it? She had no pity on his insistence was regularity. Was that an older culture which has endured many hard and fast upheavals talking?
We are stil waiting for TA. Rumors are flying -- next week, end of the month, beginning of August, middle of August. I am intensely interested and yet they make no difference.
posted by Suz @ 1:06 PM
1 Comments:
Isn't it ridiculous? The way we jump and look at the caller ID every time the phone rings? I'm tired of it, but I can't help it. Hopefully, we can look back a month from now and roll our eyes at ourselves. Please????? We have our visas too (or will this week), and can go at a moment's notice. See YOU in Nanchang!!! :o)
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