Good grief. My head has been spinning since the notification came that I was going to China. June 9th was notification - June 30 is departure for San Francisco. Not a ton of a time, but a ton to do.
American citizens must get a Chinese visa before going anywhere in China except for Hong Kong. It is a straightforward process, but you must follow the rules or face delay in processing. Rules include making sure your passport is valid for 6 months, filling it out accurately etc. If staying with a Chinese citizen, they must write a letter verifying that you are their guest. Copies of round-trip tickets and hotel reservations are required along with a $130 fee. The National Committee on US-China Relations who are partners with the US Department of Education helped us navigate this process.
We were asked for our passports, ASAP along with our application for a Chinese visa. I put my passport in a priority mail envelope along with the application and sent it out immediately. The application was two pages, asked basic information. Our application was sent to us by the program we are traveling with, hence, it included all travel information already so we didn't have to fill it out. It also asked about my relatives which I have not seen before on a visa application.
Once processed, the visa will appear in my passport. It looks like this:
Paperwork was sent everyday for about a week. We will share a room with another teacher while there although an individual room option was offered if we were willing to pay the difference. Rooming with people you don't know can be an adventure in itself. I have been very lucky, although there was one roomie that I had that snored so loud, I made a bed in the bathroom of a 4 star hotel. The snoring sounded like a large dumptruck crossed with a jet engine. I have never heard anything like it and hope not to again, but if I do, I am confident in my abilities to create space to avoid sleepless nights thanks to that experience.
Doctors, doctors, health forms, shots, travel clinics. Travel clinics are quite the business. They charge a fee for a consultation and are not covered by insurance. You can go to your doctor to save yourself the "consultation" fee (about $85-100 depending on clinic), and pay only for the vaccines. It is good to check CDC website for recommendations when leaving the country. My friend Anne, a doctor, told me it is better to spend $$ on vaccines because getting something like Typhoid is much more expensive once you have it. No thanks. I felt like I wanted to kick the nurse when getting the Hepatitis A shot. It burned. My advice: breathe. Typhoid was a breeze.
My doctor was kind enough to suggest that I bring some antibiotics with me just in case I get sick and cannot quite shake it. Her other suggestion to combat stomach complications due to change in diet: 1 Pepto Bismol every morning.
I just got the flight info. Maine to Chicago 1 hour layover, Chicago to San Francisco. Orientation for 2 days then onto China. About 14 hours if I am figuring correctly. The way there isn't too concerning. It is all the way back to Maine at the end of the trip without the stopover in San Francisco - about 20 hours worth of flying. Good times. #notsomuch
American citizens must get a Chinese visa before going anywhere in China except for Hong Kong. It is a straightforward process, but you must follow the rules or face delay in processing. Rules include making sure your passport is valid for 6 months, filling it out accurately etc. If staying with a Chinese citizen, they must write a letter verifying that you are their guest. Copies of round-trip tickets and hotel reservations are required along with a $130 fee. The National Committee on US-China Relations who are partners with the US Department of Education helped us navigate this process.
We were asked for our passports, ASAP along with our application for a Chinese visa. I put my passport in a priority mail envelope along with the application and sent it out immediately. The application was two pages, asked basic information. Our application was sent to us by the program we are traveling with, hence, it included all travel information already so we didn't have to fill it out. It also asked about my relatives which I have not seen before on a visa application.
Once processed, the visa will appear in my passport. It looks like this:
Paperwork was sent everyday for about a week. We will share a room with another teacher while there although an individual room option was offered if we were willing to pay the difference. Rooming with people you don't know can be an adventure in itself. I have been very lucky, although there was one roomie that I had that snored so loud, I made a bed in the bathroom of a 4 star hotel. The snoring sounded like a large dumptruck crossed with a jet engine. I have never heard anything like it and hope not to again, but if I do, I am confident in my abilities to create space to avoid sleepless nights thanks to that experience.
Doctors, doctors, health forms, shots, travel clinics. Travel clinics are quite the business. They charge a fee for a consultation and are not covered by insurance. You can go to your doctor to save yourself the "consultation" fee (about $85-100 depending on clinic), and pay only for the vaccines. It is good to check CDC website for recommendations when leaving the country. My friend Anne, a doctor, told me it is better to spend $$ on vaccines because getting something like Typhoid is much more expensive once you have it. No thanks. I felt like I wanted to kick the nurse when getting the Hepatitis A shot. It burned. My advice: breathe. Typhoid was a breeze.
My doctor was kind enough to suggest that I bring some antibiotics with me just in case I get sick and cannot quite shake it. Her other suggestion to combat stomach complications due to change in diet: 1 Pepto Bismol every morning.
I just got the flight info. Maine to Chicago 1 hour layover, Chicago to San Francisco. Orientation for 2 days then onto China. About 14 hours if I am figuring correctly. The way there isn't too concerning. It is all the way back to Maine at the end of the trip without the stopover in San Francisco - about 20 hours worth of flying. Good times. #notsomuch
No comments:
Post a Comment