Visa Office Adventures

I am returning to Mainland China on Tuesday for a week of travel (note: Hong Kong is typically distinguished from Mainland China, or "China," by virtue of its geography, colonial history, and position within the One Country, Two Systems paradigm) and I need a separate visa to enter the country as myy current visa is for Hong Kong only.

I therefore spent two hours on Tuesday evening in line at the Chinese visa office with Casey waiting to hand over my form and passport, and returned to the office today to pick up the passports with visa's inside. While waiting in the retrieval line, I noticed for the first time the sample visa application posted under glass throughout the waiting room. In my experience, sample forms are generally filled out with some version of John or Jane Doe's vital statistics. Not this one. It provided surprisingly detailed information for "Jack Lee," a former Chinese national who now has American citizenship and lives in New York. The passport and telephone numbers did not seem fake.

The really strange part came on page 2 of the form, which has a section about the health condition of the prospective Chinese tourist. It asks the applicant to check "yes" if they have ever had one of several conditions, and I was shocked again to see one of the boxes checked yes, with the following explanation below it: "I got venereal disease three years ago. I have recovered." Why would they put this on a fake sample application, and if it wasn't fake, why would the relevant authorities choose this particular applicant to expose to public view? Perhaps it was meant to encourage truth telling, like, hey, no big deal. People have diseases. No need to lie about them.



At any rate, this strange detail distracted me enough that the time in line passed quickly. I now have a multiple entry visa sealed into my passport and am returning to China within the week!