It's hard to believe that I have already been in China for over a month! During this time, I applied for my residence visa, started class, traveled to Shanghai for my Rotary presentation, and traveled to Shennongjia for National Day.
Right now, I don't have my passport. And I am not really sure when I am supposed to get it back...Since I will be living in China for a period longer than six months, I am required by the Chinese government to apply for a residence visa. This visa allows me to stay in China for the year for my studies. It also allows me to freely leave and re-enter the country. However, the process to obtain this visa is a bit troublesome.
At my school, there has been a lot of miscommunication between the administration and students. Often, when the school posts an announcement, it is only in Chinese or poorly written English sometimes making it difficult to figure out what is going on. This happened a lot when applying for the residence visa.
On the day that the school provided four buses to the hospital for approximately 100+ students, the hospital was completely overwhelmed by all the Wuhan University students in addition to the other patients. Also, the school had neglected to tell us that we needed a number in order to complete the physical, which, of course, I did not have. Luckily, there was a group of students that successfully argued with the doctor for everyone to complete the physical exam that day. Unfortunately for us, by the time the agreement was made, it was almost lunch time and everything shuts down from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. or later.
Instead of waiting around for the hospital to re-open, we headed back to the university with a promise that there would be a bus the next day. The next day we went to the hospital to finish only to find out the hospital did not have any electricity. Finally, on the third trip to the hospital, I was finally able to complete everything and turned in the completed physical to the doctor.
In addition to the physical exam, the Chinese government also requires that you submit an completed application, a couple passport-sized photographs, copies of your passport and entrance visa, conduct an interview, money and passport. The school arranged for the police to come and collect applications which was complete chaos. In a rather small room, all the new students, over 100, packed into a small room like sardines and very aggressively sought out the police to complete the application. This was the last time I saw my passport and that was almost a month ago. Since then, I have been told that they lost my physical exam results only to go to the hospital myself and find it within a matter of minutes.
The process has been very complicated and at times frustrating but hope that my passport will be returned soon! In my next blog, I will talk about my trip to Shanghai for my Rotary presentation!
