Today I went to the local police station to get my new temporary resident permit (see inefficiency story) and I assumed correct: they only could give me one for 3 extra days and I should come back again the day I receive my passport back with my new year visa…
Of course I tried to get more out of it. I brought my new “alien working permit” which is already stamped with another year, to no effect. I brought my latest contract with the landlord, also to no effect. They did tell me however that I should come as sson as possible, but if I overstayed 1 or 2 days it wouldn’t matter so much! Pfffffff…
So for them it basically doesn’t matter, but I only can pick up my passport with the new paper, talking about consistency!
Since I was there anyway and they were sort of in their early lunch break, I decided to pop the question about the “arrangements” for next year. First they were astonished to find out that none of the laowai (foreigners) visiting the Middle Kingdom next year will be able (nor interested) to speak a word of Chinese!
Then I pursued with explaining that the Beijing 4 and 5 star hotels cannot be compared with their western equivalents. One police lady said that there would be plenty of 1-3 star hotel accommodation available too and she didn’t really understand that for most foreigners visiting this is not an option…
The next item on my little introduction was that there will be 500,000 foreigners coming in (on top of the 2 mio expected Chinese visitors) and there is a total available hotel accommodation for 400,000 people in Beijing. So the most favourable scenario will be that 100,000 foreigners need to find accommodation elsewhere. Of course this number is ridiculously low, but for the sake of argument (and getting through) I used this number.
After explaining that those people would most probable locally find accommodation (difficult concept to grasp for them) I asked them how the regulations on registering these people would be. Under the current regulations, visiting foreigners have to register with the police within 24 hours of their arrival. Of course hardly anybody does that, except when you’re staying in a hotel.
Again for the sake of argument I said that there could be 5-10,000 people turning up at their office next year, all to be dealt with in a day or 4. Given the fact that one registration, when speaking fluent Chinese and having all the correct papers with you, takes about 15 minutes, for 1,250 people per day it will take 13 days to register these people!!!
Their answer, cute and naive: our boss says that we can/have to do it, so we will. Any question about a possible flexibility on these ridiculous rules was answered in the same manner…
Good Luck Beijing!
