My time is running out in China. My visa is valid until April 29. Recently, the government has made it difficult to get visa extensions due to the Olympics coming up. I’ve heard the prices for visas have gone up to over $1000. So I have to leave.
I had two choices: 1) Go directly home from Beijing. The cheapest and fastest option. 2) Go visit some more countries and try to make it to the Computex computer show in June.
My tentative plan is the following:
- Singapore (5 days)
- Indonesia (2 weeks)
- Thailand (4 days)
- Taiwan (2 weeks)
- Hong Kong (3 days)
- USA (return around June 10 or 11)
In the mean time I’ve been visiting friends here in Beijing, eating at a lot of restaurants, going swimming in a 50m pool, visiting an antique market, visiting the family I stayed with here before, and watching movies.
I had a lot of ATM trouble recently in Chongqing, China. And looking at my bank records, the problems didn’t end. It says I withdrew 1000 RMB ($143) when I didn’t. The day after that I was counting my money and I had only a little over 300 RMB. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do. I just have to lose that money.