With all my documents in hand, photographs, police certificate, release letter, foreign expert cancellation, company stamps and more, I went to Sichuan Bei Lu to a company who said they would get me my visa in 27 working days for around 4,000. As it was a lot cheaper than I had been quoted by other… Read More »
I have noticed that the security men on the gate to our school have started sporting helmets and batons recently. Apparently this is a new regulation. Perhaps a party chief’s son has the contract to supply this clothing and sticks – who knows – but it all seems completely over the top. China is the… Read More »
Well, my friendly man contacted me yesterday to tell me that he has all the paperwork now and that the company is formed. Great news – all I need now is a visa from my own company and I am all set. But that doesn’t always go smoothly, not in China anyway, and although it’s… Read More »
I was having a ‘bad China day’ on Tuesday. I had tried to get a SIM card but had run into the usual problems of red tape, annoyances at work and the usual pushing and shoving on the metro and on the street. Even the spitting was getting me down more than it usually does.… Read More »
For the last week or so, the whole of the French Concession has been sneezing. The air is thick with pollen and unless you stay at home, you cannot avoid goig out in it, breathing it in, filling your lungs with dirt and filling your blood stream with those nasty PM2.5 pollutants. Everywhere you can… Read More »
I walk past the statue of Rabindranath Tagore at least once every day and I did stop once to have a look at the dedication to him. Today however, on that corner a large crowd was gathered with phone held high in the air pointing at what? As I got closer I could see a… Read More »
I am a sucker for an old building, especially one which serves food and coffee so I made my way down to the Shun Pao building on Hankou Lu on the junction with Shandong Zhong Lu. The building looks uninviting from the outside with an grey austere facade but a peep through the window gives… Read More »