With Chinese visa fees due to double on August 1, we wanted to beat the increase. Confusion abounded. Are the visas good for 3 or 6 months? Three months would be cutting it tight. What form to use? The one from the consulate website, the agency or visa courier services - all different. One or two copies required? I downloaded a form from a visa courier firm since I’d been told the one still up on the Consulate site was the old one.
Lela and I made the trek into the city and the Consulate yesterday. It went more smoothly than I expected – I expected a mob trying to beat the new fees, but we were only there about a half an hour. The form was not the new improved official form available at the counter, nor did it match any that I had looked at online, but they took what I had anyway – and I only needed one copy.
Since we were in the city, we decided to have a fun afternoon. Lela’s choice – the Hechsher playground at the SW corner of Central Park. We took the cross-town bus to 8th Ave., and the A train to Columbus Circle. The playground was recently renovated – they’re still working on the bathrooms, but it’s great. There’s an enormous sandpit with slides leading in, cushioned play surfaces, swings for all sizes, water sprays, and an enormous granite outcropping for climbing. After retrieving my soaked and sand encrusted urchin, we had our traditional ice-pop. She chose the Firecracker, a red, white and blue extravaganza, easily the world’s biggest ice-pop at about 8" long – and basically impossible for someone her size to eat before it melts. There’s something about the blue part – the color doesn’t come off skin. Jamie thought she was developing varicose veins until I clued him in – just ice-pop drips.
Lela and I made the trek into the city and the Consulate yesterday. It went more smoothly than I expected – I expected a mob trying to beat the new fees, but we were only there about a half an hour. The form was not the new improved official form available at the counter, nor did it match any that I had looked at online, but they took what I had anyway – and I only needed one copy.
Since we were in the city, we decided to have a fun afternoon. Lela’s choice – the Hechsher playground at the SW corner of Central Park. We took the cross-town bus to 8th Ave., and the A train to Columbus Circle. The playground was recently renovated – they’re still working on the bathrooms, but it’s great. There’s an enormous sandpit with slides leading in, cushioned play surfaces, swings for all sizes, water sprays, and an enormous granite outcropping for climbing. After retrieving my soaked and sand encrusted urchin, we had our traditional ice-pop. She chose the Firecracker, a red, white and blue extravaganza, easily the world’s biggest ice-pop at about 8" long – and basically impossible for someone her size to eat before it melts. There’s something about the blue part – the color doesn’t come off skin. Jamie thought she was developing varicose veins until I clued him in – just ice-pop drips.
Update. Wednesday there was a message from our agency, "a question about your visa." ARGH, what else could go wrong now? But it turns out that due to people out of the office on vacation, they were just getting around to my message of Monday. Visas were picked up Friday and are safely squirreled away - and good until January 2008.
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