Explaining China

What's the difference between a visa, residence permit and temporary residence permit? Once you've lived in China for more than a month it can get really confusing when everyone refers to everything as a "visa". Another classic is everything is a reduced to "a colour". "A: Yeah, I went to the police community station office and got my white paper. I went to another place and they gave me another piece of white paper. That's what you mean? B: I'm talking about my yellow paper. Did you get your visa yet? A: What do you mean? I got my visa in the UK. I need another one??!!! " Learn the names!! They say something on them in English that helps you identify them... Visa The easiest way to think about a visa is that it just lets you into the country. You have no long(er) term right of abode. The visa name is related to your purpose for being in country. A Z visa typically lasts 30 days and its purpose to let you in the country to start the

There are times when you’re searching for an answer to something and the only option is to smash your laptop into tiny pieces and  go grab a coffee somewhere instead. Information in China is a scarce resource. If you manage to find anything online at all it’s often out of date, incorrect or both. Half the time, word of mouth is the just rumour disguised as information and English expat “websites” just peddle those rumours for clicks. The best and most reliable information is if you actually know someone who did whatever you want to do and they did it recently. Perhaps second best is a recent blog or forum post (which is kind of like “someone you know” anyway). Why is it like this? Your first thought might be the crippled collection of electronics that gets called the Internet here. Actually, I would say that's a small factor in this. I feel like businesses, government and most organisations here just haven’t got to the point where they put information on the Internet. You mig