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I Don't Know about China Visa Andreas: The nearest metro station to the Entry/Exit Bureau at 1500 Minsheng Lu in Pudong is the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum Station on Line 2 (Exit 3). There are maps posted inside the station. 1500 Minsheng Lu is about 10 minutes walking to the East, which is the direction you are facing if you walk directly out of Exit 3 and straight ahead (approximately 1 km, at corner of Minsheng Lu / Yincun Lu). Extending a tourist visa for 30 days longer is practically guaranteed, but longer than that is difficult without leaving mainland China (i.e. to Hong Kong or Macao). The cost depends on the cost your home country charges Chinese citizens for the equivalent visa. I'm from USA; the last time I got a tourist visa in 2004, it was 480 RMB Yuan. Now I have a residence permit which is different. Check the previously mentioned web site. |
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I Don't Know about China Visa http://english.gov.cn/2005-08/18/content_24285.htm Chinese Visa and the Procedure for Visa Application GOV.cn Thursday, August 18, 2005 A Brief Introduction to Chinese Visa 1)Chinese visa is a permit issued to a foreigner by the Chinese visa authorities for entry into, exit from or transit through the Chinese territory. The Chinese visa authorities may issue a Diplomatic, Courtesy, Service or Ordinary Visa to a foreigner according to his/her identity, purpose of visit to China and passport type. 2)The Ordinary Visa consists of eight sub-categories, which are respectively marked with Chinese phonetic letters L, F, Z, X, C, G, D, J-1and J-2. L Visa: Issued to an applicant who comes to China for tourist purposes, family visiting or other personal affairs. F Visa: Issued to an applicant who is invited to China for visit, research, lecture, business, scientific-technological and culture exchanges or short-term advanced studies or intern practice for a period of no more than six months. Z Visa: Issued to an applicant who is to take up a post or employment in China, and their accompanying family members. X Visa: Issued to an applicant who comes to China for the purpose of study, advanced studies or intern practice for a period over six months. C Visa: Issued to crewmembers on international aviation, navigation and land transportation missions and family members accompanying them. G Visa: Issued to those who transit through China. D Visa: Issued to applicant who is to reside permanently in China. J-1 Visa: Issued to foreign resident correspondents in China. J-2 Visa: Issued to foreign correspondents on temporary interview missions in China. 3)Validity of visa: normally speaking, a visa is valid for 3 months from the date of issuance(=date of application) and on any day within this period, the visa holder may enter China. Duration of stay specified in the visa: normally speaking, a visa holder may stay in China for 1 month which counts from the date of his/her entrance into China. To stay longer, you need to specify your request in your application form and it'll be subject to the permission of the consul in charge. 4)Overseas Chinese visa authorities, include Chinese embassies, consulates, visa offices, and the consular department of the office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. If a foreigner intends to enter into, exit from or transit through the Chinese territory, he shall apply to the above-mentioned Chinese visa authorities for a Chinese visa. For further information, please consult the nearest Chinese visa authorities. 5)Important notes: According to the relevant international law, any sovereign state has the exclusive rights to decide whether or not to allow the foreigners to enter its territory, and accordingly to issue visa, reject visa application and cancel an issued visa according to its national law without providing the reasons. With its valid Chinese passport, a Chinese citizen can enter China without a visa. All regulations and costs are subject to change without notice. Paying the visa fee The overseas Chinese visa authorities are Chinese embassies, consulates, visa offices, the consular department of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in HKSAR, and other agencies abroad authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. If a foreigner intends to enter into, exit from or transit through the Chinese territory, he shall apply to the above-mentioned Chinese visa authorities for a Chinese visa. For further information, please consult the nearest Chinese visa authorities. Editor: Letian Pan Source: FMPRC.gov.cn |
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Train from Beijing to Shanghai Just thought of more: The 4-person compartments share communal toilets and lavatories at 1 end of each car. Even the the 2-berth compart. cars have the public toilets, so if 1 is occupied, you should be able to walk until you find a vacant one. The lavatories have 2 small wash basins and no door, so you might be brushing teeth with another person at the same time. The 2-person compartments have a small washroom with a basin and toilet. There is no shower, although if you are adventurous, you would use a bowl or cup to dish warm water from the tap and pour it over your head, since there is a drain in the floor. Pillows, sheets, and blankets are provided, but there are not wash cloths or bath towels. Toilet paper and toilet seat covers are provided. Surprisingly to me, the toilets empty on to the train tracks even in these new trains. If it is daytime and you flush the toilet, you can see the ground below. The toilets do have water flowing in them, though, and they do not smell bad. There are no showers on the train. Smoking is allowed in the corridors between cars. The sleeping compartments have doors, but if you are sharing with strangers, you may find that someone wants to keep the door open until bedtime. In that case, smoke could drift inside. This is true in the 4-berth cars because, but the 2-berth cars have electronic doors that seal off the main hall from the toilets and space between cars. There was no cigarette smoke in our car during either trip except in corridor (outside the sliding doors). There are many other trains between Shanghai and Beijing. They are a bit slower because they stop along the way, taking about 14.5 hours (instead of 12). These are much cheaper and have hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper, and soft sleeper tickets. In theory, smoking on these is also limited to corridors, but the trains are not sealed and often compete with a crowded bar for smokiness. They also tend to be worn, and fairly unclean by most international standards. On a very tight budget they are the tranport of choice, though. |
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Train from Beijing to Shanghai Thank you Mr. Wang for maintaining this weblog. I have lived in China for about 5 years in several cities and after experiencing the old green Chinese trains that are smoky and so slow, I always chose air travel. I now live in Shanghai and after viewing the pictures and description here, I decided to book a train trip to Beijing. I went to the Shanghai Rail Station at about 3pm on Friday, April 21, 2006 and booked 2 tickets on the Z14 train to Beijing departing just a few hours later. There is no longer a 'foreigners' ticket window at Shanghai Station, but anyone wanting to book a soft seat or sleeper ticket can do so inside the 'Soft Seat Ticket Office'. If you were walking into the main entrance, this would be on the left about 50 meters (on the outside of the station). It is a large office with a place to sit in front of the ticket agent. This will save time and there is always someone who can speak at least basic English. I travelled with another person and we booked our soft berths in a 2-person compartment. The entire train is composed of soft sleeping compartments (no 'seat only' tickets). This applies to all 'Z' train lines, apparently. The train has 18 cars, but only 2 of the cars have 2-person compartments. I have read online that only the Z13/14 and Z21/22 trains have the 2 bed comparts. The prices that Wang Jian gave for the 4 -person berth ticket is still correct. We paid 893 RMB (lower) and 921 RMB (upper) for our tickets. The train arrives at the main Beijing Station. Since we were returning from Beijing on Monday the 24th, we bought the return ticket upon arrival in Beijing. There is a soft class ticket window on the front of the station, but he attendant did not speak English. There is also a large ticketing hall. If you speak some Chinese or have a Chinese friend with you, then no problem. Otherwise, you should probably ask your hotel to book the tickets for you. There is a large waiting hall for soft class passengers on the first floor, but the Z trains depart from the middle concourse on the second floor. Be aware, the old station is downtown. It is called 'Beijing Zhan' and it is an old building. Although it is equipped in a modern way, there is an extreme bottleneck at the main entrance at popular departure times because x-ray machines are adjacent to the entry doors and all luggage/packages must go through. As usual in China, there is no single line (queue), so a person must simply 'ride the wave' and seize every opportunity to squeeze further into the mass of humanity toward the door. You should plan to arrive at least an hour before the train is scheduled to leave, in my opinion. We did not face this difficulty in Shanghai, which has several entrances around the station building. We had checked out of our hotel, but the train didn't leave until 7pm and we didn't want to carry our heavy bags around for the day. Luggage storage is available at an all-day rate of approximately 7 RMB per piece. Although there is an official storage room on the front of the station (far-right side as you face the building on the outside), there are also several smaller stalls nearby. Someone may try to take you over to one of these (the official storage personnel will not do this). We went to one of these small competing storage places and were quoted a price of 30 RMB for 3 pieces of luggage. Thinking this was too expensive, we went to the official one which was 20 RMB. The Beijing Station area was quite pleasant. Gone are the days of rundown buildings and drifters camped out. Although there were some beggars and people trying to promote local hotels, we were not bothered much. There is a large shopping mall adjacent to the station. It has several restaurants including a KFC and several noodle shops. Also there is a Watsons Drug Store and many other places you would expect at a mall. The mall is attached to a very large Howard Johnsons Hotel. The gift shop of the hotel opens into the mall and sells baked goods. After 5 pm, everything is buy 1 get one free. We got 2 pieces of delicious apple pie for 5 RMB each. The line 2 subway stops in front of Beijing Station. I have a brochure about the express trains. I'm willing to scan it, but I don't have a place to post the pictures. Anyway, here are the station points for the 'Z' trains (all of them leave around 7pm and 11 pm, averaging about 150 km per hour. The Shanghai-Beijing trip is 1.463 km (914 miles) and takes almost exactly 12 hours. Here are the cities served. The first number is Beijing (or Tianjin) to the other city; the second number if from the other city to Beijing (or Tianjin). (Z1/2, Z5/6, Z7/8, Z13/14, Z21/22 Beijing-Shanghai) : (Z3/4 West Beijing-Hankou) : (Z9/10 Beijing-Hangzhou) : (Z11/12 West Beijing-Wuchang) : (Z15/16 Beijing-Haerbin) : (Z17/18 West Beijing-Changsha) : (Z19/20 West Beijing-Xi'an) : (Z29/30 Beijing-Yangzhou) : (Z37/38 West Beijing-Wuchang) : (Z41/42 Tianjin-Shanghai) : (Z49/50 Beijing-Nanjing) : (Z61/62 Beijing-Changchun) : (Z72/73 Beijing-Hefei) : (Z85/86 Beijing-Suzhou) I don't have fare info on these routes, but they should not cost more than the Beijing-Shanghai fares described already. Sorry for such a long reply, but I hope it will help someone. Thanks. |