by Plastics News editor Robert Grace
The Beijing Olympic torch protests appear to have triggered some fallout that is negatively impacting foreigners trying to travel into China for business or pleasure. One would expect that China would be lowering the barriers to entry and trying to put on a happy face for those wishing to enter the Middle Kingdom.
But various sources suggest that ever since the torch protests in Europe and elsewhere gained a lot of Western media attention, Chinese authorities have implemented much stricter visa regulations, to include demanding new layers of documentation and pretty much shutting down the issuance of the popular one-year, multiple-entry visas that used to be relatively easy to secure. We hear that even Hong Kong residents are being put through extra paces to go to the mainland.
Some of the new rules (though it is difficult to ascertain how widely or evenly they are being enforced):
All travelers need to provide a copy of a bank statement with their name on it, apparently to prove they have enough money to avoid becoming destitute and assuming permanent residency in the slums of Shenzhen; Confirmation of a hotel booking for your entire stay in China, and that confirmation must include the names of all occupants of a given hotel room (e.g. your spouse or partner, in addition to yours, if you are not traveling alone);For a business visa, not only does one need a letter (on letterhead, or else it's not valid) from the organization making the invitation, but now that organization also must go secure for their own purposes -- and in person, we understand -- a "special visa notice" for that invitee from a local entity such as an office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an Economic Affairs office, or the appropriate municipal entity.If you are simply going on vacation, on a tourist visa, one now needs a letter from your employer stating that you will, indeed, be on vacation in China on the dates in question. This is all in addition to the usual stuff, i.e. a valid passport and appropriate photo, a signed China visa application form, a copy of your travel itinerary that shows the flight has been paid for, etc. Multiple-entry visas cost no more than single-entry visas, but now seem virtually impossible to get. As a result, someone wanting to travel more than once into mainland China in a certain period of time gets to go through this lovely process each time (for a fee, of course). Let's hope this all dies down once the Olympics pass. So much for rolling out the welcome mat!