I had to renew today my Chinese visa today — my six-month visa expires today, and I am going tomorrow to Dongguan — so in a rush I went to the Airport where a bunch of travel agencies have booths to help travelers get a visa, book a seat to China, etc. I usually use PCTours, which provide good service for reasonable prices. But you have to go downtown, near Tsim Sha Tsui, to drop the passport, and pick it up the next day, or, if you’re lucky, at the end of the day. They can pick it up and bring it back to you for an extra 200 HK$, which is OK if you’re busy. Last time, I did just that, and they came to my hotel, and brought it back. Total, for a six-month visa, 900 HK$ + 200 HK$ for the pick up.

But today at China Travel Bureau whatever they charge me 1,000 HK$ for a 3-month, 2 entries visa [I didn’t need more, I am using a temporary passport]; the same six-month visa I had costs 1,600 with them!!! Unbelievable. I had no choice, I have to meet a client tomorrow, but dang I will never ever use them again… This is wallet-rape central™. Caveat Emptor.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Brain fart of the day, Sino-centric stuff, All you freak are belong to you. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.