Beijing: The long hello
Beijing airport is a huge new and magnificent building which apparently turns off the air con quite early and has about five staff providing immigration and security services to the thousands of travellers passing through that night.
I had around 12 hours in between flights at Beijing so had booked an overnight at the Airport Hilton. I checked with both my travel guy and Qantas and was assured I didn't need a visa. Tourists in transit for under 72 hours don't require a visa.
That is, apparently, unless you want to leave the airport and/or collect your bag. You can transit directly provided you have your boarding pass for your next flight. You can't get a boarding pass unless you have checked your bags. You can't check your bags until you have collected them. You can't collect them without a visa. Simple.
So visa-less, I waited in line for Immigration for around 30 minutes whereupon I was told to go back through the airport and get a visa.
I doubled back and joined a queue of other weary and disgruntled souls, waiting to see the one visa dude. He was not a speedy kind of guy. A fellow queuer said he had managed to serve 3 people in 55 minutes. His system was to hand a form for completion when you reached the counter, indicate for you to go away and complete it, rejoin the queue and hand it to him. Through persistent miming, the other Aussie lady in the queue and I convinced him to hand over the forms (from under his desk) to us before we reached the front of the queue. After another 40 minutes or so, I obtained the magic visa and got through immigration. Following the signs for baggage collection I found myself on a "train platform" which was mildly disconcerting, however said train did indeed transport me to another terminal for baggage collection. When I got there, of course the carousel for my flight was empty. I finally found my bag abandoned outside an enquiry office, so just took it and left.The air conditioning appeared to have been turned off at this late hour.
I knew Ihad to make my way to Gate 5 for my hotel shuttle, so walked past Gates 7 and 6 only to find Gate 5 closed with a sign saying exit at Gate 7. Just when I was about to give up, I found the shuttle, waited outside it chatting to a friendly Canadian until it departed 20 minutes later. At the hotel checkin, it was all going swimmingly until the receptionist said "Mrs Linda, you don't have a visa". She checked through the passport shaking her head, then handed it to me. At this stage the friendly Canadian was no doubt deeply regretting his chivalry in inviting me to check in first. I checked every page and could not find the visa either. Mind you at this point I would have. Had difficulty finding my own face. She asked her supervisor what she should do. The visa magically reappeared in my passport for the supervisor and I was finally checked in.
I had around 12 hours in between flights at Beijing so had booked an overnight at the Airport Hilton. I checked with both my travel guy and Qantas and was assured I didn't need a visa. Tourists in transit for under 72 hours don't require a visa.
That is, apparently, unless you want to leave the airport and/or collect your bag. You can transit directly provided you have your boarding pass for your next flight. You can't get a boarding pass unless you have checked your bags. You can't check your bags until you have collected them. You can't collect them without a visa. Simple.
So visa-less, I waited in line for Immigration for around 30 minutes whereupon I was told to go back through the airport and get a visa.
I doubled back and joined a queue of other weary and disgruntled souls, waiting to see the one visa dude. He was not a speedy kind of guy. A fellow queuer said he had managed to serve 3 people in 55 minutes. His system was to hand a form for completion when you reached the counter, indicate for you to go away and complete it, rejoin the queue and hand it to him. Through persistent miming, the other Aussie lady in the queue and I convinced him to hand over the forms (from under his desk) to us before we reached the front of the queue. After another 40 minutes or so, I obtained the magic visa and got through immigration. Following the signs for baggage collection I found myself on a "train platform" which was mildly disconcerting, however said train did indeed transport me to another terminal for baggage collection. When I got there, of course the carousel for my flight was empty. I finally found my bag abandoned outside an enquiry office, so just took it and left.The air conditioning appeared to have been turned off at this late hour.
I knew Ihad to make my way to Gate 5 for my hotel shuttle, so walked past Gates 7 and 6 only to find Gate 5 closed with a sign saying exit at Gate 7. Just when I was about to give up, I found the shuttle, waited outside it chatting to a friendly Canadian until it departed 20 minutes later. At the hotel checkin, it was all going swimmingly until the receptionist said "Mrs Linda, you don't have a visa". She checked through the passport shaking her head, then handed it to me. At this stage the friendly Canadian was no doubt deeply regretting his chivalry in inviting me to check in first. I checked every page and could not find the visa either. Mind you at this point I would have. Had difficulty finding my own face. She asked her supervisor what she should do. The visa magically reappeared in my passport for the supervisor and I was finally checked in.
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