On November 3rd, a sunny but cool Friday in Seoul, I walk into the Chinese Visa Processing Centre. It\u2019s located in an office building in Jongno, one of the business districts of the South Korean capital. I am not sure if I am even going to be admitted to the centre, as I have no appointment. The lobby is quiet and the many elevators are waiting for people to transport. I reach the floor of the Visa Centre, whose door is open. As I walk in, I find myself in the most storybook office you could imagine: Gray carpet, white walls, a suspended ceiling interspersed with white neon light tubes. There is a reception in front of me and many counters to talk to a visa officer. A pane of glass sits between you and the officer. While there are some customers, it\u2019s not very busy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My plan is to go home from Japan to Switzerland without flying, only using ferries, trains and buses. That means I will cross China (towards Kazakhstan), and the visa process is pretty complicated. (It was simplified for many European citizens just weeks later but at the time I had to do the full thing). First, you do a soul-strip in a loooong online questionnaire where you need to give your personal details, family details, what jobs you did in the last 5 years including the telephone number of your supervisor and so on. Then, you are asked to make an appointment at the nearest Visa Centre and bring copies of your hotel bookings. Did that, planned my entire itinerary for 30 days, tried to book a ferry and failed, and printed it all out. Unfortunately for me, the button to book an appointment didn\u2019t work (it was grey and unclickable). Haha, funny! All for nothing? It made me want to laugh and scream simultaneously. After an angry walk outside, I decided to just go to the Visa Centre the next day and see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there I am. \u201cYou don\u2019t need an appointment; you can directly go to a counter. Do you have the hotel bookings?\u201d, says the reception staff. Oh! A surprise, but a welcome one. I\u2019m led to counter 3 where a lady is ready to interview me. She checks my bookings and the questionnaire. \u201cThank you, but we need a bit more. Please fill out this form.\u201d It\u2019s a paper where I\u2019m asked to list every activity I plan for every day \u2013 e.g. \u201cOn day 1 I\u2019ll visit museum A and market B, on day 2 I take a daytrip to town C\u201d etc. etc. I ask her: \u201cOK, but do I need to buy tickets for all of these activities in advance?\u201d. \u201cWe understand that you cannot book everything, but the more the better\u201d. Which was a polite way of saying \u201cwe want to be sure that you\u2019ll do whatever you put in this form\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n