Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring in China on Wednesday, 31st-October-2012. In Yongdeng. I was just about to leave today when I had a sudden thought (I don’t get many!) Could I get my visa extension here in Yongdeng? I was going to do it in Lanzhou, but it’s an expensive and polluted place from what I’ve read, and it also takes 5 days!
After looking on the internet and found that they had a public service bureau here, which is where you get the visa extension from. I managed to find that relatively easily. The woman on the front desk took my passport and started to make some phone calls. The phone was then handed to me, and I’m sure the man on the other end said you can’t do it here. You have to go to Lanzhou! I handed the phone back to the lady who told me to sit down.
The next minute, she was getting me to fill out a form, which looked like a visa extension form to me, judging by the questions. I think she said that somebody would phone me at the hotel in 3 hours or maybe it was 3 days, I’m not sure! I think it must be 3 days as I’ve not heard anything, and it’s late evening now. I’ll go back in the morning and see if I can find anything else out. It’s all so stressful not being able to make yourself understood. But it is their country; I should speak their language, not expect them to speak mine!
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