习惯就好! Getting Acquainted to the Great Hassle!

I'm getting used to the great hassles that exist in this country! I think I'm starting to laugh about it and loving it! :D

What hassle you may ask. There's hassle everywhere! Hassle shopping; hassle in running business; and hassle in extending visa... everything! You name it, you have it!

When I first got to Beijing, I was rather intimidated by it. I was introduced to Silk Street Market （秀水街）, Yashow Market （雅秀）, and the wet market （三源里） and you have to bargain for everything! One have to engage in what I thought was ridiculous negotiations and conversations, which to us efficient Singaporeans, seemed a waste of time. However, I have learnt to love it! Now, I get excited about going to the markets to bargain, and made some "friends" along the way. Sometimes, I teach the sales ladies some English. Other times, we joked and laugh, and had a good time. I have learn to make the best of the most irritating situation and enjoy it.

I explored starting up a business in Beijing. I looked at the process of registering a company, I gave up! There's so much time and money involved. Check this out for yourself! ( http://www.chinasolutionco.com/stepdetail.asp?id=61 ) And this is the cheapest type of organisation to register! I recently spoke to an entrepreneur and she told me that it took her 8 months to get all the papers sorted out to register her company!! (My dear fellow Singaporeans, for those of you who complain about the pain registering with ACRA, think again! Haha! Now ACRA is so improved, can register online! I remembered vividly the pain that I received years ago from ploughing through and encyclopedia-thick directory for the most suitable code number for the company I was registering! Oh man! But that's nothing compared to this one!)

Recently, I had a great encounter with the local immigration. I went to extend my visa for another 30days. My beloved "Insider's Guide to Beijing" which is always very reliable, said I need only my passport and 2 photos. So, happily off I went! To my dismay, I needed my resident certificate and a proof that I have enough money to pay for my stay in China - US$100 per day!

Ok, I thought that's not too bad. I only found out later that in order to get my resident certificate, I need to go to the police station with the tenancy agreement of the apartment where I'm staying! (This communist country is control freak, and they require all visitors to register where they are staying with the police station. If you are staying in hotel, your registration with the hotel gets sent to the police!) See, the boyfriend's company rented the apartment and he does not have a copy of the tenancy agreement! So, he had to write a request to HR and get a copy a day later.

And I also found out that you cant just go to any police station, but the specific one that governs your area (i.e. your neighbourhood police post). Going to this specific police station is like taking part in Amazing Race. It is hidden behind the walls of a very busy market that sells construction materials. We had to stop 3 times to ask people where the station is. In the police station, there's 4 police officers but only 1 working. Because 1 of them does dog registration only (how many dogs get registered a day?!) and the other 2 does some other dubious things! How amazing!

With my resident permit and the electronic bank statement of my Singapore bank account, I went back to the Immigration Dept, only to be rejected again! Why?! Oh.. the proof of ability to pay for travel expenses needs to be a certified statement from a local bank! (What?! I have to open a bank account for that?!) But the English brochure they gave me says proof included credit card. I whipped out my credit card, and the lady shaked her head. I tried to get her to honour it, showing her the brochure. She is so typical, and said, that's a mistake the communications dept made, my dept cannot accept this arrangement! *FAINTS!*

Ok... so, off I went, to the bank, to open a bank account. Stole the boyfriend from the office to lent me some money. Then I asked for the bank statement and I was told that I need to pay 20yuan (abt S$4) for the certified statement and they need to freeze my money for a period of time for them to issue that statement! (How am I suppose to pay for my travel expenses when the money get frozen in the bank?! Duh!) All these took an hour and filling in alot of forms in Chinese that I have little clue what all the banking terms meant! Phew...

I got my visa extended eventually (after 3 trips to the immigration and running around for 2 whole days and a week's wait for them to paste a sticker in my passport), and have new revelation - One needs alot of patience in China. Always call to ask and be as specific and detailed as you can. And yet, always expect things to be not what you had been advised earlier! On hind sight, I can laugh about it, and feel that I'm loving it, even though it nearly drove me crazy then! But now, I think it's so charming and I'm loving it!