Here's what happened...
(originally sent to a friend...hope she doesn't mind me putting it here)
I'm back in America now, but not by choice. (just got back from China about 3 weeks ago this being written Sept 25, me getting back Sept 6) It's a somewhat interesting story... I got thrown out basically. The school that I was working in turned me and Lana (I'll explain who she is in a minute) in to the police for working on an incorrect visa, when we told them we decided to change jobs. The police gave us new visas that said we had to leave within two weeks and gave us a combined fine of 1800RMB. (about $230) But, the fines didn't end there. The police fined the school for hiring foreigners without a license. Their fine: 10,000RMB (about $1,200)
But the new place said they could get us Z visas no problem. So then we took a 29 hour train ride from Jinhua, Zhejiang to the new job in Guigang, Guangxi (near Guilin). Worked there about a week. Then had to leave the day before our two week visas expired b/c the new job ended up not being able to get the police to give us Z visas. We had 4 hours between packing and having to leave. We got a call at 10 am. We left Guigang at 2pm took a 2 hour bus ride to Nanning. Then left Nanning at 6pm took a 2.5 hour plane ride from Nanning to Shanghai. Spent the night in the Shanghai airport, my parents scrambling to get Lana a ticket for her to go back to the Ukraine, ending up getting her a ticket less than an hour before her plane left the next morning on a $1700 flight from Shanghai to Austria to Ukraine. But before that I had get money from my parents, they had to wire it to me. And there's nowhere to wire money to in the Shanghai airport. So I took a 20 minute taxi ride to the nearest China Post. Got the money, got back to the airport. THEN I had to change it to Chinese money, so I had to wait for the Bank of China to count out a HUGE stack of 11,000 RMB And bought a ticket for the 1020 am flight at something like 930 am with cash. Then I ended up leaving Shanghai that night around 6pm...
I'm back in America now, but not by choice. (just got back from China about 3 weeks ago this being written Sept 25, me getting back Sept 6) It's a somewhat interesting story... I got thrown out basically. The school that I was working in turned me and Lana (I'll explain who she is in a minute) in to the police for working on an incorrect visa, when we told them we decided to change jobs. The police gave us new visas that said we had to leave within two weeks and gave us a combined fine of 1800RMB. (about $230) But, the fines didn't end there. The police fined the school for hiring foreigners without a license. Their fine: 10,000RMB (about $1,200)
But the new place said they could get us Z visas no problem. So then we took a 29 hour train ride from Jinhua, Zhejiang to the new job in Guigang, Guangxi (near Guilin). Worked there about a week. Then had to leave the day before our two week visas expired b/c the new job ended up not being able to get the police to give us Z visas. We had 4 hours between packing and having to leave. We got a call at 10 am. We left Guigang at 2pm took a 2 hour bus ride to Nanning. Then left Nanning at 6pm took a 2.5 hour plane ride from Nanning to Shanghai. Spent the night in the Shanghai airport, my parents scrambling to get Lana a ticket for her to go back to the Ukraine, ending up getting her a ticket less than an hour before her plane left the next morning on a $1700 flight from Shanghai to Austria to Ukraine. But before that I had get money from my parents, they had to wire it to me. And there's nowhere to wire money to in the Shanghai airport. So I took a 20 minute taxi ride to the nearest China Post. Got the money, got back to the airport. THEN I had to change it to Chinese money, so I had to wait for the Bank of China to count out a HUGE stack of 11,000 RMB And bought a ticket for the 1020 am flight at something like 930 am with cash. Then I ended up leaving Shanghai that night around 6pm...