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Month: February 2013

Now in Hong Kong

Now in Hong Kong

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After 15 hour flight from London Heathrow I’m now back in Hong Kong.

The flight NZ 38 from London Heathrow to Hong Kong

Direct. They’ve put restrictions on the hand luggage for Air NewZealand flights. Which made my hand luggage 12kg or 4kg overweight. I had to move the books and stuff out of my hand-luggage and into checked, which was a slight hold-up, not much problem.Heathrow was mostly dead. Traffic was quite getting down there. Went for a meal in Windsor rather than getting straight off. Went to Browns down by the river, which decided to close as we were going in. Then went for Bella Pizza on the main road. Quick meal with dad, then loaded stuff.

Cracked the screen on my Ipod 3g, just from having it in my pocket. Bit of a bummer. My have to fix that later in Shanghai, I hear it’s pretty easy.

Arrived in Hong Kong. Took the airport shuttle into town. $110 HKD. Then got out at Central Station. Caught the tram from here on down, that was another $2.30, much cheaper and better fun. Even with lots of luggage.

Hostel

Checked in at the hostel $380 hkd. Went out for some food: $45 Hoegarden, $68 San Miguel, $55 Garlic Bread. $168 hkd. Did a bit of shopping at the supermarket; sushi and beer $78 hkd.

Totting that up, in the 12 or so hours I’ve been here, I’ve spent $740hkd, or £62. Not as bad as I thought actually. Maybe I need to go out more.

My visa documents should be arriving soon.

Year of the Pig – Again

Year of the Pig – Again

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Had to watch the BBC2 daily politics program today whilst doing my wii-fit jogging, which happened to be talking about the Leveson enquiry and all the money it had spent.

pigThe platitudes issued in the spirit of non-achievement and self enrichment in this report is something that the British seem to have excelled themselves at, and really, rolls out to society as a whole.

So, congrats to everyone, this a very good time to be a pig.

May we roll things out for ever and ever until they lead nowhere.

 

China Visa Medical – Experts certificate

China Visa Medical – Experts certificate

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**Update 03.05.2015
All this has changed, the regulations for acquiring an experts certificate and a Z-Visa can now be found on the Visa for China site

Could this be harder to get in the UK?

Since the changes regarding the experts certificate, a number of changes have come in, such as the new experts certificate website.

Also, as well as this, you’ve to concentrate on getting your Visa Medical. No mHappy catean feat, considering no doctor will touch the thing.

Full HIT

Getting the Chinese Visa medical done in the UK, you’ll need to find someone to complete the whole thing, which mean STD screen, ECG, chest x-rays and physical examination.

Google is your friend here. I’ve spent the day today and got the following quotes for the Chinese Visa Medical – Experts Certificate:

Pallmall Manchester – £550 all in

EPM Birmingham – £270 all in

 

Obviously a big difference in prices, and as I said to the girl. I’m not willing to pay £550 for something that’s going to go in the bin in 3 weeks.

EPM Birmingham

Plumped for this option, as it was only a short distance from the house. Very plush for a doctors, nice plasma t.v. to watch Ikea sofas. No coffee or tea, which I get at the doctors, which would have been nice.

Guy was Indian. Took me in. Asked me a few questions about my experience and expectations of this medical. He was able to provide some guidance and his advice was backed with experience, which made the process much shorter and straightforward.

All in all the consultation took 20 minutes and the final cost was £210.

Scanned results

The receptionist was able to pass the documents to me by post. Also, they offered to scan them, which is an option if you need to get them in quickly for your Z-visa.