Camera shopping – Tsim Sha Tsui

Samsung ST67

The camera I have, a Samsung, has issues…

It’s like a epileptic, with Alzheimers. It just goes into spasm and forgets everything when I turn it on.

Canon A2600

Samsung have expanded too quickly and this product has done nothing but tarnish the image of it’s brand. It’s over-complicated. It takes crap pictures. The viewfinder is crap. But it looks good, and it does fancy things.

Did a little bit of searching round in Tsim Sha Tsui and found nothing that would give me an exchange on this useless compact.

Canon A2600

Opted to buy a Cannon A2600. It was cheap at $1,180 which is just short of £100.

I like Canon. They don’t blow up like the Samsung which I will be throwing into the Yangtze very soon.

 

Canon A2600

China Visa in Hong Kong

After filling in the app. yesterday, queing up and submitting it, it was refused due to the lack of photograph and the non-chinese medical.

90 Day L Visa
90 Day L

Sunrise Visa Agency

Better than re-queiing after the lunch break, I decided to visit the Sunrise Visa Agency which is located in the same building.
This clarified a few things for me:

  • That my documents were wrong: Unless you happen to be able to read Madarin, you wouldn’t have spotted the fact that the 2 documents required for the agency, (invitation letter, experts certificate), were not matching.
  • That the Visa agency would not issue me with a Visa from China without a medical from China.

After chatting to the bloke at the Sunrise Visa Agency, I saw the queue was huge, and decided to take him up on his offer to do a 90 day tourist visa for the same price as a 30 day.

I got the Visa within 1 day and have no complaints about the service.

It’s a 90 day single entry Visa.

View China Visa Agency Map in a larger map

Getting medical done for Hong Kong Visa

The agency sent through documents for two different processing addresses, so one is for London, the other is for Hong Kong. Either way, once these are changed to match, I can look out for forking out another fee for a Chinese medical examination certificate.

Medical in Hong Kong

Causeway bayThis is virtually impossible to obtain. If you’re wanting to get your Z-Visa processed in Hong Kong rather than in your resident country, the medical that the visa office in Hong Kong will be asking you for is the CHINESE MEDICAL. They WILL NOT accept a medical from another country.

For this reason, it’s not worth expecting to arrive here, leaving the office with a Z. That’s not going to happen. (unless your employer is in Hong Kong).

Since earlier this year, it’s been a requirement for Chinese Visa Authorities to ask for a medical examination IN ORDER to apply for your experts certificate. It costs £250. And, whatever happens, not matter what the results of your test or where you get it done you’ll need a new one from your employer in China to get your Z.

The best way to do it is to arrive in China. Sort a 90 day visa out with a visa agency. Get ONE medical done, the Chinese one. Go to Hong Kong, Beijing or one of the other Chinese passport offices. Get your passport submitted there. You will save yourself £250. Tell your employer that, or ask them for the cash up front if they want you to fork out for the medical in your own country.

Some employers will ask you to get the medical up front. If this happens, like with me, you need to hang around in your own country and get the Visa done. Don’t go anywhere until it’s done.

 

Now in Hong Kong

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

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.