CHANGSHA!!!

After Beijing, or next production stop was Changsha (which is in south central China). Changsha proved to be a very interesting city, mostly because it does not get many foreigners. In Beijing I got a few funny looks, in Changsha I got a ton! Changsha is also defined by its spicy (and oily) food and extreme summer time heat. Although the food was some of the best I had on my trip, after a few days it had my stomach totally torn up!

We were only in Changsha for 3 days. I really wish I had more time to shoot photos here. After spending a week in Beijing, it was visually refreshing to see some grit and grime. Compared to Beijing, Changsha was even busier, with lots of little narrow alleyways which would have been fun to explore.

While its not a popular tourist spot, I'm really happy I got to see Changsha. By the end of my trip, Changsha felt like the only "real" city i visited. If you ever travel to China, you should try picking some random large city to visit. (China does have something like 49 cities with over a million people, while the US only has 9). Visiting a random city vs Beijing or Shanghai will most likely give you a totally different experience... but be warned, english menus are not as easy to find!

Changsha had a very interesting night life. Lots of KTVs and other "clubs."

After nearly 10 days in China, this was the first that there was anything remotely close to "magic hour." Great end of the day light does not exist in Beijing.

The best part about having someone with you who speaks Chinese, is being able to eat in small back alley restaurants.

I had some of the best Tofu in China. I've been a vegetarian for over 12 years, so i know my tofu!

BEIJING PART 2

Ugh, I've been back from China for a while now but I've been so busy with gigs and catching up on work I've been having a hard time getting the rest of the photos edited. So hopefully within the next few days I'll have all the photos up. Here are a few additional shots from Beijing. The majority of the time I was in Beijing I was shooting video, so unfortunately I do not have a ton of stills from Beijing. The government shut down the entire downtown area (including the metro lines and bus lines) to have a dress rehearsal of their National Day parade (which is Oct 1st). This photo was taken right before I was told that i was "forbidden" to be in that area... oh the irony of the Policeman's choice of words.

A mother and daughter wait for the daily flag ceremony at Tien'man Square.

New army recruits at the Forbidden Palace.

Homeless, Beijing

The one similar trait i noticed between ALL chinese cities was the constant construction.

Public domain takes a whole new meaning in China. If the PRC wants to tear down your entire village, no problem! Honestly the displacement for new construction was the one thing that reminded me that I was in fact in a communist country.

Oh the driving! I'm not even going to get into it.

No matter how touristy it is, I had to go see the great wall. At least the rain kept some people away.

BEIJING STREET MARKET

China, wow I finally made it. Its taken a few days but I'm settled in. My first impression of Beijing wasn't the greatest, but the more I see the more I like. I've spent the last week here in Beijing, working on the feature doc Play Money. Its been a wild few days. We have mostly been shooting an hour and a half outside the city on a farm, but thats a whole other story.

I love shooting stills and as part of the project I have shot a lot of stills of our characters.... but I just cant seem to find the time to edit all of those photos. So instead here are a few photos from a street market i stumbled upon the other night. Many more photos to come....

GETTING A CHINESE VISA - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

So my "photo" blog has turned more into a "travel blog" lately. Through my Google Analytics I can see how people end up on my website. I noticed that my blog post about the overnight bus from Bogota to Medellin has gotten a lot of hits. This makes me happy because I purposely wrote that post in order to help other travelers find useful and first hand information. If you currently search "Bus Bogota to Medellin" my website comes up within the top 10 search results, which is pretty amazing.

So once again I find myself packing my bags (well not exactly I'm not leaving for another 3 weeks) for a trip to China. Unlike most countries I have been to in the past, China requires ALL travelers to obtain a visa before entering the country. When I first started researching visas I had many questions and was trying to find first person accounts. Just like with the Bogota to Medellin Bus blog post, hopefully the info below will give travelers useful information.

In order to get a Visa you must either apply in Person at one of the consulates (here is a map) or you must use an authorized 3rd party company to apply for you. There are only 6 locations (The Embassy in DC and 5 Consulates) in the country so depending on where you live you might have to use a third party source to get your visa. Luckily for me I'm in Manhattan all the time for work so I decided to apply in person at the NYC Consulate at 42nd and 12 Ave.

When you call for info ( (212) 868-2078 is the direct line to an automated service with information regarding visa info or here is a link to a FAQ section) they say you need the following:

1) Passport (with blank pages and an expiration date 6 months after you planned trip) 2) Completed Application form (currently downloadable from here, make sure to use CAPITAL letters) 3) Passport Photo 4) Airline Reservation 5) Hotel Reservation 6) Letter of invitation

This had me a little worried because although I had #1 - #4 taken care of, I did not have hotel reservations or a letter of invitation. I decided to take the chance and apply without #5 or #6. So I headed down to the Consulate not really sure what to expect.

The website / phone info says to avoid Mondays, Tuesdays, and all afternoons. I decided to go Wednesday morning right at 9am. I got to the consulate a few minutes after 9am and there was already about 20 people ahead of me. The line was moving fairly quickly and they had seats you could sit in which was nice. I'm glad I got there at 9am because the line quickly double behind me. I think I got up to the window within 15 to 20 minutes.

I handed the girl behind the counter my passport and application form. I then tried to hand her my airline reservation and some Hostel information I printed off. She refused the extra info and instead had me write in the hostel info into the "friend/relative" section on the application form. She didn’t even look at my airline info.

I’m glad I printed off some hostel / hotel information ahead of time. I just picked one of the hostels I had (one that I probably won’t end up staying at) and wrote down the address. I did not have the number printed off but luckily I was able to use my Blackberry to look it up. If you are not staying with someone make sure to have an address and local Chinese number handy, even if it’s a hostel that you may or may not stay at.

I was only in NYC for the day so I decided to pay the extra $30 for the rush service (the regular Visa fee is $130, so I paid $160 total). If you get your application in early (I'm not exactly sure when the cut off is) the 1 business day rush service is actually "same day" service. After checking over my application one more time, the agent told me to return at 2pm.

Applying for the visa in the morning was very straightforward. When I returned things were a little more confusing. First, you need to wait in line #9 in order to be handed another number and told to either wait in line #8 or line #10. I ended up with line #10. After about a total of 20 minutes I was at the counter picking up my visa. It is important to note that they do not take American Express and it also seemed line #8 only took cash.

Although I applied for a 30-day tourist visa, I ended up with a 6-month double entry visa with each stay being up to 60-days. This surprised me but is nice incase I want to return to China within the next six months. I would not count on having them just give you extra time, but remember all visas (30 days, 60 days, 6 months, double entry, unlimited entry, etc) all cost the same price ($130). So if you think you might make two trips or plan on leaving/re-entering (including crossing over to Hong Kong) that make sure you apply for exactly what you need. (How to read a visas)

All and all I have to say the process was less stressful and less bureaucratic then I thought it would be. I'm just happy to finally have a visa in hand. Now I'm counting down my days until I leave. Make sure to check back towards the end of August to see how my trip is going.