Almost anyone who plans on spending a length of time in China to study, work, or reside, will need to get a special visa. A small few countries have special visa deals with China, because their governments probably hook China up with natural resources, or government officials with “things”. For the vast majority of people coming to China, this isn’t the case, and getting the specific visa requires a jumping through more hoops than a circus clown.

One of the first and most important things you will need to do, is get your residence permit, after you get this and want to apply for a long term visa (residence, work ( Z ) and study ( X ) 6 months or more), go get a medical test. While I can understand the very simple minded logic behind this rule, it really serves no purpose. People who come to China on short term visas don’t have to get them done, with the exception of a brief questionnaire on entry, which anyone with half a brain can lie on. Assuming you were sick with something contagious and you wanted to go to China, there would be nothing stopping you. The irony is that the people who do take the tests, are at a much higher risk of getting hit by a bus/birdflu/being forced to drink the awful beer, than Chinese being at risk from them. Despite this, rules are rules and today was examination day.

I arrived at the testing complex around 10am, and wandered around trying to find which building and which reception office to go to, after a little while I found it on the second floor of a main building. They quickly rush you through some paperwork, and then point you towards the gauntlet. I should note to anyone that is going to the exam for the first time, remember to bring a copy of your passport and a passport photo, or else you will have to go down the street like I did and get it done, which cost me about 25Y which I know isn’t much, but very inconvenient and pushes you back in the overall queue. At this medical clinic, they only doing testing for foreigners for the visa, because of this, they run a very tight ship, which puts you through five different tests in about an hour.

The first test I had was the blood pressure/heartbeat thing. Very simple, the doctor/nurse/random joe checked my pulse and then proceeded to quickly scribble down some numbers and sign a bunch of parts on the paper work they have you carry around. The next test, is some type of cardiological thing, where you lie on a table with your shirt off and they stick suction cups on your boobs while a machine makes a printout that looks like an polygraph. The following test is similar, only I believe it was an ultrasound. You lie on another table and take off your shirt, the guy rubs you up with some goo and then really grinds this plastic appendage all over your torso. It was hard not to laugh, especially because while the guy was doing this to me he was in a loud conversation with his significant other on the cell phone. After that, came the blood test. You stick your arm through a window, just like a drive through, and they take out a generous portion of blood. As a bonus I got to find out my blood type is O. They do take a damn lot of blood though, and I was feeling pretty dizzy. I somehow managed to make it to the next test where they did some kind of nuclear/x-ray type analysis with a giant machine, while i was crushed against part of it in a compromising position watching the person in the control room smile and give me the thumbs up.

There were dozens of other people going through these tests at the same time as me so it was either a highly efficient or really sloppy operation they have going on. You decide.

The costs of all the tests was 313 yuan plus 10Y for the shipping deal, because they ship the results right to the school in three days instead of me picking it up. Thats a pretty good deal considering it cost me 40Y taxi to get there and back. So I wound up paying about 388Y for the whole shebang. I’m of no authority to say whether the tests, procedures and equipment will even produce any worthwhile results (I’m not holding my breath), but if it lets me stay in the country without having to make a trip to Hong Kong every two months then I’m all for it. Plus I got to play hooky because they only do the exam in the morning…nice!

Filed under: quick guides