Law against foreigners?

[Chris8080]

Hi,

I have an urgent issue ..

I rented a house for two months in Wuxi, Yangshi and moved in with a friend some days ago.

Now I wanted to register my temporary stay here at the local police station to be legal.

After a discussion and several police officers, one find out that somehow that house 'is not safe for a foreigner' (what ever that means).

So I'm not allowed to saty here and he told me to move out by this afternoon

1. Any idea, why this house isn't safe? How I, or my landlord, could make it safe, even for a foreigener?

2. Any ideas for a solution? I'm really not keen on spending twice the money or more for a hotel or hostel (I don't think I can find a flat around here anymore)

I am here for learning the language and test living .. I want to see whether I fit into another country for two months.

I didn't expect these problems.

Thank you in advance.

Bye, Chris

[AxelManbow]

Some properties, like those overlooking/opposite such things as police or army grounds, or telecom hubs can be deemed unsuitable for foreign residents, though this is usually determined by a visit by a police officer who checks if you can see through a window and see the screen of a computer with potentially sensitive information/secret weapons, etc.

As for things like building safety, I'll leave that to another commenter as I have no idea.

[gougou]

I was once told the same thing, but luckily it turned out that they mistook the house for another one. Anyway, this shows that the law still seems to be around (at least in the heads of PSB officers).

How you proceed depends on how strict your local PSB officers are, really. You could try just sitting out the two months, maybe they'll forget about the matter. Did they come by your flat already?

I doubt that there is any way that you could "make it safe", especially in only two months.

[Chris8080]

This is a normal house from a normal landlord (as far as I can tell).

It's in a rural area, I can't see any computers or whatever. No armey, no police, no government around here - just a few other houses .. maybe some kind of farmers and one steel producing garage or so.

Maybe it's too old or no new water supply or similar - that was what I would have said.

They haven't been here yet - at least they didn't open the door.

The disadvantage is, that I need to prolong my visa in 3 weeks and for this action I need a place to stay.

Ok, for the visa, I can spend one or two nights in a hotel I guess.

Still, I'm really not sure what will happen or what they would do, if I just stay here.

And what would be my legal consequences?

I don't have much experience with police and law stuff. Neither in Germany nor somewhere else.

Hope I can get some advice around here.

[roddy]

From the sounds of things, my guess would be that you've moved into some random area where there aren't any foreigners and the PSB can't see why you would want to live there, you're on a tourist or business visa so there's no 单位 to take responsibility for you, and they'd rather you just went away in case you somehow cause some problem or other later on. Sounds daft, but if it's true that there aren't any other foreigners around, they may well not even be that sure what the rules are themselves.

At this point I'd go down to the police station, explain (again, if you already have) why you want to live there and what you are doing. Tell them that you can't see any safety issues, could they please tell you what they are so you can avoid similar situations in the future, and invite them to come and visit the place - this will give them a face-saving opportunity to say 'actually, it looks like this is safe after all' if they change their mind. Offer to pop into the police station every week, or tell them to come round for a cup of tea anytime they fancy it. You've just got to make getting rid of you more hassle than letting you stay.

Has the landlord said anything? If the PSB tell him that you should move out, you're probably on a bit of a loser, he's unlikely to want to aggravate the local police.

[Chris8080]

I really, really can't believe it.

They make up a law just because I am the first foreigener here?

I've got a touris L visa and I'm living with a friend of mine who works near by in a company.

I want to learn the chinese language better and want to have some quiet time, far away of the big cities.

That's really everything.

My friend told the landlord - I guess she is really willing to help us / me.

It really, really sounds daft!

And that is the impression I got .. oh my godness - I've never done this before - what excuse could we present him?

You all can imagine that I'm not really keen on going back to them.

I don't understand them very good and I really don't know which law they are talking about.

So if I'm not allowed to stay in this house because of water, I start to explain that I won't rob anyone or similar?

Doesn't make alot of sense, does it?

Damned situation - sorry, but that's not a good point to start from in a foreign country.

[Erbse]

roddy,

are there still free spots in your "guanxi for beginners" course? Or maybe you want to write a book about that ;)

[HashiriKata]

I think there may be guidelines somewhere for the police to classified what kind of accommodation is "unsafe" for foreigners, and many of these may have nothing to do with the army or sensitive information as could be imagined. I once looked for a hotel to stay and there were 5 hotels - of the same hotel chain - in different locations in the city. Among the five, only two of them had notices that they don't take foreigners and people from HK, Macao, Taiwan. These two, compared to the other three, looked very run-down and even had rennovation work going on in some parts of the buildings. From this experience, I believe they do have unknown to us but genuine reasons for not letting foregners staying in some types of accommodations.

[roddy]

Any guidelines there are will be along the lines of 'the accommodation must be judged to be safe by the local police' - there's not going to be any details on the quality of your water supply or proximity to the local Guild of Burglars.

You don't need to be giving anyone any excuses, just tell them what the actual situation is, why you want to stay there, why moving would not be convenient, offer to take any and all safety advice they care to offer, etc. Eventually either they'll get bored and let you stay, or you'll get bored and move.

You could just say 'ok, I'll look for somewhere else' and then carry on living as you are. If they chase you up, just say you're still looking. How they'll react is anyone's guess, they might ignore you, they might escort you to a hotel.

There's a potential 500Y fine for not registering, although given that you've tried to I'd be surprised if they actually charged you that.

are there still free spots in your "guanxi for beginners" course?

If anyone wants to pay for them, there are.

There are plenty of other people on here who might give different advice. I'm not necessarily right.

[isela]

I was just wondering, is it possible that the police were ACTUALLY concerned with your safety? Being the first foreigner living in a place as you described, you'll very likely be the center of attention of the local's. Be prepared for tons of staring and random talks.

Or maybe the police are just self-conscious about the quality of the house, like they don't want to lose face to a foreigner because of that "shabby" place?

[HashiriKata]

Or maybe the police are just self-conscious about the quality of the house, like they don't want to lose face to a foreigner because of that "shabby" place?

Or they may simply worry if foreigners are adept enough to use squat-style toilets and not to fall inside.

[abcdefg]

You all can imagine that I'm not really keen on going back to them.

I don't understand them very good and I really don't know which law they are talking about.

Perhaps you shoud take a Chinese friend with you who can help with the explanations.

[niels]

China is still the place where people scratch each others backs. The countryside all the more so.

It could be that they genuinely don't want you there, but that's quite unlikely. It could also be that they are simply soliciting some sort of 'gesture'. This may not always be obvious to a foreigner or a younger Chinese person.

Inviting them for tea as suggested above is a great idea. And inviting Chinese style is insisting. Bring an older more experienced Chinese friend to handle this for you. It allows for a much less formal setting where people can be given face in both words and sometimes a gift. We're not talking loads of money here - a nice bag of tea or some smokes often does the trick.

[Chris8080]

Hi,

thank you all for your advice.

This is all totally strange for me - I mean I know that there is a lot of stuff like that in China,

but I didn't expect it to happen to me - that fast.

Anyway a friend of me figured out a way of getting a permit at another police station, so maybe

it was really due to the individual who loved buerocrazy or whatever.

I really appreciate your fast help - it's not an easy situation if something totally wents into

another direction as expected.

Bye, Chris

[zhouhaochen]

It sounds very much like a pretty arbitrary decision by the police. Now, I would go there, try to speak as much Chinese as possible with them, be super nice and friendly, say nice things to them and then try the same game again with their superior. If you manage to have lunch with them, then you will have no more problems anymore (but probably not easy to get them to eat together).

If they like you, there is no way they make you move out.

[gougou]

if something totally wents into another direction as expected.

Welcome to China - you'll get used to it

[longpeng]

Wow! They still do that here, I was starting to wonder if I was the only one that had that in the past. Yea in the past if you were the first non-asian looking foreigner in a complex the local PSB would not always allow you to stay. See foreigners used to only have certain places they were allowed to live. Then as the free market grew more places opened but based on the approval of the PSB (local and main). Many would take the government provided apartment for their older parents and upgrade it and then the kids, parents and grandparents would all live in parents older government apartment and rent out the better one. It was pretty easy for them to do this with Japanese and Korean. After awhile they learned Europeans, North Americans etc.. would pay more. So they would let them stay. However the local PSB's didn't like it but overtime things lessed.

So basically you used to have a couple of choices. Rent a place and run every time the police came around (yes I did that many of times in the past and it worked for almost a year till I moved). Or go to the PSB with a Chinese friend and have them try to get you registered (If they gave you trouble at the local you could go to the main PSB). Most would go before they moved in with a fake copy of the lease filled out just to make sure they could get registered before putting the money down.

My recent time around it they gave me some problems but nothing just saying ok I'll do that (something about some other paperwork) and I came back the other day (no I didn't bring anymore paperwork) and they allowed us to register. It's like they forgot the day before they asked for more information.. ha ha I figured it was just a power trip.