unusual one

[Dave]

Talk about bad luck

I'm just unlucky, i've been spending the last 2 months planning for this Spring festival to travel across china, on the other hand the Univ I work for is providing me with a Foreigners' Residential Card.

Now all this is fine but, it seems that my passport won't be ready on time, I mean I've already booked train tickets, hotel rooms etc...and now I don't have a bloody passport.The Univ.FO

just keeps telling me we are trying, but I mean can't the local PSB just provide some sort of temporary replacement piece of paper.

Anyone know what I can do? This just seems like 1 bad dream!

[roddy]

I've had something similar happen to me a few years ago.

The PSB should issue a receipt for your passport, which I think is yellow and has all your details on it. This should be used in place of your passport.

However, it's entirely possible that the PSB didn't issue it. If they did, it may be sitting somewhere in a drawer at your school. If you did manage to get hold of it, it is entirely possible that hotels and airlines wouldn't have a clue what it is and still ask to see your passport.

In my experience hotels and airlines do take the passport requirement seriously - I've seen one guy sleep rough in Beijing because he didn't bring his passport from Harbin and he couldn't find a hotel to even consider taking him. Went to the PSB at Yonghegong to see what help they could offer, and just got told 'Go to Harbin and get your passport'. You can get onto a plane without a passport or proof of ID, if you get the security staff to clear it every time.

I think you need to get your FO to contact the PSB and ask not just when the passport is coming back, but what should be done if it isn't back in time. It might be possible to get it back now, and then hand it back in when you return. Otherwise you can take your chances with a photocopy and a sob story, but expect hassles.

Anyone else had similar experiences. Perhaps others have more positive information

Roddy