TRAVEL | HUMOR
Stuck at the Chinese Border Twice: A Trip Gone Wrong
When life gives you lemons, have some beer and crackers
Have you ever been on a trip where everything went wrong? I certainly did.
Here is my story of a trip to China and Hong Kong — have a good laugh!
I would like to thank my friend Nika for joining me and tackling the unfortunate situations with loads of humor.
Thank You, Chinese Embassy
It all started with the wonderful idea my friend and I had to spend New Year's Eve in Hong Kong. Every year, they light up the sky with one of the most impressive fireworks in the world — what a perfect place to be!
We decide to squeeze in a visit to Shanghai and Beijing as well. As we sit down to buy plane tickets, we figure we could do it all on transit visas and avoid additional visa costs. Cool!
So we go on and buy a set of flights:
- Zagreb to Shanghai
- Shanghai to Shenzhen
- Shenzhen to Beijing
- Beijing to Munich
You might already see our first future problem.
No? Keep reading.
Because we are cautious travelers and want to make sure everything will go smoothly, we make an appointment at the Chinese embassy in Ljubljana, Slovenia to proof check our plan.
We explain to the Chinese lady our genius “transit visas only” plan and receive final confirmation we don’t need an actual visa for China.
Where is Shenzhen?
On Christmas day, we say goodbye to our families and go to the airport. We are asked about our visa in Zagreb, then again in Istanbul. All good, we can get a transit visa. So, we make it to Shanghai, yay!!
We are cluelessly lining up at the border, tired from the long journey and first signs of jet lag.
“You can’t enter on a transit visa because you don’t have a flight out of China” the border officer says. Excuse me?!?!?
Now, you might have seen this one coming.
Shenzhen is not in Hong Kong. Our flight is in fact domestic. We somehow managed to convince the embassy, all the checkpoints, and almost the border control (almost!) Shenzhen is in Hong Kong.
Looks so close on the map — you gotta give us that.
We must have been very convincing, as we get 4 officers checking the Chinese map. Finally, we realize our mistake. Lucky for us, the airline has to take care of us, and they don’t want to give us a free flight back to Europe.
After hours of waiting, we are pulled aside and told we can enter on a group visa if we pay $100 in cash. Still not sure if it was all legal, but we were in!
24-Hour Store and Expired Beer
It is time for us to continue our journey to Hong Kong, flying to Shenzhen. Which, by the way — not in Hong Kong if you ever have doubts.
We book a hostel online and take the flight, arriving in the city very late at night. We take a taxi from the airport that for sure overcharged but wouldn’t let us go until we pay extra money for the bridge we crossed (whatever, this is traveling).
We walk around the neighborhood in search of the hostel for about an hour. Nothing. The very few people we meet on the way ignore us.
Finally, we give up and find a 24-hour store to spend the night.
“Here we are” I say, “eating crackers and drinking expired beer in a 24h store in China”. This was all before I checked the actual expiry date… beer is still good 6 months after right??
Our Savior Wears a Suit
At dawn, we decide to cross the border to Hong Kong. It seems like a safe haven. We can't wait to finally get there. The plan is to stay with a friend of a friend and see the fireworks. Everything will be amazing.
We cross the border and walk to the kiosk to buy a bus ticket to Hong Kong City only to discover we are about 80 Yuans (10 euros) short!
And guess what.. no ATM, no English, no card payment, no other currencies accepted AND we can’t go back to China. Or Hong Kong.
After our unintended all-nighter, we are stuck at the border. Again!
Luckily, our savior is on the way. And he wears a suit. A businessman in an incredible hurry, and with a huge stack of money of different currencies, walks in.
We beg him to exchange some money, a 2 seconds transaction, the worst rate I ever got, but who cares.
Finally, we are on the bus to Hong Kong around 8 am.
Bread & Lemonade > Crackers & Beer
We message our host we are on the way and direct ourselves to the station we were meeting at.
Hungry and exhausted, we manage to find a metro station bakery to have breakfast and wait for our friend. We “patiently” wait for his reply, sleeping on the table for the next 3 hours, only to be informed he can't make it before 4 pm.
At least we had bread instead of crackers and lemonade instead of expired beer.
Wrong Side Of The Harbor
New Year’s Eve is here. We are beyond excited about the fireworks. Our host doesn’t want to join us, so we make plans with a local guy from Couchsurfing App and two Dutch girls.
We meet up, we are having a good time, and the time comes to claim our position to watch the fireworks. I insist on crossing to the other side of the harbor, having read several blogs advising me to do so. I end up trusting the local guy.
To sum up: I traveled to Hong Kong for fireworks I ended up watching on YouTube.
A Turkish Winter Wonderland
Needless to say, we are quite done with China at this point (and trust me, I’ve only told you the biggest struggles).
We arrive at the airport in Beijing to return home. One of the few times we actually can't wait to leave a place.
In line with the rest of our trip, I am not even surprised our flight gets canceled. A snow storm in Istanbul, Turkey — all flights through Istanbul are canceled.
The next 24 hours are sleeping in a 5-star airport hotel and using the free shuttle to go to the airport Starbucks and back. Can't complain about this last part, I’ve never had this many matcha lattes.
We eventually make it home. Safe and sound, somehow sane too.
I always plan my trips myself, as I generally hate guided tours or any kind of group tours. After my experience in China, I wish I made an exception.
Save yourself the language barrier, problems with Google Maps (blocked and inaccurate), never knowing what food you’re eating, etc.
Be smarter than I was :D.
