September 27, 2005 Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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I didn’t really want to go to Jiuzhaigou because it’s 12 hours out of my way. Two hours away in Leshan is a PSB office that’s supposed to be “one of the best places in China to extend a visa.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I risked it and took a bus yesterday morning, and arrived at 9 am. “Come back tomorrow,” the officer said. So I had to go back to Chengdu for the night. Today I went back to Leshan, and my shiny new visa was ready. Then it was back to Chengdu again.
All the running around was annoying, and wasting four days doing nothing was not good, but one day to process a visa was infinitely better than five. It’s amazing that traveling two hours can make such a big difference. Traditionally, local officials in China have wielded absolute, arbitrary authority, and this did not change with the Communists. The way in which visa regulations are interpreted must be one small example of this phenomenon.
Finally I am able to leave, and am eager to get on the road again, to see more of China. I bought my bus ticket already, and leave early tomorrow morning on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, one of the world’s “highest, roughest, most dangerous, and most beautiful roads,” for my trip through Western Sichuan