I'm glad it all worked out, Bob.

Bob & karen - So glad you will be joining us in shanghai!
As a follow-up to my own story, true to their word, we received a phone call moments ago from mytravelvisa.com assuring us that they spoke to the Chinese consulate once again and they were told there would be no trouble with the passport despite the fact that the spelling is incorrect. We will be sent an email confirming that along with the name of the agent who said that. We feel confident there will be no problems.

Haaa, I'm the 101 now on this thread, Bob, sleep tight tonight ...

Congrats Bob now all you have to do is make sure they spelled all your names right!

i answer to any name... aniwat and pook are favorites..

june, i'm still bringing bread

Now you can rest easy, Bob....hope you had a drink to celebrate!

dgunbug,....we just missed you in Beijing, but we'll be in Shanghai on Oct 3rd & 4th. Do you want to have dinner on the 4th? We're staying at Les Suites Orient on the Bund. Do you know where you're staying yet? That would be so much fun to get together.

FYI, Here's our itinerary: Oct. 17-21, Beijing; Oct 21, Brickyard at Mutianyu; Oct. 22-25, Lijiang; Oct. 25-29, Linden Centre near Dali; Oct. 29 Guilin; Oct. 30-Sept 2, Yangshou; Oct 2-6, Shanghai (but we get in late on the 2nd and on the 5th we have a tour to Suzhou); Oct. 6-10, Sanya, Hainan Island; November 10-15, Hong Kong.

BTW. on you last post you said you got a phone call from mytravelvisa.com. I think you meant mychinavisa.com.

Ha!
<i>end of story</i>

Why do I think this is barely the beginning of the story?? Since His Bobness was almost arrested some years ago in Luxor, I can only begin to imagine what's going to happen after he arrives in China!

BC

Barefoot - thanks for the correction. I believe you mean that you will be in shanghai in early november, not October, right? We still don't have our hotel in shanghai. We've only booked the Beijing hotel, but will be working in hotels this week. I'd love to meet for dinner but won't be able to commit at this point as we want to go to Suzhou on one of our later days and are not sure if we'll go overnight in combo with tongli. What type of tour do you have arranged for Suzhou? We'll definitely want to hear about your travels as they will be so different from our own and many of your destinations are on our list for a second china trip.

Bob - I definitely need to hear about your near arrest.

dgunbug- and thank you for the correction! Yes, we'll be in Shanghai November 3rd & 4th. We're going on the 5th with a driver/guide arranged for us by China HIghlights, a china tour operator who i'm using for part of the trip. If you want to read more about them, check out their reviews on TripAdvisor. You could just book one day with them, I'm sure. I still have your email address and will contact you directly at the end of September/early October to see if you know more by then.

Barefoot - Sounds good! I'll look forward to your email.

ask me in S june..

i have them in my greasy little hands..

end/end of story

I have just received our passports with Chinese visas enclosed. 9 days total from sending them out to receiving them back in my very clean hands with a holiday weekend in between to boot. Very good service......another satisfied customer of mychinavisa.com

See you all in Shanghai!!

Aloha!

so i guess we will all be there except for the guy in jail

I hear they serve authentic Chinese food in the jail over there!

Lol Hanuman

Congrats Hawaiian traveler. We will see you soon.

Congrats to all! I wish we could join you.

another nod for "mychinavisa.com"
Got ours back in 7 days...$407 for two including an $11.88 convenience fee for using credit card and $26 fee for Fedex overnight.....I'm relieved.

I recently got back from a 3 week trip to China. I flew into Shanghai and out of Beijing. We traveled to several cities and I stayed at my friends apartment for a week (I had that address listed on the form itinerary). I had the 4 page form, the photo, a printed flight itinerary from my email, 2 hotels confirmations from email, and my immunization record (which wasn't needed). I went in person to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. I was surprised by the professionalism and courtesy the visa office employees showed me. The biggest thing was I was supposed to go to the DC office. The woman in Chicago said they would process my Visa this one time but next time I needed to go to the correct consulate. I dropped of my packet at 10:30am and was told to come back at 2pm to pick it up. I arrived at 2pm and 10 minutes later had my visa :)I hope the next time I head back that the DC office is just as efficient.