New Rules For Chinese Visas
Beijing visitors' resources May 29th, 2008
This This WSJ blog discusses Olympic hotels and visitors.
One reason for the low booking rates could be the recent changes in China鈥檚 visa policy and subsequent fall-off in tourism to the country. Another could be that people are waiting for hotels to reduce their jacked-up Olympics room rates of five to 10 times the regular prices as the Games draw closer.
I really feel that China is shooting itself in the foot with the visa changes. New policies make extending a Z or F visa (working visas) harder and harder, which is making it difficult for a lot of long-term expats — who love China and have a lot more invested in China than Olympics visitors will — to stay in country through the Olympics.
These new policies are hard to pin down, and as China fails to publicize a coherent standard of visa extensions, the whole process becomes covered in internet rumor and friend-of-a-friend horror stories. This adds to the view of China as an arbitrary, dishonest bureaucracy, eager to grab foreign money in increased visa fees and eager to give foreign visitors a hard time.
Via China Journal
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China has got to be the first country hosting the Olympics that is actually making it difficult for tourists and business people to visit the country. There are going to be a lot of disappointed businesses in China who were looking to cash in on the Olympics.
Olympics visitors will jump through a certain number of hoops to get to Beijing, but too many complications (Visa hassles, visa price, ticket hassles, hotel prices, etc. etc.) will give a bad impression of China, and may even keep people at home.