Beijing Express

I have a nice, new picture in my passport.



The Chinese embassy in Brussels is only open between 9 and 11:30 am. I left around 9:15 am to make sure I would have enough time to get in line and get my visa still the same day.

This was actually quite a new experience.

Rarely travelling to other places than Europe or the US, I am not really used to have to apply for a visa. Okay, when you go to the US you have to fill in this green visa waiver document. But this is not a big deal, you do that quickly in the plane and you are good.

My last more colorful visa was the one I got before I flew to Russia. Back then my company took care of everything, however, and I did not have to move my ass at all.

The trip to China is for pleasure, so this time I had to go to the embassy myself and sort out the visa.

I had pictures of long queues in mind. People shouting. Unfriendly Chinese faces behind the desks. In my imagination the sky was dark from storm clouds. It was raining and the wind was blowing hard. Behind the embassy would be the port where the last ship that leaves the country was already under steam. Kids were crying...

So I was delighted when I arrived at the embassy and had blue sky, sun - and lots of parking opportunities.
This would be a snap.
The only little problem was that I stood in front of the administrative office at 463 Avenue de Tervuren in Brussels-Auderghem, but had to be at the Consular Section at 400 Boulevard du Souverain.
Fortunately this was not too far away.

Around 10 am I stood in line, was soon talking to an actually unfriendly Chinese face until she gave up with her French babble and asked a friendly, English speaking Chinese face for help.

They grabbed my documents, did not really care about the invite from the hotel, the flight itinerary and that I had not signed my actual application form. The form they kept, the rest was returned to me without being given further notice.

What they wanted to see, however, was my Belgian residence card. This is not a document that is mentioned on the website to bring, but luckily I had it with me.

30 minutes and 66 Euro later I had above little picture in my passport.

This went surprisingly smooth and my fears of a World War 2 refugee scenario had been unsubstantiated.
Having this out of the way, I can get used to the thought, that I'll be in Beijing, soon.

Cool.