Just a couple of comments regarding cost and visas, speaking from
personal experience.
Cost:
Once you wander out of the main, relatively expensive, International
hotel (any of the major chains), food is VERY cheap by US standards,
as are things like a bottle of beer in the local grocery store (less
than a dollar). You can ride anywhere on the metro for 2 Yuan which
is equivalent to 29 US cents. Taxis are also very inexpensive by US
standards, actually by any standard.
Visa:
If you are a US citizen, the visa fee is $130 here in the US. For
non-US citizens, the fee is only $30 :-) However, be very careful
about visa validity. As a Norwegian citizen, I can (in San Francisco)
only get a visa that is valid for 3 months, single entry, but the
clock starts on the day it is ISSUED, not, as one might expect, when
you arrive in China in spite of the fact that the form asks when you
will be arriving. The visa has an expiration date which basically says
"must not arrive after xxx". I made the mistake of applying too early,
but the consulate here was gracious enough to cancel the visa and give
me my fee back. (They did this by carefully removing the full-page
visa sticker from my passport WITHOUT destroying the page in the
process, quite impressive actually). [You do need a full blank page
in your passport for the sticker].
Depending on where you are from and where you apply, multi-entry visas
for a year or even more may be available. Express service (1-2 days)
may also be available for a fee, but in June in San Francisco, this
was NOT available and the process took a week. All these are things to
watch out for especially if you travel a lot since of course the
consulate or embassy will hold your passport while processing the visa
application.
Ole
Ole J. Jacobsen
Editor and Publisher, The Internet Protocol Journal
Cisco Systems
Tel: +1 408-527-8972 Mobile: +1 415-370-4628
E-mail: ole(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj
_______________________________________________
Ietf mailing list
Ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf