At 8:51 AM -0700 8/24/10, Dave CROCKER wrote:
Let me get this straight. You are going to go to China and you are
/not/ going to do ANY site-seeing? If the answer is yes, I think
you have deeper problems than the visa...
I disagree. I'm not planning on any sight-seeing in China. I prefer
to do my sight-seeing in places where I can breathe. I have no idea
how common it is, but for personal travel (which I do a lot of) I
only go to places with smoke-free restaurants. More and more of the
world is available under this criteria.
If you are doing some site-seeing, you are a tourist. Saying you
are a tourist is, therefore, not lying.
I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that it depends on the
primary purpose of the visit. If it is a personal trip that I
choose, then I am a tourist. If my company sends me or I am
attending a conference, then it is business.
Are you planning on making sales pitches, signing contracts,
getting paid by locals for work, writing code? The concern for
business visas is that conduct of these sorts of business
activities. That is, commerce. Merely having conversation that are
work-related is not (really) conducting business.
I've been advised the opposite of this when getting visas for various
countries. I've been told that technical discussions are work, and
that if I am not on vacation then it is work. In my own case, my
company's travel department prefers to err on the side of caution.
They do not want to have employees get in trouble overseas.
Maybe very few visitors are ever asked the purpose of their visit in
China. (In my own experience, I've found New Zealand and Canada to
be perhaps the most paranoid about such things.) But I want to be
careful (even more so in some countries).
--
Randall Gellens
Opinions are personal; facts are suspect; I speak for myself only
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There are advantages to having a sane person run a government.
--Character in TV series "Wiseguy"
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