My Trip to the Chinese Embassy

Any hardcore fan of F.r.i.e.n.d.s will know how exciting a trip to London can be. I went to London on Friday to apply for my Chinese visa, but my trip was definitely more stressful than fun... Here's what I wish I'd learnt before my visit.

The Chinese Visa Application Centre

After a lovely Monday-Friday caravan holiday with my family, I set off from Weymouth on the train to London Waterloo. I was already apprehensive about the visa appointment, worried that I'd left documents behind, didn't know where I was going or how authoritative the appointment would be.

Continuously checking my bag for the right documents (printed visa application, invitation to China letter, appointment confirmation letter, passport, photocopy of passport, flight bookings, trip itinerary) I sat nervously on the train for 3 hours, before arriving at Waterloo - a station I'm pretty sure I've never been to.

Confused as ever, I tried to navigate the underground system, which I know makes sense if you look at it properly, but I think I let my nerves get the better of me. I stumbled around with a day ticket that I'd bought for £8.60 and sat on the busy platform, hoping I was in the right place. Waiting for the tube, I stared at an advert opposite for Russian Standard Vodka. What with my nerves, I couldn't help but think that sounded like a good idea...

Now seems like the right time to tell you, I'm not a fan of London. Well, not as of this trip anyway. It's great for West End shows and fine dining, but I always panic about where I'm going, whether I'm on the right train, and have a real phobia of the germy undergrounds. Luckily, I brought my hand sanitizer with me, but I couldn't help but feel under-dressed in my beachy summer outfit in amongst all of the miserable looking business men and women.

Anyway, fear of London aside, I arrived at Bank station and managed to Google Maps my way to the embassy, which was about a 3 minute walk away. I found it with minimal confusion; a very proud moment for me, I must say.

I was quite early, so sat outside for a little while eating a sandwich. The website advises you arrive at the Embassy 20 minutes before your allocated appointment time. I did this, only to find there was a massive queue of people - I was surprised to see so many.

Waiting in the queue, I couldn't help but wonder where in China everyone was going, or whether anyone would be on the same tour as me... Fortunately, I got to the reception desk at exactly 2pm, where they scanned my eyes (!) and asked me to wait for my number to be called.

I was number 306, with 41 people ahead of me. Whilst I waited, I managed to settle my nerves, only to find them rush back when I was called to my booth. All was running smoothly with the document check, until the man behind the desk asked for my itinerary.

Now, I thought I had already printed this off, and was being snooty in my head about people printing things off at the embassy, thinking 'why would you wait to do that here? That's so last minute' I felt proud that I had all of my things ready, including my itinerary, but apparently it wasn't detailed enough. They needed to know exactly what I'll be doing 24/7 when I'm in China

This meant I had to print 9 pages stating my exact whereabouts - right down to the date and time. This was made worse by the fact that out only of 3 working computers in the whole embassy, I couldn't log on to my email. My password wasn't working or something, so I had to forward the email from my phone to a different account - the printers deciding to crash whilst I was doing this as there were too many people trying to print things.

When the printers were fixed and I finally found the email, a lady then told me it would cost 50p per page and I could only pay in cash. I had a £5 note for a £4.50 fee, which she asked me to go and change up in Tesco over the road.

I had already been there for an hour and a half at this point and was getting quite overwhelmed by the whole process, but I changed my money, printed my 9 pages and took it back to the desk.

It was here that they OK'd my itinerary (phew!) and scanned my fingerprints, which I did wrong the first time because my nerves wrecked my concentration. Then, the man behind the desk asked me how I wished to receive my documents, not only my visa but my passport as well. He said that collecting it from the Embassy would cost £151, and by post it would cost £182...

I knew that the visa would cost a fair bit, but the website implied it would cost up to £80, maybe £85. Living in Bath and adding the cost of train fare to the collection fee would be about as expensive as posting it anyway, and with only 4 weeks to go, there's no way I'd have the time to travel back to London.

So there I was, passportless and £182.50 poorer than I was an hour ago. I could've cried at the intensity of it all.

However, given the time to think over it and accept that it's all just part of the cost, I've come to terms with the unexpected fee - which will be so worth it come September.

BUT, if any of you just so happen to consider a trip to China any time soon, make sure you over-prepare for your Embassy visit!

You must have incredibly detailed printed documents of absolutely everything to do with your trip - you never know what they might ask for on the spot - as well as enough money tucked away for unexpected costs.

AND I would suggest arriving about 30 minutes before your appointment, instead of 20, because you just don't know how big that queue is going to be.

And carry change.

China may be advanced in their contactless payments and technology, but the Embassy is sticking to old school machines, and if you don't have enough coins it slows the process right down. I was one of only 4 people left from the giant queue by the time I'd fumbled about for my money.

I do wish I had known all this before, however, it's a lesson learned.

The hard part is done.

Now I just have to go!