Corona cancelled studies: already in the country

[Jona Grimm]

Hey everyone,

 

I would need some quite urgent advice. I had been admitted to study one semester at the Renmin University in Beijing. I got my X2 (short term) - Visa as required, so I was quite content. However then Corona happened and it become unclear, whether the semester would actually be taking place or not. Thus I first travelled to Vietnam. Then I got the message, that the next day the chinese border would close (27th.3). So I rushed over the border, basically thinking that if the semester would be taking place that would be all right and if not I could probably try to sign up at a language school, although I would prefer learning chinese on my own without restrictions of a set town or stuff like that.

I was let over the border and am now in Quarantine for 8 more days or so, but after I that do not exactly know what my options are. I understand the X2 thus, that I do not need a residence permit, but I read stuff about “registering your residence at the police station, health checkup”, etc.

So my questions are:

- Would it be possible to just grab a shared flat or something (or in worst case go to a hostel for some time) and learn there on my own? What exactly would I need to provide to immigration authorities or such? Whom would I contact for that?

- If the first does not work, could I just ask a language school to sign me up? I have read, that that would work, if the first school would be fine with that (I imagine they are, since they do not do a semester after all). But could I basically just arrive at the new town and register my residence there, after making stuff clear with my new language school? Or do I still need to tell some people in Beijing my situation and get a permission or something to go somewhere else?

 

 

- I read different stuff about staying in a hotel/hostel. My current understanding is as follows: there are some hotels/hostels, who have a specific license to host foreigners. If I stay at a place like that, it will be more convenient, because I will not have to do anything about the police station stuff. I could also go to other hotels/hostels without such license, but than the "register at the local police station stuff" would apply. This is kind of important too me as well, since I (eventually) want to live in a "smaller" part of china, where it might be difficult to find (cheap) hotels with a license.

 

Thanks a lot in advance

 

Jona

[Lu]

I can't help with the specific visa conundrum I'm afraid (have you asked your university yet? They probably also don't know anything for sure, but then at least they have you on the map).

 

I do know about registering and hostels. If a hostel or hotel is allowed to host foreigners, they will do the registering for you. They have a system at their check-in desk that makes this easy, and it means nobody needs to go to the police station. If a hostel is not allowed to host foreigners, they will turn you away and not rent you a room, because they do not want hassle. There is no middle way where you stay in a hostel and go to the police yourself. If you rent a room or apartment from a landlady/landlord, that is when you need to go to the police station to register. Bring your rental contract, your passport, any other paperwork and perhaps your landlady/landlord.

[roddy]

Wow, that's a difficult one. Your visa is technically still valid, but the reason for it has disappeared. I have no idea if schools are still open, and they may be wary of taking on a student who has a visa attached to another university. Saying 'the course was canceled so I decided to hang out' isn't ideal, as that's not what the visa is for, but what else do you say? You could have a tale about struggling to get a flight back, or you're hoping classes reopen, but you'd need to be sticking close to Renmin or an international airport. 

 

Assuming you don't want to go home, I think you just have to try and do what you most want to do and see where the problems arise. Most likely with local police registration - I think the story has to be... well, the truth, you were already in the country when classes were cancelled, and now you're trying to make the best of things. Hostels where you get automatically registered may bring you less attention than having to go do it in person.

 

The X2 visa doesn't need a health check. The police station registration is usually a minor formality: "Hi, my name's Jona, I'm staying at this address, here's my visa." And honestly, the reaction could be anything from 'fine, whatever' to 'hang on, your university's closed, why are you even here.' If I had to guess, I suspect they'll just let you get on with it, as long as you're not causing any concerns by renting a room in a drug den, but... well, I look forward to hearing your tale.

[anonymoose]

12 hours ago, Jona Grimm said:

My current understanding is as follows: there are some hotels/hostels, who have a specific license to host foreigners. If I stay at a place like that, it will be more convenient, because I will not have to do anything about the police station stuff. I could also go to other hotels/hostels without such license, but than the "register at the local police station stuff" would apply. This is kind of important too me as well, since I (eventually) want to live in a "smaller" part of china, where it might be difficult to find (cheap) hotels with a license.

 

As far as I know, the "license to host foreigners" thing is a myth. It's just that some hotels don't want the hassle of registering foreigners. It seems that hotels get fined if they do not register the guest correctly, and since in many hotels the staff do not speak English and cannot read foreign passports, they are not willing to take the risk. Even in hotels that do accept foreigners, in the more remote places, receiving a foreign guest is rare, and often the staff do not know what to do. I stayed in a couple of hotels in smaller cities in January, which caused a headache for the staff. Luckily I was able to tell the staff all the information they needed to know, but this would have been a problem had I not been able to speak Chinese.

 

As for finding cheap hotels that take foreigners, you are much more likely to find a cheap hotel in one of the smaller cities than the large cities. Of course, it depends from city to city, and you may not have many options in the very small places, but even the second tier cities in any province will be big enough to give you ample choice. On the other hand, living in a hotel (while convenient) will always be more expensive than renting an apartment, and if you are planning to stay for several months, renting, and registering with the police by yourself (even if you have to hire a translator to help you), will be much better value for money overall.

[歐博思]

On 4/3/2020 at 11:55 PM, anonymoose said:

I stayed in a couple of hotels in smaller cities in January, which caused a headache for the staff. Luckily I was able to tell the staff all the information they needed to know, but this would have been a problem had I not been able to speak Chinese.

What angle did you play to get them to accommodate you?

[889]

"As far as I know, the 'license to host foreigners' thing is a myth. It's just that some hotels don't want the hassle of registering foreigners."

 

Whether it's a formal license or not, I don't know. But it's unquestionable that there are many places in China where the local PSB instructs many local hotels not to accept foreign guests. There's no mythtaking that.

[imron]

54 minutes ago, 歐博思 said:

What angle did you play to get them to accommodate you?

Here's one account of how to do it (from this thread a couple of years back).

[anonymoose]

5 hours ago, 歐博思 said:

What angle did you play to get them to accommodate you?

 

I booked on trip.com which is essentially the foreign version of ctrip.com. I tend to use this site now as it only shows the hotels which accommodate foreigners, and is thus much less hassle than trying to find a hotel on ctrip (and the prices seem to be fairly much the same on both).

 

I did not need to play any angle because the hotels were officially open to foreigners. It's just that in those places, they rarely get any, so the staff don't speak English, cannot read foreign passports, and don't know how to do the registration.

[ChTTay]

2 hours ago, anonymoose said:

It's just that in those places, they rarely get any, 

I was in a small town trying to find a room for the night once. The “government hotel” could take foreigners but was fully booked. The only other hotel that could accept me told me that the one guy they employed who knew how to handle the process was on holiday for Spring Festival and there was nothing they could do ?I did try and point out that everyone has a cell phone and they could just call him. They weren’t willing to though. 

[anonymoose]

11 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

The only other hotel that could accept me told me that the one guy they employed who knew how to handle the process was on holiday for Spring Festival and there was nothing they could do

 

So what did you do in the end?

 

In the hotels I stayed at, the staff had to make several calls here and there to find out how to complete the online registration.

[Isismama]

Hi Jona, I will be attending Renmin University this upcoming semester. May I ask how the online classes are being conducted? I was told that there would be a playback of classes. Does that mean I can attend the class at anytime I want?