After a month of passport and visa troubles I am now just waiting on the police who hold visa applications for 5 days, before I am definitely able to stay in China. Exciting times! The visa application was interesting. My passport from NZ arrived no probs thanks to the magnificent crew at the NZ embassy in Beijing. Then I went to my school to sort my medical test and found I was legally required to get my visa switched over as soon as possible, within 10 days. So my planned trip to visit Taiyuan in Shaanxi Province was quickly canned.
My medical test was amazingly uninvasive, defying my fears of probes and conveyor belts. All done in 1 hour, still drained almost 100 nz bucks! Then a short 5 hour wait in the public security bureau and my visa was out of my hands!
Heading out again now but will hopefully come back on to post about the Chinese New Year celebrations happenings!