Adventures in Guangzhou!

Luckily I was not alone in this little jaunt, as Ms. Kelly Brooks also had to get "reauthorized" before getting the permit to stay another year. As we walked to the facility she gave me the nitty gritty details on what actually happens with the different forms and checkpoints. I should have known already but Hua Fu took care of all the details for me when I arrived and all I had to do was hand over my passport. I'm pretty sure that they'll do the same thing again but just in case, I got the full story.

Basically, we are both here right now under a foreign resident's permit in conjunction with the foreign expert's certificate. These will both expire in the next month so they have to get updated and extended. I suppose I understand but really--how does one lose one's "expertise?" If I was an expert before, what would have transpired in the last 9 months to make me no longer worthy of such distinction? Anyhow, once I get that certificate reissued it goes off to the resident's permit office which will just paste another sheet into my passport. This is all contingent on me being good and healthy though...

I think I detailed this back in August's blog, but before I left the states I had to have a physician fill out the visa application medical form. This includes such questions as "Are you crazy?" and "Do you have any contagious terminal illnesses?" The form also requires a chest x-ray, blood test, ekg, and a few other basics. Back in the states, I had to get the results notorized, the notorized forms authenticated with the MA state seal, and then all those forms together verified by the Chinese consulate. This whole process took a couple of days and cost a bunch of money, not to mention a whole heckuva lot of running around. And, in the end, my school never actually asked to see the final product here in Guangzhou. Oh well.

So today I set out to basically have all the same things done again, though this time I had the privilege of forking over almost 1/8 of my monthly salary. Great. I really had no idea what to expect in this whole thing but having finished it, I should've been able to picture it. Basically it was a health check factory: you arrive and wait in line to fill out the forms. After completing the initial forms you get in another line and pay the fee. They stamp your form, give you a special receipt and send you to a different line where you wait to go up to the part with the physicians.

Upstairs we got dropped off in a waiting room with one woman who checked weight, height, and blood pressure. Kelly and I had been munching on some skittles as we walked up the stairs when another foreigner mentioned that we were supposed to be fasting. Umm, oops? The first question they asked us was if we had eaten breakfast. My mother would definitely assert that skittles do not qualify as breakfast so we said no.

After we completed step 1, a doctor came and ushered us into room #2 which was kind of odd. One at a time they had us lay down and pull up our shirts, at which point they poured some goo on our stomachs and used some kind of device to look at our organs on a tv monitor. I guess they found them all in the right place because I got the big checkmark and a shove in the direction of room #3, the EKG room. The EKG took approximately 30 seconds to set up and then about 5 seconds of actual testing. Again, I guess my heart was acceptable because before we could get comfortable we were ushered out once again.

Room #4 was the X-ray room which I guess I was slightly apprehensive about. I gotta say though, before I had a chance to really think about it, they had say me down and taken the picture. It literally took about 15 seconds to walk into the room and sit in the x-ray seat and then about half a second for them to take it. They didn't position me, give me instructions, or really say much of anything. Luckily I don't have TB and was sent off to the next stop. I did have the notion that if I did have TB it would be completely China's fault and thus I should not be held responsible. Am I wrong?

Anyhow, room #5 was the actual doctor who must have spent a good 45 seconds listening to my body through the stethoscope. I asked, "mei wenti ma?" (no problems?) and he cheerfully responded in English, "Normal!" Okay then. It was off to room #6 and the eye test. They had a standard vision chart and a colorblind test. I aced the first part and pretty much guessed at the really small letters but Kelly told me I got them all right. Sweet!

Last stop was the only one I was dreading-- giving blood. They needed two vials of blood to test for HIV and syphillus so they had two nurses sticking people as quickly as possible. I guess when you do it a gazillion times a day you're good at it though because I sat down and two second after they looked at my passport they had already started filling up the first tube. It hurt a bit but it was definitely a nice new clean needle so that was nice. Nothing but the best for us here in the rich city of Guangzhou! I shudder to think about doing this exam somewhere in the rural countryside.

So that was that. I went through the conveyor belt and got fully checked in about an hour and a half. All in all, a relatively painless experience! Now if my residence permit application could be just as problem-free...