No Accidents, No Losses

Today's weather: High = 23 Low = 13
Sunny

First off, I can't believe just how good the weather has been for April, and will continue into May. It is really the best year for spring weather I can recall in Shanghai for a long time.

After having made some slight progress on replacing a lost drivers license, I ran into another setback. Basically I needed to get police registration for my current address in Shanghai in order to re-register with a previous address in the countryside region of Wujiang, Jiangsu province --- basically it's in another province, where my job used to be.

To make a long story short, I had to re-register with the police at my Shanghai address since I had left the country and returned in Feb after the winter holiday. My secretary didn't tell me about this rule, but let's not blame her, I should have known about it. Nonetheless I asked her politely to go to the police station with my passport and get an updated registration from the police, then scan and email me the PDF file.

She did that, but the dates on the registration form were from last year, before I had left for winter break. She said nothing about this, I pretended there was no problem so she wouldn't lose face, and thanked her for emailing the document over -- even though it was not the correct date. What probably happened was a conversation like this:

Officer: We can't register this passport, because this foreign devil left the country and came back on Feb 13, but it is now already April 18. He didn't register within 24 hours of re-entering China so he has to pay a fine, which is 500 RMB per day to a maximum of 5000 RMB.

Secretary: But I already registered with his current visa at this current address beforehand.

Officer: Doesn't matter. He left the country, came back, and the latest entry stamp in the passport is for Feb 13. The rules clearly state that he has to register again with us in 24 hours, which wasn't done.

Secretary: How is he supposed to know that?

Officer: Well you registered him in the first place, so you should have known that. Unless he pays a fine, we can't register him here for the current date.

Secretary: Can you make a printout of his former registration?

Officer: Yes, we can do that.

And so that's exactly what I got. I can prove that a conversation like this must have taken place, because the dates on the "new" registration form I got say it was printed by the office on April 18, but the date of entry into the residence was back in late August, at the same time that I got my residence permit visa.

However, all is not lost. This form is better than nothing, and it contains matches on my visa number, type, residence address, and other things. The only problem is the date of entry into my current residence, which can easily be changed using Photoshop or some other version of PDF editing software with optical character recognition.

After working for a few hours on this to make the fake copy look near-perfect, it should hopefully pass the inspection. Will find out in a week or two when I take this down to Luxu and try my luck at the office over there again, who told me I had to go back to Shanghai in the first place for an updated police registration form.

When in Rome. It makes me sick to my stomach to have to do these things, but this was exactly the same method that was needed in order to replace a lost passport last year. Somewhere along the way, fake documentation needs to be submitted to the police, or else it just prolongs the ongoing hassle when Officer A says we can't help, you have to visit Officer B, blah blah blah.

And so it is with the drivers license. Let's just hope that after this fake paperwork is done, the rest of the process can be smoother.

Meanwhile, I've now come to the conclusion that having valuable things lost or stolen within China fits into the same category as getting into a motor vehicle accident, or else having hassles with the police: It is something you want to avoid at all costs.

People say regarding motorcycle riding in China, "What if you get into an accident?"

The answer is, "You don't get into an accident."

In other words, I've been able to establish that riding to survive, riding like your life depends on it, and wanting to avoid an accident like avoiding death is the only way to ensure you don't get into an accident.

The same principle applies for valuables like drivers license, passport, and money. You hang onto those things in China like your life depends on it, and you DO NOT LOSE THEM at any cost.

It's like someone says, "What if you're riding on the subway and someone steals your wallet with your valuables?"

The answer is, "You don't let that happen."

If you've been in China any length of time, you know how troublesome it would be to get into a traffic accident or deal with the police. You don't want that to happen, right? Neither do you want your stuff getting lost or stolen. If you realize the gravity of the situation, and the fact that the police will do f*ck all to help you if your things really do get lost or stolen, you'll see to it that it doesn't happen