How Many Days in Guangzhou?

[Cortr 3]

1) No.

2) Yes.

3) Mostly just agencies hawking visa/travel services -- the majority of which are probably scams.

Personally, I stayed at the coffee shop on the first floor, in the back of the lobby. It's adjacent to an airline office. It's in the rear-right quadrant of the lobby if you're looking at it from the front. They have comfortable furniture and serve various libations, focusing on wine (kind of unusual), but you can also get coffee, soft drinks, juice, as well as appetizer type food. It is also relatively expensive (for China) but not ridiculously so. They also have Wi-Fi.

It doesn't open as early in the morning as the other place does, but maybe at 8 or 9. There's nothing stopping you from walking into the lobby of the building the consulate is in and looking around. You won't be able to get past the 4th floor security checkpoint (right next to the other coffee shop) without consulate business to attend to, but it's not like the whole building is on lockdown or something.

[bobbyA 20]

1) No.

2) Yes.

3) Mostly just agencies hawking visa/travel services -- the majority of which are probably scams.

Personally, I stayed at the coffee shop on the first floor, in the back of the lobby. It's adjacent to an airline office. It's in the rear-right quadrant of the lobby if you're looking at it from the front. They have comfortable furniture and serve various libations, focusing on wine (kind of unusual), but you can also get coffee, soft drinks, juice, as well as appetizer type food. It is also relatively expensive (for China) but not ridiculously so. They also have Wi-Fi.

It doesn't open as early in the morning as the other place does, but maybe at 8 or 9. There's nothing stopping you from walking into the lobby of the building the consulate is in and looking around. You won't be able to get past the 4th floor security checkpoint (right next to the other coffee shop) without consulate business to attend to, but it's not like the whole building is on lockdown or something.

Cortr,

Thank you for sharing your personal experience!

For some reason, I thought the 4th floor is part of the consulate, and the coffee shop is part of the consulate too

It's interesting how the consulate is surrounded by businesses in all directions, and even scams I guess it is capitalism at work, how funny

Good tip on the coffee shop on the first floor. I'll go check around when the time comes. I guess I can at least escort my SO to the security checkpoint on the forth floor and let her take it from there.

Thanks once again for sharing!!

[Darnell 8,478]

There's a rumour of an IKEA close by, also, and it has an excellent drinks and food selection, at modest 'Chinese' prices.

[Speedytax 3]

I posted this question in another post, but after 4 days, still no repsonse, So I thought I would move it and try it again. Below is copied from another post

Now that the Interview is over, the next step. I will be having my Fiancee fly into Seattle Wa as her POE.When I went to China, I got my tickets on CHeaptickets.com. Does anyone know a better place to get the tickets, or are they as good as anyone else. Also in 1994 when I did this, Immigration required on a K1 visa that you buy them a round trip ticket. Is that still the case, or can we get away with a one way ticket? Cost difference is only a couple hundred dollars, but I am an accountant, and a couple hundred is a couple of hundred dollars.The Tickets I am seeing on Cheaptickets .com have her flying from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Japan to Seattle.I would prefer Seattle as POE instead of San Franscico, then I could meet her as she comes out of customs and help her with her bags. Comments?

Edited February 20, 2011 by Speedytax

[jonp31 0]

I posted this question in another post, but after 4 days, still no repsonse, So I thought I would move it and try it again. Below is copied from another post

Now that the Interview is over, the next step. I will be having my Fiancee fly into Seattle Wa as her POE.When I went to China, I got my tickets on CHeaptickets.com. Does anyone know a better place to get the tickets, or are they as good as anyone else. Also in 1994 when I did this, Immigration required on a K1 visa that you buy them a round trip ticket. Is that still the case, or can we get away with a one way ticket? Cost difference is only a couple hundred dollars, but I am an accountant, and a couple hundred is a couple of hundred dollars.The Tickets I am seeing on Cheaptickets .com have her flying from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Japan to Seattle.I would prefer Seattle as POE instead of San Franscico, then I could meet her as she comes out of customs and help her with her bags. Comments?

You could have your fiancee look at http://jps.yiqifei.com/ (or if you know Chinese you can look it up). I've not used this site before to buy tickets but I'm also looking ahead to buying tickets for my fiancee and myself when we head back in the summer and this websites prices looked pretty good ... as long as the actual prices are what they announce on the page. Anyway, I think it's worth checking out.

[Speedytax 3]

Thanks, I will check out the site. I am online with my Fiancee right now asking her about her interview and I will post her comments shortly, but they are the same as I was reading for the last 4 months. nothing new nothing special. Of course she is worried because she hasn't received her Visa and passport yet. She still thinks she is going to get turned down. She cann't believe she passed

[bobbyA 20]

Thanks, I will check out the site. I am online with my Fiancee right now asking her about her interview and I will post her comments shortly, but they are the same as I was reading for the last 4 months. nothing new nothing special. Of course she is worried because she hasn't received her Visa and passport yet. She still thinks she is going to get turned down. She cann't believe she passed

Bill,

I just read your review!! Thank you for sharing your fiancee's interview experience. It tells me every case/interview is different, and perhaps 90% of the approval decision was made prior to the interview.

I assume your fiancee is still in Guangzhou waiting for her passport and visa to be sent to the designated post office in Guangzhou? If it takes 3 working days for the visa, then I would guess she might get it this Wednesday since her interview was last Thursday, give or take a day or two, with President's Day in between. I'm sure the Chinese don't observe President's Day, but I am guessing the consulate does. I do hope she gets it real soon!!

[Darnell 8,478]

SpeedyTax - aa.com is having a sale - 299 each leg, have good routing from shanghai to chicago. Sale ends soon, unsure if can purchase PVG to ORD (as opposed to ORD to PVG, which is easy)

and

on some of the routings, other legs past chicago are free, like Chicago to Dallas (as an example)

she'll need to get to Shanghai if use AA - have her study pricings and routings at http://www.ctrip.com