Fine (thank you)

Chinese invented gunpowder, paper money and tons of other things that we still use. Judging by their skill, they may have invented bureaucracy as well.

In order to apply for our residence permits we had collected a looong list of documents, gone through a heap of requirements, tested our physical well being, proven our existence as human beings and gone to the police to get one last document regarding registration. STOP! We had made a mistake. Every foreigner must report at the local police station upon arrival unless you stay at a hotel. We didn't know.

Next morning 9am we were present at the police station to sort things out. No time for small talk or bargaining. Our lady officer goes straight to work. She copies our passports, makes a fine, takes a photocopy of that, makes another statement, makes another photocopy, sits us down to sign our name on ten different document, your name and date on every page please, one more time here please, and now sign this one as well. With a stack of photocopies we look for the bank where we are to pay the € 120. We cue, someone stamps and staples and copies our fine, we cue in another line to change our paper for yet another paper that we take back to our lady officer who then, still quick and efficient, closes our files and produces the registration form we had come for.

It's 12pm, one person has spent all morning making sure everything is done correct. Our mistake has been filed tenfold in a drawer in a police station in Hong Kou. It has also been filed in their computer. We have our papers, but need to recover from this experience before we move on to the next stage. Time for wontons!

The afternoon is spent in another part of town, in a shiny 3 story building full with foreigners applying for visa, permits, whathaveyou... Another quick and efficient lady receives our documents, produces another slip, takes more pictures, swallows more money, and tells us to come back next week. One working day has gone by.

Today was the big day. I cued to pay, cued to collect our passports and residence permit and walked out a legal Shanghai resident. Not unimportant in this time of foreigner distrust and random permit checks. Like every clerk, this one had a machine on his desk asking for feedback. I got him another star.