Herr K. and the corridors

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Mr. Wang and I had laid out a master-plan for the construction of the Caboose yesterday.

Today I went back to talk about some details:

worker

Then the dudes got busy:

work on the Caboose

I witnessed the making of the spine:

spine of the Caboose

Then I had to take off, because I needed to make a run to the authorities.

What did I want to do?

– mail DVDs with my pictures home.

What did that have to do with the authorities?

– mailing anything resembling digital storage media has been banned as of June 1st and requires a special permission (yes, I’m done here).

What’s with the title ‘Herr K. and the corridors’?

– Kafka.

Here we go:

With my past experiences in mind, I started out looking for the Department of Cultural Affairs 文化局:

Department of Cultural Affairs

There were stairs, then a door, then some corridors, and then more doors. When I finally got there, someone told me that it was the Department of Foreign Affairs 外事办 that had to handle stuff like this.

So I was out there again, only to find out that – somewhere in the corridors – the Department of Foreign Affairs had four offices that were all closed and would remain closed for the rest of the day.

I waited for a while. Then I started asking around: just where had these people gone? Why hadn’t they left a note?

Nobody in the whole place could tell me.

Then someone said: “Just go to the other government hall!”

So I did.

…and I came to a very large space that looked kind of fancy:

Department of Foreign Affairs

When I finally managed to find the right desk, the people there told me that it wasn’t them who were supposed to be handling this.

“Go to the police station!” they told me.

So I did.

There were more corridors:

police office

Then the people from the police demanded to see my passport and my visa. They asked some questions, got some answers, and then they asked some more questions.

At some point everything got a bit tense: they had suddenly found out that the hotel I was staying at had failed to register me with the local police station.

No problem: the police station immediately dispatched a team to go harass the hotel management.

Then they asked me what it was I wanted from them, and I told them.

“You have come to the wrong place” they said, and I began to get the feeling that they were universally right about this. “You’ll have to go to the Department of Security 安全局!”

So I did.

There were more stairs:

Department of Security

At this point – after almost four hours of stairs and corridors and knocking on doors – do you really think that the Department of Security will be able to help me with this?

“We’re very sorry,” they said. It was getting late and they looked like they were mentally preparing to go home and have noodles. “We haven’t even heard of these new postal regulations you’re talking about. Just go to the post office and let them deal with this, they oughtta know what to do!”

Well…

red scarves

I felt that I had nothing left to say to these people.

So I shut up and bought an insulated tea cup:

tea cup

I placed the DVDs under the filling in the box that came with the tea cup:

attempt at smuggling

I added some tissues for padding, then I put the whole thing back together again, with the tea cup on top:

hidden dvds

Motherfuckers, I thought.



  • Florian (Flo Li Anh)

    Mannometer, was für eine Geschichte. Wie kannst Du denn auch nur vergessen, dass du für die ganze Geschichte Passierschein A 38 brauchst (Siehe "Asterix erobert Rom"). Mensch Mensch Mensch. So ein Anfängerfehler 😉

    Reply

  • Lilu

    Haha, das ist gut!

    Reply

  • Barry aka Ba Lli

    *rofl*
    Kennst Du den Buchbinder Waninger von Karl Valentin. Großartig. Und das Ende ist vollkommen identisch, nur ist Deines halt zeitlich angepasst.

    Wenn Du die Teile allerdings so versteckst ist das natürlich ein Zeichen von Vorsätzlichkeit und damit kriegen sie Dich am A…

    Gucken die denn wirklich in jedes Päckchen rein?

    Geil, wieviele Behörden die haben, könnt man richtig neidisch werden.

    Und über Deinen letzten Satz kringel ich mich immer noch!!!

    Reply

  • Marc

    *lol* geile Story. Wirklich verrückt. Aber in Deutschland geht es ähnlich zu.
    Neulich versucht heraus zu finden wie ich einen Partyballon, auch Himmelslaterne starten kann.

    Im Rathaus angerufen, weiter zum Gewerbeaufsichtsamt geschickt, von da zur Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion, von da zur Flugsicherung Frankfurt/Hahn, von da zur Flugsicherung Mainz. Ergo, 8 Tage vorher anmelden bei der Flugsicherung. Dann noch der lokalen Behörde bescheid sagen. Für Brände etc muss man aufkommen. Der Partyballon liegt immer noch hier rum, ich trau mich nicht 😀

    Reply

  • tan cheng

    Zhangye has a famous site name Mati Temple. It is worth to go there. I have visited it before.

    I read your trip diary every day.

    Reply

  • claudia

    ehrlich gesagt, würde ich das schicken von dvds einfach aufgeben, zumal du nie weißt, ob sie überhaupt ankommen. erlaubt war das schicken von medien ja noch nie, man kann von glück sagen, wenn man ein kleines bilderbuch nach china geschickt bekommt.

    trotzdem ne echt lustige geschichte!! 😉

    Reply

  • Achille

    bureaucracy is very bad. i can understand what u've been treated.
    people are not always friendly or efficient in those bureaus. So,try to adjust
    to that. good luck for ur post.

    Reply

  • Hermann

    Wenn DIE deinen Blog jetzt auch lesen, bist du am Arsch.

    Reply

  • Christoph

    Florian (Flo Li Anh): Ha, genau das!
    Lilu: Da kichert der Sinologe.
    Barry aka Ba Lli: Hehe, gut, bin ich nicht der einzige.
    Marc: Ich hatte die ganze Zeit auch so eine unterschwellige Vermutung, dass das in D mitunter ähnlich ablaufen könnte…
    tan cheng: Thank you for the hint – and welcome to the way!
    claudia: Hab ich in der Vergangenheit nicht so wahrgenommen. Eigentlich erschienen die immer recht zuverlässig. Außerdem MÜSSEN meine Bilder in Sicherheit, geht nichts dran vorbei.
    Achille: Yes, thank you! 🙂
    Hermann: Haha, gucken wir mal…

    Reply

  • Guojie

    Yeah, right, motherfuckers, now you understand how those bureaucratics work. and what a feeling of ball-kicking like. motherfuck!

    Reply

  • Kevin

    Thanks for giving us an idea of what these mundane daily tasks are like that Chinese have to suffer through on a daily basis. It seems that the state is trying to re-exert more control these days and things are getting absurd – even for foreigners just visiting China.

    Reply

  • Josie Ella

    You rebel you. I like it.

    Reply

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