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Douglas L wrote:
Hi Dan, the #1 requirement on their immigration/customs form is that if you are not staying at hotels that are approved to accommodate foreign nationals, then you or your host will need to register at the local police station within 24 hours of your arrival. We read that the enforcement varies and some folks got fined when they left the country if they checked and found out they didn't register. The requirement was in effect in the 70's and early 80's but now it's back again. Not to take any chance, we went to the local police station to register but the police there had no idea what we were trying to do, they said we only need to register with them if we decide to reside there for a long period of time, but not for short term visits. Apparently they didn't get the memo from higher up . We took a selfie at the police station just to have a record to prove that we tried if we got asked when we were leaving the country. One of the other two guys in the photography workshop at the national park told me when his 6-year old American born granddaughter went to Beijing to stay them for a few weeks, he didn't register her with the police, they found out so he was forced to write a letter to admit his guilt and paid a fine. So apparently the enforcement is all over the place.
When I bought entrance ticket for the national park, they took a picture of me and scanned my passport, when I went in and out of the park I didn't need to show them the ticket, I just looked at the screen, their facial recognition would match my face with the face they had when I bought the ticket, so the system knew I had purchased a ticket and opened the gate automatically for me. For trains because I reserved the tickets online using my passport, when I passed the gate I put my passport on a scanner, the system matched my passport with the name/passport information on the reservation, and the gate opens automatically to let me in. Now this applies to Chinese citizens too but they use their ID cards instead of passport.
They bring the meaning of big brother to a whole new level! A lot of places display CCP slogans, which looked out of place to me because that kind of propaganda was relatively rare from the 80's until Xi wanted to become the new emperor.
So to answer your question, we were not harassed, but I am sure they knew a lot more about us than we realized. I took a picture of these surveillance cameras over one of the old streets in the ancient city. They are everywhere, like every 50'. They have them on all streets, highways, so if they want to find somebody, with their vast facial data base, it's pretty easy.
Ref. to the last part of your post, some areas in Yunan and Guangxi provinces bordering Vietnam do have rock formations like the ones I posted, but the park I went to is in the northwest part of Hunan province, not near Vietnam.
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I am happy you were not hassled brother.
Now the formation I referred to was an anomoly to the military. It was in S. Laos. We were on a "Bright Light" mission for a downed F4 pilot and under the triple canopy is was very dark. But as the "point man" started to look around he saw an immense amount of light filtering through the bamboo canopy.
I checked my maps and compass. No topograhical indication that this was there. Then we reached the edge of a cliff and WOW!!! I thought we were in Oz!!  .
It was absolutely stunned! We recovered the downed pilot and got the hell out of Laos ASAP as "Uncle Ho" was on our "six" fast!
Thanks for the explanation. I was just interested in a 1st hand account from an ex-citizen of the CCP.
I have heard some real horror stories of many hassles visiting family in China being an Asian American citizen.
Glad you are here with us Douglas!
Dan
Edited on Sep 19, 2023 at 02:57 PM · View previous versions
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