M-whY

"It was a great book you gave me by the way." It was he who gave me River Town. "Where are you off to next?"

"Well, my visa is about to expire, so I'll probably be around Beijing for a few days while I try to get an extension."

"Good luck with that," I wished him. It would be his second visa extension, and those were sometimes difficult to come by. My own visa was close to running out, but I would be moving on to Mongolia and Russia. In fact, today would be my last day in China, and I had a few things to do before I left.

Like run down to Monkeyshrines and pay off the remaining few dollars on my Trans-Mongolian tour package balance. Andy, the guy who worked with me to build my trip, returned my passport, complete with that elusive Russian visa. He reviewed some final logistics (like where to meet tomorrow), and suggested I pick up some warm clothing for that Siberian freeze.

"Any other questions?"

"Actually, yeah. Do you know where I can change some Chinese yuan into US dollars?" My safety stash had nearly run out, and though Jon had been kind enough to lend me a bit, I felt I needed a bit more.

"You could try Bank of China. Sometimes they'll do it. Or if not, you can always come back here and we'll be happy to exchange some for you."

And so I went off to buy a coat and gloves, mail my flask to former college roommate (throwing it out would be such a shame, and since this guy is an alcoholic in denial, it's the perfect fate for Lou), and pick up some reading material for the train, but none of it before tucking in two more steamers of meat buns. Whether by foot or taxi, getting around Beijing is a nightmare. The city is a huge sprawl and traffic awful. It also didn't help that the Lonely Planet map had the post office location wrong. Errands like these would take me an hour or two back home. Here, it ate up the entire day.

I persevered though, and got checked them off on my 'to do' list. I then set about exchanging some Mao's to Benjamins. I took a stack of hundred yuan notes to a fairly large branch of Bank of China. "[I'd like to exchange these for US dollars?]"

"[Do you have the receipt?]" "[What receipt?]"

The guy behind the cashier window explained that for them to convert my currency, I needed to have a receipt proving I obtained my yuan by exchanging dollars. This seemed like a dumb rule to me. What if I got it out of an ATM?

"[Then we'd need to see the ATM receipt.]" Well shit. I never print those damn things out. You know, to save a tree. No matter how hard I persisted, he wouldn't budge. And if Bank of China couldn't be of assistance, I was sure the China Bank of Agriculture would be even less helpful. Defeated, I hailed a cab back to Monkeyshrines.

"They wouldn't help. Something about some sort of receipt."

"Yeah," said Andy knowingly. "They'll pretty much do anything not give it to you. So how much would you like to exchange?"

This wasn't how I envisioned concluding my two months in China. Navigating gridlocked traffic, dealing with stubborn tellers. But in a way, it exemplifies travel here. A lot of speedbumps, a lot of bureacracy, nowhere near as easy as other places I've been, yet if you just go with the flow and are willing to be flexible, lots of good can happen. And I hope my blog has been able to capture some of them.

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!