Never in my life have i felt more like a prisoner than when i visited the US Embassy in Beijing. A couple of days ago i had to go the US Embassy to renew my passport. I’d like to give you the full story of that experience, but i’m quite certain i’ll leave out a detail or two. In case this isn’t common knowledge, let me start by saying that the US Embassy is supposed to technically be US soil. That would lead me to assume that a US citizen would be gladly welcomed there and given a pleasant experience. Let me back up a couple of days first before i go any further. I first went to the embassy on Wednesday. Turns out it’s closed on Wednesdays and then i found out later that you need an appointment first so even if they had been open i still would have been turned away. Yes, you read that correctly, i need an appointment to visit my own motherland. So i made my appointment and i went back on Friday afternoon. And so the saga begins…
- First problem: The embassy people forgot that they need signage outside the complex to direct their American compadres on how to get inside the building. There were no signs anywhere. I ended up asking two different guards how to get in. I flashed my passport a couple of times thinking that would cue the red carpet. Nope.
- Finally made my way past the guards and the past the mob of Chinese people waiting out front only to be confronted by a Chinese kid no older than 15 demanding to see my passport and asking if i had an appointment. Oh yeah, and he was dressed in street clothes. Very professional. (note the sarcasm)
- Just inside the doors they have a metal detector and they took my cell phone and told me i could get it after. This is normal. I actually have no problem with this. Frankly, it was nice to be without a phone for a while.
- The American Citizen line whisks you past the 1000+ Chinese people standing in line for whatever it is they are doing (i guess they are all trying to make their way to the Land of Opportunity).
- Then, again with minimum signage and a lot of guesswork, i made my way upstairs to the American citizen services department. This portion of the experience felt very much like those prison visitation scenes you see in the movies except i think this time i was the prisoner.
- The American citizen services room is tiny. If more than 10 people get in there at a time it would feel like a Chinese subway at rush hour. The whole feel is cold and uninviting. Even the benches they have for you to sit on are cold metal benches. It’s all just bland and makes you want to get outta there as quickly as possible… except that leads us to the next issue…
- It’s like they don’t want you to leave. They are so slow you’d swear they get paid by the hour. And of course because the US Embassy is on US soil i thought my experience would include being helped by an American who could empathize with my issue. Nope. It was a Chinese girl with only decent English who was trying to help me. She managed to make the experience rather difficult and frustrating, but nevertheless i managed to sorta get what i need (that’s an even longer story).
- On my way out i was pushing and shoving my way through a sea of Chinese people still waiting in line when i was stopped by a Chinese guard. He asked me if was “so and so”… i told him no and continued to reach for the door. Before i could open the door he snatched my passport from me… this only added fuel to my frustration, but i wanted to be nice because i’m a nice person. So i let him look at my passport until he was happy and then i left. Whew… made it outta there. Hope to never go back. Except i’m going back tomorrow to finish the other half of what i needed to do but the Chinese girl behind the bullet proof glass couldn’t help me.
Ok, here are some brief suggestions:
- Is the US so broke they can’t afford a couple of nice couches in the waiting area?
- Would it hurt to make the US citizen area slightly larger so we don’t feel like we’re crammed in a little prisoner visitation cell?
- How about a water cooler and maybe even a small pot of coffee to make us feel welcome?
- Or, maybe magazines in the magazine rack that are post-2009?
And a brief comment about the number of Chinese that were there:
- Like i said, there were about 1000 of them inside the main gates of the embassy waiting in line. And there was another line of them that nearly wrapped around the block. I’ve only been to the embassy a handful of times, but it’s always like that. This is evidence of at least one thing: As opportunity presents itself for the Chinese they are flocking to leave their country.