A Cautionary Tale for Expats in China – a Guest Post by Lionel Carver
I fled to Baoshan district in northern Shanghai, and with the last of my savings acquired a cheap apartment, where I lived quite frugally (no TV, internet, bed, etc).
I washed my clothes by hand and used a single naked light bulb for illumination. Anyone who thought that westerners in China have it made should have seen me sleeping on the bare floor.
Inevitably, the police once again came knocking at my door to do the registration thing. This time I didn’t answer, but, as I learned later, one of the officers waiting outside spotted me hiding on my balcony.
They tried both the landlord and real estate agent to contact me, and I replied with a text message that I had lost my passport at a friend’s party.
This bought me some extra time.
A western acquaintance I met in Shanghai advised me to get another foreigner to stay in my apartment and flash their passport when the police came calling again. I asked if he would be willing, but he was smart enough to avoid his own advice.
How the United States and Canada treated Chinese Immigrants
When the cops showed up again, I was in the shower and didn’t hear them at my door. I prepared to go to Krispy Kreme, my daily indulgence (I’m not the fittest foreigner in China), which also allowed me to use their free wifi, another penny saver I learned from being broke abroad (a donut is cheaper than the internet).
When I exited my apartment building, I noticed two fellows wearing police uniforms.
I thought I could evade them if they didn’t speak English, but that strategy failed when they began chatting with me in my own mother tongue.
“Let’s go for ride,” the officer said, with what I interpreted as an ominous smile.
“Um, to where?” I asked.
“Police station, of course.”
I swallowed and thought up the first excuse I could. “My passport is still at my friend’s house, so I can’t register yet.”
“That’s okay, you still come.”
Continued on October 6, 2011 in My Experience as an Inmate in a Chinese Jail – Part 3 or return to Part 1.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
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