In the grand scheme, this is nothing to lose sleep or get agitated over, but I forgot that and got a little irritated. Writing this is therapeutic. I’m fortunate enough to have a company helping me with my simpleand small relocation to China, however, it seems they pay little to emails that I send. Here’s one example that cost me a full day. The person in charge of my shipment told me over email that I needed to have a record of entry from Shekou, the port that the ferry arrives in and the place that I avoid now due to price and inconvenience. By the way, know what Shekou means in Mandarin? “Snake Mouth”

This abbreviated email exchange ensued:

• “What is the ‘entry record’? I don’t think I have that.”

• “Please kindly advise if you got the entry record through Shekou border.”

• “I didn’t go through Shekou. I went over the new bridge. By ‘entry record’, do you mean the form that I filled out?”

• “That is Shenzhen bay border (new bridge), it is new border, the customs has not open the business for personal effects so far. The Shekou border (Shekou Ferry Terminal) can issue the Import Permit at present.”

• “I have to go to Shekou to get an Import Permit?”

• “Yes, you have to enter through shekou border to get the entry record, we will process the Import Permit once you get it.”

• “Do I have to ask for the entry record? I also returned from Hong Kong one week ago through Huang Gang. I filled out the arrival form. Is this the entry record?”

• “The entry record just is a stamp on your passport, you can return from Hongkong and enter through Shekou border, no need do nothing upon you enter the border.”

• “Well, then I have my entry record because my passport was stamped in Huang Gang.”

• “Please note the Shekou customs can issue the Import Permit for your air shipmet, you must offer the stamp (entry record) at Shekou border.”

• “Can you tell me what I need to do? Do I just need to go to Shekou, go through the border, then turn around and come back?”

• “Yes, you need do nothing, only enter into Shenzhen as your before.”

Honestly, when I look back on this email, I can see the missed communication, but it was much harder to see it then. For one thing, this entire email conversation took place over an entire month. I was also in the process of getting other forms filled out that were dependencies on other forms. In this case, I was trying to get an answer to the simple questions: “Do I have to have my passport stamped in Shekou?” and “Can I just go to Shekou and get my passport stamped without leaving on the ferry?”

So, after getting the “Yes” after asking if I could go to Shekou, walk through customs, and turn around, on Friday afternoon, I called Xiao Liu and drove down to Shekou to walk down to customs and turn around and come back. I saw the usual line of people with tickets to Hong Kong. I didn’t want to buy a ticket so I talked to the guard, all in Chinese, asking if I could walk through customs and turn around without a ticket so I could have my passport stamped. He said, “No”, that I had to buy a ticket. I didn’t want to buy one of those expensive tickets so I went and asked one of the customs guards. He didn’t really seem to understand so he called an agent who spoke some agent. Turned out she understood my Chinese better than my English and she said the same thing! No getting a stamp without buying a ticket and going to Hong Kong. So, in frustration, I talked to the agent who was helping me with finding an apartment who called her colleague, whom I’d been email with regarding the entry record, who then called me. I asked him, “They’re telling me I need to go to Hong Kong to get the stamp. Is that true?” “Yes, you have to go to Hong Kong.” Baaah! This could have been so much simpler had he just told me that at the beginning. Ah well, one of those things.

So, Monday, I left through Huang Gang, went to Kowloon, had lunch at a new Indian restaurant, and caught a taxi to the Ferry Terminal. When I arrived at the terminal, I saw that the next departure was at 4pm. 4pm?!? “I’m in time for the 1:30″, I thought. Well, of course, the website that I got my info on the ferry must have printed an out of date schedule. They had already shut the gates for entry to the 1:15. “Baaah!!!” – again.

Can anyone explain to my how these ferries can stay in business when they’re priced more than three times the price of the train, take more time, require more logistics, and have such a weird and inconvenient schedule? I can’t. Maybe one of my ferry revenge missions is to convert everyone on our team to using the train.

I decided to cut my losses, and go relax in a deli or coffee shop or something. Unfortunately, the only reasonably comfortable one was a Starbucks and I bought a drink that cost more than many dinners for four in China and sat down to write some offline emails and this post. At least I had to offer the Starbucks company silent respect for successfully charging $4 for a variation on a coffee drink. “A fool and his money are soon parted…” Also, unfortunately, after I sat down I realized they were blasting the usual Christmas music that drove me to adopt a Bah Humbug attitude in the US. At least I had my iPod. The Mozart Requiem wouldn’t drown it out though, nor would a Paganini Violin Concerto. Good thing I had added Ozzy’s “No More Tears” album to my iPod recently.