Getting a visa into China is often not the easiest thing to do. While I was living in St. Etienne, France, for example, I would have had to go in person to the Chinese Consulate in Marseille in order to get one.

But at least in France I would have been able to get it. There are countries that don't even have a Chinese Consulate; they only have a Chinese diplomatic mission or a basic Embassy with no Consular section. Kosovo is one of the latter.

So, when wanting to go to Beijing from Pristina, I either had to go to Belgrade, Serbia, or to Skopje, Macedonia, where China has Consulates. But the problem with those Consulates is that they only grant visas to foreigners who reside in those countries, which was not my case.

Bummer.

However, having been in Hong Kong a couple of times in 2010 with the specific purpose of extending my China visa there, I was aware of the easy process they have in Hong Kong for granting China visas to foreigners, regardless of whether they reside in Hong Kong or not.

The only requirement foreigners have to have to get a China Visa in Hong Kong is to have their passports stamped with a previous China visa, and, since I already had two of those, there I went.

The photos below are just pictures I took while walking around the city waiting for my visa, which took just a couple of days to get. Some of those places may have already been shown in a previous Hong Kong photo album, but, anyway, here they are.

To view larger versions of the photos just click on any of them and keep clicking "next.