My Chinese visa

When I started planning this trip the travel agency gave me lots of information about how to prepare. Part of it was, "A type M visa is required to disembark in Shanghai." I thought, OK, I want to disembark in Shanghai so that's the type of visa I should get. I even read the visa information on the consulate's website. It says for a type M visa I need a letter inviting me to China. So the travel agency sent me a letter on it's letterhead stating how I was arriving and that I need a type M visa. Turns out it's not that simple though. First of all, the Chinese consulate won't consider visa applications more than 90 days ahead of date of entry so I had to wait until July to do anything. So in July I went to a visa service agency in Seattle. They told me the consulate would not consider an application unless the supporting letter came from a company doing business in China and sported an official government stamp. So I went to a different visa agency. Holiday China China in the International District. They were willing to send in my application for a type M visa. But two weeks later they called and said the consulate would not accept the letter. So I had to change my visa application to type L (tourist) and change my disembarkation port to Ningbo.

I still don't understand why tourists are not allowed to disembark in Shanghai but I have an opinion about how this was conveyed to me. While "a type M visa is required to disembark in Shanghai" is technically true it would have been much more direct and helpful to say, "tourists are not allowed to disembark in Shanghai."

Anyway, another requirement for the visa is a recent photo with a white background, no glasses, no smiling, ears visible. The result is the photo above. I suspect that I suffer from Bitchy Resting Face Syndrome.