Introduction: Deported From China
Well, there are many ways to be deported from a country (and deported from china) where you are not a citizen. Don’t worry I didn’t commit a crime. My deportation from China was actually not being able to pass the customer clearance in Beijing after I landed from Europe.
All my papers were in order, I had a freshly new made visa but well in some cases that’s not enough. So, Whu have I been deported from China?
Table of Contents
Background history
As I was living in China for business, I had a 1-year visa with a maximum stay on 3 months. Meaning that every 3 months I had to get out of China and then back in. The easiest for that was to fly to Hong Kong, spend a day there and come back.
But once a year, I had to go back to France to make a new Visa. So, in August 2016, I flew back to France, spent 2 weeks there, apply for a new Visa, got in and flew back to China where Tina was waiting me at home. Everything so far seems going well and as it should be.
Arriving in China
I flew from Frankfurt to Beijing where I was connecting to a national flight to Zhengzhou. So, as always, I spent my 11h flight watching movies (I am a light sleeper, so being on a plane does not do too much good on my sleep). And as usual I landed in Beijing, as it was not my first time, I knew the ropes around the airport.
I headed to the immigration to pass the customer clearance. As often, Beijing airport is packed, so you have between 30min to 1h waiting.
Custom Clearance
When I arrived in front of the custom agent, I handed over my passport, but quickly something looked off. It’s usually pretty quick, especially that my passport is full of Chinese immigration stamps.
But this time, the manager is called and handed over my passport. I got a nice wait please. After some 20min, they come back and hand me over my passport telling me that I cannot pass and that I should wait longer.
I waited some more and talked to someone again, and even after negotiating and explaining the reasons of my travel, they didn’t let me in.
I tried asking for help from the consulate and my Chinese company but nothing to do. I couldn’t believe i would be deported from China.
I then tried again in another counter to see if I could manage to pass with another agent. It was the same story. Only this time, I got I new stamp in my passport, on my visa: CANCELLED! From there it was clear, I will not enter.
The reason behind
In the end the main reason why I couldn’t enter and was deported from China was that in September 2016, the G20 Hangzhou summit was taking place. With such even China’s policy is to reduce the number of people in the country.
As I had worked 10 months in Turkey in the past, I had lots of Turkey entry/exit stamps and this was enough to reject my entry into China territory.
And then?
From there, I headed to a counter behind where I met other people that had been rejected entry. One after another they reschedule us on a plane back from where we came from. Of course, they are using your return ticket for that and it is at your cost.
I arrived in the afternoon and was reschedule for a plane early morning, around 2 am.
Once our group was rescheduled, a customer policeman arrived and asked us to follow him. We were still in the international area; the policeman took us to a kind of hotel with this area and asked us to wait there until someone come pick us up.
The Hotel
This part was not that bad! The hotel room was 2 by 2m or so. But there was shared WC, shower and even a meal. And thankfully this part was free.
I had a nice shower which felt great after the first flight and all this story. Ate something and then simply waited.
The return
Around 2am, a customer agent came and took me to my flight. The guy was really cool, we talked some English/Chinese together, he loved cars! And in the end, he told me to come back in 2 weeks. That by this time, it will be OK.
That is when all of this made sense…
He escorted me until the door of the plane, never border so fast! Faster than 1st class. And I flew back.
Funny ending
I did not make it to Zhengzhou and was deported from China, but my luggage did. Hahaha, and luckily my company managed to pick it up and dropped it to our place where Tina was.
People don’t take trips, trips take people. – John Steinbeck
