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Here we are in Hong Kong, on part one of K80 and mitcho’s haphazard trip to China. Let our mistakes give you wisdom.

We were coming in from Taiwan a.k.a. the Republic of China. If you’re a Republic of China national¹ you can get a visiting permit from Taiwan. But if you’re a foreigner in Taiwan, you have to stop in some other country to apply for a Chinese visa. (China can’t have an embassy in Taiwan, because Taiwan is part of China! Duh.) Thus, we’re spending this weekend in Hong Kong.

Lesson 1: If applying in Hong Kong, give yourself a good weekday or two

Here’s the deal. You can apply for a Chinese visa at China’s Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong SAR. They’re open Monday through Friday and, for express service, you need to get the visa to them before noon (1:30 at some travel agencies) and pick it up in the evening—you can’t pick them up, either, on the weekend. You may have heard that you can get a Chinese visa even on the weekend: this is only if you have a longer layover in the Hong Kong airport, and you can get the visa in transit—you can’t get the visa on the weekend just by going to the airport.

As our flight to China is scheduled for this coming Sunday, that means we need the visa today. In our case, as our flight came in around 11 this morning, this meant an adrenaline rushing couple hours to apply for the visa before a travel agent’s 1:30 deadline. When we finally applied for our visas, though, we encountered another surprise.

Lesson 2: China just raised visa fees for US citizens. Because they love us.

Normally a single-entry visa to China costs HK$150 for most countries, plus whatever expediting charges. Fine. But going to China just got more expensive. As of January 20th, 2008, the base fee for US citizens went up to HK$1020. Not for everyone—just for US citizens. Because they love us.

Now you know.

I just got back from the Fulbright Taiwan Midyear Conference, this year in Hualien with a day trip to the nearby Taroko National Park. Here’s one for the travelogue. I had a great, stimulating trip with lots of talk of linguistics (mostly about Classical Chinese), religion, economics, and politics—some of my favorite subjects. This being a Dr. Wu gig, there was also of course ample food, and Taroko was absolutely stunning.

Day 1: Trains, buses, and talk

I met up with everyone in the morning at the Hualien train station. Living in Nanao, I actually live really close to Hualien (about 40-50m) so I just elected to take a local train and meet the crew there. We then drove around to a couple interesting coastal points. (The one taking pictures below is Dale… I’m sure his blog will soon have photos more beautiful than mine.)

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Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko just put Bailey on the front page of chicagotribune.com! ^^ You kind of have to see a different page to know who it is, though.¹ Heh.

I recently got Daring Fireball‘ed too,² so that almost makes us a celebrity couple.

I personally like the caption right above. That’s the same story, right?

Yesterday Steve Jobs introduced, among other things, iTunes movie rentals. Rent a movie and download it over broadband. You then have 30 days to start the film, and then 24 hours to finish it before it turns into a pumpkin. A lot of people are complaining about the 24 hours, including some with good reason and apparently many who have kids.

So why rental? Thus spoke Steve: “Your favorite movie… most of us watch movies once… maybe a few times.”¹ Currently number eight on the top rentals is one of Paul Sally’s favorites, The Usual Suspects. From the iTunes Store description:

There are a handful of movies that demand a second viewing—because they’re so good, or because a surprise ending gives every scene a new meaning when it’s watched a second time. The Usual Suspects is both.

I just noticed something on the latest Tekzilla Daily: Patrick Norton, host of Tekzilla and former host of the Screen Savers says “there’s a lots to learn here” (1:28) and then later “the site you’re having troubles with” (1:39). While “having troubles with…” is fine, I believe “having trouble with…” is much more common. As for “a lots to learn,” however, that’s definitely out. Is it hyperarticulation? I don’t know.

Wikipedia notes: “Norton grew up in the Midwest, but considers the Jersey Shore his home… He currently lives in San Francisco, California.” So, is this a Jersey Shore or California thing? I have no idea.

As I continue to work on and debug Yet Another Related Posts Plugin and WP-Smartdate, I’ve come across an issue where plugin activation fails, but I get no useful error message.

When I try to activate the plugin, I am redirected to a url of the type /plugins.php?error=true&plugin=...&_error_nonce=.... This redirect just gives me the plugins control panel with my plugin still disactivated, and with no useful error message.¹ This apparently is an issue with the Plugin Protection mechanism introduced in WP 2.2. A quick fix (hack) is available on the WP forums.

Here’s hoping this helps some people scratching their heads, and that this behavior is reconsidered/fixed in future releases.

I just saw this logo near Yilan station and felt like I’ve seen it before…

Oh my god, it’s Obama! The banner is actually for the Taiwan Solidarity Union party, one of the third-parties here in Taiwan (but it’s part of the Pan-Green Coalition).

Happy New Years to all!

I greeted the new year in Yilan with some friends from Fo Guang. We cooked some Thai food and raw food and ate at one of our teachers’ apartments. We had a great time.

I hope your New Years was just as great!