The Accidental Tourist... My Unexpected Stay in China!

Well, it's 2018 and I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and write an update on my unexpectedly extended trip to China back in November... (BTW, I am not a Professor, but I appreciated them putting my name in lights!)

The original plan was simple - finish a day's work in Dublin on Thursday, get a late flight via London and Guangzhou, get into Chengdu late on Friday... give a speech on Saturday morning and a lecture Saturday afternoon at SWUFE and then fly back Sunday night to be back in work in Dublin on Monday morning... Based on the photo below, it all seemed to go well... if only...

Matthew Chen and his excellent team in China had put together a great programme for Bob Mark and I at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics... Matthew and his team have been setting up and running PuRui HuaTong Education & Consulting Services Pty Ltd (PRHT), a PRMIA reseller in China and has been doing an amazing job... my latest weekend trip to China was just another part of that.

But on Arrival in my hotel on Friday night, I realised I was missing a very important item... my passport! I didn't think too much of it at the time - I figured I'd just turn up at the airport, show a copy of my passport and be left out of China... with my risk manager hat on, I assumed it was a low probability, low impact event... 

But during lunch at SWUFE on Saturday, I called the Irish embassy in Beijing... and to paraphrase what they said, I was in one of the worst countries in the world to lose a passport in! I would have to get a new temporary passport, then apply for a new visa and then apply to leave China... and this could take 2 to 3 weeks... to say I was in shock was an understatement... I suddenly realised what might be a low probability / low impact event in other countries I travel to was a low probability / high impact event in China... Bob Mark and I discussed this a lot that weekend - he thinks there's a TED talk or some such there for me to give!

Now I can't blame the Chinese authorities - they're just enforcing their own rules and a lot of their police and security personnel spent a lot of time trying to find my missing (probably stolen) passport that weekend...

So now, what to do... if I was to get a temporary passport, I'd have to get forms couriered from the Irish Embassy in Beijing to me in Chengdu, courier the forms back to Beijing, get the passport couriered to me in Chengdu... suddenly a week could be gone by and I'd still be in Chengdu... I spent a worried weekend in Chengdu... a lot of it was spent discussing the risk management lessons of this with Bob Mark, Matthew and Monica!

And then... cue a set of miracle work from Matthew's team in China... Monday morning we go to the entry / exit visa office in Chengdu, then out to the airport, a lot of explanation, quick phone calls and work from the team... without them I would have gotten nowhere...

Instead I was onto a plane and in the Irish Embassy in Beijing that evening!! The Ambassador was just arriving into at the same time and I was able to call back a few days later for a more formal chat about Financial Services in China (and I will be taking up that offer to head out again soon and have a more formal set of meeting through the embassy in Beijing!)

So now I'm in Beijing... I pick a hotel near the embassy and my oh my it is a fine hotel... Hotel Jen had a great bar (I got to know the house band over the coming few days), an amazing gym over 2 floors and an open work area... I was able to sit and watch the next generation of Chinese business people working on new software and projects... 

Meanwhile I was able to dial into my own work back home and keep on top of my own work... I was able to put out quite a philosophical update on Facebook and get to enjoy the city, go to some meetings and meet some new and interesting people!

Meanwhile Matthew's team continued to work their miracles and talk of having to get a new entry visa to get a new entry visa and another week or two in China melted away and apart from one cancelled flight I was able to get my exit visa and flight and I was able to get home by Saturday evening... a planned trip to NYC the following week was scrapped due to my lack of a permanent passport and the reality of needing to be home to get some work done!

So it was a good adventure and I have to give thanks to Matthew and his team, to Bob Mark for keeping me positive, to my mother and Sarah Moran for getting all the required paper work to the passport office in Cork, to the Ambassador and his team at the Irish Embassy in Beijing, to all the people who kept in touch with me when I was worried I'd be stuck in China forever and to all the new people I met in China! It was an interesting end to 2017 and I hope to be back in China in 2018... with a passport glued to me for the entire trip!!