After planning to go to China for the last 3-4 days of my trip, here I am in HK still for a few reasons. The main reason is because I’m an American! Also, because as usual I did not plan ahead. Unlike most countries, to get into China you need to apply for a visa a few days in advance. On Saturday I went to the China border, once there I was told I need a visa in advance. So I went to the visa application office at the border to get a fast visa which supposedly just costs more. At the visa application office, I filled out the form and handed it to the guy with my passport. He looked at my passport and then pointed to a sign that stated from a few months ago ‘Americans’ can no longer get a fast visa at the border, and he gave me the address of the visa office in HK. Finally making all way back to HK, I finally found the office only to realize that since it was Saturday they were closed and won’t open until Monday. I then went to the HK travel breau to get more information, I asked the nice lady there how to get a visa. She said it was easy, all I had to do was go to some specific HK travel agency. I then handed her my passport, after taking one look at it there was an audible sigh followed by an "oh your American”, at wich point she explained that it would be a little more difficult. At that point I gave up, and talked with her about other interesting things to do with the rest of my time in HK.