Thorn Tree travel forum

Where to get Chinese visa

Hi there,

we are currently travelling Central America, will go up to the States and thereafter plan on travelling China.
Our problem is right now that we can't seem to get the Chinese visa.
We are now in Nicaragua, the next Chinese embassy on our way will be Mexico, but they can't be reached to aks whether we as German
citizens can get the visa there (phone numer has just machine, official e-mail on their website does not work). So we do not know if that will work until we're there. There will be no time in the US to organzie it anywhere as we will be travelling with our parenst without stopping in bigger cities. Now, we do have to organize our onward flight before we enter the US because otherwise they won't let us in.

As we want to start our trip in China in Bejing the cheapest possibility would be going from Denver directly to Bejing. But without the visa, obviously not possible.

Next possibility, going to Bangkok, organize the visa there, flying then to Bejing. Plus: we know Bangkok, getting the visa there is easy. Downside: It's so much more expensive, because we would need another long flight.

Other possibility: flying first to Hongkonk (sound interesting but very expensive), organizing the visa, going to Bejing. Expensive!!!

Or, going to Korea, no clue what that is like, is it easy to get the visa, how much are living expensesis, is there a ferry to China, how much would that be.

So, does any of you have a suggestion how to do it best. Most important, keep it on a low budget.
Would appreciate any tips, also possibilities we so far haven't thought about.

mayo2005