I booked a round-trip ticket today to Zhuhai, my favorite mainland China city, which is walking distance from Macau. The purpose of the trip is to acquire a new mainland China visa which will take a day or two of processing while I hang out in Macau, which is a former Portugese colony to the east of Hong Kong.
The last time I saw Macau was over 18 months ago, before I stepped foot on mainland China. I have fond memories of hanging out in Macau with old friends Jason and Elaine before stepping into the unknown, so I’m interested to find out if my perspective on it has changed at all since that time. Macau is famous for its casinos, but I don’t plan on spending much time in them; I’d rather be photographing the Portugese architecture in and around the city, which brings me to a fun project that I’ve been waiting for – a new city to photograph. It seems that the only time I ever take photos anymore is if I travel to a new place, so this is an opportunity to blow the dust off my camera and see what kind of shots I can get. Unlike traveling to new cities to DJ, I don’t have to bring anything with me on this trip, so I’m planning on only bringing some clothes and my camera equipment for a 3-day trip. The only necessity before I leave is a new tripod. Depending on available time, I’ll take the ferry from Macau across the bay to Kowloon island in Hong Kong and spend a day there.
This trip is prompted not only by my need of a new Chinese business visa, but the expiration of my German passport which I’ve been using the last few years. It seems that when a passport expires, it’s impossible to renew it and get a new visa without returning to your home country, but since I also have an American passport, I have another option. Leave China before the passport expires, enter Macau/Hong Kong with the US passport and simultaneously send the German passport back to Germany to get renewed. Buy a new visa for the US passport and re-enter the country using that passport.