The REAL reason China's economy is booming

Yeah, I know its been forever since I've blogged, but I couldn't help but post a note about the latest shocker. We are planning to take the trip of a lifetime to China this summer. We have good friends living in many cities there, and so we realized this was our big chance to go as a family. We researched early and found relatively cheap tickets, and we made plans to stay with our friends and see China with their expert help. We have to manage the costs as we are a family of 6, and since D (youngest) is no longer 2 years old (passed that mark over 4 years ago), my four super-kids magically become "adults" whenever the wallet is opened.

So I went to the travel office to ask some passport and visa questions about our trip:
Q: I assume I need visas to travel to China, correct? A: Yes.
Q: How long do they take to process? A: About 5 days.
Q: How much will they cost? A: 130 US Dollars.
Q: That's not bad for all 6 of us, that's like...22 bucks a head! great! A: Uh, no..
Q: No way - that's 130 USD each? Even for my kids?!? That's almost 800 bucks!!
A: Yes, and it has to be a money order, please, no credit cards.

So I go to the Chinese embassy website and I see The following table under "Visa Fees":

Number of Entry	American	Citizens of other countries
Single Entry	$130	$30
Double Entry	$130	$45
Multiple Entry for 6 Months	$130	$60
Multiple Entry for 12 Months	$130	$90
Multiple Entry for 24 Months	$130	$90

Do you see a pattern here? It turns out this is actually the effect of something called "Reciprocity." If you go to the US Embassy Beijing website you find that if anyone wants to come to America as a tourist it costs them...$131 USD. So the benevolent Chinese are giving me a one dollar discount! So long as you can see that your $780 gets you 6 glasses of water that are half-FULL, you will realize there is a bright side to everything!

All kidding aside, we are very blessed to be in India, to go to China, and to have these mind-broadening, life-changing opportunities in the first place. We always try to plan ahead, do our research, and otherwise make the most of every penny of our Olmsted experience. The real effect of this will be lost opportunities to experience other peoples and places. But stuff like this...just hurts!