visa - the real thing

so this is how my visa looks like.

this is my first visa to be attached to the current passport. the last passport I had a Mongolian visa that I got when I arrived at the Ulaanbatar airport back in July 2006. the Mongolian visa was the first ever visa that I got. 'cause so far I haven't been to any places (except for Mongolia) that required visa on my passport (I've only been to a few countries in Europe, and a few in South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the States).

even though I've been to China many times, I've never needed a visa 'cause I never use my British passport to go there - all thanks to the fact that I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. All "permanent residents" (i.e. 7 years in HK) of HK can go to China with just a little plastic card, including the foreign expatriates.

one of my mother's Japanese friend had lived in HK for 18 years, then when she had to return to Japan, because she's already a permanent resident of Hong Kong/China, she could buy a Japan Rail Pass (only available to foreign visitors and not Japanese nationals) as a tourist.