Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Health Examination and Health Inspection Certificate:
Not more than seven days
before your departure, take your pet for a checkup at the Entry/Exit Quarantine Inspection
Bureau animal hospital (Guan Shang Animal Hospital). There are no appointments, so get
there first thing in the morning. Take your pet's red book with valid vaccinations, your pass-
port, and about RMB800. Following this, you'll be given a Beijing International Compan-
ion Animal Health Inspection Certificate. The certificate usually takes two business days to
be issued and is valid for seven days. Try to get there early to avoid the lines, and take a
Chinese speaker if possible. Office hours are weekdays 9am-11:30am and 1:30pm-4:30pm
(closed on public and national holidays).
Animal Health Certificate for Exit:
Once you have the health inspection certificate,
take it up to the second floor of the hospital and exchange it for the exit permit, also called
the Animal Health Certificate for Exit. This will take about two days to process and cost
about RMB100.
If you'd moved to Beijing 10 years ago, you might have packed a little heavier, but today
there is little you can't get here. Sometimes it might take a bit of searching, or be much
more expensive than what you'd pay back home, but it is here. Fortunately, once you do
locate it, chances are you can have it delivered directly to your door, often for free.
If you are planning on shipping a household of goods to Beijing, be warned that this can
be an expensive and complicated process. If you are not a diplomatic worker or do not have
one-year residency and working permits, then your shipment will be dutiable. In addition to
this, you also must be in China before your goods are shipped out of your home country, so
you'll need to be able to live for at least one month without whatever is in the cargo. One
option, to give you more time to get your bearings, is to move into one of the many serviced
apartments around the city. They're definitely not the cheapest option, but they will give
you a comfortable, well-appointed, often family-friendly place in which to find your feet.
Straight up, one major issue for expats in Beijing is clothing size. If you're particularly
tall or broad, you're going to have difficulties. Though the northern Chinese are taller than
their southern siblings, and while the average modern Chinese girth is increasing rapidly,
