Dan's Adventure

The street was filled with trucks and carts loaded with goods waiting to cross the border into Vietnam. At 7am there was a mad dash as everyone tried to be first in line as the border opened. It must have been the same on the Vietnamese side because as soon as the clock struck 7, streams of people could be seen running across the bridge to get into China. Bikes piled high with boxes were being pushed through by old women laden with goods strapped to their backs. On either side trucks were waiting to be loaded up with the goods that had just been brought through the border. Then there were the four of us. Four foreigners that had gotten off the sleeper bus from Kunming carrying only our rucksacks and for once feeling like we were travelling light. Land border crossings are usually far from problem free and more often than not take a lot longer than expected. The China to Vietnam border crossing at Hekou was to be no different.

As we stood in line inside the immigration office the four of us were approached by Chinese officials who wanted to check our passports and departure cards. The other three were a bit quicker than myself at producing the documents and so they kept the three officials busy as I stepped up to the immigration desk. Passport stamped, I got out of that office as quickly as possible before any other official decided that they wanted to hassle me. The others weren’t so lucky. The Italian girl disappeared for almost an hour as she was interrogated by the immigration officials. Apparently a problem with her passport. The two Fins were questioned and then had their bags searched, the result of which was the confiscation of their Lonely Planet guide for China. I had heard rumours of books being confiscated but I didn’t believe it until I witnessed it happening. The Chinese government apparently has a list of banned texts, books that paint the picture of Chinese history or current affairs that the rest of the world accepts as fact, but which the Chinese government doesn’t agree with and wants to hide. Censorship at its best.

Across the bridge, the Vietnamese immigration process was far more straight forward. We were in and out within ten minutes, no questions and no searches, just a couple of cards to fill in, including a departure card which I hope I still have somewhere in my bag as it costs $10 to replace it!