Lychee Trip 1- Getting a Passport into China

Step One: Locate and go to your local "Passport Acceptance Center"

Step Two: Fill out the appropriate form - In my case it's the DS-11

Step 3: Present the completed form with your 2 pictures. Don't forget the $97 Here for Details







Once you have the passport, you'll next need a visa


Looks like I'll need the Single-Entry L Visa and another 100 bucks.


An important point to remember:

Visa Validity and Duration of Stay

Usually the validity of a Single Entry or Double Entry "L" visa is 90 days or 180 days from the date of issue. This means the holder of the visa shall enter China no later than 90 days or 180 days from the date of issue, otherwise the visa is expired and is null and void. The duration of stay of a "L" visa is 30 days, which means the holder of the visa may stay in China for up to 30 days from the date of entry.The visa officer may extend the Duration of Stay if the applicant needs and requests a stay in China for more than 30 days.

So timing is important as well.


Total cost: Passport $ 97.00
Visa $ 100.00 = 197.00

plus passport photos 7.99 from Rite Aid/Walgreens or Free (maybe)

Lichi Trip - Plane Ticket

A mere 1,277 dollars, that's how much a flight to Shenzhen airport from the east cost of America. I've chosen to visit on the last two weeks in May. Whether this is the best time to go, I don't know yet. But the price shouldn't change too much. This ticket is form Asiana Airlines.

Trip 1 - Cont.

So we're on our way to Lichi world, what all are we going to need?

Ingredients:
Passport
5 day hotel stay
Plane Ticket
Meals
Transportation once there
appetite for lychee

Really that's all it takes. Let's see how things work out.

Lychee Trip #1 - Lichi World

Located in the Shenzhen province of China on the western side of lake Xili. This facility is the EPCOT center of lychee production. Here's a Chingrish quote from the site:

With a total planting area of 2,500 mous, the production base is well equipped with a perfect traffic system, communication system, water supply system, electricity supply system, fertilizer supply system as well as a modernized medicine spraying system, in which an over 60-hektare demonstration park is specially outfitted with a state-of-the-art automatic drip irrigation system in the world. Then the agricultural base constructed according to “3 High” standards has been becoming increasingly perfect.

The facility has 60 hectares of "demonstration park" that, if my metric conversions are right is about 148 football fields of lychee trees. That alone is reason enough to go. Here's the site.