Medical Examination

Originally posted 26th January, 2015 In order to convert our temporary visa into a year’s long work visa for Richard and hangers-on one for me, we had to go to the hospital for a medical examination, armed with passports, and ten passport photos each. The hospital is not actually very far away, but we were due there at 9am and we thought that we could get a taxi to take us. The only problem with this idea was that at this time in the morning there are no taxis – they are all being used by commuters – so after standing for a while on the roadside looking like lemons, we turned to walk to the local metro station. The tube trip involved 2 stops into the inner ring, three stops round the ring and 5 stops back out of the ring making sure that we got the right hand branch of this line to get to the stop for Shanghai zoo which was where we were headed. Needless to say the metro was packed. The trains are not frequent enough, only coming at 5 minutes intervals, even in the rush hour. No-one “moves down inside the cars please”. And no-one “lets the passengers off the train first please”. I don’t know how they would manage if they had to “mind the gap”. The Shanghai metro is growing so quickly that you must make sure that you keep up with lines that grow seemingly overnight. It’s all pristine and clean, but it doesn’t seem to have enough trains to move its 24 million population about quickly enough during the rush hour. Needless to say we were late at the hospital, having legged it fairly rapidly from the metro stop to the hospital gates. All foreigners wanting to stay longer than a month have to have these medicals and it is quite a production line: Desk one with passport and paperwork; Desk two for paperwork processing; Desk three to pay, then into room to collect gown with instructions to strip to the waist. Belongings into a locker, go to sit in a corridor outside one of 11 numbered rooms – if modesty is required in one of these rooms there are screens alongside a bed, but those waiting in the corridor could hear my responses to questions and my arm being slapped to try and raise the blood in my damaged veins for a blood sample. X-ray, abdomen ultrasound, eyesight, blood pressure, blood sample, e.c.g., and we were both out

Standing by the signpost calling to passersby that he has a turtle for sale. within 2 hours and about 20 others were as well. I have no idea how many they would process that morning, but my various hospital visits over the years in the UK paled in comparison. It was very efficient, even if it did feel sausage machine-like. After all this we were both very hungry as we’d been asked not to eat for at least 5 hours beforehand i.e. the night before, but neither of us liked the idea of buying the turtle, about ½ metre in diameter that was being touted on the crossroads by a man in a hard hat and what seemed to be builder’s clothes as we waited for a taxi for the journey back to the hotel. He must have found it whilst working on a building site nearby. But it was no doubt destined to be someone else’s lunch.