While we are in Hainan (China), we are trying on ourselves to try on living here for a long time. It became interesting to me to calculate how much it would cost to resolve the visa issue (visa + boarderrans), and how much cheaper / more expensive it is than the same costs in Thailand. After all, now you won't live long on tourist visas, and student visas have risen in price, plus different restrictions appear..
By the way, at the moment I have not found an alternative to Thailand for myself, in total pros and cons he is still in the lead in my personal rating. Nevertheless, if we consider other possibilities, such as a residence permit or proximity to Europe, then there are options. Same Serbia, where you can get a residence permit for an inexpensive and without other efforts (study, work).
The content of the article
China Visa Cost
You need a multi-visa for a year, it is called a business visa type M, or, in other words, business. It is given for a year with the opportunity to be in the country for 90 days, that is, every 3 months you need to fly abroad and come back. You can do it both yourself, having received an invitation from someone, or in the agency.
We now have a visa to China S2
I will not consider the first option, it is cheap, but difficult, as it seems to me. Although in reality everything can be done quickly. I read that I needed to find an exhibition in China, write to them about my desire to come, and receive an invitation from them. Not all will be sent, so you need to make several requests at once. Also, this business visa can be given not for a year, but for a shorter period, because the exhibition does not last long.
The second option is an agency. A visa costs about 15 thousand rubles (two doubles in Tai now cost 10,400 rubles for comparison) and is done in a few days without any documents. You can do it both in Russia and in Hong Kong.
Flight from Sanya to Hong Kong
- The cost of the Sanya-Hong Kong round-trip one day will be about 1200-1500 yuan. A ticket there will cost from 300-400 yuan, but in the opposite direction from Hong Kong about 1000. The thing is that morning flights from Hong Kong are cheaper, but you simply cannot catch them, so you will have to fly in the evening.
- To save money on a flight in Hong Kong, you need to spend the night and fly back in the morning. Then a return ticket will cost about 400 yuan, but you will have to spend the night, and as you know, Hong Kong is an expensive city. I looked into RoomGuru how much hotels in Hong Kong cost somewhere from $ 30-50 for a very simple double room at the hostel.
- The next flight option is to fly Sanya-Shenzhen (Shenzhen), tickets are cheaper, about 700 yuan round trip. But on the spot you will have to get to Hong Kong by metro to cross the border and back.
- And lastly, you can fly from Sanya to Hong Kong, and back from Shenzhen. Or, conversely, Sanya-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Sanya. Accordingly, travel by metro between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
The prices for the flight I have here are not the ones that Aviaseels and Skyscanner give us (where prices are from 800 yuan one way), apparently the airlines do not give them the cheapest flights. If you go, for example, to the Hong Kong Airlines website, then there we will see 300-400 yuan on some days. Or another option is to put a Chinese application for finding flights, discounts are constantly offered there and the ticket also costs 300-400 yuan one way..
We will not take the cheapest option and the most expensive, we will take the middle one, that is, about 1000 yuan per flight. For myself, I would choose a flight to Hong Kong with an overnight stay, and this will be the case. But it may well be that it is not at all difficult to fly through Shenzhen (it is necessary to check whether the movement between Hong Kong and Shenzhen will be annoying).
And a few more words about convenience. If you live in Sanya, you can get to the airport in half an hour by taxi. The flight takes an hour and a half. That is, in general, the visaran turns out to be quite comfortable..
Let's calculate the costs
I will take a period of one year. It was just so convenient for us to fly to Russia once a year (or even live for only one year). Flights to Russia will not be included in the total cost, there are too many nuances. We would fly from Thailand in the same way, however, the flight would most likely be cheaper. And if it is possible to fly out on hot charters, you can generally save money, only they are not always convenient to fly and are not suitable for everyone. I will not go into detail, I already wrote about cheap flights to Thailand.
So the flight to Sanya from Moscow is not very profitable. Only if you fly first to Beijing / Guangzhou (it can be very cheap), and then by local airlines to Hainan, well, or something like that. In any case, you can also not fly to Russia if you want to save money, but fly to the same Hong Kong for a new visa (or to Vladivostok, there may be a cheaper flight).
According to the exchange rate for April 2015.
Total: 15,000 rubles for a visa + 3 flights of 1,000 yuan = 42,000 rubles per person (excluding the flight to Russia).
Total: 20,000 rubles for a visa + 4 flights of 1,000 yuan = 56,000 rubles per person (if you fly all the time to Hong Kong without Russia).
Thus, it turns out that if we now suddenly want to fly to China (to Hainan) for a year, then we will need to spend 42 thousand rubles per person. While a student visa in Thailand will cost about 25-35 thousand baht or 40-60 thousand rubles per person.
It turns out comparable. But it all depends, of course, on the specific person. Someone is better off spending money on education, while others, on the contrary, do not waste time on this. One will be stressed by flights every 3 months, the other will use them as an opportunity to travel.
P.S. Small comparison Thailand and Hainan I already did, and now we are talking purely about visa matters.
