Chinese visas and the Chinese Consulate General in Zurich

The Consulate building, curiously, does not fly the Chinese flag (as far as I could see) and does not have an entrance from where you would expect it to be, given the street address - and there is no sign to tell you where to go either. Only if you take the side street uphill next to the building and look into the building's entrance which should have an entirely different street address (since the entrance is therefore located on the side street) do you discover a small sign saying "Visa" and pointing around the building....

I made these discoveries this morning, as I had to go there to get my visa for an international conference in China that I am scheduled to chair

all the work around the building indicates enhanced security measures but there are no toilet facilities for the public - in fact there are no toilet facilities anywhere in the area around the building either, and you have to take the tram for two stops before you come to any so, if you have to go the Consulate, make sure that you go with your bladder well emptied!

The work of getting the visa was efficiently done - I arrived just before 9.00 a.m., which was supposed to be the time of opening, and some individuals had already completed their work at the window, so the windows were obviously open before time

it took me less than 3 minutes to reach one of the 3 windows (two are for submissions, one for collections), and less than one minute to complete the additional form they wanted me to fill (as my Passport is not Swiss).

They asked me to return at 11.30 a.m. I was there at about 11.20 a.m. and my passport was already in a neat bundle waiting to be picked up

BTW, one of the people in the queue in a friendly way suggested that I check he dates in the visa, as he had had the experience of asking for a 90-day visa but being given a 30-day one - however, as he did not check it, he remained unaware of it all the time he was in China. When it was time for him to leave the country, he discovered to his particular chagrin that he had to pay a fine nearly ten times the visa fee! (A visa now costs CHF80, and he had to pay a fine of CHF750). He tried to reclaim the money from the Consulate but his attention was drawn to the sign at the window which asks you to check the dates in the visa...something you may tend not to do, because you are aware of the people behind you in the queue and you don't want to waste their time unnecessarily...

By the way, the strident communist red in previous visa stickers has now been replaced by a military-style olive green. Not sure whether this is symbolic.