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The following link takes you to Yick Wo v. Hopkins. It is a late 1800's case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. It involves Chinese laundries in San Francisco, CA. The court ruled in favor of the Chinese gentleman being discriminated against by SF officials. The decision is well written and considering the times very progressive. The 14th amendment played heavily in the decision. http://supreme.vlex.com/vid/yick-v-hopkins-20064256

There is some irony for you as I am sitting in a hotel room right now in Winnemucca, NV right now. I am on a temporary detail. My wife and step daughter are living in Las Vegas since this past June. My daughter could not find a job where we lived in Las Cruces, NM and my wife just got tired of living there. I took them to Las Vegas and within 24 hours my daughter landed a job at a bookstore in Chinatown. My wife is working part time and making just slightly more than 50% an hour than in Las Cruces. I was able to stay with them for a few days on my way here. Hoping to take a week after Thanksgiving to go back down there for another visit. At some point I hope to move there to be with them in the future. One of the highly touted things about Winnemucca is the train passing through here every day going from Chicago to San Francisco. Round trip from here to S.F. is around $100 depending on when you make the trip. It is tempting to try since I have only been in S.F. flying through to somewhere else. I would like to see Chinatown there, especially at Chinese New Year.

If you have a chance go to the Summer Palace or the Old Summer Palace. They are at two diferent locations but close enough that they can both be done on the same day. Very nice and when my wife and I visited them they were not as crowded as some of the other tourist spots. They can be reached by regular bus as well.

From Wikipedia, Sun Yat-Sen visited Winnemucca, NV in 1911: In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Winnemucca was the location of a vibrant Chinatown. While many Chinese left Winnemucca after the Central Pacific Railroad had completed its connection with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869, around four hundred Chinese had formed a community in the town by the 1890s. Among the prominent buildings was the Joss House, a place of worship and celebration that was visited by Chinese president Sun Yat Sen in 1911. As I recall from the few times I have been in Winnemucca, the Joss House still exists though the Chinese population has dwindled to insignificance.

Actually this is one of the movies on my list to see. It is also a book, that I have seen at Barnes & Noble. So I am conflicted on whether to read it or see it, or maybe both. We have Chinese movie night every Friday.

Rolled the dice and travelled to Kyoto this past Sunday. We have had a great time so far with no problems here with fallout (no pun intended) from the earthquake/sunami. We head back to the States on Saturday, and can`t say we are looking forward to it. The only complaint from my wife so far has been that it is cold here. She has been impressed with how clean everything is and that whatever we have eaten so far is really good. I had mentioned how clean things were to her but I don`t think she quite believed me. This evening though she said that the Japanese were ahead of her on clean. There is no shortage (pun intended) of short skirts here. The ladies must be used to the cold because these are some of the shortest skirts I have seen in a long time. My wife has made mention of it as well. She even pointed out a young lady who was bent over looking at something on her bike, who was showing off her niceties. She was not bent over that far but her butt sure was exposed. It is sure a good thing that there is a lot of beautiful scenery here to look at or a guy could get into real trouble. We flew Air China into KIX via LA to Beijing. I don`t think the Air China lady liked us as she did not try very hard to seat us together. The flight to Beijing was full so I can at least understand that leg. However, there were pobably only 50 of us on a 777 to KIX from Beijing and she did not even seat us in the same sections of the plane. Of course we moved but she did not earn the airlines any cudos.

Based on my experience I think I would include them. There was nothing on the Consulate web site that indicated it was needed or I would have included it in the beginning. My wife kept her family name when we married so they may have just needed that last little bit of evidence to ensure that we were indeed married. I am working on my itinerary for things to see in Kyoto. I have even looked up some Chinese restaurants to visit just in case.

Sent in the additional information by email on the 8th. Received the visas in today's mail. Just a few more things to finish and we will be ready come mid March to head to Japan.

Well, the Japanese Consulate called today and they want a whole bunch more information to process the visas for my wife and daughter. I have to send them proof that I still work, a copy of our marriage certificate and a copy of my daughter's birth certificate. The good thing is that I can send it to them by email. Forgot to mention in my previous post that I had included the flight itinerary and rental agreement for a machiya with my original submittal. Hopefully this will not go south on us with having purchased the tickets already.

I have filled out the short term visa forms for my wife and daughter for our trip to Japan this March. Pretty simple to fill in and they also require one passport photo. I called the Japanese Consulate in Denver (they service NM) this afternoon to check on fees. Cost per visa is $32 by cash or money order. I will be mailing the applications in tomorrow and expect to get the passports with visas back late next week. will update at that time.

I was in Japan in 2004 to run in a marathon and to sightsee. I did not go to Tokyo but did start and finish my trip through Narita. There is a really nice temple in Narita that I visited my last day in Japan. I also visited Nikko, which is a really nice park not all that far from Tokyo. There is an okinimiyaki (spelling?) restaurant in Narita that is great. I spent the rest of my time in Miyobiyashi-koen, Nagano (for the marathon) and Kyoto. Kyoto was really a beautiful place to visit. I was in Japan during the cherry blossom season and it is amazing to see how crazy the Japanese are during that time of the year. I stayed in a number of different business hotels, regular hotel and ryokans. The business hotels were generally cheaper. My wife, step daughter and I are going to Kyoto this March during Spring break. I will be getting a visa for them since they are Chinese. We have to go through the Japanese Consulate in Denver. I will be sending everything in probably next week or the week after and will post what happens. We will be spending six nights in Kyoto. I went ahead and rented a traditional machiya, even though it is a little pricey. We will be near some stores and can cook food so that will defray some cost. Being in a traditional neighborhood should be a little nicer though.

While in San Diego go to the Ba Ren Szechuan Restaurant at 4957 Diane Ave. My wife and I have dined there several times on trips to San Diego. She is from Chongqing and has certified this place as being more authentic Chinese than any other place we have been.

We purchased a Tatung 1500 watt induction cooker to use when preparing hot pot meals. We have had it about two months now and it has performed very well. My wife became interested in it when we saw one for sale in El Paso. After doing some investigation I purchased one online for a cheaper price ($89 vs $110 plus free shipping). The only draw back is that you have to have a ferrous pot or pan to use it. It does come with its own pot and luckily we have two other pots which are either iron or stainless steal. It is a single burner table top model. It heats up the pots very quickly and seems to be cost effective. My wife uses it to cook other foods on occasion as she feels that it releases less heat in the kitchen. Based on what we have seen so far I am considering buying a stove with an induction cook top if the gas stove we have ever gives up the ghost. They are a bit pricey right now but hopefully they will go down plus there might be some overall energy savings as well.

I hung some Chinese lanterns in the house. We still have them up, even after moving from Las Vegas to Las Cruces. Oh, my wife loves the vacum cleaner so you may not want to get rid of it.

It took us about half an hour from the time we took a number and finished with business at the window. Majority of the time was just waiting. I don't know for sure about having a relative pick it up for you. It would seem that this would be reasonable. Maybe one of your relatives could visit the office for you and ask in person. When picking the passport up they do accept good old American dollars for payment. You do not take a number to pick the passport up, just enter and get in the line for the one window that hands out the new passport. Yeah, he should not need the passport unless he travels so you could wait it out.

Okay. This is the experience that my wife and I had renewing her passport at the Chinese Consulate in L.A. YMMV. We traveled there from New Mexico this past December. We only had a couple of days since my wife had to go back to work and did not think we would be able to get it expedited in the short time we had. This turned out to be right. Went to the building where they handle this (it is not in the consulate building but just down the street). We went up to the 3rd floor and upon entering you take a number. Got called to a window and gave them the paperwork and her old passport. Told them that we wanted to pay for the passport ($55) and asked that they send the new one to us in N.M. They unequivocally said no, they would not send it to us and we were to pay the passport fee upon picking the new one up. They gave only two options: were to either come back in six weeks; or have a travel agency pick it up for us and send it to us. We went back in January and picked it up. Took about two minutes to get it once we were there. Parking is a pain, especially dependent on time of day you are there. You will park on the street. Remember to take quarters to put in the parking meter.

You may find this site to be interesting as it discusses the influx of different groups onto the island of Taiwan. http://www.taiwandna.com/ You have to go down the page quite a ways to get into better information. There are at least some native peoples who are not related to the Chinese through their DNA. They were the first inhabitants of the island before the Chinese came. So not all Taiwanese are Chinese.

I assume your wife is still a Chinese citizen. Since you will be traveling together there is no need to have an invitation letter from your mother-in-law. Just put that you are traveling with your wife who is a Chinese citizen. You can enter the mother's address for place to stay if you are going to stay with her. I most recently obtained the 1 year multi entry visa and traveled to Beijing in August. I could have gotten the two year but did not see the point in expending the extra funds at that time. Length of time for this visit I would just put your expected length of stay. You could submit copies of your wife's passport information pages and of your marriage book if you married in China or license from the U.S. if married here. That may influence whether they give you a two year or not. I supplied that for the one year and I am sure it did not hurt.

Thanks for the update. I leave for Beijing Friday afternoon. JAL from LA to Tokyo and then to Beijing. I have flown JAL before and like them pretty well.

Received my visa for China the end of last week. Applied for the 12 month, multiple entry visa and had no trouble getting it. Last visit was in fall of 2005. My wife will leave on August 1st and go visit family in Chongqing. I will meet her in Beijing on the 8th and we will stay there for about two weeks. We found a one bedroom apartment in Chongwenmen to rent for $38 a day. Hopefully the place will be as nice as the pictures.

That's great. My wife received her letter approving the grencard March 28th. She received the actual greencard in the mail yesteday. We are having a special meal and cake today to celebrate.

Was in Columbus, Ohio this past week. The Columbus Asian Market is pretty nice. It is located on Bethel Road just west of 315. Good selection but a little higher priced than the markets on Cleveland Ave and N. High Street. My wife found a few things there that we can not find in El Paso so we ended up bringing a few items back with us.

We received notice in the mail that my wife was approved on March 23rd for her 10 year greencard. Submitted the original paperwork in May of last year. Had biometrics in 06-08. Transferred from TX to VT in October.

My wife had to have surgery back in August for a burst appendix. She also had part of her intestine removed because of some complications from the appendix. She would not let me call her mother or brother in China to let them know. She was okay with my telling my family but she probably would not have forgiven me if I had gone ahead and called her family.

My wife found our political process to be interesting as well. When Obama won the election she said that he was very young for the position. She said no one that young would ever be the head of China. But then she said she thought that our way was better.