"Caught sneaking into Vietnam 4/23/2001" China Travelogue by BorderHopper

If you ever find yourself traveling the same route we are, and your Vietnamese visa is expired, do not attempt what we attempted.
We traveled from Yangshuo to Nanning and then caught another bus to Pingxiang which is located right on the Chinese/Vietnamese border. Though our Vietnamese passport had expired several weeks before our arrival on the border we decided to chance it and try our luck getting across. We had heard that border closes at 5 pm and we arrived in Pingxiang at 5:30 pm, hired a moto taxi to take us to the border, and when we arrived at 6:30 pm we found the border still open. We originally planned on camping out in the area and waiting for sunrise before we attempted to cross but seeing that the border was still open we decided to try our luck. We were waved through the gate by the first Chinese guard and we walked a few meters into the Chinese immigration hall. When we got inside we saw two occupied guards speaking to some Vietnamese nationals but other than them the hall was empty. We just blew through the hall and headed down a road where we passed two more Chinese guards who waved us on. My heart started to beat with excitement because I started to actually belive that I would get into Vietnam. We walked 300 meters more down the road and I came face to face with the Vietnamese border guard. He was a young guy who looked a little suprised to see us. I could see the Vietnamese flag waving above and I realized that we were stepping on Vietnamese soil. He thumbed through our passports and didn't seem to notice that our Vietnamese visas had expired two weeks before. Just as it looked like he was going to stamp us in we see two Chinese border guards running down the road and motioning for us to get back into China. Well, I looked at the Vietnamese guard to see what he would do and he didn't wave us throgh but rather he motioned that we should return back ionto China. So Jason and I lugged our heavy sacks back down the road and came face to face with several not so happy Chinese border guards. They looked at our passports and saw the expired visa and the wouldn'yt allow us to exit. One gurd said there is no way we can attempt to resolve this with the Vietnamese who were just a few meters down the road and that we must return to Guangzhou. Guangzhou is not close to Pingxiang! As a matter of fact it is about the same distnace from Los Angeles to Southern Utah. We begged, we even put on our best sad fasces but the Chinese wouldn't listen.....so with our heads hung in defeat we returned to Pingxiang, holed up in a dumpy dorm room, and returned to Nanning the following day.

Welcome to Pingxiang, China. Jason points in the direction of Vietnam. It's still hard to belive we were on Vietnamese soil and within minutes we were back in China and there was nothing we could do about it.

Thank goodness we ran into this guy. Thai is from hanoi and he was holed up in the same dumpy hotel we were. He spoke great english and went above and beyond to help us out. He found us an internet cafe, took us out to eat, and got us on the train to Nanning the next day. Without his guidance we may not of had it so easy in Pingxiang.
We returned to Nanning and I have sent away for a new visa. I will be staying in nanning for the next few days and when it arrives I will attempt to legally cross the international boundry. Jason decided to try his luck in Guangzhou at the Vietnamese consulate. One way or the other our two months in China will come to an end and we will be well on way in Vietnam!