黄牛卖上海签证问题上报了，还有淘宝截图

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/04/24/new-target-for-chinese-scalpers-german-visa-interview-appointments/?mod=google_news_blog


April 24, 2012, 2 PM HKT

New Target for Chinese Scalpers: German Visa Interview Appointments



A screenshot of the website of the German Consulate in Shanghai shows all visa appointment interview slots filled for April 26.

Over the past month, Chinese nationals who are planning a visit to Germany have found it hard to get access to the German consulate in Shanghai for visa interviews. The diplomatic agency requires Chinese citizens in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces to make reservations for tourism visa interviews through its website before they are allowed to go to the consulate. Tour groups can be exempted from the rule.


“Wherever applicants are, as long as you can surf the Internet, a reservation can be made through the website of the visa office,” the German consulate says in a statement on its website.


But getting interview slots is proving to be difficult. As of Tuesday, applicants were told that all the appointments have been taken through July 17.


“In the past two weeks, the first thing I did when I got up was to refresh the website of the visa office of the German consulate. But I’ve still failed,” said Cecilia Cao, a 31-year old investment manager at a Shanghai-based asset management company.


The German visa office releases new appointments at 6 a.m. every working day. But slots seem to fill up right away. For example, at 5 a.m. of Friday, the visa office’s website showed that it hadn’t yet made those slots available to the public for July 13. But a minute later, the website said that all the appointments for visa interviews on July 13 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. were taken.


It’s unclear how many appointments the consulate makes available for Shanghai and its neighboring provinces every day. Data from the German Embassy in Beijing show that there are more than 200 appointments available for tourism visa interview from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day for the Chinese capital and other 18 provinces.


But there appears to be one way to make a reservation. When Ms. Cao and her friends became desperate, a local travel agency told them that the visa appointments can be purchased via Taobao.com, a popular Chinese online shopping website. They would be charged at least 500 yuan or 79 U.S. dollars, according to sales records on Taobao.com.



Taobao Mall

German consulate visa appointments for sale on Taobao.

“If the situation continues, I’m afraid I would either drop the plan or turn to scalpers for assistance,” said Ms. Cao.


Others have complained about the lack of slots on Weibo. “In the past, Chinese scalpers profiteered from train tickets. Now, they are shifting to profiteering from German visa appointments. We hope the embassy, the consulate and the police can step in for an overhaul,” said a person who posts under the name Kuaimenxiangdingdang.


“In China, anything that is subject to limitation can become a profitable business. That’s a unique culture in China!” a neitzen who uses the name Germany Living Cells wrote on Weibo.


In a response to public discontent, the German Embassy in Beijing said in a notice on Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo Friday that if there’s gaming the system, then their employees aren’t involved. “Any attempt that aims to manipulate appointments through modifying the system will be brought to justice,” the notice said, without saying whether it has started an investigation.


Spokespersons at the German Consulate in Shanghai and its Embassy in Beijing weren’t available for comment Tuesday.


– Rose Yu