China Requires Permission to Apply for Permission to Travel
Officials say the new travel-approval office is now the single hardest place in the country to reach.
Under the newly announced travel rules, any citizen wishing to leave their home region must first appear in person at a regional approval office to file a request. The office, in turn, has informed its own clerks that they may not report for their shifts without first securing travel authorization for the commute.
By midweek, the office's waiting room reportedly contained several clerks who had come to approve travel requests but were themselves waiting to be approved to have come at all. A separate window was opened to process their applications, staffed by clerks who had not yet been authorized to staff it.
"We came here to grant permission," said one clerk, who was not identified and whose badge appeared to still be in processing, "but it turns out permission is required to grant permission, so now we're just waiting with everyone else."
A notice pinned to the office door assured visitors that a resolution was being drafted, though staff cautioned that the drafting committee would need to file its own travel requests before the draft could be carried to the printer down the hall.
As of this week, the office's longest-serving applicant is reportedly one of its founding clerks, who has been waiting in the lobby since the rules took effect and is technically still on the clock.