Hi all,

I've scoured these forums for the last couple of hours but havnt quite got the answers that I need.

I am a UK national and am planning to be in Beijing until June 2011 but unfortunately the visa I currently hold is in no way appropriate for this.

To give a bit of background, I have been backpacking for the past 6 months and had to pick up a visa in Bangkok in order to come back to China. The only visas that were on offer were double-entry L visas with only 30 days valid for each entry. Obviously this causes an issue...as a backpacker I have neither the cash nor the time to do a visa run every 30 days and have to get another visa for the remainder of my stay here.

I am studying at the moment until the 6th of March (I couldnt get a student visa because I wasnt studying here for long enough). I intend to find some short term work in BJ for 2-3 months after that to take me up until June, but that side of things is yet to be confirmed.

My current allowed stay expires on the 1st March and I really need to know my options...

a) I understand that you can extend an L visa twice (once for each month). Is there any way that this can be achieved without having to provide the 25000RMB statement?... I have been backpacking for so long that this is definitely not an option.
b) If I were to extend my visa somehow this time, would it void the 1 remaining entry and therefore 30 days? If so it would seem a better idea to do a visa run and try the extension next month.
c) Are there any reputable agencies in Beijing that can help with the 'no statement' issue or is there another city that I can travel to to where the PSB are more relaxed?
d) Where is the best place to do a 'quick' and 'cheap' visa run? Korea/HK/etc? Does anyone know any cheap Train/ferry/air sites/places they can recommend? I have paid out a fair chunk of change for my course and dont want to have to miss any of it on a visa run if there is an alternative.
e) Can you get visas in HK that have entries longer than 30 days, i.e. the 60/90/120 that you can get in your home country?
f) I have heard of people sending their passports back to their home countries and using an agency to get a new visa for longer? This sounds pretty dangerous to me, not only the potential loss of passport but not having my passport with me in China...!
g) I happened to speak to an agency earlier who told me that I had to convert my L to a 6 month F costing over 6000RMB which sounds like crazy money to me.

Sorry for the number of questions and the length of this, but it helps me to think just getting it all down on the page.

Thanks in advance
Chris