Agree with @moondog. Use the F, be a 'businessman' and check Business or Conference as visit purpose. Don't rock the boat, don't force officials to think. As I always say, the Chinese gov't will lie to you as often as they wish or think they can get away with, so you shouldn't feel too guilty about reciprocating where there's no real downside. In the end, you will be spending money in China and as long as you aren't creating trouble that requires the local Police or your country's Consular officials, China is happy to see you spending whether on L or F.

Thanks both for the advice. I for sure won't loose any sleep over feeling guilty, just want to avoid any trouble and missing flights. I will make sure to act as businessman-like as I can...

I used to have F visas and checked the tourism option 90% of the time and they did not care. Nothing wrong with it.

Going to China
 

So.. In late April I'm going to China. I'm now realizing that I can't mail in my application into the Chinese consulate. Agents are at least $75ish a visa plus shipping.

I'm planning on flying to DC in March for a weekend. Even though I'm an FL resident and have to technically go through Houston, could I do it in DC? Since I don't think I would have enough time in DC to pickup the visas, could I leave a prepaid mailer and have them FedEx it back?

If not, what's the cheapest East Coast agent?

Thanks a ton!

Yes, you can go through DC. No, they won't mail it to you.

Interesting.. How long would the standard Visa service take? If I dropped off the docs on a Tuesday, would they be done by Friday?

If there are no issues with your visa application, the chances are pretty good that it will be done by Friday. They will tell you when to pick it up when you drop it off.

You don't have to pick it up or drop it off yourself. You can actually have anyone do it such as a relative or a friend. All you need is the pickup slip and the money to pick it up.

Could I get a Taskrabbit to do it?

Technically yes if you trust them with your passport, visa application, and money. Just remember that they must have the pick-up slip.

I had a trusted friend in Houston do it for me.

There is a visa agent (Oasis iirc) on the third floor in the same building as the consulate in DC that does pickup + mail back for around $20. I learned about them because there is a no longer copy machine in the consulate itself (i.e. they tell you to go to the third floor, and overpay).

Foreign embassies and consulates are usually closed on weekends, US holidays, and their own holidays. I don't know if you can do that during a weekend. I know the SFO consulate can do visa in a day (perhaps less).

My wife and kids have been using visa agencies for visa to China. I have also done that for passport renewal and visa India. My preference would be to pay the visa agency to take care of my visa, and perhaps do something else in DC.

Interesting.. I'm not going to be particularly busy in DC so I'm tempted to go down there, drop everything off, and have Oasis do the pickup (I just gotta make sure it's really $20). The agencies are all super expensive from what I've found. It's a good $100 per visa and $25 shipping each way. I can literally fly Spirit to DC and stay in an AirBnB for 5 days for less than that. Plus, I get to spend time in DC.

Anyhow, to throw another wrench into all of this: I'm going to be in China for about three days at a time. I'm planning on visiting a neighboring country for a 3 days in the middle of my trip. As a US citizen flying into Beijing, could I get away with the whole 144 hour visa free period? This is probably the wrong thread for that..

The way the timing looks is like this:
Fly into Beijing on the 21st at 2:30 in the evening.
Leave Beijing to go to a neighboring country (not HK FWIW) on the 24th at 1:00 in the evening at the latest..

Return to Beijing 10:00 AM on the 27th
Leave Beijing to go to the US on the 30th at 5:00.

The only hanging "chad" would be that I have two separate reservations. One for my flight in and out of Beijing and one for the neighboring country trip.

Thanks a ton!

Who knows what's going to happen politically. I think getting that ten-year visa now could be a very good investment.

Yes, I could imagine that the new US administration would like to remove the reciprocal 10 year visa option ASAP and probably get back to maximum one year visas for both Chinese and US citizens.

I doubt that anything will change myself, but time will tell.