A passport to a major headache

Reporting from Shanghai — It's never a good feeling to lose your passport and all your credit cards in the biggest city in the most populous country of the world. It's an even worse feeling when you realize that your country isn't going to lift a finger to help you.

Getting back to the U.S. from China, where I was traveling with friends in September, was a week-long saga of closed government offices, stubborn officials and airline personnel, and a constant refrain of "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." It wiped away my perception that as long as I didn't do anything illegal, the U.S. government would clean up any problems.

I was heading back from a grueling hike in Anhui province when I left my passport and credit cards in a taxicab in Shanghai, two days before I was scheduled to return home. I stumbled through the streets, trying to avoid the Shanghai drivers who probably wouldn't yield to a pedestrian even if Chairman Mao were to rise from his grave. I entered an Internet cafe, where I used Skype to call the U.S. Consulate in Beijing (the embassy had closed). The woman on duty told me that the Consulate was closed for the weekend plus a weeklong Chinese holiday, so I wouldn't be able to get a new passport for 10 days. I wasn't sure, but she sounded slightly gleeful.

Visa, please

Hundreds of years ago, Marco Polo traveled across modern-day Uzbekistan and Mongolia and ended up in the court of Kublai Khan in China without a passport, or even a visa. "He is heartily welcome," the khan is reported to have said. Later, the khan made Polo governor of Yangzhou, a city near modern day Shanghai.

Today, it's not so easy to enter China. For my trip there as a tourist, I had to apply for a visa, providing the Chinese with my itinerary, proof that I had a plane ticket to leave the country, and copies of hotel reservations. . When I lost the passport, I lost that hard-earned visa too.

The U.S. Consulate requires citizens in the area who need a new passport to go to the Exit-Entry bureau in Shanghai's Pudong district to get an official police report saying they lost their passport. I approached the man at the lost passport booth -- unluckily numbered 13 -- and told him I needed the police report fast.

"For emergencies, ask him," Passport Man said, pointing to a man sitting at a booth, where a long line waited.