BEIJING, Dec. 10, 2007 — -- Living in China is not always easy. And working in China as a foreign journalist can also be very difficult.

In January, the government said it was easing restrictions on foreign reporters to make it easier for them to operate here leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is arguable that anything has really changed.

It is still next to impossible to get an interview with a high- or midlevel Chinese official. Foreign journalists often get detained and their videotapes confiscated. But this is an example of a much more inane task that one should be able to accomplish relatively easily and ideally without too much strife.

It must be said that often it's shocking how easy it is to get some of the things that can make one feel at home: a Starbucks latte, a nice old world bottle of red, a fantastic restaurant, a Sephora cosmetics store. Sometimes it makes you forget that you are an American reporter working in a Communist country.

Today, we went to renew our residency visas at the public security bureau, a place which reminds one of the Department of Motor Vehicles. None of the residents were happy to be there and none of the employees were happy to work there.

Smiles were few and far between but the lines were abundant and long, long, long. We came equipped with our incredibly competent and diplomatic Chinese translator, our passports, our journalist cards and residency letters from our apartment buildings. That was all we needed last time.

After standing in line for an hour and getting cleared from the guy who handles visas for foreign journalists, we stood in line for another two hours to submit our documents to the next happy employee.

She, after several intense Mandarin conversations with our translator, informed us that we needed a different form, but could not tell us where we get that form.

Our frustration was abundantly clear. And when we asked to speak to the "lao ban" (the boss), we were told that we had to apologize for expressing our frustrations. Huh? Say what?

We sort of managed to get past that, but were then informed of the new rule: Foreign journalists are now required to register with the local police department. That means we have to find the closest police station, bring them the lease to our apartment, our passports, our journalist cards, our residency agreements and our faces so they can take a photo. All so they can track our movement all the more closer.

Frankly, that is not so shocking. You have to watch yourself everywhere you go.

And it's not much different for the activist Chinese residents. The ones who have proven themselves troublemakers, i.e. the dissidents, are either under house arrest, in jail or are watched in every move that they make. And as foreign journalists, we are watched like dissidents.

Chinese officials and regular people alike tend to think that American journalists, like Chinese journalists, work for the government of the United States, so it is no wonder they want to keep tabs.

Realizing it just comes with the territory, we just chalk it up to a "bad China day," as the expats like to call it, and move on. So, Tuesday when we have to spend another four hours at the police department and the "DMV," we just try to remember that we are here for a greater cause. And that after a long day, we can at least get a nice bottle of red.