visa.schmisa.

When you fill out the application info for the chinese embassy, you can request a single entry, double entry, or multiple entry visa. If you're flying into china, traveling around china, and leaving from china, you only need a single entry. If you're doing the above, but also want to take a trip to, say, vietnam, you need a double entry. If you're living in hong kong for 2 months (hong kong is not considered china), and plan to bee bop around china quite a bit, you'll need a multiple entry visa. The general consensus was that it would be unlikely that the chinese embassy would grant a multiple entry for a tourist visa if i didn't have a previous single or double entry visa. The visa service didn't even  have a spot for it in their paperwork. However, the possibility of having to limit myself to two trips to mainland china (which is quite close to hong kong) over two months made me sad (plus, it's the same price regardless of how many entries they grant you), so i wrote a little note in the comment section that said something like, "I am requesting a multiple entry visa. I will be staying in hong kong for two months and would like to take several short trips into mainland china." My passport arrived via fedex today with an M in the entries spot. Now to start planning all my weekend getaways!