Xu learned that if they had said they were partners from the beginning, they would have been allowed to go through border control together, avoiding all the drama. Xu kept explaining that they were very close friends, until at one point the officer asked: “Are you two partners?”Īnd then everything changed. An officer asked them why one’s documents were in the hands of the other. In the secondary screening room – commonly referred to by Chinese travelers as the “small dark room” – Xu and Li waited almost three hours, believing that they would be denied entry.