well, if u lose your passport in a foreign country, that would be the first and only place I would run to. being undocumented is in some countries illegal, some others inconvenient.
Just don’t. 
I’m not sure, but I’ve had cops pull me over to ask for ID solely for the reason that I was exploring a train station.
I won’t risk it.
I had mine stolen in Hainan in 2013. I’d gone for a walk on a beach outside Haikou and because it was hot made the dumb mistake of putting everything from my jeans pockets into my backpack (which I never do). I was putting my shoes on again after the beach to go for the bus back and suddenly noticed my backpack had disappeared from right next to me with the strap over my leg. It happened in less than maybe 30 seconds, and I lost my passport, wallet, phone, all my cards and money, a DSLR camera and a couple of lenses, and some other random stuff.
Never got anything back of course, but the local police were amazingly helpful. They took me to a nearby international hotel so they could “borrow” one of the English-speaking staff to help take the statement and I could use their phones to call my dad and ask him to cancel my cards, as well as my supervisor in Nanjing to reschedule my return flight (I had to cut the trip short because I was due to fly to Europe about a week later so needed to deal with everything).
The lady in charge of the police station lent me some of her own money so I could survive until flying back, gave me an unexpected hug, then the police drove me back to my hotel in Haikou. Two other policemen then spent the next couple of days helping me deal with everything. They’d come pick me up from the hotel in the morning, hand me a bottle of water or another drink, and take me to the main police station/PSB — up through some staff entrance and stairs to some murky back rooms, where my guy would have one of those long Chinese shouting matches with another policeman until he finally agreed to issue whatever paperwork was required for a foreigner with no ID. Then they’d take me out for lunch/dinner. Eventually I got some document confirming the lost passport, which allows you to travel. On the last day, the police came and picked me up again and gave me a lift to the airport.
Then got back to Nanjing and used the lost passport thing to take the train to Shanghai to get an emergency passport from the British consulate, covering my trip from China to Europe and back, then back to the PSB in Nanjing to get a residence permit sticker in the emergency passport.
I got one of my students to return the money to the policewoman by WeChat or whatever, and we sent one of those weird thank-you banner things to the police station (their suggestion of course, not my idea):
Anyway, it all worked out fine but quite a hassle and expensive overall. I think it’s around then that I decided for sure that I’d prefer to just leave my passport at home most of the time. Whatever hassle it might cause to be stopped by the police without a passport, I think it’s going to be less than the hassle caused by losing it.
6 Likes
I think you were endangering national security! Or stealing state secrets! Or something like that. 
Guy
Cool. I once witnessed a couple whose passports had been stolen having the exact opposite type of experience. The lady even broke down in tears in a room full of strangers. Having that police officer who’s willing to do the shouting match on your side instead of the bureaucracy’s side is the key.
1 Like