A Chinese tourist from Shenyang city, in Liaoning Province, known only as ‘Mr. Zhang’, is currently stranded in Korea for a very bizarre reason – his four -year-old son doodled on his passport! The two were on a short father-son bonding trip to Korea, organized by a local hospital, but had to extend their stay after custom officials denied the dad passage due to his doodled passport photo.

This is really serious business for Mr. Zhang, but this story had me laughing out loud, especially after seeing pictures of what the kid did with his dad’s passport. The little tyke apparently didn’t realize that it was an important document, and used it as a sketchbook. He drew animals, clouds, plants, people and unintelligible doodles all over the passport, and even ‘improved’ his dad’s photograph with a mustache and beard.

Mr. Zhang was preparing to leave South Korea, when he realized that he had accidentally left his passport with his son. Unfortunately it was already too late. Obviously, the Korean immigration officials weren’t impressed with the boy’s drawing talent, and they barred him from leaving the country. Mr. Zhang then posted pictures of his son’s masterpiece on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, with a plea for help. “It’s so depressing,” he wrote. “What am I supposed to do now I cannot go back to China? Solutions? Help???”

The incident took on May 15, and so far it isn’t clear if the man was able to go home or not. He was advised on Weibo to visit the Chinese embassy for emergency travel documents, but the process could take a while. Some social media users are even doubting the authenticity of the story; they feel that the passport may have been digitally manipulated and posted online (especially because the man’s identity is completely invisible).

Meanwhile, reports say that government officials are urging Chinese tourists to take extra care of their travel documents. “The picture on the passport is very important. If there is any damage done to the face area of the picture, you may fail to get through customs,” they warned.

Source: GB Times