Visas are sooo annoying

Well yesterday we went to get my visa renewed because all of next week is a holiday and everything is closed. We got there and the lady told us that we needed to bring our registration from the police department. Well we hadn't registered with the police department so we had to go back by where we live and have Jake's friend bring us our housing contract. After about 45min. we had the housing permit and went back to the office to extend my visa. Well the lady took my passport and said well we will get it back to you Oct. 7th (since they are closed all of next week). So Jake and I were planning on flying to Beijing for the week, but now we can't because I don't have any photo identification. Let me back up we were actually going to go to Hong Kong but I didn't have a multiple entry visa, so then we decided to go to Beijing. So now I don't know what we are going to do next week. We might take the 13 hour...yes I said 13 hour train ride to Beijing because you don't need your passport. And once again how does this stuff always happened to Jake and I when traveling?