Something I've noticed throughout the story so far is that Ryo had traveled to Hong Kong, which was designated as a Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom prior to the games in 1981 (the game is set in 1986), then to Guilin, which is deep in the People's Republic of China.
Now then, here's the million-dollar question, how did Ryo sort all travel documents needed for his trip into Mainland Asia? Not only that, when would Ryo have went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs throughout the first game?