I am an American citizen and not married to my Chinese girlfriend.

We have a 2 year old boy together. We recently received a U.S. passport for our child through an application process with the U.S. embassy in Beijing. He has not left China yet and therefore has not formalized his election to be a U.S. citizen. We want to take him for a short vacation to Thailand. We were informed by the China visa office that it can issue a visa for our child to go to Thailand, but when we are in Thailand, we need to go to the China embassy or consulate's office to get a visa for him to return to China. Can anyone shed more light on this process? Is this process correct? Kevin L.