最近要托亲戚在国内帮我办些事， 政府机构回答说要我的受权书，并且要认证。幸好有朋友办过此事。 现在把这些steps post 出来给朋友们分享：

1. Write that Letter of Authorization
2. Get notarized at any notary in Santa Clara County
3. Go to North First Street County Government to get the stamp (认证 —- certify? verify? whatever the English is）认证that the person is registered in this county to issue notary.
4. Go to San Francisco to get Governor’s signature to 认证 the County of Santa Clara (it is a golden seal) on a piece of paper.  To 认证 SC County is legit, i.e., not something you say it is. 

At this point you can go to Chinese Counsulate, they will recognize the state of California (Ideally/logically you still need to go to State Department in Washington (by mail) to 认证 the State of California) issue their notarization.  Within China they only recognize the official Chinese Document.  In this case the Consulate paper issued to you.  This will say that you are you who said whatever you said on that piece of paper

There was an international treaty, Hong Kong and places belongs to the treaty nation.  Your local notary is enough in that case.  China is not a member, so everything has to be notarized by the Central Government.  But for US, State Government is enough for Chinese Consulate to issue 认证。

You get the idea.  Government recognize Government Country to Country.  To prove "you" is you in another country you have to go through that logic.  Hillary Clinton has to say you are you, but in this case Schwarznagor is decent enough that he would not lie so they trusted.

There are TWO kinds of notary also, make sure you know what they want what they want

1. Notarize you signature.  In this case, they only notarize that you are the person who signed.  They don’t care what you say if you said anything, and what you said does not carry the same legal weight as you swear in court (i.e., false statement cannot be prosecuted as perjury).  That is, you can say whatever you want, and say later: "Sorry, I lied". 
2. Notarize that you swear in front of him/her that you made as specific statement.  That statement if proven false, you will go to jail for perjury or what ever the penalty is.