Flight to Dalian

Needless to say my trip to China has been quite interesting... and I've only been on Chinese soil for just over 24 hours. I think the biggest adjustment by far has been that I don't have constant Internet access. I'm almost to the point of wanting to cave in and pay the $20/MB for data network usage in China. Apparently the iPhone 3GS just got released here in China -- the first iPhone product available. Anyhow, to substitute, I've been keeping little tweets in my moleskin that I'll just try to transcribe to keep this... some what less wordy :)

The flight
My flight was scheduled for Thursday, December 17th at 12:15pm. I get to the airport quickly -- check-in, security, etc goes very quickly. Boarding even, is great. But after sitting in the airplane and not moving for about an hour, at 1:30pm, they notify us that there's a power issue on the plane, they need is to get off the plane so they can completely shut it down and re-boot it. Our plan gets rescheduled for 3:30pm. Great. I don't mind the wait so much as I'm starting to get nervous about my connecting flight from Beijing to Dalian. BUT for the delay, I get a free drink. Awesome.

The plane ride itself is great. Although I'm sitting in the middle of the middle seats, the lady to the left and right of me both have friends in other parts of the plane so they're rarely in their seats, letting me spill over and prop my feet up. I spend a LOT of time watching the movies and TV shows they have on the Continental flight: Arrested Development, Family Guy, 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Mad Men, Man vs. Food, Madagascar, Up... I pretty much watched a LOT of TV... so I didn't sleep... I also didn't sleep the night before... but this will be good b/c then the 13 hr time change won't be so bad.

We land in Beijing fairly close to schedule: around 5:45pm, Beijing time. My connecting flight is scheduled for 7:50pm. I'm *really* nervous. I run through customs, VERY quickly, and I'm so happy about that... but then I get to baggage claim. It takes me an HOUR to get my one bag. I'm beginning to regret checking it in. By the time I get it, it's already 7pm. I then go to figure out where my connecting flight is. All international flights go into Beijing's Terminal 3. It was built in late 2007 and early 2008 to accommodate for the Beijing Olympics. I have to transfer to Terminal 2. For some reason, instead of having a special area for inter-terminal transportation, they have that shuttle mixed amongst the buses that go through all of Beijing. Lovely. Then, I find out that Terminal 2 is also an 8 minute drive away, literally 8 minutes. I timed it. I get to Terminal 2, find my airline. By the time I get there, it's 7:30pm and they tell me I've officially missed my flight. Screw. I then go to their ticket counter (which is different from the check-in counter). I argue with them that it's not my fault that I missed my flight and they agree that if I can get documentation from Continental indicating that I was in fact on the late flight, then they can move to me a later charge free of charge. And documentation <> boarding pass. And since Continental is international, they're office is in Terminal 3. The next flight is at 10:10pm. I go back to Terminal 3, ask where the Continental office is. I find the office. It's closed b/c they close at 8pm. I go back to the help desk, they give me a phone number. They say to go to Air China, their Chinese partner in the Alliance, and they'll help me figure it out. I go to the Air China help desk and they say that the person on the phone directed me to the wrong person. I call the Continental phone number again, it's busy for the next 10 min. I get thru and they're like. Oh well we can't do anything about it so you'll just have to buy another ticket and figure this out when our office is open. Screw. So I go back to Terminal 2, and just buy the 10:10pm flight. Whatever, I lost my original ticket for now, but hopefully when i'm in Beijing leaving, I can convince Continental to reimburse me for my original flight. Thank goodness I know Chinese -- otherwise this whole thing would have been a MESS. Or at least more of a mess than it already was.

I get on my 10:10pm flight to Dalian, arrive around 11:15. Get to my apartment by midnight and finally get to sleep. By the time I've fallen asleep, it'd literally been 70 hours since I got a solid sleep in. Best sleep ever.

But here's the thing I'm completely thrown off by: my LAST MINUTE flight from Beijing to Dalian only cost about 600 RMB... i.e. $88. SO CHEAP! I later asked my dad what my original flight cost. If you book in advance, it's about a 50% discount -- like in the US. They originally bought my ticket for 300 RMB... i.e. $44! Shit for that price in the US, I can barely take a BUS to DC or Boston! OR it's about 2 1/2 round trips from my house in Bridgewater to NYC! Airfare in China is SO CHEAP!

The funniest part? Getting hit on by a random Egyptian. In my trip back to Terminal 3, there was a guy trying to ask the shuttle driving in broken English if the shuttle was going to Terminal 3. The shuttle driver just gave him a blank look. So the Egyptian turned around and asked "English anyone?" I responded and said that this was indeed the shuttle going to Terminal 3. I think the guy got really excited and sat down next to me and asked me all about where I was from, what I made, if I had a boyfriend, how much I made, etc. He then proceeded to tell me that he was going to NYC in two months and wanted me to contact him. He gave me his business card and asked for my phone number and email... MANY times. So awk... yet hilarious.