“I’m like a bull… I only fly away”
Plane ticket. Translation? No idea.
You know what country I find kind of intimidating? China. More than a billion people here. I can’t read or understand their language. I believe the country is still communist, but I’m not entirely sure. Either way, they have a lot of rules and a lot of notices posted everywhere that look quite important and vaguely threatening, but I can’t read most of them, as they are mostly only in Chinese.
I wasn’t able to check my baggage all the way to New Zealand because I had to go through customs during my layover in China. I arrived in Urumqi from Turkey and had to go through passport control and customs before I could get to my connecting flight. I have a five or six hour layover before I have a flight to Ghuangzou. Then I have to wait another 14 hours before my flight to New Zealand. This first layover is too short to qualify for a hotel voucher (if I’m lucky, I’ll get one in Ghuangzou). I went upstairs after leaving customs and immigration to try and get my boarding passes and check in my luggage. I was told that I couldn’t do that until two hours before the flight.
It took me a little bit to realize that this meant I was stuck in this entrance terminal of the airport for the next few hours. I can’t go in and I can’t go out. Even stepping outside for some fresh air isn’t allowed because there are police at the doors and they put you and your luggage through security at the entrance to the building itself. So I’m stuck here in the terminal and I still have all my luggage with me, not just my carry-on. Kind of a pain in the ass. And since I haven’t seen any exchange places or any ATMs and I don’t have money to even get anything in the shops they have here. There are restaurants, but the prices are all in Yuen…I supposed I could use a credit card, but that seems rather silly for a coffee or sandwich. (I have some snacks anyway, I’ll survive.)
Wedged in at a Chinese Airport…
So I sit here – what seems like the only non-Chinese person in the entire building – tucked between a couple of potted plants next to a power outlet I’ve gotten permission to use. Actually, it’s an extension cord/multiple plug strip next to the entrance to one of the check-in lines, but the girl there was nice enough to let me plug my cell phone in there. (I think I pulled off the “frustrated, slightly lost, needing help” look flawlessly.) It seems as though half of the people I’ve asked for help have not understood me and the other half have only understood half of what I’ve said! (I must confess, I often can’t tell if I asked someone a question yet or not, since I have difficulty differentiating between people here, especially staff who are all wearing the same uniform!)
Worst of all, it’s cold and dreary here. The temperature is a hair above freezing, maybe 34 F or 2C. It’s so cloudy I can’t tell where the sun is. I had no idea what time it was when I got here. The information on my plane said it was 7:30am, but then when I tried to check in, I realized it was actually 7 hours later than that! Not early morning light, but mid-afternoon! I slept quite a bit on the plane here, so I wasn’t too certain how long it was, but now I’m fairly sure the flight was around 11 hours long. Crazy. No wonder I feel a bit discombobulated.
The total travel time for this trip (Istanbul to Auckland, via Urumqi and Guangzhou) is 42 hours, with 22 hours of flying time. I hope I am not too dysfunctional when I arrive in New Zealand! Also, I hope this bull doesn’t wreck the entire China shop before she leaves this country! (Side note – I think I just saw a European person – signs I’m not the only foreigner!)