Later…
I am definitely so glad to get out of China. I’m on the plane to New Zealand now. What a pain in the ass this trip has been! After all the customs and hanging out on the floor and everything in Urumqi, I went to check in again two hours before the flight. I could tell something was up when the guy checking me in got the furrow between his brow and was taking about a decade. Finally he said there was some problem and said he’d be right back. Then he left – with my passport!
When he came back, after what seemed like a year, he had someone with him who asked me if I had a ticket to leave New Zealand. I knew that this was a requirement for the visa in New Zealand. My plan, however, had been to purchase the ticket during my fourteen-hour layover in Guangzhou so that I’d have it when I went through customs and immigration in NZ. However, this guy said they wouldn’t issue me a boarding pass until I had proof of an onward ticket.
They said they could give me the boarding pass to Guangzhou, and then I’d need to get my luggage again, but since it was a long layover, China Southern would put me up in a hotel during my time there. Then, I’d need to check in again with my proof of an onward ticket. They wouldn’t even let me check my baggage through to NZ. I was pretty annoyed. If they had told me this three hours before, when I had originally tried to check in, I could have been working on getting Wi-fi access and trying to get a ticket while I was there, instead of sitting around (on the floor) in the airport! I said as much to the guy, who by then had escorted me to another desk in order to explain the situation to me. (Which was weird since he had already explained it to me where we were standing and then escorted me over to re-explain, nearly verbatim. They said they’d call ahead to Guangzhou to let them know I was coming and about the hotel (although I think any layover longer than 6 hours was their standard for comp-ing a hotel so it’s not like this was a special deal he was giving me). Then, they gave me my boarding pass and passport, and one of the guys asked me to follow him again. As we were walking away, they stopped us again and said they were going to upgrade me to the front of the plane – I have to tell you that I noticed nothing different from that area of the plane than from the rest of it when I boarded. Anyway, then the guy escorted me to the security checkpoint. Crazy. I’m not sure why I needed an escort there.
Guangzhou Airport
Things went okay until I got to Gangzhou. When we arrived there, it was after midnight. I picked up my luggage and asked where to go to talk to the China Southern people about my room. I was directed somewhere and ended up on a floor where everything was dark and all the desks were closed. There was a security guy sitting in the dark, so I asked him and he told me to walk over a bridge there to the next terminal. I did that and then as I did more people kept coming and asking what I needed and then saying, ‘Come with me.” And then they’d pass me off to someone else. Finally, they passed me off to some guy who took me outside the building and then walked me up past doorway entrances at the terminal. Then, he looked into the building and told me the China Southern desk was closed and I’d need to get my own hotel! I told him that was not the plan, that they were expecting me, and that I didn’t have money for a hotel. He told me I should use a credit card. I was getting pretty angry by then. Finally he told me to go to some other area (back where we had originally come from) to see if I could find someone from China Southern. As I was walking back, some guy walking down the sidewalk said some things that sounded pretty rude to me as I approached, but it was in Chinese. I glared at him as I walked by, daring him to mess with me. He didn’t.
hotel room in Guangzhou
When I got back into the terminal, I finally found two people at a desk who were from China Southern. They got me a voucher for a hotel and told me someone would come with a shuttle in about 20 minutes. I verified that the hotel would have Wi-Fi before I left. When I got there after 2am, things were okay and I got checked in and managed to book a ticket from New Zealand to Australia for the day after Christmas. Not a problem, as I had planned. Not sure what all the fuss was about.
Scene from the bus back to the airport
I took the 11am shuttle back to the airport. When I checked in, they didn’t even ask for any information about my onward ticket at all! There were other issues in the airport, though. I asked the guy for a window seat, which he assured me he had given me. I was surprised, since the seat was the letter C. Sure enough, when I got on the plane, it was the aisle. Could be worse, I could’ve had a middle seat, but I’ve already been bumped many times and had my foot run over by a cart once. I also got something from a duty free shop on my way out of the airport and they said my credit card wouldn’t work. Don’t know if it just was an issue with charges in a new country, or what, but I was just about at the end of my tolerance. I definitely couldn’t wait to get out of that annoying country.
We’ll have to see what issues I run into in New Zealand’s customs. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as my Chinese experience! Somehow, I doubt it will. I’m not a fan of China and I’m looking forward to being in just about any other country!