The Trip

So much has happened in the week we’ve been here, but I want to give you a sense of the crazy trajectory of that time, from our flight out of Vancouver, B.C., to this moment where I’m sitting at the computer in our apartment, kids watching a movie, Dave cooking dinner (spaghetti, not Chinese food—that’s another post), horns blaring outside and my laundry hanging from metal bars on the balcony.

Dave’s dad got us to the Vancouver airport in plenty of time, only for us to find out that our flight on Air China had been delayed four hours because of heavy rains in Beijing. The Air China people very kindly switched us over to an Air Canada flight that left a little earlier and would still get us to Beijing in plenty of time to go through customs (although without Air China boarding passes) and catch our connecting flight to Hohhot. And all went swimmingly (even the 11 hour flight, amazingly enough) until we landed in Beijing. Those same heavy rains that bothered us in Canada were wreaking havoc in China—flights cancelled, people sprawled everywhere in the airport, and tremendous chaos at the Air China “information” desk. Of course, by the time we got through customs (unbelievably easy), had our bags ready to re-check, our flight had been cancelled to Hohhot and the next available flight had somewhat ambiguously been rescheduled for “around” 10 p.m (despite the fact that later Dave was told there would not be another flight until the next day!). It was midnight by our internal clocks and we were very very tired. Bags in hand (well, on carts) we trudged to the Air China area and got hit full-force with utter chaos. And contrary to what we had been led to believe and had innocently presumed, not very many people spoke English. The kids and I stretched out over our bags and Dave spent the next 4 hours trying to get us on a flight.

Now, see this picture of the Air China Information counter? No lines, just a mass of people crowding up to the front, waving papers, shouting, stressed out, and the people behind the counter madly scribbling something on 8x10 pieces of paper and taping them to the wall behind them. Dave visited that counter many times, each time learning a little more about how to get information Chinese style. By a crazy stroke of luck, and originally completely unconnected to our plight, Dave started talking to a guy wearing UCLA shorts during one of his brief breaks from the crowds. This wonderful super terrific guy named Kyle (Sound a little over the top in admiration? Try being stuck in a really foreign country with no boarding passes and 2 little kids on no sleep…), who was on some kind of “Silk Road to the Future” as a “Peace Ambassador”, goes to UCLA which of course is where Dave and I both went. Oh hooray for connections and common bonds! In the end (I am a little fuzzy on this as I finally passed out with the kids), Kyle got his group’s interpreter to help Dave out. Forty minutes and four different “customer” counters later, she handed Dave 4 boarding passes. On the downside, we had to get our bags checked-in in about 15 minutes and scurry to the gate or else miss the flight. We looked over at the swarm of people not in orderly lines waiting to check-in at economy class, then we looked at the first-class counter with no one in line (or swarming, however you look at it). Dave put into play the lessons he had learned in the previous four hours and just barged right up to the first-class counter, started throwing our bags onto the belt, and boldly waited for the lady behind the counter to move his bags through. Can you imagine trying to do that in the US? And it worked!

That is where this picture comes in—we were no kidding unbelievably jubilant despite being stretched to the max. There is no picture to show how freaked out we later became when the flight to Hohhot (originally cancelled and then somehow re-instated) stayed on the tarmac with us inside for two long hours. Claustrophobia??? Ack. We did finally take off, getting into Hohhot at midnight, 9 a.m. west coast US time, 23 ½ hours after we first stepped into the Vancouver airport.