This better not be a harbinger

Trip Start Sep 04, 2007

Trip End Nov 20, 2007

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Flag of China Beijing, China
Monday, September 10, 2007

You read stories of the frustrating inefficiencies of a Communist system, but you don't really understand (or I didn't, anyway) until you get a dose of it in person. On my way from Hong Kong to Ulaan Baator on Friday, I had to change planes in Beijing. How hard can it be? You get off one flight in the international terminal and you get onto another flight, right? Well, for starters, I forgot that Hong Kong is now officially a part of China, so I was arriving on a domestic flight, not an international flight. I'll take full credit for that mistake. The rest of the fiasco gets pinned on someone else, though. Before I finally arrived at the gate for my flight to Ulaan Baator, I had to:
- Fill out three forms on the plane and two more forms in the airport, and give four of them away in four different places. (I still have one form. I hope no one finds out.)
- Give up my cart twice because officious women standing at arbitrary locations insisted on collecting carts for no apparent reason. (I shouldn't need a cart, but I'm hauling around a bunch of stuff for the hiking and camping part of the trip to Shipton's Arch plus travel guides for two countries, three cities, and the Silk Road plus two books on China by Peter Hessler plus a couple of fat novels that I expect to get to during long train trips. Much of it, including all of the books except David Copperfield, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, and a couple of travel guides, is going back to Seattle when I return to Beijing after the tour.)
- Give up my cart a third time because I had to go up a flight of stairs and couldn't find an elevator.
- Have my bags nuked twice.
- Repeatedly guess at where I was supposed to go because signage was almost non-existent and customer service was a complete unknown.

Thankfully, I had plenty of time to make my connection to Ulaan Baator, and the absurdity of it all gave me several good laughs, but if this is any indication of what is in store for me during my stay in mainland China, the laughs will become, I predict, a bit more hysterical with each new episode of institutional silliness.

By the way, I can read email in my cascade.org account right now but I can't reply, so if you pinged me and haven't heard anything back, please be patient. I'm guessing that the connection is so slow (yes, slower than my dialup connection at home) that it times out before the reply form displays. Here's hoping that the connection will be faster in Beijing than it is in Ulaan Baator. (The problem I had last night with even seeing email turned out to be a problem with an Internet Explorer security setting. All better now.)

To answer a question that I got in email, I can see comments that you post to the blog, so knock yourselves out. :-)

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Comments

scotto on Sep 9, 2007 at 02:33PM

You'll wish it was a harbinger
Hola Scott (just back from Barcelona myself). If your visit to China turns out anything like mine did, then Beijing will be the smoothest part. But also, the least exciting -- much fun ahead!

Scott

pperlman on Sep 9, 2007 at 11:49PM

Take Out
Just finished some Moo Shu Shrimp..didnt even leave my house and no Jet lag...shampoo on the toilet..just like in Brooklyn. Later....Longdong

guither on Sep 10, 2007 at 03:54AM

Jealous
While I feel for your obstacles (I'm remembering the train tickets from Slovakia to Budapest), I'm enjoying reading about your adventures already.

Just remember that the train ticket screw-ups resulted in us being able to spend time in Kosice. Just try to enjoy the problems that will inevitably occur.

judithdaniel on Sep 10, 2007 at 05:33AM

You made it!
Glad you made it, even if by following your nose! By the way, are you going to Chengdu? Remember Heather Dinwiddie and Tom Hill from ASOL? They are starting their third year teaching English at a school in Chengdu. Before they left to go to China, they sold their house in Alexandria, VA, so you know they were serious about this change of life. We just saw them at the end of August and they are just starting their school year now. I am sure they would love to hear from you. I will take the liberty of giving you their email: thandhd@yahoo.com. (I think this is correct...let me know if you have trouble with this address.) Even if you weren't planning to go to Chengdu it might be worth changing your plans to go see them. We have really enjoyed keeping up with them!

Here's to your wonderful adventure! I will enjoy reading your postings.
Love, Judy

bdecommer on Sep 11, 2007 at 01:41PM

I have to ask...
Dialup connection? From a guy who's blogging his trip? I don't know, you may be taking the retro thing a bit too far...

Man, I wish I were there with you. Even getting jerked around in an airport sounds like fun. Now every time I eat a pork bun, I think of you.

Bren

scottk on Sep 13, 2007 at 07:21AM

Re: I have to ask...
Maybe when I'm finished with my house ;-) I'll have time to surf the web. Besides, I work for Cisco Systems, and I live in Microsoft's home town (sort of). If I really need one, I can probably get one of the fastest Internet connections on the planet.

scottk on Sep 13, 2007 at 07:23AM

Re: You made it!
Amazing. Yes, I am going to Chengdu. I'll ping them today. Many thanks for the heads up.

Scott

mkeough on Sep 13, 2007 at 05:15PM

Greetings from Seattle
things aren't the same around the ol'candy bowl. Hope you are enjoying the travel. M

kumquatbaby on Sep 15, 2007 at 08:20PM

Soooooo jealous!
Wow sounds like quite the trip! I just got done reading through your bolg. This adventure junky will be going through withdrawls for a while(unless we count grad school and my ER internship as an adventure). Atleast I can live vicariously through your stories!
Take Care,
Jess :)

baixueming on Mar 22, 2008 at 09:15AM

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ϣ��й�֮�ú��!!~~~~~~~~�Һ��!I miss you so much!Best wishes!