Destination: China

Just leaving California was an adventure in and of itself. There was a "breaking news" alert on television that one of the airline terminals had been evacuated due to a suspicious package. Although it wasn't the international terminal, the traffic was really backed up. It took a good 20 minutes just to get to the terminal.

I've never used a "Smart Carte" before and I'm a huge fan now. There's no way I could have maneuvered my bulky bags without one. Not bad for a $3 rental fee. The international terminal at LAX was really big and felt like this melding of the world. So many nationalities just running around, bound for different destinations. There was no rhythm or system to the madness. Everyone knows how much I appreciate "order." More importantly, why does it have to be like this? There must be better way.

I got in line at the TSA screening point. I had no clue if this was where I needed to be. A young American woman was standing in line behind me. I asked her if this is where I was supposed to be. She said that it was. She should TSA would keep our bags while we went and checked in at our airlines. I waited the 25 minutes in line when the TSA screener looks for my luggage tags and asks, "What airline?"

"China Eastern."

"Have you checked in yet?"

"No."

Rolling her eyes, "You have to check in and then get your bags screened."

Sigh….Nothing's ever easy, is it?

So I made my way over to the China Eastern desk. Gosh, the line looks long, I thought. I should have gotten here way earlier. A man asked me if I was there for China Eastern. When I replied in the affirmative, he said, "The line starts back there." It was a line to get into the line.

Sigh.

A woman from the airline came around handing out the duty-free passes for the shop in the terminal. I asked her if there was a currency exchange station in the airport to convert my dollars into Chinese currency. She looked at me oddly and replied, "I no understand." A Chinese woman in the back of the line marched up and decided to get involved. She said that yes, there was a currency terminal in the airport but that it would be "better" to convert the money when I arrived in China. The flight attendant then she said she didn't understand why. They got into a very heated argument while I slunk away. As it turned out, I did convert my money when I got through screening. While on en route I was reading the Frommer's Guide Book and it said China is one of the few countries in the world where you should always convert your money in the United States and not in China, so I was glad I did so.

I was bummed out that I didn't get to the airport earlier because one of my favorite restaurants, The Daily Grille, has a location in the international terminal. Steak and cobbler would have been a really fitting farewell.

While in line at TSA, I met Danny Palm. He's from Flagstaff, Arizona and works for Northern Arizona University. He's lived in Beijing for a year and a half and does governmental relations for the university in China. The job has allowed him to see quite a bit of the country. He speaks enough Mandarin to get around and he was so nice to get to know. He's 25 and has one of those charismatic, easy-to-be-around personalities. He answered all my questions and promised to do anything he could to help. I really owe him because on the Shanghai to Beijing route he managed to score us some empty rows so we could sleep. The two hours of sleep I got on that flight were the only I got.

While Danny and I were in line at TSA, the screeners told everyone to "freeze." We're sure that we heard the word "bomb." We stayed silent for 10 minutes when apparently it got worked out. They were probably being hypersensitive because of the earlier excitement in the day.
The flight from LA to Shanghai was literally exhausting. The seats were so uncomfortable and barely reclined. I hate being tall at times like this. The only consolation was my seatmate, Lily Cheng. When she first got on board, I seriously thought she may have been a model. She was very attractive, fit, dressed in Prada, soaked in perfume, and had a cosmopolitan air about her. I found her "story" to be really representative of the "New China." She moved to the United States nine years ago without knowing a lick of English. Today, she owns a major port shipping firm that moves product from China to the Port of Los Angeles. Her clients include Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Sears among others.

Lilly was born in Hangzhou (where legend has it that the most beautiful women in China are from, according to Danny), but now divides her time between Los Angeles and Shanghai. She does this horrendous flight about 20 times a year. She said she's usually able to sleep on the flight and wake up in the appropriate time zone. She really couldn't sleep on this flight because we were so packed.

I taught her a few English words and their pronunciations (entrepreneur, technology, terrorism, resentment). Oddly, she didn't know the meaning of the word "angry." How can you live in Los Angeles and NOT know what angry means? I told her it means "very mad." She recounted a story about when she first moved to LA and had never driven a car before. She said all the other drivers were passing by giving her the finger. She didn't know what it meant so, being polite, flipped them back off! She was quite despondent when she learned what it really meant!
I thought that Lilly was in her late-20's. I was surprised when she said her primary school didn't teach English because I thought that was the norm these days in China. Turns out she's 46! I was stunned. She has a 20-year-old son going to college in Santa Monica. She was very flattered by my mistake. She said even Asian women can't guess how old she is. Must be nice!
Lilly answered many of my questions about China. I practiced some of the Chinese phrases that I've been learning. She said I was making some of them come out of my "nose" and not my throat. At the end of the lesson she said I was speaking quite well. Danny warned me that all Chinese will say you speak well.

Lilly had to get off the flight in Shanghai. Before she did, she gave me her business card with her cell phone numbers and the number of her nephew who lives in Beijing. She urged me to contact her if I need "anything." She made sure I got in the right line at customs before she left me. It was a really nice introduction to China.

In Shanghai, I caught up with Danny again. He was eating some food at one of the airport places. He was perturbed because it cost $5 US and he said he could eat the same thing in Beijing for $1. Remarkable. While we were in the café I noticed that ALL of the other patrons were smoking. It was so bizarre to see people being allowed to smoke inside again and so many of them. It's sad really.

As I mentioned earlier, I slept on the flight from Shanghai to Beijing. Seemingly seconds after lying down, I heard the softest Chinese voice say, "Excuse me sir, pillow and blanket." She lifted my head and threw a pillow under my head and covered me. Now that's service!

It had been snowing earlier in the day in Beijing. When we landed it had stopped. We had to get off the plane and go on one of those shuttles where everyone stands (like Dulles). I almost got on the wrong shuttle with some of the Chinese flight crew. I wonder what would have happened?

Customs was a breeze. This moronic woman from California kept bowing to all the Chinese officials and using the few Chinese phrases she knew. I could tell they were not impressed. It actually seemed condescending to me. Explaining away her behavior to another passenger she said, "I'm Buddhist." Congrats.

Danny had said that if no one was at the airport to meet me that we would take a cab together to his section of Beijing and locate a hotel for me. I really appreciated the offer since I was so tired and really had no decision-making capacity left. No need to worry though. As we left customs, an older Chinese man was silently standing there with a sign that read "Loveland, Glen." Anyone who's been in that situation knows how wonderful it is to see those signs!

There were tons of local Chinese outside the airport trying to offer unscrupulous rides to unsuspecting passengers. Danny just laughed as they converged upon him. Danny had warned me in LA that the Chinese would attempt to bilk me every single day in China. He said it's the only thing he hates about China. But when you fit the typical American description they believe you are wealthy (and we are compared to them) and want to separate you from your money.
The man who drove me spoke no English but he had a very warm and gracious spirit. I tried loading my huge suitcases into the trunk but he got angry. It was very clear that this was his job to do and he took a lot of pride in it. I found out the next day that he complained about how heavy my bags were. Sorry! It's obvious that he hadn't been driving too long. The ride was kind of scary and I was just glad that it was 1 am so there wasn't more traffic out.

My initial impressions of Beijing were related to the enormity of the place. Shanghai is photographed more often because they have that great coastal skyline. Beijing has a lot of skyscrapers as well, there just spread out more. Everything I'd heard about pollution in Beijing turned out to be true. There was a fog throughout the city and the city smelled acrid. It smelled like a major fire had just stopped burning. So sad.

We finally got to my apartment in Beijing. It took about 30 minutes from the airport. The driver was so kind. He beamed when I told him, "Shee-shaw-knee" which translates to "thank you." He replied in their language with the phrase for "Don't mention it."

I went to bed that night and slept like a rock.