Planes, Trains and Taxi Cabs

So I didn't think I'd be able to top my little whirl-wind day in Shanghai last week. Boy, was I wrong.

A little back story, for context. When I applied for my visa to come to China, I asked for 60 days, but they only gave me 30. I was told by the very helpful folks at my school that I'd have to go to Shanghai and request an extension, which would require two trips into the city on the weekday, checking into a hotel and no guarantee I'd be able to get the extension. So about a week and a half ago my program director noticed that I was actually given something called a "multiple-entry visa", which allows me to come and go to China whenever I want for the next 12 months. However, I'm required to leave the country every 30 days. Literally just walk out and right back in. I can't get rid of this visa until I switch to a work one.

That's a fairly common story. And the typical solution? Hong Kong. By way of Shenzhen, the Chinese city that borders it.

So that's where I spent 30 hours this weekend.

Friday didn't start off well. The internet wasn't working well when I woke up, which meant I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to send an attachment for school, resulting in me being late. I tried to catch a cab, but because it was Friday, that took 3 times as long as it should have. I ran into Chinese class, embarrassed at my tardiness, and unhappy because being late for anything stresses me out.

I sat through my Chinese culture class, which I always enjoy (but not nearly as much as language), and then observed another student teach. As soon as his class was dismissed, I bolted out of the building, where the driver I had hired was waiting for me. Because you never know what traffic will be like, I booked the pick-up more than 4 hours before my flight, although the airport is only 1 hour 45 minutes away. Being Chinese, he drove like the car was on fire and the airport was the only source of water in China. He honked, flashed his lights and tailgated cars daring to only go 20km over the speed limit. So needless to say, I made it there with hours to kill. Never one to mind being early, I found check-in to be easy, and enjoyed a semi-decent and incredibly expensive Italian lunch.

When it comes to air travel, the Chinese are amazingly efficent. I have a theory about this. It's because the Chinese use very small carry-ons. They don't cram everything into a roller-bag. The check their luggage and just carry on a small laptop case or backpack. In fact, the only time I saw people with rolling luggage on board, they were Westerners. This means the security line goes faster (you also don't have to remove your small liquids or take off your shoes). They wand pretty much everyone, but don't drag you behind some curtain somewhere, they just do it quickly right where you are. They don't board by groups- when boarding is called, everyone gets on, stows their bag, and sits down quietly. It doesn't mean they don't rush and fight to be at the front line, because if they didn't, they wouldn't be Chinese. But when they get on the planes, there is plenty of room for everyone's luggage in the overhead bins. No cramming, no pushing.

While waiting for my plane, I attempted to activate my cell phone for international calls. I had thought I'd set it up when I bought the phone, but since the entire exchange was in Chinese, I have no idea. So I called the China Mobile number in my phone, which has some English operators. Because I was currently in Shanghai, I was automatically sent to their line. I explained myself, and the operator tells me I need to call the Suzhou branch of China Mobile, and gives me the number. I call, and they don't have an English line. I try talking to the operator, to no avail. So I call back Shanghai, and explain my situation.

Me: I want to active the international calling on my mobile.
Them: You need to call the Suzhou number. It's XXXXXXXXXXXX
Me: I tried that. They don't speak English. Is there an English line?
Them: No. You just need to explain it to them.
Me: But they don't speak English and I don't speak Chinese.
Them: You'll need to work that out with them.

Needless to say, this did not go my way. I was a bit nervous, because I thought it might make it difficult to contact my hosts in Hong Kong. But I boarded my flight, and then we sat on the runway for an hour. It was a smooth flight. Air China still provides you with a hot meal. Can you believe it? A 2 hour flight with food. I hardly even remember that. I had rice with what I swear was a German spaetzel, but who knows.

When the flight landed in Shenzhen, everyone jumped up and started grabbing their bags. I swear we hadn't even gotten to the gate yet. So I joined in, trying to get my bags down. In my haste, I made a grievous error- I left my Kindle in the seat back pocket. And I didn't realize it until I was in the taxi on the way to the train station.

Oh, what a joyous taxi ride that was. The driver didn't understand me when I tried to say huoche zhan (the railway station). So I drew him a picture, which made him laugh. Being a typical Chinese taxi driver, he drove like a maniac, and in an attempt to cut off traffic, he got in the wrong lane to go to the train station (the road signs were also in English), which got us stuck in a ridiculous traffic jam. That's when I got my first call from Joe, my wonderful host in Hong Kong. I explained about my phone, and that I was running late, but we arranged that we'd connect once I got a train ticket.

When I finally got to the train station, it was a zoo. People everywhere, confusing signs, and noise. And millions of stores selling who knows what. So I began following signs for Hong Kong. I walked and walked, and somehow ended up at the exit point for China. Dozens of border agents, but no lanes for foreigners. I must have looked like a clueless moron, because someone came and pointed me in the right direction, which was a whole other floor. After filling out forms about my health and waiting in line for a good 30 minutes, I cleared the Chinese border. As I was going through, Joe called, and I asked him to call me back in 5 minutes. That's the last I heard of him. The minute I stepped into Hong Kong, my phone went out of service. And little did I know, but as soon as I cleared China, I had to wait in another long line to enter Hong Kong. When I finally made it through there, I found the train station. But I wasn't 100% sure which stop I wanted. Since my phone wasn't working, I tried a pay phone. But I couldn't get it to work. I was starting to freak out, thinking about the poor Hamiltons, who had been waiting hours for me to arrive, and now had no way to contact me. But I boarded the train, hoping maybe I'd picked the right station and I'd be able to find them. But as soon as I got out, I knew I was wrong. I remembered I was supposed to meet them at Exit 1. But this station had Exits A-E. So I found a security guard (thankfully, most people in Hong Kong speak some English) and asked for a pay phone. She directed me to a University campus next door, where I found the phone. But I could not get it to work. I tried and tried, until I was down to my last coin.

The panic was full-fledged at this point. I was in a foreign city without a working phone, no idea where my hosts lived, and unable to even use the pay phone. By this point, it was nearly 10pm, and I'd landed just before 7. As a last-ditch effort, I found a police officer, and barely holding back tears, I asked him to show me how to use the phone.

I can't even describe the relief I felt when I got in touch with Joe. Of course, they were waiting at the station I was supposed to be at, but within 5 minutes, there they were- the best couple in the entire world, Joe and Kathy Hamilton. They're friends of friends of my grandparents, so not exactly a close relationship, but they couldn't have been better to me.

They took me to their amazing home, way up in the hills of Hong Kong. They live in a beautiful apartment on the 39th floor with sweeping views of the ocean. It's really breathtaking. I'm pretty sure they must be mind-readers, because they took me to their home, made me a turkey sandwich with BBQ chips and planted me in front of the TV. I kid you not- a turkey sandwich has been the #1 thing I've been craving since I got to China, probably because they don't eat it on the mainland. But they have it in Hong Kong, and it was the best thing ever. After the day I'd had- all the travel stress, and my poor Kindle, I really couldn't think of a better way to unwind.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a ton of time in Hong Kong. We took it easy in the morning, and again proving to be a mind-reader, Kathy asked me if I wanted to go to the grocery store. It's hard to explain why this is so awesome, but it is. Some Western food isn't too hard to get in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but it's really difficult to come by in a place like Suzhou. You can usually find some strange tasting Oreos at the store, or "American" flavored chips (the others ones have flavors like "Tangy Chicken" or "Italian Sauce" or "Lotus"). And since I probably won't be back in Hong Kong for a long time, this was my one chance to come across some real Western food.

In my eyes, the store had absolutely everything you could want. I know that if you've come from the US and are living in Hong Kong, there are plenty of things you'd miss from your store. But in my eyes, it was heaven. I cursed the fact that I still live in a hotel with no fridge, because I would have stocked up on the turkey :). But trust me, I did well. And it's not cheap. I am now in possession of the following: PepperidgeFarm Snickerdoodle Cookies, red licorice, and a small box of Captain Crunch. That, plus some bandaids, People and Cosmo magazines, some anti-itch cream (for the 100 million bug bites I have) and a package of tissues cost me 275 Hong Kong Dollars, roughly $35. But oh so worth it.

After making me some delicious burgers for lunch, and giving me a tour of the Peak, I bid farewell to the wonderful Hamiltons and started my journey home. Hong Kong traffic sucks, and it took me longer than expected to get to the train station. I got my ticket, took the 45 minute train ride, and then got to the border. This time, things went a bit smoother. It was easy to leave Hong Kong, but took a little while longer to enter China. But I did, and now I have another 30 days in the country. But I kept looking at my watch- by the time I crossed into Shenzhen, I only had 2 hours until my flight, and it takes at least 30 minutes to get to the station (plus, traffic sucks in Shenzhen). But I made it, about 20 minutes before my flight was to board.

But I wasn't ready to leave without trying to find my Kindle. I went to the customer service desk, who sent me somewhere else in the airport. Frantic, I raced to the "business centre", where a very nice woman tried to assist me and 3 other people at the same time. She searched through her huge binder of found objects, and I started to feel the familiar sadness- looks like I'm going to be ordering en mass from Amazon.com. But then her eyes lit up- she had it! She went to the back, and after making me sign my life away, my Kindle was back in my loving arms! I swear, the Chinese can be the coolest people ever sometimes. Someone found it, turned it in, and filled out a ton of paperwork. Just because I'm forgetful.

With Kindle in hand, I raced to through security, and made it to my gate, only to find the incoming plane hadn't arrived. But who cares. I made it to the airport, Kindle and Captain Crunch in hand.

And that was just Saturday.

I didn't return to my hotel until 11pm on Saturday. My alarm went off at 6am on Sunday. Career fair. The school set it up, in conjunction with the City of Suzhou. It was pretty successful- found a few schools I liked- two of which I am visiting tomorrow. I hope to have a contract signed in the next few days. But I was cranky- wearing dress clothes made of synthetic fabrics in Suzhou humidity is painful. I was never happier to own cotton than when I put on shorts and a t-shirt after the fair.

After lunch, our hotel owners, Oliver and Yokee Lee, took me, Garrett, Eric and Jonathan on a trip to see Tai Hu, which is a large, famous lake on the outskirts of Suzhou. It was very pretty, but the paths all around it were flooded due to the recent typhoon, so there wasn't much to explore. But they took us on a boat ride around the lake, which was great.

Next, they kept driving to show us more outside of Suzhou. We went hopping from island to island, and saw some really beautiful neighborhoods, as well as some truly impoverished ones. After another hour or so of driving, we ended up in the mountains. We stopped at one (I wish I knew the name), and got into these green vans, which kind of looked like VW Vans without sides. The vans took us up and up and up into the mountains. The mountains had terraces filled with tea. Once we reached the top, I saw a pagoda on the tip top of the peak, and what looked like a chair lift. "Oh good," I thought, "We get to ride up to the top".

Wrong.

We climbed. Garrett made fun of me because, naturally, I was whining as I was huffing and puffing- and he said it had nothing on the Great Wall. So this was my practice for the Great Wall. But eventually I reached the top, but not before I thought I might die a few times. The air up there was really horrible- combined with the heat it was very hard to breathe. It was also difficult to see much because of all the smog. Sad.

Exhausted and hot, we made out way down the mountain, and eventually back to Suzhou. I was really thankful that Oliver and Yokee took us, because it was fun to see something new, and it's always easier to navigate with a Chinese guide.

So ok, this was a super long post. But it's been a very, very busy weekend. So now, with this posted, I will go pass out.

XOXO,
RDG

Your Chinese for the day:

Wo bu hui Zhongwen- I don't speak Chinese (most reguarly used phrase in my life)