Catching up...
Ooo-kay... Gosh, where to begin?
First, on the subject of beer. Back in November, I discovered a microbrewery in Shanghai! My fellow Oregonians in Shanghai can attempt to convey to you my excitement at this discovery... The beer is all brewed in Shanghai, and they have 5 types, ranging from a pale ale, to honey brown, to a dark lager. I have to say, though, although the lager was my favorite, it certainly wasn't a "dark" beer. It was actually the same color as the honey brown. *shrug* But I ain't complaining...it's microbrewed beer, half the world away from Oregon. Then, in March, it was announced that a company had begun importing Oregon beers into China... =)
So, winter's come and gone, and I didn't have a chance to comment on it then, but here it is in a nutshell. Shanghai winters are absolutely frigid, despite the temperatures above freezing. "It's the humidity," so people say. Who knows, but all I can say is that 10C (40F) in Shanghai feels colder than 0C in Beijing.
Speaking of Beijing... As if the Beijing airport wasn't overcrowded enough, throw in bad weather into the mix... This is a story of a somewhat typical China Experience: (names have been replaced with nicknames)
Sometime back in January, I left Shanghai on a 7pm flight bound for Beijing. We didn't actually arrive until noon the next day. FYI, that's 5 hours longer than the train ride to Beijing... What happened, you might ask? First, our departure was delayed until 8pm. Then we flew the 2 hours to Beijing, and circled over the city, before being told that we were getting redirected to Qingdao due to heavy fog in Beijing. After flying to Qingdao, we circled for another 30 min, then got redirected to Dalian...another hour's flight away. Landing in Dalian after 12am, we were given the option to find our own hotels at our own cost, or to stay in the airline appointed hotel...in which we would be asked to share rooms with other passengers. At this point in time, I had made 3 new friends, all foreigners. Let's call them "German Man", "Scary man", and "American Man". They liked me for my chinese-speaking ability. I liked them, because they'd experienced similar situations before, and warned that I wouldn't want to touch the airline appointed hotels with a 10 foot pole...literally.
So we deplaned and asked the aiport to help find us a 5-star hotel to stay at.While calling for hotels and shuttles for us, a European man came over and started shouting at the airport staff, demanding his baggage. (enter "Livid Man") It was 1am, the airport was closed, and Livid Man was yelling at the ground transportation crew, who couldn't understand a word he was saying... After a few minutes, the poor girl implored me to tell him that there wasn't anything they could do, and he would have to wait until morning. Having relayed the message, Livid Man replies by shouting at the top of his lungs that "that's ridiculous! what kind of a country is this?! I want my luggage right now, I don't care if you have to go open up the airplane and get it yourself!!!"... At this point, we decided to take it upon ourselves to let Livid Man know just how ridiculous HE sounded. Realizing his error that the ground staff was a probably a bad target for his aggressions, he moved on to better ones...a team of flight attendants from our airline. Some time later, I heard him getting led off into the depths of the airport, no doubt to get led on one of China's infamous wild goose chases.
Meanwhile, we had located a hotel, negotiated a room rate, and our shuttle had arrived. Scary Man, who had been a chatterbox throughout the flight, was suddenly silent, seeing that I was in conversation with German Man and American Man. Mind you, I had met German Man in the airport first, and had a pretty good conversation with him prior to boarding the flight. Upon landing in Dalian, German Man had sought me out to let me know that he intended not to stay at the airline appointed hotel. No doubt, he needed a translator...aka Me. Scary Man, on the other hand, had been seated in the row ahead of me. Upon boarding the flight, he and I had a decent conversation during the boarding process, and so I decided to move into the seat next to him, so that he didn't have to crane his neck to talk to me. He seemed nice enough at first, until I realized that 1) he wouldn't stop talking, 2) he kept leaning uncomfortably close to me, making me lean WAY over into the seat next to me (which was thankfully empty), and 3) he wouldn't stop talking about himself and the women that seemed to have interest in him, despite their marital statuses. Conversing with Scary Man quickly turned out to be a mistake that couldn't be remedied. Upon arrival in Dalian, however, he didn't seem enthused with the addition of 2 men to our party, and hence fell silent. When we arrived in the hotel, he felt compelled to pull me aside and let me know that I "really should not trust (German Man). He seems to have other intentions..." Yeeeaaah...
So we quickly took to our separate rooms, with myself given the responsibility of calling the airline to find out our departure time, and notifying everyone in our party. Breakfast the next morning was civil, despite Scary Man's random verbal stab at German Man, while German Man was getting more food... Having all virtually ignored Scary Man's remarks, we made it to the airport, and checked into our continued flight. I did notice Livid Man walking around, still looking angry, and no more well-rested than the night before. Seating turned out to be the same as the day before, so I was once again seated behind Scary Man. Upon reaching our seats, I politely declined Scary Man's offer to sit next to him again, and that was (thankfully) the last that I saw of him. Arriving into the airport just in time to make the second meeting of my day, I whizzed off towards Beijing, armed with yet another item to add to my book of China Experiences.
First, on the subject of beer. Back in November, I discovered a microbrewery in Shanghai! My fellow Oregonians in Shanghai can attempt to convey to you my excitement at this discovery... The beer is all brewed in Shanghai, and they have 5 types, ranging from a pale ale, to honey brown, to a dark lager. I have to say, though, although the lager was my favorite, it certainly wasn't a "dark" beer. It was actually the same color as the honey brown. *shrug* But I ain't complaining...it's microbrewed beer, half the world away from Oregon. Then, in March, it was announced that a company had begun importing Oregon beers into China... =)
So, winter's come and gone, and I didn't have a chance to comment on it then, but here it is in a nutshell. Shanghai winters are absolutely frigid, despite the temperatures above freezing. "It's the humidity," so people say. Who knows, but all I can say is that 10C (40F) in Shanghai feels colder than 0C in Beijing.
Speaking of Beijing... As if the Beijing airport wasn't overcrowded enough, throw in bad weather into the mix... This is a story of a somewhat typical China Experience: (names have been replaced with nicknames)
Sometime back in January, I left Shanghai on a 7pm flight bound for Beijing. We didn't actually arrive until noon the next day. FYI, that's 5 hours longer than the train ride to Beijing... What happened, you might ask? First, our departure was delayed until 8pm. Then we flew the 2 hours to Beijing, and circled over the city, before being told that we were getting redirected to Qingdao due to heavy fog in Beijing. After flying to Qingdao, we circled for another 30 min, then got redirected to Dalian...another hour's flight away. Landing in Dalian after 12am, we were given the option to find our own hotels at our own cost, or to stay in the airline appointed hotel...in which we would be asked to share rooms with other passengers. At this point in time, I had made 3 new friends, all foreigners. Let's call them "German Man", "Scary man", and "American Man". They liked me for my chinese-speaking ability. I liked them, because they'd experienced similar situations before, and warned that I wouldn't want to touch the airline appointed hotels with a 10 foot pole...literally.
So we deplaned and asked the aiport to help find us a 5-star hotel to stay at.
Meanwhile, we had located a hotel, negotiated a room rate, and our shuttle had arrived. Scary Man, who had been a chatterbox throughout the flight, was suddenly silent, seeing that I was in conversation with German Man and American Man. Mind you, I had met German Man in the airport first, and had a pretty good conversation with him prior to boarding the flight. Upon landing in Dalian, German Man had sought me out to let me know that he intended not to stay at the airline appointed hotel. No doubt, he needed a translator...aka Me. Scary Man, on the other hand, had been seated in the row ahead of me. Upon boarding the flight, he and I had a decent conversation during the boarding process, and so I decided to move into the seat next to him, so that he didn't have to crane his neck to talk to me. He seemed nice enough at first, until I realized that 1) he wouldn't stop talking, 2) he kept leaning uncomfortably close to me, making me lean WAY over into the seat next to me (which was thankfully empty), and 3) he wouldn't stop talking about himself and the women that seemed to have interest in him, despite their marital statuses. Conversing with Scary Man quickly turned out to be a mistake that couldn't be remedied. Upon arrival in Dalian, however, he didn't seem enthused with the addition of 2 men to our party, and hence fell silent. When we arrived in the hotel, he felt compelled to pull me aside and let me know that I "really should not trust (German Man). He seems to have other intentions..." Yeeeaaah...
So we quickly took to our separate rooms, with myself given the responsibility of calling the airline to find out our departure time, and notifying everyone in our party. Breakfast the next morning was civil, despite Scary Man's random verbal stab at German Man, while German Man was getting more food... Having all virtually ignored Scary Man's remarks, we made it to the airport, and checked into our continued flight. I did notice Livid Man walking around, still looking angry, and no more well-rested than the night before. Seating turned out to be the same as the day before, so I was once again seated behind Scary Man. Upon reaching our seats, I politely declined Scary Man's offer to sit next to him again, and that was (thankfully) the last that I saw of him. Arriving into the airport just in time to make the second meeting of my day, I whizzed off towards Beijing, armed with yet another item to add to my book of China Experiences.
posted by cpao at
2:26 PM
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