The Arrival...First Lesson learned

I had planned on starting this blog when I’d actually gotten settled and had seen a sight or two to actually write about, but this is so classic that I feel it’s warranted some space here. I left SFO on a United 747, right on time and as good fortune would have it I had an entire row of 3 seats all to myself. I thought this was a very good omen. As it turned out during the long…very long…oh so long flight, I just could not sleep. Even the ambien I took proved useless. So I landed in Beijing a little…(who am I kidding?) much worse for wear…bleary eyed and exhausted.

But our flight was early and since I am continuing on to Xian I thought I could try to take an earlier flight since my confirmed flight was at 6 pm and it was only 2 pm. I would try for the earlier flight at 4 pm – how hard could that be? I collected my bag, (the new terminal at Beijing airport is beautiful and spacious and reeks of professionalism & efficiency :) how easily some can be deceived.) I breezed through customs and immigration and hit the Air China desk…”knee-how” I said to the attendant behind the desk (my first Chinese word, with my ‘how it’s pronounced spelling’, it means ‘hello’ and I definitely wanted to start the conversation pleasantly)…he barely looked up but eventually acknowledged me. He looked at my paperwork and pointed to another line and told me that’s where I needed to go to make changes. He sent me to a very young man who had confusion written all over his face. “knee-how” I tried again with a weak smile…he didn’t respond but spent the next twenty minutes looking at my passport, my itinerary and talking to some “unknown person” multiple times on the phone. I had no idea if the conversations were about me but eventually he told me to go up to the “4^th Floor, D”…”D what”?...”he repeated himself and pointed upstairs. So on I went…found ‘D’ which was the United ticketing desk, rotated between a few United agents there until I found a girl who had apparently been on the other end of the phone with my Air China agent.

She looked quite intelligent…(ah, now I get it! It’s the women in China who have it all sussed out!)…but then she picked up the phone and I began to have my doubts. (I don’t know what it is but everyone I spoke with at some point picked up the phone…and of course I had no clue what they were saying…maybe something like “let’s get Peking Duck tonight for dinner” who knows?). However not to worry, she was able to rebook my flight to the earlier 4 pm flight but the process had taken so long that now I was rushed to make the flight…”take this to the Air China desk” she said…”do I have enough time?” I replied…she just shook her head and watched as I mad dashed away and off to the Air China check in desk, …who then sent me to the Air China ticketing counter, …back to the check in,…and back to the ticketing counter with no time left on the clock. This agent was ‘oh so efficient’ took my ticket, started typing and then…reaches for the phone,…aggh!, inside my head was screaming, “no, not the phone!!!!”

He spent quite the time typing and staring at that damn computer screen till I thought I would cry or laugh or shriek hysterically. But eventually he gave me a ticket and I was able to proceed to check in, check my bag and head to the departure gate. Which is where I’m typing this…as I wait for my 6 pm flight…! (yes you read it correctly, 6 pm, the original flight I had booked. So my first lesson in China…appearances can be deceiving.

Sigh…