HKG -> PVG June 22, 2008

Sunday June 22, 11:30 pm

Arrival in Shanghai

The trip to Shanghai was surprisingly eventful. We headed out from Kowloon city after I went to get some last minute essentials from the 10-dollar store (equivalent of a dollar store in the N.A. but a touch more expensive since exchange rate is about 1 HKD :7.66 CAD). There was this really cool game at Terminal Two with a ghost and some wand thing at the arcade. After some explorations of the Hong Kong International airport, I went to the departure area in Terminal 2 (where there was absolutely no line-up) and through to my gate.

Flying China Eastern Airline was a new experience for me (and apparently for many). This is one of the less common carriers in Hong kong and much more popular in the mainlands. (It was cheap! *shrug* I’m sure it was going to be better than ryan last year, at least I get an assigned seat. While checking in, the counter guy already informed me that the plane was going to be delayed for 10 minutes. The good news was he was very lenient with my overweight baggage.

I had a quick dinner inside and time to spare waiting at the gate (which changed last minute). Surprisingly, the plane was pretty big, with 6 across in a 2-4-2 configuration. I got seat number 3 so it was an aisle one. The only problem with that seat was the chair was broken so it doesn’t stay in the upright position if you lean on it. There were multiple times when people used the back of my seat as anchor point and it got really frustrating for me when I’m caught by surprise.

The flight was an hour and a half long and I totally didn’t expect them to serve us dinner. It was either noodles (looked like the shanghai fried ones) or a spicy meat rice dish (which I got stuck with and didn’t touch because of the spice and to avoid upsetting my stomach). It was served with fruits – a piece of dragon fruit, a piece of watermelon and 2 pieces of cantaloupe. Some salad that didn’t look TOO appetizing.. and a small water thing. They also served warm dinner roll and haagan-daaz ice cream afterwards.

The highlight of the flight came when the steward walked around with immigration cards to china. I wasn’t sure if I was considered foreign and my curiosity spoke out so I grabbed one. As seen in the picture, I lost control of myself and bursted out laughing when I folded across the guided line and read the disclaimer on the back. As you noticed, apparently foreigners are not called foreigners in china, they are worse, much worse and known as “Aliens”… Point number 3 deserves a notable mention as it states “Aliens shall not be employed in China without permission of the competent authorities of the Chinese Government”.. so yes I get that Aliens should not be employed.. but you mean there are incompetent authorities too? :p that’s just way too funny.

So luggage claim at Shanghai Pudong airport was also rather interesting. I was able to spot min and David from the mandarin school waiting outside for me, so I waved at them before heading over to the luggage belt. So after you pick up your luggage you’re then supposed to go through customs. Not only is there one custom scanning machine, a very wide line up way, and lots of people pushing and shoving… you have to stick your luggage onto the belt through the crowd and then pick it up on the other side.. Its not only inefficient but also very ineffective. I could’ve totally slipped through.

Because my flight was so late, we actually missed the opportunity to take the high lift onto the subway. Instead we had to take a taxi which ended up costing 219RMB and took about an hour. Where we’re living is kinda not close to a subway line and a bit far from our school. The good news is, we can sign up for how ever many days we want (right now we are signed up until Friday), so if things don’t work out we can move. It’s a loft style with a super tiny kitchen and super tiny bathroom (as seen in pictures) a 2 story high living area with a small tv, dining table with 4 chairs, a desk with internet that’s going to cost (20RMB a day on cable) and 2 bedrooms (one that looks awesome and 1 that looks sketched without ventilations.

So we’re considering to see if they have other rooms that we can look at and switch to… if not then we can move a bed down to the ground floor and sleep there. Otherwise we can also seriously consider moving out from here and to another place.

So far the trip is full of surprises and with the exception of some of the problems, I’m happy with the place we are living in since it could definitely be a lot worse. Morning class at nine tomorrow and apparently we’re expecting some visitors this week!! Woot! I’m excited already!