We rose at our normal time to leave on our adventure--a trip of a lifetime to Harbin, China. Our first leg was to fly to Vancouver. We left the house at 8am for a 10am flight. We could not check in on-line as an agent needed to see our Chinese visas. The airport was practically empty at this time so we waltzed through security. The agents were relaxed and friendly.
Since we had plenty of time, I suggested we buy a gift for the girl who was to be our guide in Harbin. Glen thought something from Vancouver would be nicer. We had over an hour to wait for our flight to Beijing so I agreed figuring we'd have enough time to shop. Not a wise decision as it turned out.
It was a lovely spring day in Calgary so we knew we’d have no weather issues to hamper our trip. Little did we know that we’d have mechanical ones and sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes. Flying is never easy, is it?
The captain assured us all that we’d make our connections but ours was on the other side of the Vancouver airport so we had to hustle to get to the international terminal. As we scurried along, we passed a duty free shop selling Canadian style jewellery. Since we had a few minutes, I chose a brooch for our Chinese guide then stood in line behind about 20 Koreans. Meanwhile, Glen went off in search of lunch. I told him I’d meet him at the gate. The shop was at Gate 52 and we were to leave from 73.
I waited and waited and the line didn’t seem to be getting any shorter. I finally figured out those standing had their spouses combing the store buying baskets of extra large chocolate bars (about 10 inches long by 3 inches wide). As I stood there, Air Canada made the final announcement for the departure of their plane to Seoul. The shoppers dumped their baskets and ran to their gate. I stood behind ones still paying when I realized they required both a boarding pass and a passport. I had neither as they were in Glen’s pocket.
I pulled out my driver’s license and they said no so I put back the brooch and began to run to our gate. I hadn’t realized how far it was and how little time I had. I found Glen and he had not bought lunch as there were no shops with food. Just as I stopped panting, they began boarding our flight.
Had I known how long it would take, I’d have returned to one of the three duty free shops I had passed along the way but hindsight is always twenty-twenty. In the end, we bought a maple leaf pin from the duty free cart on board the plane.
Suffice to say any flight across the International Dateline is long. Had it been evening when we left, I think we’d have slept more but we departed Vancouver at noon. They served lunch at 2:30pm and by this time, I was starving. I gulped down a chicken concoction along with two beers. Not much later, I fell asleep for an hour and a half. I had been ill the previous two days so I think this helped.
Supper was served at 8:30pm and I had a chinese beef dish. The food was pretty good. Glen and I read rather than watched movies so we could doze at any time. I slept for another two hours then they served us ‘noodles’. This made me laugh as it was like I was back at the Edmonton School of Ballet watching the dancers eating their noodle soup lunches--some made with hot water, some crunching on the dry noodles.
Not knowing when we’d eat again, Glen and I dug in. The Chinese flight attendant told us we had to practice using chopsticks but it wasn’t a problem. I soon learned it is much easier to eat these packaged Mr. Noodle soups with chopsticks than a spoon.
We landed close to midnight Calgary time but of course, it was 2:30pm the next day (Thursday, May 12th) in Beijing. The sun was shining so I think that helped get our bodies used to the fact it was daytime.
Our flight to Harbin, on Air China, was not until 6 so we had plenty of time to find our gate. Beijing Capital International Airport is the 2nd busiest in the world and for about 8 months in 2008, it was the largest. Terminal 3 is strikingly modern having been built for the Olympics and is a great place to people-watch. For some reason, the PA system was not functioning so when it came time to board, the attendant just yelled for everyone to line up. It was a crush. Not the first we’d experience in this country of so many people (1.3 billion).
I was so very tired by this point that I fell asleep the instant we took off (and maybe a bit before as I don’t remember taking off). Glen woke me so I could have ‘lunch’ which was a strange piece of meat, maybe beef, on a bun with a salad and fruit cup. I ate and went back to sleep. The flight was 2 hours long. The irony was we actually flew over Harbin on our way to Beijing but of course, we were at 30,000 feet (9000 meters).
Shu-Lin Liu, Director of the Genomics Research Center at Harbin Medical University and our host, met us at the airport with two of his grad students. Chun-Xiao, pronounced Tien-sh-ow (we think) and a young man whose name escapes me.
Our first impression of the city at night was incredible traffic with pedestrians, bikes, and cars weaving over the road. Horns honked all the time and we seemed to miss crashes by inches. The air quality was bad and what I thought was fog was actually pollution. It reeked of coal smoke (Alberta sells most of its coal to China) something neither of us had smelled in a long time.
We didn’t have the normal check-in routine as Chun-Xiao had our room key and Glen didn’t have to give a credit card imprint. We were escorted to our room having never touched our bags since landing. It was a bit overwhelming but we were too tired to think about it.
We tumbled into bed at 9:30pm which was really 6:30am Calgary time. Except for the odd nap, we had been on the go for 24 hours.
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