Suitcases, have been collected and will find their way to the airport for this afternoon, but first we have to climb the 100 odd stairs from the quayside to the waiting buses. Other wharfs have lifts moving up and down the cliff face, but not ours. There are porters on hand to carry any bags, and take you by the arm to help you up the steps, but for a fee, of course.
On the bus, and it is time for a city tour, which is the zoo and a souvenir shop.
The zoo was nice, we saw a giant panda having breakfast and looking like one of the zoo keepers dressed up in a badly fitting panda suit.
The gift shop was an art shop with everything more expensive than we were willing to pay.
From here we went to a hotel close to the airport for lunch, then on to the airport where the tour leader checked us all in and distributed boarding cards, which was slightly more traumatic than the first time - those who were split across aisles wanted to sit together, the window seaters still wanted window seats, such that at the end Val had seat 20A and I had 23D. As it turned out with a bit of jiggery pokery and people sitting in wrong seats, we somehow ended up together.
The flight was delayed 4 hours. The ridiculous hoo-hah associated with what happened next doesn’t bear thinking about suffice to say that the tour leader found himself in the middle of Chongquin with no passport, no visa, no boarding card, no money and no wife in sight. But let it be put on record that the tour leader never wanted to leave the airport and it was mob rule that took the party to a municipal barrack type "hotel" somewhere in Chongquin.
The in-flight meal was nothing special, the plane looked more sturdy than the one we came down here on, and the sick bags had a seal across the top - not ideal for a spontaneous vomit
We arrive in Beijing late, check in and settle down, though the day’s hassle was not over, we were put in a smoking room and the associated smells that go with it.
Go to On our way home
Copyright © 1997 Andrew J White