你好中国 China, the beginning

April 4th-First Night

I thought when I landed in China I would be immediately be overwhelmed with a sense of “wow this is China.” Maybe it was because I was sleep deprived, but it didn’t feel like I was in China. It didn’t really feel like I was anywhere, certainly not on the other side of the world from my home.

I was happy to not be traveling alone and to be traveling with Chinese speakers. May and Dan, and their 4 year old triplet daughters. May is a native Chinese speaker, whose family is in China. She moved to the US when she married Dan. In the airport we met up with her cousin who took us on the subway. It was early evening, about 6pm. I was surprised at the lack of trash. There weren’t even that many people riding the subway. Of course that quickly changed as we got closer into the city and had to switch trains. Basically you push your way into a car so that the doors can close. There is no elbow room. Barely enough room to breathe. Little did I know that I would experience worse…

May’s cousin took us to a restaurant where we met up with his wife. In the center of the table is a turntable so that multiple dishes can be ordered and shared with everyone. The triplets were falling asleep halfway through the meal. There is no comparison of real Chinese food and American Chinese food. There are no words to describe how good the seafood was, especially the steamed fish. I could go to China just for the fish.

Then it was off to bed. Shanghai, see you in the morning.

 

How to Get to China

Option One: Start digging, eventually you’ll make it to the other side of the world.

If option one is not possible, then the process is a bit more complicated.

You need to purchase a plane ticket. If you live somewhere like the great southwest you’ll undoubtably have to fly on more than one plane.

Apply for a visa to China. If you do not live in a city that processes visas you will have to use a visa service. I paid $215 for the visa, shipping, and processing fee.

Then start packing. Check out my post about packing.

Get to the airport two hours in advance of your flight time. This meant that I had to go down to Albuquerque the night before as my flight was at 6:20am. I arrived in San Francisco at 8:00am. Since I already had gone through security I didn’t have to go back through even for an international flight. Basically I had four hours to kill. In hindsight, I could have taken a later flight from Albuquerque to San Francisco.

Finally board the plane and endure the 13 hour plane ride. Thankfully it’s a little more bearable as they do show recent movies and tv shows for the entire flight. I watched frozen Frozen and Saving Mr. Banks. Eating helps pass the time as well.

I really had no idea what time it was when we were served food. We were chasing the sun all the way there. It’s funny they served us “Chinese” food on the flight. We had sesame chicken with fried rice, a roll, salad, and chocolate cake.

There was an option of noodles or eggs for breakfast.

We also were served a midway snack flight of a ham sandwich and ice cream sandwich.

So after a few movies, tv shows, a little nap, and lots of sitting, China was beneath the wings of the plane.

After the landing, it’s a shuffle of people getting off the plane, a wait in a line for customs, and a walk to find the exit. At this point it just feels like an airport, not a new country (except the signs are in 中文 as well as English).

Welcome to China.