The magical day has finally come! I get to go to Shanghai today! Yes, it’s the wrong city and I currently have no idea how I’m going to get to the right one, but I’m getting closer to where I’m supposed to be.
After briefly becoming a pack mule to get all my stuff back to the airport, I and a whole crowd are near the check-in desks. I don’t want to fight my way through the crowd that I assume are all trying to pull up their green HDC codes, I try to check-in via the computer kiosks only to be told that, because I’m going to China, I have to go see a person.
Ok. Time to fight the crowd.
I make it up to the gentleman preventing people from entering the line. He needs to see the QR codes. I show him mine and he asks about the other one.
What other one?
One quick scan of the paper he’s holding with WeChat and I’m filling out a customs form about my travel plans, if I’ve been near anyone sick, and my COVID test result. Eventually, I’m done. I’ve got another QR code and screenshot it (I don’t know if I’d ever be able to find it again if I don’t and it recommends it).
I’m passed through and go up to the first open person behind the counter. I get a temperature check, shove my big bag on the scale, show my QR codes, passport, and visa. I’m so distracted trying to keep track of stuff while trying to corral a runaway bag that I almost forget to check in my second bag, but it makes it.
Now to find security and my gate and wait for a while for my flight.
Boarding the flight is, like my flight out here, by rows from the back and there was a separate line for US passport holders that I didn’t know about until my row was being called anyway, but it was a little shorter. A quick face scan and I’m finding my seat.
The plane has a group of 4 seats in the middle. I’m always in the middle on those planes and this was not any different. I’m on the aisle one row from the bathroom in the middle of the plane. And I’ve got the 2 seats next to me empty. Awesome! I’m laying down to sleep for this flight!
I start watching movies on the seat back almost immediately. I have a much easier time sitting on this flight. I don’t know why. But, I sit, I watch movies, and I nap as much as possible.
Eventually, we make it to Seoul to get a new crew to take us to Shanghai. While at the gate, they cranked the AC on the plane to max and I quickly started turning into an ice cube.
Just before I thought I would never be warm again, we depart for China.
As we’re being welcomed to China, they ask that we remain in our seats while local health officials board the plane and make sure that we’re not plague-ridden.
I was expecting to wait an hour or two on the plane, but it didn’t take anywhere near that long. And, it was off to wander the airport, get my brain poked again, go through customs, find my luggage, and get a quarantine hotel.
I get off the plane and wander towards customs. Before I found the people that stamp the passports, I had to make it through the machine that took a picture and scanned my second QR code, talk with a person about my plans and health. They had me sign some forms and gave me another form to take with me.
Now, I met my new best friends and they’d be with me all the way to the doors of the airport – a pair of large, temporary, blue walls with large red, decorative knots. I spent most of the time wondering if the walls were really all that climbable (the pervasive signs claimed they were).
These new friends took me on a wonderful adventure all through the airport, outside to get my brain swabbed, and back inside to give someone my form, then, I finally met the nice gentleman who stamped my passport.
Next up, luggage. Usually, the last stop before the exit, but not this time. I packed up my overpacked bags on the handy, and free, luggage carts.
My wall friends continued to join me on my journey. We found a, well, it looked like a holding pen for people, where we had to scan another QR code and fill out roughly the same form, again. This one was a little more detailed with where I was going than the other ones were, but the rest of the questions were similar. Unfortunately, the province and city options were all in Chinese. I know maybe 100 characters and no idea what the characters of the city of province I’m going to are. I flagged down the nearest employee for help. I couple of quick pokes later and I had another QR code.
I showed it to the gatekeeper and earned my freedom from the pen.
I continued on my journey with my wall friends. We met a moving walkway that sloped down. There were signs that said you had to release the lever on your luggage cart so it wouldn’t roll away and a couple of people there to make sure all the travelers read and followed the signs. About 3 people in front of me and around a corner, I think someone did not follow the sign as there was some yelling and running, but, one of my blue friends was in the way so I couldn’t actually see.
Once down the dangerous ramp and around a few more corners, I was within sight of the doors. Finally!
The line for the exit was the longest wait yet. There were a couple of tables with computers set up, most of the signs were in Chinese, except for a bit about how we would get our passports back once we made it to the hotel. Eventually, it was my turn. I handed over my passport and moved closer to the doors to wait to be motioned that I could go on the bus that, I assumed, was taking me to my quarantine hotel.
After a long bus ride or quick nap, we were arriving at my hotel, or jail, for the next two weeks.
Usually, it takes less than an hour to get off a plane and out of the airport, sometimes a bit longer for international trips. This had been a 4 hour marathon.
My TEFL Adventure 