Leaving Shenzhen

A nice walking path to the mall

To prepare for our trip to northern China where we were told winter was coming I walked to a shopping mall and acquired a black dress I did not realize what I had bought until I looked at my receipt. My dress was in fact a "blazer/coat" per the receipt but my lips were sealed.

Joseph was set to arrive at the hotel between 12 and one with the crew who would then transport us to the airport and onwards to Dalian, Mr. Jang’s hometown. I ran out of time to grab a lunch and with a four hour flight ahead and unknown airport conditions I ordered a curry from the hotel restaurant and asked that it be packed to go. They provided me with a thin plastic bag containing a container of rice and the curry itself which is basically a thick soup. I then placed this bag in my paper bag from my shopping trip for an extra layer of spillage and smell protection. I tend to feel a bit insecure about the smells of my food.

The crew soon arrived and of course inquired about my lunch status. I told them I had ordered a curry to get it out in the open and told them I would eat it at the airport. Once at the aiport Mr. Jang performed the first inspection of my curry and explained to Roc that he was unsure it would make it through airport inspection. China also has the no liquid on planes rule. There were two security checkpoints to make it through and Mr. Jang decided to try and negotiate my curry from the onset at the first one. The curry made it through the first checkpoint but we were informed things could get rocky at the next one. Joseph grumbled that I should have eaten my curry before they picked me up as though I wanted to be in some kind of curry spotlight. I had run out of time!

For the next security checkpoint we lost our interpreter as Roc would not be joining us in the north; only Mr. Jang, Joseph, and I would be flying to Dalian. Mr Jang approached the officer first and then as they read Joseph and I passport there appeared to some problem. Impatient Joseph ordered me to “show them your curry”, thinking the discussion between Mr. Jang and the security checkers was related to my lunch. I started to pull the plastic bag out of the paper bag to present my curry when we were told to move out of the line.  We regressed out of the security line back into the gen pop of the airport and Roc appeared having seen our difficulties in getting through security. Roc explained that the issue was not curry related but that they had found counterfeit item in one of our checked bags. In China you are not allowed to have batteries in your suitcase. I left Joseph and Mr. Jang to resolve the issue of the checked baggage while I ran to a seat to eat my curry and end that part of the drama once and for all.

The curry eaten, and the battery removed from the checked luggage for we again went through security this time with flying colors and Roc once again attempted to leave us. In our previous two or three days hanging out with Mr. Jang he had spoken no English. He had solely spoken through an interpreter. I had suspected that he understood some English however from interactions at dinner and that he was the type of guy who probably had a few words in his pocket but would forgo the use of them for fear of looking like a fool as many dad-types are loathe to do. But I wondered how long he would be able to hold out in the current circumstances. Joseph of course had his translation app where you can input English and produce Chinese characters on the phone but who knew how good the translation is and it’s not very convenient. In any event, we arrived to the gate despite our debacles about one and a half hours early so we inputed into the translation app that we would take a walk around. Mr. Jang agreed to this plan via head nod and the word "gouda". Mr. Jang would continue to use the word "gouda" throughout the trip which I learned was his word for "good" in English.

The Shenzhen airport is basically a mall set in the future which also happens to be an airport. If you are old enough to remember the show "The Jetson's", I felt very much as though I was in that cartoon; in fact much of my China experience to this point was somewhat Jetson's like.

Shenzhen airport

Two most popular convenience foods in China? Dried fish and the promises of a goose or duck in a bag.

The ice cream flavors are "American Love" or "American Dream". That's Michael Jackson on the t.v.

We made our way back to Mr. Jang and found that the flight was delayed. After a half hour or so it was announced that our flight was now boarding. Despite having an assigned seat people mobbed to the line in a way that almost alarmed me. We made our way to the back of line and eventually onto the plane. To our surprise Mr. Jang had booked up business class seats, a first for me in my adult life. Unfortunately an angry Chinese woman was planted in one of the seats. Mr. Jang presented our tickets and resolved the issue in Chinese but before she left she snapped at me in English to stop staring at her which I only was because I was on a plane with limited places to stand and look. After she left I told Joseph I would be opening up a can of whoop ass on her when we landed. I discovered she had even already reclined the seat, something I will never do on a plane out of courtesy to those behind me. “And you know she scrambled like a hog to get this seat” Jospeh quipped egging me on in my fury. After a two hour flight complete with full dinner service we landed at Suzhou, the silk capitol of China as informed by Mr. Jang via interpreter two days earlier. Our layover was one hour so Mr. Jang gave us a quick mime tour of the best silk and tea shops and then sat down. We again communicated via app that we would walk around for a bit.

There is a fancy tea making table here in this airport tea store.

On our airport walk Joseph and I found some full body massage chairs complete with foot and arm massages and immediately signed up for 20 minutes worth. After being worked quite thoroughly by the chairs we approached the gate as we saw Mr. Jang running towards us. We were late! Now Jospeh and I scrambled like hogs to find our tickets which we discovered were missing! So now we were late and ticketless in a very rule centric society. Mr. Jang brought us to the ticket counter, probably explained that we were idiots and we were given hand written tickets to present at the gate five feet away. “How did I lose my ticket??” Joseph asked annoyed and baffled with his own stupidity. “They must have fallen out in the chairs” was our decided upon explanation.

Our hand written last minute tickets

We found our seats on the plane and through charades Mr. Jang asked Joseph why he turned his phone off at such a critical time as he had been sending may day messages via Roc our interpreter. Joseph was flustered and embarrassed and so decided via charades to show Mr. Jang the reason for our tardiness, the massage chairs. Jospeh demonstrated a reclined position and starting rocking and gyrating in the reclined position. Mr. Jang started laughing. “Joseph” I said, “you’ve just made it look like we were late and ticketless because we had been having sex! Type into your phone ‘massage chairs’!”

Jospeh scrambled even more horrified into his phone the words "massage chairs" and presented it to Mr. Jang as I laughed hysterically. Mr. Jang and I laughed to tears for at least ten more minutes. Mr. Jang then exclaimed to Joseph, “In English- interesting” and pointed at Jospeh. Joseph sat meekly in his seat for the remainder of the flight. 

We landed in the north and disembarked the plane onto the landing strip. The cold air felt amazing after a warm start to the trip in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and the airport scramble. As part of the business class package our checked luggage arrived first on the checked luggage belt at baggage claim. We then were greeted by Mr. Jang’s driver who whisked us away in yet another black Mercedes and to the downtown Dalian Hilton after ensuring that we did not want to stop for a late night dinner feast. We entered a sea of black and white marble with a ceiling higher than any I had seen in any hotel lobby and I knew for a certainty we had made it to Dalian/Winterfell.

Black and white marble and tons of bling by the elevators.