Day 6 – Xining to Guangzhou – What a mess!!

The day started off well enough, we were able to Skype home for Christmas Eve which made both Jake and I a tad home sick. However once we got to the airport things went downhill. First off Chinese airports/airlines are not like the US. You don’t get an e-ticket or email confirmation, you show up with you id and they check the flight list and check you in. Well when our guide went to check us in, we weren’t on the list, so she spent almost an hour trying to figure it out with the airline and our travel agent. In the end she had to buy us new tickets and we only had 15 mins to get thru security before our flight boarded. To say I was annoyed would be polite. Those who know me well, should have an idea of the things that were coming out of my mouth! So as we are rushing to try to get thru security (which isn’t a easy task anyways but is more complicated w/a 7yr old who is complaining and a 2yr who is crying) our guide informs us that we will have a
layover in Xianing and that we will have to get off the plane, get our luggage and change planes?!! I was trying so hard to be nice but at this point I wanted to scream! Oh yeah and the layover is 4 hours!! So I had her write in Mandarin the flight information and that we needed help, and off thru security and to the gate we went. Our flight was about an hour and uneventful as Madison was asleep the entire time.

We landed in Xianing and handed our note to our flight attendant who informed us that our flight was on a different airline and why didn’t they book us on this continuing flight we were already on. Okay…I really wanted to poke someone’s eyes out at this point but John reminded me that showing anger and frustration in public is considered rude in the Chinese culture (BTW…not that I really cared). We found someone to help us find the baggage area and then we showed our note to the information desk only to be told that we were in the wrong terminal and needed to walk to terminal 2 (300 meters away) to check in. So off we go into the cold (30 degrees) with two luggage carts and kids in tow.

Once in terminal 2 we were informed that we weren’t allowed to check into our flight until 2 hours before departure. So we had an hour and 45 mins to kill. There was a coffee bar and 2 gift shops in this area so, we sat down and got the kids some food, well really Madison because Jake would only eat the white rice.

Finally it’s time to check in and I am hoping this will go smoothly. But of course it doesn’t! We present our passports and note only to be told there is something wrong with Madison’s passport and ticket and that we need to wait to the side for 15 mins. Mind you they speak very very very little English and we have no one to translate for us. A manager approaches and takes John away and tells him that Madison was booked as an infant ticket but that she is not considered an infant so we need to pay ½ price. John talks to this man for about a ½ hour while I am trying to keep the kids happy and eventually the manager allows us to keep the tickets they way there were. So off thru security where they were also unhappy with Madison’s passport and ticket which meant another manager needed to review it. Finally with a 45 mins to spare we are on to our gate.

At this point it is 8pm and both kids are tired and hungry. We get on the plane and the 1st hour is fine, however hour 2 was rough. Between Madison crying and throwing fits and hitting her brother, I was ready to land in Guangzhou. We finally landed, got our luggage and met our guide Elvin. Elvin tells us the ride to the hotel is about 20 mins, we are very relived until our van breaks down on the freeway, on a blind curve. At this point I could either cry or laugh…I choose laughter (I think poor Elvin thought I was crazy!) Elvin and the driver went out with an umbrella to wave drivers around us, we had a couple of close calls but, lucky did not get hit. Finally 40 mins later someone the driver called, showed up to help us. We had run out of gas…yes gas!! Which only made it funnier to me… So at 11pm we arrived to our hotel safe and sound but exhausted!