12 Days in China--Day One

Recently my daughter and I joined my dad on a trip to China. We were part of a tour group that had been arranged around a group of dentists who would be doing some voluntary dental work at a clinic in Xi'an. It was a amazing opportunity, especially since my sister-in-law and I write the Timekeepers series, a historical adventure series that includes a character set in ancient China. So, overcoming my trepidation about leaving my husband with our three youngest (with the help of my amazing mother), I set out on my longest journey to date. Over the next several posts I will blog about our experiences in this unique country, as we visited four of its most well known locations.

DAY ONE

                Even though I had been working long hours to prep my household for this day for a long time, I still had an enormous amount of work left. The pile of paperwork was shrinking, but I kept glancing at the clock as it got later and later in the day. At one point I realized that there was no way I would be able to sleep if I wanted to finish the paperwork and the final bit of laundry I had left, gather up two weeks’ worth of schoolwork for my children, take a shower (it would be over 24 hours before I would get another chance), and pack before my deadline of 2 AM. I’ll sleep on the airplane, I told myself. I quickly checked the time in Shanghai, China, my travel destination. At 2AM here it would be 5PM the next day there. Perfect! I shouldn’t be asleep then anyway. I would sleep at the airport a few hours later and maybe my internal clock would be switched to China time when we arrived. My daughter called from college, she had finished finals and was trying to clean up her apartment for the end-of-semester check-out before she started packing. She wouldn’t be sleeping that night, either.

                Packing is always a last minute thing for me. I make the list ahead of time, and since this was the farthest I had ever traveled, I began the list a couple of weeks ahead so I could add to it as I thought of things. My uncle had made the trip about ten times, so he sent tips for everyone, which helped. I pulled out the suitcase in the afternoon, but I didn’t really start packing seriously until everything else on the To Do list was finished, about a half hour before time to go. At about 1:45 AM, while I was in the middle of dividing things between my carry-on bag and check-in suitcase, my dad called to make sure I had awakened. I laughed and told him I hadn’t slept yet. I made sure I stuffed in a pack of toilet paper and a couple of boxes of Wheat Thins and Cheez-its, and bags of Snickers and Twix. Just in case. It was a few minutes after 2 when I shoved the final item into my suitcase. The only living being awake with me was the dog, and he kept whimpering as he recognized luggage as a sign that I would be leaving for a while. At that point I realized I had forgotten to eat dinner, so I grabbed a couple of pieces of toast for the road, kissed my sleeping family good-bye (only a couple of them mumbled something to me, no one opened their eyes), threw my bags into the car, and away I went.

                Dad and I drove to the nearest airport, a tiny little thing with a single gate. We flew into Seattle, where we had a lay-over for several hours. After a nap on some fairly comfortable sets of double seats we found, we made our way to the tram that took us to the gate where my daughter, Deseret, was flying in with another college girl named Kaylee. The rest of our tour group trickled in from their various destinations, including the American tour guide, Alicia, and her 9 year-old son, Liam. We talked to her briefly and found out that she lives in Salt Lake City, and besides leading tours, she owns a business called Chic on a Shoestring. Which explained the fabulous outfit she was wearing and the well-put-together wardrobe we would see over the next days.

                The flight was over twelve hours long. Deseret was in heaven, enjoying the break from her hectic college schedule, the next few hours of her life in this small space boiled down to the things that really matter to a young adult: sleep, food, entertainment. We were served a dinner, lunch, and breakfast, and between those we slept and watched a couple of movies and tv episodes on the amazing monitors fitted in each seat-back, from which you can choose from a long list of titles. I started feeling restless and cramped, but Des seemed to be perfectly comfortable.
                As the airplane approached the runway, Des and I looked eagerly out the little window, waiting to descend below the smog and get our first view of China. Suddenly there it was, a glimpse of rice paddies before the wheels shuddered onto the asphalt. We looked at each other with wide eyes. "We're in CHINA!!"

                At the airport in Shanghai we met our first Chinese guide, Emily. Obviously this was not her given name, but we soon discovered that all of the Chinese people who knew English had chosen or been given an English name. She led us to our bus, and then as we wove through traffic, she introduced us to the Chinese “International Flag,” what they call the laundry that hangs outside of every apartment, since no one uses a dryer. I wasn’t sure if that was just the culture, or if it was encouraged/mandatory. Whatever the reason, it made sense—in a city of around 28 million it would save a lot of electricity. Tall high-rise apartments were the most notable feature of the city, they were everywhere. The city was beautifully lit at night, and Emily pointed out the most famous buildings. The other thing we noticed right off were the hundreds of motorcycles, bicycles, and electric scooters. They were said to help the pollution, but we wouldn’t see much of the sky the entire time we were in China, and sometimes the haze blurred nearby buildings. One guide suggested that the pollution was mainly industrial, much of it from areas outside the city.

                That first night we got our first taste of a Chinese market street. It was somewhat like what I had seen in Mexico or Hawaii. I was familiar with the most popular items in each stall as souvenirs my dad had brought home from his previous trips to China, so Des and I spent our time looking at the lighted koi pond and Chinese buildings, which would have been very peaceful and serene away from the hustle of the market with its roving vendors on lighted wheels flashing assorted laser toys for sale.

                Des and I shared a room at our hotel, the Radisson Blu. I was happy to find out that the hotel provided two complimentary bottles of water. Bottled water would become a prized commodity over the next few days, since our Western stomachs couldn’t handle Chinese water; there was even a sign at each hotel warning us not to drink the water from the faucet unless it was boiled. I was stressed by the fact that I had no way to contact my family since I couldn’t get the wi-fi to work on my ipad, but I was so tired that I fell into a deep sleep in no time at all.