Shanghai

There is a 16 hour time difference between Vancouver and Shanghai, so even though we left Vancouver on Thursday at noon, it became 4am on Friday for us as soon as we got on the plane and changed our watches.

We flew China Eastern on our way West. The food was pretty good for airline food, and we had a good amount of leg room, but there was only one tv screen every few rows in the centre of the plane, and the washrooms weren't very clean and were out of most of the items in the little named compartments. Thankfully I had brought my own hand soap and all the shows were non-English anyway.

When I had tried to find how to pre-book our seats on their web site, I had been frustrated to find their English site was completely unusable with mostly error pages. Why have an English site if it can't be used? Seeing that we were the only non-Asians on the plane cemented the point that we are not their target market. However, all the flight attendants spoke fairly good, if heavily accented English and were very kind and attentive.

Just before landing, the televisions changed to show people doing pre-landing stretching exercises. This is the sort of thing, if shown on a North American flight, I'd want to do, but would feel silly because everyone else would ignore it. So I was delighted to see most people on the flight following along, and I happily joined in along with them. It endeared me to the others on the plane.

Shanghai Pudong Airport is an industrial mass of steel and stone. Massive and reaching to the sky, it appears to have been built with the object of portraying power and strength, and caring nothing of comfort or pleasure. We were corralled down a long cold grey hallway to Immigration, where they took our picture and information, to be stored in their database. I had originally checked to see if we would be allowed to leave the airport, but it was too lengthy and costly to bother getting a Visa for only a few hours. We were sure we wouldn't be allowed out of the secured area of the airport so we fumbled around, not understanding what to do. The only way to go looked like we were headed out of the secured area. We wandered around confused until a security officer took pity on us, waved us over and let us out through a little hidden side door, telling us to go through and up the escalator to the departures area.

It was strange being allowed into what we perceived as freedom. If we walked 10 feet to the doors outside, would we be stopped or could we go on unfettered? Would there be additional checkpoints? We were more interested in finding where to go than testing Chinese security, so we headed upstairs, where we wound our way through chaotic little alleyways of shops that appeared to have been haphazardly thrown together.

Once again we had to head through Immigration, then security. China obviously doesn't worry about shoe bombers as we were allowed to keep our shoes on through the process. Canada only requires this for International flights, not domestic, and it's the one part of the process I really hate, especially if I wear sandals. Then I end up walking through the area in bare feet.

By the time we reached Shanghai, it was already dinnertime. We decided to stop for a meal and wine in one of the restaurants in the airport. We chose a Chinese Cabernet Sauvignon with a rather stereotypical name "Great Wall of China". I didn't care for it at first but it got better with my green curry. Harold had a seafood and noodles in broth dish. Both were good, but not great. What can you expect from airport food?

We were happy to find the airport has free Wifi, and then both disappointed and amused to recognize the reason we couldn't get to Facebook or Google ... duh! China doesn't allow them! It felt so claustrophobic and controlled.

After wining and dining, we found our departure gate. With 4 hours still to go, we stretched out on the uncomfortable steel seats and slept almost right up until boarding time. Awakening, we found the waiting area full of people, mostly Asian, and mostly young college age. We were channelled through the gates like cattle, onto a bus, then driven across the tarmac to another flight field, where we were let off, to board our flight.

Ten minutes after take-off, we were both fast asleep, and didn't awaken until 1.5 hours out from Singapore. I watched a wonderful storm through my window, with lightning crackling across the sky, lighting up huge areas of clouds. It made me think of ancient people looking up and wondering if the gods were angry. It also made me think of a Disneyland ride, made just for my entertainment.