Last week I was in Beijing, then Manila, then Hong Kong, then Macau,
then Shanghai, tomorrow Canada, then Boulder, then Boston then back to
Macau. Shanghai for a day in mid-August by then. Tianjin and Chengde
over the weekend.... One week here and one week there.... I give....
These pictures were taken from inside the subway cart after it left
the Airport terminus station. Nice and clean huh? And the view and
blue sky. 31C above... That all ended when we switched at Guanlan
Road station. We had to switch cart but still on No 2 subway.
Crowds of people piling in and in and in and in. The air cond wasn't
on; felt on small fan... And people just sweaty and sticky and
smelly. After a while, the empty cart that was posted in this blog,
the similar one was packed to the hill. People with different degrees
of moisture bumping you and tried pushing you aside to fight for
space. Ah.... Hepatitis can be spread by skin contact and who knows
what other skin diseases. The smell .... All I could say was: "Get me
the fu*K out of here!". I finally left the subway and walked the rest
of my way home, about 1.2K. I couldn't stand it. That stuffiness
from sweaty smell.. The sickly acidic smell.... I got home, dropped my
bag and proceeded to scrub myself in the shower.
With the expo and all the subways are operational to fulfill the
passenger needs, we are screwed. I am taking the car with my usual
driver. The subway from the airport took more time than with a driver
with my own car.
If you want to venture into the subway now, be prepare: long sleeve
shirts, long pants, a mask! Then when you get home or back to your
hotel, strip and shower. Burn the clothes or get them washed
immediately.
As I was boarding my flight at the gate, my scheduled 11am flight
(departure of 11:45am, minor mechanical problem), I was handed a
different ticket. O my... First Class. Now on Dragon Air (sister
company to Cathay Pacific) an Airbus... O my... Leg room plentiful.
2 bathrooms for 4 rows of 2x2x2. Why no one told me I got a First
Class upgrade! I should have canceled my Indian vegetarian meal!
The guy next to me got a Chinese style meal. Wow. To start, Winter
melon soup IN A SMALL Winter melon! Then followed by a 2-plate course
of local Cantonese cuisine. :-( Me, a plate of Indian style of
beans, rice and cheese. Good enough actually. Good portion. I can
how easily frequent flyers get a huge muffin top in the mid-section.
Too much food and no exercise. Just sitting.
When I was sitting there in the First Class seat, there came John
Howard. He looked shorter in person than on TV. He seemed to age
quite a bit the last 2 years. Talk a bit loud, I believe it was from
the hearing aides. He was very friendly and didn't ask for anything
"fussy". Always "thank you" the flight attendants for the services.
Not unlike this other Westerner with his Chinese GF. He spoke
"fluent" Chinese and "showed" it off. Hey buddy, shut up, you were
not even one-tenth of Iron-wife's calibre. I hate that. And he
buzzed the flight attendants the most. Grrr....
I can get used to flying like that all the time. ;-) First Class.
I have marked the boat's route in the first picture; the route took
out most of the rough sea but could not totally avoid it. After we
cross over the mouth at the Pearl Delta, we got pounded! Suddenly.
The ferry speed slowed. And we got tossed like yo you. Good that I
did not have a full stomach; mostly digested from morning b'fast and
only my last cup of Triple-shot skim milk latte just before we
departed. I did everything in my power not to puke.
When I got to Macau and to the apartment, my mom laughed. I looked
pale. A warm cup of ginger tea and several burping episodes, my well
being was restored. I was ready to hit the road running. Funny never
felt that. We were tossed about for about 20 minutes. Jetfoil,
jetfoil. Should have declined the offer of taking an earlier and
bigger boat. I should have stuck with Jetfoil. At least it skimmed
the water and taken most of the wave off. But who knows...
The second picture with a circle was the direct path of the tropical
storm which eventually tuned into a typhoon before heading to land.
Getting the back side of a storm is not funny. Even though the storm
did not hit us, but it caused sudden weather change: one minute it was
sunny, the next rain, the next major downpour. In the afternoon as
the storm moved further and further away, some outlying villages in
Hong Kong got flash flood. Some places got over 2 story high! In an
hour, one area got 110mm of rain.
Me? I left for Macau before noon. I expected a rough ride. And rough
it was. Next blog.
Back to my iPad, opened up Kindle App. Clicked the Sync button at the
bottom right corner. The circular arrows. I have my book. See the
first page with bookmark and all. Cool.
So painless.
We left at 7:55am. The No2 Subway line took us to LongYang station.
20 minutes on a Sunday morning. We made the 8:30am MagLev for Pudong
Airport with 4 minutes to spare. 8 minutes later, by 8:40am we were
at the Cathay Pacific counter. 8:55am, we were thru Immigration and
Security. I still cannot say how much NICER the immigration officers
and the security staff were!!!! All smiling and always hand back my
boarding pass and ID WITH TWO HANDS!
8:58am, we were in the Cathay/Dragon Air lounge. 9:10am, announcement
was made to get our asses over to the gate for boarding. Umm...
Strange, our flight didn't leave until 9:45am. O well. Probably want
everyone boarded and shut the door before the c0M m!e Traffic Control
slowed us down. We were in the sardine cans. Lie flat beds. Wow.
All full too on a Sunday morning. Then at 9:30am, the captain came
on. "Hi folks, it's very busy this morning at the airport. We are
being slotted to take off; but do not know when yet. It can be 5
minutes or 20 minutes. Hence we scheduled our flight for 2 hours and
30 minutes. Our actual fly time is 1 hours and 50 minutes". Here we
go again. "You are a bit optimistic, captain. My experience has told
me it will be about an hour wait at the very least". Tick, tick,
tick, tick..... I read my newspaper. Darn where was my International
Tribute? Some bloody J34k took it while I went to the bathroom!
Welcome to China flying even in Biz Class. Rule #1: always watch your
stuff. Wallet, passport and cash on your body all the time. And lock
your carry-on! You just never know nowadays.
10:30am, backing out the gate. Flight was good all the way to Hong
Kong.
12:35pm landed in Hong Kong. The captain said "folks we are only 20
minutes behind schedule and to make up time, we are parked at gate 3
which is just next to the Immigration". 20 minutes behind? Try
longer. With your padded 2 hours and 30 minutes plus the 20 minutes
minus the actual 1 hours and 50 minutes, how far are we behind? Do
the math. Never mind captain. You probably have the computer to
calculate it for you anyway. Answer: 1 hour behind! Wasted to the C0M
m!e Air Tr@ffic / C 0Mm!e milit@ ry that would not let civil aviation
to control air space higher than 25,000 feet.
We did the transfer in HKIA. I am not sure what, maybe the dense air
due to humidity; there were tones of stupid people doing the transfer,
didn't know how to line up. Just stood there. Finally, I just push
them aside getting to the other line that had NO people. After we
were thru security. The escalator was broken. But people could still
walk up. NO. It was fenced off! And there were only two elevators
that would take passengers to the Departure level. And when I got
there, people just stood there staring at the elevators. No ONE
pushed the buttons to go up!!!! The the previous group of people got
in didn't know how to press the button to the Departure level; they
were back to where I was. FULL. Being from China (ha!), I just pushed
in to create space for iron-wife. We moved up.
Had about an hour to kill. Cathay lounge was 30 some gates away at
Gate 63 in a place that if I were to take a flight from gate 60
onward, I would have use the lounge. Otherwise, it would be like
hiking couple kilometers. Never mind that. My gate was at 33.
Flight to Manila took off on time at 2:45pm. 1 hours 30 minutes
later, we were circling Manila airport. Busy la! (In case people
don't know, adding the "la" is like Singaporean speaking English la.)
We landed shortly after 5:15pm. As we were taxing to the terminal,
omg what a pity airport. All the shacks encircled the airport. I saw
a twin prop plane collapsed on its side on a taxi-way; wonder if that
was the reason we were circling. Good thing for strong legs and biz
class and the door opened just two rows from our seats, we dashed to
the Immigration; since the International airport was so small, a short
walk. Then I saw a wave of people moving from opposite side to the
Immigration counter, I walked faster. Phew, made it. The Immigration
officers didn't bother looking at us, just stamped stamped and we were
left along to fetch our bags.
Ground staffs kept walking up and down the belt to bring up "handle
with care" bags and boxes. They literally walked on the belt where
luggages came out. "Mind your head"! And they disappeared back in
the basement.
Got out of Custom and we were greeted with the Shanghri-la sign. We
were ushered to the hotel waiting area. Actually, it was a small
lounge. A young graceful woman greeted us. Matched our names with
the reservation. 10 minutes later our car arrived to pick up us.
This is the second city I notice that the hotel car service was done
thru Avis.
We left the airport under ominous cloud. Rain followed 5 minutes
later. We drove all the way to the new Terminal 3 then double back
half way to Terminal 3 in order to get to the right street for Makati
City. Left hand turn wasn't allowed in front of the DHL office.
So... 2.5 K of wasted driving around in traffic jam. Yes, with rain,
small floods in low lying areas. Expected in Manila.
As soon as we left the airport, we already saw the poverty first
hand. Kids were under the bridge, living perhaps.. 30 minutes later
we were at Makati City, the financial hub. It was like a different
city, a different country! It reminded me of India. The poverty was
blocked from entering the oasis. Heavy security at Shangri-la. Truck
was checked. Then dogs sniffed our luggage; and then everyone had to
open carry-ons to be inspected. What life.
Check-in took a bit of time. Internet was complimentary though. That
was good. Time check: 7:15pm.
Through security should be a breeze if EVERYONE f%&&*nking follow the
signs! When it said First Class and Biz Class ONLY, that means that!
Nope. I had bloody tour group going thru ignoring the signs. Then,
this idiot in sunglass (a local) arguing about boarding pass with the
security staff. Then he hold up the line by packing all the banned
substances as carry-on: bottles of big size liquids, knives, etc... I
was thru ... The security staff were so nice; handing me my boarding
pass and ID card back with both hands! Then the bag check person
reminded me softly about mobile phone and computers... Not so in the U
$ F^(&)(ning of A's T$ A and the TR@nsP0t CDN. Did I tell you I was
subjected to extra X-ray because I was not of the same colour in the U
$? Ridiculous! I digressed.
The lounge was nice and new for China Eastern. Carpet was so thick, I
couldn't roll my carry-on bag thru. Resistant is futile. Well,
better than worn out carpet and dirty floor at the old airport terminal.
The plane was late coming in as usual. My departure time was noon but
didn't board until 12: 15pm. It was a A330. I got to sit in a pod.
Slippers. Blankets. Young flight attendants smiling and taking me to
the seat. Service? Wow, Please I couldn't get use to "Service".
Please don't! The purser came by greeting every single one of us.
And then telling us we would be late taking off. Face cloths rolled
up and handed to us, one by one. Followed by dinner order and drink
order. Finally, 1:30pm we took off in the rain. Dinner served 25
minutes later; no rush, no hurry. Nothing like shove it in your
mouth! I need to eat too and sit and chat; you get no rights to be a
passenger. It was all so civilized. Could it be? Real China. OK, a
bit worn out but better than plastic shrink wrap. I could actually
tasted my steam fish. And not a piece of white dried out fish
imitation from the Golden Arches look alike.
Landed at the Captial. O... smog, fog or a combo? But at least 10
degrees cooler than Better C! ty.
People are just nicer all of a sudden..... My taxi driver, normally
would be one of those complaining and maniac driving type, was so nice
and collective; we chatted up NOT in English of course. He told me
the expected time of arrival to my hotel and the approximate cost
(less than RMB 100). And he said he would not cheat me or drive
longer route. I felt safe. I had the window down and just took in
the windy cool air. No rush hour traffic. Then suddenly.... He
said, here we go. Took the side street all the way toward the hotel.
We laughed; he said, see to the left; if I were to drive there, we
would have been back there. Yes, I agreed wholeheartedly as I needed
to have a biz meeting at 4pm. 3:30pm now. I told him 4pm arrival and
he said, "no problem". Took the side street. Hey, I walked down this
street couple months back. I didn't know... Cool. He explained, two
more traffic light and we are dead straight there. Yup. He was
right. And he commented on the distance, the time and the estimated
fare. Everything was within what he said. 27.some KM later from the
airport I was at the hotel. The fare was RMB 84.00 including the RMB
10.00 toll. I tipped him. He looked at the cash and couldn't
equate. Well, I gave him a total of RMB 120.00. It was well worth it
for my life and my time. At least one good careful driver that knew
the city street. Well, afterall, he grew up in Beijing. 100% Beijing
Ren.
The hotel, Grant Hyatt, was unusually busy. Buzzing with activities
and guests. Sorry for those who had stayed at this hotel before, I
got a cheaper rate thru a client. Iron-wife getting ready to teach
tomorrow, the rate was RMB 980+taxes. The receptionist was so
nice.... she kept apologizing taking such a long time to check me in.
Then Kinko printing... That's another story... All in all... I had
such a relaxing and "human" day.
Shirts I will get again but pants... Not sure.
Both Iron-wife and I both said, you do pay for what you get in terms
of quality and fabric. We would pay higher with less items than a
closet full of cheap stuff.....
Experiment done. We are not heading to the fabric market for pants;
maybe I'll get couple shirts or a jacket.
One dark night recently, bulldozers rammed thru the site and totally
destroyed it. Now foundations were poured for a 700-unit luxury
apartment complex with underground parking for each apartment unit.
And the apartments have good fengshui as well. The residential
project was estimated at about 100M RMB. The archaeologists were
locked out. Evicted by heavy machinerie$.
Welcome to c o Mm iE land where profit$ i$ K!ng when you have
powerful b@cker$. The local developer had a powerful b@cker that
totally wiped out a 1000-year worth of history. Anyone is doing
anything about it? Nope. Even the Offi ci@l $tatE new$ agency
reported the $tory $aid the $ame thing. $ad.....
What am I getting at? The picture is clipped from Today's online
WSJ. It's an article about the company cutting net profit and revenue
outlook for the full fiscal year. Kinda in line of my wondering about
a "not so $m*rt" move.
I wonder how much this company has paid for the spot here across the
street. It's a prime "prime" location. Entrance to the new WuJiang
Lu food and right on top of the #4 exit to the ever popular No 2
subway line carrying office workers to and from work every day down
the block. This company, incidentally, already committed 312M over 15
years for its store at 5th Ave.
Wondering what management is thinking...
Two nights ago at Hangzhou airport, it was closed for an hour causing
a backlog of flights up to 4 hours. The reason, UFO sighting. This
is not good... Apparently, not the first time. An unnamed official
said this is getting common as there is a high concentration of
wealthy people in Jiangsu province with private planes. They might
decide to take their planes out for a spin in the evening. Before was
cars, now planes? Seriously? Better crack down before air disaster
struck. Brains?
In $hen y@ng city in Li@o NinG province, 27 hospitals were hiring
police as vice-president of their hospitals. The news broke yesterday
and this practice was ordered to stop. The decision to hire police as
vice-president was a concerted plan between the Health Department and
the local Security Bureau. They stated there is a need for this
implementation to ensure public safety in hospitals. Huh? Legal
experts said this practice was illegal based on the constitutions
written in stone. Of course, the heath department and the security
bureau disagree. They do have their reasons. Hospitals here are well
known to be $ first. Services are not that great. There are lots of
"riots" when a patient died in hospital. The departments are only
following orders from a 2007 Central committee edict of "safe
hospital". An expert rebut the department view point. To rectify
hospital problem should not rely on "force" but to improve internal
management structure and quality.
Inflations... Big conglomerates controlling supplies are driving up
prices to make a fast $. Last month, garlic, yes garlic, per KG price
went up overnight. One supplier made a cool RMB 1M in 24 hours. Soy,
same thing. Now, Chinese green beans. Central gov't caught 3
suppliers spreading rumours and controlling market supply. And over
109 distributors were on it as well. Wouldn't you if you can make
"lots of $"? Penalty for being caught manipulating the market is RMB
1M fine.
This banner was a celebration by some ChongQing residents after the
former head of Security Bureau was executed. He was charged in May of
bribery, unknown source of asset (about RMB 10 million), raping of a
university student and forming an alliance with the Mafia which his
sister-in-law was the head. He was executed yesterday. ChongQing is
going throw a "house cleaning". From the look of it, something is big
from high up has plan for this town or someone is being slated to take
a position in the Central Party committee.
This street sweeper collapsed and died; his body was stiff up; his
arms were still crossed in front of him where he collapsed. It was
37C yesterday. According to the news reporter, street sweepers get no
employee benefits. Monthly wage is about RMB 400 to 500. And if the
streets were to found there were garbage, these street sweepers will
have their wage deducted.
This person from HuNan was chased by the police after a failed robbery
in Guangzhou's train station last night. He grabbed a hostage during
his getaway. Several hours later, he was shot and killed by the SWAT
lady in white. The next photo showed she was walking away while
putting the gun in the purse. She was calm and collected.
Apparently, the robber was very agitated and started to stab at the
hostage. SWAT lady went over to hand a bottle of water. Dropped it
accidentally in front of the robber and 3 seconds later, all over.
She pumped 4 shots into the robber.
Take a look at the pictures here: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2010-07-07/093920627376.shtml
Next week, Beijing. The week after is Manila. The week after that is
Regina. Then one week in Boulder, CO, then one week and a little bit
in Boston, MSP. Back to Shanghai by August 17. Two days later, we
are flying to Tianjin. Since we are up there, iron-wife has this
crazy idea of touring 承德（chengde). Here's the Wiki site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C
hengde
At end of August, iron-wife flies overnight to Singapore from Beijing
to teach a course the next day. I bring in the equipment from
Shanghai. "How could it be" was the price of plane tickets these days.
Today, we booked the Shanghai to Beijing for next week. One-way of
RMB 1,220 (CAD 191) enabled us to purchase a Biz class seat with econo
class pricing on China Eastern. Huh? I just got the tickets and the
class code was "PY". Weird. Then, I did some pricing for one-way in
August to fly from Shanghai to Singapore. On Singapore Airline
(direct flight), I got a quote of RMB 4,700 on econo. And on Cathay
(via HKG), the price quoted was RMB 2,400. All taxes in. I just
don't know airline pricing anymore. Before I was such a straight
forward affair.
Last week in MFM, I booked my parents CDN/US trip. Aeroplan quoted a
150,000 + CAD 1,500 for two one-way tickets from YQR to BOS. HUH?
And a one-way from HKG-YVR was CAD 2,200 on Latitude class. Ouch.
And my PVG-YVR on July 25 had a "good" pricing of close to CAD 1,700.
That was a round trip econo two years ago. I had my upgrade voucher
so I guess I got it cheap for doing Business First. Who's getting
hosed here?
I have to make a change to my Delta flight. And I am cringing on the
USD 150.00 that I will have to pay, on my own time without human
interaction with a computer mainframe to change my DEN-BOS to one day
later. Hello? Changing that is not that difficult with computer and
databases. And without an agent! It only takes couple JavaScripts
for the input forms, then couple Update/delete commands to the
database. (I hope anyway with all those old technologies). I have
yet to book my BOS-MSP and then from MSP-PVG ..... AGH....
Couple more trips to come across to the US/CAN this year.
