On our last full day in Shanghai we took a day trip to Hangzhou (literally, "Hang State"), a city that bears my name! We booked a trip with a sightseeing company and I will spare you the gritty details of our unpleasant experience with the company. I will, however, fill you in on the fact that Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other surrounding areas in Southern China--which rarely see any snow--received more snow than they've had in about 50 years. I don't know whether the states have been getting any news on the weather (and subsequent traffic congestion) in China, but it's actually mindblowing. It's the kind of wet, slippery, gross snow that we get in Providence. But Southern China's incredibly ill-equipped for snow, and it was being swept away with brooms made of branches. Most of the trees in the area are not "built" (or whatever, you know what I mean) for that much snow and we could see many trees that had toppled and branches that had broken off due to the heavy weight. We were dreadfully afraid we wouldn't make it back to Shanghai--they seal off roads when they become icy, rather than take care of it with ice and sand--and in one piece, since there's no habit for wearing seatbelts in Asia. It was, however, beautiful snow.
The snow continued into the next day, which is when we were scheduled to leave for Hong Kong. We'd been watching the news on the weather so we knew we should get to the airport early. We tried calling the airline before we left the hotel to ask about delays and cancellations, but none of our calls went through. Our flight was scheduled for 6:50pm; we arrived at 3:20pm to find that our flight had been cancelled. Not just delayed--outright cancelled. The runways had iced over and no planes could land. Due to the fact that the cancellation was weather-induced, the airline (which will remain nameless for propriety's sake)--ahem, DragonAir--was not claiming any responsibility for ensuring us seats on a flight. And then they refused to refund our money! So we stood in line for 3 hours to get standby numbers and simultaneously checked which other airlines might be flying to places that would give us easy access to Hong Kong. It was quite an overwhelming experience. Transportation was exceptionally crowded because everyone was trying to get home for the New Year.
We tried to tell them that my grandma couldn't really handle it--trying to get her on the earliest plane that went out, but they weren't being very understanding. They wouldn't even give her a meal voucher! We stuck her into her own little nook of the airport and told her to get some rest. While there, she made a friend (duh) who was on an earlier DragonAir flight that had been delayed. When he left he gifted her with the towel on which he had been sitting (seen under my cousin's ass as we're camped out in the airport, below). Grandma'ssleeping on the floor. This was that kind of bonding experience, you know? We actually made quite a few friends through this process and I now will always have somewhere to stay in Shanghai. Yay!
While I was passing time in my new home-away-from-home, frustrations were building among the people. There were still people in the standby line! DragonAir was flip-flopping regarding whether or not they would be sending additional planes to make up for the cancelled flights. How do the Chinese take care of problems? Protest.
After further protesting, negotiating, pushing and shoving, we were on our way to an airplane at 1:00am! We didn't want to make grandma walk; she was kind of tired, so we put her on a luggage cart! To pad the base she used her new friend's old towel.
We finally departed Shanghai at 4:00am and arrived in Hong Kong around 6:30am. After taking a quick nap, we set off to explore a city that I came to love in the two days we had to sight-see. The weather wasn't good enough, otherwise I'd have beautiful photos of water and buildings and sky and other pretty things. But I did get to see Kim (!) and we did fun things like have dim sum and ride the world's longest escalator halfway up a mountain (it was really long!).
My family also went to get foot massages ... the reflexology kind that HURT but are supposed to rebalance your body or whatever. It was delightful. We arrived back in Taiwan late on the 5th and spent yesterday sleeping off travel exhaustion and preparing for New Year's Eve. My description of the holiday will have to wait until a later date because already I'm being called to do New Year's things.
It feels wonderful to be safe and warm (shortsleeves and sandals!) and celebrating with family, but I do miss you all dearly.
Much love!
2 comments:
And a happy new year to you and your family as well!
Who decided: hey let's get a picture of Lizzy pushing grandma on the luggage cart? I say it was you.
i did know about the snow in china, but i thought it was in the northern area until two days ago i finally realized it was in the south.
and indeed, it's not very normal for south china to get snow.
according to my professor, you gain more respect my speaking english to them in mainland instead of chinese.
i tried to call my mum to pass along your number, but she didn't pick up. i suppose she's out with the family.
hope you're enjoying the new years. in my chinese art seminar today i once again was the star student (duh) who gets to write chinese on the blackboard and answer all the weird questions on new year stuff.
it was a lot of fun and i hope they told you every single story about new year!
(i personally like those stories a lot.)
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