Arrival
The Scholar Ship sailed up the Pearl River into Shanghai on the evening of 6 December 2007 while the entire community was at a Port and Safety Briefing meeting held in the International Lounge. There are windows along the two long sides of the room so we could see the lights along the shore as we moved along. The weather was exceedingly cold so I didn’t go out onto the open deck after the meeting to take pictures. Instead, I went to my cabin to take my first photo of Shanghai – Through My Porthole. Here it is.
First sight of Shanghai – Through My Porthole 9784
The next morning we had to go through the required customs and immigration procedures before we could be allowed to debark the ship. This process required about two hours because everyone had to be cleared before anyone could be allowed to leave. There were the usual few students who were sleeping in and had to be called over the intercom system before they could be routed out to present themselves for clearance. First, all those who had been granted visa status via the Group Visa (which most of us had previously been told would not be possible) had to be cleared. After many of us had been standing in line for at least an hour, all the Group Visa folks were herded into the International Lounge, where they had to sit and wait until all on the visa were assembled, then processing could begin. It was quick and painless once it got under way. However, I gave up and went back to my cabin to wait until most of the crowd had diminished.
Once we were allowed to leave, Nancy, Nikki and I went out to the street nearest the dock, turned left and walked past a few buildings to a branch of the Bank of China. I wanted to exchange my US Dollars for Chinese Yuans, Nikki wanted to cash some traveler’s checques and Nancy wanted to use an ATM. It took some doing and I was the only one who was completely successful but I had to take a number and wait until it was my turn, only to be told I had to go to a different window to make the transaction. It was quite involved and included minute inspection of the money to be sure it wasn’t counterfeit and surrendering my passport so they could make two copies of it for their records. Eventually I had a fist full of 100 Yuan notes, those being the highest denomination made. The exchange rate was about 7.8 Yuans to 1 US$, so I ended up dividing my many Yuans into smaller groups and strategically placing them in various locations. As we left the bank, I had Nikki take a picture of me next to the statue standing guard outside the bank. There was actually one on each side of the steps leading to the entrance.
Buveh and Statue 9790
Then we walked back to the corner of the street and the short lane leading to the dock, waited almost interminably for the light to change while we watched people travel past us on bicycles and mopeds as well as driving cars. Across the street on the corner was a small grocery store where we stocked up on some snacks, bottled water, etc., and then headed back to the ship. I took a few pictures that were very typical of China but ended up deleting them later, the reason for which I will record in due course.
We headed back to the ship to eat lunch and finish packing in preparation for leaving the ship for the next several days as we toured Xi’an and Beijing. We had arranged for a flight from Shanghai to Xi’an (home of the famous Terracotta Warriors and Horses) that was scheduled to leave at 4:00 and we needed to be at the Podong Airport by 2:00. After lunch we went to our respective cabins and got ready then met at the gangway just before 1:00. We had to take our passports with us in order to travel by air. During the entire voyage, our passports had been held by TSS so we had to go through a formality to secure them and leave the ship with them that involved signing a waiver stating that we would be responsible for their safety and timely return to TSS and that if anything happened to them, we would be solely responsible for replacing them.
That morning after I’d left the interminable line waiting to clear customs and immigration, deciding to sign the release for my passport in the meantime. The night before, I had asked someone where the release forms were and was told they were at the Reception Desk, and went there directly. The usually-uncooperative person was on duty. When I told her I wanted to notify them that I would need my passport, she told me I couldn’t have it. I said that I didn’t want it, I wanted to inform her that I would be needing it. As usual when dealing with her, I left in frustration.
The next morning, however, when I went back to Reception, I was relieved to find a different, helpful person on duty who is always positive and helpful. I told her what I needed and she handed me a form which I completed and signed and returned to her. It was good timing because later when I told Nikki and Nancy about it and they went to Reception to sign their forms, the uncooperative person was on duty and refused to hand over the forms. That caused a bottleneck later when we had been cleared to leave the ship and hordes of people were crowded at the Reception Desk trying to get forms, fill them out, get the Purser’s signature on them, etc, and finally actually get the passports. That is the scene I walked into when I went to get my passport. To my amazement, the usually-uncooperative person saw me, pulled out my passport and slid a form toward me that I had to initial indicating that I had received my passport, which I did and then she handed me the passport. I thanked her in a state of shock and made my way out of the horde of humanity still waiting.
It took Nancy almost half an hour to get hers and she claims she had to bribe a student in order to get it sooner than she would have otherwise. Nikki also finally got hers and then we were ready to go. We bumped our suitcases down the two flights of stairs to the Coral Deck where the gangway was set up, only to find that no one was being allowed to leave yet. When they finally opened the doors, we were among the first to present our TSS ID Cards to TSS Security for clearance, pass by several Chinese customs and immigration officials and walk down the gangway. Fortunately it was low tide so the gangway was about a 14-degree ramp rather than full-fledged steps. We rolled our suitcases down the gangway and walked out of the dock area to the street near the bank where we flagged down a taxi, stowed suitcases in the trunk, made sure the driver put down his meter flag and we were off to Pudong Airport!
We got to see more of Shanghai as we drove along the streets leading to the airport, a drive of about one hour. The air there is extremely polluted and all we could see was smog everywhere, blanketing everything in a grey shroud but we could see the shapes of buildings and the basic details of parks, of which there are many. The roads are crammed packed with vehicles, mainly cars but also a fair number of bicycles and mopeds. The driver dropped us off at the right place at the airport and we found our way to the correct ticket counter with only a few wrong turns. The airport was large, spacious, very clean and very quiet. Although there were huge numbers of people, they spoke quietly, moved with grace and composure and produced at atmosphere completely opposite of airports in the US and other countries I’ve been in where everything is frantic and stressful.
The way it was set up, one could smoothly and with plenty of room navigate from one place to another through brightly lit and pleasantly colored areas until arriving at the waiting gates, where we finally saw a room packed with humanity. But there, again, it was very quiet and people were calm and at ease. It was very pleasant. One young woman even moved from her seat, which was beside two empty ones, to make room for the three of us to sit together. People were courteous and pleasant to each other and to us. As we looked around, we realized we were probably the only Westerners in the vast room but no one was rude to us or unpleasant in any way.
All the signs throughout the airport were in both Chinese (Mandarin, I assume) and English, so we had no trouble finding our way around or reading the notices about flight status. When it was time to board our flight – on time! – we walked past airline representatives who checked our tickets and passports, through double glass doors and onto a waiting shuttle bus. When full, the bus zipped around the tarmac of the airport past airplanes from many nations. I commented that it was like taking a world tour. Nikki and I both exclaimed and pointed when we saw an Emirates (from the UAE) aircraft. Finally we arrived at our Shanghai Airways plane. Nancy and I had carry-on luggage; Nikki had checked her (larger) bag. We had to carry them up the metal, covered stairs to the aircraft door but first I had Nikki take a picture of me with the airplane in the background.
Buveh and the Airplane 9798
Everything went smoothly once we were onboard. The three of us had adjoining seats, with Nancy near the window, Nikki on the aisle and me in between. We played a game of Quiddler and got to 8 cards before dinner was served so we put the game away and enjoyed a delicious Chinese meal and interspersed talking and reading the China Daily that was handed out by the efficient cabin attendants. The flight left on time and arrived in Xi’an on time.
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