March 21-22 (Good Friday & Saturday) - Our arrival in China

Our journey begins!

These two days were really like one very long day because of the time change.

We flew out of Cincinnati in two groups. All students arrived on time for the first flight out of Cincinnati at the brutal hour of 4 AM. Even though we were told to be there two hours early, the United Baggage check-in staff didn't arrive for at least another hour.

All the students on the first flight were set with proper weight limits and only one was over the baggage limit. However, one student in the second group was way over the Chinese domestic flight weight limit of 44 pounds by 50%. With chaperon help she sorted through her baggage and left behind multiple bags of fresh fruit and several of her 7 pairs of shoes as well as a variety of clothing items! As one of our stylish administrators said, "Its tough to look good!"

We then flew to Chicago for a 4 hour layover and boarded with choirs from Springboro and Walter Payton College Prep Academy from Chicago, Ill. We were also accompanied on the overseas flight by the Music Director, Rollo Dilworth, and his family--most of whom hail from St. Louis.

The 14 hour flight to Shanghai was grueling. I had forgotten how little leg room there is in economy class in an airplane. In spite of my request for leg room, I ended up in a seat with little room for a 6'2" guy. One has to wonder what kinds of midgets they use to design these planes. Our flight path took us northward through northern Canada, through Alaska, Siberia, and down across Korea to Shanghai, China. The airlines try to assist with the time change with a "quiet" time on the plane with all of the window shades pulled down and the overhead lights dimmed.

I sat between a Chinese National who spoke less English than I spoke Chinese and a French-Canadian who is married to a Chinese wife who lives in Shanghai. He is studying business at Funan University in Shanghai. There were several international business majors on the flight with us as the Chinese economy is a booming field these days. The Chinese man spent two hours trying to teach me Chinese. He would speak a word which I would imitate and then he would LAUGH heartily! At one point toward the end of the flight he reached over and grabbed my arm and said something like, "pong-yi." I asked the French-National student what that meant and he said, "It means he has a new friend." It was a heart-warming way to start my interaction with the Chinese people.

The stewardesses discussed how they would spend Easter Sunday and decided they would attend the Catholic Church in Shanghai. It seemed from the conversation that there was only one in Shanghai, but that is not a certainty.

In flight, some of our kids willingly entertained the passengers on the plane by singing a small ensemble number--it didn't take much encouragement. Although I didn't have my pitch pipe in my carry-on back pack, I did have my Palm Pilot which includes a "tuning fork" program. With just a little help, the choir President, Steven Cleary got them started and they sang a vocal acapella tune.

A tragedy occurred when we reached the Shanghai airport. A laptop bag containing two passports was left on the airplane when one of our chaperons disembarked. International security protocol prohibits re-entry to the airplane once you have left the plane and when the family discovered the mistake, they were prohibited by Chinese security from re-entering the plane. By the time they convinced the authorities that they needed to check the plane, almost 20 minutes had passed and the clean-up crew had already entered the plane and the bag containing the passports was gone. Since they were the last ones off of the plane, it had to have been an employee of United Airlines or a security guard who removed the bag. Without their passports, the chaperon and her son were refused entry into China.

When the chaperon asked if she could call the consulate, she was told, "if you do not go back on the next plane you will have to buy your own tickets." It seemed evident that the evening would be spent in detention. As we were entering unknown territory and the news media was reporting that up to 100 had been shot while protesting in Tibet the previous week, I had no stomach to see anyone spend the night in a Chinese jail. As we talked further, more security guards arrived by the moment and she was told she and her son needed to leave immediately. It was a crushing blow for the family and for us to see them led away, but we had no one to contact for assistance until we had passed through customs.

We lined up alphabetically in two groups and went through customs. The two absent members were cancelled off of out Visa papers and each person was checked individually.

One we were through customs, our guide contacted United Airlines immediately and was told the mother and son were already in flight headed home. I can only imagine how awful and lonely that flight home was with no passport, no credit cards and no money.

Due to the delay at the airport, we went straight to dinner as dinner was en route to the hotel. The introduction to Chinese cuisine was exciting. Dinner was amazing. Like most of our meals, there were about 8-10 choices of entrees served on a rotating lazy-Susan in the middle of the table. We had our first encounter with chop-sticks and the Chinese cuisine. Each meal came with tea and two 2 liter bottles of soda, one Coke and one Sprite. Once those were gone, you had to pay for additional drinks. There was usually only one fish dish served with each meal, the rest was chicken, beef, pork or vegetables. Many times the fish was served with a light breading and cooked whole, complete with eyes, fins, etc. Needless to say the fish at the first meal was the most photographed subject of the evening.

Our kids were great about trying the chop-sticks and cuisine through-out the whole trip. They also did a fantastic job of sticking with bottled water and staying away from uncooked vegetables and fruit. Only one child got sick to her stomach on the trip and only one needed Immodium. We were really lucky that they followed instructions so well and kept themselves hydrated with bottled water throughout the entire trip. Generally, one received a complimentary bottle of water from the hotel each day and also a complimentary bottle of water on the tour bus each day. If students wanted to buy additional bottled water, they could purchase three bottles for about 10 yuan (or about $1.25) from the bus driver.

The exchange rate was about 7 yuan RMB for each American dollar. We found that the exchange rates were better in the hotels than they were in the airports. Many establishments were not equipped to handle traveler's checks, but most could handle currency or credit cards. Many of the street vendors quoted prices in dollars as well as yuan. If you weren't sharp, they took advantage of you by quoting a higher price in dollars.

The calling cards purchased in the US didn't work. But we discovered that the $5 ICC cards lasted about 30 minutes and were the best way to call home from Shanghai. In Beijing the phone cards were more expensive and lasted only 5 minutes.

When we arrived at the Shanghai hotel, which was beautiful, they copied our passports and our visa and entered them into a computer database. They also put our passports in the hotel safe for safe keeping. Our hotel room included fresh flowers and a complimentary fruit plate. There was a mystery fruit that I had never seen before on the plate. It was a reddish purple hue and the size of a small grapefruit. I now know that it is a red pitaya known in Asia as a "dragon-fruit." I wish I had tried it, but I was worried about fresh foods being contaminated as we had been warned online.

Sleep was a welcome companion! It was a loooong first day.

Videos:
Our first Chinese dinner