New challenges, or an Ugly weekend

I am in Rizhoa which is a city on the west side of Shandong Province. It is about 4 hours west of Changyi. The plant here is part of the Changyi Complex. It is a larger operation that the others, too.


Getting here this a.m. capped off a whirlwind adventure which covered the last few days. My visa is for a maximum of 182 days, but a little hitch is no single entry into China can be for over 60 days. What that means is I must step out of China and step back in to be legal. I do not want to be anything but legal, so I was awarded an expense paid trip to Tokyo, Japan.

It was an 'offset' weekend as in Saturday thru Monday because of airline ticket availability. Early Saturday afternoon I checked out of the Changyi Hotel and the driver took me to Qingdao. Qingdao is about 2 hours south, on the southern coast of Shandong. It is famous here for hosting the 2008 Olympic Sailing competitions. I got checked in to the Shangri-La and had time to walk over to the beach for awhile before it got dark.

Though not my favorite place to eat, there was a Pizza Hut across the corner & I got an American type meal, though the service was, no exaggeration, the poorest I have had in some time. It was so poor-and you won't believe this-I don't even feel like taking the time to complain about it.

Sunday at 5:45 the hotel car took me to the airport for the first leg of the trip, to shunny Shanghai. The flight was cancelled and the China Eastern guy put me on a Shandong Airlines flight-but failed to mention one little point. The Shandong Airlines flight was going to the 'other' Shanghai airport. I planned to be at Pu Dong International for the 2nd flight and the plane was going to Hongqiao International Airport.

When I tried to check my bag, I caught the difference and went back to the ticket counter and fortunately a manager woman was just coming in. Of course I cut in line and thankfully she could speak some English. It turned out that was the only way they could get me to Shanghai early enough to catch the 2nd flight at Pu Dong. It was frustrating that he did not make an effort to let me know of the small difference.

I then asked how I was to get to Pu dong and the answer-bus. After explaining I was English speaking and English reading -ONLY-she gave me 30 RMB ($4.50 bus fare) and said someone could show me. I knew I would have an hour to get over to Pu dong and it might be an hour away, I did not feel I had an alternative.

Once at Hongqiao, I did not do my O.J Simpson airport act (circa 1970 when he was a football star for you youngsters) but hurried, nevertheless, to catch a taxi. The driver is the 2nd woman I have ridden with in China. They do not teach women to drive here. She hit a pothole the size of Rhode Island at full speed and had to downshift to get up the far side. A few minutes later, she stopped in the middle of 3 lane highway and did a walk-around to check for tire damage. She then proceeded to do like the Shanghai tour driver did when Lela was here, drive in 3rd gear with a 5 gear transmission. And slowing down to climb grade. Fortunately, despite her best efforts, we made it to Pu Dong.

The flight to Narita, Japan was uneventful. It was raining when I arrived. Something caught me by surprise when I got into a taxi, though. They steer from the right side and drive on the left side of the highway. How has that escaped my trivia lobe?

At Pu Dong, I had lunch. The weakest club sandwich the world has ever seen. To my knowledge, I have never eaten only half a sandwich in my adult life. I hate only half of this red ham club sandwich. The alternative was a tuna club, whatever the hell that is.

The plane was one with 2-5-2 across, seat arrangement and until the last person boarded, I thought I did not have a seatmate. Unfortunately, they did not close the door on time. I had the aisle & a garlic laced, pregnant Chinese lady had the window and a good part of my seat for the next 3.5 hours.

At Japanese Customs an young lady officer eyed me and my papers and asked, 'one day only'? To which I responded affirmatively. She raised her thin eyebrows/pencil marks, but gave my passport a quick stamp and I was through the gate.

Heidi He, in the Shanghai office set up my travel and we decided since I would be in and back out of Japan, a hotel close to the airport was fine. I heard every phone ring in the building, from my room, for the next 24 hours.

The bathroom was 'modular' and appeared to have been 'set' into the room. It was similar to an airplane restroom, but had a 4' long bathtub. You had to step up to enter and the door was like a mobile home. Though 2 people don't need in a bathroom at the same time anyway, they surely would never have made it work in this one.

The internet was so poor I could not get my business laptop to hook up and my personal one was extremely slow. I do not know what sights may have been within reach, but I did not see any. I did take a walk on Sunday morning for about 2 miles just looking around, before checkout. What I noticed is the houses and apartments did not have lawns or yards, but many had blooming flowers around the entry areas.

The hotel had an airport shuttle, so I did not have to catch a taxi to get back to the airport. It was about 1 pm, but not enough time to do anything. I thought I would go to the airport, get my boarding passes, get through security, grab some lunch and read one of my Kindle books.

One interesting point: We were stopped at a roadblock on the airport road and a policeman or military guy came aboard and everyone had to show their passports. I felt this was odd--we were in Japan.

My departure, with China Eastern, was noted in my itinerary as from Terminal 1. They have 2 terminals in Narita and the shuttle dropped the folks going to terminal 2, first. At terminal 1 I got my bag and looked at an outdoor board to see where China Eastern ticket counter was. It wasn't. Luckily, I stopped the shuttle driver and he had a sheet showing where each airline set up shop. China Eastern was at Terminal 2. He was kind enough to carry me back to the correct terminal.

After standing in line to get a boarding pass for 30 minutes I reached to front. The lady said it was too early for her to give me a boarding pass. It would be another 50 minutes because I was early for my 4:30 flight. I returned at the prescribed time and then went to security.

I carry a voltage converter, mainly for my CPAP machine (Fat boy's wear CPAP's while they slumber, it prevents snoring & smothering, I guess). Security ran my backpack 2X and dumped my stuff out trying to figure where the bomb was, then let me through because they do not understand the converter.

We were late leaving Narita, but some hours later we arrived at Shanghai Pu Dong again. We were late and I had to trek through customs and worse, get to the far reaches of the airport to Gate 3. After customs, I had to go back through security. Worse than before, the lady ran the backpack through more than once and then asked if she could search it. I agreed and she took out the cords for my computers, my phone, Kindle and camera cords, glasses, hand sanitizer (not is a baggie) & other purse-like concerns, satisfied herself that I was harmless, left me to pick up the pieces. And I still had to get to Gate 3.

I had to ask for directions 2X, but made it. Mostly because they were doing the old Chinese fire drill deal of loading 2 airplanes through a single door.

When I arrived at Qingdao, a guy had my name on a card waving and smiling at 'the American' (me)-while wearing an ill-fitting doorman's floor length coat. He grabbed my rolling bag and CPAP from me, called the driver & led me to the hotel car in the parking lot (same driver to delivered me the previous morning). I thought the doorman-coat guy was from the hotel and was going to get in the front with the driver. I got into the back seat, they shut the trunk, the driver got in and we drove off, leaving the doorman-coat guy standing in the parking lot. I felt bad because I did not tip him, but I thought he was coming with us and I would tip him when we got unloaded at the hotel!

The Shangri-La hotel was just as I left it. And I deserved the 5 star treatment after the rough weekend I had just wrestled.

Lucas called at 8 am and said he & the driver were into their 2 hour trip to pick me up, but it was snowing heavily and they would be a little late. It was not snowing at Qingdao, but later, as we travelled to Rizhoa, we saw quite a bit of snow-very large flakes. Little stuck, but it is cold here.

I will try to get some more pics up in the coming days. I will be busy this week, learning Rizhoa's operation, so I am unsure when. I have several to get downloaded.

Later.