My last post was written in the backseat of a VW Passat on the way to the Shanghai Pudong airport. As you likely read, the front tire blew and it needed to be changed. No worries, I always plan for extra time but seriously am considering my next trip (Christmastime) to the airport will be via the subway-maglev-subway option; it might be crowded, I might not get a seat, and it might take 3.5 hours … but man, sitting in a car for that long to get to the airport just really is not ideal!

Tonight, waiting on my first of two connections, I’m back at one of my old haunts: The Amex Centurion Lounge at SFO. This place is absolutely fantastic … unless you’re here during one of the more busy periods of the day and then it’s so crowded there’s even a line to get in. To gain access into this airport oasis you need to have a very specific type of Amex charge card in your possession: The Platinum card or the Centurion card. I can’t talk much about the Centurion card as I will likely never make enough money in my life to afford even the initiation fee. The Platinum card comes with a pretty steep annual feel — $550 per year, if I remember correctly — but you get a lot of perks with it: Access to the Centurion Lounges in airports, Priority Pass lounges in other airports, $200 to use while onboard an airplane, $25 or $35 per month in Uber credits, discounts with online shopping retailers, 2-for-1 business class airline tickets with certain airlines, and even rental car insurance when you rent a vehicle. That last one is really important to me as I’ve not owned a car for *many* years now and, as such, have not paid for car insurance. Yup, I definitely get my money’s worth for that annual fee!

What I like most about the Amex lounges comes to the surface on a night like this. Slowly I’m making my way from Suzhou China to Roanoke Virginia, two places on earth that could literally not be more of a world apart. I’ve got some downtime at the SFO airport and here I am sipping some pretty good chardonnay, am able to get a delicious hot meal for free, and could even hop in the shower if I wanted to. It makes flying 8700+ miles in economy class almost tolerable. But who am I kidding, economy class is just not humane after you’ve had a trip or twelve “up front”.

This trip, as usual, is on United Airlines and I was able to snag a seat on a 787-800 flying the long leg across the Pacific. If I have to fly in economy, this is definitely the plane I like to be in. You don’t feel nearly as terrible upon landing due to the lower air pressurized cabin and the increased humidity. The seats are wider than on the new retrofitted 777-200 and brand new 777-300 — neither of which do my shoulders fit making me hunch forward for the entire trip. There’s power plugs available for your devices and seat-back entertainment. Pretty nice for cattle class 🙂  But you’re still “jammed” packed and, unless you’re able to have an empty seat next to you, it’s difficult to catch some shuteye or just relax.

Now it’s time to head to my connecting flight, let’s hope it’s on time as I’m officially ON MY WAY TO SEE THE HOKIES PLAY!

GOBBLE GOBBLE

I BELIEVE.

Tonight I’m off to the USA! Had my Admin Assistant at work book a driver for me as I didn’t want to transfer twice and be on the train for 4 hours tonight. The ride was smooth for the first hour with little to no traffic. Once we got to the far west side of Shanghai, bam! The front passenger tire blew. 

Yup, busted flat in Hongqiao. 

My poor driver. He seemed to be having a rough day to begin with and this just didn’t help at all. 

He got out of the car to inspect what happened then proceeded to change the tire. I helped out by holding the flashlight (how butch!) while he did the work. It’s been quite a number of years since I’ve changed a tire, but you do it once and you’re a pro. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to jack the car up before you start to undo the lugnuts, right? Oh boy, this should be fun!

The driver remembered, fortunately, that the terrible sound of lugnuts being stripped clean was not a good sound and proceeded to jack the car up. Amazement came when the lugnuts were much easier to loosen. 

I don’t know if there’s an equivalent to AAA in China, but two service workers did stop by with their flatbed trucks to see if we are ok. That’s nice of them! Probably they were hoping for a wreck to tow and get money since they left pretty quickly after finding things under some semblance of control. 

The flat tire was eventually replaced with a full-sized spare *phew!* and we got back on the move after a 25 minute delay. And just one km down the road, traffic, moderate in volume but still annoying. Hopefully it won’t delay things too much.

Moral of this adventure in China holds for any place you are: When traveling for work or pleasure, leave yourself plenty of time to get to your destination as your stress levels will remain low if things go a south.

UPDATE: For those of you worrying at home, I made it to the airport in time and am currently waiting in the immigration line to leave the country for a spell.

Whenever you’re in a different location than where you were reared you begin to notice small differences in what people do or say. For example, in some places it’s customary to hold open a door for someone before or after you go through it. In other places you say “Thank you” too acknowledge someone who did something for you, no matter how small or easy the task performed was. In other locations you’re supposed to leave a tip for good service. 

Today I noticed that no one says “God bless you” after someone sneezes here in China. And you know what, that makes sense as most Chinese seem not to subscribe to a religion. 

What I find most odd is that there’s no equivalent saying. Spanish speakers would say “¡Salúd!” (meaning roughly “to your health”) and those speaking German would say “Gesundheit!” (which I’m pretty sure is some kind of canine or sausage). Here in China there is not even an acknowledgement of the sneeze but man, there should be! When someone sneezes it sounds like there’s some sort of hidden decibel record that’s trying to be broken and I’m genuinely worried for the health of the sneezer!

Tell me what you think an appropriate phrase should be or even if I should use one here. Do keep in mind I normally was say “Salúd” or “Bless you” when around westerners, so I’m looking for something a bit more … fun! …to say.

Today, almost three full months since arriving in China, I’m making my way to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport for my first trip back to the USA. The reason for the trip is to play in the softball tournament I mentioned a while back! My teammates are almost all in Portland and I’ll be one of the last to arrive.

After years of not relying on vehicles to go from place A to place B, I find myself in a car — minivan, actually — traveling the 2+ hrs from Suzhou to the PVG airport. The trip costs 400rmb (~$50 USD) and is the easiest way of getting to the airport…except for the traffic. I hate traffic. Unpredictable, inefficient, and stressful. It’s annoying at best and never brings anything good to the table. Public transportation might be crowded, indirect, and noisy … But at least it’s predictable and relatively inexpensive.

China is known for its bad traffic, both in the country/rural areas when there’s only one highway and also in the cities where way too many cars are on the congested arteries. There are traffic jams that have lasted days. 

With the big international airport on the other side of Shanghai from Suzhou, one can hire a private driver to get there or take the subway to the maglev train to the other subway to the other maglev train to get to the airport. Oh boy, not so much fun there with the public transportation option!

Shanghai Hongqiao Airport is on the closer side of Shanghai to Suzhou and will take only an hour or so by car or subway/maglev combo making it a much more ideal airport to fly out of. Too bad there are only a handful of international flights, none of which are transpacific. (That means a connection in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tokyo, or Soul would be required before getting to the USA.)

One of these days I will attempt the trip from Suzhou to the PVG airport by train so I can better plan for trips and timing. Until then, like today, I’ll be stuck in rush hour traffic on the outskirts of Shanghai. 

Happy trails, my friends. See you in Portland or the Friendly Skies!