Almost like being at the beach

Turns out it takes quite a while to get to China. Our flight didn’t leave until 5:10pm, but we had to get to the Boston airport (via school buses that did not really have capacity for us and all our luggage) very early so the bus driver could be back before school dismissal. So we spent several hours sitting around Logan (though not as much as you’d think, given the logistics involved in getting 70+ people, along with various musical instruments, checked in and through security). Apparently at least three kids forgot an instrument somewhere along the journey, but luckily someone behind them always noticed.

Card games at Logan…

The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful, except for the excitement that we were flying near to the North Pole (though it was too dark to see anything). Going through 12 hours of time changes made for some oddness, like when we had “lunch” around 7pm Durham time followed by “dinner” around 7pm Beijing time. Also there was the entertaining “seat chat” feature, where you could send messages to

…and in Beijing.

people in other seats on the plane. (“Hey, 27D, whatcha doing later?”)

Unfortunately our luck ran out a bit in Beijing, with a series of delays to our flight to Chengdu. So we also got to spend several hours sitting around the Beijing airport. This was made somewhat less appealing by the fact that the Chinese cash we’d arranged for in advance had not yet been delivered, almost nowhere took credit cards, and our ATM cards wouldn’t work in the machine. Fortunately the airline eventually provided water and crackers, and later, an airplane meal, to prevent starvation.

After several hours they got more creative. Playing instruments…

Doing the limbo…

Whatever the hell this is.

Mmm, dinner!

All that remained was an hour-long bus ride to our hotel near the university. Chengdu is a huge and very new city. There are large clusters of high rises everywhere (each building in a cluster identical, but all clusters different from each other). Apparently it has been built up dramatically even since the trip that came two years ago, and lots of building is still going on. Our hotel is very nice, and somehow Catherine and I lucked out with the best room (on the top floor, so we are considering it penthouse). It’s huge and has amenities like a crazy electronic Mahjong table. (We didn’t actually know it was a Mahjong table until I started pressing buttons out of curiosity, and dice started spinning and the table innards rotated and tiles suddenly rose up underneath all our stuff, which was a bit alarming.)

There was also some poster-signing. Our efforts were dwarfed by the huge banner brought to greet us the airport by Chengdu University (photo at top).

Others have not been quite so lucky. Apparently the fact that we have a bathroom door made of wood is quite a luxury. Some of the kids told us they just have glass screening the shower and toilet — and a mirror opposite, so that your bathroom activities can be observed by anyone in the room. Another set of chaperones doesn’t have a wall at all. Someone else just shook his head at the description of chairs, desk, and mahjong tables and told us he must have been put in the servants’ quarters.

By the time we got checked in — a rather laborious process that involved filling out information for each person’s passport individually — it was 10:00 in the morning. We went up for a quick nap before lunch, then out to continue with the rest of our day.

Our deluxe suite. Wait till you see the electronic mahjong table.