China 2: There’s a problem with your luggage sir…

I rode the escalator up from baggage claim at Shanghai’s Pu Dong airport, rushing to get checked in for my 1:10 p.m. departure to Japan. I had 90 minutes. I was five and a half hours in to my trip from Zhuhai, China over to Tokyo. I hadn’t expected it to be a difficult day, but there’s always a surprise along the way when traveling internationally. Today would be no exception.

At the top of the escalator, I scan the massive departure hall for the All Nippon Airways check-in desk. I checked the map kiosk, which showed locations in the building for 20 airline check-in desks, but not All Nippon. I checked the wall of departure monitors for my flight, thinking it would show the check-in desk number. My flight wasn’t listed, though others before and after it were.

Ah, there’s the problem – these monitors are for domestic flights. I need international. So off I go in search of international monitors. But I see only domestic. I check another map kiosk further down the giant hall, and it too fails to show my airline. Did I land in a different terminal? I check the itinerary:  no, I’m in the right terminal.

Channeling my wife, I stop and ask directions from a woman in a security uniform. She mumbles something and points me back to the map kiosk I had just left.  Not helpful!

After rolling my bags and backpack another 200 feet down the giant hall, I see a massive board listing departing  flights. Finally! My flight is there – along with the check-in desk number. No one is in line so I slide right up, get my boarding pass and hand over my larger bag for tagging and checking. Off it goes into an x-ray scanner behind the check-in desk. I check the time: 1 hour to departure. I collect my boarding pass, take a bearing toward the immigration checkpoint, and turn to go – and then I hear the luggage scanner begin to beep.

It’s an annoying, unwanted beep that tells me quite clearly my travel adventure in China is not quite in the books yet.  Almost immediately a security man steps in front of me and politely says, “There’s a problem with your luggage. Please follow me.” Of course there is. I smile politely and follow him into a small room where a young Chinese couple is attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to repack the contents of their two suitcases under the watchful eye of another security man. My bag arrives on the magic conveyer belt a moment later and the security man shoos away the couple to repack their bags elsewhere.

He points to my bag and indicates I should open it. As I do so, he says, “Batteries?” Yep, I have a pack of AAA batteries in there. I rummage through the goods and eventually come up with the package of batteries.  “Yeah OK, no problem. You can go,” he says. I’m relieved and quickly zip it up and lift it off the conveyer to carry it out the door. “Hey!” he yells at me, and points to the conveyer. Oops! I’m trying to walk away with the bag and it needs to continue its journey along the magic conveyer. I return it to its rightful place as my trip clock continues ticking away. I wonder if the bag will make the flight.

It does. Turns out the plane is delayed three hours – with all of us passengers sitting aboard. Apparently the Chinese were a little stingy handing out departure slots to the Japanese today. So we sat and waited for clearance from air traffic control. I couldn’t help wondering if the tension between China, Japan, and Vietnam in the South China Sea hadn’t worked its way into departure delays. But the on-board movies were playing so I sat back and watched one while tending to some paperwork. I made it through the entire movie while we were still on the ground in Shanghai.

Eventually, the engines spool up and we taxi out for takeoff.  My patience has been tested but things have worked out OK. And there was more adventure in Tokyo after I landed there – involving trains and automobiles –  but I eventually checked into my hotel at 9:45 p.m.

One of my favorite sayings comes to mind: may you live in interesting times. This trip was a reminder that – even with the occasional difficulties of long distance travel – I most definitely live in interesting times.