19 January 2015

Cici in China - Part One: Detained

When I was 10, my mom and I went to China with a couple of our friends. We were going on a tour through some of the bigger cities, and there were no other families on said tour, so it was pretty personalized. 

On our way to China, my mom had been booked on flights that gave us about a half hour to get from our flight to San Francisco to our flight to Beijing. Lucky for us, when our plane got to San Francisco, the hall thing to get from the plane into the airport had no one to operate it, so we were stuck on the plane that was, did I mention, late getting in. Also, the gate we needed to get to just happened to be on the other side of the airport. After about 15 minutes waiting to get off the plane, we finally did and started our sprint through the airport. Along the way we had to have our passports checked, go outside, get on a bus, get off a bus, run through more airport, go down some escalators, and then finally yell to the gate that we were in fact there as they announced our names over the loud speaker. We quickly got on the plane, and took off to China. 

About 9 hours into the flight, we needed to fill our paperwork or something, so my mom went to get out our passports. Turns out though, we only had one; mine. Like any other person, my mom freaked out for the rest of the flight. Because we had almost missed our flight, I guess they didn't ask us for our passports at the gate. As it turned out, one of the places that did check our passports in our rush didn't return both of them. When we got off the plane in Beijing, we were immediately escorted through the airport to the offices. 

Everyone was very nice, maybe because I was crying. They could have sent my mom's passport on the flight from SF to Beijing a few hours later, but instead, they just figured, nah. The next flight was the next day, so we ended up having to be detained until it got there. We got three guards, who were all really nice, and we were detained with two other women. The seven of us got a room at a really nice hotel, and a guy from the tour place came to meet us there to figure out what we were going to do. 

The hotel room we had was pretty cool and shaped like a U. There was a bedroom right as you walked in, and then the left wall had a door and another bedroom in it, and then that room's left wall had a door and went to a little living room, and then straight across that room was another door with another bedroom, where I chose for my mom and I to stay. After we were settled, we went downstairs and had a delicious dinner, and actually got some conversation in because one of the other women spoke decent English. 

I have a picture of me with them, but I figure I shouldn't post it because any of them could get in trouble.

(China story to be continued ..) 


Farewell pic :

Me with the cast of a show we saw in Beijing. Look at that smile.


                                                                                                      ~ Cici 





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