I walked out of my hotel in Guangzhou, and got my first real look at the outskirts of the city. The weather forecast said it was 33degC and cloudy. They call it cloud, I call it smog, but whatever...
So, off to the airport with plenty of time to catch my plane. I make my way through security, and it takes me forever to figure out which gate to go to, because my plane apparently isn't going to Harbin. I am on a plane that is going to Dalian, then I get off, have a stop-over for 20 minutes, then get back on and go to Harbin... awesome! I get to the gate, take a seat and have about 30 minutes to wait. 30 minutes comes and goes... no plane... lots of passengers, but no plane. Finally somebody makes an announcement that the plane has been delayed due to bad weather, and it will be an half hour late. Luckily for me there is a little teahouse right beside my gate, so I grab a table, and a pot of tea, and some breadsticky things (which turned out to be deep fried and very oily) and wait.
1 1/2 hours later... they begin boarding, then we wait for about another 20 minutes while they find a cart capable of pushing the plane from the gate and taxi out. Then we wait for about 30 minutes on the tarmac while we wait for other planes to land, then off we go to Dalian! We get to Dalian, then the little bus comes out to meet us and take us to the main terminal of the airport, where we all shuffle off to a different gate, and get ready to re-board in 20 minutes. 40 minutes later the bus comes back and takes us back to the plane, we all re-board and taxi back out to the runway, and sit for about another 30 minutes, then off to Harbin!
When I eventually get to Harbin, the plane is three hours late, and my bag is the last one off the carousel, so when I eventually make it out of the airport, the guys from my school who are there to meet me are very happy I have actually shown up, because they have been waiting for me for three hours. So, off to my hotel...
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