Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing
Jun 23rd, 2006 by Yue
Another busy week of travel. My luggage finally decided to join me Monday morning at 2 AM. Between staying up waiting for my luggage and being very jetlagged, I hardly slept at all.
At 5 AM, I dragged myself out the door, got in a taxi, and headed to Pudong airport. In just a few moments I was wide awake - the driver was a maniac. He relished the lack of traffic at 5 am and pushed the petal all the way to airport. Strapped tightly in my seat belt, I held on for dear life praying we wouldn’t run into anything. Well, we didn’t. I arrived at the airport safely with plenty of time until my flight to Shenzhen.
I was supposed to meet up with a business partner in Shenzhen and then we were going to visit a customer. But it didn’t work out that way. When my plane arrived at the airport, I got a phone call from him saying that his plane was diverted to Guanzhou due to weather. Since Guanzhou and Shenzhen are only 20 minutes away by air, he decided to wait for the weather to clear and grab the next flight.
Well two hours later he was still waiting. By this time, we had missed our meeting. So now it was my turn to figure out how to get to Guangzhou for a conference.
Being a seasoned traveller, getting from Shenzhen to Guangzhou shouldn’t be a big deal. After consulting a few people at the airport, I decided my best bet was the bus. The bus station was close to the airport, but turned out to be in a poor neighborhood. Its packed with locals heading to Guangzhou looking for jobs. Wearing a black Donna Karen dress with a Marc Jacob handbag, and luggage, I was utterly out of place.
In China, the most unsafe places are the bus and train stations. After my passport fiasco a month ago, I am now extremely cautious. When the bus arrived, I dragged my bag onboard instead of putting it in the luggage compatment. I put it under my feet, and at the same time wrapped my arms around my handbag. Good think I’m not too big, otherwise I never would have fit into my seat.
Two hours later we made it to Guangzhou. Everyone had warned me that Guangzhou has the highest crime rate in China, and that the bus and train station was particularly dangerous. Holding my handbag as tighly to my chest as possible with one hand, and holding my luggage with the other, I tried to get a taxi. In China, there is no such thing as orderly lines. Its always everyone for themselves - who pushes the hardest wins (a symptom of a population over a billion people). Its quite disconcerting for westeners until they learn to play the game. So I fought and clawed my way to the front until I finally grabbed a taxi which whisked me away to a nice hotel across from the conference center.
My day in Guangzhou finished, I then headed back to the airport to fly to Beijing. Next week Shanghai and Taipei are on my itinerary.