Flight to Chengdu

Today we flew to Chengdu via Guangzhou. I'm not sure why we had to do it this way as there was a direct flight from Nanning which would have saved us a lot of time. But when we made our booking that flight may not have existed, hence the more complicated route we ended up taking.

We made a private booking with the van driver who had taken us around Nanning to take us to the airport. We needed a van because we didn't think that 4 people and 4 suitcases would fit into a taxi--well, at least not comfortably enough for a 40 minute ride. We may end up testing this out later though. We arranged for a wake-up call at 5am so that we had enough time to get ready, finish our last minute packing, check the rooms for any lost items such as recharger cords and styluses (for DS's) and get downstairs to check out and meet the van at 6. The drive through darkened Nanning streets was a bit eerie. When the driver started going down dark back streets I asked him in Chinese which direction the airport was from the city. He told me it was south and about 35 kms. That made us feel much better as we had been wondering if he was going in the right direction. When we got to the airport I paid him the agreed amount and Jade gave him a pack of cigarettes that we had been given in lieu of a discount at the restaurant in Guigang. The cigarettes were double happiness brand, I noticed. The driver was so shocked and surprised when Jade gave these to him but I could see he was very pleased too. Once inside the airport we didn't have any problem checking in--which had been a bit of a worry as this was our first time doing this in China ourselves. The check-in clerk spoke English and told us that we had to collect our bags in Guangzhou and check in again there for our second flight. Maybe this was because we were flying with two different airlines but I'm not sure.

Nanning Airport

Our first flight was with Shenzhen Airlines and was in a Boeing 737. As with the Hong Kong Airlines flight we were separated into two groups of two and put in successive rows in the window and middle seats. Because I'd been sick on landing in Nanning I took a Dramamine and this made me really drowsy. About half way through the hour flight we started experiencing a lot of turbulance and I was very glad that I'd taken precautions. I was fine, thankfully. In Guangzhou we had about 2 hours to collect our bags, check in and then wait for the next flight which was with Sichuan Airlines. I was feeling a little more iffy about the safety of this airline and was also a bit worried about another landing situation. Once on board it didn't help that the woman sitting next to me grabbed the sick bag from my seat pocket and clutched it in her hand. I wondered if she knew something that I didn't! Our plane was an Airbus and seemed a little bit old but not too bad. When it raised its landing gear, however, it made a heck of a noise which sounded like someone was below us in the cargo area drilling something! The flight was fine, however.

On landing we collected our bags and were met by our guide Vivian, driver Mr. Shu and a van and they transferred us to our beautiful 4 star hotel the Yinhe Dynasty. We're going to be here for only two nights, just so that we can visit the Panda Research Center. Vivian gave us our train tickets for the next stage of our journey--a soft sleeper train to Xian. By the time we got to our rooms it was 4pm so we decided to rest for an hour then go out and get something to eat. We ventured out at 5 to very busy crowded streets. Luckily our hotel is just a block or so from a busy shopping area. We ate dinner at a Chinese fast food place Miloko. It was OK but not a place we'll go back to. Then we tried to find a supermarket (chao ji shi chang). We asked a couple of people but they didn't understand us or didn't know where one was. We wandered into a department store and I happened to spot a sign which said "超级市场入口" which means 'supermarket entrance'. I was so excited to put my language skills to practical use! You see, I've been studying Chinese for 9 years now, beginning in 2000. This year I just finished a Graduate Diploma in Chinese which is an undergraduate major equivalent. Yet, this is the first opportunity I've had to actually use (and try to improve) my Chinese skills in a practical setting. I am in my element! This is the experience I wanted to have in China and this is why we are doing more and more on our own bit by bit.

Tomorrow we are going out early to see the pandas. We are going to take a taxi and asked the hotel if they would book one for us. The concierge later rang our room and suggested we hire a car and driver for the day for Y200. That was not what we wanted. We just wanted a simple taxi ride and we'd find a taxi and come back when we were ready. So they've now booked a taxi for us. I'm only expecting the fare to be about Y30 or so. Hopefully it won't be more because the hotel booked it.

Happy New Year everyone from Chengdu!