Goodbye, China
As noted in the last entry, I left China on Friday the 28th, after first getting a shot at riding the Maglev. Happily, the last day at the factory went smoothly, we accomplished most of what we wanted to do, and I was able to head for the hotel a little early to get packed and sack out early for the insane wake up call at 3:30.
I took a few minutes to walk around the hotel again and just sort of soak in the scenery one last time, on a gray and blustery day. The Tongli Lakeview Hotel really is a nice facility, with friendly and courteous staff who make you feel welcome. For a traveler from the USA, all alone a long way from home with difficult and stressful work to do, it was really a welcome place to stay. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to use the pool, though!
I won’t say it was a fun trip, because it was mostly long hours in a factory trying to solve problems. But certainly parts of it were enjoyable (like the trips to Suzhou, Tongli and Shanghai), and I really appreciated what wonderful hosts Bruce and Deliah were. Plus, of course, it’s very interesting to see such a different culture and to see a country at a very different stage of its economic development, where chip factories sit right next to roads where people in straw hats bicycle loads of cargo down the street.
Still, after 2-1/2 weeks I think most of our goals for the trip were met, lots of progress was made, and it was definitely time to leave.
By the way, if you’re ever tempted to try to cut it a little short on that 2-hour period they recommend for arriving at the airport, do not do it at Shanghai/Pudong. I almost decided to hang out at the Maglev station in Shanghai until 8:30 to ride the train at full speed. If I had done that, I think I might well have missed my flight. From the time I hit the ticket counter at 7:45 until I arrived at my gate, it was about 90 minutes, and the plane was already boarding. Probably 20 minutes of that time were spent dealing with the fact that I had re-scheduled my flight and thus needed to pay more money to NWA (and I misunderstood where I had to go), and the rest of the time was spent waiting to clear Immigration. The lines there were insane. I wanted to take a picture of the enormous crowd, but there were signs that said not to.
Saturday, April 29, 2006