seat 50J
Apr 6, 06, 2:16 pm
This story is funny, except for the man, himself.
Some people know that Red China claims Taiwan. Taiwan claims that they are the legitimate government of all of China so Taiwan in claiming themselves and Red China. Sometimes, Taiwan calls themselves "Taiwan, China" but usually they call it "Taiwan, Republic of China".
This must of confused a corporate travel planner who doesn't travel herself much. Instead of just booking Taiwan or Taipei, she thought she was booking for Taiwan, China. Instead, she booked Taiyuan, China. So the business traveller, an Intel employee who must not have checked his ticket too closely or paid attention to the airline and route flown, finds himself stranded in the little city of Taiyuan, Peoples' Republic of China! He doesn't know what to do. He goes to a brothel thinking it was a hotel. Finding out it isn't, he has to fight his way out, seek the help of strangers who loan him money.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2006-04-06-strange-trip_x.htm
excerpt:
SEATAC, Wash. — As the sun dipped low in the sky last Sunday and his plane began its descent, Eugene Nelson had a sinking feeling that something was wrong.
He'd been in the air for hours, much longer than his business flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan should have taken. Then the airliner flashed a map of his flight's path on a video screen, and it hit him.
Instead of descending toward the island off China's eastern coast, the next stop on the Intel Corp. engineer's itinerary would be the remote city of Taiyuan, an industrial center deep within China.
"Oh my God, it felt like someone poured a bucket of hot water on me. I realized I was literally 200 miles south of the Mongolian border," Nelson said Wednesday.
His first attempts at finding lodgings revealed the problems of the language barrier — Nelson said he ended up at a brothel, and had to "damn near fight my way out."
He returned to the small airport in the city of about 1.5 million, but found it was about to close and officials would not let him sleep inside.
Nelson said he might never have found his way if not for a helpful young woman who spoke a bit of English and arranged for friends to loan the obviously distressed American money and give him a safe ride to a hotel.
After using the hotel's rare international dialing capacity to make some calls, Nelson said he spent the next few days attempting to collect a wire transfer of cash and arrange a flight out of Taiyuan.
After nearly endless hours of searching, Nelson said he found a bank that would allow him to draw the cash that American Express had wired him. Then he spent hours figuring out how to get his account information translated into Mandarin so that he could access the money.
"When I was talking to the guy from American Express, (he said) 'It says right here on my paper that they take American Express right out there at the airport,'" Chewerda said. But if that were the case, she noted, her husband "wouldn't have been there for four days."
"It seems odd, but they'd end every conversation with 'Have a nice day,'" Nelson said.
After getting his hands on the money the company wired to him, Nelson said he finally had enough cash to begin arranging flights out of Taiyuan.
He met up with his acquaintances again at the airport, repaying their loans and trying to express his thanks, he said.
Some people know that Red China claims Taiwan. Taiwan claims that they are the legitimate government of all of China so Taiwan in claiming themselves and Red China. Sometimes, Taiwan calls themselves "Taiwan, China" but usually they call it "Taiwan, Republic of China".
This must of confused a corporate travel planner who doesn't travel herself much. Instead of just booking Taiwan or Taipei, she thought she was booking for Taiwan, China. Instead, she booked Taiyuan, China. So the business traveller, an Intel employee who must not have checked his ticket too closely or paid attention to the airline and route flown, finds himself stranded in the little city of Taiyuan, Peoples' Republic of China! He doesn't know what to do. He goes to a brothel thinking it was a hotel. Finding out it isn't, he has to fight his way out, seek the help of strangers who loan him money.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2006-04-06-strange-trip_x.htm
excerpt:
SEATAC, Wash. — As the sun dipped low in the sky last Sunday and his plane began its descent, Eugene Nelson had a sinking feeling that something was wrong.
He'd been in the air for hours, much longer than his business flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan should have taken. Then the airliner flashed a map of his flight's path on a video screen, and it hit him.
Instead of descending toward the island off China's eastern coast, the next stop on the Intel Corp. engineer's itinerary would be the remote city of Taiyuan, an industrial center deep within China.
"Oh my God, it felt like someone poured a bucket of hot water on me. I realized I was literally 200 miles south of the Mongolian border," Nelson said Wednesday.
His first attempts at finding lodgings revealed the problems of the language barrier — Nelson said he ended up at a brothel, and had to "damn near fight my way out."
He returned to the small airport in the city of about 1.5 million, but found it was about to close and officials would not let him sleep inside.
Nelson said he might never have found his way if not for a helpful young woman who spoke a bit of English and arranged for friends to loan the obviously distressed American money and give him a safe ride to a hotel.
After using the hotel's rare international dialing capacity to make some calls, Nelson said he spent the next few days attempting to collect a wire transfer of cash and arrange a flight out of Taiyuan.
After nearly endless hours of searching, Nelson said he found a bank that would allow him to draw the cash that American Express had wired him. Then he spent hours figuring out how to get his account information translated into Mandarin so that he could access the money.
"When I was talking to the guy from American Express, (he said) 'It says right here on my paper that they take American Express right out there at the airport,'" Chewerda said. But if that were the case, she noted, her husband "wouldn't have been there for four days."
"It seems odd, but they'd end every conversation with 'Have a nice day,'" Nelson said.
After getting his hands on the money the company wired to him, Nelson said he finally had enough cash to begin arranging flights out of Taiyuan.
He met up with his acquaintances again at the airport, repaying their loans and trying to express his thanks, he said.