Travel planner unwittingly says Taiwan is part of China, results in stranded pax
Apr 6, 2006, 1:16 pm
#1
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Travel planner unwittingly says Taiwan is part of China, results in stranded pax
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/...nge-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/...nge-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.
Apr 6, 2006, 1:24 pm
#2
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This guy is a business traveller and doesnt have a credit card or ATM card? Or am I incorrect in assuming that those things are useful in the heart of China?
I can't believe that you wouldnt double check your air rez before leaving the States. it sounds like the travel agent and the employee werent the saaviest of travellers.
I can't believe that you wouldnt double check your air rez before leaving the States. it sounds like the travel agent and the employee werent the saaviest of travellers.
Apr 6, 2006, 1:56 pm
#3
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Apr 6, 2006, 2:19 pm
#5
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Originally Posted by philfna
I severly doubt an ATM card or Credit card would as useful as CASH in Mongolia. Think rural economy...
If it's an industrial city in China, you can bet they do a lot of foreign business and can handle ATMs and credit cards in hotels.
My $0.02 worth.
Apr 6, 2006, 5:49 pm
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This sounds like the guy at LAX who got on a plane believing it was going to Oakland, CA, but actually boarded a flight for Auckland, NZ.
Apr 6, 2006, 7:36 pm
#8
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Sad to say, but I can believe the story. There are plenty of not-so-savvy travelers out there. I actually worked with one that flew to Portland via ORD. Somehow he didn't check the destination of the flight that he got on and he ended up in Portland, Maine, not Portland, Oregon. Oooops! This was in the mid-90's prior to tickets being machine read at the gate. Somehow, he got past the GA and made it onto the wrong flight. Not everyone is cut out to be an FTer 
Apr 7, 2006, 1:25 am
#10
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Originally Posted by blahman
Reminds me of a story a few years back when an English couple accidentally ended up in Sydney, Canada instead of Sydney, Australia.
Apr 7, 2006, 1:32 am
#11
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,123
Originally Posted by Sjoerd
Fishy story. So he actually must have had a valid visa for China.
I agree that this is a fishy story. As an American citizen, he would not have needed to get a visa for Taiwan, but as Sjoerd correctly points out, he wouldn't have been even let on the plane without a visa for the PRC, much less be let off of it to wander around the country. I don't believe this story.
Apr 7, 2006, 1:50 am
#12
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Originally Posted by party_boy
I thought that was last year.
Apr 7, 2006, 10:04 am
#13
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Originally Posted by kuroneko
I agree that this is a fishy story. As an American citizen, he would not have needed to get a visa for Taiwan, but as Sjoerd correctly points out, he wouldn't have been even let on the plane without a visa for the PRC, much less be let off of it to wander around the country. I don't believe this story.
What I find more surprising is that, if he was already in China and had met business partners, there surely they could help sort out the mess in Mandarin, at least over the telephone?
And as for this...
In between, Nelson said he faced danger and indignity, injuring his legs and back leaping out of the way of a reckless car and enduring the spit that some Chinese hurled his way.
Apr 7, 2006, 10:16 am
#15
Join Date: Feb 2006
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Originally Posted by jpatokal
Actually, if you read the article it says he "was in the middle of a swing through about a half-dozen Chinese cities, checking in with business partners". So obviously he already had a multiple-entry PRC visa.
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