My wife and I decided to do a trip to China as tourists this August. We took CO 89, nonstop from Newark to Beijing. Despite the auspicious flight number, we got off to a rocky start. After embarking the plane, excited to be on our long awaited vacation, everyone was seated and the flight attendants closed the door. We waited. And waited. Nothing happened. Finally, the pilot’s voice (I swear the all have the same one - they must teach them how to speak in flight school) came over the PA system “Ladies and gentlemen, we are having a problem with our water pressure system. Nothing whatsoever to do with the flying capacity of this plane. We are waiting for an engineer to come out and fix it.” OK, this sucks, but hey, what can you do? How long could this possibly take?

Sadly, 2 hours is the answer to that question. We sat in the plane while they “restarted the system” several times. It was like being inside the computer when Windows crashes. It all goes dark. The a/c goes off. Then “ping” and systems start up, one by one, presumably including the plumbing, otherwise we were part of some sick psychological experiment. In all fairness, they did serve drinks, even to those of us in coach – one drink that is. So, our 12.5 hour flight turned into a 14.5 hour flight before we even took off. Hmm…

The flight to Beijing, other than the ominous beginning, was fairly uneventful (this despite a series of babies peppered about the rows around us). There was no one in the middle seat, so we had the whole row to ourselves. Nice to have the wiggle room. The food was surprisingly good. Either that, or it has been so damn long since I was fed on the plane that I now think airline food is tasty.


Arrived Beijing. As we disembark and proceed into the terminal, we spot a bicycle parked in the middle of the taxiway. Ah, China. We all had diligently filled out the 3 forms required. It all looked so smooth on the little instructional video, but in reality handing these forms to the appropriate person is more of a “Running of the Bulls” scenario, where you are either the bulls or targets. We all proceeded first down what seemed like 3 miles of completely empty, desolate, barely air conditioned corridors to a mob. Not knowing why you are in this mob or what is going on, you simply stand in back and are pushed forward by those behind you (I don’t recommend open-toed shoes in this airport). The flock of sheep (aka – you) proceed forward like cold syrup until you reach one woman who is taking your “Quarantine form.” God willing, you don’t need to be quarantined because she would never know. Just take the forms from a sea of hands as you press through to freedom. Mercifully, we didn’t check any bags, so we jetted right through customs.