Up at 7:00, finish packing, quick run to McDonald's for breakfast. By 9:00 I am in the taxi on my way to Hongqiao Airport, which is in the southwest part of town. As we head west on an elevated expressway we pass more new high-rise construction, and I wonder where and when will it ever stop? We reach the airport at about 9:30. It is rather small by modern standards. There are 16 gates. My flight leaves from gate 15 at 11:00. I check in, and enter the gate area after first buying a 50RMBdeparture tax coupon.
The gate area is pretty quiet--there is more than an hour before my flight--so I walk over to a food counter and order a cup of coffee. 18RMB for a 6oz cup. Yep, that's an airport price! But the coffee is quite good. It is freshly made--they use a machine that makes each cup fresh on demand. I sit at a nearby table and strike-up a conversation with Alan and Sarah, who are sales reps for ITW (yep, that's Illinois Tool Works!). Sarah is English, and based in Malaysia, and Alan is from Indiana and lives in Traverse City, Michigan. They have been in Shanghai for a couple days, and are now also headed to Beijing. We talk a little about our impressions of China and Shanghai. We agree that Shanghai is probably the only place in the world with so much recent, new, or ongoing high-rise construction.
I am flying China Eastern Airlines. The boarding procedure is rather informal. When they are ready to board people just line-up, present their boarding pass, and get on. No boarding by row numbers. The plane is a big one, a wide-body Airbus with 8 across seating (2-4-2), and I am in 35L, the right-hand window seat. The flight is about 70% full, but I am lucky to have the seat next to me stay empty. For a moment I thought that I might have a Buddhist monk as a neighbor, but he realized that he was in the wrong seat and moved to another row. Now that might have been interesting if we had been able to communicate!
We took off right on time. Soon we were served lunch. The choices were rice, or noodles. I chose noodles, and received a very good shrimp and salmon noodle dish, with a roll, some sliced melon, and some other Chinese dish I don't know. I was amused to note that all of the meals were served with knife and fork--no chopsticks. Next stop, Beijing!
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