Arriving in China

 Fuzhou, July 8:

I left Newark, New Jersey for China on July 5 by United Airlines. I took the connecting United Airlines flight at San Francisco for Shanghai, China for a twelve hour journey across the Pacific.

Shanghai airport

It was raining heavily when the plane landed at Shanghai airport. It was 5 pm in the evening on July 6. By the time I emerged from the airport building the rains stopped. I didn't experience any delay at the immigration counter. The agent took a look at my passport then a swift look at me before stamping my passport. I was in China.

In the morning of July 7 I met TIA colleagues, Joe, Nancy, Ebony and Liquitta at the hotel. They had arrived previous night from different locations. We left for the airport for our next flight for Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province.

Welcom at Fuzhou airport

The domestic airport at Shanghai was buzzing with activities. Long lines of men, women and children were standing in front of check-in windows. We learned that the previous night's rains caused widespread disruption of flights. Most flights were either delayed or rescheduled. We were directed towards the counters of China International Airlines to pick up our boarding passes. It seemed like a difficult proposition. The crowd was overwhelming. I led our group to a window that had the shortest line. Holding our boarding passes we headed towards gate # 206 to be processed for boarding our flight for Fuzhou City.

We learned that our intended flight was delayed, however, another flight to Fuzhou was scheduled to leave for Fuzhou. I joined the group of other passengers who were pleading with the airlines agents for seats in rescheduled flights. After a little maneuvering it worked. All five of us were allowed to board the flight for Fuzhou without our luggage.

It was hard to find someone who could speak English at Fuzhou airport. With much difficulty I communicated with an airlines employee who helped us register our complaints about our baggage which were left behind in Shanghai. Meanwhile we met with our local hosts who quickly tool over the situation in their hands. Gary, our local coordinator, told us that a welcome dinner awaited us in the evening. We met Zhao Bangsheng, Vice President of Fujian Association for Science and Technology, the umbrella organization which manages 170 societies engaged in education of various branches of science and technology in Fujian province.

We were treated with lavish dinner of varieties of sea food. Fuzhou is famous for sea food. Mr. Zhao is a mild spoken person who kept motivating us to eat more. I am not fond of sea food but picked and choose certain dishes with fish and vegetable. The evening was very enjoyable when our hosts impressed us with their generosity.

We went sight seeing on Sunday (July 8) in the mountains of Fuzhou. Two volunteers from the institute, Tony and Yolanda, accompanied us on our trip to Drum Mountain, a tourist spot located in the hills at an elevation of about 1,000 Feet. There are three temples with different postures of Buddha protected by two faced guardians sitting on his left and right. A standing Buddha overlooks the temples.