The flight from Charlotte to New York via Jet Blue was great. I knew the carrier had received some bad press. Do you recall? The plane was stalled on the runway and the crew would not allow passengers to leave the plane. All was forgiven as far as I was concerned. Direct TV was standard on the plane and each passenger had a personal monitor to watch whatever channel he or she chose. Jet Blue also advertises the most legroom of any airline in the industry. I couldn’t disagree. The flight was very comfortable. I wished we’d flown Jet Blue the 13.5 hours to China.
We made it to New York and found our gate. At 4:00 p.m, we were thirty minutes away from departure. I couldn’t wait to finally be on my way to China. Then we got the bad news. An official with Air China announced a delay while mechanics fixed a problem with the plane. We’d killed about three hours at this point and this delay added two more hours. I was bummed, but I made the most of it. Van, Andy, Ben and Susan taught me how to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker. I had a blast. We were playing the high stakes variety with Starbursts candy as chips. It was a lot of fun especially after I caught on and even won a hand or two. Believe it or not, I really raked in the candy pot on one hand with a high pair. I became a pro at killing time. Three hours behind our scheduled departure time, we finally lifted off. It was China or bust for our group of 25 from Winthrop University!
I passed the time on the flight by reading Grisham’s novel, A Time to Kill, watching a movie, talking, eating and sleeping. I managed to sleep a solid 6.5 hours during one stretch, which I preferred to cat napping. During my long flight, I got to know Alex, who sat beside me. He attended Duke and was a rising sophomore. He was Chinese and was returning home for the summer. Luckily, we hit it off which made the trip a little more bearable. After we touched down in Beijing, he commented on the delay in New York. He said that he had been a little concerned that the plane was fixed properly because the China Air pilots always had problems communicating issues to the tower and ground crew in America. He said they always caused problems on U.S. flights because they didn’t speak English. I was glad he waited to share that information until we were safely in Beijing. The flight was long enough without the added concern of mechanical incompetence. Unfortunately, Alex had an unexpected stay in Beijing because he missed his connecting flight. I felt bad for him, but he didn’t seem too concerned and was in good spirits.
Beijing is beautiful at night. The city appears to be very clean. It's just a hunch, but it could be related to the Olympics coming to the city next year. They are putting their best foot forward and the world will be impressed. There are so many skyscrapers, neon lights and billboards as we make the thirty minute trip from the airport to downtown Beijing. I saw a number of elevated highways that cross and intertwine. The tour guide explained them as the rings of highways or beltways that circle the city. The city has seven rings of highway currently and expect to be up to nine within the next three years. The city is growing at such a rapid pace that new outer loops are constantly being built. So they're building two outer beltways in three years and it's going to take us how long to complete I-485 in Charlotte?
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