Ever been to China? Kai N. Livramento, originally an east coast girl, shares her unique first impression on China with you. She currently resides in Hangzhou, China and teaches English to university students and business people.
The thought of traveling to the Far East is daunting. First is the plane ticket, with roundtrip prices starting around $1,200. Then you need to figure out if you need a visa to enter your country of choice, generally just a tourist visa. If you are planning a multiple destination trip, knowing the rules of entry and ensuring that you have enough time for each visa is extremely important. What should you bring and how much? Last but not least is housing. Is it cheaper to rent a short-term apartment, a hostel, or hotel?
All these questions ran through my head while I prepared for my move to mainland China. I packed and repacked at least 10 times. The trick was to get as much as needed in two large suitcases, one carry-on and a backpack. I looked at all the shoes I was leaving behind and cursed United Airlines’ checked two bag weight limit of only 50 pounds (23kg) per bag for economy passengers. Packing is a long overlooked art form, and packing for 6 months to a year and a half abroad should be recognized as an amazing achievement.
Everything was running smoothly. I finally parted with my collection of heels. I had to convince myself that riding a bicycle in 4” designer shoes was just not practical. My bags were packed, ticket in hand, and last minute shopping was done two weeks in advance. I was waiting for one last thing – my visa.
If you don’t live in a city where there is a Chinese embassy or consulate-general, you have to use a visa agent since you cannot mail your visa application and passport directly to the embassy/consulate-general. In the United States, there is one Chinese embassy in Washington, DC and five Consulates-General in New York (NY), Chicago (IL), San Francisco (CA), Los Angeles (CA), and Houston (TX).
I used a trusted agent based in Houston, put my application, passport, and two photos in an envelope and crossed my fingers before handing it over to the woman at the post office. Her assurances that it would get to the agent in two days didn’t comfort me for some reason. After four days in the abyss, my anxiety level increased. The post office couldn’t find my letter, despite the fact that I paid extra for tracking and confirmation. In a week and a half, I was supposed to be on a plane, now not only didn’t I have a visa, my passport was missing.
On the fifth day, I was manic calling the 1-800 number. Useless. I tracked down the post office in Houston, and while the woman on the other line was sweet, her Texas drawl almost soothing, it didn’t help to resurface my passport or visa. An hour before closing, I received a phone call from the visa agent letting me know they received my application and rushed it to the consulate. Three days before my flight, I get my passport in the mail. I was finally ready to leave.
My route would take me from Atlanta (Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport) to Chicago (O’Hare International Airport) with an hour lay-over then a non-stop flight to Shanghai (Pudong International Airport). From Shanghai, I would take a car to Hangzhou some two hours south. Hopefully, the “visa incident” was to be the last snag in my travel plans.
Not yet.
Two days before my departure, a major blizzard swept through the Midwest, forcing Chicago airports to cancel hundreds of flights. The weather system moved up to the northeast shutting airports along its way. Great. The day I was to leave, a line wrapped around the counter and weaved its way outside the airport. It was 5:30 in the morning, and every person who was bumped off from previously cancelled flights because of the storm was waiting with me to get home. My flight did not leave until an hour after its scheduled departure, but thankfully made up the time in the air. I landed with 45 minutes to get off the plane and run from Concourse B to Concourse C.
Everything had been going so quickly that I didn’t have time to process that I was moving to China. I just wanted to get on the plane. The wave of realization hit me, when everyone on the second flight was Chinese. The conversations from the morning flight all in English, was replaced by families and businesspeople speaking with each other in Chinese. I thought to myself that I really needed to learn Chinese.
For the first few hours of the flight I listened to my Chinese tapes. Saying random phrases out loud, I assumed that my neighbors wouldn’t be able to hear me over the roar of the engines. After a few odd stares and giggles, I decided I should lower my voice.
The sixteen hours from Chicago to Shanghai were a blur of movies and sleep – I highly recommend taking a sleeping pill after dinner, you will wake up over Mongolia. I didn’t notice when we landed and still in a fog from the sleeping pill, I found myself off the plane and walking to customs in Shanghai. By now the number of Westerners had dwindled down to barely a handful. This was it. With a stamp of entry in my passport, I was in China!!
First impressions count because they only happen once. I tried to soak in all my surroundings. Get a good description of what I was seeing, something exciting and profound to write back home. Preparing an answer for the anticipated question “What did you first think about China?” There is a large escalator that takes you to baggage claim. Beyond that you can see all the families and friends waiting for their loved ones. I was alone. And all I could think was “Man, there are a whole bunch of Chinese people in this country.”
About Kai N. Livramento, Asia Travel Writer^
Kai N. Livramento began traveling at an early age in large part because of her mother’s employment with Trans World Airlines. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, her life on the road began early, moving shortly after her birth to her father’s hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. A true East Coast girl, she has also lived in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Delaware, and Rhode Island. After attending high school in Atlanta, she spent the next six years in Boston as an undergraduate and graduate student at Boston University. The following year, she picked up the pace and put her passport to good use, visiting France, Spain, Greece and Cyprus. Never happy with just being a tourist, Kai jumped on the opportunity to move and live in China. She currently resides in Hangzhou, China the beautiful and provincial city of Zhejiang province. To fund her wanderlust she teaches English to university students and business people, while studying Mandarin.