April 5, 2016

April 5    flying home from Beijing

   There was no need to set an alarm for this morning. We are saying good bye to China today. The clear sky, temperature about 12 C, the predicted particle count was 102 and there was a noticeable light haze. There were a few familiar faces at breakfast, but our group had flights leaving between 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. including extensions for some people to Hong Kong. 

    We were transferred to the airport from the hotel at noon with 12 people from the three guide’s (Gao, Tom and Arnold) groups. It was just a quick 25 minute drive, part of it on the toll road, to the airport. The haze was thicker at the airport. Our flight was scheduled to depart Beijing at 4:05 p.m. (3:05 am at home) for Vancouver. It was delayed about 40 minutes in Beijing. Even though we were at the airport 3 hours early, there was a lineup at the Air Canada check-in, which was only open for the Vancouver flight. Next we found Gao directing the Viking passengers in the proper direction to get to the gate.  He told us where to go to catch a train to get to our departure terminal.  This was something new.  First we had to pass through security, then had less than a minute to wait for the three subway-like cars taking passengers to terminal 3D for domestic flights and onward to terminal 3E for international/Hong Kong/Macau & Taiwan flights. The ride was less than five minutes.  We followed the signs for our gate and found another security line where the staff actually rummaged through your carry-on bag, laptop case and purse and took out keys and a few other things and put them in the tray along with carry-on bag, case or purse. Once through security and with everything put back in place, we located the gate. To make use of the wait time, we decided to walk around the large terminal and see the kiosks, cafés and shops. The walk around the terminal’s perimeter took 55 minutes and the distance was almost three miles!  We took a break for a snack and walked a little more until the plane boarding was announced.

    The plane was a Boeing 777-300ER. This is a larger plane than the one to Shanghai.  It had 42 Business class seats and 328 Economy class seats.  Customs declaration cards were passed out once the plane was in the air.  A dinner was served about two hours into the flight and breakfast was served about 90 minutes before the plane landed. Neither of us was tired enough to sleep on the plane There was a good variety of recent movie titles to watch. The plane landed at 12:35 p.m. (we flew across the International Dateline) to a light rain and 9 C.  We had three hours in Vancouver before the next flight.  There were several planes with passengers that were going through Border Services and Customs. We still had not purchased enough for all of one person’s duty free allowance. We picked up our luggage in the Customs Hall and then when we exited it, put them on the conveyer belt to go to the connecting plane. The declaration process was automated. About one hour after landing we had found our gate. While waiting in Vancouver, since Google and its associated programs were no longer blocked, we were able to post some of the blog entries with photos. 

    When the plane landed at home, there was a snowy drizzle, 18 km/h northeast wind and the temperature was 0 C.   We walked into our house about 9:15 pm., just 27 hours since we had awoken in Beijing. 

Distance walked today was 6.4 miles.