Winter storm never affected the lovely tourist city of Hangzhou until just right before Chinese New Year travel. What luck! Here is a painful recount of my nightmare on February 3rd, 2008 at my now most hated Hangzhou Airport. 

I had been working till late the past 2 weeks due to a mandatory urgent activity the company was holding that I couldn't get out of. This has been really been causing me stress so my immune system wasn't holding up so well. I came down with a small lung infection causing me to cough uncontrollably every so often. Finally on the last day of work, it turned into a bad cold. This was also the day before I was going to fly to Shenzhen and transfer to Hong Kong. It had been snowing in Hangzhou in the meantime, but it was light and lovely until the 1/2nd of February when it started getting very heavy.

I was to fly out on the 3rd at 7:50am and I dragged my sickened body out of bed and made it to the airport at 6am. When I got to the airport, I saw people littered everywhere on the floor. It looks like those people didn't get to fly out on the 1st and 2nd. I checked the Flight Schedule Screen and saw that they had delayed my flight, but didn't cancel it, so I waited. About an hour or so later they made an announcement for everyone that was going to their your respective cities, to wait in line at a specified counter. This basically meant regardless of when your air ticket was scheduled for, what flight you were supposed to be on, how long you've been waiting & etc that none of it mattered. Survival of the fittest, first to cut & squeeze through will get to fly. The city that I was flying to was Shenzhen, so I went to wait in the Shenzhen line. There were 3 lines to Shenzhen according to their posted announcements above the booth. The lines were very long because everyone from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of February were all waiting there. I didn't know how much more horrible and unorganized it would become until later.

It was not until I was, literally, standing in line for over an hour that people in line were beginning to complain. What the airport clerks were doing was, waiting for a flight to come in, then issuing boarding passes to those people in the front of the line. When a plane becomes full, they make the people stand in line waiting for hours until the next flight comes in for that city.

The worst thing was they were not fair in how they distributed the boarding passes and 2 of the 3 lines moved forward at a faster pace than my line. My line hardly moved at all.

This resulted in me literally standing as there was no room to sit amongst nearly hundreds of people pushing & trying to cut. Standing in line with so many people feeling my legs burn in fatigue and a fever come over me, I could feel my head burn hot and my face flush red. I felt this sensation not less than twice while trying hard to keep my sickly body in the upright position. Since I was by myself, I couldn't leave to go to the restroom (I wouldn't want to use that restroom anyway though, not after so many people were there overnight) or buy a drink of water. I really thought I was going to faint several times from the physical exhaustion.

My boyfriend called me from Hong Kong & asked about the situation several times & said that the flight I was supposed to be on had already taken off. He said I should make it on the next flight, to talk to the airline ticketing clerks. After several times of communicating to him that I couldn't, the airport had turned into a big chaotic mess where the workers were all hiding and a sea of people about me & that they'd already given my flight away and there was no way I was going to be on the next flight, and he still didn't quite get the kamikaze situation here, I broke out in tears and couldn't talk any longer.

The airport was in a chaotic state, literally filled to the brim with a sea people. A pitiful sight. At one point some management person or leader type person came out, yelled some orders and reprimanded some workers for their incompetence on making the passengers literally stand for hours waiting, but nothing ever came of it, we still ended up standing for hours.

So many times I thought about leaving the airport & spending Chinese New Years by myself in Hangzhou, which would've been fine, but I was so close to the front by then that if they'd just service my line for once, we'd get to fly.

I must say that standing in line with the people, though you do get some bad eggs who push and shove, and who try to cut, most of the people were quite nice and kind. It was just a shame the airport management was such a witless incompetent group in subjecting the passengers to pointless physical suffering than to use their brains to figure out a more reasonable solution. What I found ironic is how often the Chinese are blamed for rushing everywhere, often pushing and shoving when you the fault is really in the system. Like how the airport pits the passengers against each other, rather than contacting the airlines to notify their passengers of changes to their flight schedule & not to come to the airport. As well as how the Shanghai metro only gives people 3 seconds (count it) to get on and off the metro, of course people shove and push & get hit by the  metro doors. The way to save time is not in that area, this is something this country doesn't yet grasp. How can this place asks for civilized behavior from its citizens when it lacks the ability to create a system where civility can survive?

Other events also took place in this duration. There were numerous protests and yelling by the passengers, to whom and for what I am not sure, sometimes I couldn't understand what they were yelling about. But basically it was a big mess and people were very upset. Whether or not they realized that this inconvenience was an act of nature or that they were made to suffer more than just inconvenience due to poor airport management was beyond me.

Finally when it came my turn to retrieve my boarding pass for whatever plane was about to land or landed, I lifelessly handed the attendant my ID and my ticket. Dropped my bag on the baggage claim and turned around to see, in shock, what I had not seen the past hours that I was in line, facing forward. I grabbed onto my coat, my purse and my backpack as tightly as I could with my sickened body, and tried as politely as possible, to plow through the acres of people waiting in line for that boarding pass.

So, after being pushed and shoved in line for over 7 hours, one mini emotional breakdown (strong emotions are a rare thing for me), wondering why I ever left America, and thinking that this country really has no substance, before I finally managed to get a boarding pass. I don't know how I ever made it through.

When I finally emerged from the dense and suffocating fog of bodies, I saw around me, people gathered in  huge crowds, possibly waiting in lines for other destinations, while the remaining sit waiting on the floor. I did my best to try to regain my sense of direction and fumbled my way through all the people, towards the security check point. The security checkpoint was relatively empty because so few people were able to get boarding passes, however to get to it, meant to go through crowds of protesting people blocking the way. I managed to squeeze through and get through the security point without much hassle.

Finally through, I went to the LCD display to locate my gate, only to see that the flight said cancelled. I had gotten this boarding pass not 15 minutes ago. Still calm, I found an attendant and made an inquiry. The attendant informed me the LCD displayed information from a day ago and to check at any gate to find out my gate. I did so and I was informed to go to gate 19. I went to gate 19, bought myself a drink finally and sat down to wait. They informed me my flight had no boarding time, everything was uncertain. I waited from about 2pm, to 3pm. Then 3 went onto 4, eventually 4 went onto 5. I slept a little on the hard seat, it was uncomfortable, but at least I was sitting. My fever was getting worse and I felt very ill, yet still I waited. By this time, my throat was in pain and I could barely utter a word, much less make more inquiries. 6 came around and still no sign of my flight. I noticed that the others who waited in line behind me also since early morning had arrived as well and were waiting for the same flight. Now it was 7pm and the other passengers on my flight also became anxious and they gathered around the gate kiosk. They began to talk loudly, and pounding the gate kiosk. I heard them argue with the attendant that they had did every ridiculous thing the airport requested them to do and that they wouldn't stand for all this time and suffering to end with without being able to fly back. All this I heard, partially awake and partially in fever-land lying in my hard seat. This went on for over an hour and finally I heard the crowd cheer and people shouting the number 14 14! People grabbed their things and ran. I managed to pick myself up, and follow after them to Gate 14. It looks like they did manage to get the airport to arrange an extra flight to fly us to our destination since our original flight never arrived.

It was amusing seeing the people running towards the gate. As they took off, one of those seated, uttered the words "Shenzhen?" And the crowd replied, whilst running "Shenzhen Shenzhen!". I didn't get to look back, but I presume it was also another foreigner who was barely keeping up with what's going on, just like me.

We made it to 14, formed an orderly line. At this point the crowd was beyond no tolerance for cutting and anyone that even went towards the direction of the front of the line got yelled away in no time. What wonders, suffering can do to people.

We boarded the little buses that would take us to our plane and I can only say that at this point did my luck finally turn. After 7-8 hours standing for my boarding pass and another 7-8 waiting for my flight. I was thinking, with my luck we'd all just crash & die.  The plane took off well and made it safe and sound to my destination (checked-in luggage and all).

But the powers that be, wouldn't let the adventure end quite yet. Even at the very end, when I picked up my luggage from the carousel another mini-adventure awaited. Not realizing that I left my purse on the floor, I walked out of that baggage claim area to find my boyfriend waiting. Glad and relieved to finally see him after the entire day's ordeal, the thought still didn't occur to me. Then I went to the restroom and finally realized I was missing my purse. I frantically ran back to the baggage claim and asked several people. Finally one lady I asked near where I was standing replied positively and told me that my purse was enjoying a ride on the carousel. I looked up and saw my purse lying nonchalantly on the moving belt. I ran over to it and picked it up and thanked goodness, god, anything and everything. After checking and realizing that nothing was missing at all, it really solidified my belief in the goodness of the Chinese people.

That through these 15 hours or more of torture, the people themselves were mostly good and kind people. However, the environment and management they are forced to live under leaves them little choice but to respond like animals. It is almost like several layers of thick makeup. On the perfect day the makeup looks good, it doesn't feel natural, and you know it's trying hard to pass superficially for something it really isn't. But once it rains or less than the perfect day comes, the cracking and smudging of the thick cakes of makeup reveal the lack of true substance underneath.

This was my adventure on February the 3rd. A day I wish to never re-live and I wish that no other would ever have to be subject to the brutal treatment of this type of incompetent management. I can now saw that my most hated airport is the Hangzhou Airport and that I am seriously considering whether or not I want to be in this country. From what I have witnessed this day, when shit hits the fan in China, everything falls apart. They have no robust system underlying all the superficial modernizations & cosmetic advancements. On a good day, China can rival the most modern city in the world with its glimmering made up face, on a bad day though...

I had to pass a night in Shenzhen due to my health condition,  and finally made it to Hong Kong the next day on the 4th. I saw a doctor that day and it turned out my cold had turned into the flu...

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