Actually this posting may not have too much to do with the earthquake. It is just that I was in China over the weekend, and some of my friends have been worrying about me. So I feel I should make a report.I was in Suzhou over the weekend, and flew back from Shanghai on a 6:15PM plane last evening, the day the earthquake occurred. I didn't know about the earthquake until I arrived at the HK airport at about 9:30PM, even though I was at the Shanghai airport when the earthquake struck around 2:28PM.
I had booked a DragonAir 7:00PM flight originally. But I finished my business early so I went to Shanghai early, arriving at the airport at about 2:00PM. I tried to take an earlier 3:30PM flight. I had done that before and never had any problems because they have flights every hour. But this time they said there were delays and all flights were full. I could not get on the 3:30, the 4:30, and finally got on the 5:30 which was delayed until 6:15. We got on the plane at 6:15 and sat in the plane until 7:00 when we finally got the permission to take off. We were told while sitting in the plane that we were waiting for permission from the military. Never did anyone mentioned the earthquake even though it happened at about 2:28.
Some friends and my taxi driver felt the delay was due to the earthquake, and the military was simply used as a convenient excuse. I don’t really know. It has happened many times before that commercial flights were interrupted by the military. And the interruptions seemed to start before the earthquake.
In any case, I was annoyed that I had to stay in the airport for 5 hours. And I am surprised that such a serious earthquake was never brought up during that 5 hours. On the other hand, I am happy to be back safely.
I snapped the photo of the new terminal 2 of the Shanghai Airport (it opened only about one month ago) because of its unusual shape. What does it remind you of?
4 comments:
Wow, I didn't know you were in Shanghai or I would be worried, and I guess your family would be extremely anxious to have you back.
Natural diasters like the earthquake can come suddenly, unannounced. Treasure our day as if this is the last day!
The Mainland is reacting fast and that certainly helps especially in the first critical hours.
Ann
Looks like a pair of lips to me!
And next time, I will get my China geography straight. Thinking that you were in Xian freaked me out, especially when I couldn't get through on BOTH your HK and China cell.
Live this day as it t'were thy last... for sure!
It's sure a long day looking for your blog on May 12. Even though you do slip 1 or 2 days once in a while. It did worried your reader when your last blog stayed in Suzhou and no update for such a 'long' while.
Thank God.
Thank you all. I feel truly blessed to have you as my friends. Please see my post today.
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