We had just landed in Beijing. Unlike in Brazil, nobody clapped, yet an audible collective sigh rippled across the aircraft—smooth flight but long flight.

The captain sounded cheery when he spoke. Beautiful weather in Beijing, he had said, something something about connecting flights, thank you guys and all.

The announcement that followed, almost as an afterthought, took us all by surprise.

First, in Chinese.

Feng and I looked at each other in a “Did you just hear that too?”

Then in French.

The Chinese version was “Sorry, the luggage won’t be available for pickup but delivered later on.”

The French version was more worrying—”due to a fire in CDG Airport, luggage isn’t available. Please see the counter for assistance.”

“What the fuck are we supposed to do?” I asked Feng rhetorically, while all the passengers around were asking their significant other, relative or business partner the same rhetorical question, mostly in Chinese, but also in French.

Seconds ago we all had a hand on the seat belt buckle, waiting for the sign belt sign to be turned off, ready to rush off the plane. Now it felt like nobody wanted to leave without further info—and with some level of certainty that our checked luggage would be showing up on the carousel just as they were supposed to.

But we had to go through the motions, so we “xiexie, au revoir, bye-bye” the crew.

We went through immigration. Feng, Mark and I all have the precious ten-year Q2 visa, a category for family members of Chinese citizens—yeah, that’s me, and I find it hilarious.

Still, we were wondering how easy it would be to enter China… and it turned out to be remarkably straightforward. Feng and I were fingerprinted, the normal process, but no questions asked. Awesome!

Then we joined the long lineup of Air France passengers without luggage. We filled up a form and handed out our luggage tags, then we walked through customs—nothing to declare, really.

Once in the arrival hall, Feng rushed to the China Mobile counter. Getting a Chinese phone number and data was another big worry since you can’t survive in China without a phone—it’s a cashless country, and all transactions go through WeChat or Alipay.

Meanwhile, I went outside for a smoke, and I quickly became the most popular girl around because I was the only one with a lighter—China doesn’t let passengers fly with lighters, they are invariably thrown away at the security checkpoint.

Half an hour later, we had two new SIM cards, data plans and phone numbers.

I tried my VPN. We’re now behind the Great Firewall of China, so most foreign websites are blocked. This was also a big worry—love them or hate them, I can’t do much without Gmail, Google Maps, Google or WhatsApp. The VPN seems to be working for now, phew.

This is how I learned about the Microsoft outage chaos. We were lucky our flight wasn’t cancelled, it happened when we were somewhere not above Russia—could it explain the luggage mess?

It was now 5 p.m. We had to get to our apartment.

“Taxi or subway? It may be difficult with the lugg… oh, fuck.”

Yep, no luggage, so no issue navigating the subway to Gua Mao, even with three transfers.

“Okay, what do we need?”

Everything. We needed everything. Mark had all his clothes because we didn’t check his small backpack but Feng and I had no toiletry, clothes, or sandals… not to mention all the small travel essentials I pack so carefully because I literally live out of my bag most of the year—laundry powder, rope, indoors Havaianas, backup towel, pocket knife, and more.

“I need shorts,” I decided. “I can’t walk around in jeans. It’s just too hot.”

I got lucky, I found a pair at the nearest mall and they fit my non-Chinese body. We bought toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and shampoo at the convenience store because we couldn’t find a supermarket. Forget about face cream or body cream… and we all used Mark’s small comb.

Argh. And I’m not even high maintenance.

This is the third time in 25 years of travelling that I don’t get my luggage upon landing. Once from France to Hong Kong in 2001, then more recently from Canada to Brazil in 2016 (incidentally, this is how I discovered my now-favourite brand of Brazilian undies!).

We have phones, travel skills and the ability to decipher Chinese characters.

We just don’t have anything else for now.

Never mind. I’m so happy to be in China again!

Landing at Beijing Capital International Airport
Landing at Beijing Capital International Airport
My Chinese Q2 visa
My Chinese Q2 visa
Going through immigration, the fingerprinting stage
Going through immigration, the fingerprinting stage
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
In the Airport Express subway, Beijing
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Beijing subway
Visited 169 times, 1 visit(s) today

2 Comments

  1. Christiane July 22, 2024 at 3:01 pm

    OMG you were in the air while the Microsoft outage happened?! Wow I’m glad your flight was not cancelled. Happy y’all arrived safely. It does suck with no luggage 🙁 Hopefully you get it soon.

    Reply
    1. Zhu July 23, 2024 at 1:00 pm

      We were lucky on this one!

      Reply

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *