A Long Journey and an Odd Arrival - Sunday 6/17 - Tuesday 6/19

So, we left Fort Wayne on Sunday morning, and after some adventures with the airlines, including a detour to Canada, we finally arrived in China on Tuesday morning at about 4:45am. (That was 4:45pm on Monday back in the Fort...But either way, it was a looong trip!)

But, we were unable to deboard the plane, because "At a passenger's request, we have contacted the police. All passengers should remain seated."  After being held for approximately an hour, we deplaned and there were police officers outside on the ground.)  We got into a bus and were bussed to the terminal.  Immediately, we were all fingerprinted and given a receipt for our scanned prints.
Then, after a fairly extensive walk, we arrived at Chinese immigration. We filled out some forms, and spent nearly another hour in a long and winding line, got stamped through immigration,  and proceeded to baggage collection area.  But... our flight was no where to be seen on the board.  We asked multiple representatives, but were unable to identify the carousel which should have the bags from our flight.  :(
Finally, we were told that they were lost. All in all, we spent about two hours searching for luggage and filling out extensive claim forms... BUT... as I filed the very last form... We were told that our bags had simply been moved to a storage area.  So... We crossed the hall and wandered down back corridors to said storage area.  We instantly saw our bags, signed some more forms to take possession of them, and... FINALLY, proceeded to the customs check.

We got in the short line, which was just for Chinese Nationals, but the guards did not seem to care that we were in the wrong line, and we breezed through...
After the extensive processes requires to get through each stage of our entry to China, so far, some of the girls were incredulous... They were looking around for where else to get in line or what else had to be completed or signed...
"Wait... Is that it??" came the query in an incredulous tone.
"Yep. We're done." (I mustered more conviction into my tone than I actually felt.)
And, I ushered them through the door as quickly as could effectively be managed, before we could be stopped again.  ;)

But... that was, in fact, truly the end of the journey.  There was our Chinese tour manager on the other side of the door, holding a sign to identify herself.  As I made eye contact with her, to declare that we were her party, a look of clear relief washed over her face.  (I would later learn that in twenty years of leading groups, she had never experienced such an odd confluence of delays and she had started to become worried about us after the first hour or so... )
Even later, we would learn that the president of North Korea had arrived at the airport at the same time we did and that seemed to be related to the delay.
We had no time to go to the hotel, or shower, or do anything else, at that point, and had to head straight into a jam-packed day of sight-seeing in China.

I will update you on our first day "on the ground" a little bit later and try to add some photos.  For now, I just wanted to let you know that we have arrived, and to explain a little bit why it took me so long to update you. We are on our way to The Great Wall, and on the bus, I can only connect to the blog on my phone, so I am going to save most of the story-telling for when I can use my laptop.
Hope all is well in The Fort.  We are great here in China and have many stories to tell, already, so I will update more tonight!

PS Please pardon any typos. (I am thumb-typing on my phone on a bus. I will proofread when I get to a computer! )