There was a 3.5 hour layover in Chicago, but NBC had arranged access to the United Red Carpet Lounge (free drinks!), and also had setup an NBC lounge by walling off the entire C18 gate area (also free drinks, and food!).
I was on an NBC production charter, which was an old Boeing 747-400 (double decker). You could tell it was old because it still had CRT video displays (not LCD and no seatback displays), and the video was from tape not digital. It seemed like it took forever for the plane to actually lift-off as we sped down the runway, hitting 355km/h at wheels-up.
This particular charter was mostly filled with interns, who were exuberant and excited through the whole trip (did I mention that there were free drinks?). For those of you who were on the UW graduation skiing trip to Whistler, the flight was like that, except they didn't "run out of beer" after the first half hour.
The interns pay their own way (airfare and accommodation), and work for free, just to get experience and hopefully make some contacts within NBC, so I can't blame them for wanting to live-it-up a little (but I hope they learn to pace themselves, as this is going to be a long three weeks).
Given that I am twice as old as most of these interns, I'm wondering if I am turning into a jaded old guy, or if I am just trying to be nonchalant and play it cool about coming to China. The truth is, it is an exciting time, and their enthusiasm was infectious, so it was a good kick-off for me.
The flight itself was pretty neat, we flew over the North Pole on the Great Circle (so almost half the 6582 mile trip is just getting out of Canada)! We were chasing the Sun the whole way here, so there was never any darkness. I ended up with a whole row of three seats to myself, and managed to sleep for 3-4 hours (from the Beaufort sea through most of Siberia). When I woke up, I looked out the window and realized why no-one wants to visit Siberia:
As we made our approach into Beijing, we passed over part of the Great Wall, and I took some aerial photos, knowing that this might be as close as I get to seeing it:
There are some quite mountainous areas outside of Beijing, and then just miles and miles of farmland before you reach the city (I guess you need a lot of produce to feed 18 million people in one city).
When we touched down, things started to get surreal. The entire airport seemed deserted and we were greeted like Rock Stars by lines of clapping and cheering Olympic volunteers (who all had managed to learn how to say "Welcome to Beijing", and to smile and nod a lot). There were costumed Olympic mascots (like you'd see at Wonderland or Disneyworld) dancing and waving at us, and lots of people were taking our pictures.
The business end of getting our entry visa and accreditation validated, and then getting our luggage was extremely efficient (and why wouldn't it be, we were the only people in this giant airport, and there were dozens of people waiting on us).
The bus ride to the Media Village was another 45 minutes, and it was 96 degrees and extremely humid, so that the bus ride seemed longer and more uncomfortable than the plane trip did.
When we got in the buses (with luggage in separate trucks delivered straight to our rooms) and pulled out of the airport, we had what seemed like a police escort, who stopped traffic at several highway entrances to allow the bus convoy the right-of-way.
Seeing these single police officers standing alone in the middle of the highway holding up a huge line of vehicles so that we could pass was eerily similar to an image in my mind of a young man standing in a square in front of a long line of tanks.
Anyhow, I am now here in my Media Village room, hot, tired, and smelly. So, off to the shower and then to bed!
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