Today@Dal

Submitted by Keith Taylor

March 12, Beijing to Qingdao

Today we had our first unplanned adventure. We had scheduled a 10 a.m. meeting at the Canadian Embassy with Ken Wong, Trade Commissioner for Education, but it was raining. Now that may not seem like a serious issue, but the demand for taxis goes up in Beijing when it rains and it took us an hour and twenty minutes to flag down a cab, with the help of the hotel staff. Arriving late at the Embassy, we encountered another problem. Because we would be leaving for the airport from the Embassy, we had our suitcases with us. The bigger bags would not fit through the scanning machine and the army of the People’s Republic of China feared that we may be Canadian spies bringing electronic to the Canadian staff. Ken had to come down with a letter from a higher official identifying us as VIPs. I guess VIP Canadians are trusted.

Read the rest of this post at the Eastern Horizons blog.