Arrival in Zhuhai

This morning we flew from Shanghai to Zhuhai. We were very nervous, both because we had read how difficult the local airlines might be and because UIC, the school at which we are staying, has been very poor at communicating with me.

The day has been a series of pleasant surprises. We flew out of the Shanghai International Airport, which is the largest airport I have ever visited. Each of three terminals was larger than O'Hare. The terminal we were in had 40 check-in sections, each with over 20 desks (so 800 passengers at a time could theoretically check in). Since we are traveling off season, there were almost no lines for check-in or security. The only bad aspect of that was they had the time for a very thorough search and Stacy was forced to give up her small crochet scissors because they were a bit too long.

The plane was a modern Boeing 737, complete with in-flight movie (in Chinese) and hot lunch (so we ate the rolls and fruit).

Arriving in Zhuhai, an assistant from the university met us and we are staying on a hotel next to campus which caters to the two adjoining universities. They have an extremely busy schedule for me, with three separate talks given to six different classes over the week, as well as some days of formal gatherings.

We had a lovely welcoming dinner with a number of the faculty and staff. Everyone was quite nice. They did not get the information that we needed vegetarian dishes, but quickly adjusted what they were ordering to accommodate us. We had three different kinds of fish (only one of which could we readily identify, but all were real fish with fins and scales). We ate bamboo, Chinese leeks and huge mushrooms, and watched the others try jellyfish, shrimp, pork and many interesting looking items.

Tomorrow we will tour the area a bit, then on Monday I go to work. It should be an interesting week.