Well, things have gotten off to a rather bumpy start.  My flight from San Francisco to Beijing was delayed over two hours, and as a consequence, I missed my connecting flight to Xi’an (the last one of the day).

Upon collecting my luggage, I was told to see the manager at the information counter “upstairs.”  After being sent back and forth three times between two different information counters (on floors 2 and 4) of the airport, and once my level of frustration had begun to peak, I was finally able to speak to an Air China manager.  When I gave him my boarding pass, he mysteriously ran away, shouting something over his shoulder.  Not quite sure what to do, I stayed put, and hoped that he would eventually return.  Finally, about fifteen minutes later, he returned with three friends in ties.  They, without saying anything, politely escorted me outside to a minibus with a hotel name on the side.  Before I knew it, about fifteen other passengers, and their luggage, had joined me in the 12 passenger bus.  About twenty minutes later, the bus pulled up at the hotel, from which I am writing this post.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to relax, because they are driving me back to the airport at 5:30 AM to catch my new flight.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to report on my first day in Xi’an tomorrow.

My hotel

My chariot, which arrived two hours late