Returning to Hong Kong

Chris was telling me the story of the Czech army in World War I. They were crossing the Trans-Siberian railroad when the Communist revolution made Czech an enemy. Stuck in Siberia, they hijacked a series of trains in the Trans Siberian railroad, and the entire army decided to shoot their way out of Russia back to their home. I spent my last evening in China praying that I wouldn't have to do the same to get out of China. My first worry was the airline. I had a ticket with China Eastern Airlines and hadn't been able to reconfirm my ticket home. I had tried their phone number, but couldn't get it to work. I feared going to a branch office because with the language barrier I figured I might end up inadveratedly canceling the tickets. I've heard stories of China Eastern Airlines canceling flights unexpectedly, or canceling tickets when people failed to confirm. In Shanghai I met a student who was stranded in the hostel for an extra three days because China Eastern Airlines had screwed him over. His hand writing ticket had become unreadable, so he got a letter from the airline saying that it was still valid. However, the letter didn't have the proper stamp and they refused to let him board. My second worry was getting through immigration. I was also a little worried about getting through immigration. The last night in the hostel the girl at the desk told me that when she entered in my passport info at the police station it had come back that I overstaid my VISA. This was not true at all - I had entered on August 4th and had a 30 day VISA. But I had heard stories of the Chinese fining people$5,000 for overstaying their VISA by just one day. Suddenly I had all these visions of being fined as I tried to leave, and being caught up in hours of delay as I tried to prove that I hadn't overstaid my entry. But as it turned that once again my fears about China being undeveloped or scary or harsh were unfounded. I checked in and got my boarding pass without any problem. At immigration, the woman was extremely nice and was very happy when I spoke a bit of Mandarin. She began asking me where I studied. She stamped my passport, and I was out, my last contact with the Chinese confirming my view throughout the trip that these are a ridiculously nice people.