Juxtapositions.

November 5, 2008 at Majestic Hotel, Guangzhou, China. Travel here, long. A thirty-hour day.

Sitting in economy class window seat not my ideal way spending hours and hours inside one plane, San Francisco to Tokyo. But tracking gps progress and noticing when we were above Aleutian Islands led to a magnificent view that otherwise wouldn’t have been afforded. Mountains. Snow. Volcanic craters. Glaciers. Ocean. Blue sky. Clouds. Un-real!

Flight from Tokyo to Guangzhou on Northwest Airlines, US owned and staffed. Safety announcements done in English. Flight departs from Japan and lands in China. Hmmmm. Go figure.

Guangzhou and I was one of first off the plane. But was almost last of a plane load going through PRC immigration. Why? The inspecting officer needing no glasses to see, sat very still studying and contemplating my passport. My passport, like me, has successfully passed PRC scrutiny many, many times the past four years. Not certain she, the immigration officer, was seeing what she wanted, she, who didn’t wear glasses, had me remove mine (glasses always worn and pictured on my passport) so she could get a better gander at me. Look hard she did, again and again. I passed her test and walked on. Go figure again.

Midnight checked into the Majestic Hotel. My associates let me know they were hungry, and suggested I eat. OK. They thought perhaps best if we could go to a nice restaurant, after all I’m guest in their country. I suggested we dine at all-night-eat-where-only-locals-do-at-a-small-one-room mom and pop shop that we walked past down an adjacent alley. Perfect. Our over bowls of pork soup, dumplings, won ton soup conversation? McDonnald’s in America vs. China.

Go figure some more.