I Have Arrived, Swine Flu Hasn't

After a 3 hour flight to Newark, a 14.5 hour flight to Shanghai, and another 3 hour flight to Chengdu, I have finally arrived here in Chengdu.

The flights as a whole were not terribly bad for me. I am the exact opposite of most people on planes in the fact that I simply can't stay awake on them. I spent 13 of my total 20 hours in the air asleep which put me in perfect condition for my arrival. However, I didn't quite realize the process that getting into China was. And despite most people's first thought, it wasn't because the officials were going through my luggage and triple checking my visa (that part of it was actually very quick and easier than it is to get back into the US). But no, our hold up was because of swine flu. Apparently China is very serious about not letting this one seep into its borders. So in order to make sure that no contaminated man, woman or child came in they implemented these people...

Someone in my program really explained it best when he compared the experience to E.T. when the cops show up to quarantine him. Dressed from head to toe in spotless white gowns with the surgical mask and goggles, they really went all out for this one. And if this wasn't enough, they used some futuristic space age equipment on us to see if we were contaminated. The machine looked a lot like a speed gun with 4 red lights shining out from it making a diamond pattern. They quickly made their rounds asking everybody to pull their hair up and close their eyes as they somehow took your temperature by pointing this thing at your forehead (in case you were wondering I'm a cool 33.7 degrees Celsius).

After all of this we were finally able to go into China. So after 20 total hours in the air flying over the north pole, 27 hours of total travel time including a layover in Shanghai where we miraculously found our gate, I am now one of the 1.3 billion people in China.