Quite a shame really, when one of the newly branded aircrafts, bearing "Our Pride, Your Destination" failed to fly due to "technical problems". But that did not cause any major problems for our trip as we were transferred to the 10am flight, which flew smoothly to OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) in Johannesburg. At ORTIA we flew Qatar Airways to Doha, Qatar where we connected to Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China.
In the company of 14 Chinese students from Confucius Institute at the University Botswana, we arrived at 2pm local time to a six degrees freezing Shanghai weather, after a 16hour flight. For most of us, it was our first visit to China (for some, the first time flying) but there was no need to pinch yourself, as the freezing cold did that for you. Going through customs was a breeze and the service was efficient; CCV cameras, electronic scans (I didn't want to imagine how far the advanced scans were stripping us). The only glitch was when one fellow traveller noticed that she was missing her luggage, which it later transpired got lost in Johannesburg. After attending to the matter we settled on the bus leaving the airport and that was when we realised that some of our mates were missing. After a frantic search, they were found an hour later, much to our relief. After hotel check-ins we were each given a hundred Yuan and directed to the nearest shops. Hungry and still under jet lag, it was now the opportune time to try our Chinese conversational skills.
