Arctic Ocean , Beijing, Canada , Montreal, New York City, Planes, Travel → Xi’an – Montréal
Language:
Mmm, pizza. This is one of the things I miss most while abroad. A good, hot and delicious slice of an all-dressed pizza, that just came out of the oven. They seem to only be available in North America… and there I am now! Back in Montreal.
The journey started in the morning, December 12th at Xianyang International Airport in Xi’an. My first flight, to Beijing, was scheduled to depart at 9am. I took the taxi from home to the airport and paid 100 yuans (15$), for a 50km-course.
It was in a plane like this one, operated by Air China, that I went to my first destination. The flight attendant kept speaking English to me, eventhough I was replying to her in Chinese. But at least I could practice my Chinese with the passenger sitting beside me.
I arrived in Beijing Airport at 10:30 am. The airport was very nice and modern. My next flight, to New York City was scheduled to depart at 1pm. So I had some free time to take some pictures and change some money (100 yuans to 15 canadian dollars, for a bus ticket in Montreal).
Because of the time difference between Beijing and NYC and also because the airplane went through the opposite direction of our planet’s rotation, we were scheduled to arrive only 30 minutes after the departure time. Therefore, the departure time was 1pm, December 12th, Beijing time; and the arrival time was 1:30pm, December 12th, NYC time, but the flight had an actual duration of 13 hours and a half.
The passengers entered the Boeing 747 from the outside, by climbing a stair.
Inside the plane, there was a screen showing movies and also our actual location on the globe, our speed, our altitude and the outside temperature, in English and in Chinese. In English, the Imperial System of units was used, while in Chinese, the International system was used. The distance to be travelled was a little over 10000 km. The plane flew over Russia, went over the Arctic Ocean and then over Nunavut, Quebec and the USA.
Visibility was unlimited. One could see the ground and the horizon.
Somewhere above the Arctic Ocean, North of Canada.
The sun is setting in this December 12th night… In a couple of hours, the sun will be rising again and a new December 12th will start again. At that time, I realized that my watch could not go back one day. So, I had to make the hands of my watch rotate some 60 times in order to get to number 12 from 13 as the date.
One of the two meals served on bord.
The sun is rising again.
We are almost there.
We are flying over Manhattan before landing… Can you see the Empire State Building on this picture? Hint: in the lower-right corner.
New York City, at last. In this place, I was not in the minority anymore! There were very few Chinese people.
Last flight of the journey, to Montreal. This one had a duration of 45 minutes. We arrived in the evening at 7pm, December 12th. I took a shuttle for the 15 dollars, that I had changed 100 yuans for, that went directly to the central subway station in Montreal, Berri-UQAM. The following day, I was eating pizza and watching TV… in French.
