SHANGHAI'ed: We love travel disaster Part 1

I think I am finally starting to recover from China. So I can write about it.
We hesitated going because 6 airline tickets for only 3 full days + the fancy hotel to boot was very pricey. But Ira says "once in a life time". Ok.

The travel agent accidentally books us to Shanghai, and when we get the tickets, we don't notice, because we are too obsessed with the price.

So we get to the airport, check in, and the person-behind-the counter says "enjoy your flight to Shanghai". ...
Ira: "No, Beijing. We have a hotel, reserved a driver, Great Wall, bla bla..."
Counter person: "no, look, your tickets all say Shanghai. Have a nice flight."

The tickets were non-refundable, non-transferable, non-everything.

Ok. Well I will make this quick, but there really was quite a bit of sweating and swearing and making phone calls in different languages that made everything very stressful, so after about an hour or so, it was evident that we either fly to Shanghai or go home.
So, we were set on Beijing, and decided to book 6 more tickets from Shanghai to Beijing, flying to Beijing the next morning, out of Shanghai. (Technically this was not the agents fault, because Ira "ok'd" the tickets, not noticing the destination.)

Ok, I don't want to go into any more of these details. It gets uglier. But lets just say, that our pricey flight to China just went up. So instead of 6 tickets for 3 full days in China, we ended up buying 12 tickets for 1 full day in China. (we had to fly in and out of Shanghai, so we lost time in Beijing).

I will now skip to the 2 hours of happiness in China. We had a blast on the Great Wall. Even had a picnic. A beautiful day, not a lot of tourists, maybe a bit foggy for viewing purposes, but overall really pleasant.The Great Wall: Joseph chucking his rotting banana at the Mongols.

There are enormous differences between the Japanese and Chinese cultures. But I can sum it up pretty easy. Japanese: quiet. Chinese: loud

And very aggressive. Since we spent more time than I will talk about in the airports in China, I was able to observe the Chinese people for a time.

Advice for those going to China: If you want service at an airport counter, you basically have to get in the some sort of line that you think has formed, and as you begin to somehow approach the person-behind-the counter, you then have to quickly turn and slug the person in line next to you as hard as you can and knock them to the ground. You may then have a chance. It's the Chinese way. People are yelling mad everywhere. And literally pushing each other out of the way to get service.

After long lines, miscommunications, over-the-top frustration, and the kids, making gym equipment out of the escalators, I began wondering when Ira was going to start yelling too. I could feel it coming on. After a year of living ultra polite and quiet in Japan, the true Bronx Jew-boy was slowly emerging in all of this madness. I was beginning to see it in his walk, being sent from wrong counter to wrong counter, seeing it in the beads of sweat flowing freely off his forehead, his eyes, getting that crazed helter skelter glare.