Non-Stop from Shanghai to Taipei

This is probably old news, but there’s direct flights from Shanghai to Taipei now! Rather than wasting 6 hours in a roundabout flight and killing time at the airport in Macau, Hong Kong, Cheju, or Okinawa, direct flights from Shanghai to Taipei take only 1.5 hours! So fast! Just enough time to find your seat, buckle up, have a drink/meal, read a newspaper, and there you are, landed at Song Shan or Tao Yuan Airport!

Direct roundtrip flight tickets cost about 3000-3500 RMB, which is around what the non-direct flights tickets used to cost. Now, the non-direct flight tickets via Hong Kong are super cheap! Only 2000 RMB!

Susan made two trips to Taipei this year already! Once in January and again last weekend.

The Terminal 2

We’ve been meaning to write about the first trip in January, but things got terribly busy the weeks and months after the trip, so the story was left untold until now. It was one of those moments in life that makes an entertaining story only afterwards but not so much while experiencing it. It was The Terminal 2, starring Susan Wu.

Upon the short flight and arrival at Tao Yuan airport, Susan was stuck at the customs arrival area. Her passport did not expire nor the U.S. cease to be a country. Rather, her passport had less than 6 months validity, and the customs official wouldn’t let her through.

Apparently, the Taiwan Department of State signed an agreement with the U.S. government that U.S. passport holders can enter Taiwan without a visa for up to 30 days only if the passport is valid for at least 6 months. Susan’s passport was going to expire in 5 months and 20 days, 10 days short of the agreement!!! 

The sad thing was, Susan did renew her U.S. passport two weeks prior to the trip. The U.S. consulate called her the morning of her flight and said her passport was ready for pickup. She didn’t have time to pick up the new passport before her flight, so she left for Taiwan with the old passport, not knowing about the passport validity agreement.

Seriously, how often does one’s passport expire in less than 6 months? (Answer: Every 10 years!) Shame on the airport check-in counter agent for not checking passports and informing travelers…

Six Good Reasons Not to Comply

So without the 6-month validity, the customs officer gave Susan two choices—pay NT$5000 (~$150 USD) for an on-arrival visa or go back to Shanghai! There were no direct flights back to Shanghai that day so the only option was to get an on-arrival visa.

Susan had about NT$1000 (enough money for a cab ride to mom/dad’s house) and $60USD, which makes a total of about NT$3000. She did not have enough money to get a visa, and visa wasn’t accepted. No visa. No visa. (Get it?)

Susan gave the custom officer 6 VERY GOOD reasons why she should let her through just this time.

1. She didn’t have money to pay for the visa. It’s the visa office’s fault for not accepting credit card.
2. She’s a Taiwan-born Taiwanese citizen (who happened to have a U.S. passport). Let her enter her own country!!!
3. Her mom was injured and in the hospital.
4. Her passport validity was only 10 days short of the no-visa agreement.
5. She has a valid, new passport, just not with her.
6. She’s only going to be in Taiwan for 4 days.

With all the begging and whining, the customs official still wouldn’t budge and said even if she were the president of the United States, he still couldn’t let her pass. An agreement is an agreement. He kindly pointed her to the foreign exchange booth.

Got Money?

It was then that Susan saw that RMB bills were accepted at the foreign exchange, only that she didn’t bring ANY with her because why would anyone want to bring RMBs to Taiwan?! Oh right, because now there’s direct flights between Shanghai and Taiwan! If only she knew, she wouldn’t have pulled out the big wad of RMB bills out of her wallet that morning!!! 

So the final and last resort? Get money from the ATM machine. There was only one ATM machine, next to the foreign exchange booth. Good thing she brought her bank cards with her!

But as luck would have it, the ATM machine was broken! After numerous attempts at inserting her Bank of America ATM card, China Construction ATM card, ICBC ATM card, Bank of China ATM card, Agricultural Bank ATM card, and even her credit card, the machine just did not want to give Susan any money! She was told that there might be a working ATM machine outside the customs arrival area, but oh wait, there was a reason why she was still inside and not outside!!!  Doh!  Whichever idiot that suggested this had the audacity to say “Why don’t you give me your ATM card and PIN number, and I’ll get some money for you?” 

When It Rains, It Pours

And that’s what happened. Unlike Viktor Navorski who made the best of a terrible God-forbid-it-ever-happens-to-you situation, Susan sat down smack in the middle of the in-between land and wailed, ranted, and screamed like HK Airport Auntie. The security guards came and took her away. 

The man at the foreign exchange booth had pity on her. He gave Susan enough money to pay for the on-arrival visa, then called a flight attendant to escort her to outside the customs arrival area where the working ATM machines were.

After withdrawing enough money and giving the money to the flight attendant to give back to the foreign exchange guy, Susan finally made it outside the airport, 6 hours later. So much for a fast direct flight to Taiwan!

The first smell and step into the real Taiwan was quite anticlimactic. There was no parade or cheers or sad parting or anything of that sort. Just taxis honking for business. But Susan stretched out her hands anyway and soaked in the pleasure of being outside and not inside.