I am happy to be at the China Hotel in Guangzhou tonight as I made an unwanted visit to the Police Station earlier today. We had a wonderful morning as we all were able to sleep in until 8am. We ate breakfast, finished packing, and made it to the lobby with all our bags on time for our noon time departure. The ride to the airport in Jiangxi Province was pleasant. It seemed that our afternoon 70 minute flight to Guangzhou would be easy.
That is until we checked our bags in. Soon after I checked my bags, airport security asked me to open one of the bags. They wanted to check to contents. When I opened it, they took out the knife we bought Ben as a souvenir. Soon they called over the Police who then took the knife and my passport. Ten minutes later, they invited me to the Police Station located in the airport. To be honest, I was a bit concerned. When I was in Kenya, I had a few “incidents” with the Kenyan police, but it always seemed like they were trying to show they were in charge. However, I didn’t know what to expect in China.
Once in the station, they wrote out their police report. Then they reprimanded me in Chinese (telling my translator that I had broken the Handgun and Knife Control laws by carrying a knife longer than 3 inches in public without proper registration), told me they were going to let me off this time, handed me my passport back, kept the knife, and told me to have a nice trip! As you can imagine, I was quite relieved.
In fact, it was almost as if it were a formality. The police officer was very pleasant. I asked my translator to tell him I was “very sorry” and did not mean to break their laws. I told them I had bought the knife (which was actually the bayonet for a WWII Chinese rifle) for my 13 year old son who collects knives. I then asked him if I could take a picture of the knife so my son could see the knife. The officer smiled and said, “yes, yes.” I then boldly asked if I could take a picture of the two of us with my knife that got me arrested. He happily agreed as you can see from the photo.
Anyway, it was a pretty wild experience. Interestingly enough the whole ordeal only took about 20 minutes and so I still had plenty of time to get through security (where they tried to confiscate my contact solution while allowing me to keep my cologne). Fortunately the rest of the trip went well.
Kate continues to do well. She was happy on the plane but fell asleep 5 minutes before we landed. She slept through that, going through baggage claim, and woke up right as we boarded the bus. Since it was a 30 minute drive to the hotel, she fell back asleep so was pretty happy when we got to our room. We were all glad to be here as we discovered a McDonald’s right across the street and more importantly a Starbucks in the hotel! So the last 5 nights in China should be pretty good. Tomorrow we take her for her medical clearance exam so that should be interesting. Pr@y that goes well.
One last thing. When we checked in, our guide told us they needed one passport and one credit card per room. Half an hour after arriving in our room (which was an upgraded room) the front desk called and asked me to bring all of our passports. When I arrived the manager apologized and reassured me that it was routine for all people staying on our floor to have passports and visas copied because the police had to be notified of all guests staying on the Executive floor. Kind of eerie given my earlier interaction today wouldn’t you say!
Seriously though, today’s events remind us how much real freedom of movement and travel we have at home. I really did not feel any real threat today but it was very eye-opening. We have been totally pleasant and cooperative but we are still outsiders here. Pr@y that our remaining days go smoothly and without any other incident.
That was a SWEET knife! to bad you couldn't keep it. its fine if you dont find another one. thanks though!
Posted by: Ben | September 25, 2009 at 12:21 PM
What an adventure! The picture will make for good souvenir at lest. Stay safe and enjoy the rest of the trip.
Posted by: Jon B | September 25, 2009 at 06:20 PM
Sorry Ben- you will have to settle for the "My parents went to China and all I got was this T-shirt" (and a sweet baby sister!)
Posted by: The Tewksburys | September 25, 2009 at 09:44 PM
Oh no!! There was your "international incident"!! At least it ended with you boarding a plane and not you being boarded in a jail cell!! Remember in my e-mail who I told you would have to come over and "free you"!!! Think about that the next time you want to bring weapons and contact solution on a Chinese airplane ;-)
Posted by: Mindy | September 27, 2009 at 01:55 AM