My Guangzhou Sleepover

After arriving to the Wuhan airport with just over an hour to spare, I checked into my China Southern flight to Guangzhou with no incident and proceeded to wait around the airport for my flight to take off. It was delayed almost an hour. Finally we arrive in Guangzhou at around 5:25 pm, with my connection leaving at 7:10 pm - I thought to myself, I've been in and out of customs and Immigration in Chicago in under 45 minutes, I can definitely navigate through Guangzhou with almost 2 hours. Not the case.

Me and my two 31kg bags approached the China Southern check-in counter at 6:15 after waiting in the queue, collecting my bags, locating the international terminal, and getting into the correct China Southern line. After putting one bag on the scale, she tells me that I have to pay per Kilo that I'm over, 400 yuan for the bag. We go back and forth about paying for the bag for about 7 -8 minutes with me showing her my connection information for the US and explaining that I didn't pay extra from Wuhan and that she was being ridiculous. She starts trying to tell me that I have to pay for my bags, and I clearly argue that there was no precedent. At that point she starts to ignore me and all of my questions. So I yell, full on, "WO WEN NI YIGE WENTI!!" (I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!) To this she looks shocked and starts rambling in Chinese.

I call for a manger who speaks English and after talking to him, I agree to pay 400 yuan and assume that since both bags weigh the same, I owe 800 yuan. The woman laughs. "You have two bags?? How much? Weigh other bag!" So I put the other bag on the scale and she starts punching the numbers into the calculator and giggles, then shows the girl beside her and the manger and the three of them laugh together. Clearly, I'm pissed so I ask how much I owe and I find out that to get the two bags to Singapore (both under 32 kg) it will cost me 3000 yuan
($400) since my limit is only 20 kg because my connection to the US is not the same day.

At this point I freak out, yell at them that I don't have that kind of money and will need a minute to figure out where I can get it from. I pull out my cellphone and locate my calling card just in time for her to be like "it's 6:25, check in is closed. You cannot get on this flight, you must proceed to the other counter by section J to change your flight to the next one to Singapore: Tomorrow at the same time." Upon hearing this, there was clearly swearing under my breath followed by crying once I realized I'd be stuck in China for another night. After calling everyone in my family to get help, i got everything settled and checking into the airport hotel fro the night.

The hotel was the best part of the whole ordeal. I settled into my room, took a bath, drank a free drink at the bar downstairs and slept on a pillow-top mattress until the Western breakfast in the morning. The next day, I made it safely onto my flight to Singapore after arriving 3 hours early to the check-in gate and kissing good-bye to $400 on the emergency credit card.