Celebrating Malaysia’s National Day …
… with a post about China. In particular, travel security during the recent Olympics.
As can be expected, security was stepped up during the recent Olympics in China. It was especially tight in Beijing, including travel into, altho not out of, as I was to find out.
In Beijing, the subway stations were equipped with X-ray machines similar to what you would find at airports. A newly-met friend (hi, Crystal!) took me on the subway on the evening of Thursday, 14 August 2008. I’d spent the afternoon watching the 8 Olympic pandas at Beijing Zoo and we’d arranged to meet at the zoo’s entrance and then decide where to go for dinner, etc. After we met, I said I would like to go to Wangfujin, where the official Beijing Olympics souvenir store was located.
Melody at the zoo had said Wangfujin was quite far from the zoo. But according to Crystal, it wasn’t that far. We waited for a cab for about 10 minutes, after which she suggested taking the subway.
The nearest station was a 10-minute walk away, it was after-office hours so the sidewalk was quite crowded, especially near the station. Walking into the station, we joined a queue and Crystal explained that we needed to put our bags through to be scanned. But it wasn’t so bad. The machine didn’t show up anything suspicious in my backpack, or anyone else’s bags.
So, that was a taste of tightened security within Beijing during the Olympics.
As for travelling into Beijing, I had a taste of the tighter security when I checked in my bag at Chengdu Airport for my flight to Beijing. Normally, you’d just check your luggage in and that was it. In this case, the counter staff held on to my boarding pass and told me to wait while my bag was being scanned. Then I was called by one of the officers at the scanning machine.
The machine had picked up a suspicious item inside my bag. I looked at the highlighted item and couldn’t for the life of me remember what I’d packed that could be suspicious or dangerous. It was when the officer said “either a knife or toothbrush … ” that I remembered what it was – my electric toothbrush. After I confirmed it was an electric toothbrush, he said okay and let me go. I collected my boarding pass, relieved that I didn’t have to open the bag to get the toothbrush to prove that it really was an electric toothbrush.
For my flight from Beijing to Guangzhou, I decided to pack the toothbrush in my carry-on backpack, which would be easier to take out and show to the officer. But the item didn’t show up at all when I put the backpack through the machine. It made me think all that extra security is just for within Beijing and travelling into Beijing, not out of.
And oh yes, Happy Merdeka to all Malaysians. Merdeka means independence, and we’ve been independent for 51 years. The 51 years’ independence is from British rule, altho I think the country is still struggling for independence in various other areas, most of them not involving anyone or anything foreign.
