NOTE: The level of English at Beijing International Airport is embarrassingly sub-par for an international airport.
The plane had landed and I wandered off the plane in a daze along with all the other passengers. The Beijing international airport is less than ordinary. It's boring and dull and not a clock in sight.
I finally reach the part of the airport where the customs officers stamp you in, and I add myself to the end of one of the queues (that all ultimately lead to the same place).
I see to main officers, a cranky man, and a pleasant looking young girl. I pray to God I get the girl, and thankfully she calls me over while Mr. Cranky Pants is still having some trouble with some other folk.
She looks at my passport, seems pleased, stamps it and I move on.
I wait for my luggage ... and wait ... and wait ... and wait ... I go to another belt and wait. I'm harassed by some young luggage worker asking for money to help me find my bags. I just tell him I don't have any money and show him my empty wallet and he leaves.
I ask someone about my luggage, and eventually get pointed to lost and found, where they track the number on my luggage, and tells me while it's on the right flight (Hong Kong to Beijing) with the right airline, it's on the wrong plane - the one after the one I was one.
I leave my details and the address of the hotel I'd be staying at for the next week with them, and they say my luggage should be here in around three hours, and I could wait if I wished. I decide not to, and go and meet the people from ImmerQi that are waiting for me at the airport StarBucks (along with a few other interns).
I explain my situation, and again am asked if I'd like to wait, or move on to the hotel when the time arrives, so I decide to move on to the hotel. When there, I inform the ImmerQi staff of my situation and given them the details the airport's lost and found gave me and they say they'll take it over from there and inform me when my luggage arrives.
Around twenty-four hours later, I'm notified of my luggage's arrival, and am called to the hotel lobby to come and collect it. You can't believe that amount of relief I felt at that time!
