Moving On

No luck with retrieving Joe's luggage.  Airport personnel are sympathetic and give us copies of the reports they write in barely legible English. They promise we'll receive phone calls, but we don't. I'm not sure all the officials we speak to understand us completely. It helps that my Chinese is improving, but I'm far from fluent.  Maybe Joe's suitcase is back in Chicago.  We have to get on with the trip.

At the Hong Kong airport, we meet a bevy of travelers returning home to Taiwan after visiting the PRC.  Direct flights from China to Taiwan are available now.  They seem to be having a wonderful time.  They practice their English on us, and I do the same with my Chinese.  We laugh.  The women share snacks from plastic bags-- a cereal like wheat puffs and some dried fruit flavored with cinnamon. It has a rubbery texture.