Suzhou has a few different options to travel to Shanghai: buses, high-speed and normal trains and taxis. The problem with buses and trains is that I would need to go to the bus terminal or railway station first. I didn't plan to have too much luggage but it would have been tedious to do it, especially alone. Taxis are fairly expensive, but the ride sharing apps are not. I got my friend to set up the Didi app and to book a car. That is actually a private car, not a "real" cab and would cost less. The car turned up at the right time, we loaded my suitcase and were off. No hassles. Suzhou to Shanghai is a good road and we were consistently traveling at more than 100kmph. Not much traffic within Shanghai either and in no time at all we were at the airport. Got through a security checkpoint where my luggage was x-rayed and then followed signs to reach the checkin counters.
Now, Air India had a handful of counters open for checkin but there was a gigantic queue of passengers. I'm not sure where the problem was because the time for my checkin was about a minute, after waiting in the queue for about an hour. Possibly other passengers have unknown, insurmountable problems when they checkin and that causes the queue to grow?
Having waited quite some time in a queue for checkin, I wasn't too happy to see the queues for immigration. There were a large number of counters but not all of them were staffed. Now, I had read earlier somewhere on the web about the departure card that you are supposed to be given when you arrive in China and that you need to preserve it and present it again when you leave. I hadn't been given such a card when I arrived, however, so I just assumed that it was a procedure that had been done away with. Imagine my distress when I see people being sent back from the immigration counter to apparently fill out departure cards... Typically, you'd expect a requirement like this to be announced before you join the queue but there was no notice or even a set of blank departure cards where you enter the queue. The cards were kept near the immigration counters, so that every single person who didn't have one would reach the counter, the office would ask for a card, would be told that the passenger didn't have one and then would send the passenger off to fill out the card. I did the same, hoping against hope that there would be some criteria for the card; but no. I went to fill out the card as well. And what magic information does it contain? Name, passport number and flight details. All of which are already available with me when I approach the counter. I'm not quite sure what the purpose of this card is, especially in today's world where everything is connected and the immigration officers no doubt have all my data brought up on their computer terminal. I suppose it's a remnant of some bygone era and hopefully will be rationalized soon. India had the arrival cards and customs declarations forms too, but they're not required any more, at least for Indian passport holders, while entering India.
In any case, got through immigration and security and to the gate; waited for the boarding announcement and made my way to my seat. Now, one thing that has always irritated me is the lack of cabin luggage space in international flights. They have more people per row compared to domestic flights but the available space doesn't seem to grow proportionately. Also take into consideration that international passengers tend to carry more and the problem worsens. So I'm always happy to be early to my seat so that I can at least stow my carry on right above my seat. And then watch the other passengers helplessly move stuff around and look for empty spaces up and down the aisle just to get their bags placed somewhere.
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