Landing in China for the first time

Next day we learned that Irkutsk airport was bankrupt and every plane had to buy its own fuel on the spot and by its own means. They would give priority anyway to passenger planes and we had to wait there some time until the fuel tracks arrived one by one refueling the plane. Finally, after a couple of days, just one track was missing and we expected to be able to leave that night. In the evening we entered the plane and the airport police came to check our departure documents. My wife was not allowed to leave because she still had her old Soviet Union passport –and in it the Chinese visa we got in Spain- We decided that she would fly to Moscow to change her passport and we would meet later in Beijing. She left the plane, I stayed. Actually the track in the end did not turn up that night and we slept one more night together.

Next day she took the first plane to Moscow, later the fuel track arrived and I left for Shanghai. It was fun with the crew. We arrived in Shanghai Hongqiao airport. Right on the ground where the plane landed the coats exporting company representative, called Yura -I had a good relationship with him later- was waiting for us. He got shocked and terribly angry when he saw me. He started shouting at the crew. He said that passanger were not allowed in cargo planes at Shanghai airport, as Shanghai airport has the toughest regulations in China. He decided I would stay in Shanghai as a crew member and go back to Irkutsk after loading the plane (the crew would give me back later $500 my father in love had paid them).

I spent two days drunk with the crew members touring, shopping and enjoying Shanghai. When we went back to the plane and I got back my passport a pain in my stomach abruptly and bitterly finished with all the joy of the previous days. It was kind of a sudden indigestion after a heavy meal. My Chinese visa was sealed. I suddenly realized what I should have understood in advance and what it meant.