Bejing, Tokyo, Atlanta
June 3

6/3 - Up in plenty of time, I went to the hotel lobby. My dilemma was whether to pay my hotel bill in Yuan, nicely finishing off my supply, thereby avoiding the need to do any later conversion of the residue. But if I did this, I wouldn't have any cash to pay a taxi in case my prepaid ride didn't show. 5:00am came and went without the ride showing up, and I had the desk call to check on it.  Eventually, they determined that the car had broken down, and that I should take one of the taxis waiting outside. I therefore paid for the hotel with a credit card.  I asked the desk clerk how much the ride to the airport should be, and he said 100Y-120Y. Sure enough, the taxi had no meter, and when we got the airport, he demanded 150Y. I held out for 100Y, and eventually, he took the bill with a disgusted look on his face. A sour ending to a mostly awesome trip.

The Beijing ariport was a little confusing. There were no signs that I saw instructing international passengers on how to proceed. Eventually, I worked my way through the unmanaged customs line, located the immigration area, and found my gate.

The flight back included a transfer in Narita but was otherwise uneventful. These sorts of flights, eastward across the date line, start on one day, revisit the previous day, and then reenter the starting day. Interestingly, as with the flight over, the Delta captain made a mistake in his announcements, confusing Centigrade and Fahrenheit. Three meals, three movies, and lots of reading later, I arrived safely in Atlanta's airport.