A Little Snow Adventure

The Xi'an International Airport was closed due to a snow storm as we waited for our flight to Shanghai. Since I do not live in an area where it snows, I do not know if it is normal for humans with shovels to clear the roads instead of snowplows at the airport.

When we were finally allowed to board, we had to take a shuttle bus to our plane. The terminal did not have a gangway, so we had to walk out into the cold, stand in the snow that has now turned into slush, and hike up the staircase to embark onto our airplane.
In this photograph, I am looking back onto the airport terminal and waiting at the bottom of the crowded staircase while the airport personnel check our boarding pass again.

We were stuck inside our plane for 3-1/2 hours waiting for it to be de-iced. While other planes on the tarmac were de-iced by the standard de-icing machine, our plane was manually de-iced.
Since I had a window seat, I could see workers climb onto the airplane wing, tap on the ice and sweep off the excess snow.
Needless to say, we were quite nervous that our plane was not serviced like everyone else. Many people clapped when the plane took off safely, but I was more interested in it landing safely at our destination.
Considering you are reading this post now, you can deduce that I did indeed land safely. And, I might add that it was one of the smoothest landings.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it!

- Karen