2004-09-10: back to the Netherlands.

Today I had to leave at 7:00 am to the airport. The organisation was so kind to to bring me there. They do not want anything to go wrong. Thanks Mr Nieh and Mrs Shi for all the help.

It was just a normal trip. The airplane from Guiyang arrived in Beijing in time, so I had enough time for the transfer. Again I had to pick up my luggage in Beijing and go through the whole check in again. Not that it matters that much: they are rather efficient although it seems a bit chaotic.

I asked the girl at the check-in counter for a nice seat in the front of the economy class, and to my surprise I got transfered to business class. The plane was an hour late, and there was a big group of Dutch parents with adopted Chinese children waiting to get boarded. Evidently the economy class was overbooked and I was not the only one who got transfered to business class. This time it was a real China Southern Airline flight, not a KLM plane. So at least there was a choice between Chinese and western food.

Home again

On the way back with enough tailwind the plane cought up with most of the delay. We landed 6:17 pm local time, or just after midnight Chinese time. After a rather long wait for the luggage my wife and daughter picked me up and I was home again around 7:15. There was so much to talk about that I did not get to bed until midnight.

Of course I had a quick look at the results of today's game: Chang won and so did Ch'oe. An ideal final for the organisation: a Chinese and a Korean player. Will Korea win this tournament for the fifth time, or will Chang Hao be able to break the Korean hegemony? Ch'oe will certainly want to prove that he is one of the strongest Korean players, a worthy successor to the previous winners Cho Hun-hyeon, Seo Pong-su, Yu Ch'ang-hyeok and Yi Ch'ang-ho. On the other hand Chang Hao will be determined to wipe out the memory of his loss against Yi in the finals four yeras ago.