Lost in Translation? - Part I

I knew that my stay in China would be really adventurous, but never realized it would be so adventurous and that too so soon! okay, so I landed in China yesterday, with Dalian as my destination. For the uninitiated, Dalian is supposed to be *hold your breath*, the fashion capital of China! But more on that later...

My flight route was Delhi-Shanghai-Dalian. Customs and immigration had taken place in Shanghai itself so this was supposed to work like a domestic sector flight. When I left the aircraft, this lady asked me what I thought sounded like "Do you have to transit for another flight?". I said no and walked towards the baggage claim area. After a while, the lady and some 4 other people came to where I was standing and asked to see my passport and asked if I was an international passenger. Then they said "please come with us" and 'escorted' me away... me in the middle of 5 officials who were holding a walky-talky.

My life flashed right before my eyes -- I started getting these visions of me being locked up in a cell and being put through all forms for torture for doing something that I didn't even understand forget about do, 'coz i wouldn't be able to understand what they were saying!

I asked the woman some 2 - 3 times if there was a problem and if anything was wrong, but she ignored me completely, and instead starting asking me trivial questions like "Is Delhi the same as New Delhi". Yeah, I would be so concerned about the difference when my future in a Chinese jail loomed in front of me!!

Then, she asked me why I had told her that I wasn't a transit passenger, but wait a minute, I had only responded to her question. Apparently, what she meant to ask me was "have you come on a transit flight". Again I asked her if anything was wrong, only to be met with silence. And then questions about how long I was going to be in Dalian, and if this was my first trip, etc.

She led me to the customs area which was completely deserted, and then, just as I thought they were going to lead me to a room to start the interrogation, out cam this guy with a customs declaration form which I was supposed to fill and hand over to them.

As it turns out, there was some confusion between the Shanghai and Dalian airport authorities -- the Shanghai authorities had taken the declaration form from me but it was actually supposed to have been deposited only in Dalian. So while i was on the aircraft, they had relayed the message to Dalian and that's why/how the whole thing happened.

But that's not the only strange part... on top of everything else, my 'escort' lady decided to befriend me. She insisted on giving me her name and number and offered to take me around Dalian on her off day and, in her words, 'for no payment, only friendship'! If this were Bangkok, i would have been really really suspicious!
She then insisted on personally escorting me, luggage and all, to a cab... and then, I said bye to her... 'no payment, only (relieved) wave'!!