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Taiwan was to be the “official” China with the UN Security Council seat, until 1971 when it was stripped of its UN representation and recognition of its claim to all of China by most of the world in favour of the regime in Beijing. Now Taiwan boasts one of the most, if not most, vibrant democracies in the world. In less than 20 years, Taiwan has established free and fair elections, a free press and very liberal drinking laws, while their cousins on the mainland must be content with some progress in local village elections, but no free press of any sort. Today, only 15 countries recognize Taiwan, including such heavy weights as Malawi, Senegal and Haiti and Panama.

Team Complexity

Warcraft III Champ WE.Sky

The practice Painkiller match

The crowd was estimated at around 800

So, with this extensive background in mind, to get to China from Taiwan requires flying through a third country, usually Hong Kong or Macau. To get to Xian, we had to stop in Guangzhou for a 5 hour (!!) layover; as if taking 3 planes in one day wasn’t bad enough, the flight from Taipei left at 730 am, which meant a 4:40 AM departure from Taipei. The flight from Taipei to Hong Kong turned out to be one of the most harrowing any of us had ever experienced; about half way, as soon as breakfast was served we hit major turbulence. I was already nervous enough about flying on China Airlines, which has the dubious distinction of having the worst safety record of any major airline: 9 fatal crashes since 1970 according to www.airsafe.com People screamed in panic several times and on the third, most severe drop, food flew everywhere and the stewardess was airborne for a few seconds. She was lucky, as hitting the ceilings during rough turbulence is a common cause of airline fatalities. Fortunately it was all over in a few minutes and the rest of the flight was smooth.

Part of ABIT's Rocketboy promo campaign

Hardworking ABIT organizers Viktoria Kulikova and Lester Lau taking a short break from putting out fires

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The 5 hour layover in Guangzhou was a huge pain, although the airport is one of the newest in the world. Apparently it was built to compete with Hong Kong for flights in and out of China and you can tell by the grand style of architecture that they expect this to become one of the world’s major airports in the next few years. However, they have along way to go in terms of the level of amenities that travellers can expect in Hong Kong: where Hong Kong’s airport boasts fantastic food and shopping and is known by everyone who travels through Asia as a great place to transfer, Guangzhou’s airport has a few bland chain stores and some of the worst Chinese food to be found anywhere, in restaurants that don’t take credit cards. Who knew China could have such abominable Chinese food. Then there are the washrooms without the added luxury of toilet paper, which is an expected enough custom in much of Asia, but not to be expected in a major international airport-there aren’t even roll holders. Apparently the designers didn’t even consider that foreign air travellers might not be carrying an extra roll or two in their carry-on bag. Now don’t say you weren’t warned when you end up connecting in Guangzhou and have to improvise after a particularly spicy curry.