The Longest Walk to My Gate: A Leg-Breaking Adventure at Taoyuan Airport

It's been about 1-2 years since international travel reopened after the pandemic! I can hardly remember when the last time I traveled abroad before the pandemic was. When friends around me started traveling again, I wasn't particularly excited about it. In fact, I planned on not traveling for a few more years. I no longer had the same passion or urge to travel abroad like I used to, and being someone who doesn't have the best immunity, I didn't mind waiting a few more years. It didn’t really matter to me when I’d travel again—I just wasn’t that concerned about it.

So, this trip abroad was completely unplanned, a total surprise. It wasn’t part of my expectations or plans at all. It was simply because my family was going to Hong Kong and Macau for a trip, and my family member working in mainland China would meet us in Macau for a couple of days. They convinced me to join, so it became a family trip abroad. Afterward, I spent a few more days in Hong Kong with my brother and his girlfriend. Even though I’ve been to Hong Kong several times before, this time I didn’t plan anything. I just followed along with their schedule.

For this long-awaited trip abroad, I was flying with China Airlines on a new plane, which seemed like a good start. But when I checked in at the counter, I was reminded to enter early because the gate was very far away, and I’d have to walk a long distance. And it really was far. Basically, it was at the far end of the terminal, all the way to the very end, but that wasn’t even the final destination.

When I finally reached the end, the view opened up to a vast waiting area. That’s when I knew something was off. There were several gates here, and all of them required a shuttle bus to board the plane. To my surprise, China Airlines’ flight was assigned to this location! It was completely unexpected. I hadn’t even left Taiwan yet, and when I checked my fitness tracker, I was shocked by the number of steps. After all this time without traveling, was it really necessary for me to experience such a memorable gate?