Beijing: The long goodbye

All good getting from hotel to airport and checking in bags. I forgot to mention that when you enter China, immigration keeps the main part of your entry form, and you are given the exit part (a bit larger than a cheque stub) to retain and present upon departure. Presumably trying to depart without this would be tricky. Needless to say then, this scrap of paper all but flung itself from the passport upon every presentation from entry to exit. I lost and found it several times, but thankfully had it at the right time.
The lines for immigration exit were again long, hot and cramped. After successfully negotiating that, I joined a 40 minute queue for security. Immigration had to occasionally cease processing until there was room to join the security queue.
I was somehow herded through the scanner while still holding the RFID sleeve for my passport which of course sounded the alarm. My punishment was being made to stand on the 20cm high naughty stool while a young lady conducted the longest pat down in history. I may have dozed off while it was underway. There was a mini tug of war when she wanted to retain the RFID sleeve, but I won.
By boarding time, I was feeling very happy to be leaving Beijing and so looking forward to the new A350 fitout in Finnair. Alas there had been a change of aircraft so not only was I not in a single row sear, I was stuck in a window seat of row of two.
I blame China.

That damned visa