My China tour with Pat got off to an inauspicious start when I accidentally dropped my iPhone into the toilet of my Shanghai hotel room. I quickly retrieved it, but it was too late. The phone made a feeble buzzing sound that turned out to be a death rattle.

I took the waterlogged device to an official Apple Store – Shanghai has four of them – and was told that it was beyond repair. So I removed my China Unicom SIM card and put it into Pat’s iPhone so we would have a working cell number during our trip. When I return home later this month, I’ll have to buy a new phone without getting any trade-in value for my old one, whose official cause of death was drowning.

The moral of the story: Never bring a cell phone into a bathroom where the toilet seat is up, especially in a foreign country where your phone is a virtual lifeline.

Here’s another lesson I just learned: In China, don’t assume the flight you booked is the one you’ll be taking.

After arriving at Zhengzhou’s airport on Friday night and going to the Shanghai Airlines counter, I was given a ticket for a flight that was scheduled to leave 70 minutes before the one I booked. When I asked the ticket agent what happened to the flight I was supposed to be on, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know.’’

No one else at Shanghai Airlines knew, either. It seems my scheduled flight just vanished and was replaced by another one, without any notice or explanation. Fortunately, I had gotten to the airport early enough to catch the replacement flight. Otherwise, I would have had to wait until the following day to fly to Shanghai and see Pat for the first time in 4½ months.

To borrow a line from Forrest Gump: Flying in China is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

The good news is I got to Shanghai on Friday night, met Pat at our hotel and gave her the longest hug ever. (Pat’s flight left Newark airport just before a major snowstorm forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

We didn’t get much sleep before getting up early Saturday to check out one of the world’s largest, most dynamic cities. Our first day included a walk along the historic Bund waterfront and a nighttime visit to the iconic, 1,535-foot tall Oriental Pearl Tower, which offers spectacular views of the city’s modern, neon skyline.

The highlight was strolling on the outdoor glass walkway that encircles one of the observation decks. It feels like you’re suspended in the air, with nothing between you and the street 850 feet below.

I, of course, sat down on the deck for one of those corny tourist pictures that seem to show you floating above Shanghai. Pat, who’s not crazy about heights, watched from a safe distance. One of us has to act like an adult, and it’s almost always Pat.

More on Shanghai in my next post. I’ve got to go now and flip down the toilet seat in my hotel room.