Chinese Man Stranded In Airport When Son Draws in Passport

Here’s the shocking story of a man who was trapped in South Korea, his passport was invalidated when his young son pulled out his crayons.

Or maybe it’s not so shocking, or even much of a big deal at all.

In fact we’re going to rate this one as probably false, at least no reason to think it’s true, and not a big enough deal to warrant attention even if it is.

And yet it’s getting a ton of airplay, and I suppose is an amusing enough distraction.

A story is going ’round social media about a Chinese man denied boarding because his passport was defaced by his son’s doodlings.

It’s been covered by Gawker, Fox News, The Daily Mail, USA Today, The Telegraph, and many more.

At best the story is sourced to a personal Facebook post and contains insufficient detail (such as even the individual’s full name) in order to verify its authenticity.

Loss or destruction of a passport while in transit is frustrating and time consuming — but also something that happens day in and day out all around the world. The man will visit the Chinese embassy in South Korea to expedite a replacement.

Certainly this isn’t anything like Tom Hanks portrayed in ‘The Terminal’ — here the man would simply not be allowed to pass through departure immigration and get airside.

If true I’m not sure why he would have turned up at the airport rather than going to the Chinese Embassy in the first place, if indeed that’s what happened (again, I’m skeptical, as the story is sourced to Facebook and without much detail).


About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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